Angrillori

Keyser,

Coming from the same church as Carrie, I can prety much back her up.

I was in for like three years, and was on the proverbial 'fast track.' As a straight-A college student, everyone figured I'd be leading my own branch in a few years.

However, encouraging too much bible study isn't really good for a church. I started to get an idea that there's something just off with the whole document. Why would the big guy need to extort our love? And all that parent-child relationship stuff we were supposed to have really didn't bear out in the bible. My foundations were already shaking. As a microbiology+history major, my experiences with archaeology weren't helping all the church's claims of even the historical veracity of the document.

Then came the moment of truth. At a midwest, campus-student retreat, one of the official church 'teachers' came to talk.

I was all ready with notebook and pencil to get some good old fashioned learning. And what does this fellow throw up on his power-point presentation....

the dung-beetle.

For months this guy had been built up as the smartest guy in the world. And he has the nerve to come to me, and try to tell me 'hyuck, evilotionists believe dung beetles kept blowin' them tharselves up until theys gots it right hyuck'

I was rather livid. But, avoiding a fit of rage, I talked to my discipler (think peer-mentor but with authoritarian overtones) and went through the steps of trying to explain what evolution was and wasn't and debunking myth upon myth. For my lack of faith I was pulled from the leadership group and sent into remedial christianity. Since this creationism thing, if true, made god a liar (in his natural revelation, see Romans) and his abyssmal record in the bible made him some sort of extortionist, I decided I wanted nothing of him and left.

My only trouble is, the group did have a better grasp overall of biblical xianity than anything I'd seen before or since. And, to their credit (though it certainly bites 'em in the hinder) they fervently encouraged everyone to read their bible an hour a day minimum.
Interestingly, in my regular peer group I've since learned that a handful of 'em (engineers by trade and training go figure) all had the same experience I did. Read too much of the bible, listen too much to the church, and if you have a critical mind, you seem to 'fall away.'


Also, very interestingly, in the first month I was away from the church I was able to do more good than any year I was in--raised $5000 to feed Milwaukee's hungry, held a rally to support campaign finance reform, and collected some huge amount of clothing for the needy as well through some of the other grass roots orgs I was involved in. It's amazing how much good you can do if you don't have that pesky god holding you back.

keyser_soze

Well, the feeding the poor thing is no surprise. On another board, a poster was going on about how his church had knitted 30 blankets by hand in a year to send to Kosovo. I came back with, well, after international shipping, and a year of work they only gave 30 blankets. They could all have just donated 5.00 each, sent it over as one lump payment and got someone there to buy 300. And 300 people would have been warm all winter LAST YEAR. That is the thing, no thinking, no practicality. They went right for the local newspaper headlines and ignored the freezing people.

B. H. Manners

If fundies won't leave you alone after politely asking them to stop preaching to you, just say Jesus performed his miracles by the power of Satan and thus blaspheme the Holy Ghost. explain to your believing friends that your sin is unforgivable and it is a waste of time to try to "save" you. Then just turn your back and walk away.