Welcome to the Free Talk Live bulletin board system!
This board is closed to new users and new posts.  Thank you to all our great mods and users over the years.  Details here.
185859 Posts in 9829 Topics by 1371 Members
Latest Member: cjt26
Home Help
+  The Free Talk Live BBS
|-+  Free Talk Live
| |-+  Serious Business
| | |-+  The I ain't religious no more but I used ta be thread.
Pages: [1] 2 3   Go Down

Author Topic: The I ain't religious no more but I used ta be thread.  (Read 12349 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

John Shaw

  • Global Moderator
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 17244
    • View Profile
    • Think Twice Productions
The I ain't religious no more but I used ta be thread.
« on: October 21, 2011, 01:52:51 PM »

Everything you need to know is in the title.

Talk about it. Share your pain. Spock's brother want's to know.
Logged
"btw its not a claim. Its documented fact."

MOE from between St. Joe's River and the railroad tracks

  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 112
  • "Take whatever you can get..." -MOE
    • View Profile
Re: The I ain't religious no more but I used ta be thread.
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2011, 11:28:04 PM »

I used to be an evangelical Christian involved with a national collegiate organization.

I am now an atheist.

I am not much for story telling.

hellbilly

  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6664
  • Pogue Mahone.
    • View Profile
Re: The I ain't religious no more but I used ta be thread.
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2011, 12:14:22 AM »

Was saved at the age of 9 at a tent revival in KY. It was the result of a week long series of sermons given by Rev. James Jude, 6ft. + ,spitting and sweating and crying and yelling about eternal pain and suffering for the unsaved. One night they had a record player and exposed the truth about backwards masking too. He used one red handkerchief to wipe both the sweat and spit away.

I was baptized a few weeks later.

A few years after that, about 14 or so, I was openly atheist. That's not a good thing in rural KY, especially with your immediate family - caused quite a rift, and at 16 I was booted outta the house. I moved back in at age18 for a little while, but for the most part wasn't allowed past the garage.

I'm raising my kids as atheists but I wish I could take them to a tent revival. Closest we've gotten is a mountaintop service in WV. Religion is bullshit but it has a deep cultural significance that can't be filled by anything else. I miss the familiar, shared roots and the closeness with family and strangers alike - but feel that it's worth the trade to be rational and honest. And my kids will be far better off living outside that bizarre fantasy, not having to deal with any guilt complexes, etc.
Logged
Give me Liberty or give me Meth!

"We are profoundly dissatisfied with pretty much everything but we can’t articulate why, and are unable to offer any viable alternative." - Nathaniel Weiner

Turd Ferguson

  • Opportunist Extraordinaire
  • Global Moderator
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4085
    • View Profile
    • https://twitter.com/#!/realmikequick
Re: The I ain't religious no more but I used ta be thread.
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2011, 02:15:31 AM »

Raised Roman Catholic until I was 13


Nuff said. :P
Logged
Some peoples idea of hell is having to mind their own business.

tranced

  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 65
    • View Profile
Re: The I ain't religious no more but I used ta be thread.
« Reply #4 on: October 22, 2011, 12:36:08 PM »

Raised as a fundie, went off to college as your typical, lukewarm believer going through the motions.  At college hit a weird stage in my life.  Too far away from my old friends and didn't fit into any new crowd really.  Went to parties and drank, pretended to care but was a bit lost.  Rediscovered the whole church thing and got hooked pretty deep.  Moved into christian housing, was super involved, blah blah.  Started really studying the bible and digging in and that would be the mistake.  One thing led to another, seeing how the money I was struggling to make was wasted and questions weren't answered led to more questions led to more digging.  Dig through enough and you realize it's a total crock of shit.  I think for a lot of people our own morality develops and when our god doesn't agree with our morality, we question both.  My morality didn't change.  My god was found lacking.  He died.  It was a very sad time, realizing there wasn't an invisible, caring being out there that loved me and wanted me to live with him forever, if only I'd just through all his weird and mysterious and everchanging hoops.  He made no sense, he wasn't all powerful, he wasn't all-loving or all-knowing or any of that.  My imaginary friend wasn't any of these things.  He was just... imaginary.
Logged

