Stephen Fry was right - my life is better without God and religion

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At the end of this interview, Stephen Fry said this about God:

“Once you banish him, your life becomes more simpler, cleaner and purer”

Here is that interview:

I can attest to the truth of this statement. Once I have banished the belief in God, Gods or other type of supernatural being or entities, and thereby, banished religion from my life, I have since found a greater sense of calm and peace, as well as happiness, which itself is calm and peaceful. I am MUCH less angry and emotionally reactive, and more full of compassion and sympathy for the suffering of my fellow creatures, be they human or otherwise.

Getting rid of the belief in God, Gods or other type of supernatural being or entities, and thereby, banished religion from my life has been the BEST decision I have ever made.

I remember the day I was overcome by a HUGE sense of peace, calm and happiness…it was a couple of weeks ago, but occurred the day after I made the conscious decision to no longer believe in God, Gods or other type of supernatural being or entities, and thereby, kick religion out of my life. I have never felt so good.

It was, as if I had a spiritual awakening…….

There does remain some residual items that need to be done away with, which is normally the task remaining after one has some sort of spiritual awakening or opening - the elimination of old habits, patterns and conditioning (i.e., samskaras and vasanas in Hinduism), which I am currently working on, even as I type this message.

But the notion of ever going back to believing in God, Gods or other type of supernatural being or entities; and in turn, going back to organized religion, is gone. I am happier, calmer and more peaceful as a non-believer. I do take an agnostic position on a lot of things, including on the question of God’s existence or nonexistence, but such matter really do not bother me enough to engage in them.

So these theists, who come on here and try to convert us to their God and religion, no longer have any “truck” with me. Then again they have failed, time and again, to make a solid, coherent case, as it is.

Anyways…I just wanted to share my story with you all, and hope that you are doing well, and are safe.

  • Neerav
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I am in the same position. Once I realized I was an atheist, and after a gradual acclimation, fear left me.

I don’t want to die, yet death does not frighten me. I do not cower when pondering hell. But along with casting off fear, my appreciation in all things has grown trememously.

I look out my window, I see the bright sunshine, and with my understanding of physics, know that the sunlight is the result of insane pressures and temperatures from inside the sun. I know the odds of my existence are insanely low, yet I am here. And I give thanks, not to some imaginary sky friend, but to physics and the odds I am here to appreciate everything around me.

There is very little I take for granted. And that is something I did a lot as a theist.

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To me, I have no idea what awaits us after we die. Do we go to some afterlife, or do we dissolve into Nothingness and cease to exist? On this issue, I am curious, and hold an agnostic position.

I also no longer fear Hell or eternal torment in Hell. I no longer paranoid that God, or some evil and malevolent being, such as the Devil or Satan, is trying to ruin my life by punishing me or making me suffer; and is deliberately keeping me from attaining nirvana and spiritual enlightenment. All that is gone and done away with…never to bother me ever again. What a relief!

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samskaras Karmic inheritance of mental and emotional patterns— through which we cycle over and over again during our many lives.
Vāsanā Karmic imprint that influences the present.

PLEASE! One of the most horrific teachings on the planet. Completely responsible for the cast system and the systematic butchery of little girls all across Asia for no other reason than families wanted boys and having a girl baby was bad Karma and due to something evil the wife had done. You can not tell me you are having trouble getting over such bullshit.

Women are second class and made to serve men because it is their Karma. Children born defective are hidden away because the family who has a deformed child does not want to embarrass themselves by showing the child to their neighbors. Then everyone would know they were bad people in a past life. Better to ship the child secretly off to the salt mines or orchards where they can grow up illiterate and at least provide a social function.

Karma - Seriously - You have trouble getting over Karma… The only reason to do good is so that good will cycle back to you.

To believe in Karma is to believe that rape victims deserve what happens to them. That amputees deserved to lose their legs. That those poor people under the care of the loving sister Mary the Butcher Theresa deserved to dies horribly of commonly curable conditions. Hitler was not only necessary for the world but deserved according to Karmic law and every damn Jew deserved exactly what they got.

ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE? HOW DOES ANY RATIONAL PERSON HOLD ON TO “KARMA?”

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Just to be clear…….when I referred to “samskaras” and “vasanas”, that is related to the religious stuff, that I was indoctrinated to believe by my family, culture, society. So the reference, here, is to religious programming and indoctrination (what you call, “brainwashing”), which I am currently in the process of eliminating from my mind.

I hope that clarifies what I mean. Apologies for any confusion that I might have caused.

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@Cognostic Just to be clear…….when I referred to “samskaras” and “vasanas”, that is related to the religious stuff, that I was indoctrinated to believe by my family, culture, society. So the reference, here, is to religious programming and indoctrination (what you call, “brainwashing”), which I am currently in the process of eliminating from my mind.

I hope that clarifies what I mean. Apologies for any confusion that I might have caused.

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What in the hell makes you think there is “Evil” in the world? Another inane assertion from a religious upbringing.

