Hello :)
October 22, 2017 at 10:31 am
(This post was last modified: October 22, 2017 at 10:41 am by possibletarian.)
Hi there
I'm glad to be here, I enjoy a good debate given that they can be great ways to share knowledge and exchange idea's.
here's a little background,
I was born into a very religious family (Jehovah's Witnesses), and left JW's as soon as my parents said i could, which was at age 16, after that i never really bothered with any religion for a good while, but that upbringing always left me with a fear of getting it wrong and many of my thoughts were filled with a what if god is real, and judgement is real.
At about 20 years old i got involved with religion again, this time a baptist church, it seemed great i was making lots of friends and met some really genuine people. I went from strength to strength eventually ending up teaching the bible which i loved with all my heart and studied every day, i loved conversations about scripture and the Christian faith i even went to speak at open forums, universities (Christian unions etc.) i debated atheists or those of other religions and was in fact i was very winsome with my faith and have 30 or so spiritual children. I would pray for those with illnesses with vary varying results, some of which i cannot explain away all seemed well my life was good. I was a Christian around 25 years.
But always at the back of my mind there was a growing sense of unreality, i began to notice that people who went over in the spirit (so to speak) were the same people and seem to be pre prepared in their own minds to go over, eventually i got very good at spotting them. I started to doubt my so called words of knowledge which seemed so powerful i realised that in fact i had become very good at reading people and people desperate for a word from the lord were very good at connecting dots that really simply were not there. I began to wonder if i was simply an unwitting con-man.
The doubts grew in my mind till i had one instance where someone was so desperate to hear good news from the lord and i so wanted to give it to them that moment i knew.. i really had just become very clever at deception a perfect con-man, so much so that i had perpetrated the worse con of all... i had conned myself.
Things started to unravel from there i realised that religious teaching had deep tendrils in my mind (i can find no other way to describe it) i began to question more and more, i started actually listening and reading about what atheists, humanists, agnostics, or just simply the non religious said. All my pre prepared smooth answers to the issues they brought up i began to challenge within myself. I left the church after a few years The road from religion is a hard one and has many costs, it has brought moments of depression, loss of some friends some seem really sad i now no longer believe, but i owe truth at least to myself so i began to seek it in earnest.
Some 8-9 years down the line now i can see i am really free and beginning to find confidence and freedom again, i am as sure as anyone can be that the Christian god is merely a man made myth (along with all other supernatural gods/demons/creatures) it's not that i don't know what to believe now just that in order to believe in any claim that is so fantastic i will require exemplary proof. I feel like my life has been battered in way unimaginable that now i am healing properly, but mostly i feel free of the influence of my upbringing.
Anyway that's a very quick summary of my life and why I'm here, I'm not unrealistic i know that likely believers who come here will leave believers, i'm looking forward to any conversation that comes my way and hopefully to make a few friends. But i would like to say this, i am very sympathetic to those wishing to shake off the fear of religion and it's teachings and can at least listen without condemnation. Oh and i would like to add that i've not used these forums before it was mainly on a forum that premier radio used to run in the U.K.
I describe myself as agnostic atheist, I'm 99.99% sure there are no gods at all, and would like to thank the atheists who actually debated with me while i was still in the clutches of religion, they gave me food for though on many issues, keep up the good work for those doubting it can be very helpful, i found both the aggressive and thoughtful debates helpful, even the mocking. I certainly would like to see people free from religion and to be able to ask questions without fear to be able to see people and life simply as they are, I enjoy life now in a way i never thought possible, the cosmos is even more lovely when you really don't know how it came into being, I no longer rely on an invisible unfathomable supernatural being to answer any questions, I can ask them myself.. it really is freedom.
Okay done (for now)
possibletarian
I'm glad to be here, I enjoy a good debate given that they can be great ways to share knowledge and exchange idea's.
here's a little background,
I was born into a very religious family (Jehovah's Witnesses), and left JW's as soon as my parents said i could, which was at age 16, after that i never really bothered with any religion for a good while, but that upbringing always left me with a fear of getting it wrong and many of my thoughts were filled with a what if god is real, and judgement is real.
At about 20 years old i got involved with religion again, this time a baptist church, it seemed great i was making lots of friends and met some really genuine people. I went from strength to strength eventually ending up teaching the bible which i loved with all my heart and studied every day, i loved conversations about scripture and the Christian faith i even went to speak at open forums, universities (Christian unions etc.) i debated atheists or those of other religions and was in fact i was very winsome with my faith and have 30 or so spiritual children. I would pray for those with illnesses with vary varying results, some of which i cannot explain away all seemed well my life was good. I was a Christian around 25 years.
But always at the back of my mind there was a growing sense of unreality, i began to notice that people who went over in the spirit (so to speak) were the same people and seem to be pre prepared in their own minds to go over, eventually i got very good at spotting them. I started to doubt my so called words of knowledge which seemed so powerful i realised that in fact i had become very good at reading people and people desperate for a word from the lord were very good at connecting dots that really simply were not there. I began to wonder if i was simply an unwitting con-man.
The doubts grew in my mind till i had one instance where someone was so desperate to hear good news from the lord and i so wanted to give it to them that moment i knew.. i really had just become very clever at deception a perfect con-man, so much so that i had perpetrated the worse con of all... i had conned myself.
Things started to unravel from there i realised that religious teaching had deep tendrils in my mind (i can find no other way to describe it) i began to question more and more, i started actually listening and reading about what atheists, humanists, agnostics, or just simply the non religious said. All my pre prepared smooth answers to the issues they brought up i began to challenge within myself. I left the church after a few years The road from religion is a hard one and has many costs, it has brought moments of depression, loss of some friends some seem really sad i now no longer believe, but i owe truth at least to myself so i began to seek it in earnest.
Some 8-9 years down the line now i can see i am really free and beginning to find confidence and freedom again, i am as sure as anyone can be that the Christian god is merely a man made myth (along with all other supernatural gods/demons/creatures) it's not that i don't know what to believe now just that in order to believe in any claim that is so fantastic i will require exemplary proof. I feel like my life has been battered in way unimaginable that now i am healing properly, but mostly i feel free of the influence of my upbringing.
Anyway that's a very quick summary of my life and why I'm here, I'm not unrealistic i know that likely believers who come here will leave believers, i'm looking forward to any conversation that comes my way and hopefully to make a few friends. But i would like to say this, i am very sympathetic to those wishing to shake off the fear of religion and it's teachings and can at least listen without condemnation. Oh and i would like to add that i've not used these forums before it was mainly on a forum that premier radio used to run in the U.K.
I describe myself as agnostic atheist, I'm 99.99% sure there are no gods at all, and would like to thank the atheists who actually debated with me while i was still in the clutches of religion, they gave me food for though on many issues, keep up the good work for those doubting it can be very helpful, i found both the aggressive and thoughtful debates helpful, even the mocking. I certainly would like to see people free from religion and to be able to ask questions without fear to be able to see people and life simply as they are, I enjoy life now in a way i never thought possible, the cosmos is even more lovely when you really don't know how it came into being, I no longer rely on an invisible unfathomable supernatural being to answer any questions, I can ask them myself.. it really is freedom.
Okay done (for now)
possibletarian
'Those who ask a lot of questions may seem stupid, but those who don't ask questions stay stupid'
