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Gordon Hudson
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 Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 11:33 am Post subject: Any ex christians here? |
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Hello
The most common reaction from Christian friends since I stopped
believing* has been to claim that I could not have been a proper
christian or I would not have been able to stop believing.
This seems to allow them to go on in their own faith without having to
address how I could have lost mine or why I might have come to a
different conclusion from theirs.
In practice this means that people cross to the other side of the
street to avoid me and have totally stopped communicating with me. I
lost an entire social network overnight simply because I told the
truth and said I didn't believe in God any more.
There are two ways I have tried to cope with this rejection:
1. I have kept reminding myself that the friends I had were
conditional friends who only had a relationship with me because we
shared the same beliefs.
2. I have made a concious effort to make new friends by using the time
I used to spend on religious activities to do other things.
Its still not easy though.
The thing that I don't understand is that they normally go looking for
people who don't believe and want to associate with them. I guess I
must be second hand goods now!
Maybe they think I have rejected God, but its much simpler than that,
I just realised that God does not exist so there is nothing actually
to reject. It was all rather untraumatic, more like "oh, God doesn't
exist after all" rather than some Damascus road experience.
Is there anyone else here who has had to cope with this sort of
cultish behaviour after leaving the church?
Gordon
* gory details here if required:
http://www.hudson.nu/blog/2008/01/from-christian-to-atheist.html
http://www.hudson.nu/blog/2008/01/further-background-to-my-deconversion.html |
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IlBeBauck@gmail.com
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 12:01 pm Post subject: Re: Any ex christians here? |
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On Jun 14, 6:33 am, Gordon Hudson <gordonhudso...@googlemail.com>
wrote:
| Quote: |
Hello
The most common reaction from Christian friends since I stopped
believing* has been to claim that I could not have been a proper
christian or I would not have been able to stop believing.
This seems to allow them to go on in their own faith without having to
address how I could have lost mine or why I might have come to a
different conclusion from theirs.
In practice this means that people cross to the other side of the
street to avoid me and have totally stopped communicating with me. I
lost an entire social network overnight simply because I told the
truth and said I didn't believe in God any more.
There are two ways I have tried to cope with this rejection:
1. I have kept reminding myself that the friends I had were
conditional friends who only had a relationship with me because we
shared the same beliefs.
2. I have made a concious effort to make new friends by using the time
I used to spend on religious activities to do other things.
Its still not easy though.
The thing that I don't understand is that they normally go looking for
people who don't believe and want to associate with them. I guess I
must be second hand goods now!
Maybe they think I have rejected God, but its much simpler than that,
I just realised that God does not exist so there is nothing actually
to reject. It was all rather untraumatic, more like "oh, God doesn't
exist after all" rather than some Damascus road experience.
REPIs there anyone else here who has had to cope with this sort of
cultish behaviour after leaving the church?
Gordon
* gory details here if required:
http://www.hudson.nu/blog/2008/01/from-christian-to-atheist.htmlhttp://www..hudson.nu/blog/2008/01/further-background-to-my-deconversi...
|
REPLY: Could you tell us how you know that God (the personal Theistic
Creator) doesnt exist ? Thanks. |
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Ken
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| Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 3:08 pm Post subject: Re: Any ex christians here? |
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|
On Jun 14, 4:33 am, Gordon Hudson <gordonhudso...@googlemail.com>
wrote:
| Quote: |
Hello
The most common reaction from Christian friends since I stopped
believing* has been to claim that I could not have been a proper
christian or I would not have been able to stop believing.
This seems to allow them to go on in their own faith without having to
address how I could have lost mine or why I might have come to a
different conclusion from theirs.
In practice this means that people cross to the other side of the
street to avoid me and have totally stopped communicating with me. I
lost an entire social network overnight simply because I told the
truth and said I didn't believe in God any more.
There are two ways I have tried to cope with this rejection:
1. I have kept reminding myself that the friends I had were
conditional friends who only had a relationship with me because we
shared the same beliefs.
2. I have made a concious effort to make new friends by using the time
I used to spend on religious activities to do other things.
Its still not easy though.
The thing that I don't understand is that they normally go looking for
people who don't believe and want to associate with them. I guess I
must be second hand goods now!
Maybe they think I have rejected God, but its much simpler than that,
I just realised that God does not exist so there is nothing actually
to reject. It was all rather untraumatic, more like "oh, God doesn't
exist after all" rather than some Damascus road experience.
