Full Games List
Featured Games
New Games
Reviews
Media
Images
Blogs
Game Updates
Images Feedback Summary
Game Design Highlights
Tutorials
Articles
Scripts
Utilities / Plugins
Resources
Engines
Engine Bulletins
What is Makerscore?
Past Events
Achievements
Misaos
Forums
Post History
Chat
New to RMN?
Full Store List
RMN Music Pack (free)
EX-RELIGION PEOPLE OF RMN - WHAT DID YOU LEAVE, WHY DID YOU LEAVE, AND HOW HAS IT AFFECTED YOU?
Posts
Hexatona
View playlists
CloseAs for me, I'm an Ex-Christian. Pretty lame, considering some of the more cultist religions out there that make it harder to leave.
For me, it was just a long buildup of cognitive dissonance. I thought I was a good Christian lad. I wasn't fanatical about it. But I was always very interested in science, and it started to bother me how much my peers weren't. For me, aligning science and religion wasn't really an issue.
But, over years, a build up about rationality, questions about hell, idolatry, white-washing, pseudo-science, and a long look at the people around me and what they did versus what they said. I didn't want to stand with these people anymore.
Even with all that, I still didn't really take my leap until I read a book that pretty much picked up every problem I had, and pointed out to me just how irrational that would be, and gave me a far better explanation.
As of now, I hold two beliefs. One, I still believe in a God. But, I also know that the universe in which one does not exist, and the one that I believe could exist are functionally identical.
SO ANYWAY - what did you leave, and why? How hard was it? What did you gain, what did you lose? Share your story here.
For me, it was just a long buildup of cognitive dissonance. I thought I was a good Christian lad. I wasn't fanatical about it. But I was always very interested in science, and it started to bother me how much my peers weren't. For me, aligning science and religion wasn't really an issue.
But, over years, a build up about rationality, questions about hell, idolatry, white-washing, pseudo-science, and a long look at the people around me and what they did versus what they said. I didn't want to stand with these people anymore.
Even with all that, I still didn't really take my leap until I read a book that pretty much picked up every problem I had, and pointed out to me just how irrational that would be, and gave me a far better explanation.
As of now, I hold two beliefs. One, I still believe in a God. But, I also know that the universe in which one does not exist, and the one that I believe could exist are functionally identical.
SO ANYWAY - what did you leave, and why? How hard was it? What did you gain, what did you lose? Share your story here.
My family was never religious - we never went to church or anything. I think we were supposed to be 'United'..? Though I did go to a Catholic school because they were the only ones to offer french immersion. And then I stuck with it despite dropping french immersion because my friends were there.
I started questioning religion in kindergarden (no joke!) and firmly decided the whole religion thing was hokum sometime in the middle grades (grade 4 or 5? definitely by grade 8). Not being inundated with weekly sermons designed to indoctrinate youth couple with exposure to daily religious thought in school was probably a contributing factor - it's just such an alien way of thinking to me. To this day I still wonder at people who believe in magic. Another contributing factor was my interest in fantasy and old religions like greek, roman, and norse religions and the realization it is just so fucking easy to make up believable shit. I rationalized then that if a 12 year old could come up with plausible religious stories (yes, I was writing stories and designing RPGs/worldbuilding back then) imagine what ADULTS could do over CENTURIES when real power and influence was at stake!
Religion is fascinating, though. And there is nothing better than it to get people to do things for their own damn good than religion. Pigs are water intensive to raise in a desert! SOLUTION: Pigs are dirty don't eat them, sez "God". Cows can walk on the muddy indian deltas where horses and oxen can't? Don't have a cow, man! ~Hindu guy. But we have grown past this need, right? We have laws and governments and science and countries that can take care of leading humans more effectively than religion, right?
I "left" Christianity (I never really was a part of it). I believed in Santa for longer than I believed in God or gods. I left because I think religion is a stupid waste of time resources and effort that could be more efficiently put to better uses. It has affected me for the better, as I am better able to appreciate the fantastic wonders of the natural world, and value the time I live within it.
tl;dr - religion was a useful tool in human history but we have outgrown our need for it.
