I was going through some old files recently and I found some notes for a ministry I wanted to start. Looking back, it’s hard to believe I was this brainwashed. Unfortunately I was quite sincere.
Here are some of the “goals” I had written out:
- To spread a passion for the glory and supremacy of God in all aspects of life to all whom will listen.
- To exalt the saving blood of Jesus Christ and his Lordship over all His creation — physical and spiritual.
- To be used by the Holy Spirit in reaching these goals through various ministries He will empower us to perform through His sovereign gifts and enablement.
- To preach repentance and faith in Christ to those who are perishing under the wrath of God all over the nations.
- To be used by God to teach the whole counsel of God to the elect so that they may continue to grow in grace and knowledge in Christ.
- To light the bride of Christ on fire [that is, the church] for missions and evangelism, with a biblical foundation.
So many lame cliches and sloppy thinking. It’s embarrassing to read now.
I have no idea how I could have written “light the bride of Christ on fire” without laughing hysterically at myself.
If I had any doubt that I was involved in a cult, reading that settled it.
Hey.
We all do things when we’re younger that we’re not proud of today. At one point, I considered myself a Christian. Studying religions in college did it for me – and I’m glad I’m well-rid of it all.
The main thing is that you grew out of it. Most don’t.
I still have some of my old writings as a Christian. Today, they’re good for anything from a yuk to an eek.
Ditto on W.D. Noble’s comment. It’s all part of maturing.
“I have no idea how I could have written “light the bride of Christ on fire” without laughing hysterically at myself.”
I feel the same way when I go back and read some of my old journals. I chalk it up to being young, stupid, and uninformed. :-/
Oh my, the things I did as a Christian. I remember being in plays and skits in Church and during my time as a counselor at a Christian Camp. Preaching to family and friends (possibly the biggest mistake). I even rapped. Oh gawd, those poor kids.
My theology is a little rusty but I believe that is the unpardonable sin.
No, that’s not true. I was taught that rock music, or anything leading to sex, was the unpardonable sin. You better get your facts straight – your eternal life depends on it.
Were you a good rappist?
(Which spoof Christian film was that from? I know I made a note of it somewhere so I could go and watch it later. Maybe even mentioned on this site. Later came and went, but I’d still like to watch it.)
I remember rhyming decently, it was just the content that made it incredibly lame. And yes, I’m lucky there is no hell for that.
DF, have you ever dedicated a post to what you actually believed while you were a Christian? I know from bits and pieces that it was conservative American Evangelicalism and all. Just wondering.
No, I haven’t. Like most people, I went through phases. Started at a shallow baptist megachurch, then became a staunch calvinist (as some of the above reflects), then turned a bit liberal. The liberal didn’t last too long, though, as I moved to agnosticism & then quickly to atheism where I’m remained for a few years now.
Gotcha. Thanks man!
Hmm. Shallow Baptist mmegachurch? I pulled a short stint at Houston’s 2nd (aka 6 flags over Jesus) in 1994. Wonder if we ever crossed paths?
It took me five years to get that bullsh*t out of my head. Sadly, my nephew just told me the world is 6,000 years old.
Oh, dear. How old is your nephew? Perhaps there’s still hope that this brainwashing is reversible?
My nephew is 13. He’s a smart kid with a talent for electronics. He’s almost like a clone of my late father, which is why he is special to me.
He also has a mild form of Asperger syndrome, which my sister views as either a punishment from god or the fault of childhood vaccinations. So my fundie sister is getting advice from former Playboy Playmate Jenny McCarthy.
But I need to be careful what I say around him, or I’m afraid my sister won’t let me see him. My sister deleted me from his facebook friends’ list for posting too much free thought material. He wants to attend my housewarming party next month, but my sister said she and her family couldn’t make it. She won’t tell me why. (But I know, I am unsaved trash and therefore bad influence)
But if he has doubts about the faith imposed on him by his parents, he will at least have someone he can talk to. I did not have that as a teen.
I did tell him once he should not believe everything he hears in church, and he agreed.
