Have any of you felt a piece missing when you left a religion?

Nah.

I was lucky to come out of a pretty secular Jewish family though. So it was never a big part of my life. The main problem is that I broke/am breaking my poor grandpa’s heart.

My apologies. Inappropriate joking response.

As a recovering Catholic, I definitely missed the social and ritual aspects (just having a ritual with other people, I mean). Shopping for a new religion was also kind of an absurd or arbitrary exercise. Nowadays, I tend to think of “spirituality” as water and the various religions as a variety of water-based beverages. We need water to survive, and if we know how, we can get it plain from the source. Otherwise, we can choose to experience water through flavorings and additives that give here and take away there and charge us a fee in the process.

I expected to, since it had pretty much been the framework for my entire social life and worldview all through my youth. I felt sure that the collapse of all of that would leave a gaping hole. But it never materialized. At all.

Instead, I felt a huge relief at my new freedom to question and reason. I discovered a new appreciation for this world, with all of its foibles. I no longer felt so separate from it, as if I were just passing through. I realized my responsibility toward it. I had to accept the ambiguities and paradoxes of a world without absolutes, but I found this much more “real” than the world of dualities I had grown up with.

Probaly not in the way the question means. It was a relief when I finally let go of religion. However letting go of religion means you can no longer just accept certain tenants, assumptions, mores and philosophies. Any that you previously accepted from the church must be questioned and evaluated since they were accepted based on their divine origin rather and personal evaluation.

Investigating social and moral philosophies has been a fascinating and rewarding process for me. One that I doubt will ever end. It gives me pride, satisfaction and confidence to know that I have put a lot of thought and consideration into defining the principles that guide my life. Some thing that religion rarely permits, certainly not when conclusions conflict with their own principles.

So a sense something was missing—certainty. But it was false certainty so I’m better off without it.

I accepted Jesus Christ as my saviour at the age of 16. So that means 29 year so far.

I have come to the conclusion that God at least as how the world sees it.
Does not exist.

I do not feel anything missing but I feel like I have a brain slug stuck to my head.

not really I was never very religious until much later on in life, my family was never very religious at heart and still arnt for the most part, later on in life I found my own path that lead me to were I am now and I have no plans on leaving it

I would have to say that the people you congregate with, the traditions you participated with together and other such religion oriented social interaction would be missing from my life if I left any religion I may have been a part of, however, being an Atheist, I base this rather on the people around me at the time and that which had bonded us through the religion, rather than it’s ideals or doctrines.

But that’s coming from someone who doesn’t even remember believing in Santa Clause, so…

I felt the same because there was something missing. As difficult as it may be to understand for someone who isn’t religious.. I was missing Christ in my life. I was missing the quite tangible effects of reading the bible, praise and worship, and fellowship with fellow Christians. If you’re the type who just stays home and watches football every saturday or sunday .. you’re missing out…

It took me awhile to get over the feeling that there was something wrong with me, because I couldn’t accept the religion most of the people around me believed in very deeply. I tried several other alternatives, before I realized it simply wasn’t for me. I joined an atheist association for awhile, and enjoyed finding there are like minded people all over the country.

I missed the ritual of the Pentecostal church I was raised in (especially the singing), and I missed the ritual of the Catholic church I converted to as a young adult when I left. But my meditation and karate practices seems to have superseded those feelings of missing something. In essence, I have created new rituals that fulfill me.

absolutely! i’d love an atheistic church and community.
i think it’s a great idea that atheists have been doing without on a false assumption that the benefits of a religious community ought to be neglected along with “religion” itself.

@ninjacolin Haha what would we do there? Get drunk? :D

same thing we do everynight, symbeline. try to take over the world!

haha, k no.. well, i think morality has a pretty common sense definition in atheistic terms as “that which makes the most sense to do, all things considered.”

the way humans function, i think “moral” ideas ought to be inculcated. (see. Deut 6:6–7 ;) i think it helps to take a moment to reflect on what kinds of behavior we ought to pursue. be it socially, in the family, at the workplace, wheverever.. so an atheistic church would be good for exactly what church-churches are good for: promotion and encouragement of ideas that seem to make sense to the followers.

only our doctrines would be based on science and logic and peer review as the basis, rather than any holy book for the sake of the book itself. not much different than the scientific method only for morality sake.

Feeding the skeptic’s soul 40 mins and worth it!
you won’t be able to open this in your browser (most likely) you will need to click File – Play Url in Winamp or from some other media player on your computer.

This is a plea for more community between skeptics by Stephen Gibson. Author and Host of Truth Driven Thinking a very thorough and thought provoking skeptic radio show.