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snakechic
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(Date Posted:11/23/2004 06:11:25)
Reply to : No Kathleen
I now doubt Christianity so much that I'm no longer sure I can even call myself a Christian.Given my previous attitudes towards the entire religion, I'm surprised that I ever got to the point of actually converting. I must have forgotten everything I had once seen wrong with it.Either way, I wonder if I'm just n
Hi ya Welcome!
I don't have any comments about your story really - all is good and I like your muddleness (is that a word?). I'll be looking forward to getting to know you better.
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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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No Kathleen
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(Date Posted:11/23/2004 08:01:14)
THank you.  I don't know if "muddleness" is a word either, but I like it. 
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"Don't go, Kathleen, you can't make it sight unseen! All the words they whisper to you aren't exactly what they mean..."
-- "No, Kathleen," Ron Hynes
"Father... I've never smelt the bread of heaven before." -- Robert Tilton
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Waynus
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(Date Posted:11/24/2004 10:04:18)
Welcome!!
Don't get too concerned with all that heaven/hell saved/unsaved stuff. It has little to do with anything of importance.
Be secure in who you are first of all.
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There is no fire like hatred, no rushing river like craving, and no snare like illusion. Buddha
Random thoughts at
http://waynus.blogspot.com/
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redzed
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(Date Posted:11/24/2004 23:50:04)
Reply to : No Kathleen
Either way, I wonder if I'm just not disciplined enough -- maybe I'm too lazy, selfish, young, and/or lacking in faith. Sometimes I wonder, for example, if I'm going to hell or was never "saved" -- kind of illogical, I know, but what if I'm wrong? ATM I'm totally unsure what is right. :\
The mind operates much like a computer, in negotiating the often hostile environment of existence it will throw up all sorts of thoughts and at least half of them are negative. Everything has positives and negatives, including xtianity, focusing on the negatives is a shared trait of humanity. The question to ask is "Who am I"? Keep asking, search your mind, your body, where is the 'I', what is it that defines one's existence. Is the body given by the combination of a drop sperm from father and an egg from mother really oneself? Can being/existence result from non-being/non-existence? Can being become non-being? Can existence become non-existence? Can non-existence be said to exist?
"You are a child of the universe, you have a right to be here", threats of hell, of not being'saved', play upon our human tendency to choose the negatives. Discover who you are and then the focus will automatically shift to the positives. Ask yourself, what conditions gave rise to your reversal of position leading to conversion?
"Religious fervour never rises in a vacuum, but as a response to destabilizing forces that gnaw away at the fragile levels of human security. Religion originates, I believe as a defense against fear ..." Spong
Welcome
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Albert Einstein: "A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe" a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest us."
Namaste
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St. Thomas
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(Date Posted:12/08/2004 18:01:58)
Welcome to our place, No Kathleen. So, you ditched xianity at the age of 12. You appear to be one of those rare extraordinary individuals who saw the light at a young age. Either that or you are just very smart. Hey, perhaps both. I congratulate you. It does not sound like you really allowed yourself to be shackled by fundy xianity in the past. All the better for you.
I hope the people on this board can be helpful in your decision about rather to stay in the religion - with a new perspective perhaps of that religion, or leave it altogether. There are no right or wrong answers necessarily. But, in the end you should feel you rationally considered all perspectives. This is an act that itself is impossible to fundamentalist religion and a major reason that many former fundies find this place so refreshing. Thanks for joining us.
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--St. Thomas
Administrator, Walk Away Board
"If your beliefs are written in stone, your mind is made of rock."
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