Is there anyone else here who has had to cope with this sort of
cultish behaviour after leaving the church?
Gordon
* gory details here if required:
http://www.hudson.nu/blog/2008/01/from-christian-to-atheist.htmlhttp://www..hudson.nu/blog/2008/01/further-background-to-my-deconversi...
|
Welcome to this group, but please be aware of a seriously delusional
Xtian troll who will surely try to lure into another one of his
endless, mindless, useless, pointless discussions with the goal of
pushing his Xtian agenda, gaining control of the thread while avoiding
answering any questions or providing any evidence of his wild claims
about god, creationism, pseudo-science, religion or sex |
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IlBeBauck@gmail.com
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 5:48 pm Post subject: Re: Any ex christians here? |
|
|
On Jun 14, 6:33 am, Gordon Hudson <gordonhudso...@googlemail.com>
wrote:
| Quote: |
Hello
The most common reaction from Christian friends since I stopped
believing* has been to claim that I could not have been a proper
christian or I would not have been able to stop believing.
This seems to allow them to go on in their own faith without having to
address how I could have lost mine or why I might have come to a
different conclusion from theirs.
In practice this means that people cross to the other side of the
street to avoid me and have totally stopped communicating with me. I
lost an entire social network overnight simply because I told the
truth and said I didn't believe in God any more.
There are two ways I have tried to cope with this rejection:
1. I have kept reminding myself that the friends I had were
conditional friends who only had a relationship with me because we
shared the same beliefs.
2. I have made a concious effort to make new friends by using the time
I used to spend on religious activities to do other things.
Its still not easy though.
The thing that I don't understand is that they normally go looking for
people who don't believe and want to associate with them. I guess I
must be second hand goods now!
Maybe they think I have rejected God, but its much simpler than that,
I just realised that God does not exist so there is nothing actually
to reject. It was all rather untraumatic, more like "oh, God doesn't
exist after all" rather than some Damascus road experience.
Is there anyone else here who has had to cope with this sort of
cultish behaviour after leaving the church?
Gordon
* gory details here if required:
http://www.hudson.nu/blog/2008/01/from-christian-to-atheist.htmlhttp://www..hudson.nu/blog/2008/01/further-background-to-my-deconversi...
|
REPLY: Sorry, i forgot to welcome you to the Group.. Please say hi to
Ken, my personal Web-Bully and Stalker of the last 10 years. Ken is
a retired Chemist residing in California who believes in an
intelligent Creator but whos defiance overrules admitting it for
obvious personal ulterior motives ; Ive spent countless hours working
with Ken on this charade , and am diligent not to give up on him. I
truly know that one day, he will become a full fledged Creationist
and will be in awe of the mighty personal Creator . In fact, all will
be. But..for the time being...we will have to go on pretending that
God is just 'a figment of our imagination/a fairy tale/an imaginary
guy in the sky/and that accidents upon accidents , ad nauseum, can
give us our near incomprehensible highly tweaked Universe , DNA, and
other remarkable complexities ... so we can continue being our OWN God
which affords maximum lifestyle freedom. |
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Ken
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 6:27 pm Post subject: Re: Any ex christians here? |
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On Jun 14, 10:48 am, "Trolling Webtv Fuckhead lBeBa...@gmail.com"
<wrote:
Blaw Blaw Blaw, Yadda Yadda Yadda
While Dimwit again avoids the issues presented abovwe, here's a series
of questions than have been recently posed to the Trolling Webtv
Fuckhead, which he has also avoided
From Sharron:
Please explain what is meant by terms such as "the precision of the
universe": I don't want to hear parroted bullshit about two million
parameters or whatever unintelligible shite that the reply usually
contains:
I want to hear what DiLV personally understands that so convinces him,
if
indeed he is capable of understanding anything. If I wanted to hear a
pack
of lies and a load of crap I'd visit fundy websites myself.
- So Dimwit; in your own words using your own thoughts, if such
things exist, convince me in the face of overwhelming evidence that
creationism has got it right. If you can't then admit it and be honest
for
once in your life. I await with cynicism the first logical piece of
credible
evidence in support of your case...
