64 thoughts on “why I gave up on atheism”

  1. ladysighs says:
    May 30, 2016 at 13:45

    His reasoning is a bit “tenuous.” Just a word I picked out of his writing ….. just to prove I read it. 🙂

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  2. roughseasinthemed says:
    May 30, 2016 at 13:56

    Maybe so. As LS says, there is nothing in that excerpt that is remotely thought through.

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  3. inspiredbythedivine1 says:
    May 30, 2016 at 14:19

    I’m writing a book called, Why I Gave Up Reading Paul Kalanithi’s Boring Book On Why He Gave Up His Disbelief In Invisible Guys. Hell, if I want to be bored to tears by theistic bullshit, I’ll just read a few lines of Genesis. “Hey, Paul, you’re BORING!!!”

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  4. john zande says:
    May 30, 2016 at 14:23

    It is a brilliant sales pitch. If I had no moral core i’d pen such a book and make Christians dance!

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  5. David K says:
    May 30, 2016 at 14:26

    What exactly did he give up? and what did he take back from Christianity? He didn’t mention putting his faith into Jesus, he just states “Yet I returned to the central values of Christianity — sacrifice, redemption, forgiveness”. You can be an atheist and follow the central values of any religion (Buddhism, Christianity..etc).- I’m assuming the book offers more information.

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  6. Arkenaten says:
    May 30, 2016 at 14:52

    It is just so tiresome to have to plow through such vacuous diatribe.
    He is merely another god of the gaps Dickhead who has his head up his arse.

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  7. Peter says:
    May 30, 2016 at 15:37

    More evidence that belief is based on emotion rather than clear thinking.

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  8. Violet says:
    May 30, 2016 at 16:41

    I’m trying to understand how a *neurosurgeon* can write a piece like that and not realize he hasn’t presented one clear thought? How did he get through medical school? Perhaps writing wasn’t required.

    Drivel, I say…I hope he doesn’t quit his day job in an attempt to be an author.

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    • makagutu says:
      May 30, 2016 at 18:33

      How did he manage med school? By correspondence 😛

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    • Peter says:
      May 30, 2016 at 20:12

      Violet the Republican Primary performance of Ben Carson has already proven that brain surgeons can be surprisingly dumb.

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      • Violet says:
        May 30, 2016 at 21:21

        Peter, you just reminded me of one of the funniest stories. My neighbor when I was a kid was a neurosurgery resident. He was dumb as a rock in everything but surgery and I shit you not, he wouldn’t change a lightbulb. One summer he got really ambitious and tried to build his own deck (about 10 feet off the ground)…it seemed to go up rather fast. He slapped his grill up there and started making hotdogs, and within 10 minutes we saw the entire thing collapse like a pile of matchsticks! Thank goodness he didn’t get hurt. He told us he was trying to save money on nails and so skimped on the number he used. Smart man, that one.

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      • makagutu says:
        May 31, 2016 at 08:44

        Oh yes

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  9. tildeb says:
    May 30, 2016 at 16:54

    Well, to be fair, I did encounter a description of atheism I haven’t seen before: ironclad. That piqued my interest because I really don’t know how his supposed inflexible non belief can be considered inflexible by him when he demonstrates that his isn’t: after all, he admits he returned to the religious belief of his youth.

    I presume he died of a brain tumor or something that interfered with regulated brain activity because this piece demonstrates all the symptoms of a significant brain impairment.

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  10. KIA says:
    May 30, 2016 at 16:54

    It says he died in 2015. I wonder if he came back to Christ just before he passed away due to some health crisis.

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    • Violet says:
      May 30, 2016 at 17:50

      OMG it’s THAT guy…I’ve read about him in several different places. I find it hard to believe the same man wrote the poor piece Mak linked to above.

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      • KIA says:
        May 30, 2016 at 17:57

        health crises and terminal illness can make you grab for Faith and Hope. people often ‘return’ to the traditions they were raised in for community and family. i didn’t see anything in what he wrote that indicated any intellectual evidence or reasoning past emotional needs in a difficult time for his returning to christianity. i’m not even sure most christians would say he fully returned to True Christianity or belief in the Bible as God’s Infallible Word.
        the book is probably more about his journey back to Faith and Hope than it is about return to the Christian Faith

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        • Violet says:
          May 30, 2016 at 18:02

          My faith actually started breaking when I died on the table during my c-section surgery for a few minutes before they revived me. There was no white light, no comfort from jesus, no nothing. Apparently god couldn’t be bothered to show up for my death…and this was at a time when I was deeply devout. Amazing how health crises can affect people in opposite ways.

