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Those of you that grew up in a religion, do you have a problem now with it as an atheist or agnostic? By that I mean, is it hard for you to give up completely what you learned while growing up? Okay, that was 2 questions.

AnonEEmus331 2 Feb 11
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I guess that's another way of asking if those of us who are deconverts from some religion, miss that religion.

People often miss the belonging / community / refuge that their religion might have provided, perhaps some of the traditions and any good memories. But that is usually because the so-called "love" provided by their former comrades was withheld based on them no longer assenting to the unsubstantiated assertions, dogmas, and rules that defined their former faith. This is common in conservative, authoritarian, fundamentalist circles, where it's much more important to be "right" than to be good / kind / loving. Indeed, "righteousness" (right-ness) is their counterfeit version of goodness.

In more liberal religious traditions, you have more space to drift away from strict, overtly signified conformance, and more privacy to think your own thoughts, so it's possible you could retain the advantages of your social group without being required to commit intellectual suicide. This is where I'm convinced a lot of uncounted atheists are to be found.

Personally I never missed my fundamentalist faith, as it provided nothing for me to miss other than just being familiar, and inside of a few weeks, any new situation becomes your "new normal" so that just wasn't a practical issue.

The biggest problem, for me, was re-training my brain to think critically after years of mental junk food.

I get what you're saying. I guess that's why a lot of people get religious to feel as if they can belong to something. My problem is that I used to want to be a nun. Can you say Catholicism. My problem now is not being part of a man-made religion but being spiritual without attending any one sort of religion.

@AnonEEmus331 Depending on what you mean by "spiritual" it shouldn't be a problem. You decide what that means for you and how you practice it.

My wife wants to take another run at the local Unitarian/Universalist congregation, which accepts atheists or people of miscellaneous religious persuasions into fellowship. Personally I don't need it, but I will support her in her quest for community. If it's like her other quests it won't come to much, but who knows, it might surprise us both.

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nope. i was raised as a secular jew. secular jews focus on tikum olam, whether we call it that or not it means fixing the world, specifically working to end poverty, slavery, hunger, bigotry and bullying, and to promote education, freedom, democracy and charity. i don't see the point of rejecting those concepts. the god thing? yah, well, not so much lol. but you don't need a god to continue tikum olam. you can even try to help the world be a better place while eating a cheeseburger.

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Not the micro details, but the macro outlook is always kind of there. God as presented in the bible is equally as likely as a sentient, omnipotent 2001 BMW 3 series coupe controlling the universe from a massive German super garage beyond the furthest moon of Coruscant, but it's not impossible. Just super, super goddamn unlikely.

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After being born and indoctrinated into Catholicism, it took me about four decades, after concluding that belief in God was unsupportable, to become comfortable with my atheism.

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