The experience of converting

Moved by AdminJarI was basically asking other people about there experiences with converting to atheism but now I think I should ask about peoples experiences who have converted period. Maybe the title should be "The art of converting" or "The experience of converting". I think a rewrite is in order to adress a larger audience, anyone who has converted as opposed to just Christians>Atheist converters. I was trying to show my feelings about my conversion/ ask about others experiences. Here is my rewrite. Feel free to edit.When I was a child I was discouraged from converting to atheism. I was told several different things about what it would be like for me converting from christianity to atheism, mainly that I would live my life on earth deppressed and then die and go to hell. Now that I have made the conversion I feel more free and am excited at all the thoughts and ideas that christianity always discouraged which I can now explore in a carefree manner. I would like to ask any converters, from any religion to any religion, to share their experiences.I would also like some opinions on the following things which I learned through the process of conversion and the things you learned after converting.Now that I have converted I have realized that atheists can believe in good and evil, not spiritually, but the things considered evil are usually hurtful to society, murder is not beneficial to the species so therefore it is not natural.When I was a child I used to see visual images or hear of things which made me shudder and I knew these things were evil however I now realize that this feeling of evil is because of the culture I was raised in. Different cultures see different things as evil.I always thought that I would be deppressed as an atheist thinking that when I died that was it. On the contrary I am now content and am devoted to the betterment of mankind. I know that I can make a difference for future generations and that has taken the place of what I used to think my purpose was.The universe seems more exciting now that I do not believe in god, more adventorous and my future seems less determined. The universe is governed by the laws of science, which are learnable and predictable. The universe without a god, to me, is much more exciting than a universe with one. Learning is my ultimate goal.It would be nice for you to include what you have felt emotionally and the state of your mind since converting. For example if you converted from atheism to christianity then you could answer the following questions.Why dont you feel scared and why dont you accept murder and other criminal acts? Do you feel more awe and wonder when staring at the stars since your conversion? Also any other good questions you can think of.

I apologize if I made it sound as though atheism is a religion, I recognize it as an intellectual decision so I think I will call it that. My Intellectual Decision (notice the capitals) was a freedom thing to me, though not at first. Your story seems to be very similiar to mine. I think it is because we were both rooted in christianity so hard that the radical change in perspective took a hard toll on us psychologically. My Intellectual Decision was a slow progression, luckily, from devoted christian>christian>doubtful>Atheist. From point 1 to point 3 was easy but that last step was painfully difficult. I'm wondering if there is psychological harm occuring in this process? When I first "broke the chains" I was deppressed, scared, worried, anyone who saw me would think I was a nutcase, maybe I was, and I was constantly being attacked by people I knew, exactly what my church told me would happen! But then a curious thing happened, I stopped being afraid. Its almost like when I was younger and would watch horror films, the first couple days your terrified to even go in your room but then one day you are sick of being scared and brave up the courage to walk in.

I guess your lucky, or me and chiroptera are drama queens and like to make everything seem like the end of the world. I grew up in a protestant church. I have been to a catholic church once, this saturday actually -I plan to go again, and found it to be fun (even though I dont believe in god). It was much different than I expected and I like it better than the protestant churches I had been to. Ive never experimented with buddhism but I want to. Actually when I went they had communion, apperantly they do this every mass, and I tried the bread but I didnt take the wine because I was the last one in line and everyone was sharing of one big cup. gross. way to go!!!!