Sam Gunn (since nobody got Admiral Naismith)

  • A Cut Above The Rest
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 8299
  • If government is the answer, the question is stupi
    • View Profile
Re: The I ain't religious no more but I used ta be thread.
« Reply #5 on: October 22, 2011, 01:52:18 PM »

Some of us wouldn't be viewed as "religious" by many outside viewers, but do consider ourselves religious and have studied the texts as well as come to our own conclusions and practice in our own ways.
Logged
"Do not throw rocks at people with guns." —Hastings' Third Law
"Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today." —Herman Wouk 

"If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

carolynjane4

  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 30
    • View Profile
Re: The I ain't religious no more but I used ta be thread.
« Reply #6 on: October 22, 2011, 03:08:27 PM »

I was raised Catholic, and my mom was very involved in the church.  I think she had had a lot of questions earlier in life, and had gotten some smoothed-over answers from a somewhat "cool" priest.  She believed that God was all-loving, and that all of the Bible stories where it seemed that God had told people to do immoral things (like telling Abraham to sacrifice his son), it was simply that Abraham assumed that that was what God would want, because that is what people used to think Gods wanted from them?  Or some crap like that.  Whenever I had questions, I usually went to her, and she would tell me what she was told when she had asked those questions.  When I was 10 or 11 (?), I wanted to be a priest.  I am female.  Naturally, that wasn't going to happen.  I asked my mom who made that rule.  She said the pope.  I asked when we get a new pope.  She said when this pope dies.  I asked if I could be a priest if I killed the pope.  She said probably not.  (lol?)  That was the first serious damper on my relationship with the Catholic church.  I chose to be confirmed as a member of the church (big ceremony, preceded by lots of classes, similar to a bar/bat mitzvah but not quite as intense or expensive of a party) when I was in high school.  Ever since First Communion (at age 7), I was required to go to church every Sunday by my mom.  When I moved into a dorm at 18, I stopped going.  Some might say it was laziness.  (There were a lot of college classes I was skipping as well.)  But I really think it was because I no longer had any interest.  I visited a number of different religious institutions (a different Catholic church, a non-denominational Christian church, a synagogue, a Mormon church) over the next year or two. Some might say it was shopping for a religion or church, but really, I was just kind of doing research into what other people believe.  I already knew I didn't believe in a God of any sort.  I found beauty in some church music (I had enjoyed performing it in church choir, high school choir, and community choir), and was a little bummed to feel I had lost some of the meaning behind it.  But I can still appreciate it the way I appreciate musicals - the music has meaning in a fictional context, as part of an emotional story.  At age 21, a Christian boy I was quite seriously dating broke up with me because his minister told him he was spending too much time with me and not enough time with God.  He later further justified the breakup by bringing up a discussion we had had about raising children together.  He would want to tell them that they would go to hell if they didn't believe in Jesus.  While I might tolerate the teaching of some religious stories (in the context that they may or may not be true), I would never allow anyone to tell my hypothetical future children that.  Next I dated an atheist for a couple years, then a Catholic, and then a Jew.  I am now in a serious relationship with a Christian, and it's not a big deal right now?  When we first started dating, I went to his church with him to see what they said there, and to have an opportunity to discuss it with him afterwards, and get his thoughts and feelings about it.  I felt satisfied with our discussion.  We have very rarely spoken of it since, in almost a year.  (It has not been a major issue in our relationship.)  The only concern I have now is if we were to want children in the future.
Logged

latebloomer

  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 36
    • View Profile
Re: The I ain't religious no more but I used ta be thread.
« Reply #7 on: October 22, 2011, 05:38:51 PM »

Raised Baptist (independent, evangelical, fundamentalist type, but not quite as fundy as some). Went to Baptist high school and some college. Taught Sunday School, sang in the choir, all that shit.

I was a believer, but looking back, I think I never fully (like, 100%) believed, because I had real issues with the way women were treated. Being raised in a fundamentalist church meant that you had to accept all of scripture, without exception. If you rejected one part, then you were rejecting it all. Also, at some point, I stopped praying or offering to pray.

