transition to atheism [cc]

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subtitles
Bulgarian: Djeitko
Slovak: Peter Ščigulinský
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My personal story of de-programming from christianity — told for transparency, and to honour the people who've been mailing me lately, sharing their own private stories of religious doubts. To those people, my respect and good wishes.

A WORD ABOUT TRANSITIONS
Going through transitions can feel like a destructive, painful process. I give a model of transition here which can be applied to many different episodes in life — partly to affirm that those difficult feelings are a healthy part of the process of letting go. Anger, pain, despair, emptiness: these are not pathological responses to loss or bereavement. Feeling these things shows we are connected with ourselves, and help prepare us for embracing new, strange-feeling futures, and moving forward.

This is one of two videos — and atheist diptych, if you will — giving an account of my journey into atheism. While this one looks at the emotional side, the accompanying video — 'atheism as congruence' — deals with the cognitive side of my transition.

[TheraminTrees]

'In your opinion, why do some religious people feel sadistic delight at the thought of atheists suffering in excruciating agony?'
—Because they've dehumanised us. And when you've dehumanised people, you can stand by and watch anything happen to them. The irony is that with all the empty talk about loving your neighbour, and stories like the good samaritan, it often boils down to a very simple exclusive club mindset: 'if you're not one of us, screw you'.

[karadan]

"People who don't want you to think are never your friend."

That's beautiful.

[QwertyCaesar]

"One of life's rules: people who don't want you to think are *never* your friend."

Somebody stamp that one everybody's forehead, so they never forget.

[AronRa]

That was engaging and very well presented.

[timrichardson]

I would like to say that I completely sympathize with people of faith. I used to be one. I understand the comfort that comes from believing in a loving god. I understand how threatening it feels when someone challenges your beliefs. If you are a religious believer, please know that not all atheists are hostile to your beliefs. I am an atheist but appreciate what a powerful psychological force faith can be. But, if you are a religious believer who has begun to see the inconsistencies in the bible and religious dogma, don't be afraid to ask questions and search for answers. I don't presume to tell you what to believe, but I do urge you not to simply accept what you are taught. Learn to critically think, and decide for yourself what to believe.

[PhoenixF]

3:42 "Reading the bible was one of my more counterproductive strategies." At the risk of being incredibly ironic- PREACH, BROTHER!


The first signs of my faith falling apart came when I began to realize that whenever I opened my bible, I found myself bombarded with things which simply made no. damn. sense. I would open to random pages throughout the Old Testament and read these bizarre quasi-fetish passages about Babylon, personified as a young woman, being stripped naked and humiliated. Confused that my sacred text had become a minefield, I resolved to do guided tours of the safer bits, focusing first on the New Testament. But there was a host of contradictions and oddities there as well, to the point where I eventually just stopped entirely. I had grown up being told the usual platitudes- God's word is living and active, and can never return to him void. But why could I only find confusion when I tried to read it, or even from the passages that were read to me during church? Passages specifically selected to be preached to entire families- And they still often contained these incredibly bizarre quotations that were, infuriatingly, never elaborated on in the sermon!


The complete collapse of faith came some years later. The only reason it took so long, I can only assume, is because my faith was conditioned as a part of my core identity from birth. There are still nights where I lie awake wondering if I'll get a blood clot in my sleep and wake up screaming in hell. What lovely little phobias humans have graciously thrust onto their children.

[TheraminTrees]

Noah Dillon, I see the reply function is missing for your comment. But nope, it is not a 'poisoning the well' fallacy at all to mention my first religious instructor's inappropriate conduct with young boys. I made no implication that this had a bearing on the validity of his arguments, nor did I imply pedophilia was the exclusive province of the religious. I would encourage you not to extrapolate/exaggerate people's positions — that way lies straw man fallacies.

[TheraminTrees]

'This happens when you put trust in your own mind'
— yep,  recovery from indoctrination is exactly what happens.

[mattiassollerman]

Your videos have been so important to me.
YouTube has made my transition less... confused at least.
The pain has been easier to deal with.
It's a wonderful time to live in.

[TheraminTrees]

'You have helped me to resolve many aspects of my own thinking'
—That's great to hear. I'm glad you've found our videos useful. Thanks.

[gdogvibes]

"Better by far to embrace the hard truth, than a reassuring fable." -Carl Sagan...

[TheraminTrees]

Thanks PathogensQuest. Some people report a painless 5 minute moment of sudden realisation. But for many others there is pain to go through — all kinds of pain. In a very real sense it can feel like a bereavement. That kind of loss, with all the anger and frustration that sometimes accompany bereavement. And when someone's going through that it can seem interminable — which is why I wanted to do this video and show a full progression, and the possibility of positively moving forward.

[Jindorek]

Thank you for this level headed explanation of what many of us have gone thru. I actually get tired of the eternal debate on the internet re: Atheist vs Religion. My first stage was at age 12, when i discovered Greek mythology. I kept wondering what made those gods different from the one I was taught about in sunday class. Since then I have often wondered how long it would take before we start referring to Christian mythology. 

[Purpleturtlehurtler]

My transition was far from short and sweet. It was more along the lines of silently waiting until I was out of the house and on my own before coming out as atheist. My mom came to the conclusion that "college corrupted me" but I had been one since around 13 when I watched other kids at church camp cry and pray because they were scared of going to hell when the worst thing any of those kids did was potentially lie about stealing a cookie before dinner.

[slakcstoskirts]

This is as close as we're going to get to a face reveal. Ily 😩💕 I appreciate all of your videos, raises from a Christian family and unwelcoming Christian peers.

[TheraminTrees]

Before I tuned into YouTube, atheism was way in the background of my life — a non-issue to 99% of theists/atheists I know personally. I started uploading atheist stuff a couple of years ago because I was stunned and appalled at the hatred and contempt levelled at atheists in YT videos. My first video, a simple declaration of atheism, got that same hate reaction. I hope the support YTers offer on here reduces that isolation you describe, which I know is felt by many. All the best.

[TheraminTrees]

I like your image of the child who was really bad at lying — really brings out so much truth in the manipulative tactics employed by some religious institutions. I can picture a little child talking about all the terrible things that'll happen if the other children don't do what they're told — than someone stepping outside those rules and seeing nothing happens. Yep, take out the pomp, drama, and fear and what exactly do we have?

[梦见]

I will also be forever grateful to a teacher of mine who encouraged me to start thinking about why I believed what I believed. Her respectful and understanding comments, and urging for me to dig deeper without any judgement in her demeanor, were very instrumental in my personal journey

[TheraminTrees]

Teachers like that are so valuable aren't they. The analogy that comes to me is the difference between just sending food out to starving people, and giving them tools and expertise to cultivate their own and become more empowered and independent of charity. Teachers who manage to impart thinking tools — instead of just facts, dates, etc. — give something very special to their students.

[TheraminTrees]

'one need never prove something false (we're not obligated)'
—Yes, it's certainly true that we have no obligation to prove claims false — the burden is absolutely on the claim maker. However, some claims are so easily shown to be contradictory that it often takes less time to show them to be false, rather than wade through a load of blether from the claim maker ;8)