For all the ex-religious.

TheDude

TheDude

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After seeing what's happening in the Catholic church (Pedo's gone wild), I can't help but think there must be a lot of ex-catholics out there that are pretty pissed at what their church has done. My stray from faith began with the God Delusion, and has been reinforced by the writtings of Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. Not to mention by Reddit/atheism. Anyway, are you angry that you followed your faith for all these years only to find out that you wasted a lot of your life following a false, baseless belief?
 
TheDude said:
I can't help but think there must be a lot of ex-catholics out there that are pretty pissed at what their church has done.
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Implying that Catholics aren't pissed at the way the Church has been run? Why, that could only be presumptuous ignorance.
 
I stopped caring pretty early, probably due to this ****ing forum.
 
Acepilotf14 said:
I stopped caring pretty early, probably due to this ****ing forum.
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Tell that to the united states. You can't get elected in this country w/o proclaiming a diety of some sort. We had a black president, now we need an athiest president.
 
TheDude said:
After seeing what's happening in the Catholic church (Pedo's gone wild), I can't help but think there must be a lot of ex-catholics out there that are pretty pissed at what their church has done. My stray from faith began with the God Delusion, and has been reinforced by the writtings of Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. Not to mention by Reddit/atheism. Anyway, are you angry that you followed your faith for all these years only to find out that you wasted a lot of your life following a false, baseless belief?
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Do you have a problem with the inane beliefs of others?


I don't think I've ever truly believed in a god. But you know, being needy, I settled for the Sacred State and Government.

Anyway, religion is just a condition that can be treated with copious amounts of sodium pentathol, electricity, and sleep deprivation.
 
I was never a Catholic, I was raised Born Again Christian and ever since I was a kid I got in trouble in Sunday school class, found excuses to skip, and eventually got my way out. I love not going to church its a great feeling. if you want to talk about slavery, talk about getting your ass out of bed early, put some stupid garbs on, then donate 10% of your income to a shady organization then you sound almost as bad as Scientology. there are a lot of good lessons to follow but they are also common sense; don't steal, don't murder, etc
 
I find Catholicism very interesting, btw. You know, with the latin and all that. If it weren't so inane it'd be awesome.

Also, I'm taking a required Modern World and Christianity class, and it reinforces my belief that God or not, I don't want anything to do with YHWH, or Jehovah, or the Tetragrammaton, and other various names.
 
lol OP is a cookie cutter atheist. Started with the God Delusion? Really? I bet you're a prick about it too.

I was raised "Catholic." Catholic being in quotes because my parents were Catholic and brought me to church like 3 or 4 times. I don't think they ever really believed in the things the Catholic religion preached, and all they ever told me about their religious views were that they believe in god and heaven, but that a person who behaves decently will be welcome there.

If you were to have asked me back in junior high school if I believed in God, I probably would have said yes, just because everyone around me believed in him. I had never felt any particular belief in such a being, but it wasn't really until later in high school/ college that I started to identify myself as an atheist. The more I learned about the natural world the less I understood the reason for any god's existence. Eventually it became apparent to me that the probability of a God having made the universe and everything in it is so incredibly minute that there is an infinitely fine line between my uncertainty about the existence of God, and my certainty that there is no God, that I decided I might as well just round out the number to a zero and get on with my life.
 
15357 said:
I find Catholicism very interesting, btw. You know, with the latin and all that. If it weren't so inane it'd be awesome.

Also, I'm taking a required Modern World and Christianity class, and it reinforces my belief that God or not, I don't want anything to do with YHWH, or Jehovah, or the Tetragrammaton, and other various names.
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Your nationalism is disturbing to me as I believe we should live in a scientific utopia, without borders. But you are right about God. The very fact that more than half of the United States believes in this false diety is truly disturbing. South Korea must live in a totalitarian state though, as you have death facing you in the form of North Korea. How do you deal with such an issue? I've never been faced with imminent destruction (nuke from NK), and I find the idea of total government controlling your life a bit constricting. How is your freedom of speech in SK? Are you allowed to pursue the sciences? Are you allowed to think freely? Educate me a bit on this.
 
