Perchance

Hi Gemma,

I was another person who can't remember believing. I was an agnostic for a long time, and now I call myself an atheist (with respect to the Christian God, anyway).

I think we're all just human, and you're hardly going to find something different in the minds of atheists to separate them out from theists. Actually, I think I probably have far more in common with you, despite your belief and my lack of it, than I have in common with someone who lived, say, a hundred years ago. I think social anthropology would function better on a group of people tied by culture than a group of people tied by lack of a single belief.

Do you really think there's something different between atheists and theists at the level of culture, or even at the level of humanity?

-Perchance.

Gemma Therese

Perchance,

I wonder what factors contribute to make some atheist, others theist, and the extremes in both directions.

Gemma Therese

braces_for_impact

Happyboy will be receiving a visit from a few EAC troubleshooters.

They will be teaching him about the virtue of silence and the consequences of his actions.

In the meantime, I buried some great fossils! Anyone wanna go look for some?

openeyes

Gemma,

Although I have a tendency to think since you had a "reconversion" that you think it can happen to the rest of us. I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

Your experience seems to be more the exception than the norm.

Look at Europe. Many of us have ancestors from there. Many of those countries have fewer believers than non-believers. It seems to me that many Europeons just live, and not waste their time wrestling with "schizzel isn't a froopy on the mizam" and other things that just can't be known. Their civilizations don't seemed to be falling apart.

In other words, don't just limit you quest for understanding to the good ol' USA. For some odd reason, this country is an anomaly when it comes to the level of religious belief and economic status.

Gemma Therese

openeyes,

The United States is historically anti-Catholic.

Gemma Therese

Gemma Therese

I am not trying to convert or reconvert anyone on this board. I am here to defend the Roman Catholic Church and Catholicism, which I love, against untruth and misrepresentations.

Gemma Therese

Ab_Normal

While I agree that this statement is historically true, I was raised RC - many of my extended family are RC - and we have not noticed any personal discrimination because of being affiliated with the Catholic church. We are discussing the psychology of people living right here and now (and not all in the US) who are atheists, not past attitudes.

I did not become an atheist because I couldn't get a house or a job because of my faith. I became an atheist because that faith no longer made sense to me.

openeyes

Gemma, Why waste your time? Can't you see, that as atheists or non-believers, we don't buy into the Church's basic premise that there is a "god", so the rest is just gobble-dy-gook to us. (As it is with other religious traditions).

brighid

My experience in the US has been mostly with Catholics and I have yet to see any anti-Catholic prejudice or discrimination in real life beyond the differences in theory between Catholics and Protestants. I presently live in a predominantly Protestant area, but the Catholic Church is building a new parish about 2 miles from my house that rivals even the largest of Protestant Houses of Worship in my area – and they make em’ big around these parts.

Despite the publicity that the Catholic Church is presently and rightfully receiving you don’t see Protestants protesting outside St. Whatever’s Church calling for the removal of the “whore of Babylon” and the Pope, the “antichrist” while putting the minions of pedophiles directly to the stake. It is also the country that has historically PROTECTED the Church and the Catholic Church has gotten very fat, and very wealthy by the American people.

In America (at least for the time being) we are allowed to speak out against injustice and that includes speaking out against the Catholic Church. How anti-Catholic of us …. Puhlease …. Should the Church expect less when it claims all other Christians have but only part of the faith and ONLY Catholics have the "fullness of faith and truth?" They set themselves up pretty darn well for the self-fulfilling prophecies of anti-Catholic hate mongering.

Brighid

Perchance

I thnk the case is different for each individual, so the best one can do is look for similarities.

Granted, I've read a lot of "born-again" testimonies that were very, very similar, but perhaps they are all part of the Massive Fundamentalist Conspiracy .

-Perchance.