gingernut Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 Two and a half years now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdog Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 April '08. For about a month before I joined Ex C I was going through a crisis as I had began to see flaws and the deception within the religion, christianity, bible. it was like I began to ask questions, figure things were not right and i even went to seek counsel from the pastor, crying. but inside I knew I wasnt going to be the same. And I could no longer believe what I always had. It was a confusing and sad time for me. I was looking for help online. I cant remembered what I typed to search but Ex C came up. I visited the site. I joined then and there and members here were helpful and supportive. I am so glad I found this place. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightshade78 Posted September 16, 2013 Share Posted September 16, 2013 Hi everyone. I am currently 1.5 years out of a seriously devout form of non-denominational Protestantism. I no longer think a global dictator will dominate Earth for 7 hellish years from Europe like I used to believe while a Christian, and it feels good to be an infidel. Thank you for letting me join. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leopardus Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 Since the end of 2006/beginning of 2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantophobia Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 I'm celebrating my one-year mark. Thanks, you guys. This place helped me over the last hurdle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilith666 Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 Four years, starting on November 22. I threw myself a little donut-and-movie party. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moanareina Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 Hi there It is exactly 6 years now that I left the christian setting...though the process of deconversion is still going on. While my leaving church and all behind was a radical one day to another cold turkey thing with ups and downs, to get all of the wicked believes out of my personality has been and still is a slow process. Since I have grown up christian and unlike my brothers who left it all when becoming teens, I developed my own fundamental believes. I think my family history also played into it, since there was this great insecurity within me that has its roots in my very first moths and years of life. I guess I could write a book about it all...oh well, maybe I will... Sometimes I feel ashamed that at age 36 I still am trying to find out who I really am and what I want to do when I grow up. I often feel like an eternal adolescent who never grows up. Thats also a reason why I join this forum and am thankful to have found this page. Since I will always be different to people who grew up atheist and also to people who still believe in God and all. Now I can't call myself an atheist and if there is a God who loves me so much etc. I leave it up to him to show up and be part of my life. Now I am done seeking, cause I have not found. So hi to everyone, here I am mo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RosebudMarie Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Two days since I finally said it out loud. "I am not a Christian." It still feels a little...weird to say it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pixie Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Many thanks to EX-C for assisting me as I have been examining the evidence on this site and many others that you have endorsed for study. It will be 6 months for me as an ''almost'', very sceptical non-believer in the Christian God. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator TheRedneckProfessor Posted December 10, 2013 Super Moderator Share Posted December 10, 2013 Hi there It is exactly 6 years now that I left the christian setting...though the process of deconversion is still going on. While my leaving church and all behind was a radical one day to another cold turkey thing with ups and downs, to get all of the wicked believes out of my personality has been and still is a slow process. Since I have grown up christian and unlike my brothers who left it all when becoming teens, I developed my own fundamental believes. I think my family history also played into it, since there was this great insecurity within me that has its roots in my very first moths and years of life. I guess I could write a book about it all...oh well, maybe I will... Sometimes I feel ashamed that at age 36 I still am trying to find out who I really am and what I want to do when I grow up. I often feel like an eternal adolescent who never grows up. Thats also a reason why I join this forum and am thankful to have found this page. Since I will always be different to people who grew up atheist and also to people who still believe in God and all. Now I can't call myself an atheist and if there is a God who loves me so much etc. I leave it up to him to show up and be part of my life. Now I am done seeking, cause I have not found. So hi to everyone, here I am mo I went back to school when I was 35 and took a degree in biotechnology. I always enjoyed science, so it made sense for me to study it. That said, I still haven't really decided what I want to do when I grow up. For now, raising my son, working, and occasional travel is enough for me. I know the frustration you feel, but you shouldn't be ashamed. It's not your fault that your childhood and youth were corrupted through indoctrination; nor is it your fault that you based many of the major life decisions of your youth on that indoctrination. Live and love your life for what it is, not for what you think it could have been or should have been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tezia Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Since October 2013. Not very long. I started out as an agnostic, but I've had my doubts about religion for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moanareina Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Hi there It is exactly 6 years now that I left the christian setting...though the process of deconversion is still going on. While my leaving church and all behind was a radical one day to another cold turkey thing with ups and downs, to get all of the wicked believes out of my personality has been and still is a slow process. Since I have grown up christian and unlike my brothers who left it all when becoming teens, I developed my own fundamental believes. I think my family history also played into it, since there was this great insecurity