Renfield Posted August 13, 2006 Share Posted August 13, 2006 I was raised as a Wisconsin Synod Lutheran. This seemed to be more my Mothers job than my Dad. My father died when I was nine years old. I remember standing at the casket and listening to well meaning people parrot the tired old lines of, he looks peaceful, he looks like he's sleeping or doesn't he look natural. I'm thinking to myself, are we looking at the samething? Peaceful? If laying in a satin lined metal box can be called peaceful, then I'll take unpeaceful anytime. Sleeping? When was the last time you stared at someone sleeping? You can see their chest move as they breathe I don't see him breathing. Natural? When did you ever see my dad wearing makeup? Just skip the crap and say, I'm sorry for your loss. By this time I had cried as much as I could and couldn't shed another tear. Then my mom decided to send me to the parochial school for grades 4 through 8. Besides not advancing my science education they conveniently forgot to mention that Luther was a anti-Semite. Thankfully mom couldn't affored to send me to Wisconsin Lutheran High. We had two years of conformation classes of which we had to take notes during the Sunday sermon and turn them in the next day. During the second year I noticed that some of the sermons were repeats. I wondered why the paster couldn't make the effert to give us newstuff. If course one did not question such things, adults had all the answers, even if they were incorrect. You by the fact of birth are sinful and needed forgiveness on a daily if not hourly basis. One of my teachers told us that she chuckled at a woman who had tripped coming out of church. Well the very next Sunday god punished her by causing her to trip. Nothing gets by god! In my last year of high school I dated a girl whose father was a United Methodist minister. I attended one of his services and during the sermon he made a joke making everyone but me to laugh. When I questioned my girlfriend about it she said if we have a sense of humor it came from god. I guess that is why she didn't have guilt about sex. Well I didn't either but hormones are very powerful. Then while I was in Vietnam I get a notice I'm going to be excommunicated for not attending church. I did some checking and found that there was a specific order to be followed. I began to think that if the church didn't have to follow that order what else is wrong here. Then 5 years later I finally called myself an Atheist. With the internet it wouldn't have taken 5 years. The biggest help during that time to me was finding America Atheist magazine in a book store. Then finding Freedom From Religion Foundation. It isn't easy to declare there are no gods when everyone around you is a believer and it is worse now with government and religion mixing. The biggest lie that I was told is that the bible is truth. It is more assuring to me to have real concrete answers than to hear god did it. I read somewhere that, "anything that can explain everthing is no answer at all". Wish on one hand and shit on the other and see which one fills up first. Works exactly that way in the "supernatural" world! Hope this maybe helpful to someone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ nivek ♦ Posted August 13, 2006 Share Posted August 13, 2006 Mike, Welcome to ExC. Hope here will aid your needs and thinking processes. Lots of great folks here, there is a wide cut of damn near every exeprience in life out in our audience. Feel free to use the materials posted, pull up a seat, use the Forums. kevinL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piprus Posted August 13, 2006 Share Posted August 13, 2006 Welcome to Ex-C, Renfield... Actually, I'm beginning to think there are more atheists around than we're getting credit for. It's just that we don't normally wear our lack of religion out in the open like so many theists do. No atheist "church" services, no atheist dogma, no gold atheist necklaces, no atheist confirmations or baptisms or barmitzvahs. At any rate. nice to have you in the community. Enjoy. "Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable" (H.L. Mencken) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renfield Posted August 13, 2006 Author Share Posted August 13, 2006 Mike, Welcome to ExC. Hope here will aid your needs and thinking processes. Lots of great folks here, there is a wide cut of damn near every exeprience in life out in our audience. Feel free to use the materials posted, pull up a seat, use the Forums. kevinL Thank You Of all the groups I have come across ExChristian is the bst I've found. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirac Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 During the second year I noticed that some of the sermons were repeats. I wondered why the paster couldn't make the effert to give us newstuff.Hahaha! xD One of my teachers told us that she chuckled at a woman who had tripped coming out of church. Well the very next Sunday god punished her by causing her to trip.Nothing gets by god! Hahaha! xD The biggest lie that I was told is that the bible is truth. It is more assuring to me to have real concrete answers than to hear god did it. I read somewhere that, "anything that can explain everthing is no answer at all". Wish on one hand and shit on the other and see which one fills up first. Works exactly that way in the "supernatural" world!Hope this maybe helpful to someone. In the long term I agree, having your life based on reason and freedom is so much nicer. Thanks for posting, please visit here often and join in and use your experience to help others. Welcome aboard the Ex-C train xD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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