Losing belief

Yeah, that happens when you stop posting on Fark and Gaia. What do you want me to do about it, you fucking racist bastard?

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Originally Posted by a lurker

Yeah, that happens when you stop posting on Fark and Gaia.

Never set a foot in those forums, cupcake.

Quote:

What do you want me to do about it, you fucking racist bastard?

Christ, are you off your meds? When was race EVER involved in this discussion before you brought it up?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Take your hate-speak back to Stormfront. We have no place for it here.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Fair enough. I don't need the mind fuck from some weirdos who misconstrue everything I say as hate or ignorance. And if it is sarcasm, it's not the least funny.

Goodbye.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Jeffro

Fair enough. I don't need the mind fuck from some weirdos who misconstrue everything I say as hate or ignorance. And if it is sarcasm, it's not the least funny.

Goodbye.

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FELIPE NO

Why did you get hit in the face so hard in the first place? Things might have gotten worse if you fought back, so the wisdom of turning the other cheek might have been better in that case.

I've been nonreligious my entire life, but I figure that sometimes religion has offered good things in the past, but also has done some bad things in the past. It's like any other tool, it just depends on how you use it.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Radez29

Personally my favorite was the ark because you're given the measurements and then told that a pair of each of the world's animals fit inside.

Couldn't the animals have been... younger and smaller than what you always see in the pictures? I guess it's more popular to depict these huge elephants and rhinos entering - Oh, and also having the giraffes' necks sticking out a window.

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Wow, despite a few wrong turns this thread took I've really enjoyed reading about everyone's experiences. I myself am a very conservative Christian while being moderately liberal in politics oddly enough. Go figure. Agnostic through high school, started praying in college, and now I'm heavily involved with my church.

Believing in God requires a leap of faith. And to me faith is something that you know in your heart is true regardless of the fact that you don't have hardened physical or scientific evidence to prove it. This is of course an unsatisfactory argument to nonbelievers. But without this system a lot of the major principles of Christianity wouldn't work. Jesus actually mentions this situation of nonbelievers being turned away by the exact same thing that attracts those who do believe.

Oh, and I find that MOST people who call themselves Christians do little to represent the intentions that Jesus Christ had for His followers. And the ones you see on TV and in newspapers are often the worst offenders. *sigh*

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I lost my belief in God and roman Catholicism when I was 15/16. I had been feeling so down and out and prayed a lot for strength and all sorts of stuff.... but nothing was happening. Life got worse, and the harder I tried to extend my beliefs and build more faith, the harder things got. One day when walking back from Church by myself, I looked at the stars and let it all go....

Since then I have been unable to believe in anything like that. I was looking for answers for so long (Reading the bible, going to church groups, trying different churches), that it drove me crazy. Nothing was working and nothing gave me the faith I needed to go on. So, I just stopped believing. I haven't gone back since.

Instead, I just believe in helping others and being the best I can be. Yes, I have traits that may not be the best in completing that objective, but at the same time I do what I am capable of. Yes, in some ways, my soul searching with Christianity may have created a basis in which to live my life, but at the same time I have been able to live my life without the religion tying me up.

Besides, some people need it, and some people don't. And I found out at age 15 that it wasn't for me.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'm glad this thread got back to the topic.....

I was raised Catholic, and have attended various Protestant churches since. I took a interest in science, wanting to learn more about creationism vs evolution, so I did an undergrad science degree at a Christian university. It was interesting that professors of theology and science generally tended to hold to some form of theistic evolution; philosophy profs a little less so, and the physicists and math profs more creationist.

When I started university I thought that good science would confirm creationism; what I learned was that the interpretation of the data had as much to do or more with one's philosophical starting point than with the data itself. I still think evolution has huge issues from a scientific perspective, but I don't think science can settle the issue. When I learned about science, especially things like Goedel's (sp?) theorem and quantum mechanics, I realized how limited science is at finding truth. Working over ten years in as a research tech has only reinforced this belief. So, I didn't loose my faith in God, but definitely my faith in science.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

To expand on something in my journal:

Language is the archectecture that humans use to experience and explain reality, and religion is the language we use to explain the mystical parts of it.

