I grew up in an IFB cult due to my parents wanting to assimilate to American society. In the American South, you align to a church and people leave you alone, and that church provides everything for you. That church is your social network. I thought it was normal for church sermons to end up with the crowd angry, and everyone getting into their cars to go protest something together. We used to leave church to go protest other churches on Sunday. Yell at the people from other churches when they came out from their sermons of demonic teachings. Sometimes we would protest churches that spoke in tongues, other times we would protest churches that let gays in. We protested the church where the pastor had a ponytail. During the week, we would protest at the county courthouse. We would protest things that I don’t even remember. We protested Wal-Mart when they sold Power Ranger toys because they were demonic. Everybody was scared of my pastor. When we mentioned to people what church we aligned with, people backed off.
My parents were just trying to make it in the land of the free. It’s better than what they left in Southeast Asia.
Since I’m from the cult, even today I’m prone to evangelizing things and questioning consensus.
My parents left the IFB cult by the time I was 10 and returned to Buddhism. By then, it was more acceptable and there were a couple other immigrant families, but we still got swastikas on our house. People spread nasty rumors about us and in high school it came out. Girls were not allowed to date me, or were forced to break up with me. One time a sheriff’s deputy pulled me over, took my blonde girlfriend out of the car, and back home to her parents. She never spoke to me again, and married a boy from their church a year later. I saw on Facebook that she is now pregnant with their sixth child.
In the military, I practiced as a Buddhist for a few years due to heritage. I went back to Christianity due to convenience and wanting to fit in.
Even in my mid 30’s, I was trying to make extreme Christianity work. First I fell into the spiral that is the New IFB. I corresponded with Pastor Steven Anderson. He was always very cordial and we had what I thought were fair and respectful theological debates. What was different about him was that he was not a racist, which was a welcome change from the traditional IFB. He was probably the first religious person that I could talk to who wasn’t condescending, and who saw me as another person. I read a lot of scripture then, and found my way back into Christianity. Do you see how I’m still prone to cults?
I later studied LCMS Lutheranism since it seemed authentic with lineage and history. They seemed very knowledgeable and scripturally sound. I corresponded with Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller. I learned more about the bible from the LCMS than I had learned in 35 years as an IFB member. I was going to leave my career and focus on the LCMS. The LCMS members know the bible and the history behind it. They are the biggest bible nerds on the planet. Even Steven Anderson agreed to disagree on theological debates. He disagrees with but respects the LCMS. (this is a complication of conflicting passages in the Bible which they both view as infallible and inerrant) Again, he was always cordial.
[personally identifying information and stories paragraph redacted]
I went back to my old church, and tried to convince my wife that we would start attending an LCMS congregation. This was March 2020. Then the rest of 2020 happened and we found out that we don’t belong. As non white, non black people, we never did. Even my evangelical all her life, but still brown wife hates organized religion now. She is now an athiest. I’m not going to share those stories, you just have to accept it. We have distanced ourselves from all forms of Christianity. Our children, who as of 2020 were going to enter private Christian school, are being raised as skeptics and are in a very progressive and tolerant school. They cannot remember a time that they used to go to church, and find the teachings to be silly myths. I started wearing my Buddha pendant again in defiance of Christianity and in preservation of my heritage. But if I had to start clean, with no legacy, I would probably follow Taoism.
I still respect the ELCA, however. They are as close to what Christ preached as I have seen. It’s just the mythos of Christianity isn’t for me, isn’t about my people. There are no ties there and no reason for me to pretend any more. I am my authentic self.
I might delete this later.
Oh friend, what a ride you’ve been on. I grew up LCMS, and so lemme just say thanks for not doing that to your kids. I noticed what you said about immigrants trying to assimilate in LCMS as well. Particularly when I would visit family in the Midwest, there was a Chinese buffet that we would always visit, and my anti-immigrant (in general) family would proudly say how he went to their church, that the church wrote on his behalf to help get him citizenship, etc. I saw that less in my own community, but LCMS is not the biggest fish in that pond. Baptist is. I’m sorry you had that experience. Bad theology hurts people, and I’m glad you’re making it out on the other side.
No.
Alright, may I know why?
I generally think it’s a private matter that you should keep to yourself.
Ok
That is correct.
I’m an atheist, but only mention it when asked. I don’t know what much to tell you about it - as far as religions go, it doesn’t get much simpler than “there’s nothing”.
