Let's see, I have posted some and it seems important that I do an introduction so here goes. I grew up in Georgia. My mom is a southern Baptist and my dad is a Christian Scientist. With conflicting religious views in the house it was a off-limits topic. I would say I grew up upper-middle class. My dad is one of the top chemist at Lockheed Martin. He worked on the F-22 Raptor. I say that to say that I had everything that I wanted as a kid. I was allowed to do what I wanted. My first car was a BMW. I had a free ride, so all my work money went to drugs. Favorite drug of choice? Weed. I smoked weed all day. I can remember the summer before my senior year me and my best friend bought about a half pound every couple weeks between the two of us. Then I meet a guy named Ben. He went to my high school, but I wasnt good friends with him until he introduced me to a new friend called cocaine. I thought weed was good until I had some of this. So that went on for about a year. I would snort some every few hours to keep the high goin'. Though I had no run ins with the cops, cocaine has a certain flare for making one bold. I would not be afraid to try and do about anything. I tried acid, mushroom, etc. I was what I thought at the time an average american teen. Then, one night at a party I had a flurry of drugs. The result was a bad high. I literally thought my heart was going to explode. When you think you are going to die, it tends to put things in perspective.(hence the screen name) So, in my distorted state I prayed that God would take the drugs out of my body and cleanse me from all the damage I had done to my body and the people around me. After that I stopped everything cold turkey. I stopped smoking cigs., weed, cocaine, alcohol. The most amazing thing about that is that I never had withdraw symptoms. Is was like my body didnt even crave those things anymore. I know that poeple can fool themselves into haveing a "religious experience" but try fooling your body not to want a cig. every hour or a two inch line of white powder in the nose. That had to be God. It was soon after that that I felt that I was supposed to help others break out of the life I left behind. So, I came to a Baptist college, finished there and then went to seminary. I am currently studying to be a missionary. The most important thing about my background is that religion was not an option in my home. no one forced me to do anything. I could have and did whatever I wanted. But I got smacked in the face with reality and I changed. I wasnt brain washed or coherced. So thats me. I want every one to know that I love people (cause I one) I dont judge anyone. I only try to show people what I know to be true. I hope that helps explain me and what Im about. See ya in the forum.
So in essence you're saying you had a privileged upbringing (inc. drugs), had a bad trip and then found god?
Oh
Welcome to the forum anyway.
Kyu
Quote from: "Kyuuketsuki"So in essence you're saying you had a privileged upbringing (inc. drugs), had a bad trip and then found god?
Oh
Welcome to the forum anyway.
Kyu
No, No friend. Me coming to God was the culmination of living however I wanted and finding it uterly dissapointing. Please no one miss that point. This world is so fleeting and no matter what it offered me I found it lacking. Thats what my life is about.
Perspective, welcome to the forum. Thanks for taking the time to post an introduction, letting us know who you are and where you're coming from. Although many of us here, myself included, will disagree with your conclusion about how you were able to go cold turkey, we appreciate your sharing it. Not an easy thing to do.
Take some time to look over the forum, learn the ropes and rules. Again, welcome.
Cool!
Welcome. I hope you find your stay here satisfying although you will be challenged on your beliefs.
I've seen what drugs can do to people but in all negative cases it has been due to the excessive and unrestrained use of them. I've seen people become psychotic due to the misuse of psychedelic drugs. I was one of them. It was at that point I realised the true power of the mind. If someone can be so convinced that the entire population of the world is out to get them, then for me, the proof is that substance abuse is a shortcut to dementia, psychosis and schizophrenia. When in that state, your mind can make up a plethora of situations that you can be the victim to. No amount of cajoling by others will wake you up or make you see sense. There is absolutely no way anyone will persuade you that the things going through your mind aren't real - that it is simply a radical brain chemistry alteration leaving your perception and reasoning abilities in tatters. This period of psychosis can be short-lived, recurring or permanent depending on the person and the amount of substances they've abused.
I, for one, will never forget the 'hell' I went through. It was the scariest experience of my life, not just for me, but for my family and friends. Luckily I came out clean the other side. I didn't attribute my recovery to anything else other than I was lucky. My brain was able to recover and I don't have anything like the flashbacks others have described. I didn't have withdrawals. The overwhelming panic that my mind was slipping from my grasp was the only impetus I needed to never want to touch that shit again. Fear is a great motivator. I have a feeling that if cigarettes had the same psychological danger, then giving them up would not be a problem either.
I'll never take acid again.
Thanks for sharing your story. Although I don't believe in your God and never experienced what you went through, I think that your believes helped you to overcome your personal problems. If you think that it was God then that is absolutely fine with me. However I've seen many other people who called up other "sources" of inner strengths to overcome their problems, but also people who found God but then fell back to their previous bad habits. This makes it very difficult for me to believe that there is any supernatural force at work that helps people.
Thank you for the introduction Perspective.
I've seen some of your posts in the other threads, and you strike me as honest yet committed to your beliefs. This is good - and it is good to have you here. Please challenge our views, as we will surely challenge yours.
-BP
I prefer moderation and I abstain from drugs and alcohol all the time, its called self control.
Personal responsibilty is not inherent to the christian philosophy because after all god did it, all of it.
I personally hope you find personal responsiblity in your missionary quest, but I understand that this is unlikely because, after all, god did it, all of it.
