At what age did you grow out of being an atheist?

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>>36982758
18. Took me my childhood to realize it. I don't know if God loves us though, I just know that he's real

never was. also not religious.

>>36982758
I converted to Islam when I was 23.

I was never raised with religion, I'm still an atheist at 26.
I just grew out of being butthurt that other people were religious at 20 or so, I realise now that our society abandoning religion to such an extent was a terrible mistake.

>>36982758
there is/was probably some kind of prime mover but that doesn't mean i'm going to join some retarded religion

>>36982758

Why not just accept post-theism and the notion that the question of the existence of God is outmoded and irrelevant?

>>36982962
This. Glad I'm not some edgy fedora anymore.

>>36983049
>post-theism
Christ, does identity politics really require a special little name for everyone?

>>36983027
>I realise now that our society abandoning religion to such an extent was a terrible mistake.
This. I'm an atheist but if we can go back to the days of when Christians had balls and didn't let degeneracy and Islam over run us I'd gladly sit in a church and play pretend for the rest of my life.

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The concept of infinite space is borderline incomprehensible to the human mind. Every single facet of our existence has the idea of a beginning and an end. From individual life to the big bang and heat death of the universe. But even that is on such an insignificant scale when compared to literal unending space, that always has been and always will be, with no beginning and no end, that the idea of scale becomes irrelevant. In an existence so incomprehensibly infinite, things as absurd to us as other realities entirely may be floating around in a physical, tangible distance from us. In that infinity, the idea that there is no concept of a "being" of a higher power or existence than ourselves is absurd. Whether our brains are even capable of understanding what that means or not.

Still don't believe in any god by our definition. Life is the result of an extraordinary random series of events, there was infinite time before you and there will be infinite more when you're gone, the universe doesn't care that you're in it, and you don't exist on purpose. But I've been opening up a lot to the idea that a higher force or existence is probably more likely to exist than not. And if there is something like that, it probably doesn't really give a shit about us.

Don't mix antidepressants and six caffeine shots.

I was never retarded/edgy enough to be atheist. I was agnostic for a while but at around 19 I grew out of the self loathing and feeling sorry for myself. Realized we live in a world created by god, but not created just for us. And of course its not perfect, just because some kid gets cancer or a nigger starves to death doesn't mean god did it. That's retarded atheist logic. Its just some shitty thing that happened in a reality of God's creation.
And maybe we don't matter much to him, he's killed us all before if you believe the bible. And even if he kills every last one, he can just make more.
I'm glad to be alive

>>36982758
Never did, never will. Just doesn't make any sense to me.. I couldn't care less about what other people believe as long as they're not killing anyone or being authoritarian.

>>36983163
You are begging the question of infinite time and/or space. Why do you suppose that either such thing exists? Even if we allow for infinite time or space, why does that even suggest anything about the existence of god?

>>36983127
Yeah, I actually did try going to church a few times, because I felt like it was the right thing to do.

There was an openly gay couple there, nobody gave a shit.
The priest's talk was littered with SJW shit that would have been considered abhorrent 80 years ago.

>>36983188
>Realized we live in a world created by god
What made you realize this?

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>>36983127
I've taken to sitting in a church pretending anyway just on the off-chance it helps.

>>36983109
I would call this particular annoying label something like "esoteric academic sectarianism" more than identity politics but my name is shitty too.
Something other than what you said although I was exasperated by his post too. He was introducing a retarded paradigm not classifying an identity.
t. pls be patient

>>36983306

You must get exasperated easily.
And I wasn't introducing anything, it's an already existing paradigm which I happen to have found and sympathised with.
I think the division between theist/atheist is meaningless.

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>>36982758
just a few moths ago when I learned about warhammer

>mfw the sighns got fuckin real personal and spoopy

>>36983340
Can you point to one positive or meaningful insight that you've gathered from concluding that a person's belief or non-belief in god is meaningless? Can you explain how your understanding of the world and of human behavior has changed in light of this recognition on your part?

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>>36983220
why anything?
what stopped the nothing
what was the nothing
I'm not even open to the possibility and could exist. Whatever endpoint perceives itself as the origin could have blindness.
absurdism. final answer.
pic unrelated except maybe my meme degree
finally got my medical card, it's great. robots I highly recommend living in a state with medical weed delivery.

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Being the source of all existence, God is necessarily beyond our understanding. Reason itself as an idea emanates from God. So it can be said that Reason is contained within God, but God is not contained within reason. Being able to understand things only through the use of reason, it is impossible for man to comprehend that which exists beyond it, thus we cannot understand God.

I think that's how the neoplatonists defined 'the one'. Pretty convenient definition for them, wouldn't you say? Saves them a lot of work explaining shit.

