(March 20, 2017 at 2:19 am)godlessheatheness Wrote: I guess I'll start with backstory.
When I was young I was never taken to church, only when we went to my grandmothers house. My dad was big into preaching all the time but never practicing what he said. I remember trying to get my dad to go to church, even dragging my brother to a church down the street from us, and trying to get him to go. of course he never did. and I never actually had any interest in church I just wanted him to get out of the house.
He refused and of course I made trouble and skipped school and did all kinds of other things to try and get him to pay attention to what was going on.
I grew up and eventually moved with my mom. He became very super christian and started preaching to me harder, I tried. I really did. I wanted nothing more than to have something in common with him. I tried to believe. I prayed and went to multiple churches and according to his family when I confided in them I wasn't trying hard enough, or praying enough. I had too many questions and I have always felt like an outcast because of it.
It never made sense to me and so I recently quit trying. I have found myself feeling better, and living a healthier lifestyle and happier since.
I've also found something to submerge myself into and learn about and do everything to learn everything that I can so that when my dad finds out (and he will eventually) and he tries to debate me (this I know for a fact) I can win this time.
I have become the thing he hated. A godless heathen.
I won't be straw manned any more, and when I am I will be educated enough to fight back with logic and reason.
Hi godlessheatheness. Since there is no God, all humans are, in fact, atheists, whether they know it or not. Many, most don't, and it's not particularly anybody's job to "make" them know. However, if you have not read these books already, they will give you a good deal of "ammo" in debating the "godly souls" that surround us all:
1) Richard Dawkins, "The God Delusion"
2) Christopher Hitchens, "god is not Great"
3) Sam Harris, "The End of Faith"
4) Lawrence Krauss, "A Universe from Nothing"
It is a sad thing not to have friends, but it is even sadder not to have enemies...(Ernesto Che' Guevara)
