Well, for starters, till the age of 10 I was forced into catholic sunday school, always under the premise that I couldn´t live a fully life without all the sacraments of church( Baptism, 1st communion, etc, bah), but when I did the first communion, i started noticing that people around weren't really folowing what was preached (some, as soon as they got out of church whould go to the cofee shops, just to sit and diss, curse, badmouth other people), I even tried to comment aspects of the session in church, comment about the teachings, only to ear the usual "Thats what he said (the priest)?, well thats what god commands!".
But then, my best pal, my cousin got cancer, somewhere on the brain, he was my age and a more avid folower than I was, so, during a whole year, I prayed that he whould get well even trying the "take me Lord, Instead of him" line. So, after a year of gruelsome suffering he perished, deformed, paralized, defeated by cancer and the agressive threatements. How could it be? How could god take him and like that? It is impossible to hold such a dissonance! Guilt ensued:"Mabe I didn't prayed enough, Mabe I've been so wicked gos is punishing me by taking my best friend."
Anyways, I started joining the wrong crowd and gone berserk on all substances that could ease the loss, of my best friend, and the loss of god, developing into an addiction that could really and litterary take all the pain away: heroin. Long story short, go see "Trainspotting" for a somewhat similar story(well, I didn't ended up with a suitcase full of money like Rents did) but I managed to shake the addiction off me the hard way. Dont ask me how it was, because it all feels hazy now 10 years away, but somewhere in all the rottiness of that life I came to realze there is no god, if we are going to help ourselves, it will be our strenght, not any external one, and it was irrational to pursue that addiction. Hell, I've even felt like god one of the times I've done an LSD trip. I got rid of it all drugs: heroin, LSD, coke, god.
So there you have it, a nice horror story you can freely use to scare the shit out of your kids haha. Fortunately I recovered good (I was a rational Junkie) except for a few thousand neurons. My only crime: Genocide of my own neurons.
As a side note: when I was addicted, when I though in getting out I was rushed by the feeling "I cant imagine life without heroin" and I ear alot from Theists "I cant Imagine life without God". I'm pushed to throw an analogy between religion and addiction.
But then, my best pal, my cousin got cancer, somewhere on the brain, he was my age and a more avid folower than I was, so, during a whole year, I prayed that he whould get well even trying the "take me Lord, Instead of him" line. So, after a year of gruelsome suffering he perished, deformed, paralized, defeated by cancer and the agressive threatements. How could it be? How could god take him and like that? It is impossible to hold such a dissonance! Guilt ensued:"Mabe I didn't prayed enough, Mabe I've been so wicked gos is punishing me by taking my best friend."
Anyways, I started joining the wrong crowd and gone berserk on all substances that could ease the loss, of my best friend, and the loss of god, developing into an addiction that could really and litterary take all the pain away: heroin. Long story short, go see "Trainspotting" for a somewhat similar story(well, I didn't ended up with a suitcase full of money like Rents did) but I managed to shake the addiction off me the hard way. Dont ask me how it was, because it all feels hazy now 10 years away, but somewhere in all the rottiness of that life I came to realze there is no god, if we are going to help ourselves, it will be our strenght, not any external one, and it was irrational to pursue that addiction. Hell, I've even felt like god one of the times I've done an LSD trip. I got rid of it all drugs: heroin, LSD, coke, god.
So there you have it, a nice horror story you can freely use to scare the shit out of your kids haha. Fortunately I recovered good (I was a rational Junkie) except for a few thousand neurons. My only crime: Genocide of my own neurons.
As a side note: when I was addicted, when I though in getting out I was rushed by the feeling "I cant imagine life without heroin" and I ear alot from Theists "I cant Imagine life without God". I'm pushed to throw an analogy between religion and addiction.
