Have you ever wondered what goes on in an atheist’s mind?
No doubt, I’m about to poke into really sensitive parts of you with this post. But don’t worry, it’d be worth your time.
According to a credible study (Juhem Navarro-Rivera’s review of numerous global studies on atheism), you will find 450 atheists in every 500 million individuals. Better put, the world now consists of 7 percent atheists.
“Why share this, Enny?” You may ask.
Well, in just a year, I got to meet four atheists – all of whom were formerly Christians. A little troubling, wouldn’t you agree?
And so my curious mind couldn’t help but wonder, ‘wouldn’t it be nice to hear these people out?’
After showing interest in their beliefs and hearing them out, I chose AY to interview and share his responses.
I must say, AY had some points that would interest you. Read on to see his unfiltered responses to the questions I threw at him (that I suspect you’d like to ask him as well).
Name: AY
Age: 27 years old
Gender: Male
Occupation: Software Developer
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Have you always been an atheist? If not, when did you become one?
Nope. I was raised religiously.
The when. There wasn’t a single ‘when’ in time. It was an evolution over time.
But I’d say the actual questioning started around 2012, and there were 4-5 years of doubts, learning, speaking to people I could trust, and just trying to be sure about the answers to the questions I had.
2. What religious practice were you born into?
Christianity.
3. What made you become an atheist?
It boils down to what I consider a logical inconsistency in the religious idea of God.
God is supposed to be all-powerful, all-knowing, and totally benevolent – a force for good. All of those conditions are mutually exclusive with the world in which we live.
If there is a God, they’re either completely good but not all-powerful, or they are all-powerful with bits of evil in their nature (which also raises the question of the existence of evil.
How did evil come about? How did the seed of pride/evil get into lucifer/the devil? Is God responsible for that? (which would make God not completely benevolent) or was there some other creator responsible for evil? (which would mean God isn’t totally supreme)).
Whichever ways, I find the idea of God logically flawed, and that combined with a desire to explore life outside the confines of religious rules led to me questioning the ideas of God and the faith I was raised with and realizing they don’t work for me.
4. What is that one question you want answers to, that may likely change your belief as an atheist?
I don’t think the answer can be found in Faith/religion, but here goes:
What happened at the beginning? To clarify that question, I’d point out that I agree with the scientific idea of the big bang as the answer to how the universe was created and not the 7-day creation story because it’s a logical, testable, measurable theory.
But even the big bang is an incomplete answer because you have to explain where the infinitesimal, infinitely dense piece of matter that exploded into the universe came from, and I’m comfortable with admitting that we don’t know for now, that we don’t have the tools to answer that question.
So perhaps if faith could somehow answer the question of what happened at the beginning (I don’t think it can) maybe that would change my mind.
I think I’d also like a coherent explanation of evil in the universe, how a Supreme, benevolent being could somehow spin up an imperfect universe.
5. Would you say life has become better or worse since you became an atheist? Or no difference?
No difference. I had bad stuff and good stuff happen to me when I was religious. I’ve had bad and good stuff happen to me as an atheist.
Though I guess I could say I’m a happier person as an atheist because I no longer feel the inferiority of not measuring up to some standard of ‘holiness’ or the gnawing fear that I’d end up burning for eternity.
6. What is the best part of being an atheist for you?
The freedom to explore life, be open to new experiences, and connect with people outside the confines of how I was taught to think.
Of course, my moral compass was shaped majorly by religion and I still live by the principles I find applicable; kindness, not doing harm, etc. but I’m able to discard the ones I find unnecessary to living the kind of life I want.
7. What’s the most troubling question you’ve had about ‘God’?
That would be the idea of evil. I find it easier to come to terms with the unfairness of the world with the knowledge that there’s no higher power or that there’s one but it doesn’t care about us.
But it’s totally insane to say there’s some benevolent supreme in charge of this clusterfuck, they’d have to be very incompetent. Or perhaps just inexistent😅
8. Can you summarize your belief as an atheist? What’s it like?
I think I’ve touched on it already.
Ricky Gervais describes himself as an agnostic atheist and I think that describes my belief.
I do not think the God of the Bible or Quran or any of the other religions exists, that’s the sense in which I’m an atheist.
But as to the question of whether there’s some kind of creator or higher power that started all of this existence and the universe, I don’t know, I’m not sure we can know, I’m agnostic about that question.
9. Have you ever thoughts of the possibility of being wrong about your belief in the non-existence of God?
Yeah sure, I don’t think I’m right about anything, I just think some things are more likely than others. I don’t think it’s likely that God as described in the Bible exists.
I’m happy to change my mind if I experience something that convinces me otherwise. I mean no one had to preach to Saul of Tarsus after he heard a voice from heaven or the Prophets of Baal after they saw the fire from the sky or Ballack after his Donkey spoke.
So yeah sure I could be wrong about this and I’d readily admit that if I find proof that I am.
Well well, wasn’t that some read? If you ever wondered what goes on in atheists’ minds, there is a piece of it.
Got answers to AY’s questions listed above, or any contributions at all? Feel free to provide them in the comment section below. It’s always a pleasure reading from you.
Read More: Does God Choose Our Partner For Us?
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