by Tdarcos » Fri May 08, 2020 3:40 am
bryanb wrote: Thu May 07, 2020 4:58 pm
Tdarcos wrote: Thu May 07, 2020 2:26 pm
pinback wrote: Thu May 07, 2020 11:23 am
Not Catholic? What religion are you then?
I realized you knew I was an atheist, same as you,
To be fair, I guess Paul would still have been identifying as an agnostic in the BBS days.
No, actually I was a Christian. It was about 1987 I came upon a book that turned me agnostic, in two paragraphs.
bryanb wrote: Thu May 07, 2020 4:58 pm
I've always been curious if you were as convinced as you are now during the periods when you were religious or agnostic.
Sort of. When I was religious I had questions, and my "soul ached" because of mixed-up thinking. When I'd try to think, it was like my mind was trapped in molasses. Or like there was a thick wall inside my mind - a block - I had to get around.
I had an incident when I was about 16. I discovered something in the Bible that I did not like. I asked someone about it. They basically criticized
me for attaking the word of god or what I thought was a threat to god, I forget. I think I said something to the effect of, "If a 16-year-old boy with no religious training thought something that is a threat to the word of god, (or to god), the god it represents must be really weak." They couldn't answer that.
Twelve years after that, I read the book that changed my life. While I read the two paragraphs that made me an agnostic, there was a 60-page section that essentially explained that my thinking was contradictatory; you can't believe two mutually exclusive things at the same time, and (while it didn't say so) trying to reconcile the ideas or think two (or more) things that conflict with each other is going to slow your thinking to a crawl.
A short time later I was doing something, and thinking about something, and there was a weird feeling in my head, like I could actually think. The blockage wasn't there any more! I visualized it as a smashed-down concrete wall, reduced to a broken edge and a pile of dust. I could now just step over it.
But the more important part was when I read the two paragraphs, in that moment it hit me: I would never be able to believe in the Christian god again. As far as I knew, that made me an agnostic. About 30 years later, I discovered it also made me an atheist.
bryanb wrote: Thu May 07, 2020 4:58 pmAre there hundreds of posts archived in a QWK packet somewhere where you explain why everyone who isn't also an agnostic is an idiot?
Nope, I've never said that. I don't think they are idiots. Of course, I used to be one (Christian, not necessarily an idiot).
People who are religious usually are because they followed their parent's faith. Whivh is why most people in America are Christian, in the Middle East they are mostly Muslim, in Israel, Jewish, in India, probably Hindu, etc.
[quote=bryanb post_id=108627 time=1588895912 user_id=2003]
[quote=Tdarcos post_id=108621 time=1588886803 user_id=829]
[quote=pinback post_id=108620 time=1588875788 user_id=5]
Not Catholic? What religion are you then?
[/quote]
I realized you knew I was an atheist, same as you,
[/quote]
To be fair, I guess Paul would still have been identifying as an agnostic in the BBS days.[/quote]
No, actually I was a Christian. It was about 1987 I came upon a book that turned me agnostic, in two paragraphs.
[quote=bryanb post_id=108627 time=1588895912 user_id=2003]
I've always been curious if you were as convinced as you are now during the periods when you were religious or agnostic. [/quote]
Sort of. When I was religious I had questions, and my "soul ached" because of mixed-up thinking. When I'd try to think, it was like my mind was trapped in molasses. Or like there was a thick wall inside my mind - a block - I had to get around.
I had an incident when I was about 16. I discovered something in the Bible that I did not like. I asked someone about it. They basically criticized [i]me[/i] for attaking the word of god or what I thought was a threat to god, I forget. I think I said something to the effect of, "If a 16-year-old boy with no religious training thought something that is a threat to the word of god, (or to god), the god it represents must be really weak." They couldn't answer that.
Twelve years after that, I read the book that changed my life. While I read the two paragraphs that made me an agnostic, there was a 60-page section that essentially explained that my thinking was contradictatory; you can't believe two mutually exclusive things at the same time, and (while it didn't say so) trying to reconcile the ideas or think two (or more) things that conflict with each other is going to slow your thinking to a crawl.
A short time later I was doing something, and thinking about something, and there was a weird feeling in my head, like I could actually think. The blockage wasn't there any more! I visualized it as a smashed-down concrete wall, reduced to a broken edge and a pile of dust. I could now just step over it.
But the more important part was when I read the two paragraphs, in that moment it hit me: I would never be able to believe in the Christian god again. As far as I knew, that made me an agnostic. About 30 years later, I discovered it also made me an atheist.
[quote=bryanb post_id=108627 time=1588895912 user_id=2003]Are there hundreds of posts archived in a QWK packet somewhere where you explain why everyone who isn't also an agnostic is an idiot?[/quote]
Nope, I've never said that. I don't think they are idiots. Of course, I used to be one (Christian, not necessarily an idiot).
People who are religious usually are because they followed their parent's faith. Whivh is why most people in America are Christian, in the Middle East they are mostly Muslim, in Israel, Jewish, in India, probably Hindu, etc.