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Question 3

Have you had any moments of doubt about being an atheist and what helped you overcome them?

• From time to time - but the lunacy soon passes. ;) (Stephen Ban #471)

• Nope, I live in the real world. (Dennis Rainer)

• No. Because I never had any theistic belief even as a child. My first exposure to the god-concept was via the Greek myths. I was astonished when I discovered that people still believed in them. I'd assumed that they were things primitive and uneducated people made up to try and explain what they couldn't understand. (Christopher A. Lee #105)

  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 had doubts while I was still a Christian, but once I realized I am alone, it actually lifted the burden off my shoulders. Now I can get on with the things that are really important in THIS life. (Jim Rugh #643)

• Nope. Never had any moments of doubt. I've had moments when I wished there were a God, but wishing does not make it so. If wishes were horses, the beggers would ride. (Richard Nathan #166)

• I have never looked at theism as an option in times of trouble. (Hellspawn #11)

• Yes, usually during times of bereavement. In such emotionally traumatic times one is bound to wonder 'What's it all about?' and think that perhaps, just possibly, there is 'something else'. To me, this is the equivalent of being in denial about the loss of a loved one. I know that Christians comfort themselves with the thought that they'll be reunited with their loved ones in the next life, and I think that it's natural to try to comfort oneself in whatever way one can. With me, the moments of doubt don't last long, because I know that it's just wishful thinking, and I've never had much patience with that - life's too short to be constantly thinking 'if only ...' - I'd rather get on with living.

  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)

• Yes, but decreasingly often. The main thing that helped me get over them was realising that the moments were shorter and the doubt less severe, than when I was a Christian. (John Collins #1639)

• Okay, soul-searching time.

  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)

• Here's a kicker of one, I think.

  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)

• Sometimes I wonder if I might be wrong, yes - Not taking anything for granted is a good thing IMO - but when I think about it there are simply no evidence (of what I have seen) to support the existence of a deity or deities. I'd be very interested if there was any evidence and I'd love to look into it, to check - but so far I haven't even heard as much as any good arguments.

  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)

• None. I have frequently tried doubting atheism to see other viewpoints but the end result has always made atheism become more entrenched in my thinking and philosophy on life. Following this newsgroup made doubting atheism more futile. (leongsh..#1860)