User:DukeTwicep

I'm from Sweden. 23 years old, 24 this October (2011). I'm an antitheist, atheist, agnostic, etc.. I believe that the world would be much better off without religion, or any sort of superstition. I believe that atheism should be promoted to the fullest to make people understand that atheists are not evil or immoral (or any of that crap). People need to understand that religion is the root of all evil, and rationality is the fire that turns those roots into charcoal.

I'm a self-proclaimed philosopher since 7 or 8 years back. What I'm most proud of is that I've thought up the same philosophic arguments/ideas of past philosophers without even reading about them (the anthropic principle was quite obvious to me), but I'm sure a lot of people have done so. Still... that's pretty cool. I've been an atheist the same amount of time.

I was brought up as a protestant Christian, went to church, camps and all that. A lot of summer camps, I guess it was mostly fun because of the social factors.

My parents gave us all a light-weight version of Christianity, so they didn't force me to do anything, but I mean -- if you're brought up only with the idea that there is a god, then you will without a doubt continue to believe so, no matter how intelligent you are. And so it wasn't really until my life came crashing down that I questioned it, and everything before that is like a haze to me now. It's almost like I was only partially conscious until I questioned my beliefs. And since that I've always believed that the best cure for religiosity is a life-shattering event, something to send you into reality where you belong.

The first thing I noticed about not believing in a god was the partial relief that no one is constantly looking at you, no matter what you do, and judging you. I say partial because I think there is some part of me that can't get rid of the fear. The same part that still holds the fear of going to hell, and when it shows itself I have to constantly remind myself with rational arguments that there is no heaven and hell, that when I die I will finally be in peace, I will finally not have to care or fear anything. That's a big relief. So death is not something I fear, and many times I've welcomed it, but it has refused to visit me thus far. Of course, a religious person would hold this against me, he or she would say that I'm depressed because I have left my faith or something like that. It's just that the depression came Before I lost my faith, so it doesn't really connect. And the fact that I'm an atheist has nothing to do with my inclination toward nihilism, but that's not something the mind of a religious person could fathom. My nihilistic tendencies has more to do with the fact that I can't recall smells, tastes, sounds, touch, feelings or even most things I've seen (I just recognize them), so I'm pretty much living in the moment all the time, and I don't have any dreams of the future. That makes life feel kind of meaningless most of the time when I'm not occupied by something entertaining. And now I'm going to do just that -- entertain myself that is.