GraphicsGuy Posted June 5, 2015 Share Posted June 5, 2015 I just spent some time finding my original "ex-timony" and reading through it and the responses. I guess I am trying to figure out if I still feel much the same way 8 years later and, in fact, I absolutely do. Nothing has changed my perception of my life as a Christian and my reasons for leaving the cult. Pardon me while I ramble and follow rabbit-trails here: I think I am trying to figure out why I have a minor compulsion to be on this forum again after a long hiatus away from it. Perhaps I'm feeling somewhat driven to contact some old friends and tell them about my life now. My SO thinks (when conversation turns that direction) I should contact my old pastor and tell him that I'm doing quite well. The last time he contacted me his implication was that I would eventually come crawling back to the church in repentance. I attended a United Church service a number of years ago and quite enjoyed their views, but I felt absolutely no desire to join them at all. Perhaps I'm on here lately because most of my friends really have no interest in religion and/or church-bashing - which I will do constantly if given a soapbox. Anyway, all of that to get to the point of the title of this thread: Christians often say to those who don't believe in their god: "You just haven't experienced the love of Christ!" or something along the lines of that. They throw the word "experience" around as if it is the trump card for all rational argument and skepticism. What they will not accept is any "experience" outside of their own faith. Supposedly one cannot have an "experience" with Allah or Buddha or Vishnu or with Nature. For me, I simply had an "experience" with real life. I woke up. I was enlightened. The truth smacked me full in the face. Christianity came up empty for me. It was a lie. I had lost 18 good years of endless possibilities to that lie. I did experience the "love" of Christ during my time as a Christian, but it was nothing compared to the experience of my awakened "true-self" fighting his way to the surface and screaming "Fuck you!" to everything that Western religion had to offer. And then he looked around and realized that most of Western society is just as mental as the church...but that's another story...and experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Jeff Posted June 6, 2015 Share Posted June 6, 2015 Bless the Lard, Brother! I'm happy to have to back around here! I too have left these glorious forums before for months at a time, for various reasons. But I always come back. Lots of great people and lots of interesting discussion. I've made many good friends here, and some of them are friends on Facebook too. Glory! The only church I would be interested in these days would be a UU (Unitarian Universalist) church, but unfortunately they are not currently in Alaska. Most of my friends on FB are Christians. As you know, that doesn't stop me from bashing religion there on a regular basis. I lost 15 years of my younger life to Christianity. I used to be very angry about that, but now I am okay with it. My religious past is what it is, and it wasn't all bad. I'm just glad to be FREE from the bullshit I believed so strongly for so many years. Glory! I wrote one of my old pastors a letter just the other day, and I'm looking forward to hearing back from him. I haven't had contact with the man in a good 25 years. I explained my bipolar diagnosis to him, and I let him know that I am no longer a Christian believer. I hope he will respond and I hope we can still be friends again though I no longer share his faith. There are many very ignorant/stupid people in society and they scare the hell out me. But there are a lot of very intelligent and informed folks too. I try to pay more attention to them. I'm a lot happier that way. Glory! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellinas Posted June 7, 2015 Share Posted June 7, 2015 I suppose the Christian view is that any experience involving the non-Christian is either self deception or deception by the powers of evil. It's a self-supporting and rather circular form of reasoning. Of course, sense, rationale and logic are also experiences. And ones you may well prefer to the assumed love of a peculiarly unstable deity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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