Do Atheists Forgive People?
By: Catherine Behan
Tags: Anger, Self Improvement, Forgiveness, Positive Thinking, Law Of Attraction

People I know are really angry right now. Good people in the personal development world who love Pam Grout, Tony Robbins and Oprah are livid with the current political situation.

Social media has become a battle ground with people being “justifiably” furious and hating on each other with passion.

Do you need to forgive terrible people? How? Can you keep a positive mindset and still hold contempt for a bad person?

If you are not religious, how do you factor in forgiveness?

Being raised in christianity, the idea of “forgiveness” was always a part of life. Forgive because God said so. Later in life, religious practices have fallen away and yet holding hard feelings against someone doesn’t feel right.

What is Forgiveness outside of a religious context?

Search Engine to the rescue. I typed in “What does forgiveness mean to an atheist?” Up came a blog post that helped me understand forgiveness in a deeper way than any preacher in my past did for sure.

From an atheist’s point of view forgiveness means that you need to accept that someone is going to get away with something.

Someone is going to get away with something and there is nothing you can do about it.

Someone is going to get away with something, there is nothing you can do about it and you have also gotten away with stupid mistakes in your past.

This concept totally helped me out. Every time I am mad because someone hurts my feelings, I run this little mantra through my mind.

My housemate is getting away with treating me with ice cold cruelty and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it. I have gotten away with making mistakes in the past also so I am going to choose to let go of this person and what they did.

The person at work who stole my project is going to get away with it and there is nothing I can do about it. I have gotten away with making mistakes at work myself and I choose to let go of this person and what they did.

My ex who cheated on me totally got away with it and there is nothing I can do about it. I have gotten away with being a jerk in my relationships at times myself and I choose to let go of this person and what they did.

Any situation can be reframed to fit this pattern. Sometimes I have to say it two or three times. It helps to say these things in front of a mirror.

Try it. It is changing how I am seeing the trouble makers in my life. It feels good that it is not religious. It is logical to me. I don’t want to waste a bit of oxygen on people, places and things that pull me off focus.

Holding anger inside so that you don’t snap someone’s head off will wear you out. If you love Pam Grout and Abraham Hicks and you are furious with anything, take a minute and deal with this conflict.

Finding FP (what Pam Grout calls the divine) or Uni (what I call the divine) is the only way to deal with heartless bigotry and hatred.

It takes almost all of your creative manifesting energy to filter out rage and anger. If you are not sure that you have an anger issue, ask a dear friend and tell them to be candid with you.

Need an ear? Leave a comment and let me know how this hits you.