Atheists and NoFap

Nofap stats.

https://www.nofap.com/about/community/

 

Imagine being so lazy you cant even check wikipedia. It says on the nofap wikipedia page than we were founded by an atheist and the forums have users of many religious beliefs. At the time I joined the forums I was questioning my beliefs, so a place that didn't have any religious rules was very appealing.

 

An annoying atheist shocker.

 

Some atheists think that if God does not exist then nothing matters. They let go of things like humility, moral development, dignity and ironically, reasoning.

 

"Recent Poll", 2012 btw

 

Ok.

"Seek truth" LOL

 

Well I'm an atheist (albeit a strange one) and the agnostic nature of these forums was important to me. When I started trying to give up porn in 2010 the only websites and forums I could find were very Christian. It wasn't until 2016 when I was desperate to break the relapse cycle that I looked again and found these NoFap forums. Possibly the wrong term, but for me this has proved a godsend.

Do you have a link to the podcast?

Was this in the same podcast series or somewhere else?

That is annoying. It'd be great if you point us to the podcasts so we can leave comments that set them straight.

Indeed. I am still ashamed of my addiction and am nowhere near proclaiming my reboot publicly without hiding behind this pseudonym.

Or go further, do not worry too much about seeking truth, just seek out the things that help your recovery and jettison the things that lead you back to porn. If prayer, reading scripture, and church support groups help you stay clean then use them, if they are not for you then find other things. It really does not matter to me if people mistake me for a theist (they often do).

Excellent!

That's not been my experience talking to other atheists, they seem as moral as my Christian friends (some more so).

(N.B. One obvious thought for other atheists here: don't be tempted to discount the views posted by people of faith because of your atheism. I have had so many supportive and important, crucial even, discussions with Christians here, @vxlccm and @Saskia Simone to name but two. There are lots of posts here that talk about God, Christ, church, and scripture which also contain real nuggets of actionable wisdom.)

 

This is actually something that really annoys me. I always see it on youtube comments that people who do nofap are some sort of religious nutcases that are denying their sexuality. People outside of nofap can't fathom as to why you would ever want to quit masturbating so they just assume only religious people do it. it's so moronic and pathetic!

 

The vast majority of OPEN atheists I know are toxic about anything pertaining to religion, and they consider sexuality to be freeing from it. As that’s only person anecdotal evidence, I try not to see all of them like that.

I don’t think atheism or religion is the problem here. I think it’s closed-mindedness, which affects both sides.

 

People like that are why I describe myself as non religious instead of atheist.

 

Yes, I used to be christian.

 

I would completely agree on your point here - I have had a porn problem since before i left christianity and am now an atheist. Whilst still a christian I found the treatment of porn addiction as a sin really ineffective as it piled so much pressure, guilt and shame on me when i inevitably relapsed. (I believe the theology and the framework of it as a moral/sin thing caused me this shame, rather than the christian friends i discussed this with who were encouraging and supportive). It is only since reading about the brain's reward system, dopamine, dopamine pathways, neuroplasticity, etc etc in resources such as this site that i have found myself making more progress towards rebooting, i think i respond best to the brute facts!

Whats more, for me the sober consideration of the consequences of not fixing this addiction in terms of what direction my life will continue to go in (downwards), vs the attraction of a vision of a porn-free life is what really motivates me now, and i think its something i never grasped when a christian.

I think ex-christians can swing too far the other way once they get out - like woo go sex go porn! Pretty understandable initially. In my case the porn problem never went away and i ended up finding out about NoFap and yourbrainonporn, and thank goodness

Anyway, whatever way we have got here we're all on the same NoFap journey so don't mind learning from anyone with something useful to say, whatever their personal views. Im brand new here, looking forward to the adventure!