# October 15, 2020, the Day I Became an Atheist **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 15, 2020, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014 "2020-10-15T14:51:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/21 "2020-10-15T17:10:52Z")
> [@PlaceboTarget](#): > > But once one starts cursing, where should one stop? > Fuck the world! Because why not. > Fuck the universe! It’s just dirt after all. > Fuck myself. I am insignificant and pretty soon I will not be anything at all. > > Knowing yourself is crucial in my opinion, and I am proud of the fact that I know who I am. > It is inevitable that my identity should have been built in opposition to a wide range of choices, categories and stuff, but I don’t need profanity to detach myself from what I find inappropriate, trivial or superfluous. > > And I never look back in anger. What a load of pompous supercilious nonsense. Sometimes anger is the _right_ fucking response, and the healthy fucking response. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/22 "2020-10-15T17:11:32Z")
One of the ways I recognize myself as being fortunate is that I was raised in a household that encouraged me to think for myself – not specifically about religion, but in general about the world. So I didn’t have to go through anything like the OP seems to have, withdrawing from a cult and possibly having family conflict because of it. My parents allowed me to stop going to Sunday school when I was 13, so I did. I haven’t looked back. So congratulations and good luck to the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/23 "2020-10-15T17:19:31Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > You’ve taken your first step into a larger world. Yea, from a guy that believed in a hokey religion. He worshipped a natural object, more or less. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/24 "2020-10-15T17:26:18Z")
_throws confetti_ I have some close friends who are religious, one of whom is even a minister, and it usually doesn’t matter. But every once in a while something happens to remind me _this person believes in magic._ It’s a totally different worldview. I’m agnostic by the way. The universe is too weird for me to make a definitive conclusion one way or another, but I’d place bets that none of the current world religions has it right. ---
**Author:** ![PlaceboTarget](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/placebotarget/32/1073_2.png) [@PlaceboTarget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlaceboTarget)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/25 "2020-10-15T17:39:33Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Sometimes anger is the _right_ fucking response, and the healthy fucking response. Feeling an emotion and acting on it are two different things. It is not healthy when one’s action is dictated entirely by emotions. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/26 "2020-10-15T17:40:15Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > Fuck you Jehovah. To even utter this phrase suggests that you still have a relationship with a Jehovah, which means that deep down you still believe that a Jehovah exists so that they can be a target of your curse. Keep on the path and you will eventually get past this step to becoming a true atheist, one who does not have a need to be in opposition to any supreme being. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/27 "2020-10-15T17:41:52Z")
Speaking as a theist (but not FOR the theists), I say meh. People of all kinds and creeds claim to believe this or that. But, how do they act? As long as you treat your neighbor as you would be treated, I don’t generally care what you believe. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/28 "2020-10-15T17:45:10Z")
> [@PlaceboTarget](#): > > Feeling an emotion and acting on it are two different things. > It is not healthy when one’s action is dictated entirely by emotions. Indeed. Then why your supercilious diatribe in reaction to the OP _expressing_ feelings? ---
**Author:** ![PlaceboTarget](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/placebotarget/32/1073_2.png) [@PlaceboTarget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlaceboTarget)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/29 "2020-10-15T17:46:17Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > your supercilious diatribe 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/30 "2020-10-15T17:47:14Z")
The old cliche is that the opposite of love isn’t hate; the opposite of love is indifference. Hating God or being angry at God or cursing God or thinking God is evil is not atheism. Think of it this way; when you hear about some terrible event in the world, like an earthquake that destroyed a village and killed a bunch of people, do you get angry at Zeus for causing that earthquake? I doubt it. That’s because nobody believes in Zeus enough to think he causes earthquakes. Nobody believes in Zeus enough to get angry at him. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/31 "2020-10-15T17:50:58Z")
> [@PlaceboTarget](#): > > 🙄 That’s an _emoti_con. Dare you allow yourself the implication that you are experiencing an emotion? Perhaps it might overwhelm you, like some lesser being? ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/32 "2020-10-15T17:52:12Z")
> [@PlaceboTarget](#): > > ’ve always been an atheist, and maybe that’s why I’ve never said anything of the sort. > I have never needed to utter profanities but I don’t have a problem saying them. > I may not want to use such bad language if that should be offensive for the people I respect. > And I respect quite a lot of people. > > But once one starts cursing, where should one stop? > Fuck the world! Because why not. > Fuck the universe! It’s just dirt after all. > Fuck myself. I am insignificant and pretty soon I will not be anything at all. > > Knowing yourself is crucial in my opinion, and I am proud of the fact that I know who I am. > It is inevitable that my identity should have been built in opposition to a wide range of choices, categories and stuff, but I don’t need profanity to detach myself from what I find inappropriate, trivial or superfluous. > > And I never look back in anger. If you went through what I did in this process and did not look back in anger, you would be either a robot or a sociopath, a person without feelings. Perhaps I should clarify some things in my original post. When I said, “I can think or do what I want without fear…” I didn’t mean it like President Trump would mean it: “Now I have no boundries or morals.” I meant that what I think, do, and say no longer have to be endlessly second guessed for sinful intent. I have broken free of the mind control that permeated my life. That doesn’t mean I’m free to be utterly selfish, but I will be more selfish now without the inevitable self-flogging of guilt. Also, if the profanity in my post offended you, I will not be apologizing. All profanity is are words deemed impolite because they are over emotive. I am not going to apologize for my emotions anymore. On the other hand, if my profanity allowed you a chance to feel superior, go ahead. Enjoy your refinement. