How many atheists/agnostics/pagans/ect were raised in christianity?

Originally posted by CaDreamer2
because of my choice to no longer be one i am an outcast...i havent spoken to my parents in many years...was told to never contact them again.

religion is evil

I went through the same thing. I was crushed at the time. I knew it was going to happen, so for a long time I pretended that I believed. Finally I couldn't live with the deception any more. Even knowing it was going to happen it still devastated me. Fortunately the last few months my family has come around, as far as talking to me. Religion is just not brought up. I dread the day it does.

Thanks all for your replies. They are interesting!

reply to post by ztruthseeker

I became very angry, as i learned that the world was severely messed up, and the ideology that i had been indoctrinated with was a lie.

I understand that anger, and to a lesser extent the depression when coming out of religion.
With me, it was based on all of that time and money, wasted. I missed out on a lot.

It took me years to do it. I didn't set out to intentionally leave christianity though. I just wanted to understand it. I think that if all I know now had hit me all at one time, like one big pie in the face, I'd have had a bad reaction. Time gave it a lesser impact.

I took a different path though. Instead of being an atheist, I see mankind as being a spiritual creature. But christianity is anything but spiritual.

It destroys the spiritual dimension of life. Personally, I believe that this destruction is its real purpose.

Then once you are clean and sober, it is a very joyful and awakening experience. You can let go off all the negative baggage, the guilt and shame, the ego, the condescending nature and the fantasy. You can then give your life purpose, and forge your own identity.

That says it all.

Originally posted by jmdewey60

Probably the main theme from what was at the forefront of the prophecy was the planned demise of Christianity by the agents of Satan. So here is the result, an institution run by people who don 't even believe in what they are preaching. From there it devolves into less and less meaningful messages until church become just another form of entertainment.
Satan wants us to be divided and to have us thinking we are isolated, wanting to be good but surrounded by evil.

Satan wants this, Satan wants that. Do you speak for Satan? You must, if you know what 'he' wants.

How does one destroy a religion? You can't. Christianity is doing quite well. They vastly outnumber Satanists; probably because we don't recruit others.

Christianity, when its destruction comes, will only be the natural end result of it collapsing under its own weight, not from Satan and His Infernal Sinister Evil Minions...

Now people can take the path that I took and remove themselves from that "worldly" church and become what they think are the True Christians, but that isn't the answer either. There is plenty of rottenness in the bible that is not open to the charges of tampering, bad translation, etc. In order to be what people consider to be a True Christian, you have to throw away your bibles and pick and choose what to believe apart from it.

The "true christians" basically have started their own individual religions and called it christianity.

Originally posted by CaDreamer2
because of my choice to no longer be one i am an outcast...i havent spoken to my parents in many years...was told to never contact them again.

religion is evil

Damn. Just damn.
I can't imagine that.

reply to post by LHP666

The "true christians" basically have started their own individual religions and called it christianity.

Not sure what you mean by that.
There are people who have home churches which I think is how churches were originally meant to be, in the New Testament. My church, in the meaning concerning a weekly obligation to attend meeting, is what I am doing right now, which is sharing ideas and if others think I am wrong, they point out my errors, and there is a general profusion of food for thought for those listening in.
As for Satan, my opinion is that there is a person responsible for the bad things in the world and at some point he will have to be held accountable. In the attempt to gain a mitigation of his impending sentence for punishment, he will attempt to subvert as many people as possible, for the purpose of putting them on exhibit as witness to how all these people are just as bad, or worse than he is.
My interpretation of "true christianity" is learning how to be good people and how to tap into the spiritual resources available in order to achieve that goal. It would be in the interest of Satan to infiltrate and subvert the message of Christianity and to turn it to a distraction such as how we have to bomb Muslims. So the collapse of Christianity would be similar to what we are witness to in the collapse of the American Republic system, by having evil interests such as Wall Street banking firms and exploitative multi-national corporations buying all the politicians.

Originally posted by jmdewey60
reply to post by LHP666

 

The "true christians" basically have started their own individual religions and called it christianity.

Not sure what you mean by that.

As for Satan, my opinion is that there is a person responsible for the bad things in the world and at some point he will have to be held accountable.

That is your opinion, fair enough. I disagree but I can respect anyones opinion.
But I have a question for you that perhaps you can answer.

1) What is the body count? How many did 'god' murder vs how many did Satan murder?
1a) What is the future body count for both Satan and 'god"?

Use your own bible for reference. We can assume it's accurate, for arguments sake.

Tell me how Satan is the Bad Guy here.

So the collapse of Christianity would be similar to what we are witness to in the collapse of the American Republic system, by having evil interests such as Wall Street banking firms and exploitative multi-national corporations buying all the politicians.