I started questioning religion in kindergarden (no joke!) and firmly decided the whole religion thing was hokum sometime in the middle grades (grade 4 or 5? definitely by grade 8). Not being inundated with weekly sermons designed to indoctrinate youth couple with exposure to daily religious thought in school was probably a contributing factor - it's just such an alien way of thinking to me. To this day I still wonder at people who believe in magic. Another contributing factor was my interest in fantasy and old religions like greek, roman, and norse religions and the realization it is just so fucking easy to make up believable shit. I rationalized then that if a 12 year old could come up with plausible religious stories (yes, I was writing stories and designing RPGs/worldbuilding back then) imagine what ADULTS could do over CENTURIES when real power and influence was at stake!
Religion is fascinating, though. And there is nothing better than it to get people to do things for their own damn good than religion. Pigs are water intensive to raise in a desert! SOLUTION: Pigs are dirty don't eat them, sez "God". Cows can walk on the muddy indian deltas where horses and oxen can't? Don't have a cow, man! ~Hindu guy. But we have grown past this need, right? We have laws and governments and science and countries that can take care of leading humans more effectively than religion, right?
I "left" Christianity (I never really was a part of it). I believed in Santa for longer than I believed in God or gods. I left because I think religion is a stupid waste of time resources and effort that could be more efficiently put to better uses. It has affected me for the better, as I am better able to appreciate the fantastic wonders of the natural world, and value the time I live within it.
tl;dr - religion was a useful tool in human history but we have outgrown our need for it.
My family is Christian Catholic, and I went to Christian Catholic private schools for 12 years. I still believe firmly in a lot of the religious ethics I was raised with, but the dogmatic parts of the religion were too much for me. The nearly blatant fearmongering regarding premarital sex, not going to church every Sunday, homosexuality, etc... it all strikes me as very irrelevant. It has nothing to do with what I believed was the core message of Jesus, which is: be a good person, be forgiving, and do you best to take care of those who can't take care of themselves. And despite all their trying, biological teenage horniness trumped scripture. At some point I decided it'd be less stressful to just be a sinner.
So, while I still think some parts of the Bible are good, I'm not nearly devout enough to call myself a Christian. I'm also not theistic, although I'm not atheist either. I don't find the existence or non-existence of God relevant to my daily life. I don't think it should have anything to do with my actions or reasoning. I believe good morals are important because they benefit humanity - which is also god for me by proxy - and not because they were decreed to be correct by someone with higher authority.
Now I'm a lot happier and self-satisfied! I don't stress about breaking rules that don't make sense. I don't feel guilty about sex. I don't condemn people just because of arbitrary bullshit. And I save an hour every week not going to church.
So, while I still think some parts of the Bible are good, I'm not nearly devout enough to call myself a Christian. I'm also not theistic, although I'm not atheist either. I don't find the existence or non-existence of God relevant to my daily life. I don't think it should have anything to do with my actions or reasoning. I believe good morals are important because they benefit humanity - which is also god for me by proxy - and not because they were decreed to be correct by someone with higher authority.
Now I'm a lot happier and self-satisfied! I don't stress about breaking rules that don't make sense. I don't feel guilty about sex. I don't condemn people just because of arbitrary bullshit. And I save an hour every week not going to church.
My family is Roman Catholic on both sides.
I think I "formally" left the faith after Confimation happened- maybe at age 16 or 17? Although it had been years of me not really giving a shit about it/believing in it up to that point. I guess I just went along with it since I wasn't an adult and had to still implicitly care about what my parents wanted of me at that point (that's not to say that I don't care now, but that I can make my own decisions about it without any questioning/authority coming from my folks), and well, they wanted me to get confirmed. I made a deal with my Dad that I'd do the confirmation for their benefit but that I was out, full stop after that.
The confirmation process was exceedingly creepy. Before that I hadn't really been going to church for years and years out of simple boredom with it, and not knowing why I should care about whatever the priest was slowly chanting about that week. I never believed any of the shit anyways. But yeah, the Confirmation, IMO, was just straight up brainwashing- being forced to sit in a backroom of the church and watching videos that may as well have been the phrase "JESUS IS GOOD" & "BELIEVE IN GOD" repeated endlessly. It really made me want to get the fuck out of there, and solidified in my mind that I didn't like the place anymore.