Dimwit let me ask you about something else before you answer, as I'm
sure
you're just about to do despite the delay: Have you ever heard of
gamma-ray
bursts? They're going off all the time at around a billion light
years
distance - So we're seeing them actually going off at around a billion
years
ago since light and gamma-rays travel at the same speed: Staggering
isn't
it; considering also that this fact rubbishes the claims of a 6000-
year-old
universe - But the main thrust of this point was the colossal
energies
involved: A nuclear explosion from a weapon here on earth produces a
limited
amount of gamma rays; with energies in the hundreds of thousands of
electron-volts; but in the visible light that we see, that ranges
between 2
to 4 electron-volts, such an incredibly bright explosion would barely
be
detectable from as nearby as the moon. In the gamma spectrum even
you'd have
difficulty detecting it from Jupiter; which is considerably less than
half a
light year away; but we're seeing gamma-ray bursts from a billion plus
light
years away - They must be colossal and unimaginably violent
explosions-
perhaps of the first stars, galaxy-cores, or sub-galaxies, to form
after the
Big Bang(?) We're recording gamma-rays with energies of over 10
GIGA-electron-volts! (Ten BILLION electron-volts!) These gamma rays
are a
billion years old and have travelled as many miles; yet they're still
powerful enough to pass through and disrupt matter - and then some.
Such
massive explosions, if local, would obliterate a portion of our galaxy
and
could even turn radioactive dust into gold among other elements.
My question is this: How does the observable fact fit in with your
delusional vision of a peaceful, tranquil, ordered, smooth-running
universe,
all chugging along peacefully under the auspices of a Jewish sky-
fairy?
From Sandy:
Why are you so afraid of confronting the obvious symptoms of your
religious addictions?
Do you see the world only in black and white, good and evil, right
and wrong?
Do you noticed a detachment from your job, friends or relatives or a
breakdown in your personal relationships?
Do you think you've ever gotten special messages from your god or
that your god can fix all your problems?
What about your uncompromising judgmental attitudes or shame-based
belief that you aren't good enough as you exist today?
How about your overt attitude of righteousness or superiority?
Do you find yourself in daily conflict with science, medicine, and
education, but spend excessive amounts of your time obsessive
praying, going to church, crusades, and quoting scripture?
Of course to you, all of this is perfectly normal, isn't it?
Or is all this because everyone else is wrong and you're the only one
who's thinking correctly?
From Ben Goren:
In the context of the evolution v creation debate, how is one to
determine that an organism of a particular ``type'' (or ``kind''
or ``baramin'' or other term preferred by Creationists) is of a
different ``type'' from another organism?
That no Creationist is capable of answering that question is all
the proof necessary that Creationism is most emphatically *NOT*
science and is, instead, an exercise in willful self-deception
aimed at maintaining the delusion that Jesus came to forgive
mankind of Adam and Eve's sins -- which is, in turn, an essential
part of the delusion that Jesus awaits the faithful in Heaven
after death.
I eagerly await the resounding silence to come.
From me:
Were you always such an asshole, or is this something that happen
after you became a brainwashed fundy Xtian fuckhead? |
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Dr.Hal0nf1r£$
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 4:12 am Post subject: Re: Any ex christians here? |
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|
Gordon Hudson wrote:
| Quote: |
Hello
The most common reaction from Christian friends since I stopped
believing* has been to claim that I could not have been a proper
christian or I would not have been able to stop believing.
This seems to allow them to go on in their own faith without having to
address how I could have lost mine or why I might have come to a
different conclusion from theirs.
In practice this means that people cross to the other side of the
street to avoid me and have totally stopped communicating with me. I
lost an entire social network overnight simply because I told the
truth and said I didn't believe in God any more.
There are two ways I have tried to cope with this rejection:
1. I have kept reminding myself that the friends I had were
conditional friends who only had a relationship with me because we
shared the same beliefs.
2. I have made a concious effort to make new friends by using the time
I used to spend on religious activities to do other things.
Its still not easy though.
The thing that I don't understand is that they normally go looking for
people who don't believe and want to associate with them. I guess I
must be second hand goods now!
Maybe they think I have rejected God, but its much simpler than that,
I just realised that God does not exist so there is nothing actually
to reject. It was all rather untraumatic, more like "oh, God doesn't
exist after all" rather than some Damascus road experience.
Is there anyone else here who has had to cope with this sort of
cultish behaviour after leaving the church?
