Do we need God to make sense of life?

@pb1022 said
Well clearly you did. You chose to abandon the faith. You chose to become an atheist.

No. It wasn't a choice. It wasn't a decision. We went over this at length when you were posting in 2018.

@fmf said
I don't believe in your God figure. I don't believe he has given any of us anything nor has he taken anything away. If you have derived some inspiration from what you believe, then that's good.

You’re not answering the question.

If you did not choose to abandon Christianity and become an atheist, who made that decision for you?

@pb1022 said
Well then are you saying God, who you don’t think exists, took your faith away?

No. I am an agnostic atheist. So I am not saying this.

@fmf said
No. It wasn't a choice. It wasn't a decision. We went over this at length when you were posting in 2018.

You’re dodging. This is what you do when cornered. You say it’s all been talked about before and then you start pool whizzing.

Face it - you chose to abandon Christianity and become an atheist. You chose that. It was your decision.

@pb1022 said
If you did not choose to abandon Christianity and become an atheist, who made that decision for you?

There was no decision. As I have explained to you before, it is not something that I decided.

@pb1022 said
Face it - you chose to abandon Christianity and become an atheist. You chose that. It was your decision.

No. There was no decision. I didn't choose.

@fmf said
No. I am an agnostic atheist. So I am not saying this.

Sounds like you’re retreating into ambiguity.

What don’t you just talk plainly and honestly.

Who’s responsible for you abandoning Christianity and becoming an atheist? You, right?

@fmf said
No. There was no decision. I didn't choose.

So you’re still a Christian?

@fmf said
No. There was no decision. I didn't choose.

You sound like Bill Clinton saying, “It depends what the meaning of the word “is” is.”

Stop playing semantic games.

Who’s responsible for you abandoning Christianity and becoming an atheist? You, right?

@pb1022 said
Who’s responsible for you abandoning Christianity and becoming an atheist? You, right?

Well, I was a Christian. And now I am not. I take responsibility for the perspectives I share with people. Just as I took responsibility for the perspectives I shared with people when I was a Christian. But there was no decision to stop believing. I did not choose to stop believing.

@pb1022 said
So you’re still a Christian?

Of course not. What a silly question. I realized I no longer believed what Christians believe after a long process ~ five years or so ~ of gradually increasing doubts. There was no decision. There was no choice, except for one*. It's silly to ask me if I am still a Christian. I have made no secret of my loss of faith.

* I did eventually make a decision to stop self-identifying as a Christian when I realized my faith was gone.

@fmf said
Well, I was a Christian. And now I am not. I take responsibility for the perspectives I share with people. Just as I took responsibility for the perspectives I shared with people when I was a Christian. But there was no decision to stop believing. I did not choose to stop believing.

Then some outside force, some external force caused you to stop believing and lose your faith? It wasn’t the result of your own cerebration?

@pb1022 said
Stop playing semantic games.

Actually, I think I am talking about something that, psychologically speaking, rings true, and one can't really understand the nature of faith without being aware of it. This is far from being "semantic games".

@pb1022 said
Then some outside force, some external force caused you to stop believing and lose your faith? It wasn’t the result of your own cerebration?

It was the result of a long process of gradually increasing doubts which ended in a realization and not a decision.

@fmf said
Of course not. What a silly question. I realized I no longer believed what Christians believe after a long process ~ five years or so ~ of gradually increasing doubts. There was no decision. There was no choice, except for one*. It's silly to ask me if I am still a Christian. I have made no secret of my loss of faith.

* I did eventually make a decision to stop self-identifying as a Christian when I realized my faith was gone.

And those “gradually increasing doubts” (the result of your own cerebration) caused you to lose belief that God exists.

And if a person asked you when you were a Christian if you believed God exists, you would have said Yes.

But if a person asked you now, you’d say No.

But there was no decision on your part not to believe.

Gotcha.