>>36983466
You are answering my question with more questions. You're asserting a positive claim. That infinite time and/or space exists. The burden of proof is one you to back that positive claim. A series of questions is not a form of positive evidence. I don't care how high you are. You aren't being deep.

>>36982758
there are some powers which we may consider to be divine, but some day we will find those powers, harness them and then we will take them as granted.

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>>36982758
When my faith in so called scientists was shaken. the more of their material i read the more i began to realize that most of them are full of bias and instead of being concerned with the expansion of knowledge and the progress of mankind, they are more eager to use their credentials to lend legitimacy to political causes that destroy out civilization in exchange for money and fame. Pic related.

>>36983340
I do get exasperated easily. My mommy called me a crystal child. My psychiatrists diagnosed with aspergers and adhd (later ASD and schizophrenia.)
I think faith is one of the most fundamentally defining characteristics of a human being and I don't tend to trust people who don't have it.
Then again, most people don't listen to me for pretty good reason.

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Everyone should look at jordan peterson talking about religion and how its viewed with Jungian psychology.

Basically if you think about it, all gods are real in a sense, not so much the idea of some being, but the potential for types of behavior. We recognize our own potential for incredibly selfless heroic behavior, when doing so, we are being possessed by god, and when acting in self-serving momentary ultimately self-sabotaging ways, we are being possessed by satan, or serving satan.

We are natural scientists, we almost have the scientific method as instinct. Since it took us awhile to put it into language, in the mean time we did it the instinctual way. We gave labels to these behaviors present in everyone, so we could then identify and better understand them, to ultimately control ourselves in relation to them.

Skip to 1:56 and enjoy
https://youtu.be/USg3NR76XpQ

19, when G-d started reaching out to me personally through hallucinations.

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I haven't, since skepticism and rational thought is nothing to "grow out of".

When did you grow out of being religious?

>>36982758
When I discovered Gnosis and finally made sense of the world.

>>36983411

>Can you point to one positive or meaningful insight that you've gathered from concluding that a person's belief or non-belief in god is meaningless?

The question makes no sense. You can't derive insights from conclusions; you can derive conclusions from insights, so I guess I'll try and mention those. I'll say that God is by definition beyond human comprehension, thus any discussion about God of any kind is already not a discussion about God at all, but a definition of God shaped by personal opinion and experience.
As a result, the concept of God varies either from being so specific as to act as a sort of psychological validation device for a set of personal beliefs, to being so abstract as to mean everything and anything.
Both are meaningless for the world at large.
To me the concept of "God" both encompasses any idea that a person holds as defining the value and meaning of his life, and simultaneously can be just one example of an idea among all those other potential ideas that give life meaning.
Any ideology both can and cannot be equated with "God". God is a placeholder word that can replace anything and yet nothing in particular.

>Can you explain how your understanding of the world and of human behavior has changed in light of this recognition on your part?

I've become more tolerant and less prejudiced towards all people, regardless of whether they believe or not. I've noticed it is easier to do this when one is not consciously beholden to any side of the issue.
I think by now God has become a word that causes harmful distractions and meaningless conflicts among people, it is a word that divides because people fill it up with their own biases, prejudices and conditioning (whether positive from the theists, or negative from the atheists) and in return feel validated to keep reinforcing those by it.
I don't think humanity has outgrown God: on the contrary, we are nowhere near ready for God.

>>36983690
Weird coincidence.

>be me
>10 pm, browsing 4chan
>someone starts knocking on my apartment door
>not quite banging, just knocking really fast and forcefully
>sit still and wait, hoping they'll fuck off
>5min later they haven't, I open the door
>it's Jordan Peterson
>wants to know if I'd like to buy a DVD Extended Collection (this is what he actually calls it) of his lectures
>tell him no but he's really enthusiastic and I feel bad so I end up buying two anyway
>after this he asks if I want to buy a new kind of air filter, says he's got several in his truck, keeps hyping them up
>I say no, he seems really disappointed and kind of upset with himself
>he leaves
>look out the window and he's pulling out in a white pickup with like twenty stand-up air purifiers in boxes in the back
wtf

>>36983767
go back to wizchan jews for jesus
sorry if thats not who you are, and if it is who you are your posts in the politics thread suck

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>>36983791
ahahahah thanks senpai

>>36983567

>I think faith is one of the most fundamentally defining characteristics of a human being and I don't tend to trust people who don't have it.

>>36983690

I am extremely interested in Jungian psychoanalysis, but I have a lot of problems with how non-rigorous it is. I think it can be very helpful only as long as one truly devotes oneself to studying it and has one's heart in the right place, so to speak.
On the other hand it can be used to be extremely manipulative, and is very dangerous for the public.

