So, if you are no longer a Christian...

If you "became" an atheist tomorrow, what feelings would you have?


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bhsmte

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For many, I am not sure going from Christian to atheist, is a next day thing. I know for me, it took some time to move from being a Christian, to having doubts, to having more doubts, to finally realizing I couldn't reconcile the Christian theology with well evidenced reality.

So, it was not a dramatic switch for me.
 
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PloverWing

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An interesting question. I picked "sad", although "disappointed" might be closer. I'm less certain about the existence of God than many of the other CF posters, but the idea that there is a God who is an amazing artist who created the universe in all its variety, and that God embodies love, and that God came to live among us as a human -- that idea is so wonderful that I really really hope it's true. If I discover that the idea of God is false, I won't regret the time I spent searching for God, but I'd be sad to learn that there was nothing there after all.

For what it's worth, it wouldn't change the ethics by which I live my life. The way of Jesus is a good one, for its own sake, even if there is no God. Like Puddleglum, I'll live like a Narnian even if there is no Narnia.
 
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An interesting question. I picked "sad", although "disappointed" might be closer. I'm less certain about the existence of God than many of the other CF posters, but the idea that there is a God who is an amazing artist who created the universe in all its variety, and that God embodies love, and that God came to live among us as a human -- that idea is so wonderful that I really really hope it's true. If I discover that the idea of God is false, I won't regret the time I spent searching for God, but I'd be sad to learn that there was nothing there after all.

For what it's worth, it wouldn't change the ethics by which I live my life. The way of Jesus is a good one, for its own sake, even if there is no God. Like Puddleglum, I'll live like a Narnian even if there is no Narnia.
An interesting answer.

If you sincerely believed there was no God, what is it you would then be sad or disappointed about?
 
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Silmarien

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I don't quite understand the dichotomy between "Christian" and "atheist." There is a lot of middle ground between these two positions, and I'm not really sure why that so often gets ignored.

I'm a philosophical theist caught in Christianity's gravitational pull, so I would probably be depressed if I finally were to fall away. My lingering doubts revolve around it being too good to be true in any number of ways, so the question is really whether or not I can get past my own pessimism. It would probably be something of a relief if I stopped stressing out over whether or not it's true, though.

Atheism itself is something of an impossible position for me. Metaphysical disagreements aside, my sensus divinitatis is as faulty as my eyesight, but I'd be back to pantheism the first time it kicked in again.
 
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I don't quite understand the dichotomy between "Christian" and "atheist." There is a lot of middle ground between these two positions, and I'm not really sure why that so often gets ignored.

I'm a philosophical theist caught in Christianity's gravitational pull, so I would probably be depressed if I finally were to fall away. My lingering doubts revolve around it being too good to be true in any number of ways, so the question is really whether or not I can get past my own pessimism. It would probably be something of a relief if I stopped stressing out over whether or not it's true, though.

Atheism itself is something of an impossible position for me. Metaphysical disagreements aside, my sensus divinitatis is as faulty as my eyesight, but I'd be back to pantheism the first time it kicked in again.
Falling away would indicate that it is being viewed from your current position.

I'm curious as to why you would feel depressed, since depression would seem counter-intuitive to your current mindset. To me it seems like you would feel something other than a negative one.
 
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I'm not a Christian, but I was, so voted what I felt when I lost it.

Essentially, I felt most or all of the emotions listed.

It's killed me inside to lose my God, but I came to accept it was good.
If you "knew" there was no God, why would it kill you?

My only assumption/guess for that feeling would be it how it would feel to find out you were catfished. You'd still feel bad about it.

(I am not insinuating, nor stating, nor making any claims to the reality or non-reality of God. No flaming or anything is meant by my statement.)
 
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Silmarien

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Falling away would indicate that it is being viewed from your current position.

I'm curious as to why you would feel depressed, since depression would seem counter-intuitive to your current mindset. To me it seems like you would feel something other than a negative one.

Because Christianity is a thing of sublime beauty, regardless of whether or not it's true. It would be a rejection of that beauty if I finally decided that I absolutely did not believe the Gospel. There is honestly no good reason why I would come to that conclusion, but there are a whole bunch of bad ones, so I think the resulting mindset would be pretty depressing. At this point, it'd be out of fear of being wrong, not out of sudden conviction that the religion was false. That's a negative, and the result would be having to embrace Absurdism. Which would be a step backwards for me.
 
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Because Christianity is a thing of sublime beauty, regardless of whether or not it's true. It would be a rejection of that beauty if I finally decided that I absolutely did not believe the Gospel. There is honestly no good reason why I would come to that conclusion, but there are a whole bunch of bad ones, so I think the resulting mindset would be pretty depressing. At this point, it'd be out of fear of being wrong, not out of sudden conviction that the religion was false. That's a negative, and the result would be having to embrace Absurdism. Which would be a step backwards for me.
Again, it sounds like you are not adopting your new viewpoint. If you did, I don't see how it could be seen as a "step backwards".

