Religion spoilt my childhood!

Bluecheese50 said:
As a child I had to attend a Pentecostal church with my parents, where Sunday after Sunday the preachers screamed, 'You must be 'saved' or burn in hell'! My sadistic paternal grandmother, who had beaten religion into her six kids yelling, 'spare the rod and spoil the child', had taken great pleasure in describing the tortures awaiting a naughty little girl like me! I had terrible nightmares throughout my childhood.:mad: I did the 'saved' bit when I was eleven as I was scared of going to hell, however by the time I married at nineteen, the doubts were too overwhelming and I lost my faith, for which I was grateful. My husband had done the 'saved' bit too as a child, but he lost his faith after he went to university and studied science and theology.

When our birth daughters came a long we were determined that they should make up their own minds about religion, which they did, all three are Christians, the eldest an Anglican Priest. However, thank goodness they aren't Biblical literalists, and are moderate in their beliefs.

I think threatening people with hell if they don't convert is emotional abuse and should be illegal, as there is not the slightest shred of evidence any deity exists. I am of the opinion all religions are human creations.
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This is child abuse:( I'm so sorry that happened to you BC. I have a terrible time with "believing" in God, so I stay away from religion. I'd like to know there is a better place that awaits us when we die, but I just don't know. When I am down, and feeling broken, I do pray, but it's always in hopes a "loving" god hears me, and helps me. denise
 

Denise, I don't have the answers re a creator. I do believe that we humans can help each other. Reaching out is a good thing. Most of us need a candle in the dark from time to time, a connection to remind us that we matter and are not alone. Everybody is broken in some way.
 
Growing up, my experience with the United Church was benign, although I never felt any spiritual presence. My experience with the monsters who used bizarre religious rituals to further their sick perversions, was unspeakable. If there was a God, I

hated him for decades. No longer do I blame any spiritual presence for the actions of evil men and women. People can pervert anything in order to fulfil their obsessive desires.
 

Bluecheese50 said:
As a child I had to attend a Pentecostal church with my parents, where Sunday after Sunday the preachers screamed, 'You must be 'saved' or burn in hell'! My sadistic paternal grandmother, who had beaten religion into her six kids yelling, 'spare the rod and spoil the child', had taken great pleasure in describing the tortures awaiting a naughty little girl like me! I had terrible nightmares throughout my childhood.:mad: I did the 'saved' bit when I was eleven as I was scared of going to hell, however by the time I married at nineteen, the doubts were too overwhelming and I lost my faith, for which I was grateful. My husband had done the 'saved' bit too as a child, but he lost his faith after he went to university and studied science and theology.

When our birth daughters came a long we were determined that they should make up their own minds about religion, which they did, all three are Christians, the eldest an Anglican Priest. However, thank goodness they aren't Biblical literalists, and are moderate in their beliefs.

I think threatening people with hell if they don't convert is emotional abuse and should be illegal, as there is not the slightest shred of evidence any deity exists. I am of the opinion all religions are human creations.
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It ruined mine too, I am a former JW and it was hard to over come their teachings. But I survived and let the past go, just like other crazy/weird stuff from my past! lol
 
Bluecheese50 said:
Having read the Bible many times over the years, I cannot see anything loving about the deeds attributed to the Biblical deity, it comes over as a psychopath. In fact if it exists and is as evil as portrayed, humans should be using their ingenuity to exterminate it, imo.
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Treat people like you want to be treated may sound simplistic...but I wish people in general would do that. I left organized religion long ago but having said that...i didn't have to walk far to find people who think they are right about everything...who judge others who don't agree with them on ANY topic and who are big non-Christian hypocrites..lol. They talk about being kind..but it's all talk..they talk about helping the poor but do nothing...they talk about compassion but attack anyone who does something they don't approve of... Jesus taught against that.. and outraged the self-important hypocrites of His day..and ran out the money changers in the temple....and advised us to bear one another's burdens.

Maybe Jesus was just a good man...many agree on that....but he was a rebel in his day and went against the Pharisee in favor of loving and helping others..feeding multitudes...doing good works...showing kindness and humility. Values like Love thy neighbor is not the thought of a psycho. If your brother asks you for bread..do you hand him a stone? If someone is grieving do you try to comfort them? I believe in these things. I also understand that other faiths and philosophies teach these things too and good on them.

