Egaugnal Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Hello everybody! I've been registered here since last june however I never got the chance to really tell my story so here it goes. Introduction My story begins when I was about five. I had been raised a Catholic from birth and as long as I can remember my family and I would attend Mass about every two weeks to once a month. My parents had always been very relaxed when it came to church and most of the time they never seemed to mind not going. At about five years of age my father and mother divorced due to various personal issues. My father married a Jehovah's Witness about two years later and my mother remarried the year following. While my mother never changed, as her new husband was Catholic as well, their church attendance dwindled to non-existent. My father on the other hand immediately converted which started a roller coaster that lasted about three years. Oh my blessed son! After my fathers conversion, things became a little rocky at home. The custody time was 50/50 so every other sunday I had to attend "Meetings" with my younger sister and stepmothers family. My father quickly became very conservative and very strict. I was no longer allowed to watch specials on the Discovery Channel about anything pertaining to evolution or astronomy. I was told Evolution was false and created by the devil to lie to us all. The Big Bang was only believable to the insane and we had to guard against Satan's temptations. I had to then attend thursday Bible discussion as well as meetings. All while this was happening my mother would preach to me that my father was crazy as well as every Jehovah's Witness. The inner turmoil began to build within me and I became enraged by both of their dogmas. I began to resent my father and every meeting I had to go to. Being a Jehovah's Witness was wrong in my mind so I blocked out all their teachings from the age of 11. Thy Holy Communion While this was happening at my father's home I was on another journey at my mothers. She enrolled me in CCD Classes (Sunday School). My teacher would preach and show us many passages in the King James Version of the Bible. We were taught the most popular stories in the Bible and the prayer of our Lord. My teacher was a very kind man and our Church was actual quite liberal as they never denounced other faiths or had any harsh words about homosexuality or science in general. My classes lasted only four months. My teacher who had taught for forty years died of a heart-attack a half an hour before our last class. We only resumed classes for about a week until it was time for all of us to undergo our Holy Communion. I still own the pendants and booklets from that day but the actual events are hazy. All I can remember is I had watched a special on wether alien life on mars could exist the day prior and I had asked the pastor (while I was supposed to be reciting the prayer) if God loved aliens too. He laughed and I forget his answer which still bugs me to this day. That was the last time I set foot in a church believing in a god. We start...here...we are in the land of the very small! About a year later when I was 12 a video game caught my attention as it would any other youngin!. The game was "Spore". It essentially was a game on abiogenesis and evolution and you guide it. The game had many fan sites so I visited one. On those forums in the Off-Topic section I saw a thread titled, "You are all going to HELL if you buy this game!". I was shocked by such a statement so this concluded in me watching an argument between what I learned was called an "Evangelical" and a group of people called "Atheists". I saw some words that I would never forget and a statement which sparked everything. The statement was,"Crazy hick you know sure well God doesn't exist! I then typed in a question similar to this on Youtube. That started it all. The Youtube Wars I was exposed to something I never knew existed. People actual argue wether God exists? I watched many christians speak, many atheists. I stumbled upon videos from men called Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, William Lane Craig, Lee Strobel, and went on a video watching spree fro about a year. I was shocked beyond measure. The Atheists made more sense then the Christians did. I was very confused and rethought everything I had been taught. God was unjust? No evidence? Biggest bully in all of fiction??? That fed the doubt. Forgive me Father for I have sinned. The doubts had been seeded. When I was thirteen I asked my father wether God existed on a car ride home. His answer was something I never expected. He said he didn't think so. My father then explained in the 3 years he had been in the JW church he had doubts. He never felt anything when he prayed or was at church. He had read over 40 books pertaining to Biblical evidence and myths the Bible had stolen from. He had read the books from the famous atheists of our time. He filled his personal Bible with notes on inconsistencies, fallacies, injustice, polytheistic references, and forgeries. Me and him concluded that we were Atheists when I was 13 and he was 39. My father was luckier than I. His side was very liberal and it turned out my grandmother, his mother, was agnostic as well as my grandfather. His work pals knew he was nice and didn't care. My stepmother loves him so much that she could careless as well. I wasn't so lucky. I've never met an Atheist before! I was ridiculed by my classmates. I was questioned to the point of insanity by my mothers side. The ignorance and bigotry of people made me feel like their was no hope and I sunk into depression. I continued my own research and now have a library of 57 books pertaining to religion and science. I read the JW Bible, the King James, The NIV and a type of Rosetta Stone bible that has hebrew and greek as well as english. The uneasiness lasted for about 2 years. At fifteen I was accepted as my classmates realized religion didn't determine how I treated them and they matured. I broke free of depression at 15 as well. I still buy more books and read daily. The flames have died down and I now see my own friends slowly becoming more and more skeptical. The fundies do exist around me as I live in a very conservative city but It isn't difficult to dismiss their arguments anymore. Im quite happy now and at sixteen write this. It is a lot to deal with at a young age but it makes a guy stronger. Thank you for reading my testimony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Cool eximony, Egaugnal, and emoclew. Nice to see another OC here. North or south? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egaugnal Posted February 11, 2011 Author Share Posted February 11, 2011 Cool eximony, Egaugnal, and emoclew. Nice to see another OC here. North or south? South. Round the Aneheim area. And thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Cool. I'm south of Irvine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egaugnal Posted February 11, 2011 Author Share Posted February 11, 2011 Good to know there's at least one other down here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legion Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Egaugnal I commend you on your adept use of language and I welcome you to ex-C. Have fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overcame Faith Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Ih, language. Emoclew ot CxE. I dekil ruoy yrots. Uoy mees ot evah a doog dnim. Dalg uoy tfel eht noigiler ta hcus a gnuoy ega. I kool drawrof ot gnitteg ot ownk uoy. Emacrevo Htiaf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egaugnal Posted February 11, 2011 Author Share Posted February 11, 2011 Ih, language. Emoclew ot CxE. I dekil ruoy yrots. Uoy mees ot evah a doog dnim. Dalg uoy tfel eht noigiler ta hcus a gnuoy ega. I kool drawrof ot gnitteg ot ownk uoy. Emacrevo Htiaf. Ho yhw knaht uoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legion Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Oh sure Egaugnal, respond to Overcame Faith and give me the cold shoulder. I see how it is. I retract my welcome of you. I hope you have a lousy time at ex-C. gniddik tsuj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egaugnal Posted February 12, 2011 Author Share Posted February 12, 2011 Oh sure Egaugnal, respond to Overcame Faith and give me the cold shoulder. I see how it is. I retract my welcome of you. I hope you have a lousy time at ex-C. gniddik tsuj I responded in my mind! Telepathy doesn't work well over the internet i guess... Well thank you for the welcome to Legion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagickMonkey Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Ditto what everyone else said. I'm glad your father deconverted too. I'm afraid if my dad were still alive, his religious beliefs would stand in the way of an otherwise wonderful relationship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LivingLife Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Just wanted to say welcome and for a teen, you sure are very articulate. I think that your extimony is evidence that no matter the age, proper research can only have one outcome. I guess you were lucky that you did not have years of baggage to rid yourself of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts