What Brings a Person to the Point…
…where they no longer believe in a god?
I don’t know that there is any “one” thing, but I can tell you…
It takes much sincere searching, and this kind of searching conditions the mind, for that moment of truth…where the revelation hits you.
The way out of theism, and laying the god concept starkly bare…is opening your mind, to the possibility that all you have been taught “about god” previously, is false…is opening your mind, to other philosophies, to science…is opening your mind, to confront with honesty whatever you discover…
One must first give themselves permission, to explore without cowering in intimidation, over what they have previously believed “god’s wrathful retaliation would be, for rejecting him/her/it”.
The biggest hurdle, is the fear and intimidation…The shock of breaking that mental barrier.
…but, once you do…
…your mind can no longer be contained, or controlled, by superstition.
Disbelief in a god comes naturally, if you have the honesty and determination, to press on…seeking answers to the many hard questions…and not retreating from uncomfortable answers…
Having the integrity to employ stark honesty, is critical…It is rejecting the “feel good” answers, wherever there is nothing of substance to support them.
Disbelief in a god creature, is the most honest stance I am aware of…given the lack of any clear, demonstrable path, leading back to any such creature.
The only thing I have encountered, testifying to the existence of a god, can be summed up in the term…
…”empty assertions”…
Many people and texts assert “god’s existence” as true…
…yet, it is a subjective assertion, of personal interpretation…not a soundly demonstrable path, or procedure that brings before us a creature, which we could test, know and understand as being “a god”.
As to the remaining questions:
1) No, I do not believe in a god.
2) I say jesus christ is a composite character, taking aspects from previous characters of religious lore, and perhaps even one or more real people.
It has not been my experience, that much of what is thought to be christianity, is factually originated within christianity. That religion has usurped so many, pre-existing story models, virtues, holidays/observances and rituals form other religions and secular festivities, that it really is little more than a self glorified, species of paganism.
3) What has led me to this conclusion, is a much broader study of history, social structures and power, religions and human beings.
It is out there, if you have the will to face it.
The fallacies within christianity and the bible, are also what lead me out of this religion…and to declare it a fraud.
For example, declaring those without the christian god as being “wicked”, or that they have no valid moral compass, unless they receive guidance directly from the christian god [which in reality, meant christian prophets of the time]…is a complete lie.
Christianity took it’s morals [commandments] from pre-existing religion and culture models…None of what came out of christianity, was new or revolutionary.
Christianity is a hack, or frankenstein, religion.
You have to be able to see above the religious haze, before the gravity of this can honestly set in.
This is why, so many christians cannot see, talk about, or engage these historical and rationally honest facts, in any meaningful way…
…Their mind is trapped in the shock and horror, of “what god will do to them, if they open their mind to rejecting him”.
I was once there…I understand this very well…very personally.
Mental Blocks…
I could have had a lot more sex, even at younger ages, if only I’d not been saddled with these ideas…
…that some creature called “god” is constantly watching, and it would not approve; and my “eternal soul” would be damned for doing such things.
I was psychologically abused as a boy, by the cult of baptist christianity.
I couldn’t fully appreciate and enjoy my body, and sexuality…even though, I could not stop engaging them, simultaneously.
For several months, after I first started to orgasm…I would pray to “god”, “jesus”, or “the holy ghost” [or whatever], for forgiveness…often, immediately upon completion of my last, sperm squirt [or, "private money shot", if you will].
As soon as the orgasm was over, I felt guilty…and that “god” was displeased, at my wee stroking/squirting.
Funny thing, that such a powerful and important character, would have the time and inclination…to worry about such things…
Maybe, the “god” creature I prayed to, was a BL?
It frustrates the hell out of me, today…because, it represents a lot of lost opportunities…[and yes, there were lost opportunities...very pronounced ones].
I can only look back on those memories today, and think…”What if?”…
It is like a void…something, that should have happened, but did not. I feel diminished, because of that…unfulfilled…like the things I most value in life, and what makes me “me”, has been derailed.
Happy Yule Time [BoyChat]…
I often have this memory, of being about…I don’t know…seven, or so, years old…back in my home town.
…As Xmas approached, we would set up the artificial tree, and decorate it…often to Xmas records, including The Chipmunks Holiday record…a record which still gets played today, for kids of a new generation.
I loved this time of year back then…
…The sky was pitch black, by seven o’clock…and walking down main street, you’d see the town lights and ornaments…Sometimes, we’d go out, for walks…down the lesser driven roads, in the cold…running ahead, grabbing up slab chunks of snow, and throwing them into the air…watching them smash…just because…that’s what little boys do.
