Burt_Lemur Posted December 28, 2012 Posted December 28, 2012 I am a "Fallen Catholic" that no longer believes in the Bible as a source of any kind of true account of our universe, nor the monstrous god character who stars in all the horrifying stories within. The youngest of six kids, I was baptized at the age of two weeks or so, long before I had anything to say about it. My father was raised a devout Catholic who lived every aspect of life in whatever way Catholicism had instructed him to see and behave. My mother was not originally Catholic, but became so to allow for the possibility of marrying my father. Both of my parents have passed away. It would have been nice if my father had some degree of comfort as he suffered at the end from his lifelong devotion to the Catholic Church, but I didn't see any comfort. I saw fear. At the end, knowing he was going to die from multiple untreatable cancers, my father was fearful of the arrangement he had with his god, and could only seem to focus on reflecting on whatever he may have done in his life that would bring about eternal damnation. With unending respect to my father that will never die, I know now that he was a good person who was a victim of his faith and the Threat Theology he was born into. I started to question this Threat Theology at a pretty young age. Even as a young "Altar Boy", regularly serving at Mass (and thankfully somehow avoiding any physical advances from Catholic clergy), I would spend many nights in the yard with my telescope searching the night sky. The universe seemed wondrous to me and just seemed to be so much more than the way it is described in the Bible. That fascination continues and grows and is now the foundation of whatever I believe, whatever that belief is labelled. As a Christian believes in the sky monster ruling over them with the threat of eternal suffering, but who never sees this monster, I believe in a universe full of life. Can I fly around and confirm my faith in life-sustaining worlds scattered throughout our galactic neighborhood and the garglobazillion other galaxies that fill the universe? No. But that's what my faith now centers on (if "faith" is even the right word): That life is precious, that life is abundant in the universe, that every moment of life is special and every life should be respected. Morals blossomed from awe and respect of the universe, not dictated by a god who needs to rule by threatening parents to eat the flesh of their own children. The path away from devout Catholicism took awhile to navigate. When I went to college, I was for the first time in an environment outside of the Catholic terrarium, where I was surrounded not by family members and school environments and friends who were all Catholic, but introduced instead to the world of multitudes of beliefs, many of which were in strict conflict with the ones I thought were so comfortable and normal. As years passed, the questions I had carried around for years fueled a greatly expanded view of reality. Fascination with the true history of the Catholic Church, history that had never been revealed to me, led me to the understanding that I had been born into a scary institution that punished great minds for great discoveries, that slaughtered its way across the globe, and had a history of horrific leaders: Popes who were deviant monsters. To this day, my journey away from Christianity complete, it is impossible for me to be open about any of this with family members who remain in the terrarium. Being around it now at gatherings and holidays is bizarre as family members brag about how much they put in the basket. Being around any Christians is odd, as they so often seem to be in debate as much with each other as those that don't share their beliefs. Wouldn't a supreme being with any power at all have followers who see the overall picture of truth in the same way? It's like listening to people passionately argue whether bananas are blue or purple. Or listening to otherwise intelligent people insisting that The Tooth Fairy stole their unicorn. My ongoing spiritual focus now is dealing with all aspects of life outside of Catholicism and Christianity. There was a time where I wanted to debate people still in the Christian terrarium. I still will, especially when cornered, but I don't find myself inviting such debate. I value the freedom I've had to scamper my way up the slick terrarium walls and make it over the edge, and I value everyone's right to the freedom to choose their own spiritual path. At least until they're trying to stuff me full of blue bananas. This website has become very important to me, being able to read the experiences and views of other ex-Christians. I find a lot of people suffering through hardships and challenges as they transition away from Christianity, and I've found it important to focus on the positive aspects of that journey. It helps so much to see that there are people in the world stepping away from the fairy tales and monster stories of old, and how nice it is to think that there may come a time when thinking freely is actually in fashion. Of course, there are reminders every day that it may be quite awhile before Threat Theology is out of style, but that just allows me to look forward to swinging through the trees, my frozen head revived and stuck on a lemur's body sometime around 10,000 AD. Lemur 6
Lerk Posted December 28, 2012 Posted December 28, 2012 Excellent post! One of the best things about knowing the truth is that the universe is truly more amazing, now that I don't have to stop at 8000 BCE and say it was all created in 6 days! And I want, so much, to get past the point where I'm consumed with where I have been, and just get on with my life. I'm not even to the debating point as I haven't come out to many people yet, but I hope to just skip past that. Thanks for your post.
Burt_Lemur Posted December 28, 2012 Author Posted December 28, 2012 Thanks MisterTwo! I like your outlook on getting on with your life! Lemur
Eugene39 Posted December 28, 2012 Posted December 28, 2012 Threat Theology is a great name for it. I also hope that someday it dies. Your post was enjoyable to read. Welcome to Ex-C.
