Well we have different types of atheists. But the ones I'm going to talk about now are the atheists that understand there is no proof for there being a God. And basically the ones who have great reason to desmiss the possiblity for there actually being a God.

So, are there any such atheists on this forum that converted to a religion or became theists on PURPOSE just to make life easier to bare?

I've had a long grind session tonight so I got a hard time getting my point across... but what I mean is, has anyone ever done their best to actually fool themselves into believing again?

"I don't believe in God, but I need for there to be a heaven waiting for me after I die. So I believe in God now."

That sounds like a fake conversion, not a real conversion. I don't think you can just flip a switch. Belief is based on what you actually believe to be true, not what you might like to believe.

And if you could flip the switch and make yourself believe whatever you want, basically your mind is gone. That would be the end of reason. The mind isn't supposed to work like that.

A more reasonable response for the dissatisfied atheist would be to search intently for evidence of God's existence. Then if they weighed the evidence and found the case for God to be compelling, that could be a legit conversion. But it wouldn't be a matter of fooling themselves into believing. As long as they conducted their investigation in an intellectually honest fashion and "God exists" happened to come out on top, they'd actually believe and wouldn't just be pretending.

On the other hand, a strong emotional need to believe would make it hard for most people to conduct that investigation in an intellectually honest manner. Can one factor one's own need to believe into the evaluation properly? Does the society within one's mind have an effective version of "internal affairs" to investigate the agents conducting the investigation and check for signs of intellectual corruption? Taking a clear unbiased look at an emotionally charged subject is hard.

On his death bed my father told me he didn't believe in heaven or an anthropomorphic god, yet he went to church all his life. He defined god as love. I don't know how many hardcore atheists have tried to enter the house of god, but there are plenty of non-theists who remained with a church largely for social reasons. I'm sure they are a hidden constituency in nearly all churches, quietly doubting away every Sunday morning.

I will convert when I start getting charged dhimmitude.

I never did believe though but twice I tried really hard to fool myself knowingly, but I gave up after a month.

Yeah, I also thought life would get "easier" and more "secure". However, I've found joy in just meeting life as it really is, just really content with being a monkey.

Wrong approach.

I am essentially a lifelong atheist but I spent most of my 20's looking for proof of gods, reason to be religious by looking intently at pretty much every religion and major philosophical stance on the market in a serious heartfelt manner. If this is the kind of story you are after let me know and I will go into more detail, just now though I have to hop in the shower and head to work, I will be back in 12 hours or so and I will look up this thread again.

Theoretically I could see how it could be possible for someone to consciously set up a scenario under which they could be convinced to believe something that isn't true and not be aware of their own control over the matter.

In the movie The Machinist, the main character does exactly this, and although it is of course fictional, it is presented in a fairly plausible manner.

WTH do you know about anything? You would just stand by watching while someone was raping your mother. You're a grade a moron.

after watching the William Lane Craig VS Shelly Kagan debate I kind of feel like Craig fits into this category...i haven't read any of his work, only seen a few of his debates...he seems like he needs god to exist for his life to have "ultimate" meaning...

Not evil at all...

My life was easier to bare after i gave up on other peoples ideas of God, so no.

I saw that movie but I have to admit I don't remember it very well at all. But didn't that scenario involve severe sleep deprivation? So yeah, I suppose if you put your mind in an altered state (drugs, sleep deprivation, etc) that might be a way to manipulate your beliefs but it's a degenerate case where the mind isn't working properly. When we're in a normal state of mind, our beliefs are formed in such a way as to correspond with (our perception of) reality - we don't consciously choose them.

People see what they want to see and believe what they want to believe waaaay more than people are making it sound like in this thread. We shape our personal worldviews to satisfy certain psychological needs. In other words, we don't always believe something because it makes the most sense to us--more often than not, it makes the most sense to us because we need to believe it.

Case and point, the real beginning of my atheism occurred one day when I was pondering infinity. When I really thought about infinity carefully enough (not just as an abstract mathematical term, but rather as a possible reality), I realized something: Regardless how amazing heaven was, I didn't want to live forever.

Upon that realization, the house of cards that had been holding up the last remnants of faith fell pretty quickly. God almost immediately vanished. Once I had no psychological need for him anymore, the logical inconsistencies and utter absurdity of believing in him became incredibly obvious.

Reason clearly had put some dents in faith. (My logic clearly had been suggesting that there was no god for years prior.) But the true mental leap into atheism didn't happen until I didn't want religion anymore.

you actually would do as he says???????????

please explain why, if so.

To answer the OP's question: No, I would never try that because I vaguely remember the mental strain it caused me to hold a logically ridiculous belief. Personally, it isn't worth the mental anguish of constantly having to bend and warp other logical truths to make room for a belief in god.

Not necessarily. Just because i can't kill a man, does not necessarily mean i wont be given a way to halt the process.

so, just out of interest what would you do?

As of right now i would have to snap call him into the wall. But i can only pray and have faith that God will not put me in a position like that unless i understand and am capable of doing what He would want me to do.

the rapist wouldn't be getting out alive if i had my way.

or else i wouldn't.


of course i never want to be in that situation either.

I know there are at least a few Christians on here who used to consider themselves atheists. I find that most religious people who claim to have been atheists are the most insistent on their new beliefs. Almost like how former smokers tend to be the most outspoken about how people should quit smoking.

However, I think most of these people never were what I would call intellectual atheists. They simply had no religion. Or drifted away from their religion and stopped thinking about it. It's much harder to convert to religion if you are an intellectual atheist. And what I mean by that is someone who has seriously contemplated the probability of a personal god and/or any one religion being the right one to belong to. Also, having thought about the myriad of problems and contradictions required to hold a particular religious belief. Those people rarely convert -IMO.

I'm at the point where I'd actually like Christianity to be true. But I know it ain't. There's no point in trying to live in a make-believe world where I pretend it is.

Same thing with your question. Christianity might make life a bit easier to bear but you know it's not true... so why pretend? It'd just be rather silly.

I don't think Christianity makes life easier to bear by the way. If anything, it makes it harder. Threat of hellfire, lots of silly rules to follow etc. I can't think of any way religion would make my life easier to bear.

lol, as does everyone else. Atheism can't account for a belief in ultimate meaning.

Exactly. It is the atheist who tries to disbelieve in order to make life 'easier'.

It is a much harder life to be a Christian, which is why we by nature try to deny God. Which is easier, lawlessness or God's law? People do everything in their power to deny God's existence, and if that doesn't work, His authority or relevance or morality. Everything possible since the hardest life on earth is the narrow path, as the Bible calls it. This thread is confused.