Happiness

[JetLeg]

Hi.

After your deconversion, did you become more or less happy, and why?

(Yes, I know that some people here are religious, and some were born atheists. Obviously, the question is not directed at them).

[YeahDude]

Absolutely more happy. After acceptance there is a huge relief.

[PrincessIneffabelle]

I have become more content. Happiness, quite naturally, ebbs and flows; general contentment, however, has stuck with me. Armed with education and fact-based information, I now feel that I am better able to deal with issues or events that are unhappy in nature. My general outlook has improved and I have a lot less confusion, shame, and guilt in my life. I have stopped wasting my time and mental energy on difficult, unpleasant, or nebulous "spiritual" issues and can more effectively tackle real-life issues.

[RoboTimbo]

Hi.

After your deconversion, did you become more or less happy, and why?

(Yes, I know that some people here are religious, and some were born atheists. Obviously, the question is not directed at them).

We're all born atheist until we're indoctrinated into belief. But that's beside the point.

Anywho, it was an incredible relief no longer being conflicted about things I had been told to believe that flew in the face of reality. I doubted the existence of a deity for a long time before I finally outright let myself admit that there really wasn't one. The closest I can come to a description of the feeling would be that my mind was finally set free from shackles. The blinders were removed.

Oh, to answer the OP, more happy.

[shadron]

Definitely. No longer had to waste Sunday mornings with getting dressed up so I could fall asleep listening to a bore.

[Elizabeth I]

Definitely. No longer had to waste Sunday mornings with getting dressed up so I could fall asleep listening to a bore.

That is quite a perk, isn't it?

[PrincessIneffabelle]

That is quite a perk, isn't it?

Yes! And think of all the tithe money we're saving!

:)

[threejr]

Happier, much happier.

The world makes more sense to me now, too.

[Cavemonster]

I was never religious, but I always worried there might be a god, and I was messing up horribly by not worshipping it in some way. After I became an atheist I shifted that worry to health and financial concerns, so I'd say general happiness/contentment levels stayed about the same.

One less thing to worry about means you can worry about the remaining things in greater depth.

[slingblade]

In certain ways, I'm more content as DM said. Being more content is a happy thing, I suppose.

In other ways, I'm soooo furious. It's only been in the last ten years, and especially the last two, that I've realized a lot of things about who I am, who I am not, and what things went into making me.

...I just realized, I could write a really, really long post about all this. I don't think I shall, right now, though. I'll just kind of summarize.

The religious indoctrination I had contributed hugely to my self-hatred, to my utter and lifelong lack of self-esteem and self-respect. I am glad I understand now both what was done to me and what I did to myself, but I resent now the wasted years of my life and all the abuse I so often attracted, allowed, and sometimes even sought.

Yes, in some important ways, I am generally happier or more content. I'm also angry and sad.

[Tsukasa Buddha]

Many philosophers have pondered what the meaning of happiness is.

I think we have all learned from Yrreg that it is guiltless masturbation.

[MattCz]

I'm much happier now.
The very thought of ghosts watching my every move made me feel pretty uncomfortable.

[Freethinker]

Much happier. No more trying to pretend I was living up to the unreasonable irrational expectations.

[PixyMisa]

I turned into a newt!

[Ron_Tomkins]

I feel more in peace, however that is completely irrelevant. Whether I feel more in peace or less in peace does not change the truth of things

Just a clarification that's necessary to make, to distinguish it from irrational beliefs that are maintained because they provide the person with happiness and/or peace

[quarky]

I've got more soul now, which is funky, because I stopped believing in it.

[JetLeg]

I've got more soul now, which is funky, because I stopped believing in it.

:confused:

[quarky]

:confused:

exactly.

[mazyloron]

As was said previously, we're all born atheists, the indoctrination comes later.

I wouldn't say I was "deconverted," since I was never too much of a believer. I would describe it more as a realization, I guess. Religion and various spiritual beliefs (Christianity, wicca, other sorts of paganism, etc.) never really seemed to make much sense to me. Then, when I really thought it through, it made sense that there probably wasn't anything out there, godly, spiritual, or otherwise. And I guess the clarity made me happier. I know I'm happier when things make sense.

But I wouldn't say that I'm an atheist because it makes me feel happy. I'm an atheist because it's the only explanation that seems to make sense. And, I guess I'm happier because I think I've got the right idea about theism and the supernatural.

But I'll stop now before I ramble my way into incoherence. Generally, overall: yes, I'm happier now. :)

[quarky]

Would you say you have more soul now?

Like, are you funkier?

(The lack of funk really turned me off to cracker-ass religions.)

[Professor Yaffle]

About the same.

[aggle-rithm]

There are psychological pros and cons. If you are not the type of person who really thinks deeply about life's questions, then religion is the route to take. Otherwise, you will be tortured by the cognitive dissonance that goes along with trying to believe contradictory things, such as an all-loving God who will torture you for all eternity if you don't get things just right.

If you've managed to rid yourself of that, you have to make peace with the idea that there is no universal meaning...there is only cultural meaning, or the meaning that you create for yourself.

There are trade offs. All in all, though, I think we're better off having thoughts that are in harmony with what we know about the world.

[Pardalis]

Happier, much happier.

The world makes more sense to me now, too.

I'm not necessarily more happy, but I agree that it makes more sense, especially in times when I'm not happy.

[linusrichard]

About the same, I guess. Maybe a little happier as I started to realize that I could just go ahead and figure things out for myself rather than have to obey a laundry list of archaic rules from a set of self-contradictory books that had nothing to say about my life.

[shawmutt]

You can take your happiness and cram it up yer...

[JoeTheJuggler]

I don't think my level of happiness has had much of any correlation with my state of believing or disbelieving. Or at least, believing or not has had less to do with my mood than a great many other factors.

I'm one of the people here who don't see belief as a matter of choice, though. It's like, knowing reality the only choice is to purposely delude myself or accept reality. So indirectly, I can imagine that I would be a lot less happy if I intentionally caused cognitive dissonance in my own mind.

[jmcvann]

I was never much of a believer, so it's hard to measure any change in my personal happiness. There are situations that have nothing to do with religion that make me sad. But in general, I am happy when I self-reflect and conclude that I have figured out the right answer, religion-wise.

On the other hand, I'm more aware of my unhappiness when I am with my good friends who believe in things that I don't. My circle of friends probably holds to the larger statistics, meaning I know a lot of believers, in religion and other woo. I know some people who aren't religious, but believe in astrology, for example.

So it's a fairly regular occurance that I find myself sad because my friends believe weird things. Perhaps I would be happier if I also believed and could just go along with the ghost stories and ESP talk. They seem to enjoy their stories, and I'm sitting there deciding whether I should get into an argument with friends.