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I'm a 45 year old woman from the south and brand new to this board. I grew up Southern Baptist, going to church every time the doors were open. I've been on a journey inside my own brain for about ten years and am finally ok with saying that I'm at least agnostic. My understanding of that word is that it means you don't know whether or not "God" exists and you're ok with that. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Sometimes I lean towards atheism but most of the time I just don't know. I love reading, mostly historical fiction but also love books on world religions. I guess throughout my reading I've discovered that all religions seem to be aiming for the same basic things. I have this overwhelming need to figure things out so I can decide what I am and what I believe. Are there any books out there that anyone can suggest to me as I figure things out? Or do I simply need to be patient and let it happen? I'm so impatient.
Hi WonderWoman, welcome. I too am a southern woman, who after over 50 years discovered she's an agnostic as well. It's been quite the journey. Sometimes I feel like I could be an atheist, except I still believe there is something or someone out there bigger than all of us. It's not the god of the bible, IMHO.
I'm sure there are many on here who can recommend good reads for you.
Welcome. Your 'take' on being agnostic and leading towards atheism (which is just not believing in a god because the arguments for don't persuade) is fine with me.
There are a lot of books. It depends what particular question you want to follow up. Asking here can get a lot of answers and of all kinds. Books sometimes have just the one view.
I'm a 45 year old woman from the south and brand new to this board. I grew up Southern Baptist, going to church every time the doors were open. I've been on a journey inside my own brain for about ten years and am finally ok with saying that I'm at least agnostic. My understanding of that word is that it means you don't know whether or not "God" exists and you're ok with that. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Sometimes I lean towards atheism but most of the time I just don't know. I love reading, mostly historical fiction but also love books on world religions. I guess throughout my reading I've discovered that all religions seem to be aiming for the same basic things. I have this overwhelming need to figure things out so I can decide what I am and what I believe. Are there any books out there that anyone can suggest to me as I figure things out? Or do I simply need to be patient and let it happen? I'm so impatient.
As a fellow former Southern Baptist and inhabitant of the deep south, welcome! I wish you all the best on your journey through faith and knowledge, it is not always easy, but it is worth it.
As you look into different religious traditions, I would like to suggest one you might not have considered, the tradition of dissent and heresy. I was not aware that skepticism, rationalism, agnosticism and atheism had the same sort of historical tradition that you think of in regards to various religions, but reading "Doubt, a history" by Jennifer Michael Hecht really got me looking at it in a new way. She starts with the Greeks and traces the ideas of doubt, of free thought, of not swallowing what you are fed all the way to current times. She looks at dissenters, and rational thinkers in Hinduism, Confucism, Buddhism, and Islam, as well as Judaism and Christianity. She also touched on periods of history that I knew nothing of, like the Golden Age of Free thought, a period in American history where agnosticism, atheism, reason, and free thought were hugely influential in our culture. It is a big book, but well worth the read. I had never really thought about my unbelief being part of a larger, grander, and much older tradition of questioning and doubt of institutionalized religion, but this book put in in a new perspective...
It's a slippery slope of a journey, that's for sure. Going back and forth in your head for YEARS you just finally give up the ghost and admit that you "just don't know". Then agnosticism leads to agnostic atheism, which is where I'm at right now. It's truly the only sane way to look at things given the lack of evidence for a deity. "Faith" doesn't quite cut it any longer, logic and reason win out and rightly so. I'm a big 'ol Southern girl too who was raised Pentecostal Holiness/evangelical/Southern Baptist/Methodist.....coming from both sides of the family and it was soooooo hard to break free from all of that. We talked about it another thread, even as an agnostic atheist I still have those thoughts creep into my head about "what if they're right" but then it flies right out of my head again when I think rationally.
From what you are saying you are definitely agnostic with possible atheist leanings. And that's more than ok. It's really tough though living in the South (bible belt) it's so hard to not get caught up in the religion thing because EVERYONE you know is religious and there's literally a church on every corner. Ever heard "where you go to church"? I just want to say to them "none of your freaking business" or "I attend the church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster" and walk away. And coming out to family is the worst, I have a cousin who knows about my heathenism and she's constantly sending me religious messages on FB and trying to convert me back to Christianity. It's quite annoying but I try to remember when I was a fundamentalist idiot trying to save the world too and just let it roll off.