I am an atheist and even if I were not an atheist there is no god outside the belief there is a god.
who saves the sane?
Quote from: "none"I prefer moderation and I abstain from drugs and alcohol all the time, its called self control.
Personal responsibilty is not inherent to the christian philosophy because after all god did it, all of it.
I personally hope you find personal responsiblity in your missionary quest, but I understand that this is unlikely because, after all, god did it, all of it.
I am an atheist and even if I were not an atheist there is no god outside the belief there is a god.
who saves the sane?
Actually, the exact opposite is true. I understand full well the depravity of my former and sometimes current sinfull actions. It is because I took personal resposibility for my actions that I realized that I needed forgiveness. The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem (meaning you take resposibility for your actions) Though a good thought, clearly you have misunderstood all of Christianity.
Quote from: "perspective"Actually, the exact opposite is true. I understand full well the depravity of my former and sometimes current sinfull actions. It is because I took personal resposibility for my actions that I realized that I needed forgiveness. The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem (meaning you take resposibility for your actions) Though a good thought, clearly you have misunderstood all of Christianity.
I think it's you who has it wrong ... if your god can forgive all sins (but more to the point that his supposed son came to die on a chunk of wood and absolve everyone of their sins) it ABSOLUTELY CLEARLY absolves all Christian of any personal responsibility for their action. Standard Christian doctrine ... I know, I was one!
Myra Hyndley, complicit in the murders and abuse of many UK children (some of the most notorious crimes in UK history, granted a little unfairly by comparison to some but that's another story) decades ago confessed her sins to her Catholic priest just before she died so it's nice to know that she will be up there waiting for you and your buds when you get there ... no resposnibiloty, no blame, no nothing ... she is clear and free!!!!!
Kyu
Quote from: "Kyuuketsuki"I think it's you who has it wrong ... if your god can forgive all sins (but more to the point that his supposed son came to die on a chunk of wood and absolve everyone of their sins) it ABSOLUTELY CLEARLY absolves all Christian of any personal responsibility for their action. Standard Christian doctrine ... I know, I was one!
Myra Hyndley, complicit in the murders and abuse of many UK children (some of the most notorious crimes in UK history, granted a little unfairly by comparison to some but that's another story) decades ago confessed her sins to her Catholic priest just before she died so it's nice to know that she will be up there waiting for you and your buds when you get there ... no resposnibiloty, no blame, no nothing ... she is clear and free!!!!!
Kyu
Thanks for the feedback. I understand your point of view. Let me try and clear it up. Who are we free and clear from when we become Christians? God. Not man. If someone becomes a Christian in jail, Hey they have to conplete the sentence. Man still has the right of restitution of the Christian. But can you really get mad that God forgives people that have done wrong to Him. Thats a pretty bold stance. Further, this forgiveness doesn't come free and clear. Someone sure did pay the price.
Quote from: "perspective"Thanks for the feedback. I understand your point of view. Let me try and clear it up. Who are we free and clear from when we become Christians? God. Not man. If someone becomes a Christian in jail, Hey they have to conplete the sentence. Man still has the right of restitution of the Christian. But can you really get mad that God forgives people that have done wrong to Him. Thats a pretty bold stance. Further, this forgiveness doesn't come free and clear. Someone sure did pay the price.
And there you have it ... given that your eternal soul is the only thing that supposedly matters to you lot, total suspension of responsibility!
I prefer to live for here and now and not for some vain, tyrannical god that may not (almost certainly does not) exist.
Kyu
Let's try to keep the introductions area light hearted and save the debate for more appropriate places.
Thanks,
Oh, let's not be rude. Quit attacking the man. I swear, sometimes people here act no better the evangelical theists who immediately jump on us for our beliefs. I thought that was the very thing we hated most?
Anyways...Welcome aboard perspective. Thanks for sharing. I'm impressed you were able to quit cold turkey.
Quote from: "Sophus"Oh, let's not be rude. Quit attacking the man.
I presume that was aimed at me? Unless I'd missed something this is an atheism forum, we tend to be rational, tend to be sceptical, tend to be proud of what we are and how we've shaken what most of us consider to be a fairly stupid set of beliefs. All views IMO have to demonstrate themselves worthy of respect, theism (the view that perspective espouses) deserves no inherent respect, no freebies, no get-out-jail-free-card because it is inherently irrational ... so, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but no he gets what he gets.
Kyu
Welcome aboard Perspective. As you have seen already, you will be challenged greatly here. We welcome the same from you.
I'm sure you have some great reasons for your beliefs, and why you think that is what changed your life. Let me share a similar story (less the privileged upbringing) with a very different outcome.
I too found my life entangled with drugs. Meth, cocaine, alcohol, etc. After a year of this continued way of life, I began to realize something. I didn't pray to be saved, I didn't have to. I realized, through reason (I wasn't high at the time), that I was not doing what I thought I could to help others. I had already come to believe that we (as humans) should do good things for the good of, well, doing good things. Not for personal advancement or because I was being watched by some all-knowing being, but because it was the right thing to do. So, just as you did, I quit cold turkey. I quit because I would be better able to help my mother, my brother, and my sister, the people who needed me. It doesn't take divine intervention, or some life changing religious experience. It just takes the free will to choose and the realization that doing those things aren't helping others.
I respect your views because they are yours to choose, but not the views themselves.
Again, welcome, I'm sure we all look forward to fruitful discussion.