I am SO TIRED of thinking about xtianity.....

[Manifestor_of_Light]

I just DO NOT WANT to hear ANYTHING about Jeebus.

Case in point: My first ex-hubby is studying for a M.Div. at a liberal Methodist seminary. He started life as a Reform Jew, thirty years ago when we were briefly married in college. his parents screamed at me about converting, I tried to convince them I was raised Presby but was NOT a xtian, they had a chip on their shoulder. He screwed a mere eight of my girlfriends while we were married, and it didn't last anyway, so I didn't have to worry about converting. I would have converted with no problem if we'd had a real marriage, but we didn't.

I threw the triple paradox at him in an email discussion. His brother died last year and I caught up with him at the memorial service, so now we occasionally email each other. He says "It is all Mythos anyway" and he says he doesn't believe in original sin, substitutionary atonement, the standard doctrines. So if it's all stories explaining what god is, then what makes him say he is a christian?

He seems to have grown up into a decent person and I'm glad he found his calling, but I don't want anything to do with that part of his personality.

I think he's an interesting person but I don't want to put the effort into thinking about xtian philosophy when asking him questions like the above. Probably because it's so random, primitive, magical and totally contradictory compared to, say, the philosophy of Buddha.

I think all the abrahamic religions are pure bullshit, the least objectionable one is Judaism because at least they are intellectual and ask pointed questions. I just do not want to be around anyone who is a xtian and I don't want to have to respect their primitive animal sacrifice, cannibalistic, hateful and psychotic morality.

Where I live, the people next door have a six foot cross in their front yard and there are asshole churches everywhere. We are social outcasts and have no white friends b/c we don't go to church, and we voted for Obama. We have the angry rednecks here.


Anybody else with me??

[PassingFair]

1. Your post gave me a headache.

:hug:

I thought I had it bad in Michigan! I was
one of five children, the result of a mixed
marriage (Mom is Episcopalian, Dad was an
atheist).

All of my siblings are freethinkers, but
one of my brothers married a fundy
Catholic, and keeps his MOUTH SHUT when it
comes to religion.

Make for some awkward moments at family
gatherings, where noting is sacred!

Up here, even most RELIGIOUS PEOPLE cannot
define WHAT they believe, or WHAT it means
to them, other than a "feel good" feeling.


Go NORTH, young person, go NORTH!!

:hug:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. And the bad part is....

this guy is a liberal Christian. I was raised around liberal Christians. Presbyterian, in fact. I went to a Presbyterian college where I met this guy. I have a lot of respect for educated liberal xtians, like the ones I was raised with.

He's not one of those idiot bible thumpers like the ones I live around, but I STILL don't want to be around him.

Well, I'm not that young since I was married to this guy thirty years ago, and I've lived my whole life in Texas. I don't like hot humid weather (that's why Zeus invented Freon) and I have never lived where it gets really cold. The price was right for this place (I inherited it) but unfortunately I live in the middle of a giant black hole of redneck ignoramii and fanaticism.

I have to drive eighty miles on a 2 lane state highway to go to a UU fellowship, which means an overnight stay in a hotel on Saturday night.

you're right about people not being able to define what being a xtian is. I never felt like gawd was speaking to me, and never saw prayer doing a damn thing for me. So I stopped believing.

Strangely enough, when my grandmother, my mom and my dad all neared the end of their lives, they all said there was no afterlife and xtianity was meaningless. And the cool part was that they were down with it. They were not afraid of death. Mom's sister, the Methodist, was horrified when I told her that. I guess she wanted them to all be scared shitless of Hell as they declined.

:grr:

[and-justice-for-all]

4. The worst thing you can do is remain silent...

it is my golden rule, when the discussion comes up, to not at all be shy or intimidated to not speak up. "I am an Atheist, kiss my ass."

My partner, a cop, even says the pledge of allegiance as it was originally written; you know, without the gawd crap. He received some inquiry as to why he left out the gawd crap, but that was all...no problems what so ever.

Once you take a stand and not allow people, in or out of your family, to suppress your world view then your are left alone.

[PassingFair]

6. I admit that on the RARE occasions when someone within earshot has said clearly....

"I'm an atheist", it has BLOWN ME AWAY! Sometimes
it's been people that I NEVER would have thought
were atheists, sometimes people who I thought MUST
be atheists.

It's kind of like the moment in the "Emperor's
New Clothes", when the kid announces that the
king is butt naked.

Keep speaking out STRONGLY, because it thrills
and emboldens the rest of us.

:yourock:

My kids are atheists and have taken a LOT
of crap from other kids (and some of their
parents, not to mention my mother) because
of it. They are not so quick to announce to
the room that they are freethinkers anymore. :cry:

Everyone who I consider my friend, and certainly
everyone in my family knows I am an atheist. It
would be detrimental to me at work if my boss knew,
but many of my co-workers know and in an office
of about 50 people, I know of 3 other atheists.

[Warpy]

3. My ex was the grandkid of a preacher

and his dad was very churchy. I suspect my ex was a deist, but we really didn't talk about it much beyond a total disgust with organized religion of any type. He did meditate on occasion. He was a good guy who went down the alcohol road and I couldn't follow, so I wish him well.

The Bronze Age desert religions are pure bullshit. I can't imagine the kind of ego that requires a deity to be at one's beck and call. I can't imagine all the hooplah over a deity that's so small and petty as to offer itself at one's beck and call.

The more conspicuous the believers are, the more I figure they're closet doubters who think if they convince the rest of us, they'll convince themselves. They're invariably total assholes in the process.

Show me a guy who feels compelled to erect a six foot cross in his yard and I'll show you a guy who secretly wants to erect it in mine and set fire to it.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

5. I think this guy is not an asshole. My ex.

but I still don't want to deal with him, even though he's a liberal xtian. He's not trying to convince me of anything, and he says he understands why I reject xtianity. So he's not disagreeing with anything I say.

I live in East Texas where the right wing zealots are EVERYWHERE.

[Deep13]

7. Yup.

Believers, I'm not interested and stop assuming your religious "values" apply to me.