THE OUTER CHURCH AND THE INVISIBLE COLLEGE ARE BOTH RELIGION. THEY'RE EVERYTHING AND THE SAME.






RAGGED ROBIN IS L. RON HUBBARD. DOES THAT MEAN IT WORKED FOR HIM OR IS HE JUST A CRACKPOT?

I was speaking idiomatically.

EDIT: Wow, I put that horribly. Just a year ago, too.

I just stopped caring. Apatheism FTW.

Is there a God? I don't care.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I was hardcore catholic in my youth and then my dad divorced my mom to he could marry another woman. Only problem was he wanted the wedding in a church and being divorced he couldn't do that. So he paid a priest 20,000 bucks and had the marriage annulled. Didn't necessarily stop believing in God right then and there, just in the concept of religion in general, in institution of it. Was too hypocritical to follow.

Lost faith in God after being in a catholic school for 14 years. Can only take so many religion classes before you get sick of the whole thing.

FELIPE NO

I've always believed in God, but over the past few years I've started to question why. I have no obvious proof of God's existence, but that doesn't rule God's existence out by any means either. I think that most people have to lose their faith at some point as a moving from their given faith from their parents into a faith of their own.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I went through a Catholic Preschool, a Buddhist Japanese Kindergarten (possibly overlapping the timeframe I was with the Catholic school), and a Japanese Christian School (which was in session from Mondays-Thursdays from 3-7PM). Aside from the Catholic Preschool, the other schools I went to on top of regular/secular public school. For the most part, my parents are/were agnostic during this time frame that involved my religion-based schooling. My mother went through bouts of believing in some weird religion for a few years, but my father for the most part remains agnostic. The only reason why I was shoved into these institutions is because my parents believed these schools had better educational benefits.

I think before puberty, I was very much a believer in the Christian god. Skip forward to high school, I didn't really give a damn since most of my friends didn't bring up religion into our daily, normal life conversations and I wasn't affiliated with a church. Skipping forward through college until I took a religion class this semester/quarter--I decided I had enough of arguing about the Christian God and mainly the viewpoints on their religion. The more I read the Bible, the more I am repulsed by the teachings of it or how the mainstream Evangelical Christians justify their understanding of the scripture (mainly, Leviticus to start, but there's a plethora of other things I feel that Christians "pick and choose" that aren't very consistent).

I now go to a Buddhist temple and proclaim myself a Buddhist when asked. The lovely part about this is that I don't get into arguments about God anymore. Even more so lovely is that I get the Bible-humping church recruiters to get off my back as soon as I explain to them that I am a practicing Buddhist. When I used to say that I didn't go to church or didn't really care to believe in God, they were quite adamant about convincing me about their God, which in my view, was a waste of my time. When I explain that I'm a Buddhist, they smile, thank me for my patience and time (which is the half a minute that takes me to say what religion I belong to), and walk away.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by sadrius

You do know that Zeitgeist is really full of shit, right?

Zeitgeist, the movie Debunked - Part One - Conspiracy Science

So everything is just one big coincidence? Quite an interesting one :P

Nevertheless, I am still waiting for unambiguous proofs that God exists

There's nowhere I can't reach.

The thing that got me loosing my belief was loosing my parents! First it was my dad (my best friend in the whole world!) then I lost my mom 10 years after ...she was very ill. They both died at a very young age.

The thing is that I realized I'm just mad at god. (Yea it's easier for me to still believe & blame 'someone' then not believing at all! )

It's something in my heart, I can not believe. I believe in a God without any kind of rules 'someone' who accepts eveyones. - I also realized that my parents were also to blame (cause they didn't take care of themselfs! Like they should have done! - & actually the way they died helped me to cop! they both died in the Hospital & not at home. "Thank God!")

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Originally Posted by Anthony8

...So, I didn't loose my faith in God, but definitely my faith in science.

- I believe the same way you do! - My first belief is in Science. But very much, the same as you, I didn't loose my faith in God.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Quote:

When I learned about science, especially things like Goedel's (sp?) theorem and quantum mechanics, I realized how limited science is at finding truth.

