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Ebone4rock
SFN Regular
USA
894 Posts |
 Posted - 04/20/2010 : 08:36:58
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Back a few years ago Jonathan Miller produced a series for BBC titled " The Atheism Tapes". He interviewed people such as Daniel Dennett(my personal favorite Atheist), Denys Turner, Richard Dawkins, and some others who I can't quite recall at this moment. The most interesting thing to me about these interviews was when the subjects told the stories of how they became Atheists.
I would like to share my story and ask that others share theirs.
From the time I was born religion was a non-issue my household. I had absolutely no religious direction what-so-ever. My mom was a spiritual person but her beliefs changed with whatever book she happened to be reading at the time so she never turned me in any direction. My grandparents just plain never had anything to do with religion. To this day I do not know whether they were Atheists or if they just didn't think about religion. When I was around 7-8 years old I noticed my little friends were getting presents from some "St.Nick" character who I never heard of a couple of weeks before Christmas. After finding out that St. Nick was a tradition amongst Catholics I asked my Granny what religion we were. Her response was " I'm not sure, maybe Luthern or something". From that point on I started asking her more questions that she really couldn't answer. She arranged for me to go to church one Sunday with a friend of hers. It was a Catholic church. I clearly remember sitting there listening to the sermon and thinking "You've got to be kidding me, people really beleive this stuff?" I just couldn't wrap my head around the resurrection and the taking of the communion. It really creeped me out. Over the next few years I attended church a couple of more times with my buddy and his family when I would spend weekends with them. Each time I attended I just found it to be more bullshit than I had thought before. My buddy's parents were the Principal and 7th grade teacher at my elementary school. It really confused me that such smart, nice people could believe such things. One thing I was never confused about though is that there surely was no such thing as God.
As I grew into a teenager I became a fan of Heavy Metal music. I really got a kick out of using the Satanic imagery to scare the shit out of people. By this time, like many teenagers, I thought I knew everything. It was over these next few years that I did and said everything I could to offend people when the subject of religion came up.
Fortunately I grew out of that stage. My adult life has been a quest to find out why I am so much different than other people when it comes to belief. It is just so clear to me, and always has been, that there is no need to believe in any kind of higher power.
Anyone else care to share their stories?
Feel free to ask me questions. My life is an open book and I enjoy sharing these things.(Mainly because I don't really get to in real life)
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Haole with heart, thats all I'll ever be. I'm not a part of the North Shore society. Stuck on the shoulder, that's where you'll find me. Digging for scraps with the kooks in line. -Offspring |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2010 : 09:44:38 [Permalink]
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Were you always a naturalist? I sort of went in and out of atheism since I was a teenager. I was fortunate to have parents that believed, but encouraged me to think for myself for the most part. But I hung on to the supernatural until I was well into my 40's.
I was somewhat skeptical about the supernatural, but still was trying to investigate it for myself. When I saw a friend spend thousands of dollars on some bottles of colored water, I began to see just how dangerous this stuff really was.
I went to see Randi a few years before that, and I think it was that that kept me from getting too fanatical about it all. Later reading sort of cemented the idea that this was bunk. Started looking into other bunk like health quackery and such. I still have people close to me that are into it all, although I've sort of drifted away from most of those people, and they all know where I stand on it now. |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2010 : 10:21:21 [Permalink]
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| we are all born atheist, thankfully i always stayed as one. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2010 : 10:35:20 [Permalink]
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| I don't remember ever having religious faith. I do remember having to be forced to go to Church. After I was 12 or so, my mother quit trying, and my father only made me go on Christmas and Easter, if he had custody of me those weekends (my parents divorced when I was eight). I haven't set foot in a church since a friend of mine got married about 20 years ago. Oh, wait... when my father-in-law died, they held a service for him in a church, but that was still more than 10 years ago. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Ebone4rock
SFN Regular
USA
894 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2010 : 10:51:17 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Gorgo
Were you always a naturalist? |
I guess I always have been without realizing there was a name for it. The only real label I will give myself is Atheist. I've considered using the word Agnostic for philosophical reasons (seeing as it is impossible to prove that I'm right) but a decision has to be made some time. I see Agnostics and Libertarians to be similar....both know what is right but neither have the balls to make a decision.
(I mean no offense to Agnostics or libertarians, I'm just being a smart-ass) |
Haole with heart, thats all I'll ever be. I'm not a part of the North Shore society. Stuck on the shoulder, that's where you'll find me. Digging for scraps with the kooks in line. -Offspring |
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astropin
SFN Regular
USA
970 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2010 : 11:03:11 [Permalink]
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| First I got educated.....then I read the Bible.....works every time. |
I would rather face a cold reality than delude myself with comforting fantasies.
You are free to believe what you want to believe and I am free to ridicule you for it.
Atheism:
The result of an unbiased and rational search for the truth.
Infinitus est numerus stultorum |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2010 : 11:04:58 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Ebone4rock
Originally posted by Gorgo
Were you always a naturalist? |
I guess I always have been without realizing there was a name for it.
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Some people make the distinction, I'm not sure that everyone does. |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2010 : 12:06:24 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by astropin
First I got educated.....then I read the Bible.....works every time.
