A comment that has been mentioned this week on several occasions, was that people become atheists through trauma. I guess we can equally say there are two sides to that coin. But would this be true on any level?
If trauma was the reason people chose atheism we would indeed be the largest group in the world, wouldn’t we? If you took all the natural disasters, personal problems and life’s challenges etc into consideration? What we do see in fact is the opposite……
Take Nigeria as an example and their Ebola crisis. What we do see is panic and paranoia driven by the church. We see people so indoctrinated and brain washed by their pastors, they truly think prayer as opposed to medicine would help them. For these theists, the simple fact of the crisis strengthens their faith purely based on fear! They truly believe that their particular God is punishing them and they are to blame for all this!
Another extreme example would of course be Hitler’s final solution and the Concentration Camps. Surely that would have created ex-Jews? Wouldn’t we have seen Catholics disgusted with their Catholic priests in Rome in their helping of Nazi’s escape justice? Wouldn’t you question a God who wasn’t there, did nothing and didn’t speak out? How long do you look for a black cat in a dark room before you realise, the room is empty?
I’m guessing it would also depend on your idea of trauma, I have heard of many theists who walked away from their belief system with the death of friends and relatives. But the other way around? The real question is why do people become atheists? Answer is we don’t, it is more they come back to atheism. No babies are born believing in a sky fairy, no children are aware of the various gods, they are taught to believe in God, in much the same way they are taught racism. Just think about that…..
We have no ‘God Gene’ – if we did we would all believe in the same God , no?
We hear of prisoners in the US ‘finding’ religion or ‘born again christians’… but as we all suspect they do this charade to get lighter sentences. Religion is good that way, your sins are forgiven if you repent. The God of the Bible has more time for the bad in people he seems to reward them for it, but he doesn’t seem to help the victims. Free will is a bitch isn’t it?
There are fundamental differences between us :-
THEISM
- You are not born to a religion you are indoctrinated into it
- You are told what to believe, regardless of truth and reason
- Your religion is based on a fictional mythology
ATHEISM
- Everyone is born atheist
- No one teaches you, we give you the tools to find out for yourself
- Knowledge is the key and truth and reason the foundation
Religion is the epitome of pyramid selling and your reward is given to you after you die. No chance of Sale or Return people, you have been hoodwinked, simples.
Truth be told I have never found an atheist who has become so though a trauma or anything more extreme than reading a book. Usually the book they have been reading is the Bible and it is the only one you need to read to realise there is no God! Why do you think for centuries the church had all its bibles in Latin…. they didn’t want you to be able to read and question the lack of truth and find it was fiction.
For the religious ruling elite ‘Ignorance is truly bliss’
We can of course thank Henry Vlll for needing his quickie divorce (or not so quick) from Catherine of Aragon so he could wed his saucy wench Anne Boleyn for the creation of the Church of England and its break from Rome. The protestant movement led by Martin Luther and the birth of the printing press, made it possible for everyone to have a copy of the Bible in English.
I would love to hear you stories of why you are an atheist or theist, no two stories are ever alike, and I know I come across as boring sometimes as a born atheist! I have no idea of what it takes to break away from childhood indoctrination.
Speaking of indoctrination……
I was in an interesting conversation earlier this week, with a group of fellow atheists. We had decension in the ranks! ( she says tongue firmly in cheek) The Atheist Church came up again ( oh hell am i having to mention this again?) One fellow atheist seemed quite empowered and wanted to go on a power drive to create atheists, he felt this new assembly was the wonderful way to indoctrinate ( i kid you not he used those very words)
Now let me tell you right now…. stop…. we are not wanting to “make” atheists. We are not interested in forcing you to think like “us” we just want you to think.
