Doubting Thomas

[Brian37]

I really enjoyed that Brian. Thanks for sharing. You've got yourself a really interesting story. The wisdom from a random construction worker is just amazing!

Actually I think that story is boring and more importantly frightening. I could have spent my childhood actually learning pragmatic reality but instead wasted my time in fantasy. And society had sold me so much fear that it took me that long to escape it.

I think Ricky Gervais(sp) the comedian's story is much more exciting. Sitting there at the table reading the bible and his brother scoffs at what he is doing and his mother shushes him and Ricky says to himself "If my mom has something to hide then this must be bullshit". Less than an hour to go from believing to atheist.

[Exian]

You're probably right, I do tend to see exciting things in what others call boring. But an argument could be made, what with the certain level of contingency and even the frightening "what ifs". Also the story arc coinciding with historical moments along the journey I thought was cool. Not that I'm using your personal struggle for my own entertainment. But I am enjoying everyone's stories.

I've had a bone to pick recently with the blatant demonizing of atheism I've seen lately. The movie God's Not Dead and a few fake "Why I Stopped Believing" articles on the web that turned out to be "...And Started Again".

[Natachan]

In a Christian school in a world religions class when I was 13. I asked what made those religions different, why was ours more valid. The teacher couldn't give a good answer. They essentially said some version of "ours is the revealed word of the living god" and I had to think that those other religions thought the same thing.

[vodkafan]

I can pin down the moment exactly. I was about 19 and a fellow a few years older than me gave me a lift home from work in his car. He was an always happy, go-lucky type bloke and I admired him a lot. He seemed to have a good handle on life and things. At the time I was going to church a lot and reading the bible. We started talking about religion and I was spouting things verbatim. I was telling him that we are all born sinners . He just smiled and said "So a new-born baby is evil?"
That sentence pierced me like an arrow. Immediately a phrase from the bible jumped to mind about original sin and the "deal" Jesus did to free us all blah blah blah but I am sure that was the first serious crack of light entering

[Chad32]

I can pin down the moment exactly. I was about 19 and a fellow a few years older than me gave me a lift home from work in his car. He was an always happy, go-lucky type bloke and I admired him a lot. He seemed to have a good handle on life and things. At the time I was going to church a lot and reading the bible. We started talking about religion and I was spouting things verbatim. I was telling him that we are all born sinners . He just smiled and said "So a new-born baby is evil?"
That sentence pierced me like an arrow. Immediately a phrase from the bible jumped to mind about original sin and the "deal" Jesus did to free us all blah blah blah but I am sure that was the first serious crack of light entering

Unfortunately some people will still say that babies are born evil, and the reason they cry so often is because of how selfish they are. This is why you see some christians baptizing infants and children otherwise unaware of why they're being dipped in water.

[Jenny A]

I can't remember ever believing in any really significant way. What I do remember is sitting in church listening to a sermon and looking around at all the adults and wondering how they could believe the Bible story. I was in early elementary school a the time, and I knew the difference between stories told as factually believable and fairy tales/fantasy fiction not to mention the difference between fiction and history. Yet here were all these adults treating what was obviously much closer to the fantasy genre than to history as if it were undeniably true. I remember being puzzled and a little frightened by the thought.