Ex Catholic
June 16, 2014 at 3:39 am
(This post was last modified: June 16, 2014 at 3:52 am by BetaOrionis.)
Greetings All!
Glad I have stumbled across this forum! Thought I might share my story with you.
I was brought up in an Irish Catholic household with a devout father and grandparents. I went to catholic school, and believed whole heartedly in what I was taught (brainwashed!). My first inklings that I didn't fit into this lifestyle came about after my aunt committed suicide - I was about 9 at the time. I simply could not believe that the person who I loved and who was always very kind to me was going to hell, and could not be saved. Either way, I continued to say my prayers and go to church for the next few years, however, as my critical thinking and logic began to grow I became more and more skeptical. When I was about 13 and ready to make my confirmation, there were several tenets of catholicism that I couldn't rectify in my head:
1) An all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving god, omnipotent and omniscient. This is not supported by any reality. Why would an all-powerful, all-loving god allow his "children" to suffer horrid circumstances such as those found in third world countries - what about the holocaust - the crusade, etc? In addition one only has to read the bible to know that Abraham's god was jealous, vengeful, and intolerant of others.
2) Original Sin - Just....what?
3) The continuous denial of logic and science throughout history on everything from evolution to the age of the cosmos. Each position the catholic church (and all the other theistic religions) has taken throughout history is simply to defend their ancient belief system and perpetuate a myth.
4) Circular logic - god exists because the bible says so, god wrote the bible, so therefore the bible is the word of god. I can't do it, the wool won't pull down over my eyes that far!
Either way, my agnostic atheism has simply grown since then to my realisation that organised religion is like a cancer on the world. I find myself wondering what position the world would be in if we instead focused time, energy and money on the betterment of our species, our earth, and the continued exploration of nature and science - we have so much still to learn! Of course this has created some friction between myself and more religious members of my family, but I can't simply ignore logic and reason just to trick myself into believing in an eternal afterlife and being part of a group. Anyway, thanks for reading my (somewhat long) story, hope I can contribute here and glad I have found this site.
Glad I have stumbled across this forum! Thought I might share my story with you.
I was brought up in an Irish Catholic household with a devout father and grandparents. I went to catholic school, and believed whole heartedly in what I was taught (brainwashed!). My first inklings that I didn't fit into this lifestyle came about after my aunt committed suicide - I was about 9 at the time. I simply could not believe that the person who I loved and who was always very kind to me was going to hell, and could not be saved. Either way, I continued to say my prayers and go to church for the next few years, however, as my critical thinking and logic began to grow I became more and more skeptical. When I was about 13 and ready to make my confirmation, there were several tenets of catholicism that I couldn't rectify in my head:
1) An all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving god, omnipotent and omniscient. This is not supported by any reality. Why would an all-powerful, all-loving god allow his "children" to suffer horrid circumstances such as those found in third world countries - what about the holocaust - the crusade, etc? In addition one only has to read the bible to know that Abraham's god was jealous, vengeful, and intolerant of others.
2) Original Sin - Just....what?
3) The continuous denial of logic and science throughout history on everything from evolution to the age of the cosmos. Each position the catholic church (and all the other theistic religions) has taken throughout history is simply to defend their ancient belief system and perpetuate a myth.
4) Circular logic - god exists because the bible says so, god wrote the bible, so therefore the bible is the word of god. I can't do it, the wool won't pull down over my eyes that far!
Either way, my agnostic atheism has simply grown since then to my realisation that organised religion is like a cancer on the world. I find myself wondering what position the world would be in if we instead focused time, energy and money on the betterment of our species, our earth, and the continued exploration of nature and science - we have so much still to learn! Of course this has created some friction between myself and more religious members of my family, but I can't simply ignore logic and reason just to trick myself into believing in an eternal afterlife and being part of a group. Anyway, thanks for reading my (somewhat long) story, hope I can contribute here and glad I have found this site.