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Theists prefer that you do that the other way around. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Ebone4rock
SFN Regular
USA
894 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2010 : 12:23:36 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
Originally posted by astropin
First I got educated.....then I read the Bible.....works every time.
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Theists prefer that you do that the other way around.
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Which is what makes it so difficult to have a conversation with them. Most replies from a theist come from quoting scripture. I can't quote scripture.
I really should re-read the bible in full now that I'm an adult but I just can't justify wasting the time when there are so many history books filled with real things to think about. |
Haole with heart, thats all I'll ever be. I'm not a part of the North Shore society. Stuck on the shoulder, that's where you'll find me. Digging for scraps with the kooks in line. -Offspring |
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TG
Skeptic Friend
USA
121 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2010 : 14:36:54 [Permalink]
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Raised Catholic. My father was a Quaker convert to Catholicism largely, I suspect, in order to marry my mother, although we never discussed it. I went to Catholic grammar school and an all-boys Catholic high school. I was an altar boy; at age 62 I can still rattle off the responses in Latin.
There was always an element of skepticism. First I questioned the trinity, which never made sense, then transubstantiation, then the resurrection. Once the dominos start to fall there's no stopping them. My introduction to the scientific method and the importance of empirical evidence, coupled with the obvious mythological nature of religious belief sealed it.
I fall into the atheist/agnostic category. I don't believe in god, but can't deny the possibility one exists, as unlikely as that may be.
Tom |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2010 : 15:55:54 [Permalink]
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I've been bitten by rattlesnakes but never by God nor any of his Heavenly Host. In that, I feel blessed.
I come from an agnostic family and ever had any religious indoctrination. Got dragged off to church a few times by well-meaning parents of friends, and by an aunt, but nothing stuck. I found the whole thing painfully boring. Still do.
But I get along with the religious, many of them, anyway. Indeed, when I donate to charity, I do it through a local church, the congregation of which, I've known for many years.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict
2830 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2010 : 16:15:29 [Permalink]
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| I was raised a Catholic. Went to catholic school for 5 years, to 8th grade. Didn't really attend church much ofter that. Because of the brain washing, I was always open to finding a true religion. One that didn't come up with some cockamamie "rabbit out of a hat trick" play of words to explain something. Like why would God cure one child of cancer, after praying for and not another. Every preacher has a bullshit reply, custom fit for the tragedy or "miracle" (Ha) at hand. I finally realized they're all a bunch of verbally dancing conmen, trying to land another fish. Possibly many are just as fooled themselves. I'd like to think they're all not lying scum. Seeing how religions' dogmas have little to do with their actions or made any sense, I gave up. "The god delusion" stopped any delusions I had that there was a true religion on earth. So I am a recently realized atheist, maybe 4 yrs or so but haven't been a church goer since about age 14. SS |
There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS |
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2010 : 16:22:46 [Permalink]
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Raised in a Methodist home but was always a big time doubter with the miracle hoowie. On up to my first year in college, some 'genius' prof had us read Russell's "Why I'm Not A Christian". The book was a great eye-opener in with saying to me it was ok to have these disbeliefs.
Truly, religion is a mental illness. It's like Dungeons and Dragons that's gone terribly out of control. |
"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 04/20/2010 : 18:02:09 [Permalink]
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When I was young and single, I recall going to the local Unitarian church, basically to meet girls. Being as the Unitarian's were rather intellectual and open-minded, the sermons were often about moral issues or news of the day, or cool stuff like astronomy, etc. without any (or very little) Bible talk. What was that about religion? Umm..oh yes...
My parents were not religious. I suspect from the very few times they spoke of religion that they really saw through the veneer of dogma and "faith" that covers the actual manipulative politics, hypocrisy and superstitions designed to fool people and manipulate them to do weird stuff. They rarely spoke of religious belief and when they did it was as something to be avoided. My Dad sometimes noted that fanatical or preachy religious people tended to do bad things or lacked a morality, or they needed the trappings of their religion to prevent them from becoming even worse than they were.
I have a respect for some aspects of myth in the way Joseph Campbell defined myth as the symbolic representation of a truism, but religious people don't think of Campbell within their religion (except Bill Moyers). I see no difference in the tales of Biblical heroes, Homer's poetic ancient adventures, Jason and the Argonauts or Luke Skywalker - all are myths and sometimes relevant as tales of good vs. bad or simply as adventure. I don't associate a real sense of awe at the enormity of nature and my tiny place in it with mere religion. People who fall back on Bible quotes tend to seek authority in their lives. To me its a character flaw. |
Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.
"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.) |
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Starman
SFN Regular
Sweden
1613 Posts |
 Posted - 04/21/2010 : 02:30:59 [Permalink]
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I heard my mother say that she was an atheist when I was 30, but it was not really a surprise. My father confirmed his non belief later after a direct question.
In my family religion has been a non issue so I was not really an atheist until my teens when I thought it through. Before that I was a maybe-ist, did not really believe but did not reject Christianity either.
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"Any religion that makes a form of torture into an icon that they worship seems to me a pretty sick sort of religion quite honestly"
-- Terry Jones |
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How did you become an Atheist?