Thats all all I have to say about it Bluecheese. I'm sorry your family adhered to some fanatical views and ruined your childhood. I've been criticized for having extremely liberal views regarding Christianity but I've expressed here what I believe and I would not be okay with people forcing any beliefs on anyone..Christian or otherwise.
 
I was raised in a small Southern county where everyone went to church and my family picked the Methodist one to attend. By age twelve I began to doubt religion but went along with the rest of my family to services and did not tell anyone of my doubts. Two marriages and two kids later I was still attending the same church in sporadic bursts, under the assumption that my kids needed it. Being able to finally admit my doubts about religion didn't happen until one day when my teenage son asked me why we had to attend church.

This made the nephew whom I had raised from his eleventh year to chime in with the fact that he had recently decided he was atheist. After much thought, and since I had always kind of believed in reincarnation as the only fair way for a soul to have a shot at redemption, I decided to call myself a Buddhist. My son also declared himself Buddhist. It took me a few more years to admit to everyone, including myself, that I was no better at being Buddhist than I was at being Christian. I paid lip service to both at various times but never put much effort into researching or actively practicing either.

Now I just tell people I'm not religious and let them choose their own label for me. Being nonreligious in this extremely church obsessed location isn't easy, and I'm lucky if a whole day passes without being reminded I'm in the wrong geographical location to easily pull it off.
 
Bluecheese50 said:
Having read the Bible many times over the years, I cannot see anything loving about the deeds attributed to the Biblical deity, it comes over as a psychopath. In fact if it exists and is as evil as portrayed, humans should be using their ingenuity to exterminate it, imo.
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Just stumbled across this article and thought it was appropriate for this discussion, how the bible condones atrocious acts of terror. More here.

1. In the Bible God controls humans by raining down death, destruction and terror on those who defy or anger him.

I kill ... I wound ... I will make mine arrows drunk with blood and my sword shall devour flesh. So says Yahweh in Deuteronomy 32:39-42, and this is no idle threat. You’ve heard the story of Noah’s flood, and about the fire God rains down on Sodom and Gomorrah, and about the 12 plagues of Egypt, but did you know that in the Bible God kills 158 times? The full list can be found in the Steve Wells book, Drunk With Blood.

Like ISIS, God sometimes acts as an executioner with a laser focus, as when he kills a baby to punish King David’s sexual infidelity (2 Samuel 12), or strikes dead a couple who falsely claim to have given their money to the church (Acts 5: 1-10). But also, like ISIS, he often wreaks death and destruction on those who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time or who were born into the wrong culture.

For example, when the same King David conducts a forbidden census, God gives him a choice of punishments: Three years of famine, three months of attacks by neighboring tribes, or three days of plague. David chooses the plague, which kills 70,000 Israelites who had done nothing but let themselves be counted (1 Chronicles 21:1-17).
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When I decided I wanted to be a part of this forum I did so because I had a choice of topics to choose from. Religious and political topics usually do not interest me. . Something made me click on this post. I'm so glad I did. I have been saying, much to the disdain of some family members,exactly what you have posted here. Especially the comment about the perspective of the person at the Pulpit. Nice to know I'm not alone in my thinking. Your last statement says it all.
 
What precisely is being said here, by all this? That the whole lot of us be considered heathen by the religious standards established by the various religious factions? imp
 
Even though my grandfather was a Lutheran minister, and regular exposure to Christian thought was the norm while growing up, there was no "brime-stoning" or brow-beating.
I am grateful that the "baby" wasn't "thrown out with the bathwater", meaning that the message of Christ Jesus was not adulterated or overshadowed by man-made rituals and practices.
 
I had a totally different perspective growing up: My family never went to church. They were non-believers before I was born. And I've never found a reason to change.

Religion, or the lack of it, certainly didn't ruin my life. It was a little tricky trying to make friends in public school, but maybe that was only in my mind. I used to change the subject, or excuse myself, from conversations that started heading toward religion, because as far as I could tell our family was the *only* one in the whole world that didn't go to church. Something must be wrong with us, but I could never figure out what it was. I still remember where I was sitting the day our high school chemistry teacher, Mr. Lucas, went around the room and made us all say out loud what church we went to.

