Nothing Happens When You Lose Your Faith

I totally agree with you Hemant. I lost my faith when I was 17 and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Not only had I never been so happy, but everything started to go right in my life.

And it has pretty much kept going that way ever since 🙂

Noticing this very fact, that nothing happens to those who give up their faith, was an influential fact in my giving up my religious beliefs!

Maybe he was hoping for a light show. A light show that never came. Just another broken promise. No good lousy God.

Wow, folks, if you think becoming an atheist will cause you to become lonely and ostracized then you should look a little deeper at your lifestyle. There’s a big beautiful world out there beyond the church! Go find it!

I think the character in the left panel is sad because the phrase “lose your faith” carries the implication that it’s a bad thing to stop believing in something that has no basis in reality.

It’s fair to say, though, that it can be difficult to transition from being a person who believes in the supernatural aspects of their religion (i.e. a god) to one who doesn’t. When I first started to acknowledge to myself that I didn’t believe in god, it was a little sad. But it was sad in the same way that it was sad when I grew up and had to start coming to terms with the realities of adulthood. There are comforts that you have in childhood that are similar to the ones that religious people have by believing.

Of course, I’ve found plenty of other comforts by not believing. Much in the same way I can eat candy aaaaall day long as an adult, I can rest easier knowing that I won’t be tortured for all eternity because I refuse to talk to my father, engage in non-marital sex, and don’t accept a dead guy as god.

Maybe my bigotry is showing because this one is showing that it’s written by a pastor. I think this cartoon is implying what’s really the new threat: Become an Atheist and you’ll be a misery chick/guy and be unhappy the rest of your life. We’re all depressed, don’t you know?

Which is, of course, ridiculous! Despite all the bad, there’s still a lot of cool shit. Life is what you make and the only heaven and hell exist right here on earth.

I think the day someone “loses their faith,” they probably are sad/lonely/scared/confused/lost. Isn’t it often called a “crisis?” It’s only later (I imagine) that they would feel comfortable, free, confident, happy, able to appreciate the world as it is, etc etc. Then the guy would be doing a little happy dance. 🙂

Is he actually sad? Or is he indifferent? Someone might say that you are projecting your own worries onto him… kidding.

Why is it even referred to as LOSING faith? I prefer to see it as REJECTING faith, which is very different.

I was once a very devout christian, yet even then I questioned things and had doubts. However, I was afraid to admit (even to myself) that I was questioning the existence of god. So, in order to compensate for my hidden skepticism, I clung tighter to my faith and became one of those radical christians… until one day I realized that I was living a lie. I didn’t believe ANY of it anymore, and I was tired of faking it– so I rejected it– all of it.

I stopped believing about 2 years ago, but I still couldn’t say the word “atheist” until May 20, 2010. For me, it WAS liberating, and I feel more at peace and in control of my life NOW than in all my 30+ years.

BUT– with new atheism does come a feeling of sadness and alienation for some of us. In my case, I’m a Black woman in the Deep South where Christianity is an expectation; I’m almost forced to be closeted here because atheism is not tolerated AT ALL. I’ve already started having problems with Christian co-workers who know, and I’d most likely be disowned by my mom if she knew (she’s a minister). Being Atheist has negatively impacted my social life where I live (especially my dating life), so unfortunately I can relate to the little guy in the picture.

Thanks to the internet, however, I’m beginning to meet some wonderful, supportive Atheists who are quickly becoming like family!

I like to think of it as not so much as losing faith as gaining reason.

God used to lash out in anger, now he is just passive-aggressive.

Aly Elle wrote:

Being Atheist has negatively impacted my social life where I live (especially my dating life), so unfortunately I can relate to the little guy in the picture.

I’d say that it’s the ignorance/prejudice/lack of tolerance on the part of the people around you that has negatively affected your life, not you being an atheist.

(some might see that as a quibble, but I think it’s an important distinction)

I can relate to the sad guy a lot. God withdrawal is a real bitch. Fortunately, it doesn’t last long…at least it didn’t for me.

As for the idea of an afterlife…I purposely don’t listen to any arguments against an afterlife, because I don’t feel that I can handle the idea of no afterlife. I’m reminded of Insane Clown Posse’s song “Miracles”, specifically the lyrics “I don’t want to talk to a scientist”, referring to how magnets work.

