Comments on: Tell us your story! http://atheists.org/blog/2005/10/11/tell_us_your_story A Blog of Atheist Thought Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:40:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: childofatom http://atheists.org/blog/2005/10/11/tell_us_your_story/comment-page-1#comment-9703 childofatom Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-9703 I took a long and circuitous road to atheism. When I was young my grandmothers argued over which church I should attend, Church of the Nazarene, or Southern Baptist. By the time I was 7 I had been baptized into both. My dad's second wife was Weslyan, and had my sister and I re-baptized into that church. Within a year she had converted to Baptist and had us re-re-baptized. For the next few years she drug us all down a spiral of fundamentalism, Free Will Baptist, Church of God, Pentacostal, Church of Jesus Christ Holiness... every time she changed churches we all had to be baptized again. The former church had gotten it all wrong of course, and our souls were once again in danger. <br /> <br /> At about 15 I began researching on my own. I read the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, The Books of the Apocrypha, The Lost Books of Eden, the Koran, the Talmud, books on Buddhism, Wicca, crystals, astrology and in the end I realized that it all meant the same thing: Nothing. <br /> <br /> By 21 I was reading Carl Sagan, and Michael Shermer, and James Randi. <br /> <br /> The funny thing is, reading all those biblical variations gave me an absolute fascination for it. I love the mythology of it, and the stories, (though mostly I prefer the stories from the excised books oddly enough). That has developed into a love of all mythology, especially the Joseph Campbell style comparative mythology. I took a long and circuitous road to atheism. When I was young my grandmothers argued over which church I should attend, Church of the Nazarene, or Southern Baptist. By the time I was 7 I had been baptized into both. My dad’s second wife was Weslyan, and had my sister and I re-baptized into that church. Within a year she had converted to Baptist and had us re-re-baptized. For the next few years she drug us all down a spiral of fundamentalism, Free Will Baptist, Church of God, Pentacostal, Church of Jesus Christ Holiness… every time she changed churches we all had to be baptized again. The former church had gotten it all wrong of course, and our souls were once again in danger.

At about 15 I began researching on my own. I read the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, The Books of the Apocrypha, The Lost Books of Eden, the Koran, the Talmud, books on Buddhism, Wicca, crystals, astrology and in the end I realized that it all meant the same thing: Nothing.

By 21 I was reading Carl Sagan, and Michael Shermer, and James Randi.

The funny thing is, reading all those biblical variations gave me an absolute fascination for it. I love the mythology of it, and the stories, (though mostly I prefer the stories from the excised books oddly enough). That has developed into a love of all mythology, especially the Joseph Campbell style comparative mythology.

]]> By: Dangerman http://atheists.org/blog/2005/10/11/tell_us_your_story/comment-page-1#comment-10873 Dangerman Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-10873 Whoa...the french is freaking me out. I thought my internet was broken for a second, then I saw the canadian flag. <br /> <br /> Anyways, I guess I've been an atheist as long as I can remember. I never really believed in god, I just didn't realize that it was actually atheism until I was about 12. My dad has always been an atheist, and my mom has always been a xtian (hence the divorce). <br /> <br /> I always questioned the church and the bible and got either no answer or some crap answer that wasn't good enough for me. I suppose the real "point of no return" came in freshmen year biology, when my teacher, Mr. Dunn, finally gave me a complete and non-biased definition of evolution by natural selection. I just couldn't deny that it was true.<br /> <br /> After the years of resentment and discrimination for xtians, especially mormons, I became fed up completely with all religion, since in the churches eyes, this type of hate is o.k. So here I am now. I didn't find out about American Atheists or the NoGodBlog until this year, and it feels good that I'm not so alone anymore.<br /> Whoa…the french is freaking me out. I thought my internet was broken for a second, then I saw the canadian flag.

Anyways, I guess I’ve been an atheist as long as I can remember. I never really believed in god, I just didn’t realize that it was actually atheism until I was about 12. My dad has always been an atheist, and my mom has always been a xtian (hence the divorce).

I always questioned the church and the bible and got either no answer or some crap answer that wasn’t good enough for me. I suppose the real “point of no return” came in freshmen year biology, when my teacher, Mr. Dunn, finally gave me a complete and non-biased definition of evolution by natural selection. I just couldn’t deny that it was true.

After the years of resentment and discrimination for xtians, especially mormons, I became fed up completely with all religion, since in the churches eyes, this type of hate is o.k. So here I am now. I didn’t find out about American Atheists or the NoGodBlog until this year, and it feels good that I’m not so alone anymore.

]]> By: Dangerman http://atheists.org/blog/2005/10/11/tell_us_your_story/comment-page-1#comment-10874 Dangerman Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-10874 typo correction time! that should be "After years of resentment and discrimination FROM xtians typo correction time! that should be “After years of resentment and discrimination FROM xtians

]]> By: Jerret http://atheists.org/blog/2005/10/11/tell_us_your_story/comment-page-1#comment-10876 Jerret Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-10876 Well... I never was really religous at all, but I guess the defining moment was when someone mentioned something about God to me and I sat down and thought about everything. Then I read the bible, and that only helped me to reject it. That was when I was, oh, maybe 10 or 11. I also only found out about this blog and AA recently. Well… I never was really religous at all, but I guess the defining moment was when someone mentioned something about God to me and I sat down and thought about everything. Then I read the bible, and that only helped me to reject it. That was when I was, oh, maybe 10 or 11. I also only found out about this blog and AA recently.

]]> By: mxracer652 http://atheists.org/blog/2005/10/11/tell_us_your_story/comment-page-1#comment-10877 mxracer652 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 #comment-10877 Q'est ce que la Francias? I hope that's coherent. Mine was a gradual process that started about age 12, due to bands that I liked that were critical of xtianity (a totally unheard of thing to do where I grew up), I became skeptical, learned more about biology, physics, and presto, science wins (and therefore atheism). Q’est ce que la Francias? I hope that’s coherent. Mine was a gradual process that started about age 12, due to bands that I liked that were critical of xtianity (a totally unheard of thing to do where I grew up), I became skeptical, learned more about biology, physics, and presto, science wins (and therefore atheism).

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