Wow, I have a lot of sympathy for your position, Mark. I was raised a Jehovah’s Witness, and my father and brother are still members. My mother was disfellowshipped (their version of excommunicated) and my brother was “discouraged” from spending too much time with her. She always felt like she was walking on eggshells and might say/do something at any time that would cause him to decide his “conscience” wouldn’t allow him to see her anymore. While she desperately wanted to encourage him to question what he was taught, she was afraid to say anything for fear of losing him completely.
“4. To preach repentance and faith in Christ to those who are perishing under the wrath of God all over the nations.”
This makes God sound like a mafia don, roughing up shopkeepers for protection money.
“To light the bride of Christ on fire [that is, the church].”
2 things:
1. Yeah Burn that Mutha Down!!!!
2. What happened to marriage being between a man and a woman, now its a Man and a Building?, a Organization? Group of people? I guess Jesus already started us down the slippery slope of people marrying anything they want.
“A Man and a Building” – that’s funny. I wonder if that relationship is as special as the one between a Man and his Dog.
If you were a true Christian Evangelist, this would have been on the list:
7. Raking in some big bucks off of the gullibility of the common man.
What do any of those goals even mean? How would anyone look back and say “Okay, we accomplished this one and this one and this one, but fell short of that one…”
As far as being embarrassed about the past: don’t. I had to get over that hurdle myself, I went through a phase of being absolutely ashamed and enraged at myself for believing such complete nonsense. I realized such a mindset wasn’t constructive at all. Everyone makes mistakes. The smart people learn from them.
Ummmmm – are you and John C. the same person?
I did used to talk like him a bit. But minus a little of the crazy.
Daniel, you’ve brought up John C’s maundering ramblesbefore.
Ty left for a while because of them.
Yeah…who didn’t? I was married to a youth pastor. So I led the young astray. I may as well have been a catholic priest…and I really, really, really, with all my heart, believed I was doing good!
C’mon, bring out some more for good laughs! I think I may have some pictures from a youth retreat…
Oddly enough, I think my more strange theological moments came when I stopped being a Christian, because at that point I started coming up with stupid bunk like “I”m going to hell but I’m going lava surfing with John Lennon and all the cool people, because cool people go to hell” or something like that.
That and my theological concept of god for about a year before atheism I called Armchair Theology – basically god was the First Cause of space time/big bang, but then he sat in his cosmic lawnchair with his cosmic six pack and basically watched it unfold. Like constant reality tv where instead of channels you have sectors of space.
Once I became more aware of atheism I then said to myself “ohhh that’s what you do when you realize your childhood faith is bullcrap. You just,… stop believing.”
if I had one my list would have been more like LR Hubbard’s
1. Invent a religion.
2. Fleece gullible idiots out of anything they own.
3. Pay no taxes.
4. Move money to Lichtenstein.
5. live lie a king for the rest of my life.
Thanks for your willingness to be so open, transparent and vulnerable, very admirable D. I wish many believers were as open. The first thing that stands out to me is the overwhelming performance, the many ‘doings’ that you tasked yourself with (or were laid upon you by the ‘church’), that’s a heavy load indeed. But JC described the ‘work’ of God as simply ‘believing’, much more a state of be’ing than a do’ing since we, like JC ‘can do nothing (nothing that really matters) of our own accord try and try as we may.
So, like many here you initially responded (inwardly) to Christ but then the ‘religious’ leaders got a hold of you, laid their heavy ‘performance’ trap burdens on you making you think you had to work to please God (but the Son in you was already pleasing to the Father, had already done all the ‘work’ for you). This tedious spot gave rise to Herod (who wants to kill the newborn ‘babe’, ie Christ’s life in you so that he never ‘grows up’ and threatens his kingdom rule). For a season, outwardly, he seems to have succeeded, by all ‘appearances’, but you can’t trust appearances.
So now you’ve wisely discarded all the religious trappings (that JC warned us were in the external ‘church’) believing that you’ve experienced the true ‘Christian’ experience and found it profoundly lacking. This whole episode is so very common and tragic. The good news (no pun intended) is that now you know what is disingenuous, what ‘religion’ is all about, ie performance based. Now you recoil (feeling used, deceived, foolish, etc) and rage against that (man-made) institution, declare yourself an unbeliever (atheist, skeptic, etc), cast your lot with the like-minded, invert, re-direct your talents and creativity (which are many and impressive) start a ‘blog’, etc.
