Nick Marion
A&P
Post #1
What I want to talk about is the fear of being wrong. I cant speak for all people, only myself, but considering the amount of people on this Earth, I doubt that I am the only person that feels this way. One of the main things that had, and continues to in a much smaller degree, to this day, stop me from fully committing to and accepting atheism is the fear of being wrong. Unlike a test in class, where the worst that comes from being wrong is a low grade and possibly repeating the course, being wrong about this has possibly eternal consequences. Being born and raised in a christian household, I was always taught that the punishment for not accepting christ as my lord and savior and living in a way that pleases him meant eternal damnation. My soul would not be accepted into heaven, but instead cast down into the fiery pits of hell, burning for all eternity. I have been burned by steam, too hot glass plates, and even touching the ire in a stove that was set at 400 degrees. All of these these things were extremely painful to me. And yet, none of these can compare to being burned alive for even a few seconds, let alone eternity. When the stakes are this high, the last thing one wants to be is wrong. Even when your mind and common sense tells you this is not true. Even when the overwhelming evidence points toward it not being true. Even then, out of fear of being wrong and having to accept those consequences in the afterlife, I refuse to fully commit either way. The older I get though, and the more comfortable I become in my own skin as a man, the less the fear affects me. I feel more confident in my decisions and accepting what come from them. So to any one who feels the way I do, know that it is ok. Know that it is normal. Know that one day, you will grow into the person you know that you are.
It is perfectly normal for small children to believe what they're told by trusted adults... even when the trusted adults are passing along irrational fears first acquired in their own pre-rational childhoods from earlier trusted adults. No less a genius than Blaise Pascal entertained the same irrational fears. Spending time in the company of rational, freethinking adults who've turned the page on that unfortunate chapter of childhood - as we did this semester - is a pretty effective antidote. Intellectual courage defeats fear. You can get more of that in the best exemplars of our philosophical inheritance, including the likes of Spinoza and Jefferson. Good luck, Nick!
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