Thanks for sharing Pyrrho - good to know it's possible to get to that 'god is the tooth fairy' space. Right now as much as I logically oppose the idea of heaven and hell there's still a level of fear and doubt.
I had a chat with an old church friend this week - one of the very few who knows about my personal life - He no longer attends church and said he only believed in god still because he's afraid of hell. Was very honest about that and acknowledged how silly that was but isn't armed with enough info to throw off the lifetime of tradition and indoctrination. He might be ok with that space, but I'm not.
I had a chat with an old church friend this week - one of the very few who knows about my personal life - He no longer attends church and said he only believed in god still because he's afraid of hell. Was very honest about that and acknowledged how silly that was but isn't armed with enough info to throw off the lifetime of tradition and indoctrination. He might be ok with that space, but I'm not.
(May 7, 2015 at 10:20 pm)Pyrrho Wrote: I was raised a Southern Baptist. As a young child, I believed the stuff I was told by my parents. Growing up, I had questions and doubts. I very gradually, over the course of several years, became an agnostic, not knowing what to believe, and a bit later, a strong atheist.
The transition was painful and difficult, but after a couple of years I settled into atheism quite comfortably. I have been an atheist now for many years, and am much happier than I ever was as a believer. I don't worry about displeasing god and going to hell, just like I don't worry about upsetting Santa or the Tooth Fairy.
You have an extra issue that may upset those around you that I never had to deal with. As you know, many people are bigoted about lesbians, particularly religious people. (On the plus side, you don't have to worry about birth control, so you have some advantages as well. Don't forget what is good in your life.)
Anyway, you are quite right that religion does not make sense, for quite a few reasons. One being that people are often telling you to believe stuff without evidence. They like to call that "faith" and pretend it is a virtue. However, when someone judges something prior to the evidence, one is prejudging things, or, in other words, one is prejudiced. That is not a virtue at all; it is a vice. Religion perverts morality and all sorts of other things, so, yes, it is senseless in many ways. But enough of this for now.
Welcome to the site!