Who I am
September 29, 2017 at 5:35 pm
(This post was last modified: September 29, 2017 at 5:38 pm by Atheist73.)
I was kindly asked to provide an introduction, so here it is. My name is Scott. I was an atheist as a child, until my religious mother forced mormonism on me. They tried to indoctrinate me with the 10 commandments when I like 6 or 8 years old. As if at that age I was living in adultery with my neighbors wife and needed to be told not to. I got away from mormonism really easy and spent the better part of my life as a non religious human being. Sometime around the year 2000, I was in a band. I was experiencing some mild anxiety at that time of my life. The singer in my band took me out to dinner one night and said he wanted to have a serious talk with me. He asked me how horrible it felt to have an anxiety attack. Naturally I responded with terrible etc. Then he hit me with the, 'if you think that is bad, just think how anxious and panicky you'll be in hell for all of eternity!' He used what I was going through at that time to reel me in. Sadly...it worked. If he had used any other method to convert me, I probably would have just laughed at him or blown him off. But he hit on a subject that I knew well at that time. For the next 13+ years I was an evangelical/puritanical hell fire breathing christian. I was the guy other christians didn't like because I was always on them about their christian walk etc. I was a jesus freak who took everything jesus said as absolute truth. I quit the band, sold off my guitars and even threw some of them in the garbage because hey....satan is the author of rock and roll, and I didn't want to serve that bad boy anymore. I risked my life preaching the gospel in gang and drug infested neighborhoods. I gave out thousands of "gospel" tracts. Who knows how many lives I have ruined because of my militant evangelism. I was never a liberal/moderate christian. I went into the religion of christ-insanity full throttle. I gave up all my possessions, I spent all my money on church, books, tracts, commentaries, even the latin and greek new testament. I denied myself, took up my cross and followed jesus. I used to think atheists were evil and never understood how they could live their life without god in it. How did I come out of it? I was browsing the religious section at my local library and just happened to come upon misquoting jesus. As someone who thought the bible was literally true and perfect without any contradictions or discrepancies, I was shocked by what I read. Then I came across jesus, interrupted. After reading that book, 13+ years of building my life and faith on the rock of jesus...it all came crashing down. I went kicking and screaming into atheism. I prayed to god and jesus to keep from deconverting. I prayed for god and jesus to lead me to books that refuted the ones I had just read. Nothing happened of course. It took a few years of getting over the christian toxicity and fear of hell. I read all the detox books by Dawkins and Harris and Loftus etc. I know now that god/jesus/christianity and all religions/gods are man-made frauds. I am free and clear and enjoying life so much more now. There is much more to my story but I don't want to bore you. Thanks for reading. -Peace