If it's a thing of beauty, whether it's true or not, why would you all of the sudden decide to reject the beauty of it? That doesn't make sense.
 
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PloverWing

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An interesting answer.

If you sincerely believed there was no God, what is it you would then be sad or disappointed about?
The analogy that comes to mind is an explorer who sets off across an unexplored continent, because he's gotten a glimpse of a great treasure there, in the far off distance. Maybe it's real, or maybe his eyes are tricking him, but he has to find out. Years later, he arrives at his destination, only to find out that it was a trick of light and shadow after all, and there was never any treasure there. He might not regret the journey -- he got to explore many things along the way, and the possibility of the treasure was so enticing that he had to try to find it -- but there would still be a sense of loss and disappointment.
 
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Non sequitur

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The analogy that comes to mind is an explorer who sets off across an unexplored continent, because he's gotten a glimpse of a great treasure there, in the far off distance. Maybe it's real, or maybe his eyes are tricking him, but he has to find out. Years later, he arrives at his destination, only to find out that it was a trick of light and shadow after all, and there was never any treasure there. He might not regret the journey -- he got to explore many things along the way, and the possibility of the treasure was so enticing that he had to try to find it -- but there would still be a sense of loss and disappointment.
But wouldn't that not really be analogous? You had him arrive at his destination.

It would be more analogous to say that found out mid-trip.
 
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PloverWing

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But wouldn't that not really be analogous? You had him arrive at his destination.

It would be more analogous to say that found out mid-trip.
Maybe. I want to have the explorer get close enough that he can see the site clearly enough to determine that there's no treasure there. Until he's got clear evidence that what he saw was an illusion, he still has hope.
 
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St_Worm2

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So, you are longer a Christian...

... if the options are not "good", but I don't know what to assume they could be.

Hi NS, it's not a matter of your list of options not being "good" ones, the problem with this thread begins with the fact that your title statement is itself, a fallacy, since it assumes something that cannot happen.

Those who leave the church, who also "claim" or "believe" that they were once Christians, never were. One of the ways that we know this is, in fact, seen in their choice to leave.

1 John 2
19 They went out from us, but they didn't belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they left, that it might be shown that none of them belonged to us.

Some may even appear to be "super" Christians (if you will .. to themselves and/or to others in the church), only to find out at the Judgment that they were never Christians to begin with (no matter what they claimed or believed or did in this life). Again, the Bible makes this clear (this concerns the day of Judgment, Jesus is speaking):

Matthew 7
22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

I, in fact, believed myself to be a Christian all of my life. I was baptized as an infant, regularly attended and enjoyed Sunday School, was confirmed at age 12, and then attended Sunday services regularly until college. I sang in the choir, went on retreats, etc., you know, the whole 9 yards, so you can perhaps imagine how surprised I was to find out that I'd NEVER been a Christian on the day when I finally became one (2 months after my 30th birthday).

So, you may be able to find out what it feels like to move from claiming/thinking you are a Christian to claiming to be an atheist, but you cannot find out what you really want to know. A true Christian cannot become UN-born spiritually anymore than he/she can become UN-born physically .. John 3:3,6.

Yours and His,
David
p.s. - BTW, the Lord Himself confirms this fact about true Christians .. e.g. John 6:37-40, 44.
 
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Silmarien

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Again, it sounds like you are not adopting your new viewpoint. If you did, I don't see how it could be seen as a "step backwards".

If it's a thing of beauty, whether it's true or not, why would you all of the sudden decide to reject the beauty of it? That doesn't make sense.

It would be a step backwards because it would be turning around midpath out of fear that I might not find anything at the end of the road. It would be deciding preemptively that goodness and beauty were meaningless and humanity helplessly insane because hope is harder than surrender.

Christianity is demanding when it comes to faith. I'm not used to that since I'm not used to organized religion at all, but I really do see that sort of faith as being salvific in and of itself. So walking away would be bad on many levels. Even afterwards, I would still think that I had embraced nihilism.

Keep in mind I wouldn't be tossing out the concept of God if I rejected Christianity. I'd be specifically rejecting that God is good.
 
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Introverted1293

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I don't know if I could ever believe that there is no God. But I have thought about giving up on God and walking away from him and I got scared.

I struggle with besetting sins in my life and I am concerned for my salvation. But I thought of giving up and just choosing not to believe in God and choosing not to believe in salvation. And like I said, I got really scared.
 
