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Goodbye Jesus

I've Found The Foundation Of My Apostasy.


JoeCoastie

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I was at the house I grew up in for the first time in over a year and I was looking through old books and found this gem from my childhood.

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Like many kids in the 90s I saw Jurassic Park and became obsessed with dinosaurs. I began to read whatever I could about them and used my birthday money to get this book for $25. That's pretty expensive for a book in "kid money", but it looked like the best book on the topic I've ever seen. It covers life from jawless fishes to hominids. The writing was a bit over my head, but the illustrations were exquisite.

As a kid I had not realized there was a conflict between religion and science. I loved science and Jesus and figured they were meant to go together. My parents weren't anti-science and encouraged my studies, however, I was a bit confused when the book got to the early hominids. There was a picture of an apelike man called Australopithecus Afarensis and I just needed know if Adam and Eve were of that species. Sunday came around and I brought my book to Sunday School. When the teacher had a moment I asked trying to pronounce it as best I could, "Were Adam and Eve Australeopithicuses?"

She gave me a very confused glance. So I brought my book, showed her the picture, and asked again. She gave the picture a glance and sternly said, "Of course not."

I never went to Sunday School again. I wasn't getting along with that teacher and I don't know whether or not my science was the last straw. I'm very happy to have found my book. I didn't come to know myself as an atheist until I was 27, but here is the early foundation for my apostasy. The book reminds me I wasn't meant to be a man of faith, that I'm a man who questions and thinks, and I have been thinking longer than I thought.

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Here was my dinosaur book (as a young adult; I didn't have a dinosaur book as a child):

 

http://www.answersin...e,4481,495.aspx

 

Yup, I was one of those brainwashed creationists. Man, am I glad to be out of that mind-warp!

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isnt it funny how innocent the things are that turn us from faith. I remember asking if dinosaurs were on the ark. I dont remember what answer I got but I remember gathering the courage to ask the sunday school teacher

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I bought a couple of stupid creationist dinosaur books for my kids before revealing the actual science to them. They were so quick to move on...

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Here was my dinosaur book (as a young adult; I didn't have a dinosaur book as a child):

 

http://www.answersin...e,4481,495.aspx

 

Yup, I was one of those brainwashed creationists. Man, am I glad to be out of that mind-warp!

I went down that path for a short while. During my college years I got deep into conspiracy theories and for a short while swallowed some crap on creationist websites. Fortunately a seminar on whale evolution turned that around.
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isnt it funny how innocent the things are that turn us from faith. I remember asking if dinosaurs were on the ark. I dont remember what answer I got but I remember gathering the courage to ask the sunday school teacher

Few things make creationists jump through hoops like dinosaurs. I think I heard some B.S. on a program about the Creationist Museum where someone was trying to explain how T-Rexes were vegetarian before the fall of man and how they're six inch dagger like teeth were perfect for eating fruit.
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Dinosaurs for the win! I was also obsessed with them as a child. Round my former church it was believed dinos existed with man - as "proved" by Job (allegedly the oldest book in the bible), but weren't allowed on the ark as they were images of satan or some other bilge.

 

Any creationist should head to a natural history museum and check the awesome dinosaur skeletons!

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Dinosaurs for the win! I was also obsessed with them as a child. Round my former church it was believed dinos existed with man - as "proved" by Job (allegedly the oldest book in the bible), but weren't allowed on the ark as they were images of satan or some other bilge.

 

Any creationist should head to a natural history museum and check the awesome dinosaur skeletons!

That's why they created their own museum. It has animatronic dinos chilling with Adam and Eve. I knew a kid who's father was a preacher who believed dinosaur bones were hidden in the earth by the devil to fool man. Its a pity he wasn't allowed to like dinosaurs, as a child's fascination with dinosaurs is a beautiful thing.

I went to the Natural History Museum in London when I 12. I was mind blown.

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So much has been discovered about dinosaurs since I was a child. As fascinating as I thought they were then, they were always pictured then in dull colors and slouched over. Now they are fast, vibrant and beautiful creatures in many colors and even with feathers!

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Here was my dinosaur book (as a young adult; I didn't have a dinosaur book as a child):

 

http://www.answersin...e,4481,495.aspx

 

Yup, I was one of those brainwashed creationists. Man, am I glad to be out of that mind-warp!

 

I don't think I had that exact book....but I grew up reading many others of theirs. Believed it 100% until my recent deconversion about a year ago. So now I have to educate myself on some REAL science...currently working on reading through Richard Dawkins' "The Ancestor's Tale." It's HUGE! I swear I've borrowed that book 5 times from the library this year and renewed it several times and I'm STILL not finished reading it! LOL! But it's fascinating!

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I'm ashamed to admit that even though, as a teenager (prior to Xtianity invading my world) I studied the work of the Leakey family (Louis, Richard & Mary) in Kenya and Ethiopia, as well as the discovery of "Lucy" and a lot of other anthropological evidence for human evolution, I fell for the creationist claptrap for a while as a Xtian. I cannot explain this, considering myself to be reasonably intelligent after all, but the indoctrination and brainwashing I guess was stronger than my teenaged researching. Pathetic I know. I will say however, that the evolution question was stuffed into the locked "problematic stuff" box quite early on, only to reappear during my deconversion. The fossil evidence was something I couldn't face, and I had to lock it up. (cognitive dissonance again) Truth came out in the end though. Human evolutionary development is fascinating. Turns out there were a number of competing species of early human living alongside each other way back when. Amazing stuff.

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