r8thir
Maverick's Chew Toy
Posts: 6
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Post by r8thir on Feb 7, 2004 9:05:51 GMT -5
1. At what age did you become an atheist? 5. That sounds ridiculous, really, because hey, how can one have any conception of the full ramifications of faith and belief at age 5? The story is, my mother told me god would give me anything I asked for if I were deserving of it. I racked my brains and figured I was a good boy, so when I went to bed I prayed for a lego set. I looked next to the bed when i woke up in the morning, and hey, no lego set. And I never looked back. 2. What flavor of religion were you indoctrinated to believe in prior to your deconversion? I'm not positive. I know there was a baptism, but I never took communion, or whatever that thing with the bread and wine is... I never went to church, and neither, to my knowledge, did my parents or sister. My dad constantly goes on about how he wishes he'd raised us catholic, as he LOVES Catholics... his reasons being that they're just so cool, apparently. They drink and get into fights, he claims, and therefore, theirs is a faith worth following. 3. What led you to eventually reject your religious beliefs? Uh... a few things. The lego, for starters...and also Religious Ed teachers at my school, who got angry at me for what I felt were extremely reasonable questions. Most of them being about the number of animal species in direct contrast to the size of Noah's boat. Also, I hate being patronised. And that's all the Christians I've associated ever seem to do. And there's a massive difference between being patronised by someone who's beliefs are actually more thought out and logical than yours, and someone who's beliefs make them sound like a stoned cultist, so i just got a little peeved with Christianity and theism in general. But really, it was mostly about the lego, for me. (Added in later) 4. Where did you find out about Atheists Anonymous? I was bored and looking for something to do on google. Hope y'all don't mind?
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Post by AuntieSocial on Feb 7, 2004 19:05:50 GMT -5
I was bored and looking for something to do on google. Hope y'all don't mind? LOL ... we definately DON'T mind! It's great that we are attracting people from all different sources, actually!
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Kalena
Seasoned Citizen
Posts: 115
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Post by Kalena on Feb 7, 2004 19:48:53 GMT -5
The story is, my mother told me god would give me anything I asked for if I were deserving of it. I racked my brains and figured I was a good boy, so when I went to bed I prayed for a lego set. I looked next to the bed when i woke up in the morning, and hey, no lego set. And I never looked back. LOL! That goes to show you that some logical five year olds can be smarter than a radical theist.
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Post by AtheistMessiah on Feb 7, 2004 21:15:36 GMT -5
This looks like fun...
1. At what age did you become an atheist? 19
2. What flavor of religion were you indoctrinated to believe in prior to your deconversion? Presbyterian.
3. What led you to eventually reject your religious beliefs? Multi-staged... When 7 years old, I thought I could be a messiah. I was still young and hadn't done anything damning yet. I knew that I could go down this path, with resistance, and that it would be hard. I felt a certain comraderie with Jesus and other prophets I had been told about. However, I realized that the path would be hard, and might not accomplish anything in the end (being misunderstood), and I couldn't be sure if this was my calling in life. So I decided to live life for myself and for God (I was still a theist). Then, over the next many years, I saw the many contradictions and inexactness in what I was hearing from the Church and from other people. My picture of the world changed many times. When I stopped believing in Santa Claus (around 10-11?), I started to wonder what kind of afterlife there was, if any. I had always been interested in the paranormal, and had some very creative scenarios built up regarding God, afterlife, et al., but I didn't know how to decide which one was right. I remainded theistic-agnostic until I was 18. I had a couple of zen like experiances around then, in which the world suddenly seemed to make sense. I also learned to not trust my conclusions from this state the more I had them. (3-4 in all). I decided that I had already given up believing in the standard beliefs of Christianity that it was foolish to go on trying to remain Christian. I had customized it so much to make it work that I felt I should just let it go. (I still thought religion was important for a good living ethic). I decided that the quest for truth was more important to me than deluding myself so that I would be happier, and so decided to live from that point on as if there was no God, since that is what made more sense. I stopped the habits of prayer and trying to live for the after life. I became depressed for a while, as the barbs of this Religion did their work on me. Eventually, I arrived at an outlook earily similar to that of secular humanism, which I discovered and joined a year later, and became happier in my outlook on life and could finally enjoy my freedom from religion without worry. I seriously thought of deluding myself so that I could remain religious, and am very glad that I did not. In summary, my intellectual integrity and prowess (finding contradictions everywhere and trying to fix them) are what led me to Atheism. So, I went from a Messiah willing to die for my God to an Atheist facinated by life and what it has to offer in 12 years, hence my user-name.
