For me, the true joy, the true wildness is of the mind. I am happier than I have ever been before. I feel like the future is wide open, even though my life has been decimated financially and otherwise both by my Islamic lifestyle and then by my choice to quit Islam and the realisation of my atheism. I never had this sort of open view of life when I was Muslim and when I believed in the hereafter. This is optimism that I have never experienced before. Praise be to me!
I guess that's the difference in becoming an atheist having come from a very strict, conservative religious background, and becoming an atheist from a more moderate religious background. With many, if not most, Muslims (excluding perhaps Bosnians and others from a more moderate Muslim tradition-- most of the Bosnians I know are pretty laid-back about that stuff), it's more of an "all-or-nothing" type of thing. With many/most Christians in the Northeastern U.S. at least, a lot of the stuff outside of the religion (premarital sex, questioning doctrine, etc.) is pretty well tolerated in practice even if officially condemned. With the Catholic church, divorce is the only practically problematic part (abortion would be, but you don't have to tell anyone about that). Of course, homosexuality is still a big problem with a lot of Christian churches in the US, and down South some of the churches are only a few steps away from the most radical of Muslims on that issue, along with some other issues. But outside of a very few of the most radical and unorthodox Christian churches (like say some radical Mormon splinters), the status of women in modern American Christianity tends to be better than in many Muslim communities (of course, these are not hard and fast rules, I'm just speaking generally).
I never found being an atheist terribly liberating. Of course, when all your family or community expects of you is that you will, at best, try to show up to church on Sundays, and, more realistically in my own family, show up for Christmas, Easter, weddings and funerals, then you're not going to feel too "oppressed" to begin with. Of course, had I been raised in a strict Southern Baptist family I might feel differently. A lot of the real fundamentalists Christians down South hate on the Muslims, but other than the Jesus as Christ/Trinity and pork thing, are a lot closer to Muslim fundamentalists than they'd ever admit.
I can admit to a couple of drunken coke, E and speed fueled orgies. Except without the sex!
Good job, anyhow. Better luck with the sex part next time. The Q-Man is still proud of you.
@ The Bacon-HatersI just realized maybe the anti-bacon stuff is due to the kind of bacon? When I visited the UK (about 13-14 years ago), the most common type of bacon was back bacon. While I like back bacon okay, pork belly bacon (the most common kind in the US) is much better IMO. Not sure if back bacon is still the most popular over there or not. As to the sausages commonly found in the British Isles, I wouldn't blame anyone for not liking those-- they're crap. Italian, Polish and American sausage is much better stuff.
Topic: Ex-Muslims, question about the fun stuff related to being an apostate