The singer doesn’t want his illusion of how magnets work to die. He knows, deep down, that they aren’t magical, and that magic doesn’t exist, but he doesn’t want his belief to die. He NEEDS his magic magnets, just like I need my magic afterlife.

Jono–

Or it’s all bronze-age mythological oral tradition. Certainly makes a lot more sense that way and saves anyone from having to fish for “answers” that are anyone’s guess.

But if you want to believe your loving and merciful god used to strike his (seemingly arbitrarily) “choosen people” dead when he could have been more clever and simply confused them, or offered more convincing arguments for why they should listen to him, rather than killing them “for their own good,” so be it. It’s your mythology to play with as you see fit.

Now that I’ve been an atheist nearly two decades, I’d draw the panel of me, pondering but with a wry smirk.

If I had drawn that last panel when I was in 6th grade it’d been an unhappy guy when my atheism was cemented.

Notably at that age, you’re simply ill-prepared mentally for all the implications of atheism, but I wasn’t really religious. I can image the feeling would be the same for someone whose identity was wrapped up in church/religion. Give it a few years and he’ll be smiling again.

think the guy looks more bored than anything else, although i dont usually try to serch for a deeper meaning for cartoons such as that 😛

I don’t think he’s sad, it looks like he’s pondering, maybe thinking, “I’ve lost my faith and nothing bad happened. Hmmm.”

As I was never indoctrinated into any religion, I really have no frame of reference for “losing faith.” However, as I watch the people around me try to contort the world to fit their mythology, it seems to be a burden one would be glad to shed.

@AxeGrrl – Yes, seeing it that way DOES make a difference– thank you for pointing that out! The problem isn’t me or what I’ve chosen not to believe, rather it’s small-minded people and their bigotry, as fritzy has so perfectly named it.

@fritzy – You are so very right about fear being the source of their “venom.” Just yesterday a Christian decided to challenge me and foolishly used a few “feel good” scriptures from the bible as the basis for her argument. Poor thing had no idea how extensively I’ve studied the bible on a graduate school level (I was once enrolled in divinity school). Atheists always seem to know more about the bible than theists do, but the assumption is that we know nothing, hence our non-belief. But, I quickly shut her down by pointing out NUMEROUS contradictions and inconsistencies in her own bible (quoting scriptures from memory), and by asking her the hard questions about the biblical flaws and about her god as she believes him to be based on that flawed book. When she couldn’t answer my questions, she got extremely upset and resorted to calling me a demon! It was so ridiculous that it was actually funny! I knew right away that her reaction was based on her own insecurities and because she felt her faith was being threatened.

I’m not a militant atheist and I’m certainly not trying to change what anybody believes. I’m a counselor, so I know faith has helped a lot of people pull through tough times and I’d hate to be responsible for taking away that coping mechanism. However, if I’m repeatedly questioned or challenged, I’m going to “bring it” so I always warn believers not to have the “god-is-real-and-here’s-why” discussion with me… unless they are willing to risk having seeds of doubt planted in their minds.

SickoftheUS, definitely: unhappy and right.

That said, I hate “The Matrix” but that’s because I found it overwhelmingly religious and it amazes me that so many Atheists rave about that movie. I much prefer “The Truman Show” where he leaves on his own instead of being led around by the nose seeking an oracle. Just walks out of the fake into the real without knowing what awaits him there. Cool.

God and his/her existence  is purely what men over centuries have chopped and changed texts and scriptures to suit his own selfish ill gotten gains. Gains? may have been monetery or power to wield over the masses like a kid wielding his Dads firearm. Each man/ woman has an inner raging battle with both GOD and the DEVIL., what if they were both one and the same? Did anyone ever ask themselves this question, we take take the texts to be law, texts which have been written and re written since Moses recieved the commandments and this too by men who have been dissolved by the sands of time. Battles have been fought in the name of an ” ALMIGHTY” an entire race of people nearly exterminated in the second world war because some belived them to be dear to GOD. It didn’t take a GOD to vanquish this evil menace….. no it took three men and one of them being the DEVIL incarnate himself , I am in fact refering to Churchill, Rooseveldt and ofcourse the DEVIL himself Stalin. Must say it took GOD a long six years to finally have mercy on the people of the world and that too after all that death. Faith in GOD should be every individuals own private affair and not be made believable becuse of texts and religious dogma written by men long dead in centuries gone by. So GOD is not  going to stop the TERRORISTS, CHILD RAPISTS/DRUG TRAFFICKERS and DICTATORS because of us having faith or not.