Edit: I was tagged by No More Mr Nice Guy, it took me a while to post my answers and then I forgot to mention the context. Doh!
Can You Remember The Day That You Officially Became An Atheist? Do you remember the day you officially became an agnostic?
I can, I was in work and I whispered to myself “there is no god”. My heart started pounding and I felt a mixture of guilt/sin/relief.
I was born and raised am Irish a-la-carte Roman Catholic and for most of my youth I just believed it. I did run into difficulties as I was a big fan of science fiction and as a child I loved dinosaurs. There’s nothing like vast quantities of time and space to undermine a faith so for the most part I just ignored the problem (think doublethink). It wasn’t until the sex scandals involving the Catholic church that arose during the early 90’s that I really started to question my faith. The initial transition away from Roman Catholicism was easy – the church was full of men and since all men are mortal corruption was bound to set in, but I still believed in god, albeit a slightly fuzzier all rounder (Christian) type god than the one I had grown up with. I stayed this way for quite a long while, most of my 20’s I would think, but gradually and surely it was chipped away. I think this is what got me interested in religion, due to these doubts I tried to confirm my belief but, of course, this had the opposite effect and the whole thing snowballed.
How about the last time you spoke or prayed to God with actual thought that someone was listening?)
To be honest this one is a bit vague for me. During my de-conversion I did have moments of ‘weakness’ where I wanted there to be a god and for prayers to work. However I found the experience a bit like holding my breath, the rational always burst through.
Did anger towards God or religion help cause you to be an atheist or agnostic?
In a way it did, like I mentioned above the sex scandals showed the utter hypocrisy of the church and made it easy to leave them behind. But I always had wide ranging interests and you can’t doublethink forever.
Here is a good one: Were you agnostic towards ghosts, even after you became an atheist?
No, as a matter of fact superstitious believe was the first to go. Even the most forgiving critical eye can spot superstition for the nonsense it is and masters like James Randi provide excellent entertainment while disproving it. The fuzzy god (good, distant, vague) was much harder to dismiss.
Do you want to be wrong?
Good god no! If the Christian/Muslims etc are right I’m really for it!! ;-)
Also, it would be a profound disappoint to learn that the most supreme being in the universe is a dick!
