Heya...
Offline Hey, n00b here. Just thought I'd introduce myself.
Okay, so I was raised in church. While it wasn't all bad all the time, it was mostly a big ball of crap, pretty much. I mean, I was in the hospital a lot as a kid, and the people at church always thought that my family was just awful because of my disabilities. I mean, obviously God didn't heal me for a reason, right? I even had a pastor tell my dad that the reason I had problems was because he didn't have enough faith. Another leader from the same church cheated my dad out of a bunch of money. The same guy ripped off a bunch of missionaries, and the church never called him out for it. I went to a small youth group for years, and not once did anyone come to visit me when I was in the hospital, but you should have seen those bastards when the popular girl sprained her arm in a car crash.
And all that's just the tip of the iceburg. Really, church made my life about a hundred times suckier than it would have been. Maybe it had just as much to do with the crappy town I lived in, but anyway, I don't have fond memories of my old Christian days, and I don't go to church anymore. On the rare occasion that I do go with a family member, it's an extremely depressing experience.
The point of all of this is, of course, is that I'm not crazy about Christianity. I stopped calling myself a Christian a couple of years ago, and while I would still more or less classify myself as a theist, there's a lot in Christianity that I think is just plain silly and/or wrong.
Now... that being said, I haven't met very many atheists, but the few that I have (at least the professing ones) have really left a sour taste in my mouth, because they reminded me so much of the Christians I grew up with. I mean, obviously their beliefs are completely different, but their methods were very similar. I mean, I see atheists touting Youtube videos with Dawkins the same way the fundies treat Bible verses. They also like to pretend like there's widespread persecution and discrimination against them because of their beliefs, just like Christians. I mean, really... I look through this site and people are like "Oh my fucking God, somebody gave me a tract... THAT'S RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION!" As someone who has faced real discrimination (seriously, I've been dragged out of a store by my wrists for simply walking inside with a white cane), I find that offensive. I mean, do you guys know what it's like to face real discrimination? I don't think you do, but then, I could be wrong, and that's why I'm here. Up to this point, I haven't met any atheists I'd want to sit and have a beer with, maybe you guys can prove otherwise?
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Welcome to the forums!
Well yeah. We do get carried away sometimes, Blind Sheep. I'll admit it. We get agitated and all that at the christians and go off and rant. I've been called an asshole dozens of times on the internet. However I never get called that in real life. Most people consider me a really nice person.
I was raised Southern Baptist and believed it for most of my life. During my 20's I started questioning it and started to logically think about the religion I was raised with. And things started to unravel. Finally at the age of 30 I simply could not believe in it any longer.
I didn't experience anything bad in religion. Not at all. So I didn't have an emotional reason to reject it like you did. Just a logical reason to reject it. So I'm coming from a different direction than you are.
Actually the atheists I have met here have been mostly really cool people. I hope you see that side of us. Most of us used to be christian and are now ticked off by the lies we were fed growing up. So you will see a lot of resentment in our write ups against religion. But we're not total dicks, Blind Sheep. Honest. Maybe come hang out with us in chat sometime? I'd be happy to talk with you about whatever. And there are several other atheists here that would be happy to as well.
*shrugs*
You may be a theist. But I think you are 80% atheist already. I give you 5 years at most before you start calling yourself atheist. But heck, it may be 2 months for all I know.
Have fun. And ask a lot of questions, ok?
"I am an atheist, thank God." -Oriana Fallaci
...Aw, man. I'm going to have to make a few calls for some more titanium and flannel.
HEY, GUYS? YEAH. WE'RE SQUEEZING ANOTHER ONE ON THE SHIP. WELL HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW HOW MANY MORE THERE'S GONNA BE?
Welcome to our place. Don't mind the cigarette smoke, naked chicks and occasional spats of loud piano music; you'll get used to it. If your curious about any of the neat stuff lying around, don't hesitate to ask.
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
Welcome Blind Sheep! You have a fairly similar story to mine, in that I gave up on my church for the perceived hypocrisy that I saw in its members. It was more of a social scene, than a spiritually helpful outing. When I started looking at my own religion and others, I saw that religion could often be negative force in the world(as well a positive one sometimes), and not just Christianity. After I gave up on religion, I held onto the idea of a personal God for awhile, never having any tangible proof of him, but constantly trying to find God through prayer, and some meditation, and hallucenogenic mystical experiences. As I grew a bit more mature, I realized that my constantly evolving idea of God from "old man with a beard in the sky", to Jesus, to energy, to the universe... was becoming such an amorphous idea that it really didn't seem to hold any water anymore. I started reading and asking questions objectively, looking for truth, without preconceived notions of what I would find. It really is the practical cliche of "Theists take their conclusions and try to find evidence, while atheists take their evidence and try to form conclusions." Once I read "Origin of Species" and saw that evolution explained the question..."how did we get here?" I had a paradigm shift in my thinking, that if something as complex as our existence had a very real plausible answer that didn't require the existence of an infinitely complex deity, perhaps the assumptions I had about God(those assumptions having been indoctrinated in me from an early age, and having never been challenged) needed to be critically examined as I would examine any other extraordinary claim. It still took me a long time to slowly give up other irrational ideas like chakras and other psuedoscience, but raising your consciousness to be skeptical of everything really changes your entire thought process.
I really think, as has been stated, you are on a path to objectively questioning things that don't make sense, and are hard to swallow, due to the lack of evidence...and that is inspiring. Please read some of the older posts to get an idea of where some people are coming from in regards to persecution. I won't really address that here, because I would rather welcome you to see that atheists aren't horrible curmudgeons trying to force something down your throat. Here is a virtual cheers to your quest!
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
Welcome to rationality .com. You can have a drink with an atheist, without religion there is a whole big world to talk about, no pressure added, never had a beer myself (over 50) but wine and vodka are just grand, you buy the first round.
Could you find another webname, we realy discourage blind leading blind around here, I was told to say that. How about visually challenged four legged wool provider.
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
Kevin have you been hanging around all those un-nice places your mother warned you about, WITHOUT ME!!!!!!! Just wait til you get that passport, I'll show you, just promise not to tell your mother.
EDIT: fixed wonky HTML errors (dead_again)
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
Welcomes..
Firstly,congrats on getting out of christianity.Not always easy I know.I has a very christianity filled child and teen hood,I guess you could say I was practically brought up in a church too.
This is a tough one.I hate to ever say we're like christians,but I'm big enough to admit sometimes we can get like that.However,I will say that myself and others here have experineced more persecution,in whatever form it may be,when atheist.And I will stay by that statement.When I deconverted,I lost friends,had lies spread,and it was just one of the worst times I've had. Now that I'm here though,I wouldn't change it for anything.
I hope you can just understand that alot of us have had enough of religion,and even the small things like a tract or christian based program can jar my nerves.
Please stick around,get to know us.I think you'll find we're not that bad.
Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible
Argument from Sadism: Theist presents argument in a wall of text with no punctuation and wrong spelling. Atheist cannot read and is forced to concede.
Oh, obviously. Sigh. It makes me think you're not the one with the "disability".
Bummer. People are crabby sometimes. Some of the atheists here, are, too, but more are entertaining.
Where do you live that you'd be taken out of a store like that? What kind of stone-age bullshit is that?
As far as the disposition of the forum's members is concerned ... well, I know I'M an asshole, but I can't speak for anyone else.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence
Thanks guys, you all seem all right. I don't particularly want to go to space, but I'll hang out on the space ship until you guys take off, especially if there's naked chicks.
That's the spirit.
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940