# Just became Atheist



## fineline (Oct 21, 2011)

Can other people who are Atheist give me some support? im not sure what im looking for here..

but I was christian(methodist) on 11/24/13 and on 11/27/13 I decided to become Atheist.

I overdosed. My heart stopped beating. Twice. The first time, a nurse just happened to be on scene. she brought me back. the second time, in the hospital, where the doctors then stabbed me in the heart with atropine.

there is no god. there was only darkness and silence. and time moved really fast. and when i woke up, everything around me had changed in the blink of an eye.

i need other atheists to tell me what to believe. or what they believe and i can maybe relate or whatnot...

i hope people believe me. i know it sounds far fetched...


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## fineline (Oct 21, 2011)

likeaspacemonkey said:


> I believe that I can know very little of existence. I am small and my significance is very reduced.


i do not agree. well i dont feel the same.

i actually feel the exact opposite. and if i dont? im pissed. im god. im the boss. im king. i'll **** you up quick. etc. :yes


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## BadGirl (Jan 6, 2013)

I may need to apologise in advance for responding: but I'm wondering if you felt that you had an out-of-body experience ?


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## Zeeshan (Sep 4, 2011)

Why do you correlate the lack of afterlife with athiesm


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## fineline (Oct 21, 2011)

BadGirl said:


> I may need to apologise in advance for responding: but I'm wondering if you felt that you had an out-of-body experience ?


it felt very much, in recall, like a dream. was i there? who was that woman? did that really happen? all questions i asked after i awoke.

and in the hospital? it was very much like drowning. struggling for air. then i died. for approx. 1-2 minutes. twice. the first time people said, apparently, i was blue/purple and like a corpse.


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## fineline (Oct 21, 2011)

Zeeshan said:


> Why do you correlate the lack of afterlife with athiesm


i dont know... what else is there


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## BadGirl (Jan 6, 2013)

allornothing said:


> it felt very much, in recall, like a dream. was i there? who was that woman? did that really happen? all questions i asked after i awoke.
> 
> and in the hospital? it was very much like drowning. struggling for air. then i died. for approx. 1-2 minutes


You died?


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## fineline (Oct 21, 2011)

BadGirl said:


> You died?


yea, twice. once in the parking lot i was found(revived by a nurse) and i died again in the hospital. atropine revive me.

die = heart stop beating for 1-3 minutes.


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## blue2 (May 20, 2013)

hi,i grew up in a religious home, but i really haven't practised for many year's, i do believe in god, but i also believe religion is a tool used by god to try and teach people about the right way to act for spiritual growth, i guess, but it's not the only way to god,it's mainly just like a trail of breadcrumb's that lead's to him (metaphorically speaking) i also believe hell doesn't really exist, you make your own hell, you say you saw darkness and silence, that very well could be your hell, cause i believe if god is love, he never would throw any of his "children" into hell forever, so to speak, i guess i go against standard religion in that sense..anyway i believe their is some kind of afterlife, cause off things i have seen in my family....anyway carry on these are my views only...i certainly probably have my own hell waiting...lol


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## Zeeshan (Sep 4, 2011)

allornothing said:


> i dont know... what else is there


Well just bc your death ends in your existence does not mean that the universe doesnt operate on a plan

You dig? Things are born and die in the universe all the time. It doesnt have to mean anything


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## blue2 (May 20, 2013)

likeaspacemonkey said:


> Are you a bad person?


lol, no but i seem to be predisposed to be bad to myself, i'll probably end up making my own hell...or something screwed up like that..please feel free to ignore me mostly i talk crap...


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## SummerRae (Nov 21, 2013)

*God


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## Droidsteel (Mar 22, 2012)

Interesting, a lot of people who have similar expiriances become religious.


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## Nimrod (Dec 4, 2013)

Acknowledging that life is finite makes for good motivation to live it to the fullest.


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## TheAtheist (Dec 4, 2013)

I've also had drug problems, I know how it feels, during that period I stopped believing in any god/s and I came to realize that if you want something you need to take it by yourself there is no one out there helping you. While I was addicted I lost all my "friends", my whole life went down, I was a skeleton having nothing, was crying every night praying to god to help me with something I was praying for a sign, I wanted to quit drugs so much..whatever I will not continue, I'm just trying to give you an advice... If you want your life to get better you need to take actions and don't expect anything from anyone because probably it will not come.. 
P.S. Don't try alcohol because it will just make you wanna do stupid things.
I really wish you good luck in order to make your life better!


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## TheAtheist (Dec 4, 2013)

If god would exist i think he would not allow so many things to go wrong around the world, and so many innocent people to die daily... and if there really is a god that allows this I rather not believe in anything


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## TheAtheist (Dec 4, 2013)

likeaspacemonkey said:


> That's not a good argument against religion though. What you're saying there is "If God exists, he's a dick. Thus, he doesn't exist." That doesn't make sense.


