If you have just lost your faith, it is probably faith in a particular religion. You may very well still believe in God. My personal journey into atheism took many years. You may find yourself taking a different path.
Personally, I found myself moving toward more and more liberal versions of Christianity. You have to remember that I started out as a Pentecostal Fundamentalist, so there were many layers of illusion for me to work through.
You may have just realized that you no longer can hold to the belief that the Bible is the word of God. If so, you may feel emotions that range from fear to depression. Go with it. See where your questions lead you.
As you go through different levels of unbelief, it is important to let yourself grieve. Although I no longer believe in an objective god, my idea of God was very real to me. Subjectively, God existed and died. This may sound silly to someone who has never held a belief in a god.
You may take the cold turkey approach, and decide to reject all ideas of a god in one fell swoop. I did not.Remember, many of us grew up with very strong prejudices against atheists. That stance does not occur to many of us until long after we leave the faith we were born into.
Personally, I embraced the New Age movement, because it uses a lot of the same language I was familiar with. I particularly liked the idea of reincarnation. Through this wandering around, I was introduced to Buddhism, which, in my humble opinion, may be the only religion I know of that makes any sense at all. It was by studying Buddhism that I slowly let go of my concept of God, and eventually was set free from any idea of a god or goddess at all.It was through the internet that I realized that atheism was the only real option left open to me. I found it intellectually honest, and much warmer than I ever thought it could be. Atheists indeed have "soul", even if we don't believe we have a soul. I also found atheist writings to contain the most moral writings I have ever come across.
The most important thing is to know that:
Of course, I am speaking from personal experience, and not as a trained psychologist.
Many are born into religious homes. That is often all it takes.
There is no way to deny the power of positive reinforcement. Try telling your dear old grandmother that you have found Jesus.I was seven when I first said that I wanted to be a minister. This caused adults to treat me as if I was somebody special.Without printing anything that would hurt my family, I will just say that self-esteem was a problem in my family.Saying I was a Christian was an instant way to gain some sense of importance about myself.The first person I told about my decision to be a minister was a minister. He took me into his office and showed me a little of what he did. He also gave me a picture of Jesus with a group of children.
Think about that. here is a person that I am taught to respect above all other people. He took ME, privately, into his inner sanctum and showed me some of his private life. I WAS HOOKED! I never consciously made a decision to d\gain positive attention by using religion;but, that is what happened. I believe that all children want positive attention from adults, and this is the first hook into the religious life.
Children fear being abandoned above all things. Anything that causes a child to feel that it will not be abandoned will be repeated over and over again. I personally believe that this is one of the greatest attachments of religion. Think about the threats that are made to people who do not accept their version of reality. Being cast into outer darkness...Being abandoned by God the "Father" rant pretty high on the list.
Very few of us like to think of ourselves as average. The need to feel special also causes people to be religious. This can work in two ways. Religion can make you feel special because it tells you that the Creator of the universe loves you and watches over you. The other side of the coin is the feelings of guilt religion causes. Religion tells you that you are not simply bad, but among the worse of the sinners. You are not average you are told, you are either the apple of God's eye or you are the worst of sinners.
SEE HOW I BECAME COMFORTABLE WITH THE WORD "ATHEIST"
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