Let's Start Over, I'm Blackrook and I'm Here to Get Some Answers to Important Questions

[Blackrook]

First off, I'd like to say thank you for trying to start over, and hopefully this time the convesation will more civil on both sides.

As far as atheism offering anything to replace that, the only thing atheism offers is the truth. The rest is up to you to discover. Meaning comes not from a deity but from within. This can require long periods of soul-searching, and it is definitely not an easy path to comfort. I was never a theist, but I know that de-conversion is something that a lot of atheists struggled with since their source of meaning has been removed. Once you do find meaning, however, living with the truth instead of a comforting lie is liberating to the intellect.

So, to sum up, atheism gives you the ability to take control of your own life and stop wishing for a deity to fix things for you. It allows you to take the reins of your destiny.

Right, well I've stopped believing that God is going to swoop in and fix my life and make things better. He has already proven he's not going to do that.

All the bad things that have happened to me I realize are caused by a combination of factors: I am bipolar, I am ADD, and an anti-social personality because my mother was abusive to me and I grew up not trusting people.

So I have had very little success in my career, and at the age of 47 I am once again starting out with nothing in my bank account, no book of business, but still with all the responsibilities of a wife and a son to support, plus lots of bills.

And God has done nothing to help me with any of this, despite my prayers.

Or maybe he has, I don't know. Maybe I should be counting my blessings: a happy marriage and three wonderful children. And if I die now, I've accomplished that. I had a very unhappy childhood, but I was able to make sure my children DID have a happy childhood.

But I've been a bad example to them on Catholicism. My eldest has declared she is not a Catholic, my second daughter doesn't attend Mass, and my son did not complete his confirmation. And what could I expect since I am so slack in this area myself, and my wife really is not a Catholic except in name since she converted only because she married me.

My father is very disappointed in me, and with his other children who are wandering from the faith. My younger sister has declared she is an atheist, my other sister married a Muslim, and I've been missing Mass for years.

And really its all about my father, since he controls me with guilt.

And so I guilt him back. Why didn't you do something while Mom was hitting me? Why did you just stand there and let it happen? And then he gets upset, and so I don't do that any more. What's the point?

Any way, I'm rambling. There's really no point in this except to say that things have not worked out for me the way I hoped. And now I've learned that things don't work that way. God never promised that those who follow him would acheive success, fame and happiness in this life. It is childish to think so, and I guess I have to stop being a child.

But Mass does nothing for me. I do not feel God's presence at Mass and I do not feel inspired to pray to him at any time. I feel an emptiness instead, and a longing that my struggle in this world could finally, mercifully end.

So really, that's where I am right now. Any comments?

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I don't care if we are being rude to you. Big deal, The Atheist Church isn't spending millions of dollars on Atheist conversion programs. You know why? Because those things don't exist. Meanwhile the Catholic church is dying as they spend millions and perhaps billions of dollars.

http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pas...erica.html

I'll highlight my favorite part for you.

"A breakdown of overall attendance percentages by church type shows decreases across the board in evangelical, mainline and Catholic churches.

The most significant drop in attendance came at the expense of the Catholic Church, which experienced an 11% decrease in its attendance percentage from 2000 to 2004. Next, and not far behind were mainline churches, which saw a 10% percentage decline. Evangelicals experienced the smallest drop at 1%. "

Meanwhile Atheism has almost doubled in the last 20 years.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/20...ARIS_N.htm

That's without us even caring. So go back to your church and take whatever comfort you want in it. We don't care.

Well, ok, I'm trying to be nice but if you don't want to do that I will put you on ignore and pay attention to the people who want to talk constructively.

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So anyway, that's what I'm going to do. I am not going to continue this war that started when I first got here. I am going to stick to the subject and talk to people who want to talk to me in a respectful, polite, constructive fashion.

And anyone who doesn't want to talk to me respectfully, politely, and constructively will quickly join my ignore list.

And in that way, I will not lose my temper and go back to the way things went when I first got here.