15-16 years ago, I quit going to church (long story, good reasons) and finally got everyone to stop inviting me to church. I went out of my way to have as religious-free a wedding as possible, something that - for a real xtian - should have been as god-filled as possible (we didn't even have a prayer - a poem that sounded like a prayer was read and no one noticed). A couple of years later, I realized that at the very least I was agnostic. Finally, I admitted that that was a cop-out for me, and acknowledged that I was an atheist. Never looked back. I will say that I'm not "out" 100%, but close.
Logged
"History is-a made at night. Character is what you are in the dark." - Lord John Whorfin

Fred

  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2099
    • View Profile
Re: The I ain't religious no more but I used ta be thread.
« Reply #8 on: October 22, 2011, 08:13:35 PM »

how bout speaking in tongues?
Logged

latebloomer

  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 36
    • View Profile
Re: The I ain't religious no more but I used ta be thread.
« Reply #9 on: October 22, 2011, 08:31:03 PM »

how bout speaking in tongues?

Don't know if that's directed at me. For my denomination, no way. Raising your hands while singing was suspect until fairly recently.
Logged
"History is-a made at night. Character is what you are in the dark." - Lord John Whorfin

Fred

  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2099
    • View Profile
Re: The I ain't religious no more but I used ta be thread.
« Reply #10 on: October 22, 2011, 08:33:56 PM »

raising hand while singing was normal in a holy roller church (church of god), but, no it wasn't directed at you.

I've had the experience and wondered about others that aren't still in the church mentality.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossolalia
« Last Edit: October 22, 2011, 08:36:51 PM by Fred »
Logged

tranced

  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 65
    • View Profile
Re: The I ain't religious no more but I used ta be thread.
« Reply #11 on: October 22, 2011, 08:47:17 PM »

how bout speaking in tongues?

Paul made it pretty clear in 1 Corinthians 14 that if there isn't anyone able to interpret you should shut the fuck up.  Every time I've seen it, it's been all about the pageantry and while it always gave me something to chuckle about, didn't seem to do shit for the people that fell for the racket.
Logged

Fred

  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2099
    • View Profile
Re: The I ain't religious no more but I used ta be thread.
« Reply #12 on: October 22, 2011, 08:48:54 PM »

I agree - like praying in your closet - not for men to hear.  I meant privately.
Logged

hellbilly

  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6664
  • Pogue Mahone.
    • View Profile
Re: The I ain't religious no more but I used ta be thread.
« Reply #13 on: October 22, 2011, 09:26:53 PM »

I agree - like praying in your closet - not for men to hear.  I meant privately.

I saw plenty of it in KY and always thought it was just for show. Not sure what to think of the happening in private.

In the churches where speaking in tongues was common the congregation all payed aloud at the same time - wailing, crying, yelling. There was a snake handling church not far from where I lived that only met monthly but I never went to that one.
Logged
Give me Liberty or give me Meth!

"We are profoundly dissatisfied with pretty much everything but we can’t articulate why, and are unable to offer any viable alternative." - Nathaniel Weiner

Fred

  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2099
    • View Profile
Re: The I ain't religious no more but I used ta be thread.
« Reply #14 on: October 22, 2011, 09:44:54 PM »

I never saw the snake handling congregation either but I saw plenty of the others you describe - the wailing and crying.  

Up close and personal and shit loads in the form of TV preachers.  

My dad was a preacher (part time preacher, full time offset printer).  But his life was the church.

  In my opinion, most churches like this are borderline cults with the pastor and his family elevated to the position of gods.  And they're dysfunctional as hell - probably more so than non icons.

One in particular I know of is a son of a "worshipped by his flock" preacher that turned into the biggest crank addict, wife beater, evil motherfucker you'd ever want (not want) to meet.
Logged
Pages: [1] 2 3   Go Up
+  The Free Talk Live BBS
|-+  Free Talk Live
| |-+  Serious Business
| | |-+  The I ain't religious no more but I used ta be thread.

// ]]>

Page created in 0.023 seconds with 32 queries.