Very new to all this
Posted on: March 26, 2009 - 12:40pm
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Very new to all this
Hello all,
I am a former minister looking for truth. I have been reading some books and I find the athiest argument to be rather convincing. I have read God Delusion, Dawkins; Farewell To God, Templeton; Losing Faith In Faith, Barker, but I'm looking for more to read. This is all very new to me and I anticipate it being a major point of contention as my family discovers who I am becoming. I look forward to reading and contributing to discussions on this forum.
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Welcome to the forums. We do not advertise ultimate truth, but we do have a very rational attitude towards lifes questions. I am an engineer living in Mississauga Canada (near Toronto). Where do you hail from?
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
Welcome!
First off, congrats on being a former minister. No really, it's great that you took time to seek out other options, and have the willingness to entertain other possibilities. I'm a former fundamentalist christian, as are many here, so you should find plenty of company.
Of the books you've listed I've only read the God Delusion. You may want to try Sam Harris, particularly The End of Faith. It's more gritty and hard hitting than Dawkins, give it a try.
Anything else you wondering, ask away
Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible
Argument from Sadism: Theist presents argument in a wall of text with no punctuation and wrong spelling. Atheist cannot read and is forced to concede.
Welcome to the site!
Having been born an atheist, and never having experienced theism, I haven't actually read any of those books myself. I've rather viewed them as tools for people who are theists than anything. But then, I also am not particularly interested in non-fiction literature. Fiction is where the fun is, and it can be just as educational.
As a result, I'm not qualified to direct your further reading. However, there are many here who are, and I'm sure they'll be along shortly. Enjoy!
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Welcome aboard! I've never had faith and have never read any of the books you have mentioned and can't really think of any books off the top of my head to recommend. However, there's tons of great posts by members here in the various forum subjects.
Hi there, exminister. I too am new here, but I would like to suggest a book to you and anyone who reads your new topic.
It's called Ethics for a Secular Age and I have provided a link below.
The book is a collection of short, easily readable, enjoyable, touching, and humorous essays on love, war, deceit, empathy, and the like. Please give it a look, it should be super duper cheap on half.com
Good luck constructing your own truth!
http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Humanist-Ethics-Secular-Age/dp/0195168909/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238087553&sr=8-1
Thanks for all your kind responses. I think I'm going to enjoy this forum, and for the poster who asked where I'm from...I live in Northern California
Welcome aboard. Like Jeffrick said, this isn't a place for finding ultimate truth. Ultimate truth is tricky and very few people actually even look enough to find it. Hence, my signature at the bottom of my posts. What a lot of the really smart people here will tell you is to question what was once unquestionable. Most of my life was spent as an atheist, but I was a really big fundie at the age of 18. I thought I knew the truth and yet "god" was too big for me to wrap my mind around and at a weak moment I abandoned my new found faith.
I still consider myself an agnostic atheist as I cannot disprove god exists. I honestly wish I could say without a doubt there is no god, but if a god or gods do exist it is not the god of the abrahamic variety for sure. In which direction do you lean now as a fellow non-believer? It's always good to have former ministers give opinions here to keep things in perspective.
"Always seek out the truth, but avoid at all costs those that claim to have found it" ANONYMOUS
I'm leaning towards Agnostic-Atheism. I too feel it's impossible to know if there is or is not a god or gods, but the evidence seems to suggest that there is not a god. However, I'm quite confident the god of the bible simply doesn't exist. For me the only source of truth and inspiration for such a god was the Bible and there are just too many holes in that book. I found religion (speaking as one from the inside) to be just a business like any others. The focus was predominately the bottom line (meaning money). Although there are many good people who mean well within Christianity, overall I feel they are mislead and their ideas are outdated and unfounded to say the least.
It's hard to explain it, but once I decided there was no such thing as original sin, but rather just actions and consequences, it felt like I had a huge weight lifted off my back. I feel more confident in who I am today than when I was a believer. Maybe someone here can explain this unexpected phenomenon.
Hope you enjoy your time on these boards. As for literature I can only suggest science texts, I personally like these types of books as they tend to explain nature and the universe in a natural, logical (for the most part some books are so freaking way beyond my scientific understanding) explanation that it makes more sense then saying god did it.
With that said climbing mount improbable, In Defense of Atheism, the selfish gene, and personally I recommend learning about ancient religions and their mythology and then rereading the bible and pick out the similarities, but that's just me. With that said I have been an atheist practically all my life, again I was a kid at one point and believe in many things like fairies, santa clause, ghosts, and trolls under the bridge. With that said I don't think there is an ultimate truth, I just think there is the truth as we perceive it. I personally never found truth in religion, just a bunch of unanswered question and alot of avoiding the actual facts.
Hi, welcome to the forum.
I've actually heard that from numerous ex-Christians. Perhaps it's simply relieving to know that you're in charge of your destiny, and there isn't some supernatural, arbitrary, unknowable consequence for your actions. Here, I'll link Hamby's esssay before he does.
http://www.rationalresponders.com/new_atheists_really_all_there
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
Thanks for that link, it's a very interesting essay.
I find life so much better as an atheist. There is no perpetual guilt and fear of hell. You're right, it is a huge burden of one's back.I used to spend so much time agonising over going to hell, repenting for every little thing, beating myself up over natural things. Now I still lead a good and moral life, just without all the bad feelings
Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible
Argument from Sadism: Theist presents argument in a wall of text with no punctuation and wrong spelling. Atheist cannot read and is forced to concede.
Signature ? How ?
The minister at a church I was forced to go to when I was very young was an atheist.
He just looked at it as another job. I didn't really understand the implications until I was older.
Theism is why we can't have nice things.
Welcome, if I might ask, how long has it been since you were a minister? How long were you a minister?
I am sure like many, not all here, but many, your deconversion took time. BUT was there one single quesition or some moment that got the ball rolling?
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Oh and if you exminister, or anyone else wants to post at the following website, I't would be nice to have some back up when you play an away game. Preaching to the chior gets boring sometimes.
http://www.thesunnews.com/forums/
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Welcome! It's great to have you here!
When did you start to realize that the god of the bible was false?
*Our world is far more complex than the rigid structure we want to assign to it, and we will probably never fully understand it.*
"Those believers who are sophisticated enough to understand the paradox have found exciting ways to bend logic into pretzel shapes in order to defend the indefensible." - Hamby
Pull up a chair, sit on the floor; admissions free, pay at the door...
Welcome to the forums ~ jump right in and have fun!
Slowly building a blog at ~
http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/
Yes...Welcome Mr. Ex....you have guts, sir. Hope you enjoy your time here.
www.RichWoodsBlog.com
Welcome to the forums. It's great to see you here. Like many I'm an ex-Christian with much religious training and I look forward to your posts.
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"I guess it's time to ask if you live under high voltage power transmission lines which have been shown to cause stimulation of the fantasy centers of the brain due to electromagnetic waves?" - Me
"God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, - it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks please. Cash and in small bills." - Robert A Heinlein.
It's a reasonable statement to make.
That's funny - I was trying to explain that earlier (actually, just describe the relief). I was struggling with it as more of a philosophical problem than a spiritually involved one, but still, there was palpable relief when I saw that the world was alive, and the way we think is simply the way we think.
Welcome to the forums.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence