Intro post from Edactor
Offline I did not know how to start a post so i hit reply instead. i will figure it all out soon though!
I wanted to let people know who i was. i have been a lurker for a few months now and decided I wanted to contribute as well. I was never really raised in any religion, My parents send me to a lutheran church (i am 48yo by the way) when I was little because that was what my dads family was. however they didnt go since they stated their was too many hypocrites, goign to church on sunday then drinking etc rest of week. this didnt last long. So I didnt really affiliate with any denomination but said i was a christian if asked. Eventually I got engaged to a catholic woman who wanted to get married in a catholic church so I went through that process. We never did get married but it did expose me to the church which I found was not getting me any answers i thought made sense. basically reciting and listening to others tell em what to think and say.
(by the way is there a spellcheck here?) I type so fast i make a lot of mistakes.
Then i met a jehovas witness family (again dating a daughter) they were all excited about having me join them. This became creepier and creepier, I enjoyed the learning process but again things did not mesh with me. I remember i saw some tv news report about some other religion and i questioned it in front of them and they said i should not even look at anythign about any other religion.well that did not make sense at all to me! So what did my intellectual self do? i studied all I could about every religion I could east or west. I left her as well.
Then I married a woman who was presbetyrian and i joined there church out of being polite and belonging more than anything else. I was even a deacon! Still i kept thinking about the other things I had studied and all these different religions could not all be true or if they had some semblance of truth that no "one" could be the right one!. One of the things I noticed was that it was easy for me to be given responsibilities and raise my status in any religion since I was so outgoing and personable. it made me understand how these tv evangelists got where they are.
Anyway to make an already long story a little longer. I am now married to a christian woman and when we met i was still ok wiht it and now have done a complete 180 and have became at least an agnostic if not a complete atheist. This has definitely caused some strife. I cant help but think how can anyone with any intelligence or logical thinking believe in any one religion. So we have both been doing a lot of reading. She has seen my atheism books and she at least has started to read things about faith and how it evolved etc. We dont discuss it since it led to fights but both know where the other is on the spectrum. i do see her being more open to my thoughts however.
Thank you for listening! I hope to take a more active role n the forum now.
Ed
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Welcome aboard Edactor. I converted your intro into a new intro topic. Did you wanted it posted in the private forum? Typically we'd post intros in the introductions forum:
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forums/generalforums/introductions
Would you like me to move it there?
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yes that is fine either place. I am fine with it being in public area or introductions etc. Maybe introductions would be best overall. I also like the link for most recent posts. That helps a lot!
Ed
Welcome. Good luck with your wife, either way.
Everything makes more sense now that I've stopped believing.
Hi and welcome. My husband and I used to have somewhat of the same issues because I was (duh) afarid to betray god by not believing. Fooomeomer the most part I respected his beliefs but we argued when it seemed to me that he was trying to convince me there wasn't a god. My mom is one of those very hypocritical christians and you'd think that would have done it but I think I just needed to read up and make my own decision. I took some time to read a lot of passages in the bible and by the 5th or 6th one I had pretty much made up my mind that in no way I could worship something like this. Not to mention it really does sound like a bunch of fictional stories. Looking back I have to say I think a lot of my moms superstitions rubbed off on me and it's kind of pathetic. Anyway, just wanted to say welcome to ya and hopefully your wife will come to a point where she can join you or the two of you can come to an understanding of each others beliefs and find some peace with it. Good luck.
If all the Christians who have called other Christians " not really a Christian " were to vanish, there'd be no Christians left.
Welcome to the forum.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
rebecca,
I agree with you and I am just letting her figure things out for herself. She listens to a christian radio station which i don't have a real problem with but then she hears the announcers talk about how happy their marriage is and how nothing is wrong. I try to explain that if we were on air I am sure we wouldn't air our dirty laundry either!
I also do not push my 14 yo son . he knows my beliefs, he knows his moms and I dont discourage him from following whatever path but I do ask him to listen and make his own choice. I think he leads more towards atheism, he went to a youth group at a small church(ok he went to see a girl) and he told me on the way home that they had him listen to a letter that a kid who committed suicide wrote, and the kid described entering hell and burning up...Austin being fairly intelligent, said dad how could he be writing if he were already dead and if he was burning. he thought it was all bull****, he said they asked him to pray with them and he said no he was good.
Thank all of you for the welcome, see you on the forums! I have not studied up on a lot of the things you have but I will speak up when i think I can speak with some input.
Ed
rebecca, Thank you for letting me see the other side as well. I think i initially did make her upset because i was trying to take her away from god. Since i have backed off and we came to the understanding we both would be open minded she has done a lot of reading and slowly went from being christian to delving into buddist thinking, meditation etc and reading books such as the faith instinct .
Ed
Welcome to the forums. I am Becky's husband if you haven't figured that out yet. I can tell you that it was long road for her to open her eyes. There was a time or two that we fault about it. "normally when I would get drunk and mouthy". See I am the openly christian hater. I think that Christianity has caused this world enough death, destruction, and mayhem. On the other hand I see a problem with the ratifications of religion. If we were to find the irrefutable evidence that would abolish all forms of religion at one time the world would end. "by self destruction" See those Church pews hold the worlds worst killers, rapist, and out right harmful people imaginable.
My point is don't push her, she will come around in time. If she doesn't then whats the harm. It doesn't sound like shes the sacrifice a goat in the front lawn type. Give her the information and let her make her own decisions. I think Becky had to she me as an Atheist for years, and I was never struck by lightning for dead!
Give her time to see that your views and hers do not differ much "as most married couples". I am sure that you both have some of the same views, maybe politics.
Anyway good luck and I hope things work out for you and her.
Also give us your best rant. Pick something that really bothers you, and lets start another thread. most of the ones we have up and going are getting stale.
The spell check is in the upper right hand corner "ABC" You don't want to see my post without it!
Throughout human history as our species has faced the frighten terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are and where we are going; it has been the authority (the political, the religious, and the educational authorities) who have attempted to comfort us. By giving us order, rules, and regulation. Informing or forming in our minds their view of reality. To think for yourself you must question these authorities. THINK FOR YOURSELF…
Thank for the info on the spell check
Don't post without it is my motto..i just couldn't find it
I will try to find something to post!
Mozeltov, Ed
www.RichWoodsBlog.com
spammer removed.
Ed, where would these churches be, if not for the women? I swear, sometimes I think they would be completely devoid of men were it not for the wives, mothers, and girlfriends that drag their menfolk in with them on sunday mornings. As to your son... "he went to a youth group at a small church(ok he went to see a girl...)" I think he is SO following in your footsteps. It is a good thing. He is learning from you and your wife that you don't have to see eye to eye on these matters in order to love one another.
Anyway, welcome, from another 48 year old newbie.