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Hello
#1
Hello
I was raised as a fundamental Christian by my mother. My atheist father allowed my mother and her coreligionists to brain wash me and my siblings. I became amply aware of the double (and triple) lives the leaders of the religion lived and the consistent hypocrisy of the leaders and their off springs by the time I was 15.

I started to travel the world at that age with my father’s permission because I am sure he felt guilty about his own passive contribution to my brain washing. I did not attend any religious activities for the six months that I travelled and felt good and free to think and act. I realized that I liked myself better as a person than any of the people I had met in the religion. The ones that had any intelligence were hypocrites and the other ones simpletons. I had also met many people in my travels who were good, intelligent, and exciting, and none of them were religious.

On my return, I continued attending the religious activities out of inertia, and loyalty towards my mother, and because I attributed the hypocrisy to a few “rotten apples”. Six months of attendance to the religious activities after my return home and with a clear mind were more than sufficient to convince me that if a god as the religion described it existed, it would destroy all the members of that religion. I felt I had a better chance of believing in god and reaching paradise without the members of that religion. Eventually, I concluded that if the perfect psychopath that made people imperfect purposely and punishes them for not being perfect existed, I would rather suffer in hell than be his subject.

When I attended university and learned to think critically and analytically, it became abundantly clear to me that god does not exist, that religion was an invention of the physically weaker to frighten psychologically those who could overpower them physically. That psychological weapon eventually became the most successful business sector in the world: it promises a service to your soul (which does not exist) after you die (therefore no service); it pays no taxes; it does not raise suspicion when the religious leaders work on the elderly to isolate them and control them so the religion inherits their wealth (mostly in the form of “donated” properties to raise houses of worship); it is a perfect cover up for pedophiles; it is an effective method of infiltrating spies everywhere around the world; and it enjoys more protection from prosecution than any other business sector because their business creed is protected by law in most countries, i.e. “religious freedom”.

After my mind was completely free of religious beliefs, I confronted my mother who after heated debates and arguments with me, left the religion and so did the rest of my family.

Thanks for the creation of this forum and the opportunity to express my views.
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#2
RE: Hello
Welcome to the forums, glad to have you. Sounds like a sad story, but an all too farmiliar one around here. I don't discout your experiences, they're common; however I hope that you can keep an open mind and see that not all religion is used as a weapon (or means of control) and rife with hypocrisy. Be glad your family joined you in your atheism, lots of people in here have divided families (or live in hiding) because of their beliefs.
"There ought to be a term that would designate those who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, since the word 'Christian' has been largely divorced from those teachings, and so polluted by fundamentalists that it has come to connote their polar opposite: intolerance, vindictive hatred, and bigotry." -- Philip Stater, Huffington Post

always working on cleaning my windows- me regarding Johari
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#3
RE: Hello
Hi there! Welcome!
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#4
RE: Hello
welcome and such. ^_^
[Image: siggy2_by_Cego_Colher.jpg]
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#5
RE: Hello
Great story, Q-k. I'll disagree only with your assertion on the beginning of religion. As Thomas Jefferson noted:

Quote:In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.

Or, as Napoleon Bonaparte said even more succinctly: "Religion is what stops the poor from murdering the rich."

The power structure has always used religion to oppress the poor. It is not a creation of the weak.... it is a creation of the elite.
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#6
RE: Hello
I would hope morality is what stops the poor from murdering the rich. Are you going to argue that religion is the societal equivalent to a gut check now min? Do people really get their morality from religion?
"There ought to be a term that would designate those who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, since the word 'Christian' has been largely divorced from those teachings, and so polluted by fundamentalists that it has come to connote their polar opposite: intolerance, vindictive hatred, and bigotry." -- Philip Stater, Huffington Post

always working on cleaning my windows- me regarding Johari
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#7
RE: Hello
As usual tack, you miss the point that both Jefferson and Napoleon were making.

This 'morality' horseshit of which you speak is created by the rich...invested with the authority of some fucking made-up 'god' and foisted off on the people to keep them in line.

I hope I don't have to explain this to you again.
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#8
RE: Hello
So morality was created by and the sole property of the rich and is a control method by which religion controls the populous? Conspiracy much? Do I need to point out the fallacies in that?
"There ought to be a term that would designate those who actually follow the teachings of Jesus, since the word 'Christian' has been largely divorced from those teachings, and so polluted by fundamentalists that it has come to connote their polar opposite: intolerance, vindictive hatred, and bigotry." -- Philip Stater, Huffington Post

always working on cleaning my windows- me regarding Johari
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#9
RE: Hello
You can try.


Before you do you might recall the maxim: Might makes right.
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#10
RE: Hello
Thanks to all!
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