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Question 14

Did you become an atheist due to the Internet/this newsgroup or would you have become an atheist sooner if you had seen the Internet/this newsgroup

• No, and not likely.

  When discarding the theistic nonsense draped upon one over the years prior to growing up (becoming an atheist), one tends to move at one's own speed regardless of the influences around one.

  Discovering this group did, however, give me a sense of relief...but all of you can probably guess what I mean by that. (Czar #13)

• I was an atheist long before finding a.a but it has made more more militant about it. Prior to a.a I really had never delt with a real fundamentalist, so I didn't realize just how much damage it could do. (Jay Mehaffey #614)

• I was an atheist long before the advent of the Internet. However, had I had access to this newsgroup way back when I was a Christian, I would have become an atheist a lot sooner. It took me ten years of arguing with myself, rationalising my beliefs with the new knowledge that I was acquiring, and clinging to my precious crutch, before I stood on my own two feet. It would probably have taken me about ten weeks (or even days) to do this, had I been able to discuss such things with other atheists. Where were you when I needed you? :) (June Gill #364)

• No, I've been an atheist since I was a kid. I was always pretty blase about my beliefs ( or lack of same ) since I'd run into very little intolerence about it in real life. Since I've been on-line, though, I've found myself confronted by scads of religious fanatics, many of whom are openly confrontational. It took being ambushed by a gross display of intolerence by a theist I'd come to regard as a friend, to finally get me to go looking for other atheists to talk to and commiserate with. This NG really filled a need in that respect. It's also helped me to stop pussy-footing around using euphemistic words and phrases like, "Oh, I'm not religious." or "I'm not superstitious." or "I'm a secular humanist." Forget that noise! Now, I just say I'm an atheist, and if they have a problem with it, too bad. (Alikhat #757)

• I've been an atheist for about 26 years, so no to the 1st part. On the 2nd part, I think that if I were a teenager again and had found this NG I would have loved the discussions and ,yes, it probably would have given me the courage to make the leap. I was at that point 26 years ago when I went to collage and majored in philosophy. Those classes, along with dorm room discussions were much like this NG. Ever since I joined the working world, I've missed the stimulation of those collage days "rap" sessions (to show my age). This has been really fun here at a. a. What's nice about it is the freedom to argue with theist without fear of getting a bloody nose. (Lee Locke #893)

• My atheism came more from the "traditional" route - I was raised exposed to theism as the default, but never found in it what I was told to expect. It was only after questioning this default and essentially finding all the dirt under the rug that atheism started to become an acceptable lternative.

  Usenet however did a lot to help me understand the issues and to make me feel much more secure believing I hadn't made some silly, horrible mistake.

  Fundies and other theistic morons like Nameless and Spammy were there on the one hand to keep showing me just how absolutely stupid a person could be if they chose to ignore the evidences of their intellect for the reassurances demanded by their inner fears. At the same time more and more people began to slowly step forward and intelligently discuss and explain the issues of non-religious atheism, religious atheism (Hi Natalie!), and parts of humanist philosophy.

  Did I become an atheist because of the Internet? - No. Did the Internet/Usenet affect my growth as an atheist? Absolutely. (Dewey Henize #122)

• ...The aa experience has helped me cope with atheism, and I can now say that I have a support group of some sort, because if I had divulged my little secret, I would have been worse than ostracised from my community. Now that I am in college, I have found many more open people, and my atheism has actually been accepted, even by my mormon next-door neighbor.

  aa really hasn't changed my attitude, other than being a little more on my toes when people offer stupid arguments for things. Some of the people in my English class don't exactly like me. (Van Isaac Anderson #716)

• I was an atheist before I had regular access to the internet. If I'd encountered this newsgroup earlier, I think I would have de-programmed myself sooner. Although I recognized my lack of belief in god quite a few years ago, It wasn't until recently that I was able to apply the term "atheist" to myself without trepidation. You see, 11 years of Catholic schooling had caused me to always associate atheism with evil, immoral, satanic, etc. Unconsciously, perhaps, it took a few extra years for me to remove all of those extraneous connotations from the word before I could apply it to myself. The thing that finally enabled me to do this was my encounter with the word 'freethought' last year. That really cleared my head and helped me to finally remove all those programmed extraneous meanings.

  Even now, after all my soul searching, all my personal analysis, I stiil can hear the words 'godless', or 'evil', or 'immoral' echoing in the darkest corners of my thoughts whenever I say, type, or think of the word 'atheist'. I don't know if I'll ever get rid of that shadow, but I know that I will NEVER subject my daughter to that type of insidious mind control and childhood programming. In an odd twist, I can attribute the fact that I'm able to recognize the programming and engage myself in critical thinking directly to my education in the Catholic school system. Believe it or not, aside from the religious programming, the schools I went to were extremely competent at giving me the very tools I needed to eventually overthrow my theism. Having those tools didn't make my journey any less painful. (Paul J. Koeck, #360)

• Yes, was one for a long time. But it is very encouraging to see other atheists doing battle with the enemy. (Paul Roberts #49)

• Probably not. It was the reading of the alt.atheism FAQ that really set the wheels in motion. (James A. Hulsey #551)

• I became an athiest in 1980 while going to a private Catholic (Piarist Fathers...very controversial order) high school. I was 16 at the time. I cannot say for certain if I would or would not have been an athiest sooner had the internet existed at that time. I have no basis for comparison.

  I can say that the internet has made the search and retrieval of information much more practical so my overall breadth of knowledge of many subjects has been considerably improved. I do believe that my committment to athiesm has been considerably strengthened by the wealth of information available to me through the internet as well as by association and knowledge of certain athiestic and freethinker organizations who share my views such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation (www.ffrf.org) and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (www.au.org). (Rich Goranson #1999)

• No, not really. I was already an atheist when I found a.a., but was a little reluctant to apply the word to myself because of its popular negative connotations. The ideas and arguments presented here helped hone and solidify the meaning of the word for me, putting it in a better light. (chib)

• I'd often engaged in online discussions with evolutionists (sic) and atheists when I was a theist. It did nothing that I can discern to speed up my deconversion. My theism just had to run its course and I had to eventually realize *for myself* that it was baseless.

  I was too hard-headed and inculcated in the lame apologetic arguments of Christianity to actually listen to what any atheists might have had to say. ((Beowulf #1942)

• I was an atheist for some 20 years when I found it, but on the matter of accelerating my deconversion... well, I think I would have become one sooner... not sooner, but quicker and in a less stressful way, if the newsgroup existed back then, if I were able to speak English back then... too many hypothetical conditions. (Angel Arnal #1443)

• I've always been an atheist, but this newsgroup has made me think more about it and to become more conscious of it. This newsgroup is also the first place I've ever heard any fundies in their full nuttiness - My maternal grandparents were probably what you'd call fundies, but we never discussed religion with them, we hardly ever saw them and they never found out about me being an atheist, but I'm drifting now... (Nikitta #1759.)