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I'm saved! (Thanks in part to Thomas Paine)
#1
I'm saved! (Thanks in part to Thomas Paine)
In the late 1970's I got involved with some born again types and I have to say, really tried hard to believe.  I think the fact that I had to "try" says something about the depth of my "belief."  It was like part of me "knew" Christianity was right, but below the surface was a bubbling doubt.  I'd go to Bible studies, read my Bible, pass out tracts, profess the "logic" of Evidence That Demands a Verdict, etc.  Around 1980 my natural intellectual curiosity (the enemy of all religion) had me reading everything from Ayn Rand to Solzhenitsyn to Paine to The Tibetan Book of the Dead.  Yet part of me TRIED to believe.  Didn't work.  I finally just faced up to the fact that I just don't believe it.  I've never looked back.

As I've grown older and come to understand my own personality better, I've come to realize that I am not a social type person and never really liked being at church/religious meetings.  I think you really need that to be a successful "believer" of any stripe.  There definitely is a social dimension to it.  Had I been more social, and had I surrounded myself with believers, there's a chance I would have allowed myself to be dragged deeper into it, to the point where I might have never gotten out.  Fortunately, I "saw the light."  To quote one of my favorite old country gospel songs (Hank Williams) -

I saw the light, I saw the light
No more darkness, no more light
Now I'm so happy, no sorrow in sight
Praise the Lord, I saw the light!

That brings up something else which I think had an impact on my "belief" - modern Christian "music" - spare me, please!  The old hymns - powerful, emotional songs - might have made religion more attractive to me, but this modern stuff is crap.  Although, truth be told, I really do love the songs by Faith + 1.
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#2
RE: I'm saved! (Thanks in part to Thomas Paine)
Congratulations.

Always best to be rid of those types.
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#3
RE: I'm saved! (Thanks in part to Thomas Paine)
Welcome, congrats for escaping the clutches of faithyness!

Tom Paine's Age of Reason and Common Sense are good stuff for sure!

p.s. does it really say "no more light"?
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition

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#4
RE: I'm saved! (Thanks in part to Thomas Paine)
(August 8, 2016 at 1:43 am)Bunburryist Wrote: Although, truth be told, I really do love the songs by Faith + 1.

Faith + 1! Amazing!!!

[Image: hqdefault.jpg]
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great

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#5
RE: I'm saved! (Thanks in part to Thomas Paine)
Epic.
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#6
RE: I'm saved! (Thanks in part to Thomas Paine)
Your right! Sorry, Hank, that was supposed to be "night."
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#7
RE: I'm saved! (Thanks in part to Thomas Paine)
Yes indeed, group dynamics are a big thing. I feel that people who are more suggestible tend to make "better believers". When in a group of people all "feeling" something, it's very easy to be fooled into thinking you're feeling it too; and to read significance into it.

Well done for fighting out of the bullshit Smile
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#8
RE: I'm saved! (Thanks in part to Thomas Paine)
(August 8, 2016 at 2:44 am)Bunburryist Wrote: Your right! Sorry, Hank, that was supposed to be "night."

Hank??!
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition

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#9
RE: I'm saved! (Thanks in part to Thomas Paine)
Yea who's this Hank!? Angry
(August 21, 2017 at 11:31 pm)KevinM1 Wrote: "I'm not a troll"
Religious Views: He gay

0/10

Hammy Wrote:and we also have a sheep on our bed underneath as well
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#10
RE: I'm saved! (Thanks in part to Thomas Paine)
(August 8, 2016 at 3:15 am)Losty Wrote: Angry

Look what you did dude! You made kittencorn make her skerry face at you!
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