What molded your beliefs from childhood to present

[Freethinker]

Originally posted by: wisdumn

it's too bad when a good idea has bad followers to corrupt it.

 

You have a long way to go to prove that Christianity (so I assume you mean) is a GOOD IDEA. History is definately NOT on your side.

[Freethinker]

Originally posted by: Yvonne

FT: They made me think.

 

Hi Yvonne, thanks for the message. But I think it is Da Wiz your actually replying to.

[Freethinker]

Originally posted by: wisdumn

i'm trying to get the hang of it, galaxy had written me how to as well as tormod, just having problems with it.

No problem. That is why I just made a suggestion and did not edit it myself. Good practice. We learn as we go.

[Yvonne]

Originally posted by: wisdumn

 

Originally posted by: Yvonne

 

What was the last drop in my loss of faith,....

 

it's too bad when a good idea has bad followers to corrupt it. i'd like to ask a question, did those certain people make you lose your faith in God or in christians?

 

First a little background. Religion (lutheran) and state go hand in hand in Norway. This means that a lot of people do things because it is tradition instead of a wellfounded faith. People baptise their babies, they confirm their faith at age 14, then they get married in church. When asked why they baptise their babies even though they never go to church, it's often because of tradition and better now than when they are older... Teenagers confirm their faith because then they'll get really nice presents or lots of money from their grandparents. And people get married in church because a church wedding is so much nicer than a state wedding.

 

I've never really had to explain my faith or lack of it, (except a stupid German who demanded to know why I didn't want to do communion), and I find it hard to do (I knew Tormod and I agreed on the main points before getting married). Maybe I feel no need for God, I don't know. I just know that my teachers a long time ago, made me want to think critically about what the church stands for and what God is, and the result was lost faith in God. I have no problems with christians. They are like everbody else, some good and some bad. I was thought to think my own thoughts and make my own decisions, and they were respected. Even by deeply religious great grand parents. They liked that I had actually thought about things, and was not just going thru the motions (not confirming my fate in church).

 

What I didn't like was teachers at school harassing me in class about my choices. Openly. I'm strong enough not to let such "low" people get to me, all they are confirming is their stupidity.

[Tormod]

Originally posted by: IrishEyes

What molded my beliefs? Any number of things.

 

This post is the most personal thing I've read since we started back in 2002. Good job. And not a dry eye in the vicinity. Thanks for sharing. So my drunken sailor image of you wasn't half bad.

 

No joke, of course, being a punching bag. And it must have been hell to break out of it, too.

 

But I'm puzzled as to what this part means (sorry if it is obvious):

"My mother was raised in a Southern Baptist home in the South, mainly in Louisiana and Oklahoma. Her parents were very strict with her and her two older sisters, and insisted they go to church, though my grandparents often dropped them off there (though I didn't learn that until recently!)."

[Tormod]

Originally posted by: Freethinker

I am even listed in "Who's Who in Hell".

 

Somehow I figured that one out already.

[wisdumn]

thanks yvonne for your insight as to your background and i understand this stance completely as i have stood in the same place. believe me, no matter what FT or anyone else says, i am not someone who thinks lower of others because of their beliefs, i have friends all the way from jocks,punk rockers, gay,homeless, black, chinese,satanist, pagans,atheist,mormans(the scariest, just kidding) and so forth. i at one time in my life threw out everything i learned from ANYONE else about the Bible, Jesus,Satan, Heaven and Hell. why did i do this? because i took one of my friends to church one time who had really long hair and everyone from the sweet old lady all the way to the preacher stared at him, were talking behind his back when we walked by and the next sunday the preacher called me into his office and told me that my friend was a sinner and a bad influence and that he did not want my friend back in his church. i became at that point i can honestly say about as mad as i have ever been: i proceeded to throw over his desk, i jumped on him and started beating the $% out of him and was promptly arrested and banned from the church. after that i really had no need of God or all these hypocrites who supposedly wanted to save sinners and then when i bring "one" they reject him.