Dude, its South Korea, not Soviet Russia. They even have video games in South Korea *shocked gasps*
 
I'm no Atheist but I am Agnostic. I have friends who are Jehovah's witnesses, Christian, Wicca you name it. we all get along and no one oversteps their bounds. if you had to classify what god i worship, that would be Colbert, the god of entertainment.
 
Not really. I was raised as a Catholic by mom, who only raised us Catholic because she had some obligation for getting married in the church and probably didn't want to upset my religious grandmother. I stopped believing in God around the time I stopped believing in Santa Claus, and religion was never something I thought much about, in a positive or a negative context. I was never rebellious or hateful towards the church, it's just totally irrelevant to my life.
 
I have no qualms with the fact that I was sincerely religious until I was 10 or 11. As long as you don't let religious bullshit (intolerance etc) affect you and how you interact with other people, being religious has no real difference to not being. Either way you are fulfilling your basic need to think you understand what's going on in the universe. It doesn't matter if your spirituality is founded in religion or in science, you still fulfill that need one way or another. I only have a problem with it when it causes people to do bad things.

I find that in my personal social circle, the atheists tend to be more generally irritating about their beliefs than the religious ones do. Since I tend not to befriend hyperconservative fundamentalist types, most of my religious friends are completely tolerant and reasonable people and none of them really ever try to force their beliefs on people, nor does their religion generally have any negative consequences on their life or on their social interaction. For example, they never start ranting about why everyone should believe in God and how if you don't you're wrong. On the other hand, some of my atheist friends are super aggressive and militant about their beliefs and will try to force their atheism on religious people at any opportunity, without the slightest provocation. Sound familiar? Just like the bad religious fundies, their only reason for doing so is because they think that they are right and anyone who doesn't agree is wrong and should change their mind.

I'm an atheist myself of course but I only argue about it in defense of my beliefs, I don't go around preaching to religious people about Dawkins and Hitchens and all that crap. My point is that being religious is not an intrinsically bad thing - the problem is more to do with human nature. There are annoying, intolerant douches on both sides of the fence. I'd also go so far as to say that atheists are probably more proportionately likely to be so since they are convinced that they are right and all religious people are wrong and that they have some duty to enlighten people to the truth - again, identical motivations to their religious counterparts. Being religious has nothing to do with whether or not you are a dick that can't handle people having different belief systems.
 
I thought about if some would quit the religion because of this pedo crap. Maybe the ones REALLY on edge. But really? No, they won't in general. It's a nice thought though.
 
Its an opportune time to lead some of those sheep astray though.
 
Ennui said:
I'd also go so far as to say that atheists are probably more proportionately likely to be so since they are convinced that they are right and all religious people are wrong and that they have some duty to enlighten people to the truth
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Trust me, its the same on both ends. You probably just hang around with more atheists than you do religious. You might even just see it this way because you're used to the constant religion pushing thats always been around.

If you moved to a place where people were really religious, it can get really annoying. I can tell you, I've been harassed several times at bars/stores here. Usually it happens when I'm talking with someone and they, in the spirit of getting to know me better, ask what church I go to. I say I don't go to church, and all of the sudden I'm getting told that I'm completely ****ed if I die and that I need to go to church to apologizing for all sorts of shit to a priest. Plus I'm always getting flyers and notices on my door about going to church, especially around holidays. Even better is that they're opening up a new church (already have >100 in this 18sq mile town) practically in my back yard. Should be fun when they ring their obnoxious church bells in the morning when I'm trying to sleep.
 