I mean, I enjoy the mythology and art behind religion. It's super inspirational to world building and design, and really interesting to read about. For that alone I can give it some respect. I certainly wouldn't say that it's pointless in modern times or anything, since I have religious friends who derive a lot of value from it. It's just not my thing. I'd rather be free and live the way I feel like living, not trying to live up to some imaginary idea of what a good person is supposed to be.
I think I "formally" left the faith after Confimation happened- maybe at age 16 or 17? Although it had been years of me not really giving a shit about it/believing in it up to that point. I guess I just went along with it since I wasn't an adult and had to still implicitly care about what my parents wanted of me at that point (that's not to say that I don't care now, but that I can make my own decisions about it without any questioning/authority coming from my folks), and well, they wanted me to get confirmed. I made a deal with my Dad that I'd do the confirmation for their benefit but that I was out, full stop after that.
The confirmation process was exceedingly creepy. Before that I hadn't really been going to church for years and years out of simple boredom with it, and not knowing why I should care about whatever the priest was slowly chanting about that week. I never believed any of the shit anyways. But yeah, the Confirmation, IMO, was just straight up brainwashing- being forced to sit in a backroom of the church and watching videos that may as well have been the phrase "JESUS IS GOOD" & "BELIEVE IN GOD" repeated endlessly. It really made me want to get the fuck out of there, and solidified in my mind that I didn't like the place anymore.
I mean, I enjoy the mythology and art behind religion. It's super inspirational to world building and design, and really interesting to read about. For that alone I can give it some respect. I certainly wouldn't say that it's pointless in modern times or anything, since I have religious friends who derive a lot of value from it. It's just not my thing. I'd rather be free and live the way I feel like living, not trying to live up to some imaginary idea of what a good person is supposed to be.
I really feel for a lot of folks out there trying to leave their religions and escape their brainwashing. If you guys ever go on reddit, you should check out some of the /r/ex_____ (religion specific) subs. Some of the stories of families being torn apart, depression, entrapment and downright danger some folks have to deal with when leaving are so sad.
I believe there are specific subs for ex-scientology, ex-jehovah's witness, ex-mormon, ex-muslim, ex-christian, ex-catholic, ex-jewish, and a few others.
The mormon one is particularly active.
I believe there are specific subs for ex-scientology, ex-jehovah's witness, ex-mormon, ex-muslim, ex-christian, ex-catholic, ex-jewish, and a few others.
The mormon one is particularly active.
Jeroen_Sol
Nothing reveals Humanity so well as the games it plays. A game of betrayal, where the most suspicious person is brutally murdered? How savage.
3885
My mother used to be a Roman Catholic, but I was always bored out of my mind when she took me to church. I'd just keep reading the booklet with the songs that were to be sung, and be happy at the end of every song, because there'd only be X songs left until I could leave. My father, who isn't religious, also didn't have to come to church, which I found extremely unfair. I was religious, but really didn't like church. I did my first communion, but stopped believing quickly after.
What really was the turning point for me was when in the year of middle school, we started translating basic, dumbed down Latin texts about gods, and when I mentioned them to my mother, she said they were nice stories.
I thought to myself: 'Why are these texts about gods just 'stories,' but not the ones I grew up with?' I really turned myself away from religion after that, which in large part was because I was starting to go through puberty and becoming an annoying, rebellious teen. My mother accepted the fact I was no longer religious and didn't try to push it, which is something for which I'm really grateful.
I was a really awful person for a while, openly hating and shitting on everything religion. When puberty ended, I took a long hard look at my atheist beliefs, and realized they were no more valid than religious beliefs. On the same grounds I thought people had no right to claim existence of a God, I had no right to claim non-existance of one.
That's when a somewhat nihilistic thought came to me: 'If science can only teach us about the material world, and gods are supposedly immaterial, what value does questioning their existance or non-existance even have?' And that's when I became the hard agnostic I still am today.
What really was the turning point for me was when in the year of middle school, we started translating basic, dumbed down Latin texts about gods, and when I mentioned them to my mother, she said they were nice stories.
I thought to myself: 'Why are these texts about gods just 'stories,' but not the ones I grew up with?' I really turned myself away from religion after that, which in large part was because I was starting to go through puberty and becoming an annoying, rebellious teen. My mother accepted the fact I was no longer religious and didn't try to push it, which is something for which I'm really grateful.
