Finally meeting nonbelievers

I attended my first freethinkers meeting last night.  I was concerned there may be some satanic looking folks there, or scary weirdos   But low and behold, a bunch of normalish looking folks.  Most of them were older than me and actually conservative and peaceful.  Good bye stereotypes.

I am very excited because I can tell I have a lot to learn from these folks.  It's nice just to know that I am not being looked down upon because I do not believe.  Actually, I think I got a few pity looks because I have gotten myself in such a bind out of religious obedience.

Oh well, onward we go.


Here's to the future and today!

Kumare

Have you seen or heard of this movie?
I really recommend it.

To become an activist or not

I have told myself that I wouldn't become a fanatic about anything in my life ever again.  My life of Christian zeal took almost everything I had, including my sanity.

Since I have abandoned faith I have become so much calmer, more peaceful, happier.

But, I see so many of my friends still caught in the religious loop.  Trapped in their hopes and fears in things unseen.  Do I want them to have to get to the point of complete psychological break before they accept that it is all a myth?

This is where I am. I have not made a decision yet.  I long to find a way to peacefully confront these delusions.

Hitchens debate

I find the points in debate made by Hitchens very sweeping and concise.

On Easter and the need for Jesus.

This Easter is especially different for me.  For the last four or five Easters I have had less and less a sense of connection with the spirituality surrounding the season of Lent and Easter and more a realization that they had very little to do with my real life.

The disconnect between my husbands understanding of faith and my own is growing.  I want to teach my children to love and care for others and be humble.  But I also do not want to teach them that it is ok to allow people to suffer for some greater good. This is in essence what Easter does.  Yes, there are times when a hero is needed.  It is noble to risk ones life for another, but too often I see this manifest in peoples life to mean that we need to jump through certain hopes and rituals and penances.

Is the need for Christ's death similar to that of child sacrifice?  Why would God need a death to appease him? Is he not all powerful? Why does this make sense?  It doesn't to me, at least not right now.

Would you teach your child goblins were real?

If you believed that a terrible creature was not real, would it be right to teach them that it was?

I remember being afraid of devils and demons my whole life.  Everyone I knew believed they were real. Within the past year I realized that I had never actually seen or experienced in reality a demon.  So, what am I afraid of?  A shadow?

How is it kind and caring to put this fear into my children?  That is what I am being asked to do by not confronting them with the fact that mommy doesn't believe in God or angels or devils anymore.

It's sad.  We'll see what happens from here.

Atheist to Catholic conversions

I read a book last night that compiled a lot of atheist to Catholic conversion stories.  Some of the stories where very moving.  Many of these people have happier lives after faith than before.  The one story that I can relate to is that of the Raving Atheist.

He was first compassionate to pro-life issues and noticed many people in the atheist community lacking in morality.  He noticed the love of Christians and people that faith brings.  I definitely understand this.  This is surely a result of belief at times, not always.  I really do not want to change most of my morals and my pro-life stance as a nonbeliever.

But still, it seems fairly clear that much of the "reasons" these people chose to believe was based on anecdotal evidence.  In almost every story there was a boyfriend, spouse or close friend who was a believer.  I think there is a bit of coercion toward faith if it is a major thing separating a couple.  For me personally, my husband still obviously believes very strongly.  I know that I am staying more open to faith due to my relationship with him.

What if these people had not had a close relationship influenced by Catholicism, but rather Islam?  If you check out the internet there are tons of conversion stories to Islam.  These people have very similar reasons to believe.

At this point, it still seems very coincidental, as in my own life.