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khanom
Trad climber
Greeley Hill
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 29, 2012 - 12:15am PT
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I thought it would be nice to have a thread where SuperTopo Atheists could tell tell their story and make a statement of their lack of blind faith.
Format:
1. What happened that lead you to follow the trail to Atheism? How did you find your lack of blind faith?
2. How does god™ being dead help you deal with life? What do you have that helps you to take comfort in the Atheist Life?
3. What is your affiliation? Union of Concerned Scientists? Atheists Alliance International? Or perhaps a local group or person you would like to acknowledge? Perhaps you follow atheism from within, unaffiliated with any group.
Please let others tell their story, hold your reactions, criticize on other threads and let the Atheists, or whatever lack of blind faith they may have post here, be proud of who they are being for a moment.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Aug 29, 2012 - 12:20am PT
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Oh you do , do you...?
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Wade Icey
Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
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Aug 29, 2012 - 12:20am PT
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I thought the Eldo Route "Blind Faith" was wicked cool. but I try not to be judgmental.
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WBraun
climber
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Aug 29, 2012 - 12:22am PT
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I respect the atheist.
Better to remain an atheist than to preach a bunch of bullsh!t religion and mislead people.
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
-A race of corn eaters
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Aug 29, 2012 - 12:23am PT
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Khanom, well done, apropos thread, indeed.
I look forward to hearing the testimonials and perhaps even giving a few.
.....
Nice to see the term "atheist" spelled correctly as well, at least in the thread title.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Aug 29, 2012 - 12:23am PT
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I had atheist foot once...Eating a Dessenex burger rid me of the fungus...
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Some Random Guy
Trad climber
San Franpsycho (a.k.a. a token of my extreme)
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Aug 29, 2012 - 12:30am PT
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I'm tired of feeling like I live in a country that automatically condemns anyone who doesn't have "faith" as somehow abnormal. amen.....wait is that an oxymoron by saying that?!?!
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jstan
climber
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Aug 29, 2012 - 12:37am PT
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Neither of my parents' families were church goers. When I was maybe four or five they once took us to the local presbyterian church. I spent the whole bloody morning coloring squirrels. When we got home my mom asked me if I wanted to go again. I said I had too much to do to go wasting time that way. I thought of adding that I did not view crayons as a promising career path for me. But decided to keep my own counsel.
When a little older I started a self-improvement project ( I still could use one) and undertook to read the bible from cover to cover. I got several pages into accounts of begetting and decided two things.
1. These people must have been really horny.
2. They were more interested in who their father was than what anyone thought it was right to do.
I didn't like them at all.
That was that.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Aug 29, 2012 - 12:43am PT
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I'm a born-again atheist every morning.
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
bouldering
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Aug 29, 2012 - 12:53am PT
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An easy red flag when you gotta attack others to make your point (OP).
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snowhazed
Trad climber
Oaksterdam, CA
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Aug 29, 2012 - 02:39am PT
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Anyone with an education in Philosophy or Rhetoric is bound to react viscerally to organized religion- language is just too pliable, and evidence is king since the enlightenment.
I find the US to be a pretty tolerant place to live as a secular humanist- but then again I run around in narrow circles of the educated, and the artistic. I think the hype about how psycho religious this society is, is just that: hype.
Sure the evangelicals (in all religious bents) are scary f#cks, but they are a minority.
I think there is a fine line between agnosticism and atheism- and I also think you can be both. I am atheist in that I disbelieve all theistic constructions and attempts at meta-physics. But I also reserve the right to find full awe at the universe, cosmology, quantum theory, mathematics in general, the technology it has all spawned. I also reserve the right to admit first hand experience of existential ennui and the profound paradox that seems inherent and in fact required for all feedback loops, all life, all consciousness. So by that I am agnostic- because the ride is pretty damn cool- and I just don't know.
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paganmonkeyboy
climber
mars...it's near nevada...
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Aug 29, 2012 - 08:26am PT
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I've personally only got a beef with those few religions that profess non-believers will spend eternity in some sort of hell...That just seems elitist and exclusionary to me, very offensive actually...
All the other religions are cool in my book though ;-)
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Aug 29, 2012 - 08:58am PT
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I was baptized and raised a Catholic, priests, nuns (and lay teachers) in the Catholic school (until I got kicked out), altar boy (weddings were great, the groom would slip you some money and the bride's father as well), all that stuff, when I was nine I wanted to be the first American pope. When I was ten I wanted to be an astronaut, (always reaching for the heavens in one way or another).
But over the years, none of it made real sense for me (and I also saw enough hypocrites at mass), 'rotten' six days of the week, but angels and saints on Sundays).
Okay to believe in a deity/faith helps some people, coolaboola, I have no problem with that.
It is the fanatics of any religion (or no religion for that matter) that bother me. I can take the moderates any day.
When Jennie was in hospital recently, an elderly woman in a bed in Jen's room (there was generally four beds to the room in St Anne's Ward) was visited by her daughter, a nun.
Katherine (her name) and I talked for a while, it was interesting and 'fun' (no, not 'fun with the nun', for those of you who may be dirty minded, heh heh). I told her that I was an avowed atheist and evolutionist, and she was okay with that, no preaching. And I wasn't bothered by her vocation.
People with sense, the moderates, can get along, but throw a fundamentalist nut in the mix, and that is when the problems start.
When evangelists of any sort (Seventh Day Adventists, Mormon, Jehovah's, 'non-aligned', whoever) come to the door (will gates now and press the intercom) I come out to meet them, and when I realize why they are there, I tell them, politely, that I am an avowed atheist, that I do not believe in God, but in nature and the goodness of human beings. Thank you and have a good day. Once in a while there is the persistent one, so I just go back into the house.
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Gunkie
Trad climber
East Coast US
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Aug 29, 2012 - 09:25am PT
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I'm in. Was brought up by parents who were deeply religious early in their respective lives and dropped it once they got married in NYC City Hall because each was of a different religion (mom=southern baptist, dad=eastern orthodox) and my dad's side sent death threats to my mom, quite the wake up call. So I was never indoctrinated with religious precepts and revealed truths... And my Sundays were free and clear then and remain so to this day.
My wife was selectively religious when we first met. I have since broken her of that fence-sitting and she fell onto the evil non-believer side with me. However, she did send two of our kids to a Lutheran pre-school where my son began to believe in hell and that god is vengeful. Yikes, had to break him of that.
I can say that the entire Gunkie Gang is now living on the evil side of the fence. More can be learned from the attached video below.
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Aug 29, 2012 - 09:41am PT
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Many immigrants came here for freedom of religion, hopefully, someday, freedom from religion will include avowed atheists being successful in the political arena.
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Chinchen
climber
Way out there....
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Aug 29, 2012 - 10:36am PT
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Raised a non-denominational pastors kid. Was loved but controlled.
Grew up, moved out and discovered that I had no motivations to continue the sham.
Drank beer ,had sex, did drugs.
Mushrooms taught me that everything around me is full of unconditional love and that god as I had been taught was an unnecessary and contrived wast of my time and energy.
Decided to live every day for the present and to learn and grow as a human till I go back to sleep at the other end of my lucky life.
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10b4me
Ice climber
dingy room at the Happy boulders hotel
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Aug 29, 2012 - 11:51am PT
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Unfortunately because of the bullshit that organized religions espouse, people have no alternative other than to become atheists.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Aug 29, 2012 - 11:52am PT
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Once again, the Virtuous Pagans are excluded. Sheesh!
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