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French Belgian fries to you all and good steam too!
I'm 35 and live in Brussels. I studied in catholic schools, but catholic schools in Belgium are public schools, unlike many catholic schools over the world. In the 4 catholic schools I went to before my majority, we were never asked to believe in Jesus or anything. We were invited to church twice a year and it were not mandatory... So, in Belgium, catholic schools do not differ much from the "official" (non-religious) schools, which I think is quite specific to Belgium.
This to say I received catholic values, but not the whole "believers" package... and my parents were not interested in christianity, we never went to church even though two of my grand-uncles were catholic priests.
This lead me to have a rather "free" spiritual life and I think many catholics would call me a heretic considering the perspective I've developped on their dogma...
Today, I'm "ok" with God. I consider that God is Love and that Love involves differences. Narcisism is not Love and thus, every religion is "the word of God" since there has to be differences, distances,... for Love to exist. My God doesn't want us to bow towards this or that point, but to get along, all of us. That's what I would call "God's will". So, I'm a christian, a muslim, a bouddhist and an atheist : a patatheist! Those titles are just dogmas to me and I accept all of them or none, nothing in between.
French Belgian fries to you all and good steam too!
I'm 35 and live in Brussels. I studied in catholic schools, but catholic schools in Belgium are public schools, unlike many catholic schools over the world. In the 4 catholic schools I went to before my majority, we were never asked to believe in Jesus or anything. We were invited to church twice a year and it were not mandatory... So, in Belgium, catholic schools do not differ much from the "official" (non-religious) schools, which I think is quite specific to Belgium.
This to say I received catholic values, but not the whole "believers" package... and my parents were not interested in christianity, we never went to church even though two of my grand-uncles were catholic priests.
This lead me to have a rather "free" spiritual life and I think many catholics would call me a heretic considering the perspective I've developped on their dogma...
Today, I'm "ok" with God. I consider that God is Love and that Love involves differences. Narcisism is not Love and thus, every religion is "the word of God" since there has to be differences, distances,... for Love to exist. My God doesn't want us to bow towards this or that point, but to get along, all of us. That's what I would call "God's will". So, I'm a christian, a muslim, a bouddhist and an atheist : a patatheist!
Those titles are just dogmas to me and I accept all of them or none, nothing in between.
Thanx all for your welcoming messages. I know there's no such thing as a patatheist, but I also know my views are not easy to put in a nutshell... and I don't like it when people understand everything based on what the people declare...
For instance, I consider many "believers" and many atheist to be "satanist" since all they do is fight, shoot in the back,... and I consider other "believers" and "atheist" to be on the "good path" because they are constructive. Judging people just because they say they are this or that seems irrelevant to me... so I'm not leaving much grasp on my "title". I tend to consider not everything Hitler said is stupid just because he globally was "evil" and I tend to consider not everything Bouddha said is "the truth" just because he globally was "good"... I see people evolving through their life and thus see Jesus for instance as a guy who was capable of violence : he attacked the merchants at the temple... and I consider he then realized he had acted stupidly as those merchants were not really responsible for their presence there... and that this mistake he made is what pushed him to then face the religious (Sanhedrin) and political (Rome) authority... This attitude differs from the one of Christians who consider Jesus never made any mistake... and it differs from the attitude of atheist who often reject Jesus, even as a simple guy who tried to solve problems...
(pester tibs via pm if you need invite) 
![[Image: tmPmhjd.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=i.imgur.com%2FtmPmhjd.jpg)
