Becoming Christian

I don't know if you might find it interesting to note that there is such a thing as Christian Atheism.

I am an atheist, though I would consider myself more to be a Secular Humanist than anything else. I like several of the NT parables, but don't see them as some sort of word of God but instead as some philosophical ideas in simple stories, sort of like Aesop's Fables, but without animals generally.

To say that I'm an atheist does not mean that if I was given sufficiently strong, replicable and bias reduced or eliminated evidence for the divine that I would not consider the possibility. I'm around a six on Dawkin's Spectrum of Theistic Probability. I may appear to be a seven to theists because I do not think that what they hold up as proof is actually proof of anything but their interpretation which isn't something that is testable.

I do think I have something of a primitive spirituality, though I dislike that word as I don't believe in spirits. I feel at awe when I consider the immensity of the universe and a peace which I lost through church long ago. I suppose transcendence is the best word I have. I feel in the universe and of the universe, and connected to it. I am so small in it, and yet I get to be lucky enough to be conscious for a few short decades before my atoms are reassembled into some other form, perhaps in some other life form. I am the result of the birth, death and rebirth of stars. In a sense, though my molecular composition will change, I will always exist so long as my atoms exist and I have always existed so long as my atoms have.

I strongly recommend looking into meditation. It requires no deity and can lead to transcendent experiences. Looking at pictures of stars or being outside at night looking at stars somehow is enough to trigger the reaction I mentioned in the above paragraph. I wouldn't say that I worship stars so much as that when I see them, I realize how small I am, and that life is finite, and I'm OK with it because I am glad that I can even be aware enough to make the observation.

/r/exmormon Thread