London Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 I was watching this video and it just made me think about what each of us has done to get away from xianity and what we did that got us there. What tools did you use to break free of religion? For many, this website is a huge tool. Share whatever you want, you never know who it will help in the future. This person sounds so much happier that she lost god and found herself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deva Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 I think the internet has made it much easier with so much better access to good information. When I first started deconverting, there were no computers avaiable. I went to the library and read everything I could get my hands on about evolution, church history, how the Bible was written. I read both sides of the fence - Christian books and atheist books and everything in between. C.S.Lewis to Madelyn Murry O'Hare. I read about eastern religions, I read about the occult, I read about science and psychology. I read the transcripts of a court case in Alabama where evolution was on trial. To get out of early cult indoctrination, you have to educate yourself, because you have a flawed or non-existent education in some areas. Its also not a part of public school education. It is a difficult process and fairly grueling. I do not think all religion is equally bad - but there are some forms that are very bad indeed and I escaped from one of them. Fundamentalist Baptist, the same as the person in the video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serendipity Rose Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 I like how she talked in the end about coming out to her parents and how difficult that it was but encouraged people to follow their heart if they feel that is what they should do. It's true for me most of the time, I imagine that something will be so much worse and in the end it is never as bad as all that. Lol. But it is a good idea to come out in a way that doesn't alienate you from your support system. My primary tools were questions-- and lots of them, and reading lots of books. Because I am an audio/visual learner it was tremendously helpful to me to just talk to lots of people and ask them about their belief systems whether they were religious, or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akheia Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Education is so important to getting free of religion. A big part of religion's hold on people is how it tries to destroy objective reality. It tries to make truth subjective and faith trump reason. As End's proven on his love thread, slogans and catchphrases hold more weight than actual observed facts. By educating yourself, you learn the truth. I'd have to say that with what I know now, it'd be completely impossible for me to get back into Christianity. There's just too much evidence that not only are its claims unproven, they're DISproven at every turn. The only way I could believe in any of it again would be to totally discount everything I know about how reality works. I'm grateful for this site, but also sites like infidels.org, POCM, and skepticsannotatedbible.com, as well as countless others-- the Iron Chariots wiki, the rationalwiki, Patheos and Freethoughtblogs especially. None of this stuff even existed (I don't think) when I was fundie. I had to kind of claw my own way out, and the only way I did it was realizing that what I observed in the real world didn't match the Bible's promises. The other stuff--the history, the logical fallacies--all that came much, much later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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