religion

My religious upbringing and a timeline

I was born an atheist,  at 5 I was sure God existed because I was told by the person I trusted the most that God existed.  As I learned about the bible and started to understand the world I became a little more agnostic on the idea and was an agnostic catholic at 8.  At 13 my mother decided the Catholic Church wasn’t exciting enough and we joined a born again Christian Church, I was 13.  I said the special password prayer you need to say to let Jesus know you want in to heaven.  Literally, this was the argument and justification, say this prayer and you won’t burn in hell, you’ll go to heaven.  What 13 year old that still trusts his mother wouldn’t do that?  I did it… I was an agnostic Born-again Christian.  I talked to Jesus at night before bed, and I tried to get my father on the proper path as well.  I was tortured over the thought of him going to hell.

As I learned about science I leaned towards being an agnostic deist.  This process lasted several years and I happily with any type of theistic belief.  I was living with a non-practicing Jewish father who I thought of as very “Jewish” and now know him as someone who believes in Spinoza’s God or Einstein’s deistic leanings.  When I was about 20 I looked up atheism for the first time on the internet, I found Jake who helped me think myself out of my deism.  I was able to call myself an agnostic atheist less than a week later.  For the first time I was able to call myself an atheist without thinking I was evil because of the word that my mother brainwashed me about, that was 14 years ago. It was at that point I decided to spend my life correcting the wrongs of religion.

Mom, if you’re reading this… keep in mind, your completely ridiculous religion helped cause our family breakup.  Religion kills families.  My efforts come in large part because of how religion was forced on me as a child, but also because of all the other people who have told me about their upbringings, some of whom can use the word “Cult” to describe how they were brought up.   I was about 14 when you started praying for me to want you in my life, it’s been 20 years, where is that getting you?

Story about mentally retarded women used in terrorist attacks

BAGHDAD (AP) – Two mentally retarded women strapped with remote-control explosives—and possibly used as unwitting suicide bombers—brought carnage Friday to two pet bazaars, killing at 73 people in the deadliest day since Washington flooded the capital with extra troops last spring. The coordinated blasts—coming 20 minutes apart in different parts of the city—appeared to reinforce U.S. claims al-Qaida in Iraq may be increasingly desperate and running short of able-bodied men willing or available for such missions.

But they also served as a reminder that Iraqi insurgents are constantly shifting their strategies in attempts to unravel recent security gains around the country. Women have been used in ever greater frequency in suicide attacks.

The twin attacks at the pet markets, however, could mark a disturbing use of unknowing agents of death.

SOURCE ARTICLE

Scientology Crackpots

Wow these scientologists are freaked out of their gourds. Compare the way they dodge and weave to what you see in Tom Cruise. Some of them seem to be the epitome of “ignorance is bliss.” How incredibly stupid…

Portions of video description from Valarauko:
Scientologists harassing Mark Bunker who disagrees with Scientology. They even tried to follow him home and they’ve picketed his actual home.

Oh, and Enturbulation was made up by Scientology and is not part of the English Language. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enturbulation

Also, XenuTV and Mark Bunker are on Myspace.com. Check out his Myspace where he blogs about Scientology.

http://www.myspace.com/xenutv

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Christian blogger gives nod to RRS “debate” victory.

After watching the debate a few times online, it’s clear that the Rational Response Squad claimed the victory. Way of the Master had promised before the debate that they could prove the existence of God in thirteen minutes, without using faith or the Bible. Sadly, within just a few minutes they had utterly broken their promise. Now, I don’t claim to be able to prove that God exists any better than Comfort and Cameron. I can’t even say that I would have done better in their places.

From the verge.

Here are two very relevant videos:
1. The highlights from the Cameron/Comfort/RRS “debate.” (it was more like a “response” not a “debate”)
2. Re-cap about WOTM after shit hit the fan.

Just for kicks…

I rarely indulge him, but this one was the elusive self pwn and I had to, just had to point it out…

Fran quotes me…

“It would seem instead that Fran embodies the stereotype of the immoral Christian who would lie and cheat for Jesus.”

After quoting me, he says…

“On the other hand, he says I cheat. Cheat? Cheat in what exactly? I never cheated in my life.”

Do you see me say the words “Fran cheats?” I was making an inference. See how it could have been more honestly represented?

The elusive self pwn strikes again.

Cory Tucholski: Honest Christian of the day

A special shout out to the honest Christian of the day…

Josiah Concept Ministries

I don’t want this to turn into an anti-Frank Walton ministry, but I thought that I would offer up one more post on why his “ministry” is not a Christian one.

First, the new poll on the side. He asks for the best word to describe Brian Sapient. The choices are less than Christian ways to describe any individual.

While Sapient and I disagree ideologically, a small part of me wishes that I had the ability to devote my life full-time to my writing and ministry. Sapient has the opportunity to do that, and he seems very driven at his activism. I suppose, therefore, the word I would choose to best describe Sapient is “driven.” I think it fits better than the choices that Frank has offered up.

Cory Tucholski of josiahconcept.org gets my honest Christian of the day badge. While at the root I feel one must at the bare minimum lie to themselves in order to believe in a god, I don’t think all Christians are liars… or stupid for that matter. Rumors have been spread, I look forward to a day in court (count on it atheist crowd, I’ll take care of it for you). It can be hard to admit when your ally is also your enemy, especially when you feel like you need more good help. Cory is honest enough to admit that Frank is not someone who should be representing. It would seem instead that Frank Walton embodies the stereotype of the immoral Christian who would lie and cheat for Jesus.

Kudos to you Cory. I look forward to a day when we can have you on the show. Preferably at some point after you start approving our blog comments on your blog. You can have a free pass on that one tonight considering the circumstances.* Conversation with Christians that have a propensity to be honest when pushed to the edge are exactly the type of people I enjoy talking with, people I think I have a chance to make a difference with. Most Christians embrace the notion of faith and dogma so close, that they are simply unable to be honest in discussions about God.

* update: Cory didn’t realize he was losing comments.  He claims to never have deleted the comment or two we’ve posted which never made it to his blog.  He posted our comments tonight.