Comments on: Not Quite a Christian… Not Quite an Atheist

By: LAWLS

LAWLS — Thu, 22 May 2008 01:35:00 +0000

Derek said,
May 21, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Read the article again. God is not being rejected here.

lol, at least someone can understand what they read.

By: efrique

efrique — Thu, 22 May 2008 00:48:35 +0000

I wish her well.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 22 May 2008 00:47:38 +0000

This is exactly what needs to start happening more. People need to realize that religion and spirituality are two completely different things. My hope is that one day people will either believe that there is a spiritual world or that there isn’t and leave it at that.

By: Derek

Derek — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:45:48 +0000

Read the article again. God is not being rejected here.

By: drew

drew — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:32:12 +0000

By the way– how is an emotional rejection of God a victory for reason?

By: drew

drew — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:25:54 +0000

I’m fine with it, but I’m not happy about it. It sounds like she’s lost the comforts and benefits of religion without gaining the new perspective that comes from being comfortable with the idea that there’s no God.

I kind of feel sorry for her. I think it’s better to be a Christian out of stupidity than to become an atheist out of depression/discontentment. I dunno. At least that way you’re happy.

[edit] It occurred to me someone might misconstrue what I said here… I certainly don’t mean to imply in any way that she is stupid, I was just trying to come up with a good example of a weak reason to turn to Christianity. (Not that there is a strong reason.)

By: Chris Bradley

Chris Bradley — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:26:32 +0000

I think that, in the future, there won’t be atheists or religious people, because we’ll be post-theist. The attitude that god isn’t important enough to do anything about is a fairly post-theist attitude. The question of god’s existence or lack of existence shouldn’t even be important – it should be relegated to same importance that comic book fans give to if Batman can beat up Captain America.

That said, I believe that supernaturalism does harm – it is the belief that all human thought, reason, evidence and experience is irrelevant in the fact of “bigger truths” that can’t be challenged or discussed (and seem to do no real good). So I can and will, present and future, say that people should abandon supernaturalism entirely, but for my own part I don’t think it can or should be compelled. I think that sort of compulsion is a distinctly religious pattern of behavior – I think the time for threats and intimidation for obedience and conformity is well and truly gone.

By: 5ive

5ive — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:10:45 +0000

I don’t think she is a non theist since she still thinks there is a god out there, just not the one in the Christian bible.
Of course she does not need anyone’s approval, so I won’t give or withhold any. While this is definitely a step towards enlightenment, I have to agree with Shane’s assessment as well. Fantastic that the Dogma is gone, but by leaving herself open to god, she is still allowing a being other than herself to be in control of her and the world. The supernatural is a great logic and reason killer. Creepy. Not as creepy as all the stuff in the holy books, but still in line with the worship of rain gods.
And when shane said that bit about rejecting it for the wrong reasons, I don’t think s/he was saying that it is wrong to reject suffering, rather this woman would be more honest rejecting god because it is wrong altogether. Also, religious organisations provide more humanitarian help than our government at times, so you can’t say a blanket statement like” religion causes suffering and therefore I can no longer adhere to it.” Well, you can say that, but you aren’t following it through.

By: mikespeir

mikespeir — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:00:47 +0000

Most of us who have deconverted have gone through this phase. It’s hard to let go of God altogether. I know I didn’t want to. I just finally had to admit to myself that the same arguments that devastated the religion I’d been brought up to believe argued just as persuasively against the whole shebang–God included. For sometime after I grudgingly admitted I was an atheist, I still had a gut-level aversion to the word.

By: Kori

Kori — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:29:22 +0000

I think some form of Deism (or something that appears similar to it) is a pretty big step away from an organized form of religion… assuming that I would want everyone to be atheists (which I can’t really say that’s my primary goal in life – just it would make a lot of the goals in my life easier to pursue, but that’s kind of the point of it…) I’d say that’s a very good thing. Being open within your own mind is the hardest step, being honest with yourself. As long as you aren’t letting your beliefs cause you to lead other people (directly or indirectly) into harm, or yourself, then I think that’s really all that matters.