cuthroat said:
I think that that divorce is usually an easy out for temporary problems but when there is a serious problem why would god see it as a sin? We all screw up in many ways and God accepts us as imperfect as we are.
On another note, Lestat what made you break away from your christian upbringing? You obviously questioned your parents beliefs, just wondering.
I've posted this before, so some people might think I am just being redundant, but since you asked I'll tell you.
My parents found christ shortly before I was born in 1977. Before that, my mom was a casual methodist, went to church with her mom and sisters (grandfather was a doctor, a man of science, and did not believe nor attend church but that did not stop his wife from raising her daughters as methodists). My father never attended church, was not a Christian, was in the military, had been to Thai Land, lived with my mom before marriage, they were not married in a church, not married by a minister etc.
They met some neighbors that were born again Christians that witnessed to my parents, took them to church, and my parents were hooked. They went to a baptist church, and this was a very vunerable time for them, they were both under 25 years old, out on their own here in California away from all friends and family, they had no kids yet, no real purpose or direction in life, the church came along and gave that all to them, they were born again in christ and re oganized their lives to revolved around christ.
So then I'm born a year or two later, I went to private christian schools, I went to church 3 times a week.
I almost hated it immediately. I didn't like getting up early on Sundays. I didn't like not being able to do stuff like stay the night at friend's houses on saturdays because I had to be at church at 9am on Sundays. I got moved from 2nd base to outfield on my little league team because I could never make the Wednesday night practice. I had to go to church.
So the first thing that made me question my parents faith was this. I was playing "karate" in the yard with a friend, I was somewhere between 10 and 12 years old, I was kicking a tree. One of the neighhorhood kids said "I can't play karate because I'm a jehovas witness" I didn't get it. I went home and asked my parents. My parents said that jehovas witnesses were not christians, they were a cult that was way off base. I went back and told my friend that, and he told his parents, and then his parents went to my parents and got in some huge shouting match. We weren't allowed to hang out after that. I realized then that this religion shit is seriously flawed. That kid and me were fucking kids man, we were just spewing the shit that our parents told us was true, the only reason I believed what I did was because my parents told me it was true, the same goes for that kid. As I got older I met jewish people, mormons, muslims, atheists, etc. I realized that all of these faiths has some very common themes. One of them was behavior control, especially socially. They would somehow tie in the fate of someone's soul for all of eternity with how they behaved on earth. YOu are not supposed to drink, do drugs, some say no dancing, most say no sex before marriage, no swearing, and shit like that.
I started to think, even at that young of an age, that if there was some surpreme being, how could man even wrap their head around that idea? Are all pastors geniuses? I realized this was not the case when my parents pastor got caught fucking someone other than his wife and they had to thrown him out. He wasn't not a genius because he was an adulterer, but he got caught so he's an idiot. My parents said you can't hide from god and god exposed him. Then there was the time where the pastors SON stole thousands from the church but that is a different story. THese are supposedly the most god fearing people I know and they are some of the most fucked up people.
Anyway, basically I realized that I only believed what I THOUGHT i believe because I didn't know any better, and as I became more self away and aware of the world I knew it was just not right.
I went through a persiod where i was open for anything, I prayed (not sure to whom) I went to a few different churches, I kept waiting for some sign from god, something to guide me and tell me what the truth was. Over time I realzied this was never going to happen, and that the "spiritual" experiences that some people of faith claim to have are nothing more than the feelings I get when I hjave a good meal, listen to a powerful song, do drugs, have crazy sex, or even just get the chills.
Then I started to look at the history of religion, how it has evolved and changed with the times. How it has been used as a tool throughout society to control people, to get people to bend to the will of religious leaders. I realized that EVERY society has religion! Why is this? I believe that just as we feel things like love and anger, we also have a spiritual side to our consciousness, and ever since humans have existed we've sought to explain that, so far we've failed miserably and a lot of people have died because of it.
I think that just like Alchemy was once regarded as a science and has since been replaced by Chemistry, Religion will be replaced by coherant thought, logic, and reason. Not SCIENCE, more like common sense. Unfortunately this transformation is a few generations away and I won't live to see it fully happen, I do take comfort in the fact that the process is well underway though.
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