Yo, I'm Cian. I'm twenty five and from the UK. I was an active practicing Catholic for most of my life up until around almost two years ago, coming from a very big conservative traditionalist Catholic family. I don't think I'm an atheist, I think I'm probably somewhere between liberal christian, deist and agnostic depending on the day and I've joined hoping to meet some more people who aren't so mad about religion. The UK is more or less secular these days but just where I'm from and still live there aren't many non-believers, there's a lot of Eastern European Catholics and Muslims so it would be good to meet more people who aren't in one of those clubs.
Why did I leave the Catholic Church? It was slowly driving me mad. I've often been accused by Catholics of leaving because I'm gay but that wasn't the case, at the time I was willing to stay alone even though I was pissed off about it. The only person I told was a priest in the confessional who offered to refer me to a group called Courage, which is basically an Ex-Gay organization but otherwise advised me to keep quiet about it and that it was probably just a phase. I know it sounds mad to non believers but traditionalist catholics are like the Islamic State of Catholicism, where a lot of Catholics these days are pretty liberal my lot were still living in the early 18th century. If you were in a room alone with a female, any female you were going to hell, in my case that extended to other men too. If you lost concentration during mass you were going to hell. If you looked at "anti-Catholic" books like the God Delusion or a book about the reformation you were going to hell, if you watched anything other than ETWN on TV you were going to hell too. Every day was like a tightrope performance, and the slightest failure would be pounced upon. There was one time as a kid I was forced to go to confession by my Dad for not breaking off talking to one of my mates because his Dad who wasn't a Catholic remarried after a divorce.
It was nightmarish but I accepted it all as truth. A few years ago at my parents shop I got talking to one of the staff they'd hired who revealed quietly he didn't believe either and I tried to persuade him it was all true. It's funny really, he told them he was a seminarian so they assumed he was a Catholic one but he really was an atheist who only went because he had a scholarship to do it, wasn't even a Catholic seminary either. The way the shop was run it left me and him alone in it a lot and I'd ask what he thought about lots of arguments I'd been taught at home being homeschooled , my parents didn't trust the "evil death culture liberal schools" and over a few months he took them all apart.
Realizing the bullshit my lot had signed up to was just that was a release. I've broken ties with most of them seeing as they weren't so happy with me leaving the faith, even less finding out I was gay but things are going pretty well now. I now live with the guy who deconverted me, come September I'm about to start a distance learning part time degree in Religious Studies and things are going pretty well.
Think that's enough about me, hopefully I'll get to know some of you guys better too.
Why did I leave the Catholic Church? It was slowly driving me mad. I've often been accused by Catholics of leaving because I'm gay but that wasn't the case, at the time I was willing to stay alone even though I was pissed off about it. The only person I told was a priest in the confessional who offered to refer me to a group called Courage, which is basically an Ex-Gay organization but otherwise advised me to keep quiet about it and that it was probably just a phase. I know it sounds mad to non believers but traditionalist catholics are like the Islamic State of Catholicism, where a lot of Catholics these days are pretty liberal my lot were still living in the early 18th century. If you were in a room alone with a female, any female you were going to hell, in my case that extended to other men too. If you lost concentration during mass you were going to hell. If you looked at "anti-Catholic" books like the God Delusion or a book about the reformation you were going to hell, if you watched anything other than ETWN on TV you were going to hell too. Every day was like a tightrope performance, and the slightest failure would be pounced upon. There was one time as a kid I was forced to go to confession by my Dad for not breaking off talking to one of my mates because his Dad who wasn't a Catholic remarried after a divorce.
It was nightmarish but I accepted it all as truth. A few years ago at my parents shop I got talking to one of the staff they'd hired who revealed quietly he didn't believe either and I tried to persuade him it was all true. It's funny really, he told them he was a seminarian so they assumed he was a Catholic one but he really was an atheist who only went because he had a scholarship to do it, wasn't even a Catholic seminary either. The way the shop was run it left me and him alone in it a lot and I'd ask what he thought about lots of arguments I'd been taught at home being homeschooled , my parents didn't trust the "evil death culture liberal schools" and over a few months he took them all apart.
Realizing the bullshit my lot had signed up to was just that was a release. I've broken ties with most of them seeing as they weren't so happy with me leaving the faith, even less finding out I was gay but things are going pretty well now. I now live with the guy who deconverted me, come September I'm about to start a distance learning part time degree in Religious Studies and things are going pretty well.
Think that's enough about me, hopefully I'll get to know some of you guys better too.
(pester tibs via pm if you need invite) 
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