My best friend grew up in this cult called Questhaven. It's deep in the forests of backwoods San Marcos, CA (which means nothing to you) Anyway, Questhaven was TOTALLY New Age. My friend was told things like, if he wore brown, he would be creating a harmful aura around himself and basically just stay away from brown.
The leader was this woman (I am not making this up; I went there with him one Sunday) her name was Sunny Angel. (we called her, Sunny Ankles) but their basic beliefs were that reincarnation was a fact, there was no heaven or hell, and you had to make offerings to this woman. She was supposed to have psychic abilities. (riiiiight)
Then my friend became a Christian. I was already an atheist by then, and I was playing around with tarot cards just for fun. Maybe I was a Wiccan Atheist ha) he yelled at me, "You are going to hell!" and slam the door, tres romantique.
But then he had an epiphany. He was living with the same man for 10 years and the marriage was dissolving. His boyfriend basically ignored him, didn't want sex, didn't want to do anything but stay online or fiddle with his Playstation.
Finally my friend had enough of this and his boyfriend confessed he met some guy named HANS (ha) on a chat room for *bears*. In the gay terminology a *bear* is a big hairy dude, not like a pretty boy twink. Anyway he left him, and my friend went on a year long binge, after praying to god every night and pleading with him to make his boyfriend come back. God never listened. So my friend threw himself into the club scene, and basically screwed or was screwed anyone with a dick. (I'm surprised he's not dead, because he's slept with over 800 people)
He then learned the hard lesson. That he had to rely on himself, trust in himself, no angels were going to come descending (sic) to earth, and hell was a superstition to make people stay in line. It still kind of shocks me though when he talks about being an atheist because he was such an ardent christian. He said, when you're dead, you're dead, and I played Devils Advocate with him and said, "Well, okay, you die. But what's the whole purpose of this living and dying?" He couldn't answer me. Can any of you answer it?
I'm just saying that anecdotally, I don't know any atheists who are truly happy. I know that I'm not--not because I'm an atheist, but because the very skepticism that has made me an atheist also gives me a cynical outlook on life.