I was a really awful person for a while, openly hating and shitting on everything religion. When puberty ended, I took a long hard look at my atheist beliefs, and realized they were no more valid than religious beliefs. On the same grounds I thought people had no right to claim existence of a God, I had no right to claim non-existance of one.
That's when a somewhat nihilistic thought came to me: 'If science can only teach us about the material world, and gods are supposedly immaterial, what value does questioning their existance or non-existance even have?' And that's when I became the hard agnostic I still am today.
Really interesting read so far....
I'm probs the odd one out in that I'm an ex-Muslim!
I was raised by a pretty moderate Islamic family, and lived in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia during my younger years. As a result, it was pretty hard not to have the same beliefs as everyone else. In particular, I had a very....interesting time in a religious school in Saudi Arabia, where kids celebrated 9/11 the day after it happened, and my English teacher hated the Harry Potter franchise with a burning fashion (I'll never forget the one time he read the back of the book in the library...when he got to the "Harry Potter is a wizard" part his voice was literally shaking).
Around the time I turned 12 years old, I discovered the internet proper, and within it such sites as FaithFreedom.org that made me start questioning my, well, faith.
Finally, once I had moved to the UK with my family in 2006 (when I was 14), similarly to Jeroen, I realised that the Universe was too vast and complicated to be explained by a single religion.
As for my beliefs now - I flip between agnostic and atheist depending on my mood LOL.
What did I gain?
-> Drinking is fun (in moderation) and bacon is nice.
-> Having to hide said drinking and bacon-eating from Muslim peers has led to some pretty hilarious moments, which make for good topics of conversation at house parties.
-> Apart from the above, can't think of anything else. My parents are pretty chill and are not on my case for not praying, or fasting this Ramadan (I don't think they're fasting themselves. They're really not great Muslims thinking about it LOL). I haven't told them I don't believe in God, though.
What did I lose?
-> The feeling that a higher power is "on my side".
-> Pretty much all of my Muslim friends. It's hard to motivate yourself to keep in contact with people who say "GAY PEOPLE! I WANNA SEE GAY PEOPLE" when they visit you in your adopted homeland...
-> My faith in humanity, because I'm astonished how people can still follow organised religion in this day and age.
The worst part?
I'm gonna have to live the rest of my life with the guilt of lying to my parents about a HUGE amount of stuff I do. Drinking alcohol, eating pork (ESPECIALLY eating pork, geez), um...unsavoury sexual material..never mind the fact that I just do not believe in the same God they do.
These days there's a lot of defense of Muslims on the internet. To an extent I can understand that (marginalised communities defending marginalised communities), but let's not forget that for whatever reason, organised religion causes a LOT of problems for children. I'm actually one of the lucky ones!
I'm probs the odd one out in that I'm an ex-Muslim!
I was raised by a pretty moderate Islamic family, and lived in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia during my younger years. As a result, it was pretty hard not to have the same beliefs as everyone else. In particular, I had a very....interesting time in a religious school in Saudi Arabia, where kids celebrated 9/11 the day after it happened, and my English teacher hated the Harry Potter franchise with a burning fashion (I'll never forget the one time he read the back of the book in the library...when he got to the "Harry Potter is a wizard" part his voice was literally shaking).
Around the time I turned 12 years old, I discovered the internet proper, and within it such sites as FaithFreedom.org that made me start questioning my, well, faith.
Finally, once I had moved to the UK with my family in 2006 (when I was 14), similarly to Jeroen, I realised that the Universe was too vast and complicated to be explained by a single religion.
As for my beliefs now - I flip between agnostic and atheist depending on my mood LOL.
What did I gain?
-> Drinking is fun (in moderation) and bacon is nice.
-> Having to hide said drinking and bacon-eating from Muslim peers has led to some pretty hilarious moments, which make for good topics of conversation at house parties.
-> Apart from the above, can't think of anything else. My parents are pretty chill and are not on my case for not praying, or fasting this Ramadan (I don't think they're fasting themselves. They're really not great Muslims thinking about it LOL). I haven't told them I don't believe in God, though.
What did I lose?
-> The feeling that a higher power is "on my side".
-> Pretty much all of my Muslim friends. It's hard to motivate yourself to keep in contact with people who say "GAY PEOPLE! I WANNA SEE GAY PEOPLE" when they visit you in your adopted homeland...