It was like "coming out of the closet" after high school, when I found out I wasn't alone. But I'm still never the first one to bring up the subject of religion with anyone, and would *never* try to argue with anyone about their religious beliefs.

So it makes no difference to me if a person goes to church or not, or believes in a god, or not. That doesn't mean I don't have any values. I value honesty, fairness, choosing to do the right thing even when it hurts you, to name some things offhand. I can't tolerate prejudice. By that I mean a deep conviction that some groups of people are "greater than" and some are "less than," based on things they cannot change, or because of the bad behavior of a few individuals. My parents gave me those values since almost before I can remember, and I thank them for that.

Maybe growing up trying to fit in even helped me get along with people as an adult. On the other hand, I don't seem to be doing a very good job of it. I still prefer to have just one really good friend.

I've been thinking about this thread a lot. Like Linda, I might make some good people upset with me by posting this. I hope not. But I've grown so weary of trying to get along, just like I did when I was in public school.
 
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Nancy, I cannot imagine why anyone would be upset by anything that you have posted.

If you were to say these things to Jesus should he appear before you I'm pretty sure that he would affirm you and also add a challenge that would stretch you and challenge you to go just a little further down this path.
 
NancyNGA said:
I had a totally different perspective growing up: My family never went to church. They were non-believers before I was born. And I've never found a reason to change.

Religion, or the lack of it, certainly didn't ruin my life. It was a little tricky trying to make friends in public school, but maybe that was only in my mind. I used to change the subject, or excuse myself, from conversations that started heading toward religion, because as far as I could tell our family was the *only* one in the whole world that didn't go to church. Something must be wrong with us, but I could never figure out what it was. I still remember where I was sitting the day our high school chemistry teacher, Mr. Lucas, went around the room and made us all say out loud what church we went to.

It was like "coming out of the closet" after high school, when I found out I wasn't alone. But I'm still never the first one to bring up the subject of religion with anyone, and would *never* try to argue with anyone about their religious beliefs.

So it makes no difference to me if a person goes to church or not, or believes in a god, or not. That doesn't mean I don't have any values. I value honesty, fairness, choosing to do the right thing even when it hurts you, to name some things offhand. I can't tolerate prejudice. By that I mean a deep conviction that some groups of people are "greater than" and some are "less than," based on things they cannot change, or because of the bad behavior of a few individuals. My parents gave me those values since almost before I can remember, and I thank them for that.

Maybe growing up trying to fit in even helped me get along with people as an adult. On the other hand, I don't seem to be doing a very good job of it. I still prefer to have just one really good friend.

I've been thinking about this thread a lot. Like Linda, I might make some good people upset with me by posting this. I hope not. But I've grown so weary of trying to get along, just like I did when I was in public school.
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You sound like one of the good guys where religion is concerned, like my own three daughters.:)
 
This is a very interesting thread actually. I was touched by your post, Nancy. I grew up in California and I don't remember religion ever being an issue in school. I obviously didn't go to a parochial school. I do remember remember a lot of diversity...and none of it was a problem. I always saw it as a personal and private matter. i was raised to respect differences. I think religious fanatics are scary. I also think a lot of things get blamed on "religion" that are simply human failings and pathology. People fall prey to a lot of cults and such..some religious based..some philosophical.

This discussion is obviously not a simple one..but I didn't see it as a debate on religion exactly..just our experience with it growing up and how it impacted us and our life. in my mind it all comes down to love..and being loving and being loved..and if you got that from your parents I think their religion, faith, beliefs including being atheist or agnostic don't matter. Sometimes parents can serve as examples of what you don't want to be when you grow up..but they are just human.

I can can tell you right now I don't pick my friends based on their religion or beliefs. People are just people no matter what faith or philosophy they possess. If we can just enjoy and respect each other..that's all that matters. I realize this is the Internet and not face to face interaction. I think people do and say things here they would never do or say in real life....but I'm sorry when people get downright mean, hateful and insulting ..just because they can. When religion and politics are discussed I think it takes a lot of tolerance and I do think it's possible to say hey..let's agree to disagree..it's all good.
 

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