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Old 04-27-2007, 03:08 PM
 
Location: Mill Valley, California
275 posts, read 433,061 times
Reputation: 243

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Hi Everyone!

This thread was inspired by this one
http://www.city-data.com/forum/polit...testimony.html

In the hopes that we have some "equal time" in this world, I thought atheists can tell us all their wonderful stories of how they freed themselves from the shackles of Christianity (or Judaism or Islam, or whatever you were born into) and became a free-thinker, "bright", atheist, etc. (you pick your favorite term).

NON-BELIEVERS:
Please share your testimony of how you realized Christ/God/(<insert any other faith here>) was merely a myth and a fairy tale told to you by your parents. There are a lot of people here that may be touched by your testimony. Your testimony could hit home to someone out here in cyberspace...Perhaps you have went through something that someone else on here can relate to! Please tell us how you were freed, how your life was BEFORE becoming freed from religion, and what effect achieving freedom from religion has had on your life. Also, to show our "human" side, please include things you may call your "weak areas" in your life that you may still be working on and may perhaps be seeking guidance to get you through and succeed in freeing yourself from the lies and deceptions of religion once and for all. Even after freedom from religion is achieved, we are all confounded by the things we learn from our new perspective and we may often wonder how on Earth we missed these things while hiding under the shroud of Christ and religion.

For the BELIEVERS:
Please feel free to read everyone's testimony. Please feel free to ask questions regarding someone's testimony. While reading, you may find you have questions. I'm sure most of us will readily do our best to answer the best we can. HOWEVER, this is NOT intended for you to witness, quote the Bible, proelytize, and start atheist bashing. I am really just hoping that some of these testimonies might help someone out there and show everyone that atheists ARE HUMAN TOO! Atheist ARE NOT better than anyone else...Atheists can freely admit that they (we) can easily be wrong about our ideas, but have found that the search for truth and the freedom to think for our selves is one of the most important things in life. Again, we are here to help if you have any honest and sincere questions. But please, do not start bashing on anyone.
If you do not feel that you can be nice...please remember you have free will and do not have to participate in this thread. Please do not misunderstand me here, all believers are more than welcome to comment and question, just please do not do anything to belittle or demean or dehumanize anyone.
Thank you!


Have fun everyone!
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Old 04-27-2007, 04:02 PM
 
Location: Naples
1,247 posts, read 919,806 times
Reputation: 344
This is a nice idea, HopOnPop. However, you'll probably find that outside of a few people, most atheists don't care about sharing their "testimony". It's not important to them the way it is to Christians. It doesn't define an atheist like it does a Christian.
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Old 04-27-2007, 05:03 PM
 
Location: NOTfromhere, Indiana
341 posts, read 1,483,498 times
Reputation: 212
Who says we ever HAD religion to begin with? lol
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Old 04-27-2007, 11:09 PM
 
19,198 posts, read 31,374,691 times
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I agree with LF05, but the Freedom from Religion Foundation once did a poll like this, asking its atheist members what the turning-away-from-religion point had been for them. There were a bunch of answers, but the only one that I actually remember was short and to the point -- Learning to Read.
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Old 04-28-2007, 12:41 AM
 
Location: Hell
606 posts, read 694,405 times
Reputation: 85
I just can't find any reason to support the exist of God.
And my parents are atheists,too. We don't see the need of religion of any kind.I was born atheist.
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Old 04-28-2007, 10:17 AM
 
19,198 posts, read 31,374,691 times
Reputation: 4013
An increasingly common phenomenon. In earlier days, nearly all atheists were out of some sort of religious upbringing or other. Today, active non-believers feel less pressure to become associated with some church or other just for the sake of social appearances, while the more passive non-practicioners simply do golf or yardwork or shopping on the Sabbath instead. Either way, there is an ever larger proportion of young people coming up without having been handed in their more impressionable years a set predisposition on the matter of religion. And much hangs on this. If one begins from an assumption that God (any of them) exists, and waits for non-theists to convince them otherwise, the outcome is fairly certain. If, however, one begins without any such assumption, and waits for theists to come forward with convincing testimony in favor of the proposition, well, the wait for that could well be a long one indeed.

I might be a little biased on the matter, but from my perspective, religion is a complex concept that the minds of four- and five-year olds are simply not equipped to handle. There is plenty of time for our sons and daughters to come to their own grips with the issue as they mature and gain experience from having dealt with less convoluted problems. Those who end up believing have the satisfaction and bedrock of having come to their faiths on their own. Those who end up not believing can meanwhile be thankful for having been spared the sometimes quite tedious process of unloading all that excess baggage...
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Old 04-28-2007, 10:21 AM
 
2,971 posts, read 2,244,341 times
Reputation: 658
How can one share testimony of denial or disbelief?
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Old 04-28-2007, 10:24 AM
 
Location: Tucson, AZ
1,697 posts, read 3,471,442 times
Reputation: 1549
Religion never made a lick of sense to me even as a child. I remember sitting through Sunday School and sermons in church thinking to myself that there was no way any of this stuff could possibly be true- this at an age where most kids believe just about anything that trusted adults tell them.

The day I no longer felt the need to pretend I was a believing Catholic was a huge relief and load off my shoulders.
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Old 04-28-2007, 10:24 AM
 
Location: Naples
1,247 posts, read 919,806 times
Reputation: 344
Quote:
Originally Posted by spunky1 View Post
How can one share testimony of denial or disbelief?
That would be a testimony of enlightenment.
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Old 04-28-2007, 10:44 AM
 
2,971 posts, read 2,244,341 times
Reputation: 658
Quote:
Originally Posted by LeavingFlorida05 View Post
That would be a testimony of enlightenment.
What enlightenment of not believing something? A witness of evidence of something they believe doesn't exist.
But leaving Florida, in another thread you just said something to the effect, "Where did I say I don't believe in God."
I'm puzzled, which is it?
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