So where does all this leave you today? In unbelief, in atheism? What if you are ‘right on track’? What if this (now phase) of the journey is just that, merely a phase and a necessary phase at that? What if Love and the discovery of the Authentic is the next phase of the journey? Wouldn’t that be cool? It would be just like Him to save the best for last. What if you discovered the (liberating) truth, that truth that (finally) sets you completely free and brings you full circle?
The 360 cycle…
Unbelief
Christ then beckons from within resulting in Joy, Hope, new Birth
Belief/Acceptance
Join a Church/Religion/Church/Sermons/Performance/Doing/Heavy burdens begin
Endure for a season
Despair finally sets in (you find this is not what your heart longed for, expected, etc)
Finally cast off the heaviness of religion (this is a wise, good, planned, necessary phase)
Utter rejection, anger/feeling deceived, foolish, etc
Then at Last…
Love
Authenticity
Truth
Liberty
Life
Full Circle…back where you started, but this time free of the religious influence. What a long, strange trip its been eh? The journey continues, Love lives.
All the best D.
I think the point of the article was to demonstrate how ridiculous all the kinds of things you would say sound, but leave it to you to spin it any way you like, invent something that isn’t there, turn it back into an opportunity to be delusional in public.
You read that, Kodie? After the first sentence, which was nice, I saw that it was heading into the usual thicket of nonsense and puffery and decided to quit reading. Life’s too dang short.
I skimmed it. The rationalizations for Daniel’s rejection of “religion” setting him up for a true relationship with the lord are too funny. John C lives on his own cloud.
I read it all, and I MUST say, bravo. I bet this is totally what happened to Dan. You can just see right through him can’t you?
And me?! Oh yes, I am totally converted now. Your metaphorical bird’s-eye-view of the inner workings of people and the church have shown me that man is silly and can only be right and good and loving through God.
(Seriously though, if you ever come by Alberta I would be more than happy to meet you and try whatever drugs you are on now. Peace.)
I also decided to skip it almost immediately. It was like mental marshmallow-creme.
The phrase “Christ then beckons from within” sort of sounds like something out of a romance novel, like he’s a streetwalker in a dark alley, or a gay escort in a boudior.
But… wouldn’t that be delicious?
“What if you discovered the (liberating) truth, that truth that (finally) sets you completely free and brings you full circle?”
“Love me or perish in flames in my special container for people who choose not to believe in me” sure sounds liberating and completely free. It’s a pretty expansive looking menu there, so many options, so much freedom…
And going full circle would lead him back to unbelief, wouldn’t it?
OMG! John C doesn’t even know what a circle is? 360 degrees? Nope – not to John C! Full circle takes him back to his unbelief and then past it to belief… what a tool!
Mysterious supernatural surkels have as many degrees as it takes to come around to the inevitable. Jesus is waiting for you! It sounds a lot like a drain, actually. If you let yourself get sucked in, you surkel the drain several times and fall in. After wandering the sewers for several weeks, months, or years, you may see the sunlight, and you should find your way out, unless you think the sewer is the truth.
“Surkel”?
Yeah, like a full surkel, where you end up where you don’t want to be because it’s nonsense.
Well, that beats the hell out of an empty surkel. There’s nothing I hate more than an empty surkel.
“And going full circle would lead him back to unbelief, wouldn’t it?”
This made water come out of my nose when I started laughing…
“…it’s hard to believe I was this brainwashed.”
Actually, I consider it your sanest moment.
Which just goes to prove the point of …
“Looking back, it’s hard to believe I was this brainwashed.”
Thanks for helping out Brad!
After following the link to your site I can see how you may get sanity and frothing at the mouth madness confused.
Yup… perusing Brad’s blog points out the obvious: That’s some weapon’s grade stupid he’s inflicted with!
Wanting to light a bride that’s also a building on fire is Daniel at his sanest?
Sounds like arson, assault, attempted murder all in one. Did I miss anything?
Misogyny. Wouldn’t be Christianity without it.