Gordon
Hi: Been there. |
Although I'm not categorised as an Atheist; I'm a Pagan evolutionist, I've
had almost the identical experience to yours in many ways: Full recovery
takes years of readjustment of your world-view, recalibration of your
reality-meter, training in using your inbuilt biological bullshit-ometer
provided by advanced evolution, in addition to discovering the joys of
having real friends who associate with you because they really like you and
have things in common with you, rather than because they feel they have to
because you share the same religious beleifs.
First of all one has to put the past behind one and say "Fuck it" : That's a
lot easier said than done in all honesty; and you may find the Xian
brainwashing automatically kicking in at times, despite the fact that you no
longer believe any of it, for years yet, so powerful is the indoctrination.
The psychological scars inflicted upon you by the control-freaks, where they
hooked their control mechanisms into your psyche, will eventually fully heal
and vanish with time. (I speak as someone born into the faith but who
eventually saw sense in leaving it through the veils of indoctrinative
brainwashing.) It's a long hard road: But many congratulations on taking the
first and biggest step: Welcome to humanity. With time you'll realise your
full potential and self-worth as a unique individual, as opposed to a cloned
servant of a mythical childish fantasy hatemongering controlling repressive
doctrine, masquerading as "truth" whilst filling the moneysacks and
inflating the egos of the powermongers and the greedy.
Although we may have differing concepts of Deity: Yourself not believing in
the existance of a god or gods of any kind (So I am guessing.), and myself
beleiving in many gods and goddesses; "god(s)" having a totally different
meaning to me than to the delusional Xians:- Spiritual creatures borne from
and brought into conciousexistance by mythical belief taking on the
qualities of aspects of a central balanced Divinity: The freedom from the
lie and from bondage to corrupt manmade controlling negative psychologies is
what we now have in common.
You'll find that life can now be lived fully as life is really at last worth
living rather than a chore and full of unnecessary suffering, shame, and
guilt at being human. Blossom and be who and what you are: A unique human
being and a credit to humanity as destiny and evolution intended; not some
pathetic "sinner" without self-image who needs "saving" from some negative
fantasy destiny of agony; as the Xians would have you believe.
On that note please excuse the Xian troll DiLV: He, like many of his ilk,
has schitzophrenic delusionality, sexual fascination, and other
psychological and mental problems that he remains in-denial of. Please feel
free to either killfile or mock the afflicted in this instance.
Regards
Sharron.
--
http://www.kustomkomputa.co.uk
Personalised Desktop Computers |
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mark
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 11:00 am Post subject: Re: Any ex christians here? |
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X-No-Archive: yes
"Steve Marshall" <sdm@atmosBlockA.plus.com> wrote in message
news:L8KdnZxNg5_JbcnVRVnyjwA@posted.plusnet...
| Quote: |
"Gordon Hudson" <gordonhudsonnu@googlemail.com> wrote
In practice this means that people cross to the other side of the
street to avoid me and have totally stopped communicating with me. I
lost an entire social network overnight simply because I told the
truth and said I didn't believe in God any more.
If Christians behaved properly that wouldn't happen.
I guess you're in America(?) as people tend not to be so anti-atheistic
here in UK, but there is a minority of people with funny views.
|
Steve..... apologies if this sounds rude, it isn't meant to be.. but if
you had followed the link to gordons blog you will have seen his picture and
where he lives (..scotland)..
It's a pity that we do not offer him the courtesy of trying to understand
where he is at and coming from and at least take the trouble to read the
links...
I detect an enormous struggle for him and I applaud his braveness in opening
up in a group like this...
As I said, if it sounds rude, please accept my apologies, it isn't meant to
be.
Anyway, off to the IOW festival......enjoy the day..
Mark |
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mark
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 11:00 am Post subject: Re: Any ex christians here? |
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X-No-Archive: yes
<IlBeBauck@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:28bca9ba-9127-4f9a-a42b-4bb92dc8e9ac@x41g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
***REPLY: Could you tell us how you know that God (the personal Theistic
Creator) doesnt exist ? Thanks.***
Listen up.....It really is about time YOU started answering questions
instead of posing the same repetitive, discredited nonsense..
Your premise, as usual, is fallacious.
It is NOT for someone to prove god doesn't exist - or anything else for that
matter - if you assert that something exists, such as a god, then it is YOUR
responsibility to accompany the assertion with some cohesive argument or,
better still, some evidence. What nonsense asking someone to prove
something *doesn't* exist...!!!
