★ Citsonga ★ Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 They also said that God had always made it clear from the Genesis that it was to be one man and one women, and that it was obvious that if you had sex with more than one person, you were committing adultery. Well, if they want to get technical about Adam & Eve, you could point out that they didn't have a wedding but rather just recognized that they were meant to be together and had at it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClaraOlive Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 And the crazy thing is is that they are actually quite intelligent otherwise. I don't know why I can see this so clearly and they can't. That's the thing about this site being about "ex-Christians" instead of "life-long atheists"... You started questioning pretty early - throughout your teen years I believe you said - but think about the things that kept you from questioning before that. Maybe you trusted your parents, teachers, and other authority figures who told you that Christianity was the truth. Maybe Christianity had enveloped your life for so long that you could barely imagine an alternative. Maybe whatever feelings you had that prompted you to "get saved" in the first place kept resurfacing and reassuring you that you were sensing god's presence. Maybe a series of coincidences made you feel that god was watching over you... Those things can remain factors throughout a person's entire life, and if you read some of the other threads, you'll see that even after someone sees religion rationally, they can continue to be triggered by deeply ingrained indoctrination such as the fear of hell. You mentioned that you didn't want to be awkward in college, and I'd say that if I could do it all over again, I would change three things. First, I would not let myself be pressured into going to a small Christian college. There are a lot of ways that you can get help from a university in finding federal loans, scholarships, and work-study plans if you're proactive in seeking them out. Second, I'm introverted but I tried to stretch myself too thin and and get involved in too much because I had been prevented from doing so many activities growing up. Added to that was the fact that the social skills and clothes that were acceptable at my Christian school made me seem like a freak even to the Christians who were more moderate, and I certainly didn't want to hang out with the fundamentalists. If I were doing it over again and going to a state school, I'd probably join a sorority and work on developing normal non-church based friendships with just those few other girls. People criticize sororities as "buying friends" and say that a normal college student should be networking on their own, but I wasn't allowed to have ANY non-Christian friends or participate in ANY non-Christian groups, so starting with interacting with just a few people regularly would probably have helped me to get on my feet. Third, I'd be moderate leaning toward conservative in almost every activity, neither prudish nor wild. I had some Jekyll and Hyde incidents when I was younger because I was eager to differentiate myself from being the goody two shoes Christian school girl, (or conversely, I was overcome with leftover guilt or prejudices) and really I just made a fool of myself. Unless you become aware that you've gotten caught up in something that's going to get you in trouble, you generally won't go wrong with following the quieter members of the crowd if you're not sure what to do. You'll have a good vantage point to decide what things you want to do and what people you want to get involved with if you can be an unobtrusive observer for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeking Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 They also said that God had always made it clear from the Genesis that it was to be one man and one women, and that it was obvious that if you had sex with more than one person, you were committing adultery. But God just had to "work with the culture." The horrible logic just astounds me... They sound just like my parents! This crap about God having to work within the culture ticks me off. How can they say, “Well, it was the culture of that time, and God was working within the culture.” No. If God is God, the HE dictates what the culture will be with his infinite knowledge and unending laws. He doesn’t have to say, “Aw, shucks, I hate it when they sell their daughters into slavery, but that’s what these people do, so I’d better let them. Too bad I can’t tell them not to sell their daughters!” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevoMuso Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 And the crazy thing is is that they are actually quite intelligent otherwise. I don't know why I can see this so clearly and they can't. Intelligence on its own is not enough, unfortunately. Knowledge is a more relevant requirement as well as intellectual honesty. Also, that little "God-meme" in the back of their minds plays havoc with their ability to think rationally and critically when it comes to religion. It can be sooo frustrating at times for those of us who have removed the "God-exists" paradigm from our minds. Our minds are free to explore, reason, learn, gather and filter information, while their minds are tainted and dulled by their faith. This is why it all seems so terribly obvious to us, but they just don't get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carmen Posted March 31, 2010 Author Share Posted March 31, 2010 Yes, it can be incredibly hard to break out of that mind frame. Once they have the fundamentalist mind-set, they will view everything in a Christian colored light. I'm currently having a big debate with a fundie friend online who cannot get past the idea that all nonbelievers hate God and choose to reject him out of their own sin. That seems to be pretty common in my discussions with believers. As far as the two particular friends I mentioned earlier, I guess I can't really blame them for being so sure that their beliefs are true. One of them spent her first 10 years as a missionary in Jordan, and when the government kicked her family out for preaching Christianity, they moved here to start a ministry to middle eastern people in the U.S. So as you can imagine, she has been living and breathing Christianity from the moment of her birth. The other one is from a typical homeschool family who sells fundamentalist textbooks. They are so deeply ingrained in this stuff that it seems impossible for them to ever reject it. And thanks for the advice, Claraolive. I'm hoping that college can be a brand new start for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
★ Citsonga ★ Posted April 1, 2010 Share Posted April 1, 2010 I'm currently having a big debate with a fundie friend online who cannot get past the idea that all nonbelievers hate God and choose to reject him out of their own sin. Yep, that keeps getting hammered in over and over and over from the pulpit, so many are soooooo indoctrinated that most of them will probably never understand where we're coming from unless they eventually become one of us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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