(September 8, 2015 at 2:31 am)robvalue Wrote: I understand you feeling guilty about your siblings. I really don't know if you'd have been able to do much even if you had stayed though. Since religious nonsense is one of those forms of passive abuse that is socially acceptable (like over-feeding your kid or smoking all over them) it's not something that can easily be stopped unless it becomes actual bodily harm.
How are your siblings now?
The three of us have all, individually, patched things up with the folks, mainly because the folks have realized they will lose us again the moment they start talking crazy. My parents are both intelligent people; dad is a Nuclear/Chemical Engineer with a Master's in Process Engineering, and mom is a PhD in speech/theatre, who is a professor at LSU. They just manage to have astounding levels of cognitive dissonance by blocking out anything that doesn't comport with their present religious beliefs. My fiancee, a Christian but one who is also an evolutionary biologist/biochemist, is able to sucker my dad into conversations about Atomic Theory that would force him to admit the world is more than 6000 years old in a way I cannot because he has learned to be wary of me, but she is just so charming that he doesn't get the defenses up in time. It's adorable to watch her run him into the conclusions of logic, smirking in a way only I recognize, and then "hear" his fuses pop to prevent the dissonant parts of his brain from communicating when bridged.
My siblings and I don't really speak to one another much, except at family reunions, as we all have gone off in different directions and made our own lives. When I do speak to them, they are like strangers, even though the initial abandonment is no longer brought up. My sister is a Pagan/Wiccan, but married to a hardcore fundamentalist Christian who is highly active in the church (I always see photos of him leading various types of worship songs/performances), so I think she fakes Christianity for him. I've never pressed her on this point. Things are tentative enough as it is! It does make me very sad that my siblings and I have drifted apart, but I don't really see a way to repair it, at this stage of our lives. About the only thing we all agree on is that fundies are nuts. Luckily, my brother and his wife have a kid almost exactly my son's age, so I get to spend time with my nephew a lot when I visit, since they're just glad to have someone who'll watch the kid, and I don't mind taking both boys.
A Christian told me: if you were saved you cant lose your salvation. you're sealed with the Holy Ghost
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.