I didn't said that I said I would rather not belive in a god like that


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## nubly (Nov 2, 2006)

Glad to have you on the dark side OP. Look for your welcome packet in the mail soon. In it, you'll find a Seven Deadly Sins how-to-guide, an invitation to the annual Mammon ball, how to take a vow of affluence and discount coupons for Denny's.


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## VanDamMan (Nov 2, 2009)

Religion is easy. Someone tells you what to believe and you don't have to think for yourself. 

You'll have to decide what atheism means for yourself AON. No one can tell you the "truth."


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## Ignopius (Mar 19, 2013)

The thing about atheism is that theres is no creed or doctrine to follow. Atheist believe in all different sorts. Atheism is just your position on one belief that is a God did not divinely create a universe. 

I can generalize atheists here. Were generally liberal, secularist, who believe in science and the scientific method. Most of us consider ourselves to be skeptic and not moral absolutist (since there's no law giver).


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## LeeMann (Nov 29, 2012)

TheAtheist said:


> If god would exist i think he would not allow so many things to go wrong around the world, and so many innocent people to die daily... and if there really is a god that allows this I rather not believe in anything


Wasn't there a meme pic addressing that. It was like

Guy: God, why did you let famine, war, poverty,... happen to us?
God: What a surprise, I was going to ask you the same thing...


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## fineline (Oct 21, 2011)

all good stuff here guys.

the way i see it, i just figured, why keep believing there is a heaven and hell. why keep believing there is a god. or higher power or whatever. when i KNOW what i saw. i know what it felt like. i remember it all. God was not there. it was just me. in the dark. alone.

but i do believe that perhaps one day i may believe in something else? something that has mystery to it, that i cannot disprove. something like reincarnation, maybe? because when my heart stopped, i was resuscitated before i could start my new "afterlife" as it were. ?????

idk im just lost and confused.


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## Ignopius (Mar 19, 2013)

allornothing said:


> all good stuff here guys.
> 
> the way i see it, i just figured, why keep believing there is a heaven and hell. why keep believing there is a god. or higher power or whatever. when i KNOW what i saw. i know what it felt like. i remember it all. God was not there. it was just me. in the dark. alone.
> 
> ...


Well I'm a skeptic and apply skepticism to all these other 'mysterious' beliefs. I have seen some convincing points on reincarnation so I'm not completely ruling it out even there's some rather scientific problems the belief runs into. Just a general point, be careful when investigating these ideas think rationally and you will come up with the answer.


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## Ignopius (Mar 19, 2013)

likeaspacemonkey said:


> I'd love to see those.


There was this a young boy who started having frequent dreams about an airplane flight. The kid recounted the name of the pilot exactly. The parents began doing research and it was a world war II pilot who died in the same exact plane sequence their son was describing in his dream. The parents were Christian and had never really thought of reincarnation (American).

These stories aren't exclusive to just that one there are others as well which might add some validity to the idea. Although not everything adds up with this idea and the science just simply isn't there to prove such a theory. I'm just saying we shouldn't completely rule out the possibility.

EDIT: I personally dont buy into it. I'm just saying the story is interesting and it does lend some support to the idea.


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## Mr Bacon (Mar 10, 2012)

Interesting story OP. To me, it doesn't sound like a very objective and thoughtful reason to become an atheist, although it might be enough of a reason for you.

On 2 occasions, your heart stopped for a minute, and you didn't witness anything but darkness - so you conclude that there is no god?

With that kind of reasoning, the next time you hallucinate or wrongly perceive something as "supernatural" (for whatever reason) you're going to run back to religion!

*Individual perception is an unreliable tool.* I think you need to give this some thought.


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## fineline (Oct 21, 2011)

Mr Bacon said:


> Interesting story OP. To me, it doesn't sound like a very objective and thoughtful reason to become an atheist, although it might be enough of a reason for you.
> 
> On 2 occasions, your heart stopped for a minute, and you didn't witness anything but darkness - so you conclude that there is no god?
> 
> ...


its perfectly thoughtful for my specific beliefs. what i used to believe, that is. which is that when you die, you see these supernatural things. you wait to see if god forgives you of your sins, to be let into heaven. i should have at least seen that. if not that, i should have seen something supernatural, but i did not. it was just darkness and silence like i said.

of course i came to that conclusion. anyone who thinks logically would. you've got someone who believes a certain process will begin upon death, involving god, then they find that that isnt at all the case, of course they would conclude there is no god. i suppose it depends on how deeply embedded religion is in that person. perhaps i wasnt as religious as i thought i was. others in my situation, may have chosen to ignore what happened, and continue to have faith in god. maybe come up with some reason or excuse why it didnt happen the way they thought it would.

"individual perception is a unreliable tool" - that statement makes no sense to me. it is my individual perception that makes me unique. it does for everyone. i take what i "know" and what i "believe" and come to my own conclusions. and my conclusion in this case was that my belief system failed and let me down, therefore it is not true. a perfectly reasonable conclusion..


