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My Story
#1
My Story
Hello, everyone! I'm glad to be here. Smile I'm 23, located in the US. Currently, I live with a bunch of roommates, most of which are neo-pagans. Good people, but with such differing beliefs, things can be difficult.

I grew up Christian. I was in a Christian household, when I came to the age where I had to choose a belief, I thought Christianity was "right". I was heavily influenced by my older brother, Eric (now deceased). We both looked into Wicca and Paganism when we were younger (I was 13, he was 15 or 16), and we talked about theology, philosophy and science. After he took his own life in 2007, I went through this emotional crisis. I questioned everything.
Eventually, I found this video on YouTube about this Australian guys' deconversion story. It blew me away. I couldn't fathom a universe without god, much less our lonely planet in this particular cluster of stars. After that, I threw away Christianity. I felt lied to, betrayed, by my own family. I realized later that they had been lied to as well, only it started hundreds and hundreds of years ago by control-freaks known as clerics.

Since then, I've gone back and forth between being neo-pagan and atheist. I don't know why I have such emotional attachments to this, because I still have all my "pagan stuff". It's irritating.

I can't un-think atheism, either. I can visualize the world without god, the universe without god (well, as much of the universe as my human brain can comprehend xD), and it's just majestically, elegantly beautiful. I love it.

So! I'm here to learn, understand, grow and hopefully get a kind of support group here (I don't have very many atheist friends...). I live with a bunch of my pagan friends and, though they're good people, it can be difficult to live together with such differing beliefs, despite some of my "pagan attachments". Not to mention, they're serious conspiracy theorists, all of which I think is bullshit, but I don't have any arguments or evidence to counter theirs.

Thanks for reading! I look forward to future posts and whatnot Big Grin
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#2
RE: My Story
Hello and welcome!

I'm also new and have yet to post an introduction thread, but thought I'd welcome you anyway!
"The life of a man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster." - David Hume
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#3
RE: My Story
Welcome.

(December 25, 2013 at 10:57 pm)AstroNat Wrote: Hello and welcome!

I'm also new and have yet to post an introduction thread, but thought I'd welcome you anyway!

Introductory threads are overrated.
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#4
RE: My Story
That may be so. But I shall have my moment and enjoy it. Woop!
"The life of a man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster." - David Hume
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#5
RE: My Story
Quote:I grew up Christian. I was in a Christian household

Glad to see you are now running with a better crowd. Welcome.
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#6
RE: My Story
Welcome to both Lala and Astro. Astro, lovely avatar.

I actually like intro threads. I like knowing as much as I can about a person in one fell swoop.
"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan
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#7
RE: My Story
Welcome Lalala.
I don't know what is this thing you call neo-paganism, but I guess it has to be better that being a sheep...
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#8
RE: My Story
Welcome
"The Universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements: energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest." G'Kar-B5
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#9
RE: My Story
I get all weird about people not posting intros. Like an intro police. Why won't people say "hey"? Intros are under rated. (throws fit)

Welcome and thank you for introducing yourself like a normal human being and some pets.
Pointing around: "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, you're cool, fuck you, I'm out!"
Half Baked

"Let the atheists come to me, and stop keeping them away, because the kingdom of heathens belongs to people like these." -Saint Bacon
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#10
RE: My Story
Sorry about the loss of your brother, Tabby.
(December 25, 2013 at 10:49 pm)LalalaTabby Wrote: Since then, I've gone back and forth between being neo-pagan and atheist.
I think that once you let go of the "ultimate outcome" type of religion (heaven or hell, forever and ever) there is far less stress involved in figuring things out. It becomes more about the journey and less about reaching some final truth. Go back and forth as much as you need, and always keep something from each trip. Even if you never settle on one or the other, you will eventually understand that you weren't ever trying to learn one thing, you were learning a lot of little things. Life is pretty cool.

Welcome to the forums.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."

-Stephen Jay Gould
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