Finally!!! When I was 16 I read a book that blew my mind and opened the world of rational thought and reason. Within 6 months i had denounced all religion and had embraced atheism wholeheartedly. Trouble was I could never remember the name of the book or the author who changed my life. UNTIL TODAY http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinoza It was Baruch Spinoza and the book was called Ethics! I'm so happy i could shit myself!
I remember being a christian and wrestling with how to explain away evil in a world with a perfect god who is good. How did Satan become evil and have thoughts of greed, envy, hatred and ultimately open rebellion if he was only ever exposed to god's goodness. Then I read Ethics by Spinoza and it all made sence! It can't be explained away! God is good. God is evil. God is me. God is the oceans. There is no God and Everything is God! It's the same damn thing! One of the happiest and mind opening moments of my life. My first step toward atheism. My progress: Conservative Christian Moderate Christian Liberal Christian Theist Pantheist Atheist (although technically I could still be classified as a pantheist....)
It didn't have the same effect on me. I didn't much care for it except for his definition of hope: Hope is nothing more than the inconsistent pleasure derived from an image, either future or past, which we do not yet know the issue of. This is from memory, so I'm sure that it's off by a bit, but the jist of it is correct--hope is ignorace that makes us feel good. The corresponding inverse was fear; just plug in pain for pleasure and the definition was exactly the same.