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/33 "2020-10-15T17:58:22Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Hating God or being angry at God or cursing God or thinking God is evil is not atheism. Good grief, give this nonsense a rest. I’ve been an atheist since I was about ten, but “fuck you, god” is a perfectly normal emotional reaction to living in a family and community environment where religion is a constant bludgeon. It’s not directed at the non-existent entity, it’s directed at the _people_ involved in creating this oppressive milieu. Sure, it would be more technically correct to say “fuck you, religion”. Does anything really hinge on that? Or are you one of these believers who likes to claim that backsliders haven’t really lost their faith, there are just “angry at god”? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/34 "2020-10-15T18:03:50Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Sure, it would be more technically correct to say “fuck you, religion”. Does anything really hinge on that? I feel it’s an important point. Identifying the source of the problem is a necessary step in solving the problem. When something terrible is done in the name of religion, I think we should remember that the terrible thing was done by people not by a non-existent supernatural being. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/35 "2020-10-15T18:08:06Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > To even utter this phrase suggests that you still have a relationship with a Jehovah, which means that deep down you still believe that a Jehovah exists so that they can be a target of your curse. > > Keep on the path and you will eventually get past this step to becoming a true atheist, one who does not have a need to be in opposition to any supreme being. Did you not read where I said I was saying fuck you to nothing? This phrase is not a flippant comment for shock value, or proof that I hate or am angry at a supreme being. I am acknowledging that as far as I can know, god does NOT exist. I am saying fuck you to a fictional character. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/36 "2020-10-15T18:44:33Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > I sure hope my friends throw me one before I die. I’d hate to miss a good smörgåsbord. “They say such nice things about people at their funerals that it makes me sad to realize I’m going to miss mine by just a few days.” (Garrison Keillor) > [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I’m agnostic by the way. The universe is too weird for me to make a definitive conclusion one way or another, but I’d place bets that none of the current world religions has it right. “A universe simple enough to be understood is too simple to produce a mind capable of understanding it.” (Cambridge cosmologist John Barrow) “My own suspicion is that the Universe is not only stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we _can_ imagine.” (J.B.S. Haldane) For 53 years I’ve been a Militant Agnostic - “I don’t know, and neither do you.” I was a devout Catholic until one day when I was 17. It was a profound moment that I’ll never forget- I was about to walk in to Sunday Mass when I suddenly realized “I don’t believe this anymore.” The _intense_ rush of relief felt like a heavy shroud had fallen off me. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/37 "2020-10-15T18:53:29Z")
I can’t recall the date, but my atheism was cemented when I was watching the movie _Ghost_, for reasons that I’m sure the film’s producers did not intend. It was a TV broadcast, so I guess sometime in the mid to late 1990s. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/38 "2020-10-15T18:55:12Z")
That’s a feat of strength, walking away from the JW’s. They work hard to isolate people and remove any existing moral infrastructure to impose their own twisted ideals on their people and getting away from that is not easy. I was lucky, they didn’t get hold of me until I was a teenager and I already had a strong foundation of not believing in gods to draw on but it was still a wrench leaving my “family” after having dissolved so many other relationships in service to the JW ideal of only associating with other JWs. I’ve known many who’ve fought themselves free of that particular pit of suckage and the only thing they all have in common is a lovely set of psychic scars. Totally worth it, though, that ideology is death on a stick. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/39 "2020-10-15T18:58:53Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > > [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > > > Fuck you Jehovah. > > To even utter this phrase suggests that you still have a relationship with a Jehovah, which means that deep down you still believe that a Jehovah exists so that they can be a target of your curse. Not true. (1) It can be a “fuck you” to an idea of Jehovah—an idea which demonstrably exists and which one is angry at. (2) It can be a “test” or a “declaration of independence”—saying something you previously wouldn’t have dared to say. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014/40 "2020-10-15T19:06:11Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Wait until you’re rear-ended by an idiot yapping on a cell phone. Happened to me. Traumatic brain injury. Ended my life as I knew it and ended me as others knew me and needed me. Fuck you! Tahoe driver on I 80 Christmas Eve 2017 and Fuck you! State Farm. (Non-tempt at derailing over) your patience and tolerance has been appreciated. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/october-15-2020-the-day-i-became-an-atheist/923014.md?page=3)