We grew up with myths and fantasy mainly ( books, TV, family lore, gossip, etc...)

Growing up in a dysfunctional family, I used to fantasize about the perfect families depicted on television, such as The Donna Reed Show and Father Knows Best.
Our hearts are one, Pinky. For me, it was Ozzie & Harriet, Danny Tomas Show, Life of Riley, and Leave it to Beaver. I wanted to grow to be Ricky Nelson and get married to either Mary Tyler Moore or Anette Funicello.
 

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

1).
I remember very distinctly when our Sunday school teacher told us that divorcees who later married someone else were destined to burn forever in hell and that there were no amount of “Our Fathers” or “Hail Marys” that would save you. I cried my eyes out on the spot because my mother had divorced and remarried my step-father. The teacher offered me no sympathy, the bitch.

2). It was a mortal sin to eat meat on Friday. You do know what a mortal sin is, right? It means that if you’ve eaten meat on a Friday and were unfortunate enough to die before you could confess your sin, you’d go to hell and burn forever. I discovered, by and by, that the ruling had been changed and it is no longer a mortal sin to eat meat on a Friday. Perhaps it’s not even a venial sin today? Funny, isn’t it. I was under the impression that only God could decide who would go to hell, purgatory, or heaven. I must have been asleep when He had a change of heart.
@Verisure I'm sorry you had such a bad experience growing up in the Catholic church. Is it just the Catholic church you have a problem with or Christianity in general?
 
@Verisure I'm sorry you had such a bad experience growing up in the Catholic church. Is it just the Catholic church you have a problem with or Christianity in general?
All religions "in general". There is no answer to "the meaning of life". Not on this earth. People who claim they know the answer (and want monetary support or obedience) are swindlers. Life (no matter who or what created it) is good. Let's enjoy it and not clutter it up with hocus-pocus and superstition.
 
Who here was visited by the Tooth Fairy..who came and recovered your baby teeth and paid you for them!!!. Another thing I experienced only once was the New Year's Baby visiting. One new years eve I had a sleep over at a friends house, while our parent's went out for the holiday. Anyway, when we got up in the morning, we both fund a little gift by our beds with a note that it was from the New Years Baby!!!
 
All religions "in general". There is no answer to "the meaning of life". Not on this earth. People who claim they know the answer (and want monetary support or obedience) are swindlers. Life (no matter who or what created it) is good. Let's enjoy it and not clutter it up with hocus-pocus and superstition.
I respectfully disagree but wish you only the best as you live your life
 
Who here was visited by the Tooth Fairy..who came and recovered your baby teeth and paid you for them!!!. Another thing I experienced only once was the New Year's Baby visiting. One new years eve I had a sleep over at a friends house, while our parent's went out for the holiday. Anyway, when we got up in the morning, we both fund a little gift by our beds with a note that it was from the New Years Baby!!!
I don't understand. Your parents had a baby and rather than explain how babies are made ..... ?
 
Didn't have TV in our home till i was like 11yrs old. So for me it came mostly from books, tho i listened to 'Inner Sanctum' on the radio with my older sisters.
It is interesting to see the wide variety of things that are being referenced, and the wide variety of feelings about them--some focused on the 'fun' in suspending disbelief and some focused on the sense of betrayal when the truth came out, and on the oppressive nature of many religions.
I must be in that same age group although we didn't have a TV until I was 14-15, and I recall that, as a younger child, I was forbidden to listen to "Inner Sanctum" with it's weekly opening creaky door. :D
 
Growing up in a dysfunctional family, I used to fantasize about the perfect families depicted on television, such as The Donna Reed Show and Father Knows Best.
Same here; I was particularly fond of the Donna Reed Show. I don't remember ever believing in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy; I had enough of a struggle--which, after about 50 years, I gave up--trying to believe in the God that the protestant branch of Christianity I was raised in plumped for. More and more, I agree with this:

"[M]yth[:]…what the big religion calls the little religion…"
~~from “Open Letter to [Science Fiction/Fantasy Conventions] from the Indians No Longer in the Background of a John Wayne Movie” by Stephen Graham Jones, Tor.com Personal Essays, 5/19/21
 
All religions "in general". There is no answer to "the meaning of life". Not on this earth. People who claim they know the answer (and want monetary support or obedience) are swindlers. Life (no matter who or what created it) is good. Let's enjoy it and not clutter it up with hocus-pocus and superstition.
Indeed ! We have to create our own "meaning to life", which, in my opinion, is caring for others. I am completely convinced that there is no magical 'sky fairy'.
 
The Tooth Fairy. But I know that is true because I got money in a glass for it.
I embellished the tooth-fairy fantasy when my daughter lost a tooth and I dumped a tiny splotch of glitter on her pillow and one on a few more spots, including the leaf of a houseplant near the back door.

I pointed that one out. "Look! She must've landed right here on her way out!" and my daughter gave me a side-glance that told me I'd just wasted half a bottle of glitter.
 
I embellished the tooth-fairy fantasy when my daughter lost a tooth and I dumped a tiny splotch of glitter on her pillow and one on a few more spots, including the leaf of a houseplant near the back door.

I pointed that one out. "Look! She must've landed right here on her way out!" and my daughter gave me a side-glance that told me I'd just wasted half a bottle of glitter.
How old was she a the time?
 
Our hearts are one, Pinky. For me, it was Ozzie & Harriet, Danny Tomas Show, Life of Riley, and Leave it to Beaver. I wanted to grow to be Ricky Nelson and get married to either Mary Tyler Moore or Anette Funicello.
You reminded me of how much my Dad loved the "Life of Riley".He liked it soo much that he bought a TV to put in the Kitchen because it came on when we were having dinner. One day I asked him why he liked it so much and he said because his daughter's name is Babs just like your name.
I had a crush on Ricky Nelson!
 
You reminded me of how much my Dad loved the "Life of Riley".He liked it soo much that he bought a TV to put in the Kitchen because it came on when we were having dinner. One day I asked him why he liked it so much and he said because his daughter's name is Babs just like your name.
I had a crush on Ricky Nelson!
A beautiful story! I think "Riley" was one of my favourites because he was forever learning more from his wife and daughter than what they learnt from him. By the way, my mother had one of those TV sets on the kitchen table.

TV.jpg
 


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