“Which just goes to prove the point of …”
Because <i<you say so, Jabster… Sorry, I’ll need more evidence of insanity than Daniel’s mere say so.
There is a difference between delusion and insanity. If nothing else, as a mater of degree. Your delusion does not make you insane, just misguided.
You know where to look but you don’t seem to know how to read. You’re just a mess in the head, sorry, not enough time to argue with a deluded person such as yourself.
So…you dismiss Daniel’s description of his own past life as a Christian…because you don’t like it? That’s lovely. Good to know you folks who continue to worship a zombie and his absentee father know more about our lives than we do!
With gawd all things are possible?
Who needs the CIA when you have gawd?
Of course. I’ll put his lack of conviction over his resolutions against mine any day. Which wins then? The one you happen to agree with?
Brad asks: “I’ll put his lack of conviction over his resolutions against mine any day. Which wins then? The one you happen to agree with?”
No – the one ~reality~ agrees with… which means you lose.
Agreement with the rest of known reality is always a good starting point for any idea.
Others have responded to you in the manner in which I would have responded, so all I have to add is a sigh and a chuckle, Brad.
durrrrrrr……
Sometimes I think that if there were gods in a pantheon somewhere, when they saw writing like that they’d say, “Ah poor deluded person, let’s enlighten him/her and help her/him out of misery.”
When I’d just left the church, I was sure God had led me out. Of course, now I don’t believe such god exists.
Perhaps some day you could summarize the actions you performed in pursuit of the goals for us. I thought I was fairly good at understanding metaphorical speech, but for the life of me, I can’t imagine what sort of real-world activity “exalt saving blood” might mean. How many of the 6 boil down to “talking to people?”
It’s a nice day; I’m off to chastise the green multitudes (mow the lawn.)
I was a believing christian for about three years, about age 17 to 20, willingly converted rather than brainwashed from infancy. I remember hearing and thinking [eeeeewwwww, *shudder*] in words a lot like that. But I was just enough repulsed by them that, although there was some belief and willingness to believe, I couldn’t have written a list like that without gagging. And yet, I’m embarrassed at what I willingly listened to, thought, and said, too.
And boy, knowing what christianity is like from the inside, by experience, is an experience that those who never bought it will never quite understand. You (and those who have been on the inside of believing it) are in a good position to help others with it, because you *know* the premises of the beliefs, and the damage they do to people.
To believe a belief, you have to believe the unprovable premises that it’s based on. Having done that, you know the internal process people go through to stay convinced – or stop buying the belief. You know the emotions — I won’t grace them with the word “feelings” — the fear of punishment, guilt, shame, and secret need to be “special”, the secret need to have some certainty and not have to think or wonder any more, and the need to defend and enforce the belief and to recruit supporters, that drive this whole belief system.
“to all whom will listen” – It seems God was not guiding you grammatically in those days.
Do not blame Dog for my errors, only my successes.
Ameliak! I was just to going say that…you beat me! :) The misuse of ‘whom’ is one of my biggest pet peeves. lol. I will forgive you, Dan, since you were misguided in many ways back then. :p
@Kodie
“You’re just a mess in the head…”
Touche.
Lunacy to me is embracing the paradigm that the cosmos suddenly exploded into being from an absolute nothing – including even the infinite regress problem that appears when trying to delay the inevitable through the use of MUT and other such nonsense.
But don’t let that bit of reasoning ruin your delusion.
The infinite regress problem remains with a god, but not necessarily with quantum physics (people are still working on it).
But don’t let that bit of reasoning ruin your delusion. :)
As long as you are satisfied with having all the answers to everything and aren’t as open to discussion as you pretend to think you are, there’s no point in arguing with you about it. You’re kind of sickening with how smart you think you are, but that’s the rigid stupidity of belief, the kind of thing you call “sane”. God made the universe out of nothing, that’s also really puzzling, so I wonder why you’re convinced of it. His mysterious ways are so convenient.
“Lunacy to me is embracing the paradigm that the cosmos suddenly exploded into being from an absolute nothing ”
Assuming “I don’t know is an insuffficient answer” for the beginning of the universe, please explain why failure to embrace the “luncacy” you describe supports the existence of a God let alone any particular brand of God.
