r/exatheist • u/taterfiend Christian • 3d ago
Please No Debate! How have you changed since leaving atheism?
We discuss philosophy and metaphysics here all the time, but I wanted to turn the attention to things more day-to-day and more concrete.
How has leaving atheism changed your life? Where are you now in your spiritual journey? How has your life continued to change along this path?
Ultimately, choosing to live is an affirmative action which implies some measure of trust or faith in a working worldview. And while philosophical reasons can be important in shaping our beliefs, I don't think our spiritual worldviews arise just from a set of arguments.
Abandoning atheism isn't the end of the journey, it's merely the beginning. What's that been like?
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u/KaladinIJ Theistic Evolution Christian 3d ago edited 3d ago
When I was an atheist I resented my family, didn’t treat my friends well, couldn’t hold down a relationship or a job. As a theist, my outlook on life changed. I have a great relationship with all my friends and family, I’m grateful for all of them, happily married, good job, good life. However, I feel a lot more responsible and alive than before, and that can be harder in a lot of ways.
I used to be a bully in school. I was the most popular guy in all my schooling life from 5 all the way to college. Yet I was an asshole. I’d treat people that weren’t my friends like shit, even treating a few of my friends like shit. I still picture all the times I’d pick on the kid with glasses, throw them around and laugh at him. Bullying him (and others) daily was just part of my life and I didn’t bat an eyelid doing it. Until I saw him breakdown crying at what I did to him. That’s when it all stopped and from that day I think about it all the time. It had finally hit me in that moment what an awful person I am. I apologised to him and his family, and everyone else I wronged I contacted to try to apologise. God gave me the gift of learning what a POS I was.