hereticzero

Sadness and depression often result from trying to control what goes on around us. When we cannot, we become depressed. You are going to have to learn you cannot control what others do, good or bad, you cannot control hunger and hatred. Those are moral flaws in others you have no control over. What can you do? Live as you want others to live, if you see someone hungry--feed them, they need clothing--buy them clothes, they look thirsty--buy them a beer. Put your efforts into making yourself all that you can be and let the rest of the world go to Hell. Bad things happen to everyone, it's not your fault.

As the years go by, Christians and other religious fruit cakes get crazier and crazier. They are tired of waiting for God to come back and set things straight and want to get things started themselves. They want to be the instruments of prophecies they perceive are coming true. Anything can be prophetic if you look hard enough.

A man was going to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge when an old woman stopped him. "I am a witch," she claimed. "If you come home with me and make passionate love to me, I will answer all your questions." The man forgot about jumping into the river and went home with the woman where they made love all night long. In the morning the man began asking the old woman question after question, until she lay back and lit a cigarette. "How old are you sonny?" She asked. "35." He answered. "35 years old and you still believe in witches?" My point is, we believed in childish things when we were children. You know demons do not exist. If you believe they do then you still believe what the church pukes out because we believe demons are evil because of what the church or religion teaches. There are no demons except what you create for yourself.

If you are in an abusive relationship with your family, I would leave and not come back for quite some time, if at all. Abusive people will get bolder as time goes by and the abuse will be worse.

Yep, yep, "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away..." Victims always blame themselves or make excuses for their attacker.

You are still an infant when it comes to leaving the church, so the point is to give it time. Any problems arising from leaving the church, including divorce of a believer, will make themselves apparent over the next few years. If your spouse is a fundy, as you claim, everything will come to focus on your relationship. If your relationship does not come to suffer, then your spouse is not a fundy. I know fundies--I grew up with those people! A true fundy(tm) cannot exist in the presence of unbelief. They develop a permanent scowl and mutter to themselves (some call it prayer). If she is a liberal Christian, she may stay with you. If she is a conservative, it's only a matter of time.

That is a Norwegian forest cat. A large cat.

I say the testing is false. No community allows anything human to be consumed. I call BS on the 'study'. I have also seen priests using slight of hand to turn water into wine. So-called miracles are BS. Turning water into wine instead of healing the sick, growing back arms and legs, curing the feeble minded, those are miracles. Show me a real miracle.

The longer one remains away from church the easier it is to stay away. I got over feelings of guilt once I realized I had nothing to feel guilty about. I put away childish things.

Don't fall for the Baptist no-it-alls. They want people to believe they spend most of their lives in scripture. If one were to critique the Baptist cult's doctrines, one would find they are not very biblical, meaning Baptists follow church doctrines, not scripture. I was So. Baptist for over 45 years and their doctrines were a reason why I left the church. They ignore what contradicts doctrines of salvation without works and once saved always saved, just to name a couple that don't hold up to scripture.

When in the faith, I feel I lost a better education, as I was taught to go through school to pass and not trust the science of evolution. After I left home it only took an astronomy College class to get me asking questions and then after I went to seminary school for a semester, I left the religion altogether. I felt betrayed, having placed my trust in older people to tell me the truth and instead discovered it was all a grand illusion.

Don't feel too badly. I supported several ministries when I was religious. I often shake my head at myself when I remember the hardship I endured because of it thinking I was suffering for the Lord's sake. When one believes one's self to be buddy with a GOD(TM), it becomes an addiction and weird behaviors occur just like an addiction.

The US might have condemned the violence in word only. The US position one can follow on Twitter with Trump's daily rants. Trump incites violence.

According to Jesus, Gentiles are dogs, too. If Hell is real because Jesus mentioned Hell, then are Gentiles really dogs because Jesus said they were? I argue with fundamentalists all the time. People who believe every word of the Bible is literal cannot reason rationally. I believe them to be psychopathic.

My wife and I deconverted within a couple years of each other. She had been a Pentecostal and I was Southern Baptist. Our son has grown up over the years a nonbeliever. Many people as couples are unable to deconvert together or stay deconverted because of stress with other members of a family or religious persecution--being constantly harassed to return to church or even due to threats. Our society is so mixed up as to include religious programming with cable television. They force it on you, the channels are thrown in for free--hundreds of channels. My point being it is getting harder to come out as atheist, even in America you have to be careful. Pick your fights with care. Family seems to take the thought of a family member leaving the church, personally. The religion teaches one must have control of their offspring or kill it. What is taught today is a watered-down version of fundamentalist Christianity barely controlled by secular laws. Even the lunatics are watered-down loons, fundamentally. I know people who leave the religion and then go back just to keep the peace. I used to think they were copping out. No guts. But I've come to believe one can be an atheist and still go to church, though I do not go. A person has to do what he or she has to do if they want to keep their marriage. My marriage of 24 years didn't last. Going to church or not won't affect whether you stay together as a couple. Couples who are die-hard Christians lead the nation in divorces. And honestly, love only lasts so long. You both have to be friends more than lovers. If you can' stand the other's presence in the same room or house, it's time to let it go. One person cannot keep a marriage going when the other wants to leave and have an adventure on their own. Is religion what keeps you together now, a belief to stay together for the sake of children or WWJD? If religion is what keeps you together now, do you think being an atheist is enough to keep a marriage together? You are beating yourself up when you answer with a critique when she asks you for one of the sermon. That's a trap! Maybe find a way to spend time as a family on Sundays visiting friends and relatives far away, or go camping or something to distract from church every week?

I am not enriched by the presence of Israel. It is an abomination, established by those given to superstition and by those who employed mass murder-Jews were the first to employ suicide bombing as a means of attack and murder. They continue to oppress the Palestinians. I find no merit in an Israel.