People - I /was/ a Christian

I occasionally see people tell me that I should find jesus and all of that. So, I guess this is the place to say this.People, I was a christian fundamentalist and creationist. Spent the first 20 years of my life believing in the literal interpretation of the bible... and that's 2/3 of my total lifetime so far. So please don't act like this jesus thing is so wonderful that you need to tell me about because I have never heard of it, because I spent the better part of my life believing in the whole shebang.What made me change my mind? Unlike crashfrog, I actually remember the instance when it hit me. And yet, it was a pretty damn hard hit. It was the realization that I was a sexist, racist, and bigot, and everytime I talked to god he always answered me by telling me I was right to hate.Personally, I am very thankful that I was raised in such a dogmatic way. Sometimes you need to see the extreme of something to see how silly it is. Will I ever consider becoming a christian again? Well, let just say that everytime I talk to people like iano, faith, riverrat, nem_jug, mike the wiz, phat, etc I actually see the conversation as a reminder never to fall into the christian trap again. What you people don't realize everytime you try to tell me how loving and caring your god is and how I should worship him and all of that I can't see pass all the prejudice and ignorance that come hand-in-hand with the faith that you speak of.Is there a hell? I don't know. If there really is a hell, I'd rather stick with my conscience and continue to embrace human freedom and diversity and go to hell than become like you again.Is there a heaven? I don't know, and you don't know either so don't pretend like you are so high and mighty by bringing the "good news" to me.

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Disclaimer:

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Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

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He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!

It's not a fascinating phenomenon at all. It's just part of maturing and realizing that you don't know as much as you thought you did.I think you've been here long enough to see the creationists who every once in a while would show up and declare they have cosmic wisdom in all fields of science but then upon closer inspections we find that they don't know jack poop about anything they were talking about. Most of these people I have no doubt that they actually believe they know better than the rest of us. But as they mature, some of them will begin to realize that they embarrass themselves everytime they try to speak authoritatively on something. Unfortunately, most of these people will never learn and will continue to live in their delusional state of mind.Same thing with this whole religion thing. Most religious people would tell you that their religion is the right path toward salvation and the only way to the truth. How do they know this? Well, they were born into a household that dogmatically taught them that. As they grow up and mature, some of them will come to the realization that "hey, I don't know what the truth is..." Unfortunately, most of them will remain convinced that they have the absolute truth until the day they die.

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Disclaimer:

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Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

​

He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!

Well, sure, if there is a god to begin with.But we know from reality that the existence of god depends solely on people's faith. It's like santa clause. He exists but only in little kids' minds. It doesn't make him any more real in the real world than, say, the pink unicorn.

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Disclaimer:

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Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

​

He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!

Oh, sure, and we also have ancient records of Gaia and Uranus and the titans and the cyclops and the olympians and the trojan war and the achilles' heel... Ok. Where and when have we determined the existence of god through analysis of physical evidence? My point exactly. So far, the only accounts we have of god are from the same people that committed genocidal acts in his name. Why on earth would you be taking their accounts seriously when there are literally thousands and thousands of other accounts around the world throughout the ages, especially when not one of them have been confirmed through any kind of tangible evidence?

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Disclaimer:

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Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

​

He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!

Mike, when I mentioned your name, I had other things in mind. For starter, I keep seeing you trying to use logic to prove god. A while back, I did a search for your old posts and... all I gotta say is good job for such a big improvement. But changing from using bogus arguments to prove creationism to trying to dress up your arguments with logical jargons to prove the big guy in the sky is like trading in your cocaine addiction to oxycontin addiction.So, when I mentioned your name, I was thinking of the desperation that one has to prove god. You started out using bogus arguments. Now, you've familiarized yourself with basic logic to prove basically the same things that you tried to prove back in your bogus arguments days.Converting to atheism has made me love everyone. Why? Because we are all on this planet together. I don't need a burning bush to tell me to be kind to others. I don't need a booming voice to tell me I shouldn't murder my fellow men. It really is as simple as common human decency that we should all follow. Why waste our time trying to make the "creator" happy when we can just do good for the sake of goodness?If there really is a god and if he is as loving and caring as you people make him out to be, surely he'd care less about whether I believe in him or not and more about how I treat others with kindness, honesty, and whatnot? But keep trying to use logic to prove god is like trying to use your loaded gun to scratch your back itch. Sure, it might satisfy your itch, but you could wine up shooting yourself and others around you.

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Disclaimer:

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Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

​

He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!

Mike, go back and read your very old posts. I've taken a look at them after someone here told me about your old self in chat. Back then, you believed that your bogus arguments made perfect sense and everyone else was a dumbass for not buying your bogus arguments. Nowadays, you are essentially saying the same damn thing about your logical jargons. Not directly, no. I'll tell you what, I'm too lazy right now to actually track down your specific posts on the matter. However, I will be keeping my eyes open and point them out in the future. We'll see how long before you begin to try to use your logical jargon on the matter of god again.Added by edit. Here is an example. Your current logical jargons are little better than your bogus arguments in the past. The only change is you've dressed them up in jargonic language and labeled them "logic". Edited by Tazmanius Devilus, : No reason given.Edited by AdminPD, : Warning

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Disclaimer:

​

Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

​

He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!

Doesn't it strike you odd that in every generation it has always been the overwhelming majority of christians that are at the forefront of campaigns against human rights of some kind? When I pointed to specific examples, I meant them as representing the much larger group that is out there actively working against some kind of human rights. That's what I was referring to when I said you guys remind me not to become a christian again.I think I've pointed out this example before. I'm sure there were a few nazis here and there that were good people. But that doesn't change the fact that the nazis in the larger picture represented a state of extreme evil.Note that I am not saying christians are like nazis. You guys are obviously not. But in a similar way, I'm sure there are good christians out there. But the fact that you guys as a group keep fighting against some of the most basic human right issues tell me something about the faith as a whole.Admin, this issue between me and mike is very much on topic. We are talking about me being an ex-christian and why I changed. Nope, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying the evidence I've seen so far points to the fact that christians as a group tend to lean toward ignorance. We don't see anti-science atheists around do we? We don't see atheist organizations keep trying to push through legislations to curb human rights do we? Well, this is informal logic. There's no such thing as "prove". However, I can show you plenty of examples, plenty of evidence, and plenty of bleedingly obvious facts about this issue.For a starter, when was the last time you heard anything about a christian rally or support of gay rights advocates? It's not just that there are christians that fight their hardest to keep gay people in the second class citizentry, it's also the rest that don't say anything against the christians are wreaking havoc. Heck, you guys (the american ones anyway) went out and voted in masses for Bush because he was Da Man that's gonna keep them gays unrepresented.The evidence clearly shows that christian as a group are doing more harm to democracy than not, and I should stay clear of christianity if I want to not go down this rabbit hole.

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Disclaimer:

​

Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

​

He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!

I think we all have that voice deep down that tell us we like having some kind of supernatural protector watching over us at times. I must admit that there are times when I do wish deep down that there is such thing as fate. When I do actually pretend to myself that god is watching me, I must admit to feel a lot better in times of need. This, of course, doesn't change the fact that it's nothing more than my personal need for a supernatural protector and that my mind has created a delusion to satisfy this need.

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Disclaimer:

​

Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

​

He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!