For those of you who used to be religous, do you feel you are a better person now?

[Pauliesonne]

Let me make this case clear - the question this thread is based on is not from a sarcastic viewpoint.

Personally, I think I'm a better person.

[Dark Jaguar]

I can actually state certain things that I consider to make me a better person. Before, my opinion on homosexuals was one I was never comfortable with. I simply had to suffice, to match my ridiculous religious standards, with the idea that it's not the person, but the act, and the act is wrong only because God is testing how willing we are to obey certain odd rules, if nothing else. Now I can take a stance I find a lot more natural, the one I had before I became a Christian. It's no business of mine and it should be perfectly acceptable behavior.

But in a detail a bit more profound, with morality set by what hurts the least number of people and helps the most, as judged by logic, I make a lot better decisions on how to handle situations. I do things for PEOPLE, not "because god says so".

[Rachel1031]

That's a good question. I don't know if I have a good answer.

I was raised fundamentalist Christian. I left the church when I was 20 because I could not reconcile my faith with what I was learning in college. Some religions are more flexible towards science; mine was not.

I have never feared going to hell. However, I did and still do have a grief about losing my religion. I feel that I was forced to choose between my church and my intelligence. I don't regret my choice - it was the only choice for me. However, I do think that many religions serve humanity and provide comfort to others. And it makes me a little sad that I can't have that comfort.

Being free from religion does force one to question the basis of our ethics. I would still describe myself as very culturally Christian, but I now much look more deeply at myself and the circumstances to evaluate my ethical choices.

This is an interesting question. I look forward to the responses of others.

[Mercutio]

Dunno.

I was good then, I am good now. In both cases, I suppose I should qualify with "for the most part".

I really don't know how one would answer the question, really.

[Czarzy]

I am more accepting and less judgemental.

Does that resultant change in my words, facial expressions, and other actions to new information have a more beneficial impact on a majority of others than did my previous actions?

Dunno.

Only know that it makes a difference to me. I feel that I am making more rational judgements, and that makes me more complacent.

ie, yes

[slingblade]

I have improved various aspects of my life since rejecting theism, and I can attribute my improving critical thinking skills to that rejection, but I don't know if that's true for the rest of the improvements I have made.

I'm a better person, but I think it's just that I took several more steps towards maturity.

[Meadmaker]

No.

[Complexity]

I'm a better person now than I used to be. Hope the trend continues.

Am I better because I'm no longer religious or no longer religious because I'm better?

Probably a bit of both.

I sure as hell am more consistent and complete as a person now.

Each day I work towards being who I am rather than who others want me to be.

I like myself more now, am happier, and more comfortable with myself.

[EatatJoes]

Yes.

[Roboramma]

I was never Religious with a capital R. On the other hand, I believed in God, the idea of a soul, and vague spiritual effects on life. All these beliefs were rather vague, because I tried to reconcile them with reality, but for instance, I believed that my thought processes could influence the world around me.
Eventually I was forced to look at the evidence and realise that while what I believed wasn't contradicted by it, there was nothing to suggest it was true, either, except for the fact that I would have liked it to be.

Anyway, I no longer have those beliefs. I think I'm better off for it. But am I a better person? I don't think so. I do think that if I'd failed to face what became a necessary conclusion I would have been a worse person. At least, it would be harder to respect myself.
But I don't treat others any differently (better or worse) now than I did before. My morality is still the same.
Then again, I approach many things differently than I would have under my old belief system - relationships for instance. The realism that's been injected into the way I handle life seems to be much healthier. If that makes me a better person, then the answer is yes.

Sorry for the drawn out response, the question wasn't clear enough for me. :)

[Tricky]

Well, yeah, but I lost my religion in my late teens, which is a point where "getting to be a better person" is about as much a sure thing as finding a Denny's next to a La Quinta. As many women (including my wife) will tell you, men don't really become tolerable untill the number of testosterone-driven decisions fade to background levels.

[veggie doll]

I was never religious. I wasn't raised to believe in any God.
I'm comfortable in my atheism. I'm a better person now than I was 3 or 4 years ago though, if that means anything. :)

[Mephisto]

I was raised a staunch Catholic and from the beginning was chastised by nuns and priests for asking the "wrong" questions (once, for asking, "if God is everywhere, why do we have to go to church?"). I blame religion for the ills of the world, so YES I think I'm a better person (and far less judgemental) now.

As an added bonus - I now get to eat tacos or hamburgers on a Friday during Lent and I'm not going to Hell. :)

[Correa Neto]

I was raised on a Roman Catholic family. For about two years I studied at a Catholic school. Some JW leaflets also reached our house, and since I've been an avid reader since my childhood... Despite this background my mother decided I should choose my path when it comes to religion. This was the seed of my current positions.

Christian doctrines always seemed oppressive to me. At a certain point, when I was 10 or 11, I was convinced I was going to hell thanks to the JW leaflets. Since there were already billions of people in the world, and only a few hundreds of thousands would be saved... I just could not figure out why the "sins" I commited were so bad!

I liberated myself from the chains of Christianity but fell in to the realm of the woos. My final liberation was at the university, when I really learned to base my conclusions in evidence and slowly dropped the wooism. Guess it makes me a "born again skeptic".

And yes, I'm a better person now. I have more respect for the uniqueness of life. I don't expect any punishment by any wrathfull deity for those who according to my point of view misbehave. I actually developed what I consider to be better skills in analising their motivations (no, it does not mean I agree with their actions), that allowed me to see the cold truth: depending on the situation, the possibility that I would act just like them is a frightening reality. I realised I am no better or worse than they are. I was just more lucky.

I consider myself nowdays a better, more responsible and consient person, for I do what I consider to be correct because I think its the right way, and not because I am afraid of some wrathfull deity or hope to be rewarded in an afterlife.