Mark |
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Steve Marshall
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 11:00 am Post subject: Re: Any ex christians here? |
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|
"Gordon Hudson" <gordonhudsonnu@googlemail.com> wrote
| Quote: |
In practice this means that people cross to the other side of the
street to avoid me and have totally stopped communicating with me. I
lost an entire social network overnight simply because I told the
truth and said I didn't believe in God any more.
|
If Christians behaved properly that wouldn't happen.
I guess you're in America(?) as people tend not to be so anti-atheistic here
in UK, but there is a minority of people with funny views.
Some people will take it that if you are rejecting God , you are reject them
and their views. They can't come to terms with the fact they may have been
living a lie adn don't like havin gtheir lives brought into question.
| Quote: |
The thing that I don't understand is that they normally go looking for
people who don't believe and want to associate with them. I guess I
must be second hand goods now!
|
They want people who will join them, not people who will leave them. To
them, a non-believer who hasn't joined them has an 'open mind' whereas
someone that has decided to become an atheist have a 'closed mind'. But
really an atheist has freed his mind and can use his brain.
| Quote: |
Maybe they think I have rejected God, but its much simpler than that,
I just realised that God does not exist so there is nothing actually
to reject. It was all rather untraumatic, more like "oh, God doesn't
exist after all" rather than some Damascus road experience.
|
But what made you come to that conclusion?
| Quote: |
Is there anyone else here who has had to cope with this sort of
cultish behaviour after leaving the church?
|
I wasn't so much involved with a church. My partner has the annoying habit
of telling people I am an atheist when friends are talking about 'energy'
and such in the world. This can lead to silly comments that question why you
think the Universe is an accident. You should prepare yourself for such odd
attacks. If you can have a few handy answers it can help.
Steve M |
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mark
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 11:00 am Post subject: Re: Any ex christians here? |
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X-No-Archive: yes
"Gordon Hudson" <gordonhudsonnu@googlemail.com> wrote in message
news:e1ea1411-b74a-4e63-a978-0f226a915145@m73g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
| Quote: |
The most common reaction from Christian friends since I stopped
believing* has been to claim that I could not have been a proper
christian or I would not have been able to stop believing.
This seems to allow them to go on in their own faith without having to
address how I could have lost mine or why I might have come to a
different conclusion from theirs.
|
Hello and a warm welcome gordon......
You have, although it probably doesn't feel like it at the moment, taken the
most positive step in your life ...
| Quote: |
In practice this means that people cross to the other side of the
street to avoid me and have totally stopped communicating with me. I
lost an entire social network overnight simply because I told the
truth and said I didn't believe in God any more.
|
I'm sure the crossing the street is a (christian !) allegory but you should
turn the whole idea and notion about and consider those people who once were
'friends' as NEVER being real friends... something that can happen to all
of us during our lives. [Good] Friends really do not come and go on a whim
of belief. It does show the shallowness of the previous relationships...
| Quote: |
There are two ways I have tried to cope with this rejection:
1. I have kept reminding myself that the friends I had were
conditional friends who only had a relationship with me because we
shared the same beliefs.
2. I have made a concious effort to make new friends by using the time
I used to spend on religious activities to do other things.
|
Remember this, gordon, there are probably fifty times more non christian,
or non believers, than there are believers (..in the uk, at least) and it is
a truism to say that finding those with similar ideas and notions is not
going to be so difficult.
| Quote: |
Its still not easy though.
The thing that I don't understand is that they normally go looking for
people who don't believe and want to associate with them. I guess I
must be second hand goods now!
Maybe they think I have rejected God, but its much simpler than that,
I just realised that God does not exist so there is nothing actually
to reject. It was all rather untraumatic, more like "oh, God doesn't
exist after all" rather than some Damascus road experience.
|
I read your link/blog and identified many of the traits in religion that
those of us *outside* of it see so very clearly. It is one of the things we
can become vociferous in highlighting.
Faith IS irrational and when organised into a religion becomes subject to
the same factors that any organisation succumbs to - namely, power and
corruption.
Religion is perpetuated at many levels...from capturing children BEFORE the
age of reason and imposing indoctrination right up to the mindless 'just
believe' advice to adults who begin to see through the very thin facade of a
god. In here, as in the real world, the fundamentalists are the most
extraordinarily obvious example of myopic faith and belief, trotting out the
same repetitive diatribe endlessly, avoiding coherent debate because there
can be NO debate with people who hold absolute beliefs on grounds that have
been shown to be utterly false.
