God is Intoxicating...
Offline I would like to share a personal experience. I have never believed in God. I am and always have been an atheist. A few years ago I was at a very low point in my life and was desperate for anything to help. I didn't believe in God but I was at such a low point that I just didn't care, and it was then that I 'opened my heart to God' so to speak.. I put aside all reason and rationale and just dove right in. And you know what? It felt really good. All of a sudden it was like I was whole and had a purpose and an overwelming feeling of being loved. All the things that had been the cause of my depression suddenly seemed insignificant. All the while I knew it was just a delusion but I didn't care. It was intoxicating. At any rate.. this experience was only temporary(a few days) as I eventually allowed the rationale to seep back in.
My point is, I wonder if it is that very frame of mind that keeps a theist clinging onto his/her God even in the face of overwelming contradicting evidence. In the end, would it matter how much evidence you gave them? Ignorance is bliss and when pushed into a cornor it seems that ignorance is what they will cling onto.
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This is not an option for me.
This wouldn't make me feel good at all. Knowing i left all my reason and rationale, so that i might feel better? I call this being dishonest to my self and i do not wish to be dishonest to my self at all.
having been a former believer myself, i dont think i would feel too good. all those feelings of being unworthy, or having to worry about everything i say or do; i really wouldnt want to put myself through all that again. declaring my atheism and rationality was probably the most liberating thing i ever did for myself and there is no way i would go back; not even for a pick-me-up "fix".
i feel "whole" and with a purpose without a god.
But isn't religion, after all, actually a kind of intoxicant. I've watched people in revival meetings behave as if they were drunk. The euphoria is almost contageous. I think intoxicatiion is a very apt description of what some religious people put themselves through. And like a drunk, many of them have to have a regular fresh infusion of the intoxicant, a fresh buzz, as it were. When they are away from the church and the other revelers and all that joyful noise they are like alcoholics between binges, depressed, unhappy, and just waiting for that next time when they can get a buzz on.
For some religions it is intoxicating for its members, others it is a constant self-flagellation (see Catholicism). If you have ever seen someone slowly convinced of the irrationality of theism - its like watching someone go through the steps after being told they had a terminal disease (Grief cycle).
Shock, Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Testing, Acceptance.
Most people we see on these boards are in the Denial - Bargaining stages. ;]
Biochemist & Law Student
"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as His father, in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter." -Thomas Jefferson
Hey guy, in all sincerity, this thread of yours is really great. I think that intoxicating experience you had was a very rational experience with a form of reality. It certainly wasn't a delusion just because it didn't fit a pre-conceived, technical form of reality.
I take pride in being a newb. I'm not all experienced and boring like the normies.
Religion can have that effect. I don't think I ever had that even when I was trying to be religious. I do think that despite it being a big delusion it has benefits to people's lives, these benefits are undesputable, that is not to say however that it is needed to feel happy.
Atheist Books