RE: why did you become a christian?
November 7, 2013 at 3:33 pm
(This post was last modified: November 7, 2013 at 3:34 pm by WesOlsen.)
Born in to an anglican (but not THAT observant) family, and I was christened. Read some bible stories growing up, they were entertaining bed-time stories but it quickly became apparent that they were just that. By my late teens I was all too aware of alternative religions and their claims to fame. I was also beginning to ask why so many different version of christianity were living side by side, often in not so perfect harmony. By my early 20s I realised that any claimed word of god was completely unsuccesful in uniting anyone. Thousands of different christian denominations, with splits in all the other major faiths as well. They can't agree on anything, meaning god can't communicate his messages properly, which means god is an idiot, which means he's not perfect. By the time I was 22 i'd definitely say I was a non-theist. Shortly after I decided that I was agnostic because there's no single piece of evidence (that I've seen) that could completely rule out a higher being (who could simply be an advanced alien from our own universe) but currently nothing has been provided which even begins to prove the existence of a deity. I think it's unknown at this point, but might not be in the future. I'm an agnostic atheist any way.
My parents still profess a christian belief, and claim that christian values held them and their parent's generation together whereas my generation is full of filth and tearaways. I tell them that this is a rose-tinted view of history and is just golden-age thinking. We don't particularly discuss these things much nowadays, and there is absolutely no hostility between us at all (i'm closer to family than every these days). If my parents were strict and very observant practitioners of a religion then things might be more problematic.
Either way, free thought and an interest in science and history render all existing religions completely unconvincing. I am thankful for a largely secular education (minus singing hyms in school assembly and the occasional lord's prayer) and don't have a problem with my parents very occasionally making reference to some of the nicer teachings of the bible, even though they are ignorant (unintentionally) of all the nasty bits.
My parents still profess a christian belief, and claim that christian values held them and their parent's generation together whereas my generation is full of filth and tearaways. I tell them that this is a rose-tinted view of history and is just golden-age thinking. We don't particularly discuss these things much nowadays, and there is absolutely no hostility between us at all (i'm closer to family than every these days). If my parents were strict and very observant practitioners of a religion then things might be more problematic.
Either way, free thought and an interest in science and history render all existing religions completely unconvincing. I am thankful for a largely secular education (minus singing hyms in school assembly and the occasional lord's prayer) and don't have a problem with my parents very occasionally making reference to some of the nicer teachings of the bible, even though they are ignorant (unintentionally) of all the nasty bits.
