I can feel your anger

[Skepsis]

Out of interest, who was once religious and who was not?

And are you from a predominantly area? I say this as a sanctimonious cunt as I was brought up secularly, and am from one of the most secular countries in the world. So religion played no role in my past.

I am currently living in a Christian household in the Bible Belt. More specifically, I am living an a rural community with, I kid you not, more churches than any other type of building.
I had it better than some atheists here, though. My family is more modern and open-minded, so they don't care that I am an atheist nor that I bash religion, because they can separate themselves from their beliefs. I even lived in Austin (sort of, the outskirts) where any type of person was accepted.
All this and I find religion to be obsolete and foolish and the adherents pertinacious and unreasonable.

[Ace Otana]

Out of interest, who was once religious and who was not?

I was never religious. I come from a secular/atheist family. England happens to be quite secular, most aren't religious.
The church and my early school tired to brainwash me but with no success.
As I understood religion more and more, the more stupid I noticed religion was.
Never joined any religion, have always remained atheist.
Theists are free to call me ignorant, and are of course free to deliver the missing information, in fact I welcome it. So far, the information they claimed I lacked I already had, much to their surprise.
I was once an atheist because I didn't know much about religion and merely discarded it as meaningless waffle. Now I'm an atheist because I know a great deal about it and still maintain that it's all meaningless waffle.
So far all I got from theists is demands for me to abandon tried and tested principles that work time and time again and to simply take their word for it without a shred of evidence for support of their claims.
I have rejected such a demand, and will continue to do so.

[Cyberman]

Never been religious, never felt the urge. Never really encountered this stuff until I got onto the internet (talk about a baptism of fire...)

As Ace mentioned, religion tends not to be much of a factor over here; particularly in the seventies when I was growing up. I'd say now that mine was an atheist family, but at the time it was never mentioned one way or the other; it was just something that never existed in my life. From an early age and encouraged by my parents, I developed a keen interest in backyard astronomy - even round here with a cluttered horizon and the light pollution typical of a town centre, which has increased badly in recent years I might add. Anyway, I learned to appreciate the beauty and the immense scale of the Universe, not the heavens. Gods and monsters need not apply.

I had the usual general religious education at Secondary School, which treated all religions as equally mythological and didn't even try to promote one over the others. Apart from that, plus my born-again schoolfriend who kept trying and failing to save me, that just about sums up my religious background. Until of course the internet provided me with a steady supply of live prey.

[Mister Agenda]

Out of interest, who was once religious and who was not?

And are you from a predominantly area? I say this as a sanctimonious cunt as I was brought up secularly, and am from one of the most secular countries in the world. So religion played no role in my past.

Raised Pentecostal. Spoke in tongues. Was a Royal Ranger because the Boy Scouts were too worldly.

[pgrimes15]

Out of interest, who was once religious and who was not?

And are you from a predominantly area? I say this as a sanctimonious cunt as I was brought up secularly, and am from one of the most secular countries in the world. So religion played no role in my past.

Raised Pentecostal. Spoke in tongues. Was a Royal Ranger because the Boy Scouts were too worldly.

What's it like speaking in tongues ? Can you describe it from the perspective of someone who is now a sceptic ? I find it a fascinating phenomenon. Can you practice it ? Are there some who are better at it than others i.e. more authentic sounding ? The only time I've spoken to a Xtian about it was some Jehovahs Witnesses who do not believe in that sort of thing, saying that people are just getting themselves worked up into a frenzy.

Regards

Grimesy

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

I was brought up devout Irish Catholic,and attended Catholic schools

At 16 I began asking serious questions about original sin,free will vs God's omniscience,the problem of suffering, plus some of the Church's loopier beliefs such papal infallibility and indulgences. I left the Church at 20. Took another 20 years of asking questions and finding only more questions. Becoming an atheist was not a conscious decision; one day I simply realised I no longer believed.

Today I have only contempt for the intellectual masturbation that is theology and biblical exegesis. Nor do I have any time for apologists who insist on citing the bible as proof,knowing they are dealing with a skeptic and atheist.

My frustration with apologists on forums is not about 'understanding'. Saying "you just don't understand "is simply an arrogant ad hominem. My frustration comes from constantly seeing doublethink and cognitive dissonance elevated to art forms. It's like trying to reason with a rather dim,recalcitrant child.

If you could reason with religious people there wouldn't be any ( Greg House)

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

oublethink, a word coined by George Orwell in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, describes the act of simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct, often in distinct social contexts.[1] It is related to, but distinct from, hypocrisy and neutrality. Its opposite is cognitive dissonance, where the two beliefs cause conflict in one's mind. Doublethink is an integral concept of George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The word doublethink is part of Newspeak

http://atheistforums.org/newreply.php?ti...rocessed=1

Cognitive dissonance is a discomfort caused by holding conflicting cognitions (e.g., ideas, beliefs, values, emotional reactions) simultaneously. In a state of dissonance, people may feel surprise, dread, guilt, anger, or embarrassment.[1] The theory of cognitive dissonance in social psychology proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by altering existing cognitions, adding new ones to create a consistent belief system, or alternatively by reducing the importance of any one of the dissonant elements.[1] An example of this would be the conflict between wanting to smoke and knowing that smoking is unhealthy; a person may try to change their feelings about the odds that they will actually suffer the consequences, or they might add the consonant element that the smoking is worth short term benefits. A general view of cognitive dissonance is when one is biased towards a certain decision even though other factors favour an alternative.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

[Selliedjoup]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWN4cfh1Fac

Interesting debate. 37:00 is of interest to me.

[Cinjin]

Can you describe it from the perspective of someone who is now a sceptic ? I find it a fascinating phenomenon. Can you practice it ? Are there some who are better at it than others i.e. more authentic sounding ? The only time I've spoken to a Xtian about it was some Jehovahs Witnesses who do not believe in that sort of thing, saying that people are just getting themselves worked up into a frenzy.

here you go buddy. At 45 seconds the video is self explanatory. Total idiocy.

[Selliedjoup]

Never been religious, never felt the urge. Never really encountered this stuff until I got onto the internet (talk about a baptism of fire...)

As Ace mentioned, religion tends not to be much of a factor over here; particularly in the seventies when I was growing up. I'd say now that mine was an atheist family, but at the time it was never mentioned one way or the other; it was just something that never existed in my life. From an early age and encouraged by my parents, I developed a keen interest in backyard astronomy - even round here with a cluttered horizon and the light pollution typical of a town centre, which has increased badly in recent years I might add. Anyway, I learned to appreciate the beauty and the immense scale of the Universe, not the heavens. Gods and monsters need not apply.

I had the usual general religious education at Secondary School, which treated all religions as equally mythological and didn't even try to promote one over the others. Apart from that, plus my born-again schoolfriend who kept trying and failing to save me, that just about sums up my religious background. Until of course the internet provided me with a steady supply of live prey.

I can see no reason to be an active atheist(e.g. posting here) if religion has had no impact in your life.

[Skepsis]

Never been religious, never felt the urge. Never really encountered this stuff until I got onto the internet (talk about a baptism of fire...)

I can see no reason to be an active atheist(e.g. posting here) if religion has had no impact in your life.

Why?
That doesn't make any sense to me at all. I haven't had any severe impact from religion throughout my life in any form, other than digust at the occasional church proclivity that involves hatred of gays, veterans, or protects child rapists.