Just because stuff works as a probability wave instead of always having definite values and whatnot doesn't mean we can't find the right truth, as the probabilities we measure are their actual values. Uncertainty is just the nature of the universe; not merely a shortcoming of humanity.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I went to a Catholic kindergarten and an Anglican Primary and Secondary School (British System there) and a Christian University. I was most involved in praying / fellowship during i was 9-12 years of age, which i felt very helpless on everything. (like I prayed hoping that i won't miss bring a single item of homework......we had physical punishment back then) But anyway like the others i get out of that mode in my teens years. Peer influence or what i am not sure. The anglican schools that I went to has a rather mild view of christianity which usually compatible with rational thinking / the social value of the times. So it was not a big deal and i find the belief quite agreeble.

Recently i work with a "christian" education institution. And to my surprise, despite their verbal claims of devotion to god, they are literal bible worshipper. Quoting the good book in every way possible to serve their purpose, they would even put a verse in the WC to remind people to flush the toilet. A verse is provided for telling the kids that they should not have a crush on his/her fellow friends, not to mention the darker examples. Working in here is really an eye opening experience and now i know "christianity" can mean many things apart from the what i used to know.

I am not sure if i am a believer or not. Now I tends to focus on the earthly matters that i can have the ability to manage. Just to live to the fullest so i will die without regret in anydays.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I was raised in an Assemblies of God church, which for those of you that don't know is Pentecostal Christianity. The branch of Pentecostal that allows women to cut their hair, wear pants instead of ankle length dresses. NO, snake charming is not involved. I don't remember any particular moment that my faith was shattered. If anything did open my eyes, it was the hypocrisy I noticed once I started being more involved with the inner workings of the church. It opened my eyes to the fact that no one is perfect and we are all flawed which goes into how all religions or outlooks on the meaning of life have flaws and none are perfect and the "end all be all". I still do what I can to live as a "good person" (something that is all relative to your belief structure and your understanding of what is really "good") and I feel that if I use the guidelines set forth by that religious view point (Christianity), I have a good chance of succeeding in that task.

I'm not blind to the rest of the world and I understand that what I've been taught is ultimately someone's interpretation of the "meaning of life". I think that to assume that interpretation or any other is the "end all be all" is a very arrogant assumption. I think that regardless of what religion you choose to follow or not follow, none of us will know the true meaning of life until our lives are complete = death. To me, the question of "what is the meaning of life" is really a question of "why am I here", it's all about "me". To try to understand my existence without knowing my entire story is futile. We'll really only know the answers ( Why am I here? Is there a God? Who's idea of God was right?) once we are dead.

IMO, To argue either side (God = yes or no) requires one to be able to completely disprove one side or the other. I'm not sure if that's possible. I'd rather just recognize that I'm not sure, meditate/pray on what really is the best way to live my life and hope that in the end if there is a God/after life, I've done enough to please him/her and if there isn't a God/after life...then it doesn't really matter because I'll be gone and won't exist, giving me a chance to care.

I realize that I've probably contradicted myself in this post because most of the guidelines set forth by the church contradict the fact that I also recognize that there are other view points and that I'm a little gun shy when it comes to labeling whatever force/deity may or may not be lurking on another plane of existence. I'm not sure what classification that puts me in. I've never thought enough about it to label myself.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Being raised in the South, I was brought up as Baptist. Went to a private school that was based in very strict Baptist beliefs (no dancing, rock music, or fun). I listened to their beliefs and I'm glad I did, because it's all very interesting. At the same time, I never really adhered to any of it. And after graduation, I still went to church and all that.

Over time, I kind of started to examine the ideas and attitudes of people I was around. A lot of it was rather contrary to what was written, or interpreted really oddly. Not to mention the people, while nice, weren't always what you'd expect. Like, they weren't there for the worship and ideas--they were just there by habit.

So, I eventually quit attending church because there's really no good updates. Having spent 7 years in a Christian School, and years in church, you kind of hear it all.

"Any news on Jesus...?"
"Nope"
"Ok then. See ya next week!"

While looking things over, I'm pretty much in a "Agnostic Nondenominational Christian" category. I think the Christianity thing is pretty well ingrained in my head now, so it's hard to just completely let go. But I'm not entirely sure I believe anymore. I'm more of the opinion that there's a God out there, although maybe not the Christian God? I still pray--to who or whatever there is out there, if anything. Sometimes it's hard to break habits. But yeah, currently, I have no freakin' idea what I believe.