You may be wandering right now but it does get better with time. This too shall pass.
I'm a 45 year old woman from the south and brand new to this board. I grew up Southern Baptist, going to church every time the doors were open. I've been on a journey inside my own brain for about ten years and am finally ok with saying that I'm at least agnostic. My understanding of that word is that it means you don't know whether or not "God" exists and you're ok with that. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Sometimes I lean towards atheism but most of the time I just don't know. I love reading, mostly historical fiction but also love books on world religions. I guess throughout my reading I've discovered that all religions seem to be aiming for the same basic things. I have this overwhelming need to figure things out so I can decide what I am and what I believe. Are there any books out there that anyone can suggest to me as I figure things out? Or do I simply need to be patient and let it happen? I'm so impatient.
same, Overwhelming, no stop, yearning to know "why". let it happen. watch all the science/engineering, and History documentary shows you can. watch them twice. You begin to see how things are linked to everything else. Like weather. How the north won the civil war because of no air conditioners. Things become clearer and clearer. you are not too old. there is nothing that can stop you. don't let anybody tell you ... you can't.
Stay away from philosophy, its junk at your age. A Southern Baptist bell needs brass tack understanding.
good luck. Within the last ten years I came to grips with I die not knowing. But I am in good company.
I would recommend Christopher Hitchens book "God is not great " it's also on utube if you want it read to you.
Sam Harris is also great as well as Richard Dawkins
Your evolution is welcomed !
I'm a 45 year old woman from the south and brand new to this board. I grew up Southern Baptist, going to church every time the doors were open. I've been on a journey inside my own brain for about ten years and am finally ok with saying that I'm at least agnostic. My understanding of that word is that it means you don't know whether or not "God" exists and you're ok with that. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
My take on the word is not so much an "I don't know", but "I don't know of any good evidence one way or the other". The difference to me is that the "I don't know" statement connotes a person who really doesn't know how to decide, but the other statement says the person does know how to decide and is waiting on convincing evidence that would enable a decision. Does that make sense?
Quote:
Originally Posted by WonderWoman2110
Sometimes I lean towards atheism but most of the time I just don't know.
To be an atheist means that the existing evidence on the existence of god is good enough for you to decide that god doesn't exist. Many people, me included, think that the evidence for the existence of god is essentially zero - but -
"I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose." https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._B._S._Haldane
Quote:
Originally Posted by WonderWoman2110
I love reading, mostly historical fiction but also love books on world religions. I guess throughout my reading I've discovered that all religions seem to be aiming for the same basic things. I have this overwhelming need to figure things out so I can decide what I am and what I believe. Are there any books out there that anyone can suggest to me as I figure things out? Or do I simply need to be patient and let it happen? I'm so impatient.
We know of arguments being made against the existence of god practically since people started writing. But I'm a science person, and here's a couple of books that focus on that arena. Both these authors have several other books, but these are good places to start.
stay away from atheist pastors. pastors got you into trouble the first time.
how the universe works.
Bio chemistry.
chemistry on you tube.
How cells work.
mechanical engineering
electronics
learn how computers work.
these truths will set you free. And the best part is you get to descide for yourself. You will know what you don't know. you will be enlightened. The "inner peace" part is a bit more troublesome. Most just make up stuff to fill that emotional need. The power of now is ok, along with other self help stuff. Wish I could reach that peach sometimes.
I recommend sitting on a fallen log at the side of a creek on a summer evening and watching gnats dance in the fading sunlight.
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I just want to say to them "none of your freaking business" or "I attend the church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster" and walk away. And coming out to family is the worst, I have a cousin who knows about my heathenism and she's constantly sending me religious messages on FB and trying to convert me back to Christianity. It's quite annoying but I try to remember when I was a fundamentalist idiot trying to save the world too and just let it roll off.
