WWGHA Effects?

[shnozzola]

My own vote would be, while I was a very weak theist at best, WWGHA has turned me to the dark side, although I'm never certain about anything.

[Graybeard]

Just as your average godbotherer cannot get his head around atheism, so I could never get my head around theism. I simply could not, and cannot, see how it works. I have never found a circumstance where the belief in a god would either make things better or explain anything.

I am absolutely blind to gods and their kind. I simply do not know why we should have them.

Churches, which can be impressive buildings, give me the creeps - I see a cult of death gathering in them.

WWGHA is filled with like-minded people who see the world as it is; we all like to be amongst friends rather than idiots.

That said, I know a couple of godbotherers and, outside of their delusions, they are quite normal.

[rev45]

Came here at the end of my religious beliefs and after the watching the members here demolish religious ideas, my weak belief went away.

[ParkingPlaces]

Whatever kid-based theism I disappeared when I got old enough to think for myself.

That was years before the internet.

But now that this resource is available, I enjoy it. Nothing has changed for me, atheism-wise, but I've had fun and learned a lot. Always a good combination.

In the real world I interact with many people who I know are believers. WWGHA is a sanctuary where I don't have to play as nice.

[Timtheskeptic]

I have been an atheist a while before my dad introduced me to this forum. It did get me to be more confident in myself. The theists we've all met were so astonishing bad at arguing their point that I became a bit more smug and made me wonder that if this is how fundamentalist religious believers think, I would not want a part of it.

[DeeJay]

WWGHA has strengthened my belief in no god.  My theism had virtually faded out and this website finished the job.

[lomolo]

I've been reading a lot of things on both sides. Probably when I should have been studying, but this is also important!

Right now I'm in the atheist yard, but the theists still have a peg and leash with my name on it in theirs. I feel that the theists who make it their business to stomp around on this site don't really know what they're doing and never are able to come up with proper evidence or even responses for 99% of the concerns that are brought up, but I'm still held back by the possibility that I was wrong and someone has the answers to all of these objections. At least, all of mine.

I know it sounds stupid, but that's what 20 years of indoctrination does to a person.

[Brakeman]

I was a concrete atheist before WWGHA but I have learned even more. It's funny, I've learned even more scripture here than in most of the Sunday school classes I'd ever been in.

[Ivellios]

When I came to WWGHA I still believed there might have been something 'out there' so I wasn't willing to let it completely go. I was able to let that last bit finally go.

[One Above All]

Other. WWGHA has had no effect on my non-belief in deities. However, it has provided me with knowledge of many things, including arguments against the existence of deities, and why every argument (that I've ever heard) for the existence of deities is a poor argument at best.

[Emily]

Having been an atheist before I even knew about this site, WWGHA didn't do anything towards my position. However, like Lucifer and Brakeman, I have learned a great deal more regarding my position and how to better argue for my position. And not just my position on atheist but I have also learned a lot regarding biology that I was never taught in my christian school in the bible belt upbringing.

However, this site has helped one of my sisters turn away from god, which is pretty cool. She wrote up a response to the ten questions at one point, and I directed her to a few threads which pretty much had the same points her answers had. She read the comments, started questioning herself, and now is an atheist. She's making me proud !

[victorlarrak]

WWGHA has made my belief that there are no god or gods stronger.

[ParkingPlaces]

Welcome victorlarrak. And I'm glad you're one of us. Stick around and help someone else reach the same conclusion.

[Poseidon]

WWGHA has not altered my atheist position. SO I must mark my ballot; other. This forum and the defunct ATT forum provided me with a haven occupied by like minded individuals. More than that, I have learned things, esoterica, from articulate members.

[kin hell]

My favourite is the woo woo pedal, but I also am quite impressed with the high gain distortion pedal.



other

I have learnt here that stupidity can be voluntarily imposed.
Preferred even rather than having to change position on heavily invested beliefs.

[joebbowers]

Someone checked the box that said WWGHA has made their belief in God stronger. That is just a frighteningly delusional person, to the point where they consider any argument against their belief to be proof of their belief.

[freakygin]

WWGHA helped me a lot with my argument against my christian friends.