I think the standard answer is “because it does” …
Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ. Do we need to explain what that link titled “Reply” under each comment is for?
@Ivan
I’ve read some of his website posts so I think I can safely say that yes you do need to expalin it to Brad.
I cannot even believe there are a small handful of people who read his blog as atheists and entertain this nitwit with any amount of patience.
“Lunacy to me is embracing the paradigm that the cosmos suddenly exploded into being from an absolute nothing ”
-which always begs the question: where did God come from?
@ John White…but God is something.
Hi Bill,
“Assuming “I don’t know is an insuffficient answer” for the beginning of the universe, please explain why failure to embrace the “luncacy” you describe supports the existence of a God let alone any particular brand of God.”
I didn’t say that at all, anymore than I would find it reasonable to say that merely rejecting the idea that something came from nothing means that person definitely believes in the Lord Jesus Christ – because billions don’t believe even though they too think that the idea of something from nothing is ridiculous. I just find it ironic when people call me deluded for believing in Jesus when they insist on an idea as incredible as something existing from nothing, even when their own paradigm prohibits them from honestly crossing into the metaphysical (though such violations never seem to stop such speculations) just to investigate.
Anyway, thinking again about the topic, I believe that Daniel had it right.
Let me see if I have this right. Brad thinks that ALL atheists MUST believe that something came from nothing. “I don’t know” isn’t a valid answer in his mind (because that’s hoq a lot of atheists I know would answer the question).
But – saying that god did it, and that he’s always been there and thus doesn’t need a “cause” is much more reasonable.
Is that right Brad? Yeah – nothing crazy about THAT! (roll eyes).
You’re hung up on this something from nothing plot. If “I don’t know how” is equivalent to “nothing,” then you might have a point. How do you explain god from nothing, or god made something from nothing? I have a hard time figuring out how you are easily convinced of one thing that’s all the same as another “paradigm” you don’t embrace. If the answer is “I don’t know,” and you hear that as “nothing,” then you’re the one who needs to explain why you keep believing that’s what is being said. It calls into question your other beliefs as it turns out.
Oh, I think I’ve got it – since god is something (if you believe), the opposite of god must be nothing (i.e. disbelief). That’s a logical leap. Of course there could be something and that something does not need to be god.
Brad – What is your basis for the apparent position that atheists believe something came from nothing?
Apparently the assumed void where god would fit in to solve the whole puzzle. If we don’t believe in god, then there is nothing there where he should be, ergo, nothing!
… because Ray Comfort keeps saying it so it must be true?
“@ John White…but God is something.”
Yes, and that would be why invoking god doesn’t get rid of an infinite regress. If god created the universe, what created the something that is god? And what created that? And that?
“I just find it ironic when people call me deluded for believing in Jesus when they insist on an idea as incredible as something existing from nothing, even when their own paradigm prohibits them from honestly crossing into the metaphysical (though such violations never seem to stop such speculations) just to investigate.”
As I suggested, science is actually investigating the physical realm (not metaphysical) and finding that yes, the idea of something from nothing isn’t as incredible as it first seems. It’s not a concrete answer yet but it’s no less worthy of consideration than “god did it and was always there”.
So, wait. God has substance, Brad? You wrote that God is something–this implies that God has some kind of qualities that can be evidenced in the physical world. What are those qualities? And what brought those qualities into existence? If you’re positing that your deity is self-caused, then why do you reject the argument that the universe as we know it was “self” caused?
This always has me wondering – how can someone be so dismissive of the idea that the universe exploded ex nihilo yet so accepting of the idea that Magic Man done it?
Its an attempt to drag the competing meme down to their level and claim their belief is just as valid as our “belief”.
Well, Brad, don’t ever let the facts stand in your way, or let reasoning ruin your delusion.
Could you, and the hundreds of people who repeat this lie, please just crack open any book on physics that was published within the last 5 years? NO physicist has ever claimed that the universe “exploded into being from nothing.” An incredibly dense singularity does not equal “nothing.” No, there’s no widely accepted theory on how this singularity arose or where it came from. If you really want to argue about physics, cosmology, and astronomy, you’d best be prepared to do some math, which will include formulas not found in the bible.