I can see how it's similar.

But "the devil made me do it" excuse doesn't work. To me it is just human nature to have greed, lust (sex and power lusts) etc. There are positives to these things too. It is in how these things are applied that can lead to benefits or problems.

It seems to me that christians want a safe world. A laudable goal to be sure, but entirely unrealistic. It's never been a safe world.
Responsibility to the responsible. Destruction to the rest.

reply to post by LHP666


I think I was making the point on this thread that what goes by the name, Christianity, is Babylon.

Use your own bible for reference. We can assume it's accurate, for arguments sake.

Tell me how Satan is the Bad Guy here.

I think the Old Testament was manipulated by the clergy or scribes or the powers that be, within Judaism in more recent times to make it look like it supports monotheism, by erasing variants of gods and inserting their politically correct god version, so it makes it difficult to tell who was doing what. I believe that Satan was switched to God (I'm being very generic so please, no nit-picking [I don't mean you, LHP666]), inadvertently in the process of "correction" of the text.

Originally posted by jmdewey60
reply to post by LHP666

 

I think I was making the point on this thread that what goes by the name, Christianity, is Babylon.

Use your own bible for reference. We can assume it's accurate, for arguments sake.

Tell me how Satan is the Bad Guy here.

I think the Old Testament was manipulated by the clergy or scribes or the powers that be, within Judaism in more recent times to make it look like it supports monotheism, by erasing variants of gods and inserting their politically correct god version, so it makes it difficult to tell who was doing what. I believe that Satan was switched to God (I'm being very generic so please, no nit-picking [I don't mean you, LHP666]), inadvertently in the process of "correction" of the text.

I think it's in Jeremiah that mentions "lying scribes". As far as I know, that is the only reference to this.
It's a real mess to figure out who said what, and when. Or if these people even existed in the first place.

Originally posted by LHP666
I think it's in Jeremiah that mentions "lying scribes". As far as I know, that is the only reference to this.
It's a real mess to figure out who said what, and when. Or if these people even existed in the first place.

Yep - the bible - the ultimate Telephone Game.

Not exclusive to the bible - BTW.

reply to post by Annee


They had ghost writers back then too. But that didn't stop them from writing in the first person, in that characters name, putting words in that characters mouth.

reply to post by LHP666


You can see the same thing today and I don't want to name names exactly, to avoid that derailment, where they say, "Here is a work of fiction, based on actual events, so we don't have to present any proof, seeing how it is fiction, but now that you have read it (or watched, in today's medium) we want you to accept it as reality and don't dare question it."
That's just how it's done, indoctrination through propaganda, and how can anyone expect it to have even been otherwise?

reply to post by jmdewey60


Off topic; but are you talking about the "The Fourth Kind"?- alledgedly based on a "true story".

reply to post by ExistentialNightmare


I was thinking more political.
But the concept is there, where I don't know how many people I have heard talk about it as if it was real.
I had a girlfriend years ago who told me that X-Files was written from actual FBI cases.

reply to post by jmdewey60

I had a girlfriend years ago who told me that X-Files was written from actual FBI cases.

I don't think that's such a conspiracy; i've heard people claim that there are many CIA/FBI or other "agents" working as sleepers within Hollywood, because Hollywood has a massive effect on our culture, and how we think about things and reason; perhaps it would be within the interest of those who crave power to influence us through that medium. We certainly shouldn't take Hollywood seriously, but subliminal messages are sometimes hard to detect.

Anyway, apologies to the OP; maybe my comments highlight how we are easily influenced or "controlled" in a way.

Something to watch out for.

reply to post by ExistentialNightmare

I don't think that's such a conspiracy;

It wasn't like she had special info, it was just that she watched the show and accepted it as actual history.
I couldn't believe how lame she was and ended up literally running away from her (not literally, literally, a burn-out in my car, if I was being literal, but it has become a figure of speech, in the usage of the word).

reply to post by ExistentialNightmare


They're in the press, so why not hollywood? I'd be shocked if I found out that they weren't there too.

I remember reading somewhere, and I have no link handy to prove this, that as an experiment they measured peoples brainwaves as they watched the boob tube. When their brainwaves were primarily alpha waves, which is a trance state, the TV shut off.
None could keep the TV on for more than 30 seconds.
That leaves much time to insert programming.

And BTW, I dont care about topic drift, unless I write in the OP that I want it kept on topic.

Strangely I was raised in an agnostic/atheist household, and leaned towards being pagan before highschool (which was nominally christian), and never really leaned any other way (pagan) ever since. However unlike many pagans... other faiths don't bother me (well if they try they only try once )