RipVanWinkle Posted December 28, 2012 Posted December 28, 2012 Lemur: You get an A++. That's one of the best posts I've read. You have summarized the Xtian hoax beautifully. bill
Burt_Lemur Posted December 29, 2012 Author Posted December 29, 2012 Wow, Bill! Thanks so much. I'm very glad to be here! Lemur
Thought2Much Posted December 29, 2012 Posted December 29, 2012 Welcome to Ex-C, Lemur! I enjoyed reading your post, and hope that you continue to write here on the forum.
new2me Posted December 29, 2012 Posted December 29, 2012 Welcome to ex-C! But that's what my faith now centers on (if "faith" is even the right word): That life is precious, that life is abundant in the universe, that every moment of life is special and every life should be respected. I am in the same boat with the concepts that your "faith" centers on now. I feel like there is some sort of energy in the universe that seems to have always existed. I don't know exactly what that is but I don't feel like it is any sort of "god" that has to be worshipped. And that is an incredible burden off of my shoulders! I just love living life without the guilt and confused doctrine that was supposed to guide my life.
Blue elephant Posted December 29, 2012 Posted December 29, 2012 Welcome to Ex-C Lemur. You really have a way with words! I loved your phrases "threat theology" and "Christian terrarium". Do you mind if I plagiarise them?
Burt_Lemur Posted December 29, 2012 Author Posted December 29, 2012 Thanks, everyone. Feel free, Blue elephant! I'm fond of the term "threat theology". I've used it before in a few posts I made before deciding to change my profile to be more anonymous, as my first profile and the posts I made with it clearly identified me. It's probably silly to think that I need to hide my identity when proclaiming my deepest beliefs, but there are people in my life right now that would be shocked to find that I've turned away from the Catholic Church. I'll deal with them eventually, but for now it's nice to just be Lemur. (and it was fun to Photoshop my absurd profile picture!)
Moderator Margee Posted December 30, 2012 Moderator Posted December 30, 2012 Lemur, welcome to Ex-c! Thank you so much for sharing your story with us. That was wonderful and I related a lot.... You may have to battle your way through all the believers in the world but you always have a 'home' to come to now!! You never have to feel alone again! Everyone of us on this forum understands what you are going through. Post all your concerns...someone is always ready to help guide with good advise. Looking forward to hearing more from you!! Best of wishes on this...your new journey!!
alpha centauri Posted December 30, 2012 Posted December 30, 2012 Welcome Lemur! Glad to have you aboard, and glad you escaped the doctrine of deception. If anyone deserves hell, it's those who threaten others with eternal damnation, but I honestly, I don't wish that on anybody. Life is full of such wonder, we don't need to fill our lives with falsehoods to explain our world. What an exciting universe we live in. All too often, Christians focus on the negative and hope for a better world after they die. How sad not to be able to fully enjoy life and appreciate it because of the fear of giving in to sin. It's funny, I used to sing a song to my oldest son when he was a baby: "Have you seen the blue banana, have you seen the green monkey, have you seen the pink kitty cat, have you seen the purple doggy? I don't think you have!" It was just a nonsensical song at the time, but singing any of those occur naturally would be infinitely more belivable than an invisible sky monster casting people into a forever burning pit. I can't see many truly compassionate Christians honestly enjoying the prosepct of heaven thinking that their loving god is going to damn the vast majority of the world's population, even those who say that's what we asked for. No, it's not, and no truly loving, compassionate and good god could EVER do that. True love is accepting people no matter what, and wanting them to be their best because it's noble and the right thing, not threatening them with all sorts of evil to make them comply.
Burt_Lemur Posted December 30, 2012 Author Posted December 30, 2012 "I can't see many truly compassionate Christians honestly enjoying the prosepct of heaven thinking that their loving god is going to damn the vast majority of the world's population, even those who say that's what we asked for. No, it's not, and no truly loving, compassionate and good god could EVER do that." Excellent point, Alpha C. I work on a part-time job occasionally with a Christian who I sometimes have to spend time with on long car rides, who truly scares me. He is perfectly aware of the fact that god would have to be a monster to damn so many people to eternal torture, and that is probably his FAVORITE thing about his god. When he talks about the horrible things the god character does in the bible, his eyes light up and he savors imagining the horrible details of all those twisted stories. And he's not the first Christian I've met like this. I worked for 6 years with a similar guy who would lecture me almost every day in the workplace about the manner in which his god would punish me eternally. People like this have made me much more reluctant to openly discuss my beliefs with anyone, certainly NEVER in the workplace.
alpha centauri Posted December 31, 2012 Posted December 31, 2012 Wow, Lemur, those types of Christians sound like demented sadists! How utterly sick, disgusting and vile that people can think of themselves as saved, and delight in the notion (or not be bothered) that others who choose a different path will "burn, burn, burn" in their opinions. And for those who shudder at the thought, but rationalize it by thinking "well, God knows best" or "that's the choice they made, too bad, so sad," I'd compare them to the Germans who merely stood by and shrugged while Jews were rounded up to be massacred by Nazis, the vast majority of whom were Christians.
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