Here Endeth the lesson for this week
Find out more about SON and the shows that make up the network at Secular Outreach.com
Making an atheist out of a theist is like removing a stain from your pants.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hahaha. Nope… Thats just a laundry problem 😉
LikeLike
Lets see, you are removing something that is not only not required, but actually lessens the quality of the pants. And once it’s gone there is less of a shitty fragrance in the air 🙂
LikeLike
Not all stains on your pants are bad ones bro!!! Have had my share of pleasant ones!!
Only fucking you!! I despair!! 😄😄😄 Fx
LikeLike
trauma did not contribute to my being so-called atheist. no, it is a natural result of decades of studying religions and “isms”. I even tried on some of then for periods of time. my final arrival at the natural state of no-belief came from my boiling everything down ultimately to the empty bullshit that it all is.
LikeLike
I have not read a deconversion story where a trauma caused a sudden deconversion, but I have read a few where a trauma coupled with complete silence from god started someone thinking that what they’ve been told isn’t correct, and started them looking into it further. For most of the stories I read it wasn’t one big thing that led people to deconvert, it’s a series of small nudges that keep chipping away at their dam of faith until it collapses.
What astonishes me is to hear christians say “You just say you’re an atheist because something bad happened to you” and then turn around and say “Just wait until something bad happens to you, you’ll believe in god then then, you’ll see!” without realizing the complete irony in this.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hahaha. Yep I’ve had the same crazy notion explained to me too..
We are back to the fear factor… Faith is doubt
LikeLike
Sis, for what it’s worth, it’s always a trauma that strengthens your faith but also makes you very angry with God (at least that how it feels for me)! I know you do the indoctrination thing and I do understand where ur coming from, but to me it’s a comfort to have my faith!! I’m glad my folks taught me to love God and be such an awesome lover of humanity! I also found your Memorial Garden a great comfort and it warms my heart to know you go there and “remember” 💕👣👣 Love ya!! Fx
LikeLiked by 2 people
HI 😊😊
I knew you would find this one interesting 😉😉
You are never gonna get the indoctrination bit… Its ur cognitive dissonance talking 😉😉😉
Ps next post is not a religious one.. Promise😘😘 a light bit of reading… I think we could all do with it
LikeLike
Oh I heard this a lot, it happened with me, my deconversion was followed by sanctions upon sanctions by family, which was supposed to break me or make me turn around, when I proved recalcitrant, people’s opinion was that I was not an atheist, but only trying to piss my dad off, which was only funny and coincidental. I try to be good to my family now, and still be an atheist, which further confuses theists. Now the gist is that I’m sponsored by the illuminati for large sums of cash, and fame, fucking hilarious. I’m writing such in a guest post on Courtney’s blog, out soon.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I came across a quote today
” if absolute power corrupts absolutely, where does that leave God?”
Why would anyone wish to beleive ….. Unfathomable
The more i hear the more i feel religion is insanity….. It is a possession of the mind by the inconceivable fantasies of ur own self….
Ps too deep for a sunday? … Too late ☺️☺️
LikeLiked by 1 person
The point that always makes me cock my head to the side like a confused puppy is that they talk of predestination, and that God has a perfect plan for you. If this is so, wouldn’t your de-conversion be part of his perfect plan, even if you didn’t believe it was so? If God is omniscient, he knew that this would happen before it happened, and allowed it, so wouldn’t it be him that they were upset with? The paradoxes that Christians spew on a daily basis, without flinching, or probably even realizing, makes it hard to understand what it is that they even believe about their God. The Contradictions abound, and if you point them out (at least in my case) they start cussing at you and tell you that you are going to burn for eternity…
Sorry for the rant, but I thought that it applied here.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Their whole beleif system is based on lies and contradictions, as would be expected of primitive writings by a bunch of goat herders living in the infancy of our times.
The depth of their dilusoin is compounded when they threaten us with a mythical satan, which is their childhood bogey man not ours. I always counter with voldemort? 😉😉
If we look at the buy-bull death for death … Doesnt satan come of as the good guy with only 10? Just sayin …. 😁
LikeLiked by 2 people