RE: New Atheist!!...
September 5, 2010 at 11:35 pm
(This post was last modified: September 5, 2010 at 11:37 pm by everythingafter.)
(September 5, 2010 at 9:03 pm)dave4shmups Wrote: I'm 33 years old, and read "The God Delusion" and "Letter to a Christian Nation" (I liked Sam Harris's book the best!) back in February, but came back to my faith, even though I still had serious doubts.
I haven't told my family yet, and I do have friends from church that are nice people, and I'm certainly not perfect. But I do NOT see any reason to pray or ask forgiveness from any deity anytime I screw up in life. And I hope I never will again.
I LOVE video games, both retro and next gen, and reading and socializing.
We have some things in common. I'm 33 as well and was a longtime churchgoer. Is your family very evangelical? If they are, be prepared for a fair amount of shock, grief and pleading for you to "don't give up on God" and the like. If they aren't, lucky you! I'm still treading on thin waters with my family for deciding to come out. I've thought about just moving away, actually. I don't think they'll ever cease cornering me or pleading with me about god ... such is the power of religion to take the mind hostage. And yes, like Minimalist said, also be prepared for when those nice people turn the cheek against you. I left the church and have gotten only one e-mail or call about why I left out of congregation of about 150 people. And that was from the worship leader (it was his job), and I was in the praise team on stage every Sunday for years!
Don't expect much sympathy or patience from the church crowd. Sorry to paint a bleak picture for ya. The best I can suggest is to follow your mind and logic and reach out to any fellow nonbelievers you can find. As a former churchgoer, feel free to speak with me anytime. Good luck.
Our Daily Train blog at jeremystyron.com
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We have lingered in the chambers of the sea | By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown | Till human voices wake us, and we drown. — T.S. Eliot
"... man always has to decide for himself in the darkness, that he must want beyond what he knows. ..." — Simone de Beauvoir
"As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself—so like a brother, really—I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again." — Albert Camus, "The Stranger"
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We have lingered in the chambers of the sea | By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown | Till human voices wake us, and we drown. — T.S. Eliot
"... man always has to decide for himself in the darkness, that he must want beyond what he knows. ..." — Simone de Beauvoir
"As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself—so like a brother, really—I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again." — Albert Camus, "The Stranger"
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