Hello My name is Robert!! I am an Atheist from Illinois who moved to Georgia so I am kind of going a little nuts. I am basically on here to meet other happy Atheists and get to know that people can have morals and be happy without the need for religion. I was raised in a household with a crazy grandmother who was christian, but never went to church and would frequently swear. Baptized Catholic when I was a baby, I decided to learn more about my religion when I turned 23. So I read the bible. After getting to a certain point, however, I said to myself Oh no I can't believe all this! Ridiculous! So I turned to Atheism after trying a few other things. First I tried modified Christianity until they told my that you have to believe all of it, because it is the literal word passed down. Okay so how did they get 2 panthers and kangaroos over to Africa now? I'm a bit confused by that and many other things I won't mention for fear of the preaching rule!! So I tried a deity without religion. That just seemed pointless so I switched to Atheism.
I must admit I tried another site first. I won't say which one, but it involved a man named Anton. Then I realized how crazy that was when I believed in nothing, and that It was highly unlikely that I would find any nice Atheists on a site like that. Wouldn't you know it I was right! So, once again, I am on here trying to meet new people with the same beliefs as myself who are just nice, down to Earth people.
Anyways hello all!!
Hello Robert
Yet another RC who found their way out of superstition by reading the Bible! You're in good company here although I personally have never been a believer.
Thanks for making the effort to sign up and join in.
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Regards
Chris
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Non-religious pet peeves (http://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=6917.0)
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Favorite Song, with video (http://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=8830.0)
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Hello and welcome to HAF, Robert. I think I can decipher your clue, but can't use it to narrow it down to one site (not that I care to). I never saw much point in that path, but I suppose if I had met an intelligent woman who followed it (with whom I shared other interests) I wouldn't have been hard to convince. :D
I hope you enjoy your time reading and posting here! (https://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg830.imageshack.us%2Fimg830%2F860%2Fsmilew.gif&hash=8238eab24d16418eb1c8cd60d971239ab1363c74)
Thank you for the welcome. Reading the bible was quite the eye opener for me. The thing that really got to me was the fact that a friend from HS who is another intelligent person was the one who told me that you had to believe in all of it. I am going to be 27 in a week and I figured that people in my generation would have some common sense when it came to that. I was never able to believe the things I heard when people preached to me. It just didn't make any sense. I have, however, been slowly getting other people to see my view. Just this past year I actually found out that my 45 year old Uncle quit believing when a preacher told him that even though his friends who are Jewish are very good hearted people, that they will burn in eternal hellfire. He said to me "yeah that was when the Catholics and I parted ways."
I am by nature a pretty sarcastic person. I have been trying to be nice to people, but it is hard. One problem I am having is holding my tongue on the bus. I hear preaching constantly, but figured I should at least be safe on the bus. WRONG! I should have know better in Georgia. There is a man who refuses to say hello to anybody. It's god bless you to every single person he walks by. It is insanely hard for me to not say "I am atheist, and I didn't sneeze so keep it in church dude."
Well hope that tells you a little more about me. I'm sure I will have more funny things to say. I love making people laugh. Like I said I also love making people see my view. I told my twin cousins about my views and started getting into the contradictory nature of our family's religion. Soon after they took a class in High School on Medieval Europe. They are now Deists. Oh well it's a start right?!?!
I see that someone else has replied to my post already. You guys are pretty quick to welcome people on here. I won't be back on till tomorrow bc I don't currently have my own computer, but thanks for the welcome guys! ;D
Good on you Uncle too. Does he want to join up too? ;)
Welcome,Robert! Seems to me that catholicism is the hardest brand of christianity to break loose from, so congratulations.
When this idiot blesses you, you could say, 'may you be touched by His Noodly Appendage and bathed in His healing sauce'. If that would get you lynched, say it inwardly to cheer yourself up. ;D
Welcome to the forum Robert! I think you have come to the right place. I mean, this is Happy Atheist Forum! :D
Boy do I feel your pain!! Being an atheist in the Bible Belt is no easy feat. Mississippi girl here. Extricating yourself from religion is hard enough, but surviving the onslaught of fundamentalist warfare is an everyday battle. Welcome to the forum! Look forward to hearing your perspective.
Quote from: Robert on December 14, 2011, 06:58:18 PM
Reading the bible was quite the eye opener for me.
Yeah, I think reading the bible has created more atheists than any other book or experience in the world. It was certainly the beginning of the end of my Xtianity.
Quote from: Robert on December 14, 2011, 06:29:07 PM
Baptized Catholic when I was a baby, I decided to learn more about my religion when I turned 23. So I read the bible. After getting to a certain point, however, I said to myself Oh no I can't believe all this! Ridiculous!
It kinda makes you think maybe thats a big part of why the Catholic Church fought so hard to keep the Bible from being translated into the languages of the people.
Quote from: Robert on December 14, 2011, 06:58:18 PM
There is a man who refuses to say hello to anybody. It's god bless you to every single person he walks by. It is insanely hard for me to not say "I am atheist, and I didn't sneeze so keep it in church dude."
I always take that kind of thing with a grain of salt. When I was a Christian I used to hear people say it who I didn't think of as being real Christians. It also never made me feel God was blessing me so it's never struck me as being anything more then a greeting.
Anyway welcome to Happy Atheist Forum Robert.
Welcome! Interesting story you have there ;D
I don't thing the anti preaching rule means that you can't give examples of being preached at, they're mostly to keep theists who want to come here and convert us without reasoned argument or based on anything substantial away. Preachers come here and start throwing bible versus around and constructing circular arguments based on them, as if that would have any effect.