You would think that the nonsense (..for example) of a world that is merely
around 6000 years old would destroy anyones faith - the faith achieved by
taking the bible as the literal truth - since we have the knowledge and
evidence that it is far, far older... but no! They continue with such
assertion in the face of evidence.!! How good is that..? It's the
'emperors new clothes' ....they *know* it cannot be so but HAVE to believe
it to shore up the nonsensical position they have found themselves in...
| Quote: |
Is there anyone else here who has had to cope with this sort of
cultish behaviour after leaving the church?
|
I cannot speak for those who were once in a church...... I never have
been.. but 'cultish' is exactly the word that describes the phenomenon, in
my view.
Welcome again, to the REAL world where every day can be lived with
admiration and wonder at the world around you.. safe in the knowledge that
when the final day comes you will have seen and done all you could, left a
legacy, perhaps, of children and safe that it will be over. You will not
have had to spend your entire life preparing for some promise of another
one.......
The age old foundating principal of religion...
Enjoy the rest of what you have and don't look back into false hopes and
promises..
good luck....... and please stick around. I'm sure you have a lot to
offer a group such as this
Mark
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Ken
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 3:58 pm Post subject: Re: Any ex christians here? |
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On Jun 14, 4:12 pm, "Dr.Hal0nf1r£$"
<fem...@nospam.kustomkomputa.co.uk.invalid> wrote:
| Quote: |
Gordon Hudson wrote:
Hello
The most common reaction from Christian friends since I stopped
believing* has been to claim that I could not have been a proper
christian or I would not have been able to stop believing.
This seems to allow them to go on in their own faith without having to
address how I could have lost mine or why I might have come to a
different conclusion from theirs.
In practice this means that people cross to the other side of the
street to avoid me and have totally stopped communicating with me. I
lost an entire social network overnight simply because I told the
truth and said I didn't believe in God any more.
There are two ways I have tried to cope with this rejection:
1. I have kept reminding myself that the friends I had were
conditional friends who only had a relationship with me because we
shared the same beliefs.
2. I have made a concious effort to make new friends by using the time
I used to spend on religious activities to do other things.
Its still not easy though.
The thing that I don't understand is that they normally go looking for
people who don't believe and want to associate with them. I guess I
must be second hand goods now!
Maybe they think I have rejected God, but its much simpler than that,
I just realised that God does not exist so there is nothing actually
to reject. It was all rather untraumatic, more like "oh, God doesn't
exist after all" rather than some Damascus road experience.
Is there anyone else here who has had to cope with this sort of
cultish behaviour after leaving the church?
Gordon
Hi: Been there.
Although I'm not categorised as an Atheist; I'm a Pagan evolutionist, I've
had almost the identical experience to yours in many ways: Full recovery
takes years of readjustment of your world-view, recalibration of your
reality-meter, training in using your inbuilt biological bullshit-ometer
provided by advanced evolution, in addition to discovering the joys of
having real friends who associate with you because they really like you and
have things in common with you, rather than because they feel they have to
because you share the same religious beleifs.
First of all one has to put the past behind one and say "Fuck it" : That's a
lot easier said than done in all honesty; and you may find the Xian
brainwashing automatically kicking in at times, despite the fact that you no
longer believe any of it, for years yet, so powerful is the indoctrination..
The psychological scars inflicted upon you by the control-freaks, where they
hooked their control mechanisms into your psyche, will eventually fully heal
and vanish with time. (I speak as someone born into the faith but who
eventually saw sense in leaving it through the veils of indoctrinative
brainwashing.) It's a long hard road: But many congratulations on taking the
first and biggest step: Welcome to humanity. With time you'll realise your
full potential and self-worth as a unique individual, as opposed to a cloned
servant of a mythical childish fantasy hatemongering controlling repressive
doctrine, masquerading as "truth" whilst filling the moneysacks and
inflating the egos of the powermongers and the greedy.
Although we may have differing concepts of Deity: Yourself not believing in
the existance of a god or gods of any kind (So I am guessing.), and myself
beleiving in many gods and goddesses; "god(s)" having a totally different
meaning to me than to the delusional Xians:- Spiritual creatures borne from
and brought into conciousexistance by mythical belief taking on the
qualities of aspects of a central balanced Divinity: The freedom from the
lie and from bondage to corrupt manmade controlling negative psychologies is
what we now have in common.
