Why might one wish to mitigate one's lack of belief ...

[Jayhawker Soule]

I suppose it is a grief that does not go away.
Personally I don't want to lose my belief and I can imagine other Christians or Jews who have been involved in these forums to have had their faith attacked over and over and it can take it out of your faith after a while even if you have strong faith. If they feel the way I have felt at times I imagine some might say that they do not believe any more even if in reality it has not gone that far. But I have just gone on in faith and found that God can increase your faith again if you are open to it.
If you just want to feel better about not believing. I don't know I can help you.
It is interesting to notice the concerted attack on the historicity and legitimacy of the Bible, both Testaments, over the past couple of hundred years and with increasing intensity. It certainly is easy to fall prey to these attacks and to actually believe some of them are correct and then once you do that and lose some faith it would be easier to just let the other attacks have their way with you and go the whole hog in saying the whole Bible is just a pack of lies.
It certainly helps to listen to the more conservative Bible historians and see these attacks as not as bad as you had thought.

Just to clarify,

• the thread is not about me,
• nor is it an invitation for Christian apologetics.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Why might one wish to mitigate one's lack of belief ...: I see no reason. I was a vacillating theist for a long time. Abandoning belief altogether was a relief.

 

[firedragon]

... not the loss of belief, but a long standing lack of belief in deity?

Maybe because they were born believers

 

[PureX]

The irony of you talking about "baseless bias" should be lost on no one ...

I'm not claiming that no evidence is evidence of there being no God. Or that "unbelief" is just neutral indifference. Sooner or later at least a few of these folks that are must realize how nonsensical and dishonest that all is, and then become willing to revisit the whole subject.

 

[pearl]

... not the loss of belief, but a long standing lack of belief in deity?

Maybe facing one's own end of life issues begins a quest and asks 'what if it's true?, this nonsense about a deity.

 

[Heyo]

So you would think it appropriate for a theist to reevaluate his or her belief but unimaginable for an atheist or agnostic to do the same? Interesting!

Do theists want to not believe?

 

[ADigitalArtist]

I don't know, tbh. When I left there were definitely things I missed that made me wish I didn't have a disbelief, but these things were mostly things I wanted regarding having a community of people I knew well, structure to my week, or surity surrounding fear of death, and less wanting a god belief for it's own sake.
And I was able to work on those things without a god belief.
But maybe others would have a much harder time of it than I did, and would suspend disbelief for those reasons. Or maybe they suspended disbelief because they began to actually believe, in a way I never could.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Do theists want to not believe?

Don't know.

Don't care.

Different question.

Different thread.​

 

[Alien826]

Don't know.

Don't care.

Different question.

Different thread.​

That might be good set to music.

 

[Alien826]

I'll answer the original question.

I was atheist for most of my life but retained a interest in religious belief that was more than one might expect in someone who believes there is no god/s. I would enter into discussions with believers, and spent a lot of time on forums like this once that became available. I just couldn't leave the subject alone. My question for individual believers was always "Why do you believe?".

An analogy that has occurred to me goes like this. It was as if I was standing on a cliff looking down on a crowd of people that were moving around in all directions and doing various things. When asked they would say that they were swimming in an ocean, but no matter how hard I tried I could see no ocean. It seemed to me that the people were deluded, but why did they keep moving around and doing things? I had to know.

Then something happened that caused me to come down from the cliff and actually experience the ocean. To leave the analogy behind, I had a religious experience that convinced me that there was "something" that might relate to what believers were on about. For some time I pursued it, not by accepting any particular established belief, but by investigation, one step at a time. This went well for a while.

Then it all faded away. I no longer felt any presence, received no guidance and had no desire to attend church services. In addition, a dear friend who trusted in "god" was badly let down by doing something we both believed to be guided by "god".

I have now returned to a form of atheism, but with a difference. I no longer feel compelled to find the truth in religion, and instead have a great mental peace over the whole thing. I have entered the "ocean", found that there is nothing there for me and I am content with that.

Can I explain what happened to me? The most I can say is that I have discovered just how powerful is the human mind's ability to construct a delusion if it wants it badly enough.

One question remains. Why do I come here? Not to find god, certainly, or to re-examine my own beliefs. I just enjoy debate. I think that's all.

 

[Brickjectivity]

More ideas:

Suppose you are in a position where you feel pressured to pretend to believe in God, but you don't want to pretend to believe in God. You don't like to be dishonest, so instead you try to believe for real.
Suppose that you follow a very exacting and inspiring lead who wants you to believe in God, which makes you want to. This could happen in a small work crew or could happen in a larger group or nationally.

 

[HeatherAnn]

I'm not sure that 'mitigate' would be the right word to use, but I think it is a healthy exercise to question your beliefs and lack of beliefs periodically. So, it might be a good thing to revisit arguments or consider alternative approaches that might lead to belief.

After due consideration, you may conclude that you still don't believe, but the exercise is still a good thing.

I really like that.
Chances are, we are not 100% all knowing!

 

[HeatherAnn]

Why might one wish to mitigate one's lack of belief ...
... not the loss of belief, but a long standing lack of belief in deity?

I’m not sure if you intended this, but I interpret “mitigate” (make less painful) as implying that life involves some degree of suffering. God is a symbolic word for belief in a relief of suffering. Considering the psychological & even physiological power of belief, it makes sense to choose beliefs carefully, & to not pretend that one has no beliefs. “All have faith, but not all are conscious of having faith.” What is it that I have faith in - is it working for or against me? This applies to Theology as well as Atheism.

Who/What is their God? They already have an “ultimate concern” (god)… whether it be their spouse, work, crack/drugs, sports, cars, hobbies… they already prioritize things in their life, so that 1 comes before the rest, like a god they worship. Now, is that highest prioritized thing, what they really want to prioritize… or is there something better? If there is something better, which would make all aspects of their life far more advantageous… why settle for less?

Maybe… belief in “the kingdom/experience of God within” is really belief in oneself. Why would one NOT want to believe?

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

I’m not sure if you intended this, but I interpret “mitigate” (make less painful) ...

Thanks. It was clearly the wrong choice of words.

 

[dawny0826]

... not the loss of belief, but a long standing lack of belief in deity?

It's healthy to ponder.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Why would someone mitigate something that is absolutely natural or defacto? Theism is introduced, not inherent.

To mitigate a lack of belief is impossible considering that is how everyone started out without God's.

 

[Aupmanyav]

It is like trying to revive a failed relationship, does not always turn out to be beneficial for the parties, does not always succeed.

 

[InChrist]

... not the loss of belief, but a long standing lack of belief in deity?

Someone may seek to address or reevaluate their long standing lack of belief in God when God interrupts their life, gets their attention, and situations arise which cause one to rethink their views.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Why would someone mitigate something that is absolutely natural or defacto? Theism is introduced, not inherent.

To mitigate a lack of belief is impossible considering that is how everyone started out without God's.

So your answer is "I don't know" and you want to debate it. In other words, the post is irrelevant, but please feel free to start your own thread in one of the debate forums.

 

[Kenny]

There is no they. Why might someone in good faith seek to adfress his or her absence of belief? It's not a trick question.

I think it is always a good thing to double check the foundation of what might be a paradigm shift that could be life changing.

Questioning one's own position is healthy IMV