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## StupidMan (Jan 18, 2014)

I'm not quite sure you're gonna be an atheist for long if that's your reason.. 

Seems to me that the blank darkness makes you not believing in heaven and hell anymore, but you still believe in life-after-death concept and probably seeking for explanation.. 

like other say above, you're gonna believe again or believe in something else, every time you experience something "magical" ... 


In my experience, once you become an atheist, it's impossible to go back believing in any religion or mystical things.. except for total brainwash maybe..

So in that case, you dont need support, you're atheist because you are.. 

So now you're in a transition, and probably just looking for explanation about your life after death experience.. 

In order to give you support, I'll tell you this: 
There's no life after death.. that total blank thing, twice, are a state of memory(ies), and you're never died. Your heart stop, but your system still alive.


--
bad, me english is.. understand, me hope you to..


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## Hank Chinaski (Jan 19, 2014)

Well done! Good choice! Now you can enjoy life


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## fineline (Oct 21, 2011)

ive settled on agnostic.

i guess i just believe there might be some kind of spiritual being out there greater than us all. but ive never seen any evidence of that. or maybe i have? who knows.

all i really know for certain is that there is no religion that I care to follow at this point in my life. might change later on in life. might not.


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## DyingBreed (Jan 19, 2014)

That seems like a very reasonable position to take. I was agnostic for years before I finally became cemented in atheism (_technically_ I'm still agnostic because I'm skeptical about all knowledge, so I can't say with absolute certainty there is no god). Once you're agnostic, you can start looking at things more objectively and rationally, which will lead you away from the stronghold of religion.
As far as evidence for the supernatural goes, there is no such thing. Religion relies on several things.. there are the phenomena that "can only be explained by the supernatural" - but most of these have now been explained by science, and even those that haven't aren't actual evidence of the supernatural, they merely demonstrate the limitations of our brains. The second 'evidence' religion uses is the misinterpretation of events. People are extremely good at finding 'signs' around them that they think _must _have been sent by god, when it's really just their brains selectively noticing and interpreting something completely happenstance. People are also great at assuming things like near-misses and recoveries that beat the odds are 'miracles' (despite the fact that the odds say such things will still happen sometimes), while the catastrophes and deaths are written off as part of 'god's mysterious plan'. So you can see that the so-called 'evidence' for religion says absolutely nothing about the actual validity of religion, it only demonstrates the faulty logic to which most people fall prey.


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## yellowturtle (Jan 21, 2014)

I don't believe, if there is a God, there is anything after this. 
What if it is just darkness and cold and we don't feel anything ever again? 
This is why I'm afraid to die, because, the world is amazing, it is! and I don't want to leave it before i get to really enjoy it. 
This is probably part of the reason why people have midlife crises.


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## pazuzuinxs (Jan 23, 2014)

Curious as to what is that we call consciousness...because if consciousness or our perceptions of it is objective reality, then the lack of it means death. But if consciousness itself is an illusions, a long drawn out dream you may say, then death itself is part of the very dream. Consider for example, that we call a dream when we are sleeping is when we are actually alive, and when we are awake and walking around is but a dream.


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## red3002 (Sep 11, 2013)

I hear there is 7 minutes of brain activity after your heart stops beating (and probably even more time for you since it was an OD and not natural causes). Seeing nothing in those 1-2 minutes and concluding there is no good seems unconvincing.


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## AwkwardTy (Jan 26, 2014)

I used to consider myself simply atheist, but it's more pragmatic agnosticism now.
I hate the judgement received for being atheist. I used to be so much more confident, and then after listening to Alex Jones every day and hearing his hate against atheists made me feel like ****, so I started to question more. This world is so confusing.


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## pazuzuinxs (Jan 23, 2014)

I have had a couple of major operations, and the closest I can get to asking myself what happens after dying would be to conjecture from what happens after losing consciousness. Its kind of an anticlimax I guess, but all I felt was really sleepy and a slowing down of time. I could hear some of the physicians saying that they should start operating since my metabolism rates showed that I was thoroughly unconscious. And then it was nothingness, no memory, no lights, no heavenly gates, no visitations.


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## dudleywins (Feb 6, 2014)

i don't believe in god. i believe when you die it is like a dreamless sleep. I don't think 'meaning of life' is a very meaningful question. Better questions are 'what should i do with my life' etc. welcome to atheism.


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## pazuzuinxs (Jan 23, 2014)

dudleywins said:


> i don't believe in god. i believe when you die it is like a dreamless sleep. I don't think 'meaning of life' is a very meaningful question. Better questions are 'what should i do with my life' etc. welcome to atheism.


Here's a question. Should I be the only one who should decide what I should do with my life? Or would you take advice from others including parenst or leaders? As an atheist what do you think?


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