within me that has its roots in my very first moths and years of life. I guess I could write a book about it all...oh well, maybe I will... Sometimes I feel ashamed that at age 36 I still am trying to find out who I really am and what I want to do when I grow up. I often feel like an eternal adolescent who never grows up. Thats also a reason why I join this forum and am thankful to have found this page. Since I will always be different to people who grew up atheist and also to people who still believe in God and all. Now I can't call myself an atheist and if there is a God who loves me so much etc. I leave it up to him to show up and be part of my life. Now I am done seeking, cause I have not found. So hi to everyone, here I am mo I went back to school when I was 35 and took a degree in biotechnology. I always enjoyed science, so it made sense for me to study it. That said, I still haven't really decided what I want to do when I grow up. For now, raising my son, working, and occasional travel is enough for me. I know the frustration you feel, but you shouldn't be ashamed. It's not your fault that your childhood and youth were corrupted through indoctrination; nor is it your fault that you based many of the major life decisions of your youth on that indoctrination. Live and love your life for what it is, not for what you think it could have been or should have been. Oh...haha, yes I actually am working on a degree that allows me to attend university and sign up for anything that interests me (our educational system is a bit different to that of the US). I started this last year and had gone through some rough times with it, almost giving up. So I ll take a break when finally having all exams done in March and then I ll see. Sciences is very interesting, though my math skills are really not that great. I know I could get into it, but it would take some tremendous effort. Doing that program got me to realize, that my strengths are more in language and writing. But for now I leave it open. My only hope is, that I can soon find another job or do something on my own because the one I am doing and the people I work with bore the hell out of me. You know, sometimes I feel ashamed because I have already two degrees and one of them in graphic design and so many people dream of getting into graphic design class but don't have the skills and so they don't get in. And also my parents and my grandma supported me that time and that feels weird too. Now both professions don't serve me much, because the first one was really not my thing and for the second one I somehow could not find a job and everytime I think about doing graphic design or something related, I feel weird and can't imagine doing it. Thank you for the encouragement. It feels good to know there are others out there who have not grown up yet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle2Step Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 Since june this year.. Im a baby nonbeliever. ;P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrGuitar Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 The short answer... 5 years...The long answer...read on! I remember it being "Jesus" that was hardest to let go of..Christianity and the Bible were already discredited, but I still clung to the man-god himself for awhile...thinking that man had gotten it all wrong but Jesus himself was still the "real deal". Then a friend discussed all the contradictions in the Gospels and other assorted idiocies contained therein and I read some of Bart Ehrman's work...that sealed it...I realized there was a large and long-standing, scholarly literature base which undermined the historical credibility of the Gospels. I felt like I was facing religion for the first time logically instead of with childish credulity. It was a slam dunk and even today the blind credulity of my scholarly Christian friends amazes and disturbs me. Truly, thinking themselves wise they became fools! Ironically, this same person, who posts here BTW, still believes in the reality of the risen Jesus despite his logic based arguments because he had a vision of what he thinks was Jesus while mowing his lawn on a hot day! LOL My sons think he was hallucinating in the heat! Maybe! Well if "Jesus" expects me to believe he is God based on the Gospels, he is being totally unrealistic and apart from the Gospels I have no reason to. I have had no valid mystical experiences telling me Jesus is God. In fact the whole "you gotta believe in Jesus to go to Heaven" dogma is idiotic beyond description because it fails to address the needs of the 95% of humanity who either pre-dated him or never heard of him. My Calvinsit colleague says God didnt elect those people and D James Kennedy taught the same. Of course HE was a former Arthur Murray dance instructor known as Jim Kennedy before he got a ThD (Doctor of the study of God and a joke degree if ever there was one) and became the revered D JAMES KENNEDY "super smart Christian pontificator". Reminds me of the sanctimonious gasbag James Dobson who is never referred to as anything but DOCTOR Dobson by his syncophants. Well until they kicked him out of F on the F. All that venting aside, I still believe there exists a God but he is NOT the God of Jewish scripture or the Pauline NT. He is not the God of any religion. I believe based on logical deduction NOT mysticism. Still, the paradigms which govern scence are changing and the materialist, reductionist paradigm of Newton etc is giving way. Thats not to say logic is giving way however. Quantum Physics is indeed "spooky" only when viewed from the outdated viewpoint. When Einstein kept saying "God does not play dice"..Dr Bohr admonished him by retorting..: "Einstein! stop telling God what he can do! So from a logical viewpoint I have to conclude Jesus is not God, while believing there IS a reality beyond our own and that a very intelligent being designed us and our universe. I do not think he will "judge" us whatever that may mean. Thus I believe in the existence of God and I think a "science" which admits only the "material" whatever that is...is outdated and obsolete. Matter is energy and all matter may be an illusion of perception and energy. The connection between matter and true reality is not much understood. The holographic universe, the multi-verse and the quantum consciousness movement are all good starting places to understanding the new paradigms of science. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pandora00000 Posted December 22, 2013 Share Posted December 22, 2013 Five years. And a very painful five years at that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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