So this is my one post where I get to be all conceited and spend the entire time talking about myself, right? Sweet.
I'm a Computer Information Systems major, wrapping up my last year of college. This is a forum about religion (and/or the lack thereof), so I'm gonna start there:
I was raised Baptist, in one of those old-fashioned local churches with a congregation of 20-30 people, and no youth section worth mentioning.
My mom was the song director and my older brother decided that he wanted to be a preacher when I was around 12 or so.
I wouldn't be able to tell you when I started really doubting my faith, but even when I was a believer, it always felt like I was just playing the part. I would put on my Christian face for Sunday morning, and go about my daily life as if nothing had changed during the other 166½ hours of the week.
I was probably around 15 when I rationalized that God was a lie, but I kept playing the part, pretending to fit in for fear of facing rejection. I'm sure a lot of you can empathize with what that's like, sitting miserably in the pews, listening to the propaganda, still susceptible enough to your early childhood programming that you start doubting your lack of beliefs and feeling guilt, until you come to terms with rationality again.
It's honestly amazing how susceptible a young mind is, especially when the beliefs you're instilling into a child have a consequence for disbelief in the magnitude of burning alive for the rest of eternity. I'm angry at religion for forcing such thoughts on children, because through personal experience, it's a bitch to overcome later on in life.
To me, the testimonial of an atheist's independence and induction to unraveling the inconsistencies of what religion teaches and what the world provides as evidence, is infinitely more beautiful that a conversion story involving faith.
My conversion got a lot easier when my brother told me that he didn't believe in God anymore. This gave me someone, an ally, in which to converse about what we were going through. He straight away, openly started admitting his atheism and quit attending church. I imagine to a parent it must have looked like a kid being rebellious, with him being 18 at the time, and me getting the courage to denounce my faith shortly after.
I don't really know what to say after that paragraph. It's been years, my family knows and respects my religious views. I didn't expect this topic to get so long, i probably should have put it in the other subforum dedicated to conversion stories.
Oh well, this is me.
I'm a Computer Information Systems major, wrapping up my last year of college. This is a forum about religion (and/or the lack thereof), so I'm gonna start there:
I was raised Baptist, in one of those old-fashioned local churches with a congregation of 20-30 people, and no youth section worth mentioning.
My mom was the song director and my older brother decided that he wanted to be a preacher when I was around 12 or so.
I wouldn't be able to tell you when I started really doubting my faith, but even when I was a believer, it always felt like I was just playing the part. I would put on my Christian face for Sunday morning, and go about my daily life as if nothing had changed during the other 166½ hours of the week.
I was probably around 15 when I rationalized that God was a lie, but I kept playing the part, pretending to fit in for fear of facing rejection. I'm sure a lot of you can empathize with what that's like, sitting miserably in the pews, listening to the propaganda, still susceptible enough to your early childhood programming that you start doubting your lack of beliefs and feeling guilt, until you come to terms with rationality again.
It's honestly amazing how susceptible a young mind is, especially when the beliefs you're instilling into a child have a consequence for disbelief in the magnitude of burning alive for the rest of eternity. I'm angry at religion for forcing such thoughts on children, because through personal experience, it's a bitch to overcome later on in life.
To me, the testimonial of an atheist's independence and induction to unraveling the inconsistencies of what religion teaches and what the world provides as evidence, is infinitely more beautiful that a conversion story involving faith.
My conversion got a lot easier when my brother told me that he didn't believe in God anymore. This gave me someone, an ally, in which to converse about what we were going through. He straight away, openly started admitting his atheism and quit attending church. I imagine to a parent it must have looked like a kid being rebellious, with him being 18 at the time, and me getting the courage to denounce my faith shortly after.
I don't really know what to say after that paragraph. It's been years, my family knows and respects my religious views. I didn't expect this topic to get so long, i probably should have put it in the other subforum dedicated to conversion stories.
Oh well, this is me.