-> My faith in humanity, because I'm astonished how people can still follow organised religion in this day and age.
The worst part?
I'm gonna have to live the rest of my life with the guilt of lying to my parents about a HUGE amount of stuff I do. Drinking alcohol, eating pork (ESPECIALLY eating pork, geez), um...unsavoury sexual material..never mind the fact that I just do not believe in the same God they do.
These days there's a lot of defense of Muslims on the internet. To an extent I can understand that (marginalised communities defending marginalised communities), but let's not forget that for whatever reason, organised religion causes a LOT of problems for children. I'm actually one of the lucky ones!
Hey, thanks for sharing, Mango - On the plus side, since you're a dude you didn't have to deal with your parents tricking you to go back to Pakistan to get married?
author=Hexatona
Hey, thanks for sharing, Mango - On the plus side, since you're a dude you didn't have to deal with your parents tricking you to go back to Pakistan to get married?
To be fair the whole forced marriage thing is MUCH more of a cultural thing than a religious one, but yeah, it's still fairly prevalent in less affluent Pakistani families.
I'm actually okay with the idea of an arranged marriage, where my parents would look for a good candidate for the post of, uh, life-partner, and both of us would decide whether we wanna pursue further. Basically dating, but with parents as the match-makers - and the stakes are a BIT higher lmao
YM
I'm gonna have to live the rest of my life with the guilt of lying to my parents about a HUGE amount of stuff I do.
I feel you there, Yellow. I'm like 9 layers in now, lol
Corfaisus
"It's frustrating because - as much as Corf is otherwise an irredeemable person - his 2k/3 mapping is on point." ~ psy_wombats
7874
I had a handful of questions:
1. What if hell doesn't exist? *fear*
2. Why can't anything be questioned? *ignorance*
3. How can love be a sin? *prejudice*
I'm trying to figure these kinds of things out in a rational way and what makes humanity so concerned about what they can only understand through anthropomorphism.
We view morality and a greater consciousness through the lens of a formula. It isn't necessarily the means to an answer, but the variables one applies to it results in a complete and applicable equation. We might therefore equate the natural functions of the universe to a machine which we are simply trying to discover the purpose for. If the machine is man-made, the purpose is evident. If the machine is foreign or the construct of a greater consciousness than what we can perceive, the problem is unsolvable.
We want to believe that all things serve a purpose as we create things to fulfill our own purposes, hence the necessity for God; but if we acknowledge that the functions of the universe serve no purpose than to continuously repeat a pattern, the need for God disappears.
The biology of life repeats a pattern until eventually expending itself into death. Why do bad things happen to good people? It's simply really: an outside influence (foreign bacterial agents and/or conscious intervention) deemed it so.
Well of course you'd like for someone else to pair you up with someone to touch butts with, that takes the responsibility out of your hands and you reap the benefits.
1. What if hell doesn't exist? *fear*
2. Why can't anything be questioned? *ignorance*
3. How can love be a sin? *prejudice*
I'm trying to figure these kinds of things out in a rational way and what makes humanity so concerned about what they can only understand through anthropomorphism.
We view morality and a greater consciousness through the lens of a formula. It isn't necessarily the means to an answer, but the variables one applies to it results in a complete and applicable equation. We might therefore equate the natural functions of the universe to a machine which we are simply trying to discover the purpose for. If the machine is man-made, the purpose is evident. If the machine is foreign or the construct of a greater consciousness than what we can perceive, the problem is unsolvable.
We want to believe that all things serve a purpose as we create things to fulfill our own purposes, hence the necessity for God; but if we acknowledge that the functions of the universe serve no purpose than to continuously repeat a pattern, the need for God disappears.
The biology of life repeats a pattern until eventually expending itself into death. Why do bad things happen to good people? It's simply really: an outside influence (foreign bacterial agents and/or conscious intervention) deemed it so.
author=Yellow Magic
I'm actually okay with the idea of an arranged marriage, where my parents would look for a good candidate for the post of, uh, life-partner, and both of us would decide whether we wanna pursue further. Basically dating, but with parents as the match-makers - and the stakes are a BIT higher lmao
Well of course you'd like for someone else to pair you up with someone to touch butts with, that takes the responsibility out of your hands and you reap the benefits.
author=Corfaisus
Well of course you'd like for someone else to pair you up with someone to touch butts with, that takes the responsibility out of your hands and you reap the benefits.
