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Hi :)
May 3, 2014 at 9:52 pm
Hi! Im katie, an 18 year old atheist from Montana. I have been an atheist for around four years now. My story of why I became an atheist is different than the usual reasons like research, and skeptical thinking. At least as far as I know those are the usual reasons, I don't know many atheists who talk about it. I grew up christian, and it never occurred to me to question my beliefs. I had a huge fear of my older brother going to hell for his disbelief, and this made me cry myself to sleep at night. I would pray and ask god to send me to hell when i died so I could be with my brother. I very much believed. Back to why I became an atheist. I have an aunt who had 3 children. The children were all very young, 3, 5, and 6. They were an extremely religious family, these kids were very brainwashed. They were very nice people though, my aunt was one of the nicest people I've ever met. She was one of the best moms I've seen. Her kids were everything to her. One day my mom got an upsetting phone call, my aunts youngest was very sick. He was in the hospital, but there was not much they could do. The next day there was another call, he had many seizures, and passed away at age 3. I immediately broke down and cried for hours. I could not imagine how sad his parents, and siblings must have been. My family immediatley made food, and went to be with them. I decided I needed to be strong and hold myself together for the kids. When we got there my aunt was a mess, I hugged her, and went to the kids room to hug them. I went into their room, and saw something unexpected. The kids were laughing, and playing as usual, and I could barely hold myself together. As soon as they saw me the oldest says " katie did you hear? He went to heaven!" These kids had absolutley no idea what happend, then I couldn't stop the tears. They talked about it so causally, they did not feel bad about the loss of their brother. He was gone, and thats when it hit me. He was gone, i was never going to see him again, and that was that. My family went to the funeral, which was made all about god, and called a goodbye party. My religious dad even said " if you do dont question your maker about your sons death you have to be fucked up." That is why I became an atheist. I did not identify that way right away, and just recently stopped referring to myself as agnostic. I started calling myself an atheist after a lot of research on the internet. Im glad I found this forum, i would like to hear some of your stories :). I apologize for the typos, and grammar errors, I am using a phone.
Love Logic <3
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RE: Hi :)
May 3, 2014 at 9:54 pm
(This post was last modified: May 3, 2014 at 9:54 pm by SteelCurtain.)
Montana, you don't say...
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great
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RE: Hi :)
May 3, 2014 at 9:55 pm
"The Universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements: energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest." G'Kar-B5
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RE: Hi :)
May 3, 2014 at 10:49 pm
(May 3, 2014 at 9:52 pm)KatiePrivett Wrote: I grew up christian, and it never occurred to me to question my beliefs. I had a huge fear of my older brother going to hell for his disbelief, and this made me cry myself to sleep at night. I would pray and ask god to send me to hell when i died so I could be with my brother.
Nothing like the peace of mind that comes from worshiping god, eh?
Welcome to the forums, Katie.
"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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RE: Hi :)
May 4, 2014 at 5:20 am
Hi and welcome Katie! Thanks for sharing your story, and I'm truly sorry about your cousin. Religion is pure evil.
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RE: Hi :)
May 4, 2014 at 5:25 am
Hello Katie, and welcome to the forum.
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RE: Hi :)
May 4, 2014 at 5:31 am
(This post was last modified: May 4, 2014 at 7:11 am by fr0d0.)
It seems that that brand of Christianity is bent on covering up everything. You wanted to block out your brothers failure in your eyes; the other family wanted to block out the boys death (although I don't believe you could influence kids to that extent. Kid's get on with life and live, although I assume you're really referring to the adults attitude rather than the kids).
In my church, the salvation army, death is a celebration. But you'd be wrong to think that no one is sad. I think that's a problem of your understanding rather than a problem with the concept.
Ever since I saw the funeral march in Live and let Die, with the band breaking into a celebratory dance, I've thought that's the way funerals should be. Why not celebrate the good things of a life rather than just focus on the loss.
We need to acknowledge the loss, sure. The point of funerals is to deal with it and to help us move on. Baggage like extended sadness is destructive.
Welcome 
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RE: Hi :)
May 4, 2014 at 5:32 am
(May 4, 2014 at 5:31 am)fr0d0 Wrote: It seems that that brand of Christianity is bent on covering up everything. You wanted to block out your brothers failure in your eyes; the other family wanted to block out the boys death (although I don't believe you could influence kids to that extent. Kid's get on with life and live, although I assume you're really referring to the adults attitude rather than the kids).
In my church, the salvation army, death is a celebration. But you'd be wrong to think that no one is sad. I think that's a problem of your understanding rather than a problem with the concept.
Ever since I saw the funeral match in Live and let Die, with the band breaking into a celebratory dance, I've thought that's the way funerals should be. Why not celebrate the good things of a life rather than just the loss.
We need to acknowledge the loss, sure. The point of funerals is to deal with it and help us move on. Baggage like extended sadness is destructive.
Believing there's a heaven is destructive.
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RE: Hi :)
May 4, 2014 at 5:34 am
(May 4, 2014 at 5:32 am)DarkHorse Wrote: Believing there's a heaven is destructive.
We're not allowed to discuss that here. But to whom?
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RE: Hi :)
May 4, 2014 at 6:01 am
It's best to keep that discussion outside the intro area, yes. It's a good idea for a thread.
Anyway,  Katie.
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