First, THANK YOU for sharing this! It’s hilarious, entertaining, and sobering all at once. I hope you know the jesting is in fun and not directed at you personally but at anyone who believes stuff like this. That said, I just reread the list of “goals”, and HOLY CHRIST, WTF does any of that MEAN? I know what being deluded by religion is, so I’m not questioning why you believed it or how, I’m just curious if those phrases actually MEANT something to you at the time, or if you were just spouting off things you’d heard without thinking about them?
“To exalt the saving blood of Jesus Christ and his Lordship over all His creation — physical and spiritual.” Huh?
“to teach the whole councils of God to the elect…” Wha?
“those who are perishing under the wrath of God all over the nations.” ALL OVER the nations, you got that, people?
Enough has already been said about torching Jesus’ wife, but holy hell!
Anyway, this post truly made my day! How old were you, BTW?
They were very meaningful to me and I understood the concepts behind what I was saying. But it’s theological jargon that only makes sense from the context I was coming from. Which is why it sounds so hilarious now.
I understand Daniel’s reply to this. Now we can say “WTF what does any of that mean?!?” When you believe those premises, the statements have meaning, because, as with all language, we supply the words with meaning. Once you no longer believe the premises christianity’s based on, it becomes a lot of hooey – meaningless – but the statements stood for actual concepts.
[*Note*: I did not say "valid" or "based on reality" concepts.]
Cliches, true. But couldn’t that list be written without the cliches and be meaningful and relatively non-cultic? I mean the language is weird, yes, but it’s not exactly cultic to have wanted to share what you believed with other people.
I doubt it. It’s the ideas behind it that are cultic, not just the presentation. And something can still be cultic and meaningful. It was very meaningful to me.
Regardless, could you communicate those concepts in a non-cliche way that isn’t completely weird? If so, I’d be interesting in hearing it. :)
Well the basic thing that you were writing in each point was that you wanted to do your part to tell other people about your view of God and the afterlife.
Granted, some of the concepts in Christianity are pretty mysterious. But again, I think that even those difficult concepts can be explained without having to use the “Christianese” language that is so weird.
Christianese makes things sound less weird. “Ask Jesus into your heart” sounds pretty normal in our culture. “Request that God’s son moves in to your blood-pumping organ” sounds weird.
What I’m saying is that “I want to express my beliefs to other people in the world” is normal and rational. In fact, everyone does this – from someone like Al Gore talking about climate change, to Bush talking about the need for war, to a spiritual person talking about his beliefs. That’s not weird, it’s normal and expected.
Right but we were talking about cliches.
Cliches, yes, that’s exactly my point. It’s the cliches that sound cultic and weird, but not the actual idea of expressing your beliefs.
What are the “concepts”, besides trying to convince everyone you meet that you have the truth? I guess that’s what I was really getting at before – what do phrases like “teach the whole councils of God” mean to a believer? I’ve heard religious metaphors and jargon before, but a lot of those are new to me, and I really was curious about what was meant by them.
I used to be in the cult too.
Which is why I can point out another grammatical error that seems to have been missed so far. “Whole councils of God,” in proper cult-speak, should be “whole counsel of God.” It’s from Acts 20:27.
Having been raised on the King James version of the wholy babble, I’m also fluent in Early Modern English, so you can expect me to pounce like a grammar nazi if anyone throws around thees or thous or adds -est or -eth to the ends of verbs willy-nilly.
</ex-cultist dork>
That actually helps. Thanks! That makes more sense now.
You are right. I made that error originally but I’ve corrected it so it makes more sense.
Heehee… putting the worst possible ideas in the best possible light. It’s kind of like taking a limit superior in real analysis.
funny I remember being so brainwashed I was absolutely positive and terrified that the 3 days of darkness was imminent. Incredible how silly it all looks now.
http://www.3daysofdarkness.com/
Padre Pio and other Catholics eminent for sanctity, have for centuries prophesied the dreadful coming chastisement of the Three Days of Darkness; where at least half to three quarters of the world’s population will be killed by God’s Just Wrath.
