Having grown up in a home of charismatic Christians – and “witnessed” my fair share of healings, miracles and testimonies of such; I’ve grown disappointed with “God” in my own life, and wish to embark upon a more simple life as an atheist. I’m tired of hearing how I must have my own personal relationship with a God who at best seems to busy with “all others” but me.
And I find that the easiest way out is to disregard other peoples experiences as fiction (as you seem to encourage here) and a find way to deal with my own limited number of experiences – I do not wish to let them become a troublesome memory, and I quite simply need a technique/ method to rationalize these memories and the idea that the physical world is the only world!
Posted: April 13th 2011
Eric_PK
Try reading “Why People Believe Weird Things” by Michael Shermer. It’s more focused on supernatural belief than theistic belief, but it has a lot of good stuff in it.
Posted: April 14th 2011
Dave Hitt www
Learn some magic.
Nicholas Eninhorn’s “The Practical Encyclopedia of Magic” and “Mark Wilson’s Complete Course in Magic” are good books to start with. They’re comprehensive and will give you a good grounding in basic techniques. Penn & Teller’s “Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends” is also a lot of fun.
Don’t just read the tricks. Pick a couple, practice them and learn them well, then try them out on a few people. You’ll find people are not only very easy to fool, but they like being fooled.
And knowing that, experiencing it, makes it a lot easer to understand how you’ve fooled yourself.
Posted: April 14th 2011
logicel
What is encouraged here is to identify evidence for beliefs (see baloney detection kit). Witnessing/revelation does not constitute evidence, but instead an subjective experience that is personal and often emotionally important.
Disappointment in god in itself is not actually a reason to entertain the lack of god belief (most atheists have no god belief because of lack of evidence not because they are disappointed in god’s performance though they will readily point out that its performance does indicate it is not a nice god). I would suggest your talking to a professional clergy about your disappointment in the divinity of your home and upbringing, and see if that helps you in maintaining your faith.
However, if you want to find out if your religious beliefs are/can be true, then start with Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion. If the content of that book makes sense to you, then through time you will adjust to not having god belief (like many others have and will continue to) by learning new coping skills that will not reject rationality.
Posted: April 14th 2011
Daniel Midgley www
As a former believer, I had my own share of 'faith-promoting experiences’ — feelings that others told me were manifestations of a god, or the holy spirit. As I learned more about how suggestible we humans are, and how easily our emotions are played upon, I came to realise that feelings and experiences are not good evidence.
The feelings I felt were real. But it’s important to keep track of what things mean. If I had a good feeling, it doesn’t mean that god, angels, and spirits are real. It means I had a feeling.
When I remember this, it reminds me that I can be fooled by emotional reasoning. It also helps me to remember that my friends and family do have very compelling reasons for believing that they think are valid. We can recognise their experiences without having to jump to their conclusions.
Posted: April 14th 2011
Paula Kirby www
I recently read an excellent book by a professor of psychology, which I think you might find helpful. It’s called Paranormality: Why we see what isn’t there, by Prof Richard Wiseman. Absolutely fascinating, very readable, and highly entertaining too. I learned a huge amount from it.
Posted: April 14th 2011