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New Dawkins book: "The God Delusion"

#35: Jan. - Mar. 2007 (Non-Fiction)
FiskeMiles

Re: Blessing the Pudding

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Dear Mad:Quote:Fiske, it's something of a point of interest to me that a number of people on this forum have decided that I'm something of an atheist in training -- that, if I stick with BookTalk long enough, I'll eventually give up on my experimental theistic phase and buckle down to what's patently obvious. (The counter-argument would be that those same people want that to be the case because they hate seeing someone with a rigorously logical mind and wide interests draw a conclusion so diametrically opposed to their atheism. But I reserve judgment on that one; your reasons are your reasons, and I don't presume to know them.I was raised a Christian -- Sunday school and Church service every weekend (without exception), Bible school in the summer, Nativity plays, caroling, ice cream socials, the whole thing. I don't regret a moment of it, and I certainly wouldn't describe the experience as child abuse! By my late teens I had stopped thinking of myself as a Christian for reasons I won't go into at present.The thing is, I found giving up Christianity MUCH easier than giving up God. When questioned on the subject, I would say something like, "Well, I don't consider myself a Christian but I believe in a higher power" or "I believe life has a hidden purpose" etc. I guess when you're raised on the idea of immortal souls and life after death, etc., it just becomes part of the landscape. It's so fundamental to your world view you accept it without question. Oh sure, you question whether there really is life after death, but emotionally you can't believe there isn't.I didn't become an atheist until something like 24 years after giving up Christianity. One night I just realized that the fact people don't want to stop existing at death is no proof they don't. It was an epiphany for me. A watershed event in my life. It didn't lead to depression or a feeling that life has no purpose or anything like that. Quite the opposite. I've been happier since that moment than any time before, I think because I came to accept my place in this world and to feel at home in it as I never had.I think the whole atheist in training bit is condescending. Just because I rejected the supernatural is no reason you should. But I will say this: either you will 1) accept the supernatural as a matter of faith and stop trying to reconcile the lack of evidence for it, or 2) reject the supernatural and become an atheist, or 3) struggle with the problem as long as you live.Fiske
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