You'll find that life can now be lived fully as life is really at last worth
living rather than a chore and full of unnecessary suffering, shame, and
guilt at being human. Blossom and be who and what you are: A unique human
being and a credit to humanity as destiny and evolution intended; not some
pathetic "sinner" without self-image who needs "saving" from some negative
fantasy destiny of agony; as the Xians would have you believe.
On that note please excuse the Xian troll DiLV: He, like many of his ilk,
has schitzophrenic delusionality, sexual fascination, and other
psychological and mental problems that he remains in-denial of. Please feel
free to either killfile or mock the afflicted in this instance.
Regards
Sharron.
--http://www.kustomkomputa.co.uk
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To be an ex-Xtian, one at one time would have had to be a Xtian at
some time.....never was.
Was subjected to the standard attempted indoctrination (as many kids
are) when young, forced to attend Sunday School and, even worse,
Vacation Bible School (what kind of vacation is it when you're dragged
off to school in the Summer?)
But never bought into any of it.
The first time I realized I was an anti-Xtian was during college, a
chemistry major, when the church lady (probably a JW) stopped me on
the way back to the apartment, started thumping her bible, lecturing
me on the evil incarnate contained in alcohol, reading verse from her
bible and in general, annoying the crap outta me.
Told her that I must be some kind of a god because I could make the
evil alcohol out of non-evil chemicals.
She never heard a word I said in reply, never did quit talking,
babbling, jabbering, squawking (so typical of fundy Xtians as we have
all seen in here) so I just walked away, but glanced back to see her
still standing there, head uplifted, no doubt praying to whatever.
....Ken |
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Dr.Hal0nf1r£$
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 5:29 pm Post subject: Re: Any ex christians here? |
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mark wrote:
| Quote: |
X-No-Archive: yes
"Steve Marshall" <sdm@atmosBlockA.plus.com> wrote in message
news:L8KdnZxNg5_JbcnVRVnyjwA@posted.plusnet...
"Gordon Hudson" <gordonhudsonnu@googlemail.com> wrote
In practice this means that people cross to the other side of the
street to avoid me and have totally stopped communicating with me. I
lost an entire social network overnight simply because I told the
truth and said I didn't believe in God any more.
If Christians behaved properly that wouldn't happen.
I guess you're in America(?) as people tend not to be so
anti-atheistic here in UK, but there is a minority of people with
funny views.
Steve..... apologies if this sounds rude, it isn't meant to be..
but if you had followed the link to gordons blog you will have seen
his picture and where he lives (..scotland)..
It's a pity that we do not offer him the courtesy of trying to
understand where he is at and coming from and at least take the
trouble to read the links...
I detect an enormous struggle for him and I applaud his braveness in
opening up in a group like this...
As I said, if it sounds rude, please accept my apologies, it isn't
meant to be.
Anyway, off to the IOW festival......enjoy the day..
Mark
|
Don't forget to check out the Sisters of Sarum stall.
Say hi to Sue for me.
Ta.
--
http://www.kustomkomputa.co.uk
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Christopher A. Lee
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 8:53 pm Post subject: Re: Any ex christians here? |
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On Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:52:48 +0100, "mark" <no-onehere@noads.com>
wrote:
| Quote: |
X-No-Archive: yes
"Steve Marshall" <sdm@atmosBlockA.plus.com> wrote in message
news:L8KdnZxNg5_JbcnVRVnyjwA@posted.plusnet...
"Gordon Hudson" <gordonhudsonnu@googlemail.com> wrote
In practice this means that people cross to the other side of the
street to avoid me and have totally stopped communicating with me. I
lost an entire social network overnight simply because I told the
truth and said I didn't believe in God any more.
If Christians behaved properly that wouldn't happen.
I guess you're in America(?) as people tend not to be so anti-atheistic
here in UK, but there is a minority of people with funny views.
Steve..... apologies if this sounds rude, it isn't meant to be.. but if
you had followed the link to gordons blog you will have seen his picture and
where he lives (..scotland)..
|
I don't know Lothian - when I visited Scotland I stayed around
Glasgow. All I really know is that Hearts play in Edinburgh!
