Religion
Related: About this forumAtheism Gave Me Hope
11/22/2014
By Ethan ~
I grew up in a moderate-to-strict Christian household. My dad was a pastor (at first of one that was part of a chain of churches called Calvary Chapel, now a Southern Baptist pastor). When I grew up, I had a rather positive idea of God. I always thought of him as this parent-like figure that was always watching over me, and always had my back. I went to a Christian school most of my life, until 7th grade, where I was pulled out and homeschooled until my junior year of high school (HORRIBLE).
While I was growing up, I never questioned my faith. I always thought of people who questioned their faith as people who didn't have enough faith to call themselves Christian, and that those who were truly "saved" would never question their faith. I always went through most of my life just blindly following God. If I had any questions, I would always ask my dad, who I thought of as this infallible source of knowledge and had all the God answers. Whenever I heard actual profound questions about God, (Such as, If God created us, who created God, Why would a loving God allow so many horrible things to happen, If God created everything, why is there evil in the world, and so on) I usually WOULD have answers to the questions. However, from a logical standpoint, they just wouldnt make any sense. I also thought that I just understood God at a level that most of these other people didnt because they hadnt been walking with God long enough to understand it at my level of knowledge (yeah, I was an arrogant prick when it came to my actually weak faith).
As I grew up with a lot of these beliefs, I had other things that came up in my life.
First of all, I had major anxiety issues when I started going through puberty, and so I would have many days when I would cry, be scared, and feel hopeless with certain things that to most people wouldnt seem scary at all. I prayed about them and asked everyone to pray for me on the issues, but alas, nothing came about. The only thing that helped me through the issues of anxiety was time.
http://new.exchristian.net/2014/11/atheism-gave-me-hope.html?utm_source=Exchristiandotnet-EncouragingEx-christians&utm_medium=Exchristiandotnet-EncouragingEx-christians&utm_campaign=ExChristian.Net+--+encouraging+ex-Christians&utm_content=ExChristian.Net+--+encouraging+ex-Christians
cbayer
(146,218 posts)He doesn't talk about how his family and home community are taking this. I hope that they embrace him for who he is.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Somebody needs to work on that bullshit. This is destroying people's lives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_among_LGBT_youth
"Depression and drug use among LGBT people have both been shown to increase significantly after new laws that discriminate against gay people are passed"
"Numerous studies have shown that lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth have a higher rate of suicide attempts than do heterosexual youth."
This person successfully navigated some very treacherous waters.