"God is not really real, but kinda real in the sense that all our best qualities and beliefs represent God, and he becomes real in our collective unconscious as the ultimate archetype, so he's still real, despite not being real" - this is very problematic (as undesirable as that word is) because it's unfalsifiable and can be used to say whatever you want without any sort of accountability.
This "collective unconscious' exists in a sort of limbo state between reality and non-reality, which you just have to "get" "symbolically" and you can't analyse it.

Again, humankind is not ready for God.

Also I have issues with Peterson's intellectual rigour and integrity, but that's another topic.

>>36983567

>I think faith is one of the most fundamentally defining characteristics of a human being and I don't tend to trust people who don't have it.

Sorry, I neglected to write this in my previous response to this comment. (I should like to add that you've caught me at a time when I'm extremely sleepy and was about to go to bed, so perhaps my responses are not quite as accurate or articulate as I would hope).

This is actually a good illustration of what I mentioned about God in my first response, specifically God being a divisive and destructive concept for our collective discourse. The issue of "faith" is already one which creates division for you in terms of your relationships towards other people. You discriminate in how you place your trust in people based on this concept. If "faith" was irrelevant to you, you'd be equally trusting of all people and would ironically be more saintly than you are otherwise.

You are also a priori closed to other potential concepts of what constitutes a fundamental characteristic of a human being, and are thus limiting yourself in your understanding of other points of view and other people's experiences. Also due to this "faith" thing.

And none of what I'm saying is a new idea by the way.
When the Buddha was asked about God, he remained silent, because nothing meaningful could be said on the subject.
That's the response I respect.

>>36983890
uh it is a falsifiable idea, however it logically is absolutely true. The potential for your best behavior given all your life experience is present at every moment, just as is the potential for any negative behavior or anything in between.

The point is that life is meaningless without a god. Everyone has a god whether they know it or not though, its a consequence of existing at all. That's very fucking real. As real as the idea of a circle, or any other polygon, or the idea of the number 1 or 2 or any other. Its embedded in the fabric of logic itself. I do consider myself an atheist, but that shits pretty fucking devine.

What you say is true, that this enables saying whatever you want...but thats already what you can do. You can tell other people whatever you like. However you absolutely cannot ever convince yourself. If you manage to, then you are actually going crazy and good fucking luck fitting into society in any sort of way. As long as you're relatively sane, you always have some idea of what you should be doing, could be doing. If you tend to not act out that idea, you might not be very familiar with it, because your failure to enact it stresses you, so you ignore it and push it away.

>>36983962
I'm not sure if you read me correctly or not given your response, but I don't particular care what faith one subscribes to, as long as they believe this "thing" has meaning.
Those who have no conception of the divine are dangerous.

>>36984028

>Those who have no conception of the divine are dangerous.

In my opinion it's the other way round.
A human being's conception of the divine is very dangerous precisely because of the limitations of such a conception within the limited human mind. Such a conception is extremely unstable and volatile, because the person submits his entire will to this conception, whereas it can easily be subtly manipulated and influenced by other agendas.
It can be extremely useful (those with faith are far more resistant to torture, challenges and temptations in life than those who don't, and are thus in a way capable of more things in life), but that comes with the aforementioned risks.
"Faith" in this sense can just be seen as a psychological technique or tool to increase willpower and mental resilience.

> but I don't particular care what faith one subscribes to, as long as they believe this "thing" has meaning.

And what if this "thing" that constitutes someone's "faith" does not fall under your understanding of "divine"? Not everyone's understanding of meaning in life consciously coincides with the divine.

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when i met lord kek of course

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:

29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

>>36984135
>>36984259
t'was for you
the divine reveals itself to those with open hearts and feigned piety deceives only the heart of the deceiver

>>36982962
Go alahusnackbar somewhere esle nigger

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>>36984143
Peace be upon him. Glory be upon him.

>>36982758
11.
Was an edgy faggot at ages 8-10.

>>36983989

What if I told you that life is equally meaningless with a God?
If existence by itself is meaningless, and God is the totality of existence, then surely that means God is meaningless too?

This can be challenged by saying that God is by definition what gives meaning, but that would merely make God a synonym for meaning.
But meaning is a construct: it can be created, changed and destroyed. It's a zero sum game, like a transitory apparition or a volatile emotion.

The most terrifying thought is not the thought of being rejected by God and being sent to suffer in a Hell.

The most terrifying thought is not the thought of being alone in an existence with no God and no meaning.

The most terrifying thought is to find out God is real, to be one with God and to receive all His love and acceptance and grace, and at the end of the day, still find it all meaningless and empty.
Now that is the stuff of nightmares.

