just left Christianity after 18 years...
Posted on: January 25, 2008 - 8:49pm
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just left Christianity after 18 years...
all l my friends here in Derby, England where I live, and my wife too, are all Christians. I would just appreciate an opportunity to chat and discuss stuff with people who think the same way as I do now. I've read "the God Delusion" and I've just started Sam Harris' book "the end of faith", and it's brilliant, very clear and provocative. Anyone out there have similar experiences to me, i.e. that I converted to Christianity sincerely in my early 20s but just could not sustain a belief in it when it's so full of holes etc etc. I'm glad Rational response exists , and I loved the debate with the Christians on ABC. You floored them!
Anyone want to reply with anything at all...
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Welcome, phoenix101!
I'm fairly new to being an atheist, myself, and the two books you mentioned were certainly a part of my journey, too. (As were "God Is Not Great," by Christopher Hitchens and "Letter To A Christian Nation," by Harris. Not to mention this very website!)
As for how similar my story is to yours, I was raised in Christianity...the Roman Catholic iteration. And, long story short, I found it to be full of holes. Did some looking around, briefly became a Mormon, and ended up chucking it all. Even then, I had problems with letting go even of Jesus' divinity, to say nothing of the existence of God.
Anyway...welcome!
Conor
P.S.: I'm glad Rational Response Squad is here, too!
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"Faith does not fear reason."--Pope Pius XII
"But it should!"--Me
Thanks for contacting, Conor. I must say I have particular issues with the Catholic church, that seems good at inventing stuff that isn't even mentioned in the bible, like the veneration of Mary, transubstantiation and the idea that a priest must be celibate. Momonism was always taught to me in my Christian days as being a bad cult (One of the bad guys not like us good old mainstream Christian types) (!) I'd love to discuss some more especially how you found people of a like mind once you'd left the church. Are your family Christian I wonder? But it's way late for me over in the Uk so I'll catch you later!
Welcome phoenix101!
I'm an ex-baptist atheist myself. My family is all religious though still.
Glad you found your way here.
"I am an atheist, thank God." -Oriana Fallaci
Welcome to the forums, and welcome back out of the Matrix!
I was raised a Catholic and flipped to what I thought was Agnostic. I'd say I was an Agnostic Theist for a couple years before just flipping over to Agnostic Atheist, though just called myself an Agnostic for a couple years before reading The God Delusion and realizing that I had been an Atheist for a long while.
Hope you enjoy your time here. There's is a seemingly endless amount of informaiton here and experts from just about all fields.
Due to not being able to match up to the intelligence and knowledge levels of a lot of people here I just generally act like a jackass and produce a lot of bad puns / jokes.
I can't relate at all .... ???
, mabey that's part of my problem of communication here on RRS ???
I was raised an atheist, and have always thought the jesus story character was an atheist too, so they killed him .... a tug a war in bible poetry ....
GOD has no master .....
Atheism Books.
Welcome Sir, another ex-fundie here.
I would say that you have chosen an appropriate moniker, phoenix.
I hope that you have as easy a time with your spouse as I have had with mine.
Scratch that.
I hope your experiences are better. lol.
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server, which houses Celebrity Atheists.
Howdy! ( I'm a native Texan )
Hiya! (that's what we say in Derby! ) great to hear from all you folk who replied to my post. I was wondering what it is like in the states, being an atheist? some of the stuff I've read makes it seem quite tough. your president (not for much longer ) talks like a belief in god is taken for granted, and over here the fact that one of our political leaders was open about being an atheist made the news. My mum reacted with dismay when I told her, and even my dad who has never believed in a creator God or in Jesus, seemed a bit disappointed somehow. Why?? What gets me is the people who seem to think that being a church goer is "nice" or that even if it wasn't true, it would be better somehow to belong to a church and take part in all that ritualistic crap. The only thing that matters is what is true. If it's a load of rubbish, don't get invovled in it! sems obvious to me...Most Christians I've known are nice peole, but they they ignore all the bits of the bible they don't like, and owe their decency and reasonableness to the progress modern society has made in its morality and tolerance, not to the smiting god they purport to get their morality from. As for young people growing up now (and I have 3 kids myself) how many atually believe that, for example sex outside of a monogamous marriage relationship is WRONG? Do you know the story of the emperor's new clothes? Every day I wake up now I feel like the kid in that story and want to yell "Can't you see religion is an evil and does not make any sense? It's obvious!"
Welcome to the hizzle!
Remember Jesus still loves you even though He doesn't exist.
I love Jesus too. He provides a bit of tension releif when i'm upset and shout "JESUS CHRIST" or "JESUS FUCK" or "JESUS FUCKIN CHRIST"
I always found those sayings interesting...mom used to say them alot despite being a dedicate catholic...yet cursing gods name is a sin! oi.
Nothing more dangerous than a fundamentalist / literal, but nothing more moronic than the half-ass cherry picking claiming to be faithful follower.