Before i found WWGHA, i'm always hiding and pretend to believe, so that my friends won't getting all mushy on me with their religion.
But after a few weeks reading post on WWGHA, now i can stand out and bash them.
I'm not afraid anymore to say that i'm an atheist.

[Zankuu]

I started lurking this forum as a deist, first posted as a self described agnostic, became an atheist, and now consider myself an anti-theist.

[Seppuku]

I joined as an atheist. But since being a member I've become a lot more knowledgeable. I've not lost any of the tolerance I had for religious folk, but I am a lot more educated on the kind of religious folk who do harm and I know how religious texts permit their abhorrent behaviour. I've learned a lot more about the bible too. Before my argument was that it was people just misinterpreting the bible and that actually the bible teachings good things, as Jesus seemed like a big huggable loveable hippy who people believe is a God and I believe may have lived, but died 2,000 years ago and lacked his super leprechaun powers people claim he has. But now I see that it's impossible to determined what a 'one true Christian' is. Nobody has got the secret decoder ring but they all believe they have and regardless of their belief the bible will have something that backs them up.

I've also learned how truly scary it can be living as an atheist over in the US, particularly the bible belt. And I've also learned more about some of the horrors Christians still do today, things I thought we had grown out of. I've also learned about Poes and realised how difficult it is to tell the difference from the real thing and how scary that is. It took me a while before I realised Baptists for Brown was not serious (there was the odd clue, for example, why would a raging bigoted Christian get an Eddie Izzard reference? Who is an outspoken atheist who was also a transvestite on stage). They were really persistent in defending their claims and being consistent, I guess I can applaud them for their effort.

I've also learned that angry atheists aren't as bad as people make them out to be and there's plenty of reason for them to be angry and I am now angry with them. And I learned how much people discriminate fellow atheists and it makes me appreciate that I've always lived with and been around people who don't really give a crap whether I'm an atheist or not. Had I been born elsewhere I might not have been so lucky, I may have had to keep my atheism a secret and pretend to dig this God guy.

[edit] Just submitted my 'other' vote. It's interesting to see where the votes went. Particularly the first one, I remember seeing someone claim that what we do here is pointless because we're never going to convince people. Though I do not remember the quote nor who said it - might have been the mailbag, I dunno.

[velkyn]

was an atheist before finding WWGHA.   But it has given me some nicely argued points to use. 

[Traveler]

Someone checked the box that said WWGHA has made their belief in God stronger. That is just a frighteningly delusional person, to the point where they consider any argument against their belief to be proof of their belief.

I have a different theory, although yours certainly has merit. Some people who come here think we're mean. I can easily see a theist coming here, seeing the more vehement posts, concluding atheists are meanies, and not really getting to the meat of the discussion.

[gonegolfing]

Other.

WWGHA has given me the opportunity to learn. The posters here and the knowledge that is brought to the table, has helped me to strengthen my arguments in support of my atheist position and better understand the faults that are in theistic thinking and the harmful religious doctrines of my former christian life.

In the past and along the way as an atheist, I've had to be corrected on occasion by my comrades and for that I'm thankful as it only helped to serve me better in my thinking and strengthening my defense of the atheist position. It's a honorable position that should be guarded as it is truly the only correct moral and intellectually honest position in life that's worthwhile being in.

"Tips his Hat" to the fine people at WWGHA

[Kimberly]

WWGHA has helped changed my position from theist to atheist.

WWGHA Version 1.0 helped me deconvert.

[Zankuu]

WWGHA has helped changed my position from theist to atheist.

WWGHA Version 1.0 helped me deconvert.

Kim, out of curiosity was it the info off the main site or arguments from specific members from the old forum?

[Kimberly]

Zankuu

It was many countless nights arguing with members. Most of it was pretty hostile but there were a few who were kind to me in my early days. I think it was those people who helped me the most.

We often forget how hard it is to understand the messages we are telling theists. It's not that I didn't want to understand those who were hostile, it was that my mind could not get around their messages because I was too busy working about their perceived attack on my character... The people who took the time to walk me through the "new" thought processes were the ones who I considered to be the most helpful.

I've actually read very little of the main website's data. I will say that actually reading the bible helped a lot too. I had never really done it as a theist. And then there was also http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/ ; that site helped answer a lot of questions I had.