Quarter Of A Century

November 2, 2006

Hi all, my first post.

I was born & raised in a hard core, bible thumping, hell-fire & brimstone christian home. I was steeped in it like you can't imagine. In retrospect, my experience was a reflection of the time worn tools of most religions: Fear, Guilt, and Shame. None of it was actually "experiential", it was all in my head, as is all religious belief. I was just parroting, and being young & immature and incredibly sheltered from the real world, didn't know any better.

At around the age of 25, my brain seemed to sprout. Living on my own, I began to question a lot of things, and read various books, etc. Come to think of it, even as a child, I kinda knew that something wasn't right about it all. I saw through the hypocracy, and was ashamed of the belief system throughout my school years. I think that I knew deep, deep down that it was nonsense.

Over the course of a two year period, I tore myself away from the church. This was a difficult time, as it's like getting a divorce. I was changing my map of the world, and given the fear instilled from a lifetime of threats of eternal hell, it was an uncomfortable transition. I listened to my own native intelligence though, and stuck it out. In the 20 years since then, I have come to grow in ways that I can't describe. As I look back on my thinking as a christian, I am frankly embarrased, and I have difficulty now even relating to that old childlike, infantile, highly simplistic way of viewing the big picture.

So, in the last 20 years I have basically thought about things a lot (almost constantly), and through reading books, (not as many as I would like), watching many science/documentary type shows on TV, and various other intake, I had come to my own little view of the big picture. I actually felt somewhat lonesome in my thoughts............and then............it happened! I saw Richard Dawkins' 2-part series on TV called "The Root of all Evil?" I just about cried. He articulated precisely what I had come to sense, think, and feel about it all. It was as though he was speaking my mind!

I thought, How could it be that someone with such an incredible acedemic resime, could wind up at the exact same place as little ol' me? Talk about affirming!!! Oops, my eyes are getting watery.

And of course, you know how the internet is........a little searching just leads you to more & more related material. So the last month has been a wonderful discovery of a treasuretrove of more affirming information.

I must share this site with y'all:

www.godisimaginary.com

This is really good stuff.

November 2, 2006

Hmm... There used to be a person here who called themself Starstuff. I thought maybe you were her. godisimaginary.com is very to-the-point. I like their style. Funny how you just got here, and you're giving us the same material we like to post. I guess great minds think alike. Welcome.

November 2, 2006

Nope I'm not that person. Heck, I'm not even a "her".

November 2, 2006

Welcome to the forum. Interesting to see how someone is living and thinking after 20 years of being deconverted. I hope like you I grow in different ways during my next 20 years .. have only deconverted this year myself.

Also good that you got away from the hell fire and brimstone preaching that you had to put up with when younger .. I hope your parents didn't disown you after you left christianity.

hope life continues to go well for you.