>tfw you were born to an 80% atheist country so you can believe whatever the fuck you want

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>>36984143

Our Kek who art in memetics
Hallowed be thy memes
Thy Trumpdom come
Thy will be done
In real life as it is on /pol/
Give us this day our daily dubs
And forgive us of our baiting
As we forgive those who bait against us
And lead us not into cuckoldry
But deliver us from shills

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>>36984404
>this post is, in fact, unironic

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>>36984416

I've seen far more proof of Kek's existence than any other deity.

>>36984259

I personally really like the whole good tree/good fruit bad tree/bad fruit analogy; I often think of things in these terms myself.

But at the same time, isn't the crucifixion of Jesus itself something that shows the most corrupt and malicious tree can bring about the most magnificent fruit?

Sometimes I prefer the Hegelian understanding, which ironically states the opposite.
Every corrupt tree already contains the seeds of good fruit, and vice versa.

>>36984416
When /pol/ was hunting for a flag, one of the facts that helped to locate it was frogs croaking. Kek is a frog god. He sent a miracle to his faithful believers to help them. When was the last time Jesus or Allah or whichever other god sent a miracle to his believers?

>>36984582
that sounds like fucking witchcraft if it's true, which I strongly doubt
more than likely, the whole flag thing was shia's PR agent using /pol/ to whip up enthusiasm for some new bullshit misstep in his career
>hey guys you can tell by this shadow I placed in this frame that my client is in North Dakota XD buy this movie XDD you know, for irony and memes

>>36984537
I would say that God will turn all things for good; man chooses what he will.
Hegel was a moral relativist and a heretic, in my opinion. I don't begrudge you your understanding. I do pray that one day you realize Christ's love in your heart. It is there.

2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits.

3 Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.

4 The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

5 Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.

6 By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.

7 When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.

8 Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.

9 A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.

10 A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresseth not in judgment.

11 A just weight and balance are the Lord's: all the weights of the bag are his work.

12 It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness: for the throne is established by righteousness.

13 Righteous lips are the delight of kings; and they love him that speaketh right.

14 The wrath of a king is as messengers of death: but a wise man will pacify it.

15 In the light of the king's countenance is life; and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain.

16 How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!

17 The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul.

18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

>>36984617
what's your opinion on god impregnating a 13-year-old

>>36984617

I would usually keep challenging positions I doubt, but in the spirit of the position I outlined earlier, I shall remain silent out of respect for your goodwill and your faith.
I wish you all the best too.

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>>36982758
>tfw you pretend you don't believe, but you actually do

>>36984654
Regional politics and spiritual metaphysics are not immune to conflict in the inspired Word penned by men.
Jesus Christ was God incarnate born of Mary, wife of Joseph, who was not marred by the sin of Man.
Your statement is something else.
>>36984732
God Bless.

>>36984381
Life IS meaningless no matter what. On an ultimate scale. However we humans can create meaning ourselves,sort of. We can create whatever meaning we like, but only certain meaning is going to have any chance of motivating you to act. God is a synonym for ideal meaning in a function sense. The highest ideal someone holds in their mind is their god, whether they call it that or not. Its how the mind has evolved with us. Religion has been around awhile so even if it's literal meaning isn't helpful, it comes from a very rich and deep investigation into human behavior and motivation.

The most terrifying thought is living hell, what you would become if you chose to act on your first impulse, acting only for the moment and no regard for the future, ultimately self sabotaging. You could end up a drug addict and homeless probably pretty quickly. I know I would. That's a very real hell that exists that is waiting for us if we choose those decisions. God and heaven on the other hand...what could you become if you acted absolutely truthfully and in your best interest over the next few years? Whatever you have in mind essentially could be achievable as long as it's relatively realistic. Call the Afterlife the future and it all adds up nicely. You're dead in the future, it hasn't happened yet, it isn't you, you aren't consious is of it. But heaven and hell exist in it, and you have the potential to join either one. There's a bit of a spectrum in between, though people tend to kinda adjust and love or hate their scenario, so they always are reached one way or another.

If believing in literal biblical god is what works for you then that's good. I believe infinite realities exist, which means there should be a universe exactly like ours except the Bible is true, however I find this to be unlikely given the complexity when our universe already is explained without any kind of manlike god

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I became christian when I was 20. I was baptised as an infant but my parents did that out of tradition rather than faith. Still unsure on my denomination, at the moment I am presbyterian though.

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18, but not in the religious sense.

>>36982758
when i found 4chan and realized god was here the whole time

I became a Pantheist at age 15 or 16

>>36983163
the concepts of infinity and randomness are incompatible, Yog-Sothoth completes all logical possibilities and thus all is determined to happen.