• [groups|Los Angeles Brights]

Hello, all.

My name is Peter. I have been an Atheist for a few years.

It was hard to open up about it to others.
Surprisingly, most who ARE devout, I have found to be
very scared people. When discussing alternatives, they seem to be afraid of the alternatives themselves. (!)

"No! God's way is the only way!!!" And they always add a dozen exclamation
points. (That have to do with the number of Apostles? Kidding.)

I was born an Atheist, like everyone else, raised Catholic
and actually considered seminary in teen years.
I was educated in private catholic schools, and was fortunate enough
to study religion before debunking it. I consider myself and "Educated Atheist", but that's redundant if you've met most of us. :)

I was always in trouble with religion.
In grade school, I demanded my teacher (nun) to decide which gospel
is erroneous: Luke or Matthew. I told her that Luke names 28 indiciduals
or houses in the lineage of Jesus, Matthew names 41 names,
AND NONE ARE ALIKE! (Dawkins mentioned this same argument in God Delusion.)

I was sent out of class, our nun in tears, and told to see
the principal (priest) who explained calmly, dodging my question,
that times of the past can't be expected to be as accurate as today.
Instead, all that's really required is to believe in your savior.

Huh??? I explained that his words mean nothing until I get an answer.
Matthew or Luke. Which? Erroneous?
I was told to say a rosary and shut up.

These type of educational connundrums continued,
always studying the bible, always finding contradictions.

What really made me come out of the "Atheist closet"
was the audacity of Intelligent Design. (shudders)

Even back in Catholic school, we were taught that
"Evolution trumps Intelligent Design." This was a practice of
people who thought the earth was flat and witches were truly magic.

What REALLY irks me about this is that people who defend this archaic idea
are not poor and uneducated, they are moms and dads with children
and careers. Hopefully, none of them are my doctor. :)

Another recent event that pushed me out of the non-believers funk
was looking at a picture on CNN.com after a huge Earthquake hit
India. We see a picture of a brilliant mosque with a huge tree
through its roof and walls. Inside, we see over 40 men, who all
walk and lift things, praying for guidance. (!)

I only wish they had prayed to me. I would have said
in a booming voice, "Get off your praying asses and lift
the damn tree out of there! Oh, and it's okay to bring women
to worship me too. Lots of them!"

Now here's the BIG connundrum: how are we lowly and anti-god sinners,
aka Brights, going to convince anyone to use their own strengths,
knowledge, and understanding to consider (just at least consider)
a naturalistic view of life and society?

I'd love to hear any ideas.
Please let me know if there's a meeting happening soon
where such strategies are discussed, not just dreamed about.

Best to all ---- Peter :)

I was raised catholic and also wanted to be a priest in early high school. By the end of high school, however, I had turned 180 degrees, into what i called "vehemently atheist". That is, i guess, one of those typical "steps toward recovery"... much anger and resentment toward christians ensued. Since then, however, in the interests of practical diplomacy and some level of enlightened coexistence, I have gone from hatred to tolerance, and am working toward true acceptance of Supers. I am still uncomfortable with religion. But i think it is of utmost importance to move beyond the resentment and name-calling that many atheist-converts experience. Yes, from the outside, religion can be VERY laughable, but what good can we do the world if we're constantly bickering about beliefs? We have to leave the name-calling to those who are too lazy and ignorant to come up with real solutions to life's problems.

Ironically, it was my religion classes in catholic high school that began my conversion to atheism. As soon as I began to realize that there even WERE inconsistencies in the doctrine, I became suspicious. For example, we were taught, in catholic school, that the bible was created by man. We were taught to interpret the bible with an eye toward its true historical context, and to acknowledge that, while there was a throughline of metaphysical "truth" and a message of salvation in the text, this was largely interwoven with the mythology and day-to-day bickerings of a wandering desert people. Now, of course, to a TRUE critic, this "half is true and half is not" approach should itself call the supposed "truth" into question as well. I suppose the church is lucky, then, to have a good number of "half critics" in the pews. However, to the catholic church's credit, I'd say that we were given a pretty "enlightened" relgious education, certainly compared to that of many present-day protestant fundamentalists.

The more I learned about religion, history, culture, and science, the less "mumbo jumbo" I could bring myself to believe. It actually was quite a long, emotional process to "come out", one that screwed up years of my academic life, (an academic life that, sadly, never fully recovered, even through college), because once the bottom fell out of my very IDENTITY, once everything I thought I knew about the world was revealed to be a lie, I had to rebuild my own worldview, almost from scratch.

But one fateful sunday, I had my final epiphany. when i was at church with my family, responding with that characteristic Catholic lack of enthusiasm... "thanks be to god." "hallelujah.", I started to cry. I could no longer take the mindless repetition. Suddenly, it was SO disturbing to be standing in that church, where i had spent 16 years of my life, joining these people in thoughtless repetition, saying things i could no longer believe. I actually started crying.

I would never go back to church after that, except for a christmas mass to see my mom sing with the choir. But that brings up another interesting point--the family and social aspect of religious upbringing, which cannot be understated. My parents are, to this day, a decade later, still upset that i don't go to church. They don't understand that it JUST DOESN'T MAKE SENSE to me. But we were "raised catholic", and they see it as a shame, maybe even a personal failure of their own, that we cannot remain a catholic family. So I understand that, for those family and societal reasons alone, it is very hard for some free-thinkers to come out as brights. My family certainly did not disown me, but I still feel a tinge of guilt and loss now and then, for a cultural identity I used to have. And holidays are still awkward, when the christmas meals have been served, and it's time to go to church... that i conspicuously refuse to join. But the empowerment and peace of mind that a life free of supernatural elements brings is indispensible, and i would never trade the sense of possibility (and responsibility) of a free-thinker for all the ease and comfort of any cultural identity in the world.