Mageth

ex-idaho posted a thread titled "What if any religious figures do you respect?" A couple of my entries on that thread "pushed the envelope" a bit too far, perhaps. So I decided to start a new thread.

In this thread, one may list thinkers/people that have influenced your thoughts on religion/theism/atheism/spirituality/the mystical/etc. For me, these figures were encountered both during my former theistic life and my current atheistic life. So this thread is open to any input, whether theist, atheist, famous or not, real or mythical, and whether you "respect" them or not.

I'll start with:

My father and mother, of course, who gave me my "starter kit" of religious beliefs (fundie Protestant Xian)

My office mate, who I'll call "MW", who helped me through my "deconversion" process and continues to be a sounding board for religious/mystical discussions

My sister "J", who alone in my family shares much the same "unbelief", and with whom recently I had a very long, and enlightening, conversation. The simple fact that someone else in my family understands my atheism and doesn't condemn me for it is quite important to me.

Lao Tzu, who gave us the Tao Teh Ching

Thomas Merton for, among other things, seeking a link between Eastern and Western religious (mystical, really) thought

Joseph Campbell, for showing the underlying, universal and very human themes beneath and within the world's religions and myths

Carl Sagan, for revealing the cosmos in a "mystical" way as perhaps no one else has, for allowing me to see the wonder of the universe through his eyes

David, who was my favorite (mythical) character in the Bible as a Christian and still is now, and whose story conveys many universal human truths if one looks closely

I'll add the archetypal "corrupt religious figure or leader", e.g. Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, etc., including several church leaders in churches I was once in that, through corruption, incompetence, or whatever, collapsed or split under factional wars. I've seen this so many times in my life (geez, it can even be found in the bible and throughout the history of the church) that it led to disillusionment with organized religion, pushing me along the path to my eventual atheism.

Ojuice5001

Almost no one. My beliefs result from personal experience, contacts from the Roman goddess Postverta, and thinking on my own about the gods. Except for a certain buddy of mine at high school, I've never known anyone in person who claimed to believe in the Roman/Greek deities.

Psycho Economist

Well, back before my mother started using her fundy church for a surrogate family she encouraged me not to defer to authority for authority's sake and to be relentless and curious. She also cultivated my interests in science and history.

Three teachers at Washington Middle School (gifted kids' program *blush*) learned me critical thinking skills at a time when I was still trying to reconcile my fascination with dinosaurs and young-Earth creationism.

Gene Roddenberry and the cast and writers of Star Trek: The Next Generation, for giving me my first exposure to atheists, in the characters on the show.

Marcus Aurelius (yes, the Roman emperor), who piqued my interest in philosophies and whose writing got me thinking about how, whether the fundies like it or not, the Bible is the beginning of Christianity, not the end of it.

Pastor John Queen who convinced me that cafeteria, er, cherry-picking Christianity was untennable and started me on a four-year oddysey of examining what i believed and why that ended in my leaving the supernatural behind.

I could keep running on all day... but y'all probably stopped reading after the Star Trek one.

Darth Dane

Carl Sagan, for revealing the cosmos in a "mystical" way as perhaps no one else has, for allowing me to see the wonder of the universe through his eyes

Have you tried to look at teh world with your own eyes?
Without concepts and ideas from others, which all of our thinking is based on.





DD - Love Spliff

Godless Dave

My father, a chemist and teacher, for demanding that I think critically

Carl Sagan

Neil Peart

Isaac Asimov

Larry Niven

Mageth

Have you tried to look at teh world with your own eyes?
Without concepts and ideas from others, which all of our thinking is based on.

Umm, yes, of course I've looked at the world through my own eyes. We all do that, I suppose. Just because I've looked "through" someone else's eyes doesn't mean I haven't looked through my own eyes. But it's useful to gain perspective from others.

Our thinking may be based on concepts and ideas gained from others, but I don't think that means we can't have unique concepts and ideas, or interpret those "inherited" concepts and ideas in unique ways. I think each person carries a unique set of concepts and ideas (both inherited and original), has a unique view of the world, and thus can offer unique perspectives on life, the universe, and everything.

What's limiting is if one locks oneself into one paradigm (e.g. a rigid religious mindset) that doesn't allow one to explore the world for yourself, that installs filters that prevents one from receiving or forming, evaluating, and holding if desired bold, "heretical" concepts and ideas.

Ronin

This one time, I turned off all of the charismatic and authoritarian voices and read the Holy Bible.

It was then that I began to realize that God was the most desparate villain in all fiction.

That was a very influential book.

cliff999

A nun in a religion class in 9th grade tried to explain the miracles of the Exodus as natural phenomena. That was the first time I had heard someone question miracles at all. That got me thinking and by the time I was a sophomore in college I abandoned religion in its entirety. All it took for me was just that one mild spark.

philechat

I am never a Christian to begin with, and never once a Christian in my life. I guess being born in an Eastern culture contributed much, and also my lifelong interest in world myths (despite 9 years of education in a Catholic school).

I would say "no one exactly". My mind is not made for Christianity and it doesn't help that I am by nature asocial and independent.

bocajeff

I think for the most part my biggest influence was a family who lived across the street from us when I was a kid. They were a fundie family. And I was really close to the kid my age.

One Halloween (I must have been about 7), I asked my mom if he could go trick or treating with us. My mother then had to explain that he wasn't allowed to because his family felt that Halloween was the devil's work.

I was like, "No candy? No Halloween? What's next? No Christmas? Screw this religion crap!"


Other than that, the biggest influences I had that lead to my atheism were really the lack of influences. No one in my surrounding life growing up was religious. I never went to church, etc. So by the time I was old enough to actually examine it, it didn't seem any different than any other myth.

Lucky for me.