Yes, thread number 5 billion on atheism on the Dope. But bear with me.
Those of a faithful bent often talk about having a “crisis of faith”; the moment when their faith in God is at its lowest ebb. Turning it around; has there ever been a moment/moments since you self-identified as an atheist where your lack of faith wavered?
I don’t understand. Do you mean I would suddenly think there is a god? I can’t see how that could come about.
Nope. Like everyone, I had my ups and downs in life since I’ve become an atheist, but never had a trace of a religious inclination. But then, I hadn’t been the type of Christian who’d turn to God in a crisis anyway before, and never prayed much at all. Maybe, in hindsight, I’ve never really been that religious at all.
Every once in a blue moon. But not very seriously.
As in the 180 of the crisis of faith; ever has cause to think even for a moment that you were wrong in your beliefs (or lack thereof in this case).
Foaming hand soap. It is liquid in the container, but it comes out as a foam. When first confronted with foaming hand soap, I thought maybe a god like being was making it foam. Then a friend explained how it works, and I’m back to being a godless heathen.
No.
Not really, and I wouldn’t expect to have a “crisis of nonfaith.” I think that for most atheists, our lack of belief in God stems from the fact that we don’t see evidence for the existence of one. We can never disprove the existence of a God, any more than I can absolutely disprove the existence of a small, white teacup in space, perpetually orbiting on the opposite side of the Sun from us. But the claim is so extraordinary, and so much more complex than any other explanation for the universe, that the lack of evidence for it makes non-belief the default position. After all, the existence of God would mean there have to be a set of processes that can create gods, over and above the set of processes that can create the Universe we can observe. Occam’s Razor slits God’s throat quite neatly.
This being said, if something calling itself God poofed into Times Square and demonstrated an array of “magical” powers, I’d shrug and say “Well, clearly something exists that possesses the abilities demonstrated.” A scientific, evidence-based worldview precludes worrying too much about being wrong; if you happened to be wrong because the evidence indicating you were wrong wasn’t there, there’s no shame in that. Hey, it’s a good thing - you’ve learned more about the world!
ETA: As for some emotional crisis propelling me towards belief in God - absolutely not. Why would it? Yes, I may be unhappy, but that’s not evidence there’s a magical man in the sky.
No.
No, not even in the foxhole.
Nope.
Edit: I may have idly wondered whether I was missing something from time to time, but no “crisis.”
There are times when I wonder whether all I believe is wrong or not. Those times I would be more sympathetic towards theistic ideas. Full out theism? No, not since the first few months I acknowledged my atheism.
There are times when I’d really like there to be a God (who cared about me - as opposed to a deism style God), but I don’t interpret that to be what you are driving at.
Although I’m now convinced Satan looks like this
Why would it be a crisis? I’ve entertained the notion of the existence of God before, and probably will again. I just don’t think it’s true, that’s all. No one’s presented a compelling reason for me to think it’s true, other than the psychological benefits that may come with belief. At any rate if I felt there were compelling reasons to believe in God, I’d change my mind about it, just like I’ve changed my mind about a lot of things. It’s not like atheism is particularly important to me.
Religion or a “god”? Not really.
However, a belief, or maybe more appropriately a “strong hope” in an afterlife, yes. And this came about as more of a psychological coping mechanism than anything when I rationalize it.
It involved the death of a child and the grief was so difficult and the accepting of it so hard to wrap my mind around without giving me massive migraines that about the only way I found of coping with it was to hang on to the scant possibility of hope that I would be reunited with them someday.
It’s irrational, illogical, and there’s no proof of it but it was something I needed to hang onto to get me through the day. Much like a teddy bear made of felt and synthetic stuffing can give a child piece of mind enough to fall asleep. It doesn’t make sense, but psychologically it works.
I used to wonder if I could ever think this way. Then I found myself in a situation once where I thought there was a high probability I might die in the next few seconds. I had time to reflect on the circumstance and thought of the atheist/foxhole thing. Despite the fact I was confident my end was nigh, I never come close to thinking that God might be real.
No.
No.
But once, for some reason, while lying in bed trying to sleep, the idea of non-existence after death terrified me. Then I got over it, went to sleep, and it has never bothered me again.
No. There have been times in my life when I’ve thought that it would be nice if there was a god up there to take care of people, but there just isn’t and I wouldn’t call my thoughts a “crisis”.
This Christmas was my first Christmas as a mother. I upped and donated to the food pantry and donated to Toys For Tots because I couldn’t bear the thought that every child in the world (well, every child who celebrates Christmas…) wasn’t eating a good dinner, sleeping in a warm and safe bed, and waking up to at least one present. I had thoughts about why it had to be that way and how sad it was. I don’t think believing in a god would have made those thoughts any pleasanter though; it probably would have made them harder to bear.
I had a twinge of the maybes just this week when Tebow threw for 316 yards, precisely. Pretty miraculous, huh? So I did what any good atheist does- research! Turns out, three other quarterbacks have thrown for precisely 316 yards this season, so this ‘miracle’ turns out to happen every few weeks.
Once again, science triumphs over superstition.
So no, not really.
It’s never been a struggle for me to believe the omnipotent bearded guy in white robes schtick is BS. As a mental exercise I will sometimes imagine the entire universe as being an idea in the mind of some being or other, but it never turns into anything requiring worship.
