Comments on: Branding an Adolescent Mind

By: Lyndon

Lyndon — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:32:57 +0000

Jon, thanks for your comments. It’s good that you haven’t made your mind up yet. I hope you never do. Keep it open and enjoy the possibility of what could be. I thought it was time I put down some of my thoughts on the subject of where it all came from on my own blog. Best wishes on your journey!

“Where did all this stuff come from?” on Words Less Spoken

By: Where did all this stuff come from? « Words Less Spoken

Where did all this stuff come from? « Words Less Spoken — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:16:24 +0000

[...] a 15 year old also struggling with matters of faith and reason, who recently commented on my post “Branding an Adolescent Mind” at de-conversion.com: Although, i speak to anyone willing to try to convert me but i have never [...]

By: John

John — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:29:27 +0000

Man, you knew just how to explain the situation that i’m in. I went to church when i was really young, due to my extremely christian mother, but my mind works like my father’s. We think very logical and i refused to believe in something with little to no basis. I began classifying myself somewhere between atheist and agnostic when people asked about a year after i left the church. My mom, ironically believed it was close minded of me. Although, i speak to anyone willing to try to convert me but i have never heard anything that really made me wonder about the truthfullness of their beliefs. The one line that i really couldn’t answer was, “despite from the big bang and any of those scientific beliefs, where did all that matter come from?” My only answer i could give to that christian crusader was, “Who are you to say that it all began from a superior being or entity, for some reason, deciding this should be and made it happen?” By the way, anyone who just read this should know, i’m only 15. I’m still discovering my own mind and i am yet to decide my thinking when it will really reach the end that we all wonder so much about. I too, found happiness and comfortability in truly believing what my mind tells me with the information i’ve been given.

By: Lyndon

Lyndon — Tue, 06 May 2008 03:20:08 +0000

Ted, I should bracket my comments with the fact that I live in the second notch on the Bible belt in North Louisiana. While pastoring I discovered that even many of the devout Christians had a faith based largely on assumption and superstition. Most people do not read the Bible for what it actually says but rather for what they want it to say, in particular to support fundmentalist religious beliefs. Even among those who do not go to church, there is a foundational belief/assumption that God is real and the ultimate judge of your eternal soul.

While it is perfectly acceptable to voice your complaints about the local church around here, it is contemptible in this culture to suggest that there is no God or that the Bible is not “the innerant Word of God.” It’s not just considered blasphemous. It is down right un-American in the South.

For those reasons, it’s just easier not to speak of such thoughts in polite company.

By: Ted Goas

Ted Goas — Tue, 06 May 2008 03:07:34 +0000

I’d rather avoid the shock waves and the fallout, because I know that people get angry, they get hurt, they feel the need to put your name on the prayer list.

Interesting how you put it like this. Clearly show how divisive religion can be. If you let people down by not agreeing with their fantasy beliefs?

Do any of them understand WHY you are the happiest in life right now? Or are they just disappointed you’re not on the ‘winning team’ anymore?

By: Non Sicuro

Non Sicuro — Fri, 02 May 2008 23:30:13 +0000

Facsinating post. I was raised going to church, but practically speaking, my family was quite agnostic (though I didn’t recognize it as such at the time). When I went to college, I dumped Christianity completely for a while, but eventually jumped in whole hog…becoming super-Christian, far more conservative and kooky than my parents ever dreamed one of their kids could be.

After ten years of being radically “different” in my family through my particular version of Christianity, I have de-converted. I have adopted the agnosticism of my father, who no longer even poses as a Christian by attending Church.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:21:08 +0000

Hmm, maybe I should get an “anti-label” sign, for kicks.

By: secondlady

secondlady — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:47:41 +0000

Religion to me is to connect with God not with organization. It is serving God and enjoying the company of people that enabe us to attend church services. Shaping of moral perspectives comes second.

By: paralleldivergence

paralleldivergence — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:47:20 +0000

Great post. Here’s an article that takes the discussion a little further:
http://paralleldivergence.com/2006/11/04/which-is-stronger-manfluence-or-godfluence/

Love your “de-conversion wager” - forget Pascal!

By: LeoPardus

LeoPardus — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:30:39 +0000

Re post 9 by Dre:

Another drive by doesn’t bother to find out who we are, and out of ignorance graces us with his/her “answers”.

Sometimes I’m tempted to cast off my policy of not following these people to their own sites. Wonder how they’d like me pooping ignorance, preconceived bigotry, and canned “answers” all over their place?