TheDude said:
Your nationalism is disturbing to me as I believe we should live in a scientific utopia, without borders. But you are right about God. The very fact that more than half of the United States believes in this false diety is truly disturbing. South Korea must live in a totalitarian state though, as you have death facing you in the form of North Korea. How do you deal with such an issue? I've never been faced with imminent destruction (nuke from NK), and I find the idea of total government controlling your life a bit constricting. How is your freedom of speech in SK? Are you allowed to pursue the sciences? Are you allowed to think freely? Educate me a bit on this.
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Err, what?

A few blocked websites and 6 months in jail for saying I love communism hardly constitutes a totalitarian nation. :/

But still, I do think that it'd have been different if we didn't have NK to deal with. Then we would have China and Russia and Japan, and our nationalistic tendencies would have been way more advanced.

Also, I love technology and science. "Technology shall set man free." (From the LG commercials :p) However, unless I have an enemy to denounce (say, aliens) I'll find it hard to accept a larger group as my own, instead of my own people. If you want me to embrace all humanity, you'd better find me some aliens to shoot. :p
 
My parents were never religious, and by the time I was old enough to make a decision for myself, I had considered science the most reasonable explanation for the time being.
 
Viperidae said:
The irony of your using a biblical metaphor to veer people away from Christianity is highly amusing.
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Good luck with cutting out all references to religion or biblical metaphors in common language.
 
I do have a rather knee-jerk reaction to religious people I encounter, at least to those that are more than just "I believe in God. No biggie", which are the majority of Christians I know. I did have a rather interesting experience lately: A classmate revealed to me that the girl he was living with was super-christian, a creationist and a member of the Salvation Army. I asked my friend if it wasn't a problem for him to be friends with her, and he said that it was a bit awkward at times, but she'd been one of the few people who'd been understanding and supportive when he came out as a transgender person. So, while large parts of my brain screams "Believe in evolution, you idiot!", I also have to go: "Way to be kind of genuinely Christian."
 
Viperidae said:
The irony of your using a biblical metaphor to veer people away from Christianity is highly amusing.
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Eh, except the biblical metaphor is based on a herding metaphor. Which still exists. So it's not exclusively biblical.
 
I suppose the irony really lies in The Dude's intention that it be a mild insult, and its incongruity with the fact that most Christians, pace Matthew, would happily self-identify as 'sheep'.

Since this is half an evangelical-atheists-are-annoying thread now, first interactions between me and genuinely religious people tend to go like this. THEM: (some reference to GOD) ME: Oh, Christian, huh? THEM: Yeah, pretty strongly. You? ME: Oh no, I'm atheist, I hate the very idea of God. THEM: Fair enough. Drink? ME: God, yes.

Outside of the Jehovah's Witnesses I've never met either religious or atheist people who are incapable of being in the presence of their opposite. I admit I tend to be a lot more 'evangelical' in specific contexts, e.g. when someone religious makes some stupid statement about how sex before marriage is somehow immoral, I find it hard not to be openly contemptuous of their opinion.
 
Ennui said:
Since I tend not to befriend hyperconservative fundamentalist types, most of my religious friends are completely tolerant and reasonable people and none of them really ever try to force their beliefs on people, nor does their religion generally have any negative consequences on their life or on their social interaction.
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That's how it was growing up in my church. I didn't even know about "crazy Christians" until well into my teens, since everyone was quite liberal and open about different things. When I eventually learned about stupid rules, like forbidding the use of condoms in AIDS-infested African countries, I was genuinely confused. There was only one guy at my church who was vocal about a typical Christian stance, and he would try to convince us kids to go to pro-life meetings and was always talking about the wonders of fetuses. I thought he was a raving lunatic and he scared me.
 
Am I angry? I can't really tell. I don't recall a time when I came to the realization that my beliefs could be wrong, it was more like a slow transition. I didn't have books like The God Delusion to help push me in that direction either. When you get older and as you learn more you start to see the world differently. Of course, once I started talking with people who shared the same view it was over.