Rural Scotland is one of the more religious parts of the UK. But given
your proximity to Edinburgh I'm surprised it's that bad.
If most of your friends are from university days, given your theology
degree I would guess they were theologists.
During the last general election, the loonies who had protested Gerry
Springer, The Opera started a religious fundamentalist party to
contest some seats. They didn't get anywhere. So there's still hope
for Scotland
Rural Wales can be almost as bad.
They're neither good places if you don't conform to the norm. That's
not just about religion either.
A friend of my mother's married a Welshman in London. She was nice
person, if over made up IMO. As she got older she tried to preserve
her youth under pancake makeup and clothes which didn't suit her.
She was in her mid forties in the 1960s era of miniskirts and heavy
makeup.
In Harrow it was one her idiosyncrasies. We saw beyond that.
But her husband inherited a cottage in rural Wales, to which they
retired. To the locals she was the painted tart from London.
She was hated for it. And he was hated because of he'd married the
painted tart from London.
So they sold up and moved back.
I'm not saying move to London though.
It's at a time like this you learn who your real friends are.
Edinburgh should have plenty of atheists.
There's a book I can recommend, Losing Faith In Faith, by Dan Barker,
published by The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which I can
thoroughly recommend. It describes how an evangelical minister who
also composed Christian musicals, went through this.
http://www.ffrf.org/shop/books/details.php?cat=fbooks&ID=FB5
There should be several atheist groups around Edinburgh. They can be a
good place to make new like-minded friends. Try google.
If most of your friends are from university days, given your theology
degree I would guess they were theologists.
But the problem with these groups, is that the only thing members have
in common is what they aren't, not what they are. So you might have to
try a few before you find the right mix of people.
I emigrated to the USA in the late 1980s (I'd previously moved from
London to Manchester), and that was a shock. I never expected
religious fundamentalism in Silicone Valley. But not everybody there
is in R&D. There were local people who weren't qualified for the high
tech jobs, and others who had come as administrators, sales and
marketing etc.
Dormitory suburbs like Pleasanton having to fight lawsuits to stop
kids being taught creationism. Lawsuits in Cupertino of all places to
stop enforced fundamentalist prayer in schools.
Now I'm 90 miles north of New York City and it is very religious. I
sometimes get the train down into Manhattan to meet up with an atheist
group. I've made some good friends there, and there are some real
brains as well. But I'm probably only friends with maybe an eight of
them. The others are decent people I get on with.
Most of the time I get my "atheist community" here. |
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Ian Smith
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:00 am Post subject: Re: Any ex christians here? |
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IlBeBauck@gmail.com wrote:
| Quote: |
REPLY: Could you tell us how you know that God (the personal Theistic
Creator) doesnt exist ? Thanks.
|
Dave,
How do you know that Thor doesn't exist? How do you know that Apollo
doesn't exist? How do you know that invisible pink unicorn doesn't
exist? How do you know that the other 460 or so other gods don't exist?
When you've understood why you don't believe in all of these, you'll
understand why we don't believe in yours.
I'll help you out: they are all preposterous propositions - the
product of highly superstitious imaginations - supported by a
complete absence of any evidence whatsoever.
Of course, you could change all that by providing some real positive
evidence, couldn't you? But you just keep flunking that one.
regards, Ian |
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Ken
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 2:08 pm Post subject: Re: Any ex christians here? |
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On Jun 16, 6:08 am, "PG" <p...@alpesprovence.net> wrote:
As an adult, much of one's social life can
| Quote: |
revolve both around the institution and the friends you have through that
institution. To those 'friends' and colleagues in the church environment it
would seem more of a 'rejection' coming from a mature adult, than from an
impetuous teen.
pga
|
That situation can also be evidenced in the reverse fashion.
I have one friend I've known for over 40 years, used to smoke dope,
hang out, chase skirts, I financed his (their) first house, even after
being married I'd go camping with them and became Crazy Old Uncle Ken
to the kids, but he was never religious, never went to church, never
sent out bible stuff.
BUT then he first got lung cancer (a lifelong smoker) a brain tumor
and adrenal cancer.
The kids have married or moved out, he golfs (I don't), he still works
(I don't) but then I started getting overtly religious e-mails, the
"god loves you" kinda shit
He's probably only has a couple of years left, but now I hardly ever
see or talk to him despite living only 15 Km away, and he hasn't been
by in 2-3 years. |
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