It’s hard to say, exactly what I got that year…but, I cannot forget, the invincible feeling, of hyperactivity…and excitement…the euphoria of it all.
It’s funny, how some memories remain so vivid, even when a lifetime of “stuff”, seemingly falls away.
Happy IBLD, also…
I just wanted to say that.
I arrived at work the other day…
…to be greeted by a small gaggle of, nearly naked, boys…of the seven to eight year range (exactly within my ideology, of “the boy pinnacle”, and a highly favored phase)…They were waiting, specifically, for me, because…well, I am the BL there, after all.
One of these boys is new, I am very interested in…and, naturally, this was a first for me, with regards to him (Yes, though I did not allow myself to pause and look directly, he is wonderful).
Ten years ago, this simple interaction would have had me floating on a cloud, all day.
At this point in my life, it brightened my day, but I did not get a rush out of it…and, I had to go about my business, which required sending them off (presumably to one of their homes).
Though, I’d love for this to happen far more often (there are some truly beautiful boys around here), it’s a sign of how “I” have changed over the years, as result of being forcefully inundated, with a world saturated by human interaction (most of which I do not want)…
Well…I do have a biological condition, which is worsening and playing a role in this, also…but, I’m excruciatingly tired of the overexposure, to other humans. When I am not at work, I do not like to be around other people…and, hell…I don’t like being around people at work (where it is forced), either…not anymore…I used too…
It is paradoxical, but you do lose that “rush”, and the novelty of it all…especially when you cannot get away from it, not even for the sake of your own sanity.
I miss those days, back before life became such a drudge.
Q: What made you turn away from [your] religion?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRHvTB-Aw4k
Q: What made you turn away from [your] religion?
Christianity was never “my” religion…just something I had the fate of being born under the manipulation of. My identification with it in early life, was more akin to chattel being branded by a farmer.
There was no conscious thought on “my” part about christianity [or religion in general]…It was just simply something that was placed there, all around me…since well before the days I could reason, calculate and deduct a coherent understanding.
It is accurate to say, I did not even know that there was a choice in the matter…nor that other things were being obscured and hidden from me.
Because you can make a young child believe anything, if you start young enough…I believed that “god” and the “miracles” of the bible, were as real as the law of gravity. Religious things were taught to me, as though they were proven, historical fact.
Of course, I had no way to refute any of this, as it would be many years, before I would develop any sense of critical thought, which I was brave enough to examine christianity with…and virtually everything I was indoctrinated with up until that point, was there to prevent me from ever reaching that personal ability…
I was intended by others, to stay fearful and submissive…terrified of hell and being shunned by “god”.
As time passed and I gained more experience, it started to become clear where religion does not solve problems, but instead creates them. It also became clear, that neither christianity nor the bible could validate themselves.
“A suffocation in obvious ignorance and prejudice”, is quite possibly the perfect way of describing the latter years of my life under religion.
There really was no question, that I would leave this behind once I had the chance, as an adult. I knew there had to be a better source of ethical standards, because what I was seeing come out of organised religion, made me honestly repulsed.
I also rebelled against it’s unwillingness to let me know anything, out side of it’s own sanitised ideologies.
What thinking, honest, rational and educated person could have reacted any differently?
The real life practices of christianity, are every bit as cultish, as those groups who are deemed to be cults. The only difference, is that millions of people identify as “christian”, which lends to this group political and social power…which they then use to set their own brand of mysticism up, into a privileged place in society…and distance it from those mystical groups, who lack the same social influence.
These smaller groups, which substantially are not so much different, get maligned as “dangerous cults”…while christianity conveniently ignores, every instance where setting in judgement of these cults, really does equal looking in the mirror…and pointing out it’s own bizarre practices, unsubstantiated beliefs and true failures in the real world.
I will not be painstakingly detailing everything which has made me leave religion, but…the previous gives you a good idea, of where I started from and why I needed to leave organised religion.
I left, because organised christianity is saturated with hypocrisy, has a ludicrous back story…and in my opinion, is highly unethical, in the way it exploits and manipulates people.
…So many of those people [myself included], are left with an inability to accept themselves as they are…which can turn into self hatred, and a lifetime of psychological turmoil to work through.
Some of us find our way out of this mess…Many do not…
No…we are not “better off”, for having gone through this…no more so, than the victims of “dangerous cults”, who are rescued and must be deprogrammed.
As to the question of becoming atheist, that is a whole other question, all together.
As with most former theists…I would not become an atheist, until many years after leaving organised religion…
It was a different path of exploration, with different criteria…
…Though, of course, the crumbling of religion before my eyes did not reflect well upon it’s mental creations…
…namely, “gods”…
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