Quote from: Robert on December 14, 2011, 06:29:07 PMI am on here trying to meet new people with the same beliefs as myself who are just nice, down to Earth people.
Nice is nice but I do reserve the right to drift away from the Earth at times.
'ello.
Noodly appendage!! I must say that I am relieved I can talk somewhat about the crap I hear down here, but I will save it for another time because I am in a hurry and don't want to get into a rant.
My Uncle would join this site, but I don't think his wife or daughter who go to Catholic church 800 times a day would think very highly of that. It amazes me how many educated people read and understand that book and still believe it. My friend in the Army ROTC is Catholic, but doesn't really believe any of it. I got him to call the bible by the name I gave it. Jewish Mythology. He thought it was funny. What do you guys think? Yeah I know it's part greek too, but they already have a mythology so they can bite me!!
lolol yea i agree with robert, thats what some of my atheist friends told me at first.. just read the bible then you won't believe haha. never did but what really convinced me it was false was how if you use the time frame the bible says when the great flood took place there was no evidence of all civilization being wiped out it indeed showed the opposite.
Welcome Robert. I look forward to getting to know you.
Yes, but if you talk to a Christian you will hear about evidence of the red sea crossing, and the ark and a bunch of other bullshit. The reality of it is that there is no real evidence for any of it and that all the factual evidence shows that none of it ever happened. It is really quite ridiculous. When you tell them that the bible says the Earth is only 6000 years old they say where? When you show them the actual timeline in the bible they say a day is like 1000 years and blah blah. It's hard to argue with a religion that has a loophole for everything. You just prove them wrong on every level, then when they bust out the loophole laugh and walk away.
You could try and make them answer for things the bible says that are less interpretive and more literal, such as the fact that there are two different genesis accounts.
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on December 21, 2011, 02:17:59 AM
You could try and make them answer for things the bible says that are less interpretive and more literal, such as the fact that there are two different genesis accounts.
And possibly thirteen missing gospels, probably confiscated/hidden during the long-ago, more sectarian days of Christianity. It is odd how different churches, all sharing more or less the same doctrines, would take actions as severe as mutilating the text (i.e. hiding gospels) in order to 'win' over more followers. Christianity is much more tolerating today, compared to so long ago.
I still can't believe that they actually think that woman was made from a mans rib. Just another way for us males to establish dominance. In my opinion people who think that way are one step out of the cave. All that macho testoserone crap. And the man being head of household thing is getting old too. There is no reason that one person should have the final say when two people built a family together. Especially when these days women work as much as men, and still have to go through pregnancy and childbirth. Every time I hear that crap it makes me ill.
One thing I will mention that is kind of funny. I am surrounded by Christians, yet once I start in with my atheist talk, the christians seem to get into it. Like they have a hard time believing too. I was talking to a Christian friend about how my favorite imaginary characters of all time would have to be santa, aquaman, and Jesus Christ. All I got was a laugh. No argument at all.
I have heard about the Lost Judas books and some others from the bible. I will have to go over them at some point. Right now I am reading the portable atheist by Hitchens. I've already been throwing the bs that some of the preachers and others around here lie about. I love how nobody actually does anything wrong in the southern US. Go to a Southern church sometime. Everything that people do wrong is the devil. Nobody does anything wrong themselves. If they have something to blame it on they feel better about doing it. Another example of lies used to get more church members. Oh really it wasn't me that cheated on my wife it was the devil in me? I like this church lets go here twice a week!! In the beginning it was all about not sinning. The devil was a new testament invention to get people to feel better about the crap they did. There is also a lot of yelling in church. I guess god is hard of hearing or something. More likely it is tied into the whole testosterone thing, but I think an image of a guy with a beard in the clouds turning up his hearing aid is a funnier explanation.
Quote from: JustinS on December 21, 2011, 02:19:57 AM
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on December 21, 2011, 02:17:59 AM
You could try and make them answer for things the bible says that are less interpretive and more literal, such as the fact that there are two different genesis accounts.
It is odd how different churches, all sharing more or less the same doctrines, would take actions as severe as mutilating the text (i.e. hiding gospels) in order to 'win' over more followers.
Is it really so odd? If you control information, you control people. I think it's to be expected, actually.
The protestant reformation was a good thing IMO. It decentralised the hold just one organisation had over their information.
Quote from: XSilverSphinxIs it really so odd? If you control information, you control people. I think it's to be expected, actually.
I agree that it's to be expected; I used the word 'odd' incorrectly. I just dislike how they would manipulate people in such a way. The protestant reformation was a good thing; I agree. Any revisionist movement, such as the protestant movement, is a good thing because revisionism of religion generally involves the liberalization of previously dogmatic social procedures. As western civilization advanced, Christianity became more tolerant in many respects, often as a result of revisionism.
Sorry I haven't had time to reply what with everything being closed for the holidays, but anyway here goes my two cents! Religion is definitely more tolerant in whole for the most part, but especially in America. Puritans founded the Massachusetts bay colony because the Protestant reformation didn't go far enough. The church was still too tolerant of Catholic practices. They took radical views of different churches they liked and basically created their own religion with purity and godliness in all aspects of life. So when they were unable to form a new English National church, they decided to come to the "New world." To my understanding they thought that religion in England was not strict enough right after the medieval period. Even thinking about that brings up an image of my head exploding. Then of course we had witch trials and burnings and all sorts of other fun stuff. I don't think religion in western civilization could have gone anywhere but up unless it remained in total chaos. I'm glad it did. I just hope that we keep on going up and that nothing causes civilization to decline in any way. I would hate to think of living in a world where religion is dominant over technology once again. We live in a great world compared to the BS our ancestors dealt with. I am pretty happy with the way things are going myself.