I’m not sure exactly what I want to include on this page, but it seems when people visit my site they just see tragedy. Poor girl – the death of her brother, the death of her father-in-law, traumatic exit from christianity. It all seems so sad!
Well – those things were all tough but I’m really out the other side now and loving life. I want to include a page about the wonderful life I have now post christianity. When I was in the middle of it all I wondered if I’d ever have a normal life again. Well more than that – life is great and better in some ways. I don’t want anyone to leave my site with the impression that leaving christianity was the end of the story. My growth as a person continues and every day is a chance to focus on what really matters to me.
I look back and I was so frightened when I left christianity. Initially I was terrified of going to hell and that took a long time to get over. But secondly, I felt lost in this vast universe and wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get my bearings again. But I did and I don’t have any magical answer to how that happened. It took time, reading, thinking and living. Time, reading, thinking, and living. I didn’t find some fabulous atheist equivalent to the meaning of life. What I found were the joys of my daily life. The joys of my family, the joys of exploring my passions, the joys of setting goals and reaching them, the joys of having yet another day to grow as a person.
In christianity we are told that the only meaning and satisfaction in life can come from god. It took me awhile to replace this thinking, but I did. Whether there is a god or not no longer affects my priorities. When I get up in the morning I look forward to spending yet another day of my short life focused on what’s important to me and I’m more than ok with that. What’s not to love in that?
Here is a song that I’ve fallen in love with. So much changed about me as I left christianity – but one of the benefits of this was that I embarked on a journey of self discovery. From the outside my life doesn’t look much different but a lot has changed on the inside. There’s something exhilarating about taking your life back into your own hands. I can’t control many things in my life but I’m loving embracing the things I can.
Here’s a post I wrote about how hopeless my life is now that I’m an atheist :p
While this list wasn’t written with atheism in mind, it really captures the type of life that is available to everyone – no faith/god/religion required. I’m going to give this list to anyone who asks me how I can have any purpose in my life now that I’m an atheist.
New addition to this page on Jan. 10, 2016.:
Left Christianity 
“There’s something exhilerating about taking your life back into your own hands. I can’t control many things in my life but I’m loving embracing the things I can.”
Thanks for sharing that!
Brenda, if atheism is true, then regardless of what pleasure and satisfaction you may find in your life there is no rational grounds for believing that your existence and choices have any objective meaning, value, or purpose. Do you agree? I get the impression, judging from the rather blithe tone of your writing throughout much of this blog, that you don’t.
Many prominent atheist thinkers have agreed on the point that to behave as though one’s life has meaning in the absence of an infinite-personal creator God is fundamentally absurd. It’s necessary for survival, but nonetheless delusional. Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Russell, Sartre, Camus, and even Richard Dawkins have said this.
It seems to me, based on what I’ve seen on this blog, that you have a double-standard when it comes to thinking logically about atheism. On one hand you defend it as a rational position. And maybe it is. But on the other, you seem to believe that your life is intrinsically valuable and meaningful. Maybe to you it is, but what objective basis is there for such a belief? I challenge you to think on this, to consider whether you’re willing to stare the logical consequences of atheism fully in the face.
Victorclimacus
My reply was lengthy so I made a blog post out of it which you can visit here:
http://leftchristianity.com/2012/12/29/does-my-life-have-purpose/
Thanks for posting your comment. I always appreciate respectful dialogue.
Victor,
We live within a universe of causality that has no gods, no reason, so there will be no redemption. Ever.
But we, yes we, give the this universe a meaning, a purpose, just as we bequeath that to each other with love and kindness because it is the right thing to do, as this is the only life in which we will live. It has nothing to do with a synthetic deity of our own creation. Just as that of any other.
Just as YOU, Victor, give everything a purpose from a synthetic dictator that commands for your obedience, but is really used to rob you of any and all thought. And cash.
To her love, she has a purpose. Her family and friends also give her purpose. To myself, she has a purpose.
But I suppose when a believer has no way in convincing the another of their synthetic product, then you bequeath them of no substance whatsoever.
You can keep your god because you’ll need him much more than I.