Date: 10/24/2003 9:04:00 AM
From Authorid: 2030
Well Phydeux I know at least one person here who will tell you all want to hear and then some, and then some more. Good luck with the project.  |
Date: 10/24/2003 9:06:00 AM ( From Author )
From Authorid: 13974
Thanks, this has already taken four months of my time. I am pretty much done but decided to get a USM perspective.  |
Date: 10/24/2003 9:33:00 AM
From Authorid: 61897
Actually, I didn't see your email addy anywhere in your profile.  |
Date: 10/24/2003 10:22:00 AM
From Authorid: 55009
i am atheist and i don't really have a story about it... i mean i lost my faith at an earlier age than most people i know, it all started when i lost my grandmother, we were really close and loved by all but she got no mercy for her acts of kindness when cancer took hold of her. another reason i became what i am is because everyone thanking god or whoever they look up to spiritually for something that they themselves accomplished like getting a job or winning a sports event... i mean come on if you have heavenly help it would have been nothing to win, you take one step and boom you win but no you have to play out the game and you have to suffer the pain and then after everything you have done you have to thank some big invisible man in the sky. sorry to start raving about it lol there are just so many things that caused my change of religion and what not there isn't enought time in the world or room in an e-mail, and if there was a god do you really think he would let us kill eachother and pollute his "master piece environment" i think not... anyways if you wish to question me further you can e-mail or message me both of which are located in my profile. have a nice day :)  |
Date: 10/24/2003 10:29:00 AM
From Authorid: 4614
I have never believed in religion...I have no story about it, it's just a matter of giving me something that makes sense...How could I possibly believe any of that? Well, I don't want to ramble on and on...Ask the Thinker, she speaks for us all ;) lol  |
Date: 10/24/2003 11:05:00 AM
From Authorid: 49080
This seems interesting. I would like to know how all of this comes out. I am a christian. What kind of conclusions have you come up with?  |
Date: 10/24/2003 4:29:00 PM
From Authorid: 57579
I was an atheist but I have found the wiccan/pagan religion suits me just fine! If you need anything else just PM me :)  |
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Date: 10/24/2003 5:13:00 PM
From Authorid: 62410
The story of my spirituality or lack thereof, crosses the plains of Christianity, through the canyons of Atheism, and up to the mountains of Shamanism. When I was a kid, my born again christian mother made us go to church three times a week until I was out of school (and out from under their roof). Even though I had so much brain washing, I still couldn't get over the contradictions and I think I truly didn't even believe in our religion even when I was a kid and supposedly impressionable. After leaving home, I truly hated my parents for 18 years of mental and physical abuse all in the name of the Bible (I won't go into gory details). I became an Atheist -- I started drinking and doing drugs all the time -- I didn't care about anything and I didn't believe in anything. Then when I was 25, still stumbling through a drunken stuper, I had three freak accidents nearly take my life within a 6 month period. The first was a head on accident in which I was the drunk passenger and my friend was driving my truck. I was not wearing a seat belt and it was pouring rain. I was almost passed out in the passenger seat when I felt a tap on the shoulder and heard a voice say very commandingly "buckle up now" -- I didn't even ponder it -- I just did it. A minute later I looked up and we hit a water drainage curb 4.5 feet high head on doing 35 mph. I'm pretty sure I would have been maimed if not killed if I hadn't listened to that voice. The second accident was when I was camping. I got swept down the Kern River in California. It is known for Class 5 rapids. I was drug by the river several miles and bashed against rocks, got a concussion and went over two waterfalls. Finally I came to a slow spot, but I couldn't tell I was in a place I could get out because I was nearly unconscious. All I could see was black even though it was a sunny afternoon. I couldn't feel the cold of the river, only warm velvet. I thought I was already dead and was having strange thoughts about "the end" when I heard a friend call out and he helped me to shore. The third accident was a hiking trip with a friend -- we climbed a sandstone cliff to the top about 40-50 feet high -- at the top, I was waiting for my friend to go back down the other side and I was sitting waiting to go after him. I started to slide toward the edge of the cliff - I grabbed at weeds in the ground, but they tore out and I was sliding. My friend heard the sound of my jeans scraping on the sandstone and he looked up just in time to swing his arm up and out of the rivulette he was standing chest high in as he was going down and he slapped his hand on my thigh to stop me from sliding until I could roll back up the slight incline. THREE TIMES in SIX MONTHS. This to me said there was something out there that wanted me to die and something out there that wanted me to live. Two forces. I lived -- and now it's 10 years later. I did not become a Christian again but I started to believe in God again but I developed a different view of what God was. Since then, I have studied Paganism, Buddhism and various other alternative paths, but the one I most identify with and the one that gives my life joy and meaning now, is Shamanism. At this point in my life, I don't know if I could go back to not believing in anything. Scall |
Date: 10/31/2003 1:09:00 PM
From Authorid: 11240
Not unless you wanted to deny reality, huh, Scall. God Bless.  |
