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Voltaire
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(Date Posted:07/23/2006 20:08:07)
Welcome to Walk Aaway; I really like your introduction because it proves once again what I've believed ever since I became an Atheist: If you want to lose your faith, study your Bible rigorously. That's how it happened to me and quite a few other people.
I believe it is necessary to counteract the religious culture we live in.
Quite so, but it's always difficult because the religious simly don't understand or refuse to understand what we are referring to.
have not had the ability to tell my fundamentalist parents yet, and they are still trying to get me and my family back into church.
I always find this interesting in that it seems the entire goal of Christians is simply to get you to attend church regularly. Nothing else seems to matter; just start going to church.
The have even tried to brain wash my children telling them angels and such exist and that jesus loves them.
Well, if they don't know what you believe then they'll continue doing this. Unfortunately if you eventually do tell them they'll still keep trying in a lot of cases.
This is the part I don't know how to deal with nicely.
I came to the conclusion there was no way to do it nicely. To tell them your true beliefs hurts them deeply. But I finally did it after a lot of deliberation. I finally decided that their reaction was their own responsibility and my anticipation of their hurt was another way they were controlling me.
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Zombies, Unicorns, Devils, Sea Monsters, Satyrs, Dragons, Six Winged Angels, Gods, Demons, Witches, Astrologers, A walking & talking snake, Magical fruit, Talking donkeys, human headed six-winged beasts, Ghosts. All that stuff is in the Bible and yet they tell me it"s not mythology?
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snakechic
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11/02/2004
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(Date Posted:07/24/2006 03:57:43)
Reply to : konquererz
The have even tried to brain wash my children telling them angels and such exist and that jesus loves them. This is the part I don't know how to deal with nicely. But I guess time will tell. Its was excellent to find a support site with people who believe as I do.
Hey Konquererz (that's a doozey to spell)
That"s how it was for me as well.........funny that bit doesn't change ..even thou' my experiences were a long time ago I can relate. I didn't know how to deal with it either really.......but somehow we all got through it. My son (an adult) now) didn't buy into religion - that's a success story I think.
The other thing is that in my time.....I didn't have anyone to talk to, nobody in my social circle had gone through the experience of a fundie childhood. Even throughout adulthood.............its quite a lonely experience. In fact it still is....that part of it anyway.
I imagine the transition (inbetween time) from the fundy world to secular life is very lonely for some....it takes time to get on your feet.
And yep, the bible is christianity's own worse enemy...*hehe* its evil!
Glad you can join us!!!!
That's excellent!
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In exchange for obedience, Christianity promises salvation in an afterlife; but in order to elicit obedience through this promise, Christianity must convince people that they need salvation, that there is something to be saved from. Christianity has nothing to offer a happy person living in a natural, intelligible universe. If Christianity is to gain a motivational foothold, it must declare war on earthly pleasure and happiness, and this, historically, has been its precise course of action. In the eyes of Christianity, woman(man) is sinful and helpless in the face of God, and is potential fuel for the flames of hell. Just as Christianity must destroy reason before it can introduce faith, so it must destroy happiness before it can introduce salvation.
-- George H Smith, Atheism: The Case Against God
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Jezebel Rising
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(Date Posted:07/24/2006 12:45:23)
I still study the bible and early christian writings constantly. I believe it is necessary to counteract the religious culture we live in.
That's something I need to be doing more often. The Bible itself is the most effective weopan for refuting Christianity and the more I can recite it by heart, the more effective my argument will be. Welcome to the forum, BTW. I think you'll like it here.
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"I"m not a witch, but I wish I was. If I live I"d be a witch now after what they have done. I"ll burn their crops and kill their animals. I"ll stir up such storms. I"ll scatter their ships across the world. If I could meet with the devil right now, I would give him anything for power, for he is the only way to power for women in this world. I shouldn"t have been afraid of Ellen, I should have learnt. Oh, if I only had magic, I"d make them feel it."
Caryl Churchill, "Vinegar Tom"
"It might be the greatest thing ever invented, but if it"s invented, then it"s not worth dying for."
Taj Bachmann, former missionary
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konquererz
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(Date Posted:07/24/2006 14:49:57)
Thank you all for the encouraging words. I'm sure you already know what its like to finally find some one not wanting to lambaste what you believe in, someone telling you that they understanding what life is like outside of the popular christian majority. I love what I have seen so far and plan on spending more time here!
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Dissent and be Shaved!
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Shadowself
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5# |
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Registered:
01/16/2004
Time spent:
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(Date Posted:07/24/2006 22:37:16)
Hello Konquererz. Heh, my sister's fundy church used to run a Christian school, and there teams were called the "Conquerers". They were so small though, that they never conquered anyone at sports, and the church was too small and way-out old-fashioned fundy to conquer and gain new converts. Fortunately.
Oooh, more new people of late. Maybe soon we'll be a "mega ex-church" of the internet?
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A big revelation in my professional training was that humans can learn skills for living and relating. We don"t have to be desperate for a miracle of God to make us decent.--Marlene Winell
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konquererz
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6# |
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(Date Posted:08/05/2006 09:23:43)
Reply to : Shadowself
Hello Konquererz. Heh, my sister's fundy church used to run a Christian school, and there teams were called the "Conquerers". They were so small though, that they never conquered anyone at sports, and the church was too small and way-out old-fashioned fundy to conquer and gain new converts. Fortunately.Oooh, more new people of late. Maybe soon we'll be a "mega ex-church" of the internet?
I'm so for that! We need a non-religious non-pastor for our mega ex-church. And to make christians feel welcome, we will require all of them to tithe! Can't believe I didn't think of this first, we will be rich! LOL
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Dissent and be Shaved!
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Chirpy
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7# |
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03/07/2003
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(Date Posted:08/05/2006 14:29:34)
There are quite a few websites out there apart from this one; one is exchristian.net. I can understand where you come from about the Bible leading you away from the faith. I would find the NT to be quite exciting but as soon as I looked into the OT I would start to doubt at best or sink to the depths of despair at worst and struggle to hold onto my faith at all costs, getting more religious in the process. What is pretty ironic is that the more religious I become the more of an interest I took in the New Age and attracted New Agers into my life. People were reading the horoscope out loud around me, I turned to complementary therapies out of desperation, Buddhist followers would extol Zen thought and I was advised to take up yoga by more than one person. So when the time came when I decided to leave I had somewhere to go.
Actually my walkaway was pretty gradual. I simply stopped going to mid week meetings and restricted myself to Sunday evening services and then missed out one week. I then found it a bit difficult to return fearing being frozen out or nagged for not going one Sunday. I took some time out to consider my involvement in that church intending to return later in the year but found myself with quite a few hang-ups that needed to be dealt with. Those hang-ups I later found were the result of religious involvement when I came to the internet four years' ago to look different religions from all sides through the Religious Tolerance website. I still have some of these hang-ups. There is a lot of congruence between what is taught in fundy or conservative churches and reality. There's a lot of black and white thinking and generalisations in fundyism. Life outside christianity can be a bit of a shock and it is quite confusing as people don't fit the neat little boxes you've been told about. It's also quite exciting and wonderful on the one hand and disturbing and scarey on the other hand. However society is still traditionally based on the christian faith.
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