Have you had any moments of doubt about being an atheist and what helped you overcome them?
nope. I played the little game of "if there's a god, may he/she/it
strike me with lightning in the next 10 seconds." I counted really
slowly. I was less than 10 years old at the time. I was the closest
I ever got to theism, which obviously isn't very close :).
(Hilary Osborne #193)
I guess I've had some nights when I'm just lying in bed and I start wondering about the mysteries of the universe. I usually just fall
asleep. (Jeff Gutierrez #93)
I'll admit to being quite rattled and having a few doubts when I first
read about the Torah Codes some three months ago, because the way in
which they were presented in the article I read, claimed that _all_
these findings had been verified several times over by accredited statisticians and mathematicians. There wasn't much on the Internet
about them then, but I kept looking and found that the claims were not true, so you can say that the Internet helped me to get over it. In
the last couple of weeks the postings on this newsgroup about this
topic have reinforced my feeling that the whole thing is a con trick,
and I'm angry with myself that I allowed myself to be duped, albeit for
a very short time, but after all, I'm only human. (June Gill #364)
As a rule, no. I rarely doubt my atheism because the alternative is too
absurd.
*BUT*, once in a while, when I get into one of those philosophical
moods in which I'm contemplating life, the universe and everything,
particularly the improbability of existence itself, I begin to wonder.
These aren't doubts, exactly, but ruminations. Why does *anything*
exist? Since I don't know the answer, some primitive anthropomorphism
kicks in and I ascribe it to some indescribable force or being that has
will.
That's as close as I'll ever come to doubting my atheism. (chib)
I vehemently wish that there /was/ a god in the first place, and maybe even
he could be a nice, loving god like Christians would want us to believe. I
would absolutely love to have something like that to lean on to.
I tell many Christians this as well, but they are completely dumbfounded why
I don't just become a Christian, or believe in some kind of god. The girl I
just started dating doesn't really understand this bit, either.
It all boils down to this -- no matter what I /want/ to be true, I will not
lie to myself to make it seem true. Reality wins, and that's what we all
have to deal with in the end. (Jeremy Martin #1884)
A few times where I have been seriously in doubt, I have even tried
saying "Okay, if there's anyone or anything out there, could you
please send me some sort of sign which I could understand, because if
there's someone or someone out there, I'd really like to know about
him/her/it/them and if you could let me know something about who or
what you are, somehow, I'd appreciate it very much. Eh - that's it" or
something to that effect, but as you have probably already guessed,
nothing ever happened.
To be frank, I guess it's nothing but wishful thinking and I need to
keep remembering the difference between what I wish was true and what
is or is not true, if I want to keep up my integrity. All in all, it
helps me to remind myself that I care more about truth than about
anything else... (Nikitta #1759)
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