In terms of being overly adamant about atheism, I don't typically try to start a debate with people because I know where that leads. I'm sure I've lost a friend because of it so I tend to keep religion to myself unless I'm asked, then it's straight to my usual tirade of logical arguments.

I'll admit there are times when I sometimes question whether or not I would be better off assuming Catholicism were true. Maybe if I knew that there was a god on my side I'd have done things differently in the past. I'm not saying I wish I never came to terms with reality, I just often see religious people living extremely happy lives, not seeing the world the way I do and it makes me think ignorance truly is bliss. Then again, ignorance is just a way of lying to yourself so in the end it's all the same.
 
TheDude said:
Tell that to the united states. You can't get elected in this country w/o proclaiming a diety of some sort. We had a black president, now we need an athiest president.
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the US is more likely to elect an openly homosexual president than an atheist. no really:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/26611/So...Mormon-72YearOld-Presidential-Candidates.aspx

not going to happen anytime soon. personally I'd just put them all to the sword but no one ever listens to my suggestions anyways
 
We need a homosexual Muslim athiest president with a propensity for fisting the buttholes of various donkeys and gibbon monkeys.
 
TheDude said:
We need a homosexual Muslim athiest president with a propensity for fisting the buttholes of various donkeys and gibbon monkeys.
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Yeah, but does he support legalizing marijuana?
 
Oh man, if there's hope for this prediction, I can say for the first time, "I left the Catholic faith before it was cool" in casual conversation. Awwwwwesome.
 
I am a practicing Catholic, and although these crimes committed by certain priests sadden me, I don't let them stop me from practicing my faith.
 
My experiences with Catholicism are limited to two things:
1. My girlfriend was raised Catholic by her mom, although they were never super-crazy about it. It was as much a tradition/habit thing more than anything else. Like a security blanket, I suppose.

2. My great great uncle Elmer (who is one of the coolest people I know) is a Franciscan monk in the jungle of Brazil. Rather than a priest, he's sort of a handyman for the monks and villagers down there.

All in all, nothing that would indicate the rest of this church is exactly being influenced by these priests committing these hideous crimes. I can't imagine them getting in the way of most Catholics going to church, though.
 
Noodle said:
2. My great great uncle Elmer (who is one of the coolest people I know) is a Franciscan monk in the jungle of Brazil. Rather than a priest, he's sort of a handyman for the monks and villagers down there.
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The most awesome thing I've read from someone on this forum in a while. Franciscans are badass.
 
I would've been Catholic, but their running history of this sort of thing was an almost immediate turn off. It's rather depressing that over their (long) history they've done far worse than this (see; crusades).
As such, I prefer pastafarianism.
 
I wasn't raised under either of my parents' religions (Jewish, Catholic). As I like to say, we celebrated both, but practiced neither. As such I grew up with no belief in a specific higher power.

What I'm saying is, I don't really belong in this conversation ;o

To contribute something, as an outsider looking in, I think anyone in power has access to do depraved things and get away with it, so all this pedophilia logically shouldn't stop someone from believing in their faith. It might make me stop trusting a few of my religion's higher-ups though ...
 
Believing in your faith, no. Whether it would make you reconsider your church is the question.
 
The actions of man have no effect upon my personal faith.

We are free willed human being who have the right and ability to make our lives what we want them to be. The means both lives filled with great joy and kindness as well as lives of hatred and cruelty.

Organized religions in my opinion are manmade and therefor can be flawed.

To paraphrase the Angels and Demons movie: Religion is flawed only because man is flawed.
 
Mainstream religion bothers me, but really, the idea of a crusade, or jihad, or holy war, is extremely fascinating for me. I mean, it is the greatest achievement of the State to make men lay down their lives for something outside their immediate family. But religion gives men a reason to do so with utter and complete conviction regardless of the fact that they are invading, or defending, that they are completely in the right. Political ideological beliefs and training can only go so far. Religion takes it to a whole new level. The intent of purification, and the fanaticism of the religious man is both interesting and enviable.
 
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