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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
 Posted - 02/09/2005 : 22:07:01 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by jimrobb
I am not being snide when I ask this. I'm serious. Are ALL of you writing on this topic ex-Catholics? I'm sure seeing a lot of you discuss your old priest/church/religious school, etc. Makes me wonder . . .
My mom was Episcopalian, and took me to services every once-in-a-while. Close, but not Catholic.
(And yeah, technically I wrote on this topic.  ) |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9687 Posts |
Posted - 02/09/2005 : 22:45:58 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by jimrobb
I am not being snide when I ask this. I'm serious. Are ALL of you writing on this topic ex-Catholics? I'm sure seeing a lot of you discuss your old priest/church/religious school, etc. Makes me wonder . . .
I'm ex-pentecostal  |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 02/10/2005 : 01:23:24 [Permalink]
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I don't know if you count childhood activities. I don't consider myself an 'ex' because I'm not sure if I ever 'was a'. I cannot remember really going to church except on Easter and I have memories of climbing the church steps on crutches so I must have been attending something there. It was a Baptist church but in California so I don't think the crowd was the same as it might be in the Bible Belt. My parents did send us to 'Vacation Bible School' and I went to church camp once or twice, it's a bit of a blur.
I went through the motions of 'born again' somewhere but that's a blur as well. It was probably at the same church. I believed it at the time.
The last time I remember going to church, or was going to go anyway, was when I was 14. My brother had his driver's license. Instead of going to church, we went somewhere and he spun donuts in a field. We got the car washed but being stupid forgot to wash the underside so we got busted.
My neighbors were Catholic. Too many rituals for my taste.
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 02/10/2005 : 01:28:41 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dr. Mabuse
I'm ex-pentecostal
When I was a teen a friend of a friend was murdered so she wanted to go to church and I went with her. We ended up in a Pentecostal church by a random decision. Wow! It was a trip. Everyone started talking in tongues, flailing around, crying, crawling on their knees. It took us totally by surprise. |
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Starman
SFN Regular
Sweden
1613 Posts |
Posted - 02/10/2005 : 01:33:24 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by jimrobb
I am not being snide when I ask this. I'm serious. Are ALL of you writing on this topic ex-Catholics?
Was a member Lutheran Swedish state church. Baptized and confirmed but never really a believer. I have been an atheist from the point when I thought about it.
Both parents atheists but they never really told me that, the subject never came up.
I have yet no reason to support theistic evolution. No god has provided any real answers so far. |
"Any religion that makes a form of torture into an icon that they worship seems to me a pretty sick sort of religion quite honestly"
-- Terry Jones |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 02/10/2005 : 02:48:18 [Permalink]
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Parent was agnostic and I had no religious upbringing, but the extended family was, for the most part, Southern Baptist and Methodist.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 02/10/2005 : 06:15:21 [Permalink]
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| My close family didnt raise us with religion, THANK GOD! However the rest of the fam is prodigiously catholic, outbreeding all of Germany, literally. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 02/10/2005 : 07:58:28 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by jimrobb
I am not being snide when I ask this. I'm serious. Are ALL of you writing on this topic ex-Catholics? I'm sure seeing a lot of you discuss your old priest/church/religious school, etc. Makes me wonder . . .
ex-Presbyterian here. Still thiestic, though. |
Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
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tkster
Skeptic Friend
USA
193 Posts |
Posted - 02/10/2005 : 08:15:57 [Permalink]
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It has long been my view that the more you read the Bible the more you find it to be untrue. I do think many pastors who've read the Bible countless times have found theological ways around errors in the Bible as they have used their ad hocs around. The younger the people who read the Bible and realize it's impossibility, the better for an older person who already assumes it to be truth will have a harder time turning away from it when seeing it to be false.
For every ounce of religion we teach, we need to teach a pound of logic.
tk |
| Edited by - tkster on 02/10/2005 08:17:09 |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9687 Posts |
Posted - 02/10/2005 : 09:04:13 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by beskeptigal
quote:
Originally posted by Dr. Mabuse
I'm ex-pentecostal
When I was a teen a friend of a friend was murdered so she wanted to go to church and I went with her. We ended up in a Pentecostal church by a random decision. Wow! It was a trip. Everyone started talking in tongues, flailing around, crying, crawling on their knees. It took us totally by surprise.
Most of the pentecostals in Sweden I've seen aren't as much over the top.
Perhaps I was in too deep to really be an objective observer.
hmm... No, we/they were not as much over the top.
I'm eternally grateful I'm done with them. |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 02/10/2005 : 10:41:11 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by jimrobb
I am not being snide when I ask this. I'm serious. Are ALL of you writing on this topic ex-Catholics? I'm sure seeing a lot of you discuss your old priest/church/religious school, etc. Makes me wonder . . .
Mother never indocrinated me. She's just recently converted to christianism (evangelical), and even as such she says I've to find my own way, whatever makes me feel good. She did raise me to believe in god, but no god in particular. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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furshur
SFN Regular
USA
1536 Posts |
Posted - 02/10/2005 : 10:43:15 [Permalink]
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Not an Ex-Catholic. I still go to a Presbyterian church most sundays. I look at the whole Jesus/God thing as myth, but I get a lot of good stuff from the fellowship and the message. I have discussed with the minister my lack of faith and his take is if I get something out of the church - great.
The church is pretty liberal we welcome just about anybody. One lady in the congregation is convinced that the bible teaches reincarnation, the minister says he doesn't read it that way but says he's been wrong before. 
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If I knew then what I know now then I would know more now than I know. |
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jimrobb
New Member
38 Posts |
Posted - 02/13/2005 : 15:14:26 [Permalink]
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| Wow. This is an amazingly diverse group. Thanks for the background. I was brought up Methodist and became Episcopalian five years ago. Happy with that. |
Jim Robb  |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 02/13/2005 : 15:38:51 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by beskeptigal
. . . the Bible has so many things wrong when it comes to descriptions of the natural world, at some point you have to say, the Bible is basically a collection of myths. And, there are no other religious texts in my experience that do any better.
Although I know this has been brought up elsewhere (probably by me  ), I'd like to stress that in addition to what we would classify as "myths" (e.g. the creation story, the flood, etc.), the Bible as it has been passed down to us, also contains histories (albiet very slanted to serve various agendas) and allegorical works about the patriarchs. Indeed, many might rightly call at least parts of the Bible literature.
The story of Joseph, for instance, does not describe actual events as they happened (as far as we know!), but it served various purposes that are probably still valid for many religious people. And while scholars debate about if David or Solomon actually existed, the geo-poltical events described in, for example, II Samuel, do jibe with what we understand about the history of the region in some broad sense (e.g. there were territorial battles between the Aramaens in Damascus and the Israelits in Jerusalem ca. 900 bc).
Thought I'd throw that in... |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 02/13/2005 : 16:39:54 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Cuneiformist
The story of Joseph, for instance, does not describe actual events as they happened (as far as we know!), but it served various purposes that are probably still valid for many religious people.
My mother feels a strong connection with the story of Joseph, as her lifestory is similar. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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