-that was long, but it was my introduction post
(Added in later) 4. Where did you find out about Atheists Anonymous? Google directory, searching for a forum such as this to have some conversation fun in.
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Post by nonny on Feb 7, 2004 22:24:54 GMT -5
I think we should send a thanks to google. ;D j/k
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binky
Maverick's Chew Toy
Posts: 1
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Post by binky on Feb 12, 2004 22:34:59 GMT -5
1. I always remember being one. I have always been very sceptical. For instance once when I lost a tooth I put it under my pillow without telling my mom to disprove the existance of the tooth fairy. I always remember feeling very doubtful when people refered to God. 2. None really, my parents both beleive in god but they are not very religious. I find that even in familys and cultures that are not extremely religous, there is still an assumption that you beleive in some version of a monotheistic God.
3. What led me to reject religous belief generally is that it seems way too convenient. People's religious beliefs always fall in line too much with what they particularly need or want.
4. I found Atheists Anonymous on google after ironically enough attending an Alchoholics Anonymous meeting the night before and being annoyed by all the god talk. There are no sardonic smileys up there.
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Post by Danielle on Feb 12, 2004 22:49:26 GMT -5
1. I always remember being one. I have always been very sceptical. For instance once when I lost a tooth I put it under my pillow without telling my mom to disprove the existance of the tooth fairy. I always remember feeling very doubtful when people refered to God. I did that, too.
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Post by AuntieSocial on Feb 13, 2004 20:49:00 GMT -5
I found Atheists Anonymous on google after ironically enough attending an Alchoholics Anonymous meeting the night before and being annoyed by all the god talk. There are no sardonic smileys up there. A new advantage to the similarity in names ... cool! Welcome, blinky. I'm not going to assume that you are in need of the services of Alcoholics Anonymous, but if you are (or anyone else reading this thread is), you may want to check out Save Our Selves, a secular alternative to 12-step programs.
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carly
Maverick's Chew Toy
Posts: 2
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Post by carly on Feb 22, 2004 12:39:00 GMT -5
Since this is thread asks a lot of the questions we are often curious about when meeting an atheist for the first time, I thought I would bring this over to the board ... The original post can be found hereMaverick's QuestionsLet's stir up some discussion. I have a couple of questions for you to answer: 1. At what age did you become an atheist? 2. What flavor of religion were you indoctrinated to believe in prior to your deconversion? 3. What led you to eventually reject your religious beliefs? (Added in later) 4. Where did you find out about Atheists Anonymous? hmm let's see i'm new here so...i've been atheist all my life, my parents never raised me to believe in one religion. they believe in god as does the rest of my family and attend church, but never forced me to. it's really hard living with them and not being able to tell people about it. some of my closest friends know but they don't truely understand as they are all theistic. i found this website by accident today and i don't usually open up to people like this even if they know what i'm going through but i decided to anyway. well that's about it i guess.
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Post by FakeNatureGirl on Mar 15, 2004 1:08:44 GMT -5
1. I was born an atheist. I have fought with religious people from preschool to college and probably for the rest of my damned life.
2. My dad is an atheist and my mom is an apologetic agnostic.
3. I never had any religious beliefs.
4. Looking up "atheist philosophy" on google.
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Post by secularmama on Mar 15, 2004 22:14:49 GMT -5
1. At what age did you become an atheist?
25, 26ish.
2. What flavor of religion were you indoctrinated to believe in prior to your deconversion?
Southern Baptist - never really bought into it.
3. What led you to eventually reject your religious beliefs?
Events in the world, particularly 9/11. If there were a god, I didn't want to worship him if he allowed 3,000 to be massacred in the name of religion. And....the fact that religion never "clicked" with me. I tried to make it work for 25 years, then gave into what *I* believed.
(Added in later) 4. Where did you find out about Atheists Anonymous?
Google, where else? LOL!
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Post by ZeroTrinity on Mar 18, 2004 14:14:24 GMT -5
hello everyone nice to be here
1. At what age did you become an atheist? When i was 19...im 21 now.
2. What flavor of religion were you indoctrinated to believe in prior to your deconversion? I was baptised catholic but was raised christian, but my family hardly ever went to church.