          The piece did say his faith was all about Jesus, but like you, I’m not sure this was a fully traditional belief in jesus. He talked about mercy always trumping justice, and that is not the god of the bible (at least not the god catholics talk about…we like hell and damnation, don’t you know).

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          • KIA says:
            May 30, 2016 at 18:03

            very Rob Bell-ish wouldn’t you say?

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            • Violet says:
              May 30, 2016 at 18:08

              Indeed. For those who don’t know Mr. Bell, he was a pastor of the infamous Mars Hill Church and made the following statements:

              In his writings, Bell says “I affirm the truth anywhere in any religious system, in any worldview. If it’s true, it belongs to God.”[25]
              Bell says, “This is not just the same old message with new methods. We’re rediscovering Christianity as an Eastern religion, as a way of life.

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          • KIA says:
            May 30, 2016 at 18:10

            i started questioning when my dad passed in 2010. he was the best and kindest and most moral man i’d ever been priveledged to meet. but he was not a believer. he often feared ‘going to the wrong place, michael’ (catholic fear mongering during his conversion to RCC to marry my mom in 1960) but he just couldn’t place his faith in jesus. my faith told me he was going to hell without jesus and all my closest friends all wanted to do was ‘save his soul’ rather than just be there for him and my family. vultures… it wasn’t their fault really. i did the same for (to) other families before as a minister. i started seeing. that’s where the battle began for me.

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            • Violet says:
              May 30, 2016 at 18:14

              I also contributed to hell and fear mongering to unbelievers when I was a catholic. It is what we’re trained to do. I feel terrible shame over it now.

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          • Peter says:
            May 30, 2016 at 20:32

            Yes Violet, so many people cite their ‘experience’ as the basis of belief. But what about those of us who have not had the same experience? Does that mean that ‘God’ doesn’t care about us?

            I argued this point with Bruce (GMF) as usual he could not answer. All he could do is go back to his experience as evidence. In the case of GMF, even his wife does not believe, so if she won’t accept his testimony of a changed life, why on earth should we.

            Throughout my Christian life I always sought those wonderful supernatural experiences that one reads about in biographies. For years I assumed it must be my fault.

            One Pastor, who was a mentor for me, told me he had a Near Death Experience, he met Jesus who said he could stay in heaven but that he (Jesus) would prefer that he return as he had more work for him to do. Interestingly after a later meeting this pastor thanked me for helping to boost his faith. Now if he really saw JEsus face to face, that comment seemed most odd.

            For the longest time I really thought NDE’s were the closest thing there was to ‘proof’ of Christianity. However when I looked into them in a bit more depth I came to see that it was not so.

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            • Violet says:
              May 30, 2016 at 21:12

              As someone who had many, ahem, “supernatural” experiences from god, you’re gifted to NOT share in the ability of epic self delusion. It was so, so harmful to me, and to the other people I thought god sent me to “help.” I can only gasp in horror when I reflect back on it.

              I too felt NDE had to be evidence of god, and that’s why I was so entirely confused when I didn’t have one. People’s experiences vary so much in these things that once again, if there is a god (highly unlikely), he’s anything but consistent/unchangeable.

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            • makagutu says:
              May 31, 2016 at 08:44

              One’s experience cannot be used by others as evidence. We can’t begrudge them their experiences but they can’t expect us to believe based on it.

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      • makagutu says:
        May 30, 2016 at 18:38

        That’s the reason I have said should you find in future a post written by me and expressing belief in some god, please ask if I am alright. It might have been an accident

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    • makagutu says:
      May 30, 2016 at 18:36

      I would guess so

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  11. KIA says:
    May 30, 2016 at 16:59

    https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2015/03/stanford-neurosurgeon-writer-paul-kalanithi-dies-at-37.html

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  12. KIA says:
    May 30, 2016 at 16:59

    Such a sad story. I feel for his family

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  13. Scottie says:
    May 31, 2016 at 02:51

    I just wanted to put in my .02 cents worth.. I had a Near Death Experience. I have documented it on my own blog, and on others as response to their posts. The truth told, I was an abused boy suffering malnutrition. I was so weak I collapsed, and went unconscious. What saved me was my dear grandfather had me that day, and he rushed me to the hospital, and they put me in the ICU, and then I died. I did not have a religious NDE but it was something. Maybe it was my brain trying its last to make sense of things, The truth be told it could have been explained by so many medical things that are known today. Now I stand by what I felt and experienced, but I want it clearly known that in no way was any deity involved. It was life, it was the doctors and the nurses and the other wonderful hospital workers who got my heart going again, that got air in my lungs, that did the things they were trained to do by the know medical science. I did not need a God, I had People who used their natural intelligence and skill. I am alive today not due to a deity , but by the skill of humans. Hugs

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