Kinda looks like a Catholic version of the Tribulation. Interesting. (Actually, no, I think I’ve already recovered from my brief fascination.) :^)
At the time of the writing of these goals, what was your mindset? Were you in some type of disarray or maybe depressed, perhaps you were on drugs? What made you “snap” out of that psychosis called religion and start to think more rationally?
No I was quite happy. Just deluded. You can see the about page for more info & my writings for more of my story.
I think the About section of this website will go a good ways towards answering your questions.
missed it by that much!
I guess I will read the About Me page. ;) Thanks for directing me to the answer.
It seems like unless the person was indoctrinated from a very young age, many people fall into the deluded mindset of religion when they’re down in their lives. You see it often when drug addicts, alcoholics, criminals, try to find some path to normalcy they chose religion.
Yeah. And christians are proud of that shit!
If a belief set offers “comfort” that’s (temporarily, in only some ways) better than lying in the gutter, but not much better, and that’s what someone clings to (probably because of the people around him trying to brainwash him with it), then christians somehow twist and distort that into how wonderful christianity is.
It’s like #10 from “Hundreds of Proofs of God’s Existence”:
10. MORAL ARGUMENT (II)
(1) In my younger days I was a cursing, drinking, smoking, gambling, child-molesting,
thieving, murdering, bed-wetting bastard.
(2) That all changed once I became religious.
(3) Therefore, God exists.
It’s really a non sequitur. Or maybe even a good argument against christianity, its appeal to the dregs. Or maybe a drug-addled brain or the low intelligence of a reprobate is more poorly-equipped than most for discerning reason and wise choices. But christians really eat that shit up.
They definitely do try to get them while they’re young and/or vulnerable. It’s not a coincidence, there’s a reason for that!
Agreed.
If only it was the drugs! I was reading an article in Huffpost about the defense of the catholic church of the criminal pedophelia conspiracy, and this one christian thought it was the “alcohol” that did it. And he encouraged all christians to put away the alcohol as it was hurtful to the war against the sins of the flesh. I would like to think it was only too much meth that makes someone think like this…..
I can relate to this, having been raised a preacher’s kid. The brainwashing was thorough. It easily took me 15 or 20 years to deprogram myself. Now I cringe whenever I hear this stuff being spouted by those who believe in the fantasy of it all. It’s especially a shame to see young children being herded off to Sunday School where the cycle of ignorance is perpetuated.
Sounds just like ME at one time! I’ve spent the last year blown away by my own brainwashed state of mind. Feel like I’ve missed a chunk of life b/c I was busy chasing my ever-illusive god. Sheesh!
Daniel, you are not alone. I cringe when I think of the things I did. In my very early 20′s I was still a christian (albeit a “backslidden” one – I believed the whole line, but didn’t necessarily live a “godly life” and all that). Anyway, my boyfriend’s father, who was Anglican, had a massive heart attack and was given a 20% chance that he would make it through surgery. I was wrestling with my conscience because I didn’t want him to go to hell when he died. But I didn’t want him to follow whatever the Anglican beliefs were, because that would not have been the One True Way and he would still go to hell. So I contacted the Chaplain of the hospital, not of his religion, but of mine, to try to convert him before he went into surgery! I don’t know if anyone on this blog can top this for stupid (not that we’re in a contest or anything, but if we were….)
One time I wrote a song that started out…
Jesus is bigger than state policy
Jesus is bigger than my boss and my job.
Jesus is bigger and holier and grander
Than you and your problems
Philosophy and slander
Yeah…
So your list isn’t really as bad as it could be.
By the way the song was called…
Jesus is Bigger
I know!
So Awesome!
I was browsing through the Houston Chronicle this morning and was blown away at this article’s title: title=”Is the meaning of Easter being lost?”
The ignorance regarding the historical Pagan meaning of Easter, fertility, and spring is not much of a surprise considering it was published in Texas. Why am I even irked by this?
After reading through some refreshingly secular comments, I stumbled upon this:
Pastor Teaches Valuable Easter Lesson to Little Boy By Beheading His Bunny Rabbit
Holy gods I initially thought it was real! Thankfully this satirical website surrounding Landover Baptist Church is a hoax, or else I would have been a very angry little girl this morning.