Takes away responsibility? Reap the benefits? What do you mean?
author=YM
I had a very....interesting time in a religious school in Saudi Arabia, where kids celebrated 9/11 the day after it happened
Wow, that's...fucked.
YM, I believe they mean that the problem of actually going out and finding a date is thus taken care of.
RyaReisender
200
Yeah, if you are female, arranged marriage kinda sucks because you can almost freely pick a partner anyway, but if you are male (and not in the top 100 most beautiful men), finding a partner can be really tedious and nerve-wracking with lots of women just playing with your feelings just because they can, up to the point where you think you are worthless and just wanna die. So in that case arranged marriage isn't all so bad.
Oh yeah, I'm not sure if I believe in god or not, but I'm pretty sure that if there are tons of different religions and most religions are like "If you don't believe in THIS religion, you go to hell and suffer eternally." then it's pretty much a gamble who goes to hell and who doesn't anyway. Might as well think up myself what a god would want me to do and then just do what I consider being the right thing to do and hope I don't get to hell because I ate pork.
I've been confronted with religion mostly by my father who is christian (my mother is atheist) and my parents kinda decided they will send me to church and teach me all the christian stuff and then I should decide myself.
The biggest encounter I had with religion however was my best friend. She was from algeria and had a very strict muslim family. And eventually she started trying to convert me to muslim too. She starting saying "I'm so worried about you, I don't want you to go to hell and suffer eternally!" and similar things all the time and told me all the scary stories about hell and what I should be doing and what I shouldn't be doing. That kinda awakened the rebel in me and I tried to convince her that believing in god is what only stupid people do. Neither of us really succeeded in convincing the other. I learned a lot about that religion in the process, though. We managed to met in private secretly once and I kinda cuddled with her. Later she said she did regrets she didn't do "more". She always told me she likes clowns so at her birthday I sent her a clown doll, but she got angry because it's dangerous when her parents see it (apparently puppets not allowed). After that she starting to change further and became really... devoted? It was weird, she starting doing things for her religion she previously said she doesn't care about (like covering her hair). She also really loved music, but threw her MP3 player away claiming that devices created by humans are forbidden. Eventually she said farewell to all her friends because of course the internet/phone is also human-created and consequently evil. She said we'll never see her again and that stayed true. Nobody ever saw her again. I met some previous friends of her years later and learned that she was actually in love with me but never said anything because it was pointless because I wasn't muslim.
Ever since then I kinda hate religion.
Can't say I have any regrets, though. I tried my best to get her away from religion.
Oh yeah, I'm not sure if I believe in god or not, but I'm pretty sure that if there are tons of different religions and most religions are like "If you don't believe in THIS religion, you go to hell and suffer eternally." then it's pretty much a gamble who goes to hell and who doesn't anyway. Might as well think up myself what a god would want me to do and then just do what I consider being the right thing to do and hope I don't get to hell because I ate pork.
I've been confronted with religion mostly by my father who is christian (my mother is atheist) and my parents kinda decided they will send me to church and teach me all the christian stuff and then I should decide myself.
The biggest encounter I had with religion however was my best friend. She was from algeria and had a very strict muslim family. And eventually she started trying to convert me to muslim too. She starting saying "I'm so worried about you, I don't want you to go to hell and suffer eternally!" and similar things all the time and told me all the scary stories about hell and what I should be doing and what I shouldn't be doing. That kinda awakened the rebel in me and I tried to convince her that believing in god is what only stupid people do. Neither of us really succeeded in convincing the other. I learned a lot about that religion in the process, though. We managed to met in private secretly once and I kinda cuddled with her. Later she said she did regrets she didn't do "more". She always told me she likes clowns so at her birthday I sent her a clown doll, but she got angry because it's dangerous when her parents see it (apparently puppets not allowed). After that she starting to change further and became really... devoted? It was weird, she starting doing things for her religion she previously said she doesn't care about (like covering her hair). She also really loved music, but threw her MP3 player away claiming that devices created by humans are forbidden. Eventually she said farewell to all her friends because of course the internet/phone is also human-created and consequently evil. She said we'll never see her again and that stayed true. Nobody ever saw her again. I met some previous friends of her years later and learned that she was actually in love with me but never said anything because it was pointless because I wasn't muslim.
