Wyz_sub10

I have no doubt that you are being sincere. But I think holding such a belief and putting it into practice are two different things. I'd rather give up some (or a lot) of freedom than my life. Even prisoners fear the death penalty, and there's a good reason for that.

Also, I know you were referring to yourself and not making a generalization, but I did not give up my theism because I was angry with god, no more than I stopped leaving teeth under my pillow because I was angry with the tooth fairy.

GeoTheo

You are talking about extreme forms of Christian Reconstructionism. I would not say all fundamentalists or all Christian conservative Republicans(religious right) fall into that category. Though people in these groups may be influenced by Christian reconstructionists. Some Fundamentalists are almost like Amish people, they don't get involved in politics or popular media and live in their own insular little world.
This is one side effect of Christian schools and colleges. These types of people don't care what is on T.V or what goes on in the public school.

Marduk

"You are talking about extreme forms of Christian Reconstructionism"

Yes, I know, I thought that's who he meant.

I know tons of Christians who are very nice people and don't fit that group at all.

AtlanticCitySlave

You probably lost the chance to fool around with a lot of the good looking girls that go to church.

Sephiroth

You lost out by never being a theist only as much as I did by never believing in Santa Claus. And, now I don't understand how and why so many people can genuinely believe theism or how and why I did when I was younger despite generally being more skeptical than the norm so being a theist wouldn't necessarily give you an answer to that question.

Also, I've never hated or was angry at all theists in general and these days the only reason why I might get angry at fundamentalists and the religious right as a group is because they want to use the law to enforce what they believe (Creationism, Opposition to Euthanasia, etc.), if they minded their own business then I wouldn't have a problem with them. IMO, many deconverts probably feel the same.

[ September 26, 2002: Message edited by: Sephiroth ]</p>

GeoTheo

I think I made my point fairly obvious and don't really see the need to clarify other than the fact that you are the second person to respond in this manner. I said anger with God may be the case with some atheists and that I cannot know for sure.
All I know is that I have been angry with God before and this caused me to want to be an atheist for a while, but I got over it. Obviously I don't put Perchance in this category nor would I put people in this category who have shed some kind of feel good, growing up type of ceremonial theism.
I think angry atheists resemble people getting over a bad divorce. I think they are so angry because they perhaps actually were in Love at one point, which makes the hurt all the more painfull. I don't think ditching a casual date because they bored you resonates on the same emotional level. I think dumping a person you dated three of four times but found boring, resembles the kind of rejection of theism some people here seem to have experienced. I have rejected that type of theism also and feel I am not experiencing that type now.

[ September 26, 2002: Message edited by: GeoTheo ]</p>

GeoTheo

Wyz_Sub10:
I am sorry, you did acknowledge that I was not generalizing. I apologize.
As for your other point living this out caused me to be a bit on the violent side for a while. This in part led to my becoming a Christian, because I felt that being violent was causing me to be a bad person, even though in a sense it was gratifying.

Kosh

Er, uhm.... ah NEVERMIND.

&lt;Snicker/&gt;

Perchance

Thanks for the responses, everyone.

I do like the idea that I simply grew up a different way. (Well, of course I like that idea; I don't want to feel like I missed something!) I honestly can't think of a way that God would have fit into my life, or anything I was lacking without religion. I was never a very social teenager, so I probably wouldn't have done youth group or Bible study or whatever it was called anyway. And though I felt alone some of the time around religious friends, in the end I still didn't understand how they could go to seminary and not die of boredom.

Right now, the thought of trying to integrate religion into my life is like the thought of trying to fit an elephant into my dorm-room. Where would it go?? And where would I put something that makes that much crap? (All right, sorry, couldn't resist).

GeoTheo,

I understand that you have had a powerful religious experience, and I'm impressed that you choose to come to an atheist board and share that. However, unless I had the same kind of experience, I don't think I could convert. And I don't know if it would even be a Christian experience I would have. Thank you for sharing that, though.

Maybe I don't have to experience religion to be human. After all, I don't know what it was like to be born male, either, and that's something that probably affects me more than religion, but I don't think it makes me less human.

-Perchance.

wildernesse

Perchance:

I don't think that you never being a theist detracts from your humanity. I think feeling awe at truly beautiful things, love and security in a personal relationship, and knowing your place in the world/understanding yourself are all things that have equivalencies in religious life. If you can know these things, then you can understand the attractiveness in relgion.

If you lived through your adolescence, you can understand the bad things in religion.

--tibac