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need to vent
December 1, 2014 at 10:36 am
Hi, I was just scolded for blasphemy and flaming at a Christian forum even though I was being sincere and respectful. My crime was to say that I believe Christianity and Judaism are false based on the historical evidence. Apparently saying something is false is blasphemy? So I decided to find another forum where I can discuss religion without getting myself into trouble.
I was raised as an Episcopalian, but my family rarely attended church. When I was in college, I decided I needed some evidence for God's existence such as a conversion experience, speaking in tongues, or something. Nothing I tried worked, so I decided that even if God exists he doesn't like me. So I gave-up on Christianity in college.
20 years later in 2009, I had a breakdown after flying on an airplane. I was under a lot of stress, and I have some social phobia. I suspect being locked into that airplane with all those people was just too much for me. So that year of my life is filled with confusing memories of visions, miracles, etc. I started attending a church. After a year, I began to have doubts about Christianity and eventually stopped attending church.
The last few years, I have been talking on various forums and reading books to put humpty dumpty back together (somewhat).
So I'm not a rational, intellectual atheist. My path has been more like crawling in the dark.
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RE: need to vent
December 1, 2014 at 10:51 am
Well, welcome.
BTW, Christianity has 40,000 denominations, maybe you should have been more specific and listed the 39,999 false ones ???
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RE: need to vent
December 1, 2014 at 10:53 am
Ugh.... describing yourself as an 'intellectual' makes you sound like a jerk
'The more I learn about people the more I like my dog'- Mark Twain
'You can have all the faith you want in spirits, and the afterlife, and heaven and hell, but when it comes to this world, don't be an idiot. Cause you can tell me you put your faith in God to put you through the day, but when it comes time to cross the road, I know you look both ways.' - Dr House
“Young earth creationism is essentially the position that all of modern science, 90% of living scientists and 98% of living biologists, all major university biology departments, every major science journal, the American Academy of Sciences, and every major science organization in the world, are all wrong regarding the origins and development of life….but one particular tribe of uneducated, bronze aged, goat herders got it exactly right.” - Chuck Easttom
"If my good friend Doctor Gasparri speaks badly of my mother, he can expect to get punched.....You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others. There is a limit." - Pope Francis on freedom of speech
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RE: need to vent
December 1, 2014 at 10:54 am
Welcome aboard...
That said, your username... that won't do.... you'll have to change it... you'll find out why soon enough.
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RE: need to vent
December 1, 2014 at 11:02 am
Whatever ..
I mean welcome. Sounds like you've had a rocky time. Are you getting any sort of treatment/therapy for the social anxiety or have you just accepted it as a parameter in your life? Certainly your call.
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RE: need to vent
December 1, 2014 at 11:07 am
(December 1, 2014 at 10:36 am)whatever Wrote: I was raised as an Episcopalian, but my family rarely attended church. When I was in college, I decided I needed some evidence for God's existence such as a conversion experience, speaking in tongues, or something. Nothing I tried worked, so I decided that even if God exists he doesn't like me. So I gave-up on Christianity in college. Someone call Drich; we got another guy who gave up too soon!
Just kidding. It's natural for people not to want to hear things that challenge what we believe. For something as important to us as religion (or lack of same) the walls we put up can be very rigid. So it's not surprising if people react in such a manner on a religious forum if you tell them that you think their religion is false. For a devout religious person that's a pretty heavy charge to level.
"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: need to vent
December 1, 2014 at 11:32 am
(December 1, 2014 at 10:54 am)pocaracas Wrote: Welcome aboard...
That said, your username... that won't do.... you'll have to change it... you'll find out why soon enough.
Hmmmm. How about about "watchamadoodle"?
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RE: need to vent
December 1, 2014 at 11:48 am
(December 1, 2014 at 11:32 am)whatever Wrote: (December 1, 2014 at 10:54 am)pocaracas Wrote: Welcome aboard...
That said, your username... that won't do.... you'll have to change it... you'll find out why soon enough.
Hmmmm. How about about "watchamadoodle"? That'll work, watch!
Remember, choose your username wisely, as I believe you can only change it once a year.
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RE: need to vent
December 1, 2014 at 11:49 am
(This post was last modified: December 1, 2014 at 11:53 am by watchamadoodle.)
(December 1, 2014 at 11:07 am)Tonus Wrote: Someone call Drich; we got another guy who gave up too soon!
Just kidding. It's natural for people not to want to hear things that challenge what we believe. For something as important to us as religion (or lack of same) the walls we put up can be very rigid. So it's not surprising if people react in such a manner on a religious forum if you tell them that you think their religion is false. For a devout religious person that's a pretty heavy charge to level.
I don't know. I have never been so certain of my beliefs that it would offend me to hear opposing beliefs.
At first I assumed the blasphemy charge was simply due to a mean and narrow-minded person that had complained and the moderator had rubber-stamped that complaint without reading my post carefully. I tried to explain my post to that moderator, but was shocked by his persistent support of the blasphemy charge. Then I thought I had an inexperienced moderator, so I tried appealing to a higher-up moderator. I was shocked even more when that moderator supported the blasphemy charge.
It really made me angry. I could understand if I was making a joke about God or something. I simply said I thought Christianity was false based on historical evidence. It's ironic because I was actually trying to consider a way where I could satisfy my Christian impulses by practicing Christianity without actually believing it - as a spiritual toolkit to reach whatever might exist behind the world's false religions.
I'm sure the Puritans would be proud of them for burning me at the stake on the Thanksgiving holiday. 
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RE: need to vent
December 1, 2014 at 11:53 am
(December 1, 2014 at 10:53 am)Bad Wolf Wrote: Ugh.... describing yourself as an 'intellectual' makes you sound like a jerk
Really? You can't just say hello and welcome?
(August 21, 2017 at 11:31 pm)KevinM1 Wrote: "I'm not a troll"
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Hammy Wrote:and we also have a sheep on our bed underneath as well
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