There are events. There are fires, disasters, diseases. There are people born with defects. There are wars. There are assholes who try to satisfy their own needs and don’t give a shit about others. There are PEOPLE who rape, murder and steal. And because we can not imagine ourselves doing the same. Because we want to live in a world where free of these assholes, WE call them EVIL. Evil is merely a judgment you are passing about the world in which you live. “EVIL” is not out there in the world. It lives in your own head. And it is from your own head that you push it into the world in which you live.

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LOL… You keep talking and I will keep pointing out the utter and complete bullshit.

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@Cognostic Evil is just a label, but a useful label for the sake of convenience, even though it is purely subjective (differs from person to person), so I would not dismiss it altogether.

But using karma as a reason to rationalize, justify or excuse the stuff that goes on in the world, which causes so much needless pain, unhappiness and suffering…unacceptable. If the roles were reverse, the religious believers would be crying foul, wouldn’t they?

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@Cognostic I much prefer that. The quicker you get rid of BS from me, the better I feel. Whatever religious programming remains, needs to be gone. I have no more use for it.

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@Cognostic You forgot to mention that what we call “good” and “evil” are subjective judgements, and not objective realties, that have any absolute existence, which is the mistake that theists and religious believers keep making. That is why people left Buddhism as well…because they thought karma was some sort of “Cosmic Judge”, or more specifically, “Cosmic Santa Claus”.

Ah…more useless programming to get rid of. The more I can get rid of this stuff, the merrier.

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Karma does not justify shit. It is a completely unjustified assertion with nothing what so ever backing up its claims.

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Cognostic practices tough love on some of us. He has done it for me, and in the end, I appreciate it because it keeps me from going off in the wrong direction, spouting nonsense, and I actually learn.

Good thing I did a quick scan before I posted this and corrected a major error. Initially it was “rough love”, and that is reserved for another . hehe

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I don’t know either, yet find the materialist position the most rational, and probably right:

Seems to me that awareness/ego/the mind are not ‘things’ but processes. These processes are properties of the living brain. Damage the brain, damage the mind, the person. Brain dies, person ceases to exist. This is oblivion and is not an experience. We did not exist for aeons before we were born and have no fear of that unimaginable amount of time. Why should I fear the coming aeons in which I shall not be?

Right now, I hold this position because I have never seen any empirical evidence to the contrary. Should such evidence be forthcoming, I will change my position.

A favourite quote:

"I WAS NOT
I WAS
I AM NOT
I DON’T CARE " From an ancient Roman tomb on the Via Apia not far from Rome.

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I can’t get rid of anything for you. The harder you struggle to get rid of it the more you cling to it. If you struggle to rid yourself of it, you are actually obsessing over it, clinging to it. You don’t rid it from you. You rid you from it. You simply walk away. You don’t control it. You control you. It’s cliché, but when I tell you not to think about pink elephants, what is the first thing that pops into your head? Ridding yourself of bullshit works the same way. The more you think about ridding it from yourself, there it is. You rid yourself from it.

How… You are doing that now. You are building new idea and new thoughts that can come to the surface along with the old stuff. When the old thought of Karma pops up, you should also see, pain, suffering, cast systems, injustice, and ignorance accompanying it. You will never “get rid” of it. Instead, you will add to it. The new information will get added to what you already know. What you already know will eventually end up supporting that which you will learn. (At this point you may not see how your early beliefs can support what you are currently learning as you want to throw the stuff you currently know out; however, take it from a long time Atheist, all that religious shit you know, will eventually serve you well. I am certain other atheists who have recovered from their religious BS feel exactly the same.) You are, your life experiences.

To this very day, if anyone mentions the word god, my brain immediately jumps to the Biblical God of Christianity and then a flood of early religious experiences. I know exactly what they are talking about. Well, until they say they are Hindu. (I’ve got an entire set of suppositions for Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, and Krishna Consciousness. ) I was lucky enough to be the Counselor for about 350 students at an international business school here in Korea.

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For sure, but I’d phrase it more like:
True/false/right/wrong I don’t care, materialism works; and it works really well. I can’t think of any modern marvel that isn’t heavily dependent on reductionist/materialism philosophies.

It works so well, that you should question the sanity of anyone who dismisses it out of hand.

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Are you saying the Buddha was right when he said “drop it” ?

Buddhist parable:

Two monks were travelling. Came to a small river where they found a beautiful young woman crying.

Elder monk asks “What’s wrong?”
Girl “I’m going to a wedding, but if I wade across the river I’ll ruin my clothes”
Monk “Climb onto my shoulders”
The girl did so and the monk carried her across the river. The girl then went in a different direction.

After a couple of hours the elder monk noticed that his companion seemed unhappy.
Elder monk “What’s the matter?”
The younger monk fumed; “I think it’s disgraceful! The way you carried that girl across the river, so unseemly!”
Elder monk ; " Are you still carrying her? I left her at the river"

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A favorite of mine as well. We do carry so much baggage.

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