I consider myself a better person because I learned I don't own the absolute truth somehow (if such thing exists).

I consider myself a better person because I am free from the lingering feeling of being guilty of something that I don't know I made or of things I made that nowdays I know are not "wrong".

I could go on, but I think you got the picture from my ravings...

[RandFan]

Let me make this case clear - the question this thread is based on is not from a sarcastic viewpoint.

Personally, I think I'm a better person. Yes and no in incremental ways. I used to be more involved in cheritable works. The Mormon church was very much into service and it is something I care about but not enough to act on my own. I'm less judgmental and probably better in some other small ways. I'm mostly what I was before.

[BJQ87]

I became a much better person when I stopped being simply religious. Simply religious is when you do the practices, but there's nothing significant about you, no spirituality. Before I could go to church and everyone would easily think I was a devoted follower of Christ...but if any of them spent enough time with me and took enough of a peek into my daily life they would have eventually noticed there was nothing there, nothing significant, nothing supernatural.

[Iacchus]

I don't like being told what to do. I don't go to church.

[pgwenthold]

I became a much better person when I stopped being simply religious. Simply religious is when you do the practices, but there's nothing significant about you, no spirituality. Before I could go to church and everyone would easily think I was a devoted follower of Christ...but if any of them spent enough time with me and took enough of a peek into my daily life they would have eventually noticed there was nothing there, nothing significant,


This makes you no different from 80% of the other religious people in the world.


nothing supernatural.

And this makes you no different from the remaining 20%

What's the difference between me, an atheist, and my wife, who is not? She goes to church on weekends. Other than that, there isn't a noticable difference in the way we live.

[Achán hiNidráne]

I wouldn't say my conversion from ultra-Catholic to atheist has made me a "better person." My life sucked just as badly then as it does now. On the other hand, I didn't throw away religion in order to become a "better person." I did it because "God" didn't add up philosophically. All the time I spent praying and in church didn't make my condition any better and I'm not stupid enough to delude himself with "faith" just so I can feel good about myself and my place in the universe.

[BJQ87]

What's the difference between me, an atheist, and my wife, who is not? She goes to church on weekends. Other than that, there isn't a noticable difference in the way we live.


exactly.

[BJQ87]

I don't like being told what to do. I don't go to church.

conviction is much better than being told what to do, i'd find a church that can accomplish this and involve fellowship which is good in God's sight, and therefore is possibly even required for some things to be accomplished.

[Kopji]

The difference for me is not one of goodness or badness but more like being alive instead of dead, having substance instead of slowly fading away.

I am more here.

[SirPhilip]

Let me make this case clear - the question this thread is based on is not from a sarcastic viewpoint.

Personally, I think I'm a better person. Really depends what you experienced as religion. Most of my life has been spent caring little about it. I reasoned early on that, lacking any credible destiny, the hedonistic imperitive was the only way to live in a Darwinian world - and in South Florida, contentment and hedonism go hand in hand. I was deeply unsatisfied though, and treated others with utter ruthlessness who I didn't like. It was only when retribution came down hard, immediately and seemingly in exact response to my intentions, thoughts and actions, that I wondered if what goes around really does come around. I also remembered when early on in my life I had no dualistic outlook, no attachments weighing me down, was immensely content, saw no conflict, regardless of whatever circumstances I found myself in, and a sublime "something" was felt - I realized that, whatever it was, human destiny or no, it was superior to anything I had intellectually and hedonistically "matured" into as an adult. Today I still retain many interests, lusts, and ambitions, I even work in the entertainment industry and sometimes take too many painkillers - but none of those meaningless are my center, as it is to so many others.

[Beerina]

I don't like being told what to do. I don't go to church.

Don't remind me. Every damned Sunday, gotta go to church. There were some years we were slackers, only going on Christmas and Easter. Other years, every damned week. In my teen years, a few years we didn't even go on Christmas. But mostly every single week.

God how I learned to hate it. But that's nothing new. The amount of time spent in church has lessened over the centuries and decades. If you ever watched that "1600s House" show, they'd spend like 3 hours, twice, on Sundays there. By Mark Twain's time, it was down to like 2 hours, once, on Sunday. My church (Catholic) was down to only one hour, but my Grandma's service was only 45 minutes! Boy how I was jealous of her.

On retrospect, that was so they could pack in more services.

And when the Pope came to Detroit in the '80's, I went to mass in the Silverdome. At the end after he left, another priest announced, "Does this one 'count'? Well, did we collect any money?" And everyone laughed.

[Carn]

Let me make this case clear - the question this thread is based on is not from a sarcastic viewpoint.

Personally, I think I'm a better person.

I'm not a better person, because i rather soon decided, that i will do what i think is right, even if it is against god's supposed will.
So my behaviour didn't change much except, that i do no longer go to church.

Carn

[elaine]

I feel better about myself, anyway, in that the fear of ticking off God, is no longer the factor that it was when I was a young child. It's sad. My mom, the religious one in the family, is all about that fear. That's no way to live.

[SirPhilip]

I feel better about myself, anyway, in that the fear of ticking off God, is no longer the factor that it was when I was a young child. It's sad. My mom, the religious one in the family, is all about that fear. That's no way to live.It's that typical Christian distortion of right and wrong. She probably believes that because she considers whoever in instilled that credible and truthful. People innately, no matter how hard they try to escape it, have a sense that their actions matter. This is easy to play on for the most part, especially if that person has only been exposed to one type of "God".

[Ipecac]

I feel much better about myself and have become less rigid and judgmental (although I was never very judgemental in the first place), so yes.

[Humphreys]

No.

I feel like I can do really naughty things in private now http://www.jameshumphreys.net/laugh.gif

[Marquis de Carabas]

I'm the same prick I always was.