(Via Caleb T.)
I was raised by hyper religious parents, and I went to a private Christian school for the first decade of my education. Quite literally everyone I spoke to, every friend I had, and every adult-figure in my life was a fundamentalist Christian. The thought of atheism was to my young mind silly, though I felt sorry for all the people for their future stint in hell.
At the age of seventeen, I began to question things. I am bisexual, and it was at that age that I began to realize this fact about myself. For the first time I picked up a Bible and read it completely – from Genesis to Revelations, and for the first time I began to realize how barbaric and silly most of it was. It was at this point I became a deist. (I did not as of yet have the courage to reject God completely.)
I quickly graduated to an agnostic, and then more slowly developed into the militant atheist I am today. I still find myself mumbling prayers to myself, and I still have a bit of a fear of hellfire. These things are still so ingrained in me due to my conscription (I ‘accepted’ Christ at the age of 6) that it disgusts me, but over the years I am slowly healing, and slowly overcoming faith.
Tags: bisexuality
February 16th, 2008 at 7:11 am
Congrats. That’s not an easy thing to overcome. Especially when it’s engrained that deeply and that early!
February 18th, 2010 at 3:58 am
Yeah to anonymous.
Caleb, the de-conversion mirrors mine. I 'can't' pray, more or less, though it still eeks out a little at times. It has been more psychological/pseudosophical to me to discard the ingrained hell concept. I turn my back on such things, so to speak. And I've noticed greater clarity of mind and greater ethical growth. Feel free to reply if you want to relate with a like mind who walks through some of these same things.