FELIPE NO

For a few years, I tried to follow my dad's apparent beliefs. He appeared to be anti-theist, feeling belief in anything supernatural -- gods, magic, cryptozoology, etc -- the sign of an idiot, or gullible, or both. I TRIED to adhere, but some part of me was adamant in retaining a magical view of the world, and in the end all anti-theism did for me was aggravate my chronic depression.

My mom is a lax Wiccan, but she doesn't talk about her beliefs. She did however lend me her old Wicca books and those were like a lifesaver to me. I didn't convert, but I was finally able to ditch the anti-theism. Currently I'm not part of any religion, but have a lot of interconnected spiritual beliefs.

So basically, my story is kind of like CetteHamsterLa's.
Oh hey, Vivi's post with anti-theism swapped for God and Catholicism is also pretty accurate!

(It turned out that my dad's beliefs were not as harsh as they looked, but that realization was too late to do me much good.)

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I understand what happened with you. Or at least I think I do. I bounced around from Christian to Buddhist and a few others, but only because of others. Now I know the only things I really believe in are karma and that there is a creator. Though at times I think the creator is a giant ameoba.

EDIT: And it seems I have some issues to clear up with someone...

Jam it back in, in the dark.

despite facing the many challenges life has thrown at me, i think my faith is too strong and unwavering for me to just drop it.

one big challenge was the irony of me becoming a pedophile in a world (or at least country) that hates pedophiles. but its just a challenge like everything else. its just another obstacle and you have to find a way to overcome it. when i say overcome it, i obviously dont mean stop being a pedophile. its impossible, god has now made that part of who i am. youll be just as successful trying to convince a straight guy to go gay as convincing me to know like underaged girls.

but as i said, you have to find ways to overcome it. in the beginning i was alone. but that was not the case. there are many people like me out there, we are just the hidden section of society. the part of society that nobody knows or if they do know, they dont want to talk about it. but it turns out i was not alone. in fact, we are actually a demographic, a market. a small one, but a growing one. im talking about lolicon hentai, which is well drawn cartoon representations of children in ####ual situations which can be used as a masturbation tool. what i am trying to say that is that god made me a pedophile but put me in a world where i cannot fulfill my desires. but i can partially fulfill that desire by using lolicon hentai.

to add to the story, i have seen then realized that many many people who like lolicon, and entire communities out there. i have also since then found out about the existence of junior idols, which is what my thread here was about:

http://www.gamingforce.org/forums/se...nce-sense.html

so again, god made me a pedophile in a world that hates pedophiles. for most people in this world, not being able to ####ually relieve yourself and not be able to fulfill your ####ual desires is a very bad thing. as a pedophile, i still cant fulfill my personal ####ual desires (#### with young girls) but i can still ####ually relieve myself by using lolicon and junior idols.

and the most important thing about all of this the knowledge that i am not alone and there is a community of us out there. to be lonely, to suffer loneliness, is probably one of the worst things that can happen to someone.

god didnt abandon me, he was with me all along. i just had to find the courage within myself to search for the answers. god gave us free will for a purpose. we just need to have faith in god and have faith in ourselves and to overcome all adversities.

anyway, the above story was my story from a long time ago. i now accept who i am, at least privately, not publically. maybe one day i can express my true self publically and not be lynched for it.

Originally Posted by MTGNecro

I understand what happened with you. Or at least I think I do. I bounced around from Christian to Buddhist and a few others, but only because of others. Now I know the only things I really believe in are karma and that there is a creator. Though at times I think the creator is a giant ameoba.

EDIT: And it seems I have some issues to clear up with someone...

i dont think its important what god actually physically is. its the idea of god that is what matters. god put you on this earth and then he gave you questions. why are you here? what purpose do i serve? what do i want? etc most importantly, he gave you free will. your job now is to find the answers, the answers that you think will most make you happy and the people and the community around you happy.

How ya doing, buddy?

I'm not sure God would be too happy about you using him as a scapegoat for your pedophilia.

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