transition to atheism [personal]

My personal story of de-programming from christianity — told for transparency, and to honour the people who've been mailing me lately, sharing their own private stories of religious doubts. To those people, my respect and good wishes.

A WORD ABOUT TRANSITIONS
Going through transitions can feel like a destructive, painful process. I give a model of transition here which can be applied to many different episodes in life — partly to affirm that those difficult feelings are a healthy part of the process of letting go. Anger, pain, despair, emptiness: these are not pathological responses to loss or bereavement. Feeling these things shows we are connected with ourselves, and help prepare us for embracing new, strange-feeling, futures, and moving forward.

This is one of two videos — and atheist diptych, if you will — giving a full account of my journey into atheism. While this one looks at the emotional side, the accompanying video — 'atheism as congruence' — deals with the cognitive side of my transition.

music: 'helicopter' © TheraminTrees

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• transition
• sugarman
• life-span-development

[VicariousExtrospect]

Hmmm.... The way you have the eyes set and in a black / blue saturation reminds me of the cover to one of Dr. Robert Hare's books. I believe his was white and red, though.

Is that where the idea came from :)?

[TheraminTrees]

@VicariousExtrospect Nope, not aware of Dr. Robert Hare, or his books. The black/blue tint was a contrast to the black/brown of the accompanying video.

[DonnieSeriously]

Wow, I love all of your videos! :)

[TheraminTrees]

@DonnieSeriously Thanks! ;8)

[PsychoticSnake]

Did you ever have contact with Mr. Elliot after he taught you?

[TheraminTrees]

@PsychoticSnake 'Did you ever have contact with Mr. Elliot after he taught you?'

—No — and it would've been kind of weird if I had. He and I had a very bare-bones relationship — I did homework, he graded it, and that was really as far as it went.

[TheraminTrees]

@TheCelticChimp My own take on this is that it's about embracing ambiguity. I don't know where each new christian I meet is coming from. They could be a smug piece of shit who's dehumanised everyone with a different outlook, or someone struggling to contain huge dissonances, perhaps already questioning their faith — or anywhere between. My default is to trust that someone is good-hearted and capable of/interested in reason — when they show me they're not, I adjust my opinion of them accordingly.

[TheraminTrees]

@andyfromsheldon Thanks. My family seemed to have an ambivalence about creation. They embraced evolution — I had posters/charts on my bedroom wall as a very young child. But then there'd be arguments that 'Darwin recanted'. It was very mixed — possibly representing differences between my parents. My relationships in the family have transformed beyond recognition since childhood, mellowing from an inflexible authoritarianism to a deep mutual respect and equality I would've thought impossible.

[isgdre]

Amazing! Absolutely beautiful! Has nothing to do with my journey as for that I totally love my (christian) mother. But to be able to express in words such powerful feelings I commend you. For logic brings truth, even in feelings.

[8698gil]

I think my childhood transition to atheism partly came about because of personal childhood trauma. I wonder if I had been a more fortunate child who came from a very well adjusted and nurturing home and never had any reason to doubt the existence of god because prayers were answered (by that I mean that childhood expectations were met), if I would have still been a believer today. When expectations are met, belief would be reinforced, in my case, they were not met.

[8698gil]

I lost belief in god long before I learned about evolution in school, but once I did learn about it, everything made sense to me. Bad things don't happen to kids because it's god's plan, they just happen sometimes. And I always had problems with the biblical creation story, even at 8 years old. I love evolution,it explains everything. My life made sense ever since.

[8698gil]

@f00tstep My transition to atheism happened very early too, I had serious doubts at 8, and I no longer believed at 10. My family was very religious, but my childhood was full of problems, including a severely depressed mother, abandonment, and other issues. I used to pray and nothing ever happened. After a while I knew that prayers were not answered, at least not by any god. I've never had to go through the adult transition phase that so many people find so difficult.