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David_Gerard comments on Recent de-convert saturated by religious community; advice? - Less Wrong Discussion
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The RationalWiki Atheism FAQ for the Newly Deconverted is for people approximately where you are. It probably won't tell you anything new, but does have it in one place. (Edit: The tl;dr version!)
Dawkins' The God Delusion is damn fine (and I see you've read it). Having actually read the thing, I conclude that its reputation amongst the religious is made entirely, 100%, of butthurt, including assumed butthurt from people who haven't read the book but parrot stuff people they think they agree with have said about it. I extended an offer to my theist friends who have complaints about Dawkins and haven't actually read it to give them a copy. No takers so far, though interest from the atheists ... you may try extending a similar offer.
As for the community: keep being an ethical person to deal with, behave like a good person. Honest, helpful, loving. People will in fact eventually realise they prefer, given the option, to deal with a decent atheist than a religious asshole.
I'd imagine this will work better for outsiders interacting with the community than for formerly religious members of the community. The still-religious community members might see it as a threat to their identity to accept that one of their own could still be a good person after no longer observing their tenets. There's less cognitive dissonance involved in dealing equitably with outsiders with questionable beliefs.
That, or they just explain it by stating that god is the source of all goodness anyway. Any good "steam" I'm running on is from god, regardless of if I'm aware of that fact.
Oh, yeah. I'd think there'd be a mix of effects, depending on how much their opinions are shaped by the local Department of Enforced Stupidity.
I disagree about Dawkins here. Andrew Rilstone, one of my favourite bloggers and a devout Christian, did read The God Delusion, and did disagree with it, for reasons which you may well disagree with but which definitely don't amount just to 'butthurt': http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2007/04/where-dawkins-went-wrong-most-leading.html
http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2007/04/2-some-more-of-dawkins-greatest.html
http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2007/04/3-final-and-clinching-proofs-little.html
http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2007/05/4-who-is-this-dawkins-person-anyway.html
http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2007/05/well-that-just-about-wraps-it-up-for.html
http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2007/09/everything-you-never-wanted-to-know.html
http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2007/09/everything-you-never-wanted-to-know_24.html
http://www.andrewrilstone.com/2007/09/everything-you-never-wanted-to-know_27.html
And so on... (Rilstone's whole book, Where Dawkins Went Wrong, is to my mind essential reading especially for atheists, because it's a set of actual good arguments against some bad arguments from the atheist side.)
Thanks for the link; I'll check both of those out shortly.
I did like part of The God Delusion, though perhaps I should re-read it. I don't recall much of it being particularly forceful... though I did have a fantastically "spiritual" experience reading it late at night on the crapper. More HERE.
Indeed. Though, I think I'd also like to build up a wholly separate group of friends. I have probably five that are still close. We enjoy spending time together and pretty much just don't talk about religion. I think it's better that way, frankly. I think it's going to be important to rebuild, in a way, my close confidants. I try to avoid going to large events with the community as much as possible... but being married to a very active member of it doesn't help :)