As for why, I’m very fond of the scienific method and it’s the only thing that makes sense to me.I’m an atheist, but I also pray to a vague “higher power” every morning. My sense is that the prayer helps whether I believe or not.
Check out Chaos Magick perhaps. The centerpiece is: what you believe in doesn’t matter, belief itself is the power. It encourages changing your belief structures so it doesn’t become rote dogma. Fun to play with at any rate; pray to Minerva, sink an offering for Cthulhu, get into established religion systems and then switch for another.
Fascinating. I do too, in a way - I find it helps to think about what help I need, in a way that is quite prayer-like (I believe ). For me, it’s a way of reminding myself that I don’t have to fix everything myself, not even in my own life. Sometimes good things happen for no reason.
I do too, in a way - I find it helps to think about what help I need,
The interesting (to me) thing is that as soon as I’ve read this, my mind said “duck programming”.
(For the blissfully uninitiated, duck programming is when a software developer explains a problem to a rubber duck. The solution will often present itself during the explanation after having been hiding in plain sight for hours up to this point.)Do.you think atheistic prayers work in a similar way?
The human mind sure is a fascinating thing.
Yes, I believe that’s a part of it. Just the act of formulating “this is a problem that I don’t know how to solve, please help” sometimes starts some kind of problem solving of my own.
But another thing that “atheistic prayer” does for me is that if/when that thing happens, I’m more likely to notice it. And a problem dissolving by itself, or due to someone helping me, is something I really want to notice.
I start each day by thinking of three things for which I’m grateful. I suspect it has a similar effect.
It doesn’t have to be anything profound. Examples include: “we had a nice time picking fruit over the weekend,” “the weather isn’t going to be as warm as it was yesterday,” “I had a nice conversation with <friend> the other day.” But big stuff also gets in there when warranted.
I am agnostic, does that count? I feel like to “say something” about agnosticism would just be to define it. I can say that I started staunchly atheist, and then realized after being a petulant teenager that there was no way I really knew enough to believe in atheism either.
I grew up a Jehovah’s Witness and disabled. I constantly heard how once the “new system” came by disability would be healed. My grandmother would constantly talk about how terrible everything is from all the “worldly people”. My parents divorced when I was a teenager. They quickly shunned my mother and us. Then again after our grandmothers death (who went to the church… religiously), we heard nothing from them. They don’t care about anyone but themselves.
Anyway, once I started Earth Science in high school and learned how old everything really is, how large space is and how truly small and insignificant we are to the universe. It put it all into perspective and now I’m pretty much an Atheist. I know I don’t truly know what is out there, or who created us. But I know it wasn’t some dude that did it just to set us up to fail. So why should I have any belief in that?
Sorry about that. Did you see the latest kurzgesagt video about us possibly living in a black hole?
Funny thing, I’ve been saying for decades that “space expansion” would be effectively undistinguishable from “particle contraction”, so falling into a black hole and getting crushed/compressed by it, would look like… the universe we see, with the singularity being somewhere around the Planck’s length, several orders of magnitude down from where we are (assuming Plank’s length would remain constant).
I have now! Thanks for the recommendation. That’s pretty crazy to think about.
Also if you haven’t yet, be sure to check out quantum mechanics. Personally I enjoy the Everett interpretation.
Rocks have feelings too.
(And so does everything else.)
Before starting something new, I ask myself if this is going to bring me a step closer to my eventual goals.
Sensei!
“There’s just us”. It’s frightening. It’s inspiring. Sometimes it’s comforting.
I grew up in a secular household, and my parents told me that I could decide for myself what to believe. I ended up an atheist.
Reminds me of Life of Pi, where the protagist was told he could choose anything as a kid.
I’m agnostic myself, but I was brought up by Jews, and they have a custom to kiss a scroll in a box on the door every time they enter their house.
That’s interesting, do you know what’s written on the scroll?
I am not religious, but I often wonder if my life would be easier if I was. I feel like it offers people a lot of things. It helps with networking, and it can help mentally and emotionally cope with life’s struggles. It can give a person a community.
I can see a lot of pros to believing in something. Of course, there can be lots of cons as well. But yeah, it’s something I ponder from time to time.
Do you have any religious feelings?
That’s an interesting question. Hmm. I guess from an outside perspective looking in, it seems like religion can bring people peace. Looking up at the stars by either the naked eye or through a telescope does give me a very small feeling.
