Former Christian - Atheist of 15 Years

[Deconvert]

Hi all,

I'm a 35 year old atheist who was raised as a Christian by my still religious conservative mother - who now drives me insane with her opinions! I have three kids and am raising them secularly. I am also a Science teacher and teach mostly Biology. I am on a few science teachers who actually teaches evolution and doesn't either flat out refuse to teach it because it contradicts personal opinions (illegal much?) or at least "not get around to it" like some at my own school...and I work in Los Angeles - not in the Bible Belt.

Evolution played a large role in my deconversion. I was told my whole life that evolution was a lie perpetuated by evil scientists who were under satan's influence. Darwin was Satan's messenger and dinosaurs were planted in the ground by Satan to confuse us - as well as many other absurd propositions. Once I took an AP Biology class and learned the truth about the theory, and not some straw man version, I was convinced that evolution was true! It made so much sense it had to be. In a weird way, the way the church misrepresented the unifying theory of all biological sciences is what made me distrustful of the entire Christian doctrine. I thought to myself, "If they are wrong about this, then what else are they wrong about?" And then a closer reading of the Bible caused my doubt to grow and everything began to gradually unravel.

Anyway, I'm glad I found this forum because it will hopefully be a good place to vent frustrations and have a sense of community that is often lacking in the "real world" due to my status as a non-believer. I am out to everyone I know. I'm not a popular person with anyone who can't handle having a friend with different opinions than theirs.

[stromboli]

Welcome and vent away. We have plenty of people here from the Babble Belt. Have some good discussions and an occasional theist to take pot shots at. We like to refer to the majority of them as "chew toys."

[Mike Cl]

Welcome, Decon, I know you will like it here.  It really must be tough with your mother living in another world.  In any case, welcome to the forum.

[Unbeliever]

Howdy Deconvert! 


Yep, as I like to quote, from Augustine of Hippo,

Often a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other parts of the world, about the motions and orbits of the stars and even their sizes and distances,... and this knowledge he holds with certainty from reason and experience. It is thus offensive and disgraceful for an unbeliever to hear a Christian talk nonsense about such things, claiming that what he is saying is based in Scripture. We should do all that we can to avoid such an embarrassing situation, which people see as ignorance in the Christian and laugh to scorn.

[Mr.Obvious]

Welcome, deconvert, to our little band of heathens.
You'll fit right in.

[Baruch]

Welcome also.

[AllRight]

Welcome! I can relate to being surrounded by family members who are believers and being unpopular especially at work, but I am so relieved to be free of the myth of religion and have recently joined this forum.  I hope you appreciate the diverse bunch on here as much as I do!

[The Atheist]

Welcome

Howdy Deconvert! 


Yep, as I like to quote, from Augustine of Hippo,

It seems like a lot of ancient Christians interpreted Genesis allegorically. Origen, in his De Principiis, wrote:

Now who is there with understanding that will regard the statement as appropriate, that the first day, and the second, and the third, in which also both evening and morning are mentioned, existed without sun, and moon, and starsâ€" the first day even without a sky? And who is found so ignorant as to suppose that God, as if He had been a husbandman, planted trees in paradise, in Eden towards the east, and a tree of life in it, i.e., a visible and palpable tree of wood, so that anyone eating of it with bodily teeth should obtain life, and, eating again of another tree, should come to the knowledge of good and evil? No one, I think, can doubt that the statement that God walked in the afternoon in paradise, and that Adam lay hid under a tree, is related figuratively in Scripture, that some mystical meaning may be indicated by it.

[Baruch]

That is why Origen's writings were banned from the Church.  One of the two schools of Kabbalah, engaged in allegorical interpretation of Genesis, the other engaged in allegorical interpretation of Ezekiel.

[Solomon Zorn]

Welcome, Deconvert! Starting my 20th year of the deconversion process, myself. Some of the delusions are harder to shake than others.

Here's one of my poems, that you may like: http://www.solomonzorn.com/the-water.html