Finally found my way in.

[bushmaster]

Thanks to Elendil, I was able to arrive here--awfully kind of him.
Not sure how you folks do things here, so I'll do them my way and the hell with whomever doesn't like it. What do I have to lose?
My name is Roger.
I was raised in a Baptist home and dragged through a typical Baptist upbringing (the insistence that a child be able to orate biblical scriptures whose meanings were not only beyond his own knowledge, but beyond those of his parents)
I stood up in front of the congregation and spoke my "piece" each and every year. How many of you have spoken your piece? A few, I'll bet. Sucks when it has no meaning to you, doesn't it?
At about the age of 15, It occurred to me that none of this made any sense to me. I''d mouthed the words all these years and and I knew that they had always been meaningless. I don't know what or why led me to this epiphany, but for once in my life, I felt free.........a weight lifted off my chest like you can't believe(maybe you can) and I began my life anew.
Not long after, I discovered there were other people like me who loved life and and their fellow man and did not subscribe to the ugliness and the hate and the insistence of the right to judge their fellow man.
Am I in the right place?
Let me know now.
Thanks, Roger

 

[Rosa]

Hi, Roger! Welcome to the Atheist group.

I was raised "Catholic" (sort-of) which was o.k., I guess. I thought it was pretty silly to make a 7 year old confess their sins though... after a while I would just make up some sins so I'd have something to say to the guy. I didn't understand why I had to confess when I hadn't done anything wrong - not even covet my neighbors stuff or anything. Yeah, I was pretty disturbed by it.

And then when they explained "original sin" to me I was even more confused than before! I still think maybe I got it wrong; so Adam and Eve had sex and because of that all babies are born with the "sin" of that sexual encounter staining their soul? Is that right? It just doesn't seem right to me. That's where I started to become disillusioned by the church. Like I said, I think I must have misunderstood.

So apparently Jesus dies to remove the stain of "original sin" from our souls? It's just not fair. God makes Adam and Eve, puts them in a jungle NAKED and then wants to punish everyone ELSE because they had sex? And then sends his own kid to be put to death in order to "save us"? So that's when I became agnostic; for years I thought that there was some mystical "something" out there, a higher order or reason for our human existence, just not god.

All at once one day I realized that the whole thing was just made up to keep people from being afraid of dying or afraid of suffering the loss of their loved ones. And to keep people from breaking the laws of society by declaring them "sins". Now I think it's pretty ignorant to believe in god or a higher power or even a reason or sense to the universe. Things happen, we experience them, then we die. It's not sad to me, it's just how things work. I'm not afraid to die (in fact i hope I'm awake when it happens- I'd like to die in a plane wreck so there's enough time to experience it)

I think being an Atheist is an empowerment. I know that the choices that I make in my life effect others. I know that even without god looking over my shoulder, I'm still a good person. I know that if something goes wrong in my life, its not because I'm being chastised by god or karma-things just happen. I also know that god isn't going to save the less fortunate and praying for them isn't going to do anything, if I want the world to be a better place I have to do something about it myself.

I wish the whole world could be Atheist - I think we'd get a lot more done.

 

[bushmaster]

Wow! Being indoctrinated into Catholicism is even tougher than the Baptist route. Nice to see you made it out in one piece. Thank you, Rosa, for the welcome to the forum. Nice to feel welcome..

 

[SuperTrooper]

My mother's family are very devout Russian Orthodox people. My mother was in high school when the hippie counter-culture was in full swing, so she deviated quite a bit from her roots. She allowed my siblings and I to make our own decisions. My siblings and I are all athiests, I think because when you're on the outside looking in, it is even that more crazy.

 

[woolfe99]

Was raised Jewish by Jewish parent and Catholic parent. However, I've been an atheist since I was about 10 or so.

- wolf

 

[tristessa363]

You don't even have to be raised a strict Christian to reject Christianity. I wasn't... I was called a "twice-a-year-christian" by my fellow churchgoers. Then I stopped going altogether because i thought they were jerks. My family didn't object. Now none of us go to church (but I am the only open atheist). My parents believe in god, but are not itching to convert others...

 

[Fritchard]

It's just not fair. God makes Adam and Eve, puts them in a jungle NAKED and then wants to punish everyone ELSE because they had sex?

Good point. God works in mysterious ways. Nothing to see here, move along please.

I was raised atheist and I thank science every day for that.

 

[shalimar]

I find the fact that if people go to confession or believe that Jesus will save them from their sins rather disturbing.

It's bit like saying, do what you want, it doesn't matter, as long as you go to confession or believe in Jesus you shall be forgiven

 

[bushmaster]

I find the fact that if people go to confession or believe that Jesus will save them from their sins rather disturbing.

It's bit like saying, do what you want, it doesn't matter, as long as you go to confession or believe in Jesus you shall be forgiven

I actually have a much bigger problem with the concept of sin itself--a necessity if a christian deity is to exist, but a nonentity if there is no god.
Mistakes, wrongdoing, crimes, etc. are symptoms of human frailty--sin is a christian invention intended (and its worked markedly well) as a means to exert control of the church over the populace. If spirituality is a base quality of humanity, than redemption is the ultimate goal, and how do you get that?
You go to the church, confess your sins or ask for forgiveness and if you play your cards right, they'll put in for a pardon for you--even at the last minute.
If you're a catholic, you can even get a free get-out-of-jail card after you've cashed in your chips(the protestants need to upgrade).
Interesting how we need the church as a go-between, but then again--maybe not.
I've never seen hide nor hair of the lord in almost 60 years of walking the earth. Gotten a lot of letters and e-mails from his constituents and he sure must be hard up for money. If he came to me directly, I'd be more than happy to give him some but he always contracts out his fund raising. More often than not, the money goes to destroying the lifestyle of some third-world tribe that previously had no idea of how miserable and unfulfilled their lives were until the missionary arrived. Well done indeed, pastor.

Aah, I'm rambling now, am I not? Please forgive me.