Hello all
November 5, 2012 at 4:42 pm
(This post was last modified: November 5, 2012 at 4:53 pm by Crabon.)
Hi,
Something about me:
I'm a 25-year-old male atheist. I was raised as a christian (Evangelical Lutheranism is the prominent religious orientation here in northern Europe [Finland]).
I think I believed in God up until when I was about 15 or 16, and by believing I mean I feared. I had some doubts but was too afraid to give those doubts too much thought because once a seed of doubt came into my head, I reflexively threw it away thinking it's wrong and punishable in some afterlife to even think about it. I think that goes to show something about the level of psychological damage that my parents and the state did to me and to many other children that were sensitive to that kind of influence
When I turned 18, I had built up the courage to think about the myth that I was taught to believe in and its implications. It didn't take me too long to figure out where i stand relative to it, and I left the church not too long after. My parents were quite shocked at the decision. They had no idea I was an atheist (although I didn't really know the word by then - I just said I didn't believe in God and didn't see the point of being a member of the church anymore). They kept bothering me with it for a while, but eventually gave up because I didn't have too much interest in dealing with a question in a way that would in no way benefit me. Listening to 2 (mainly 1, that's my dad) people who have never read the bible but whose only reason (not according to them, of course) to believe in a god and accept the position of a slave is that they've been brought up that way and indoctrinated to respect an authority, preach me, I didn't feel like wasting my time in the conversation.
Many years have passed now, and I'm in no way dependent on my parents economically or in other ways, but we're pretty close still. I think they're genuinely nice persons, and the main reason I regularly visit them is our dog that is quite attached to me and I feel obligated to give him a visit at least once in a month.
Because of us meeting regularly, I've had a few conversations scratching on the subject. But whenever my dad brings up his religiosity, or the spirituality as he calls it, I get this feeling of disgust and contempt. I view him as an adult with the intellect of a child, and in my mind I hold him accountable for not having escaped the same shackles that I have escaped from, despite him having the same information that I have. I think he lacks the courage, and I view of him as a coward in some sense...
I haven't told him this and I probably won't, and I recognize there's probably some deep psychological stuff there, but I just felt like typing this out somewhere to have some reflection on the issue myself too.
Something about me:
I'm a 25-year-old male atheist. I was raised as a christian (Evangelical Lutheranism is the prominent religious orientation here in northern Europe [Finland]).
I think I believed in God up until when I was about 15 or 16, and by believing I mean I feared. I had some doubts but was too afraid to give those doubts too much thought because once a seed of doubt came into my head, I reflexively threw it away thinking it's wrong and punishable in some afterlife to even think about it. I think that goes to show something about the level of psychological damage that my parents and the state did to me and to many other children that were sensitive to that kind of influence
When I turned 18, I had built up the courage to think about the myth that I was taught to believe in and its implications. It didn't take me too long to figure out where i stand relative to it, and I left the church not too long after. My parents were quite shocked at the decision. They had no idea I was an atheist (although I didn't really know the word by then - I just said I didn't believe in God and didn't see the point of being a member of the church anymore). They kept bothering me with it for a while, but eventually gave up because I didn't have too much interest in dealing with a question in a way that would in no way benefit me. Listening to 2 (mainly 1, that's my dad) people who have never read the bible but whose only reason (not according to them, of course) to believe in a god and accept the position of a slave is that they've been brought up that way and indoctrinated to respect an authority, preach me, I didn't feel like wasting my time in the conversation.
Many years have passed now, and I'm in no way dependent on my parents economically or in other ways, but we're pretty close still. I think they're genuinely nice persons, and the main reason I regularly visit them is our dog that is quite attached to me and I feel obligated to give him a visit at least once in a month.
Because of us meeting regularly, I've had a few conversations scratching on the subject. But whenever my dad brings up his religiosity, or the spirituality as he calls it, I get this feeling of disgust and contempt. I view him as an adult with the intellect of a child, and in my mind I hold him accountable for not having escaped the same shackles that I have escaped from, despite him having the same information that I have. I think he lacks the courage, and I view of him as a coward in some sense...
I haven't told him this and I probably won't, and I recognize there's probably some deep psychological stuff there, but I just felt like typing this out somewhere to have some reflection on the issue myself too.
![[Image: SigBarSping_zpscd7e35e1.png]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=i169.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fu224%2FUchiha_Kina%2FTags%2FSigBarSping_zpscd7e35e1.png)
![[Image: JUkLw58.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/JUkLw58.gif)