i still to this day cannot stand piety, arrogance, and foolish morons who put on the cape of good and treat others bad. now fast forward about 10 yrs. later and i find myself involved with satanism and magic

in 2002, no one can tell me anything about religion or God or Jesus. i would say things like all the prophets are the same, you can't prove there's a God and if there is you can't tell me what he/she/or it wants so leave me alone. approximately one year later i FINALLY met a christian preacher on the streets of my town who was not mean or judgmental towards me or my beliefs. we had a long discussion(somewhere between 2-3 hrs.) he was the first person who didn't scream "you're going to hell" and " accept God or face his wrath" this guy debated with me scriptually and some of the simplest scripture he quoted i just could not logically argue with, in all honesty i was kind of mad that he had used scripture and that better yet, that's all it took to difuse my arguments. he gave me a gospel of john in a paperback and 3 months later i read it for myself, that book changed me from that night until this very day because from that point i read more and more of the Bible and discovered that many of the people claiming to follow Jesus's example were full of it and in no way could i see Jesus in their life. i do not sit around and argue the Bible with people, not unless there is a Bible in front of us and we can orally discuss things, way too much confusion in trying to argue it any other way.

[IrishEyes]

08/23/2004 05:25 PM - Tormod

But I'm puzzled as to what this part means (sorry if it is obvious):

"My mother was raised in a Southern Baptist home in the South, mainly in Louisiana and Oklahoma. Her parents were very strict with her and her two older sisters, and insisted they go to church, though my grandparents often dropped them off there (though I didn't learn that until recently!)."

 

I grew up thinking that my grandparents had raised their three daughters in the Southern Baptist church. I always thought that my g-parents WENT TO CHURCH WITH THEM. However, a few months ago, I got an e-mail from someone who grew up with my mother. We e-mailed for a few months, sharing stories of what Mom was like. I told him all about how she turned out, he told me how she started. He once said that he walked her to and from church on a regular basis. This sounded strange to me, as I *knew* my grandparents would have never allowed her to walk to church with a young man, so I called my grandmother and asked. Well, it turns out that my grandmother couldn't even remember what church they went to, and that they only dropped the girls off, didn't actually attend the services with them. Talk about SHOCKED!!

Anyway, that's all I meant, hope that explains it.

 

As for the rest, yes, it was personal, but hope it helped. Now maybe you guys can understand a little more of where I'm coming from.

[IrishEyes]

08/23/2004 11:04 AM - FreeT

 

Basically your entire post is trying to show what? I still say that, using the same quotes you did, I didn't contradict myself at all.

 

Maybe we're crossing paths here and just don't realize it?

 

I'm having a hard time with this though. I'm trying to explain that at 25, i was STILL questioning things. That's not to say that I held on to my beliefs from birth to age 25, or that i never questioned BEFORE age 25. I also explained that, though I was raised in a "Christian" home, it was not a 'stable' home, and there were extended periods of time when we did not attend church. I was also exposed to many different religions throughout my childhood, and that led to lots of questions as well. (Which one was right? Any of them? Why were there so many? Why couldn't everyone just get together and agree on ONE and stop all the fighting? etc...)

However, at 25 I was not done trying to figure things out, and I was still searching for answers. As a child I claimed Christianity, as a young adult I was not a believer, as a more mature adult I am a Christian. At no time did I stop questioning, and at no time did I simply 'hold on to my beliefs from birth to...' any age. I STILL question things, the main difference is that I search for the answers instead of accepting what others try to tell me. That process usually brings me right back to Christianity, with a stronger belief in God than when I started.

 

At no time did I ever say that my beliefs at 25 were the same as my beliefs at birth, nor that I was not questioning things at age 10. However, unlike Unc (and I don't mean this disrespectfully), at age 10 I did not think I was either mature enough or knowledgeable enough to say that there certainly was no God, nor that there was certainly a God. Is the difference in my statements and yours a little more obvious now?