Ever since then I kinda hate religion.
Can't say I have any regrets, though. I tried my best to get her away from religion.
author=Feldschlacht IVauthor=YMWow, that's...fucked.
I had a very....interesting time in a religious school in Saudi Arabia, where kids celebrated 9/11 the day after it happened
To be fair, we WERE kids at the time...I'd assume most of us have grown up since then.
author=Hexatona
YM, I believe they mean that the problem of actually going out and finding a date is thus taken care of.
Well there's still the problem of the date, you know, actually liking you :<
Yeah, if you are female, arranged marriage kinda sucks because you can almost freely pick a partner anyway, but if you are male (and not in the top 100 most beautiful men), finding a partner can be really tedious and nerve-wracking with lots of women just playing with your feelings just because they can, up to the point where you think you are worthless and just wanna die. So in that case arranged marriage isn't all so bad.
Um, something tells me you're speaking out of...some very bad experiences...
That story is pretty heartbreaking by the way ;( Can't say I'm surprised though. Religion can be a very big deal for some people
Basically I hate being guilt-tripped, so after I was done with the sacraments thing and "saved my soul", I bailed. After that I found out things like Jainism and Taoism were more like my jam, but eventually I left that behind as well. I still consider myself a Deist(?) or "spiritual" or whatever, but I'm done with religion... No hatin' Most of my family are still religious.
It hasn't really affected me much. Living in a overly Catholic country it can be quite an issue, specially in some areas. But most people in my immediate circles are fine with it. At most I get into awkward conversations when I have to explain to them why I won't assist to their wedding/christening/whatever... One thing I miss about going to church though, is that some churches are really pretty/eerie. Specially the old ones from colonial times. It's like stepping into a Castlevania game. O.o
It hasn't really affected me much. Living in a overly Catholic country it can be quite an issue, specially in some areas. But most people in my immediate circles are fine with it. At most I get into awkward conversations when I have to explain to them why I won't assist to their wedding/christening/whatever... One thing I miss about going to church though, is that some churches are really pretty/eerie. Specially the old ones from colonial times. It's like stepping into a Castlevania game. O.o
So, after years and years of being a devout Christian...I'm not sure what happened. I never really had a bad experience with it, but I developed a very strong dislike for Christianity specifically. I'm not Atheist or even Agnostic. I think of myself as a Deist, like alterego. Of course, most people here know I pursue the study of sorcery (which actually doesn't require you to follow any specific religion.).
You know, in a way I am thankful to god that my family was never religious.
Look, I know I will be killed for saying this and I know it's a very offensive thing to say, please feel free to dislike/hate me.
But I feel a lot of religious people are severely mentally ill, and should go see a doctor. Thinking you get some kind of reward after your dead, is, i'm sorry, but are you sure???? really?????
i guess it's called FAITH
imo the life is the only gift, you will ever be given.
and it's really sad that most people cannot help but dislike there gift.
no wonder we hope for a better tomorrow after we are dead.
Look, I know I will be killed for saying this and I know it's a very offensive thing to say, please feel free to dislike/hate me.
But I feel a lot of religious people are severely mentally ill, and should go see a doctor. Thinking you get some kind of reward after your dead, is, i'm sorry, but are you sure???? really?????
i guess it's called FAITH
imo the life is the only gift, you will ever be given.
and it's really sad that most people cannot help but dislike there gift.
no wonder we hope for a better tomorrow after we are dead.
But I feel a lot of religious people are severely mentally ill, and should go see a doctor. Thinking you get some kind of reward after your dead, is, i'm sorry, but are you sure???? really?????
Ah, I totally disagree. In no way can I judge people for holding out hope for a happy afterlife. When people have to put up with the stresses and dangers of every day life, it seems incredibly natural to hope for something better, even if it's unrealistic or absolutely fantastical. Faith can help pull people through tough situations and create optimism where pessimism would fail - which means that belief in something unreal can improve something real. I'd argue that a healthy indulgence in unbelievable things is part of the reason we play video games, and that it can be very good for us.
I don't agree with people using that faith to justify horrible things. Still, I hardly blame anyone for leaning on it to keep going. Maybe we wouldn't need faith in a perfect world, but that's not the world we live in!