Like we’re so insignificant yet extremely unique in our known world. It makes me question how everything could have come to be. Like how could everything just exist. Sometimes, that train of thought gives me exetential dread, but other times, it can give me a peaceful feeling.
Prior to my earliest memories of existence, I knew literally nothing. There wasn’t anything. So it makes it hard to comprehend how things could have come to be from the very beginning. They were created somehow, whether that was through a greater being or other omnipresent thing. The idea of all these elements and things combining to create everything we know really blows my mind.
Going back to the peace thing, I’ve read that some religious people find a lot of inner peace through their faith. I can’t say that I’ve experienced that exactly. But I have experienced moments of extreme peace that are very hard to describe. Almost to levels similar to how people describe they feel prior to almost dying. Just absolute pure peace and bliss.
I’ve only experienced that maybe once or twice in my life. One time was somewhat recent. Maybe a year or so ago, while I was sleeping. It was very profound, and it made me wonder what other feelings or inner thoughts/emotions could be within me that I have yet to experience or feel.
It’s made me wonder about trying some kind of psychedelic at some point in my life. I’m not in a rush, but if given the opportunity to try it in a safe environment, I might. I’m extremely curious if that could help me get past some mental blocks with issues like anxiety, depression and some fears I have
I’m an ordained minister in the Dudist church. I’ve performed marriages for people using my status. 😌
Wow neat. I’m also an ordained minister for the flying spaghetti monster. May his noodly appendages bless you.
I learned my religious beliefs (atheist) may be more accurately described as naturalist or naturalistic paganism. But I’m still trying to figure it out.
Is that neo paganism? I’ve witnessed a pagan marriage once and I also experienced Heilung live.
Have you ever read about how Charles the great forcefully converted many pagans to Christianity?
I’ve been wanting to visit a local grove.
I’m not sure. I don’t believe in the supernatural. But I do want to celebrate the delicate balance of life on this planet. I think the wheel of the year and 8 Sabbats make sense to me. Many of them are already celebrated very near the date anyway (Halloween, Christmas, . I don’t believe in deities as conscious beings, but I acknowledge the ancient traditions of respecting a personified version of a natural force. Sun, water, biology, earth, air, and moon are the mains elements I would acknowledge. I don’t pray to them and hope for an answer - I respect the role that each of them play in our continued existence on this planet. We exist at the mercy of these elements. A way of expressing gratitude when otherwise they may be taken for granted. A thought exercise that is useful for my own mental health. Kind of like karma - I don’t literally believe that good and bad actions will balance out; I think life is better when you try to lift up those around you.
So, when I close my eyes and feel the warmth of the sun for a moment, it’s as close to praying as I will get. Thankful that solar flares haven’t ended us yet. When I plunge into an icy lake or ocean, it’s as close to praying as I will get. The cold water completely overwhelms the senses and for that moment, I feel I am cold water. And I love water. I will love water even during floods. When I am atop a mountain, I am praying to the earth - thankful that we have not been ended by super volcanos or earthquakes. Similar acknowledgements can be made for wind/air and life/health.
I’m content calling myself an atheist, but that doesn’t say anything, it says not something else. My reasons for wanting a religion are the legal protections that come along with it, and the recruiting power. It could be a tool to convert religious people - instead of feeling exiled from their church community, that they may feel welcomed into a larger community. I don’t mean recruitment like door to door, I mean naturally, somebody looking for guidance or meaning in life without god would find it. The truth of it is self-evident.
I have none because it’s nonsensical otherwise.
I de-converted (and de-baptized myself) from Christianity when I was nineteen.
Once I was outside of my parents’ bubble, it was easier to take a look around and realize that God isn’t real, and the only reason I was ever a Christian is that I was born and programmed to be that way. I now see my life as finite which makes me value my time and mental well-being much more than I did before.
How do you debaptise yourself? Have some time to kill and wanna do a funni
It was a ritual I made up myself. Since you baptize by water, I debaptized by fire.
I just set up a little tailgate grill, made a small fire, burned my Bible and sprinkled a few drops of my blood onto it. It was a fairly quick thing but very cathartic, as it came on the heels of two years of my brain railing against my programming and I had many, many nightmares about demons and spiritual warfare.
Well, do I wanna burn my Bible or get the 10 euros it might fetch? :neocat_googly:
Might try it :3 I mostly work with crystals.
Wait, does beehaw have emojis?
Do what’s best for you. I found burning it to be very empowering.
Oki, thank you
