I am a naturalist, and a born again skeptic. According to Christian philosopher A. Plantinga, naturalists are atheists on steroids or atheists++. That means we do not simply disbelieve God but we actively believe in His non-existence. I agree with him. I also think that religious and spiritual beliefs are induced by impersonal and opportunistic evolutionary adaptations.
But it was not always like that. This is my spiritual path:
1) Young earth creationist until my very early twenties (lutheran). I rejected evolution and all scientific theories which denied the young universe. I thought I was saved when I was 14. I was indistinguishable from what you call a born-again evangelist.
2) During university I embraced evolution and old earth creationism, whilst still believing in the Christian God
3) Small new age phase
4) After that I embraced unitarian universalism and I was close to Spinoza's God. But still believing in Jesus and His love for us.
5) Recently I moved to full blown scientific naturalism and the consequent atheism++
Feel free to collect points 2) 3) and 4) under the common name of "intellectual confusion".
That path did not change anything about my personal happiness whatsoever. Actually, I am slightly more happy than before and I even enjoy my little nihilistic and absurdist moments. Another advantage is that I do not fight with my family on spiritual issues anymore, since it is composed by atheists only, like most of my country. However, I am a bit concerned about my oldest one, he is moving towards some kind of Jedi universal immaterial force: probably only a teenage phase, though: we all need to believe in something above us when we are young, don't we?
This is my stance about some controversial topics:
- death penalty and life sentences: no go
- abortion: like the stance of most of Swedes, French people, etc.
- voluntary euthanasia: like the stance of most of Swiss people
- gay marriage: like the stance of the official church of Sweden
- homeopathy, UFO, new age, astrology, chiropractics, telepathy, alternative medicine, life forces, talking to the dead, spiritualism, life after dead, etc.: you can guess
- Politically I am a mix. I have some conservative ideas and some liberal ones. But this is normal in Europe. I despise Marxism and fascism and all personality cults (although I flirted with Marxism in my silly periods of life).
I hate eating fish, listening to hip hop, being in a crowd and sunny hot weather and summer in general. I love our long, dark and cold winters, cheese, wine, cocktails, cigars (yes, I smoke Montecristos) and solitary places.
I am pretty misanthropic and asocial. For some mysterious reason, this dark side of my character makes me popular: I am always invited at parties and stuff, although I hate them. mmh, maybe happiness is not achievable on this world