Anyone else feel that life became more special once leaving religion? (self.atheism)

submitted by HotMustard

When I was religious, Mormon to be precise, I believed that I was created by God and given a this life as a test and an exercise in free will. As soon as I left the Mormon church I had to deal with the idea of life most likely being a pointless event of random chance with no inherent meaning whatsoever. Coming from a belief system which asserted that there was a loving deity purposefully creating everything that I would spend eternity with in infinite bliss, this was a very jarring idea that didn't immediately sit well with me.

That is, until I began to read authors like Carl Sagan and learn more about the unfathomable awesomeness of the universe. It hit me like a supernova that it doesn't matter if there's someone else watching from above and putting some purpose in my time here. I have a truly priceless gift, no matter how infinitesimally short, of life in this amazing universe where I can think and feel and be. I can connect and share experiences with other people who also enjoy this chance existence. Just because my life didn't come prepackaged with a meaning doesn't mean that it's worthless; I don't believe nature has any inherent purpose and yet I feel that it has a beauty nonpareil, untouchable by anything we can create. I can give my life whatever meaning I want it to have, and no matter what happens in it or what I do with it it will be the greatest thing I can be certain that I will ever truly experience.

Hopefully that doesn't sound too corny, but I know there both people out there who struggle with the idea of life not having a religiously-given meaning and people who feel that atheism has nothing positive to offer, and to them and anyone else I just wanted to take a moment to share that my life has never been as special to me as it was once I left religion.