(January 13, 2015 at 5:41 am)Fisher92 Wrote: Greetings,
I guess morbid curiosity more than anything else has lead me to attempt to find some fellow human beings I can relate to (peoples with a Y chromosome need not apply of course :-D. I am interested to know the men/women ratio here if anyone knows?). This seems to be an insurmountable challenge without resorting to the interwebs. Don't get me wrong, I can fake relationships with people quite well and do it daily for my job (control systems engineer - there is a lot of human interaction required despite the stereotypes). I do this by ensuring that I never divulge my true opinion or say anything genuine - strictly inane babble. The main reason this is necessary is that a disdain for religion is not really acceptable where I live (QLD, AUS), people insist that all religion be respected and it seems to be important to a disturbing number of people. I'm sure many people have experienced this?
Having spent the last few years meeting a lot of people I now (I never would have said this five years ago) consider myself extremely cynical and innately anti-social (perhaps not an apt description, I don't like any of the people I know, save for my immediate family). For instance, when I here someone assert their life changing experience with eastern religions/meditation/etc my reaction is simply you're full of shit/ quit with the mental-masturbation!; I immediately think considerably less of A person when he/she says 'as a christian'; I don't believe that Islam/Christianity/et al should be respected, on the contrary (I know many of you agree with me here)...
I have never believed in any god/s at all though I did attend catholic schools for 12 years and I was baptised. Religion was simply a non-issue at home to the point where I didn't realise anyone was taking it seriously until I was in high school and a friend asked a priest a perfectly non-nonsensical question about Jesus not in jest. Up to that point I was convinced that people were going to church and praying for purely social reasons - analogous to Christmas (totally secular that is, though I had never thought seriously about any of this at that time). After that, I really hated (as much as I know the emotion I guess) religious people. I feel more pity for religious types now after my mother explained what it is like having everyone in your life tell you that Jesus died for your sins and you need to repent (my grandmother was an ex-nun- and abusive - another person completely fucked over by the church which I hold in utter contempt). I unfortunately lack the literary skill to put those conversations on paper. Anyway, I now have a great deal of respect for men and women who have emancipated themselves from their mind formed manacles, as Hitchens might say.
I'm curious to know if anyone feels similar at all (I can guess that most if not all of you are anti theistic with very little respect for the catholic church)?
Thanks!
Ah, you're from Queensland... that explains it.
MM
"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions" - Leonardo da Vinci
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
