Atheists, what do you think?

Question

Sorry, it's kind of long.

At my church I heard a testimony once about a man who was constantly drunk and got arrested for it more than once. Everyday he felt miserable almost to the point of suicide. He turned to Jesus, was saved, stopped drinking, and is now starting a new church.

I know another person who made fun of kids who believed in God when they were in high school. All throughout his schooling a friend of his would always invite him to go to church, but this person just teased him and called him a Jesus freak. Like 20 years later this person finally decided to go to church and was saved. Now he prays to God, reads his bible, goes to church every Sunday, and stopped drinking.

I was raised as a catholic as a kid and only went to church because my parents made me. I found the sermons boring and never paid any attention. I fell away from church. After I became a teenager my brother-in-law invited me to his baptist church. When I was saved I felt a strong emotion, as if I was feeling light itself. I can't really put the feeling into words, I just felt peace, joy, passion, confidence and all that. Before I viewed God as if he were distant just watching the world. Now I actually pray to God and love Him. I go to church every Sunday now.

I just don't believe that something fake can turn people's lives around like that. That doesn't just happen. Even if I were an atheists, I definatly couldn't say that nothing happened to them. What do you think?

Answer 1

I get similar feelings from "runners high". It's caused by endorphins, not god. Also, subjective personal anecdotes are not evidence of a deity.

Answer 2

Something did change.  He stopped feeling sorry for himself.  

AA is based on a belief in a higher power, but AA and that method are not the only road to sobriety.  Other programs have proved just as successful as AA and they have no religious connotation.

Answer 3

I think you know very little about the human mind's capacity for self-deception.

I also think your little anecdotes still do NOTHING to prove the central tenet of Christianity -- that faith in the sacrifice of Jesus guarantees eternal life in Heaven.  And without that, your entire religion is just an exercise in futility.

Answer 4

Yes, I've seen peoples lives change like that. They tell me that it was like they were asleep, and finally their eyes are open. The contradictions and false conflicts, the meaningless words like "Sin" have gone from their lives. Can something as positive as atheism, and its effects, be anything but real?

Answer 5

Just because something makes you feel good or helps you in some way, is no proof religion is true. Every religion has stories like that.

Answer 6

When people are down on their luck, they need a reason to live.  Religion gives some people a reason to live and turn their life around.  Religion is not necessarily a bad thing when used correctly.  It's almost like a doctor giving a placebo to a patient.  The patient thinks it is real medication, so therefore their condition improves.  The brain is a powerful thing.

Answer 7

I think therefore I am.  

Answer 8

What you and others experienced was an emotional reaction to an external stimulus - placebo.

Rev. Neil

Answer 9

Religon makes people good but it also make more people bad that it makes them good (Alqaeeda for example). Religon is proved to be made by old people and exagerated!

Answer 10

Something fake CANNOT turn someone's life around.

In fact, the only thing that can turn a person's life around is that person.  They may be willing to give the credit to someone or something else, but in the end, it is that person who is responsible for how their life turns out

Answer 11

Trading one addiction for another.

Ever thought it was rather convenient that as soon as they found a less destructive way to spend their time, they gave up the bottle? I am willing to wager that if this same man enrolled in knitting classes, he'd be touting the fact that embroidery saved him from alcoholism, and opening up a brand new knitting school.

Answer 12

I think its great that you have convictions. I'm sorry that many of the answers will ridicule you for believing in something. As for myself, I believe in everything. Some things just seem more probable.

Answer 13

Have you heard of something called a "Placebo Effect"?

Answer 14

It's psychology in the same vein that believing in santa makes the holiday season feel good for children.  Oh, and they "behave" to get presents.

Some people function better thinking that something outside of themselves is responsible for *their* actions, environment, good fortune and misfortune.

Answer 15

"Saved" by Jesus is not real.

I agree it's not nothing. It's actually a mass induced psychosis, which is a commonly accepted psychological phenomenon.

Answer 16

I too have seen several cases were addicts have had their lives changed when they gave their heart to Jesus, and some became ministers as well.

EDIT: overcoming a addiction and being instantly set free and delivered from one is two different things, one you have to work at daily and one is by grace removed.

Answer 17

" If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for a reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed"

                                                                   - ALBERT EINSTEIN

Answer 18

Placebo effect. Look into it.

Answer 19

It is not fake. Faith is very real, the reasoning behind it is what is questionable. The 12 step groups are Christian. And they claim to be non-denominational, yet they are not. They are often a court ordered trip to Christianity for alcoholics.

With that said faith comes from the self, from within. Self reflection and meditation are components of faith. One seeks clarity and self centering when in prayer, stillness to find the truth to their problems.

This all happens in the self, in your brain. Nothing is being input or output on a divine level. At least I have no claim that this is a truth. Faith is not measurable, but it is largely grounded in the self.

EDIT: You may want to look into the non-religious 12 step groups that have recently been formed and their stastics. There has been a social movement to remove religion from recovery all together. they have just as much success as AA does. For one AA does not ever publish their stastics. Nobody knows the real long term effects of AA or NA.

Answer 20

I used to drink all the time.  Then I took Zeus into my heart and now I don't drink as much as I used to.  Zeus has given me a feelings of peace, joy, passion, confidence, and much more.

Since you don't believe peoples' lives can be turned around by something fake, then Zeus must be real.

Answer 21

So he traded alcoholism for delusion.

Answer 22

But YOUR god is the only real one, right?

Look up "placebo".

Remember, "god" is nothing more than a nonsense word created by man to explain away all of the things we can't yet understand.

Religion is a disease of the mind, born of fear, which has done nothing but bring untold misery down upon the human race.

Answer 23

thats great.....God is real..

Answer 24

I think that some people need a safety net. They feel that they can't do things on their own and invent this imaginary friend that is going to help them through the hard times.

For others, they just have confidence in themselves and can get through the hard times without the help of this imaginary friend.

Answer 25

So your God needs people to suffer first before giving them peace?  So I should force alkyhol down my brothers throat, make him miserable, then I can sober him up, and make him love me for it?  Sounds kinda dumb to me.  Why not just skip the pain and suffering part, and go right to the loving?  Sounds better to me.  

Answer 26

Sure, I'll accept for sake of argument that something fake couldn't have turned people's lives around like that, even though having studied psychology I'm well aware of the placebo effect.

But on the other hand you can't justifiably assert that the 'real' thing that caused these changes was God. Why couldn't it just have been simple humanity?

Answer 27

God doesn't have to be real in order for someone's belief in God to have an effect on how they live their lives.  The power of suggestion is largely underrated.  I think most people find untapped reserves of willpower and determination, but they misinterpret the source of those abilities to cause change in one's life as being from God, when it is really in themselves all along.

Answer 28

Too long to read.

Answer 29

I am a Christian. I understand your story; however, atheists want to see evidence. They always ask for logic, but is logic not a little bit like God? We can't see either one, believing both to be an active force, respectively. Interesting to say the least.

Answer 30

Why do you assume a god had anything to do with any of this?  There are millions of atheists, pagans, etc, who found a purpose in life and overcame their addictions.  So what?  It just means that person has decided to make a change.  No god required.

Answer 31

Women scream to the point of passing out for Elvis.

People stop drinking from the power of Allah and L. Ron Hubbard.

Kids get the intense feeling of peace, joy, passion and confidence from Santa.

So either Elvis is God, along with Allah, Xenu, and Santa, or it is the psychological power of belief.