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What were your first questions?
#21
RE: What were your first questions?
(March 20, 2018 at 6:48 pm)Khemikal Wrote: Sounds protestant.

Very.

It almost seemed as if there was shit they didn't want us reading.

LOL
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#22
RE: What were your first questions?
Damn, how do you guys remember this stuff?  I was like in 5th grade and never read the bible.  But I just thought God/Jesus was like the best ... fill in the blank: the best ______ .  So I wanted to be/become worthy company for this best one and I figured that could only happen if I made my own decisions of the best thing to do and say and own it.  I figured somehow God/Jesus would know everything I considered and after this life we'd talk about it and if I got anything wrong He/He would explain it in a way I'd understand or else we'd just have to agree to disagree.  Never felt afraid of the guy/Guy.  I mean, he was the best ______, wasn't he/He?  We'd be tight.

So leaving involved no reconciliation with anything in the bible because I didn't know it at all.  At some point it just seemed likely that as much as I had looked forward to a full accounting for my choices with the best _____, it wasn't and couldn't possibly happen.  It just wasn't true.  Me and my secret friend parted amicably.

(March 20, 2018 at 6:44 pm)Cathooloo Wrote:
(March 20, 2018 at 6:22 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote: Just out of curiosity, how were you instructed?

In the study group I was part of  the Gospels, Acts and the Epistles, primarily, not necessarily in any discernable order.  We were told it ought to be read that way, but it was never adequately explained why.

The OT was almost never brought up, unless 'opposing the homosexual agenda' was the topic de jure.


I cannot even imagine what it would be like to break up with religion when that involved other people, some of them in positions of authority over me.  Then having accepted the authority of the bible rather than something entirely internal .. that would be soooooooo much harder.  Kudos to everyone who got out that way.  My hat is off to you.
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#23
RE: What were your first questions?
After reading the whole bible...

"People take this seriously?"

Playing Cluedo with my mum while I was at Uni:

"You did WHAT?  With WHO?  WHERE???"
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#24
RE: What were your first questions?
(March 20, 2018 at 7:17 pm)The Valkyrie Wrote: After reading the whole bible...

"People take this seriously?"


How old were you when you read it?  What was the indoctrination process that preceded trusting you with the text?  (Well done.)
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#25
RE: What were your first questions?
(March 20, 2018 at 4:35 pm)Sayetsu Wrote: (For those to whom it applies) What were the first questions you had that led you to atheism?

Why is church so boring? Why do we have to go to church on Sunday?
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#26
RE: What were your first questions?
(March 20, 2018 at 7:20 pm)Whateverist Wrote:
(March 20, 2018 at 7:17 pm)The Valkyrie Wrote: After reading the whole bible...

"People take this seriously?"


How old were you when you read it?  What was the indoctrination process that preceded trusting you with the text?  (Well done.)

Eight when I started doubting.

About ten or eleven when I first read it all the way through. Thirteen when I officially became a heathen.

Standard Catholic training. I expressed doubts so my mother gave me a copy to get inspiration.

Oooops!

Playing Cluedo with my mum while I was at Uni:

"You did WHAT?  With WHO?  WHERE???"
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#27
RE: What were your first questions?
I didn't ask questions because I didn't know you could. I grew up in an insular, small town and went to Catholic school through 12th grade. I was never exposed to anyone who questioned or mocked religion.

I went to grad school, lived abroad yet still didn't ask questions.

It wasn't until I stumbled on a book in a bookstore called "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali with the foreword by Christopher Hitchens that I basically skipped the questioning part, realized atheism made sense and broke up with religion.

-Teresa
.
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#28
RE: What were your first questions?
"Why does God care so much about what people do, when it doesn't hurt anyone?"

That was my first question. I mean really. God's mad at gay people getting married. How does that hurt him at all? Because he didn't INTEND sex for that purpose? And how exactly does that hurt him that people aren't doing things exactly the way he wants. Why does he care if people masturbate? I mean killing people, yeah. Makes total sense why he wouldn't like that.

My husband on the other hand had his mind blown when I explained to him that God and Jesus were supposed to be the same person. That didn't make sense to him. I don't think I realized how little it made sense to me until he mentioned it. He was able to reconcile God and Jesus being different people, and not part of the same entity. But being one in the same pushed him firmly into the atheism camp (at least after he prayed on it--only to realize he was talking to the walls)
The whole tone of Church teaching in regard to woman is, to the last degree, contemptuous and degrading. - Elizabeth Cady Stanton
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#29
RE: What were your first questions?
(March 20, 2018 at 7:02 pm)Whateverist Wrote: Damn, how do you guys remember this stuff?  
-because the pictures were pretty and we wanted to be illustrators - like any kid that age who thinks that if they're really good with crayons..... before anyone told us there was no money in it........?
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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#30
RE: What were your first questions?
I don't quite remember them all from the list (13 at the time). Lets see, two male children populating the earth, the whole Noah thing, talking animals, parting seas, killing of only first born males, traveling rich guys, unfounded miracle claims..................... And at the end the preacher tells me to stop asking questions for which there is no answer and just believe.

The really disturbing things came later when I got around to reading the bible. 

No thanks, see ya!
Being told you're delusional does not necessarily mean you're mental. 
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