once you realize...

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that there is no god and no angels and no devil and there are no such things as ghosts, you look back and think to yourself, "how could I have been so silly?"

One thinks the same thing when they're racist or bigoted against some group of people. Once you accept them, it's easy and you look back, you're ashamed of ever having thought those things.

This is an interesting position. However, as a theist who was once an atheist, I can say without equivocation that atheism was the beginning point of my journey, not the end point. I know many people view atheism as the end point, where you have taken it upon yourself to reject superstition, leaving God behind as something that should be left to the infancy of humanity. It seems to me now, quite obvious, that though my position now requires an amount of faith, I am infinity better off for having been made to make the leap, having been ambushed in the soul by the Holy Spirit.

I am not ashamed of having been an atheist, nor do I believe that anyone should be ashamed of being a theist. As to the existence of Angels and Lucifer, I have no problem accepting these topics to be real.

I also find it quite interesting that many atheists think that theists have absolutely no warrant for their beliefs. This seems to me to be unnecessarily close minded. As I have quoted before, the sort of atheism I prefer is that of Thomas Nagel, himself, no friend of religion, who was honest enough to admit that he preferred his own world-view, that he was quite uncomfortable with the fact that many of the most intelligent people he knew were theists and the he actually wanted the world to be the way he viewed it. This is the sort of honest view that I can respect. The idea that theism has no basis what-so-ever and that those who believe it are somehow silly or backward seems to me to say more of those who believe that, than of those who believe in God.

"One thinks the same thing" whenever there is a shift in belief or opinion. As a child I hated vegetables. That was silly. As a young adult I was completely apathetic about my faith and, not coincidentally, a fairly wretched person to be around. That was silly - more, it was foolish. But all of that is relative, isn't it? You felt this. I felt that. Has subjective emotion ever convinced anyone?

(edit: NOT to imply that a lack of faith necessarily implies an unpleasant personality. Not by any means.)

Last edited by Natty_Boh on 07 Jan 2011, 2:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Actually, I went the other way as well. An atheist who came to accept the possibility of gods and angels and ghosts and demons. I would not be ashamed of my past beliefs, as they are in the past, just like I am not ashamed that at one time I could not spell 'caterpillar'.

I've been atheist as long as I can remember. Never found it possible to believe in anything like that... it just seemed ridiculous to me when I was a kid

But what if they are racist and bigoted against you?

If it comes down to "us against them" like it has in Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Somalia, and many other places. When the barricades go up and it is time to choose sides. To fight or die.

What side will you be on?