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com7fy8

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In my case, I have sort of become an atheist or agnostic, and then I was very curious what would become of me. And I got more and more into problems in myself. And there were certain people who were kind to me, who seemed like real Jesus people. And I was worried that I would miss out, by not being with them and like them.
 
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It would be a step backwards because it would be turning around midpath out of fear that I might not find anything at the end of the road. It would be deciding preemptively that goodness and beauty were meaningless and humanity helplessly insane because hope is harder than surrender.

Christianity is demanding when it comes to faith. I'm not used to that since I'm not used to organized religion at all, but I really do see that sort of faith as being salvific in and of itself. So walking away would be bad on many levels. Even afterwards, I would still think that I had embraced nihilism.

Keep in mind I wouldn't be tossing out the concept of God if I rejected Christianity. I'd be specifically rejecting that God is good.
If you found yourself not believing, I don't see how that has anything to do with "turning about midpath out of fear".

Turning about is a choice. If you found yourself not believing, that wasn't a choice. You don't/can't preemptively accept your reality.

Also, if you were of an atheist mindset, I'm not sure why (or even if you would) think goodness and beauty were meaningless and humanity is helplessly insane. Most atheists don't seem to think that.

It seems like you are trying to hold two different beliefs the same time.
 
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In my case, I have sort of become an atheist or agnostic, and then I was very curious what would become of me. And I got more and more into problems in myself. And there were certain people who were kind to me, who seemed like real Jesus people. And I was worried that I would miss out, by not being with them and like them.
Well, hopefully nobody would prevent you from being with people you valued!
 
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Hi NS, it's not a matter of your list of options not being "good" ones, the problem with this thread begins with the fact that your title statement is itself, a fallacy, since it assumes something that cannot happen.

Those who leave the church, who also "claim" or "believe" that they were once Christians, never were. One of the ways that we know this is, in fact, seen in their choice to leave.

1 John 2
19 They went out from us, but they didn't belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they left, that it might be shown that none of them belonged to us.

Some may even appear to be "super" Christians (if you will .. to themselves and/or to others in the church), only to find out at the Judgment that they were never Christians to begin with (no matter what they claimed or believed or did in this life). Again, the Bible makes this clear (this concerns the day of Judgment, Jesus is speaking):

Matthew 7
22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

I, in fact, believed myself to be a Christian all of my life. I was baptized as an infant, regularly attended and enjoyed Sunday School, was confirmed at age 12, and then attended Sunday services regularly until college. I sang in the choir, went on retreats, etc., you know, the whole 9 yards, so you can perhaps imagine how surprised I was to find out that I'd NEVER been a Christian on the day when I finally became one (2 months after my 30th birthday).

So, you may be able to find out what it feels like to move from claiming/thinking you are a Christian to claiming to be an atheist, but you cannot find out what you really want to know. A true Christian cannot become UN-born spiritually anymore than he/she can become UN-born physically .. John 3:3,6.

Yours and His,
David
p.s. - BTW, the Lord Himself confirms this fact about true Christians .. e.g. John 6:37-40, 44.
That's why I made sure to say if someone cannot find themselves able to imagine/role-play the scenario, for whatever reason, there was no need to comment.

It's not an argument/debate on how, whether it is plausible or even probable. I was looking to avoid those, as they don't offer any answers to my question.
 
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Hall

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I've never seen a poll or conversation about how Christians would "deal" with this scenario. More so, how they believe they would process it. I posted it here because Philosophy is closed.

I was curious to see what emotional (as best as I could list the options for) reaction a Christian would have if they found themselves an atheist, in the way many atheists do; it becomes apparent and thus accepted. If you found yourself an atheist, you would not have any reason to try an convert (back) to Christianity, nor argue for it.

If you cannot find yourself able to imagine/role-play the scenario (not how, whether it is plausible, etc), please don't comment or vote; it's not a debate. Please, no atheist (as you shouldn't be taking this poll anyway).

I'm genuinely curious as to how you think you would feel about it. If your feeling is not a choice (I'm just having to guess at possible feelings), feel free to elaborate. It's multiple choice.

P.S. Sorry if the options are not "good", but I don't know what to assume they could be.

Thanks!
If one becomes an atheist after "supposedly" being a Christian is most likely because they never became a Christian in the first place. Causes for switching over from Christianity to Atheism: Caught up in a denomination. Reasons: Looking to find God but unwilling to do so by the lack of His Spirit found in denominational churches. Solution: Look for a non-denominational church until you can feel His Spirit within you. Other alternatives: look for Him in the comfort of your own home. Get on your knees, humble yourself and speak to Him so you can find Him in your life. Ask for His "Holy Spirit" to speak to you.
 
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