Skeptical monkey

[webmdave]

Sent in by Ted Goas

 

I hope my testimonial is short and sweet. I was raised by two educated, traditional parents in the New York metro area of the U.S. I was introduced to, schooled in, and eventually confirmed Lutheran. At no point was I ever enthusiastic about my religion or going to church. But like many others I took religious teachings at face value, went through the motions and believed what I read in the Bible.

 

But then I went to graduate school, which turned out to be my turning point. There I learned to question things, filter out bad information, ask for proof, and basically ask “Says who?”

 

During this time I watched a documentary and heard this quote from Michael Shermer: “Smart people come to revisit things they learned for not-smart reasons,” or something to that effect. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

 

It made me realize that children can’t control how they’re raised. But we can re-evaluate what we were conditioned to think. After doing so, my story is probably similar to many other testimonials on this site. I converted to militant agnostic / atheist. My fiancé and I constantly research the subject of skepticism (in which the topic of religion naturally falls) and publish our findings on skepticalmonkey.com.

 

-Ted Goas

http://www.skepticalmonkey.com

 

http://exchristian.net/testimonies/2008/04...cal-monkey.html

[alpha centauri]

Thanks for your testimony!

 

It's no small wonder why the liberal Christian churches want to gloss over the uncomfortable areas of Christianity, and the evangleical/literalist/fundamentalists are so strident in their warnings that disbelief and "worldly wisdom" are of the devil, and to remind you of the threat of hell to make sure any wandering sheep fall back in line.

 

I just checked out the Skeptical Monkey website. Good work!