3. What led you to eventually reject your religious beliefs? Well when we did go to church i never felt comfortable, i always felt that something about church wasnt right. but i still belived in god because that was what you were supposed to do. my mom passed away in 99 and i started to question religion etc. i ended up taking a philosophy class in college and things just kind of made more sense so i became an agnostic. well my dad passed away 2 years ago and after he died i became an athiest. ive told my 2 best friends and they still see me as the same person which im thankfull for, some of my family members know and i dont plan on telling some others because i think i might be disowned.
on a side note: i befriended a very nice fellow at my workplace and things were going well until i found out he was this uber christian that led worship, i was going to teach him to play guitar and he was going to take me to dinner...but then we went to see that damn movie (passion) and i decided to tell him i was an athiest, he freaked out and said we couldnt be friends anymore, that totally hurt, ive never had that happed before, but anyways i wanted to find a place where i can talk with other athiest so i found this place. (Added in later) 4. Where did you find out about Atheists Anonymous? i think it was actually google
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magoo
Maverick's Chew Toy
Posts: 6
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Post by magoo on Mar 21, 2004 15:49:55 GMT -5
Hi...I finally registered...here's my answers... [Let's stir up some discussion. I have a couple of questions for you to answer: 1. At what age did you become an atheist? I have never believed in God but only came to actually call myself an atheist until recently. 2. What flavor of religion were you indoctrinated to believe in prior to your deconversion? Catholic. I was baptized, had my first communion and then refused to be confirmed in 8th grade because I didn't believe in God. I became part of a Christain Bible church in 10th grade (we did have fun) but was confronted about "taking Jesus Christ as my personal savior" while in an ambulance after a skiing accident and I said, "No." and never looked back. I only attend church for weddings and funerals now... 3. What led you to eventually reject your religious beliefs? The inconsistencies...it is not logical and my poor brain couldn't be convinced otherwise..... (Added in later) 4. Where did you find out about Atheists Anonymous? web search...probably yahoo though not google! (I just want to be different...)
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Post by ck on Mar 22, 2004 16:40:42 GMT -5
wow you all have alot of similiar sotrys to me and i dont feel all alone but i still feel alone and like i cant tell me true beliefs... or something??? I dont know anymore!!!!
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coolguy
Maverick's Chew Toy
Posts: 26
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Post by coolguy on Mar 25, 2004 19:45:54 GMT -5
But really, it was mostly about the lego, for me. Hahaha. My ex would say "I KNOW you really believe in God, you just feel let down by him." She said that to me, that's pretty much the last conversation I had with her. Working on a doctorate from an ivy league school, I expected better. 1. At what age did you become an atheist? 18 or so. When I was 25 I had a few months stint in a government endorsed and supported cult (AA), in which I was successfully indoctrinated for a few months. My brain had been turned to mush by heavy drinking for a couple years after a couple years of heavy drug use. Once the alcohol seeped out of my system, my brain started working again and my logic, rationality and atheism came back, and I left that cult without looking back. 2. What flavor of religion were you indoctrinated to believe in prior to your deconversion? Catholicism from birth. After my mom remarried, I was forced into another more fundamentalist religion. I took to it well for a while, better than Catholicism for sure, but couldn't imagine spending the rest of my life with these dorky old jerks wasting my time, when I became old enough to drive and see all the other cool things out in the "real world." At that point I looked at Catholicism again, and rejected it again. I thought the Catholics were more "down to Earth" than the fundies, but not much more, lol. That idea that a loving all-knowing god stayed engrained with me for a couple years more, and I eventually shed that after reading quite a few books, watching quite a few movies, and partying a lot with people who weren't raised by such churchy people. My biggest dissapointment of "losing my religion" was losing that really cool heaven I had concocted in my mind, and even more importantly the really cool God and the relationship I thought I would someday have with him in heaven, where he would happily answer any question I would ask. That's because I always want to know more than I know - am always looking for answers and trying to figure things out, and it would just be nice to get the Right answer from someone who knows for sure. But oh well, that was a childhood fantasy, kinda like being a rock-star or astronaut or Han Solo when I grow up, and at some point (18 or 19, I think 19) I finally gave up completely believing the childhood fantasies and started sticking to reality. 3. What led you to eventually reject your religious beliefs? Ooops, I think I just answered that. But I think my tendency to always question things and to not take someone else's word for it - "I gotta know for sure, MYSELF" - that was and is my attitude and with that attitude it's impossible to accept any religion or any teachings of any religion that I can't somehow verify myself.
Finally, I am not anonymous about being atheist. I am really proud of it, and really proud of having the humility to say I am an agnostic too, as strange as that may sound. I see that the vast majority of people do not have such humility.
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