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Has religion done you any harm?

I was brought up in a strict christian household. In hind-sight I don't think it was a good thing to be told that if I don't believe I'll burn in an eternal pit of fire from as young as I can remember. Please share your experience with religion and explain why it was bad, or maybe not that bad, and what pushed you to stop believing in it.

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Permalink Reply by Kasey Kort on December 28, 2011 at 7:18am

Richard, this guy shouldn't even be on this site. He's likely a theist anyway just wanting to rant at atheists. He's breaking the website's Rule 3, B where you're not supposed to down anybody due to race, ethnicity, sexual preference, etc. I've already reported him to the site administrator. Hopefully he'll be blocked soon.

Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on December 28, 2011 at 7:51am

Thanks, Kasey. There is something about him that is particularly irksome. Must be his offended Christian upbringing. lol

Reminds me of an old Kevin Spacey movie call American Beauty. A retired marine officer was rigorously anti-gay throughout the whole movie really busting everybody's balls, you know, with his authoritative "command presence." But at the end he winds up trying to kiss Spacey who calmly says, "no, I'm sorry, you got me wrong." And the old tough-guy, hard-ass starts crying his eyes out like a baby.

Academy award wineer, I believe.

Permalink Reply by Kasey Kort on December 28, 2011 at 10:45am

Your welcome, as far as Robert F, he's got an agenda that is not in line with this website. If he wants to spout off, and rant he should start his own; I'm sure he'll have others who agree with him but this website is not for doing that.

Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on December 28, 2011 at 6:03pm

I must admit he blew my mind for a instant. He really had me going. lol. I didn't know what to make of it. He got really upset. He was so hung up on waste material—every sentence reeked of it.

If Robert reads this, consider the following: If some guy falls deeply in love with a sweet and lovely lady, would he decline conjugal love because the vagina is the conduit or passageway for menstrual blood—and even worse meconium, if you know what that it? Given the chance no normal hot-blooded male would even think about it.

I would imagine it's the same way for gays.

Permalink Reply by suzanne Buzz on December 28, 2011 at 7:18pm

Christianity caused me deep harm when I was a child.

Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on December 29, 2011 at 4:27pm

Suzanne, your post helps me get back on track to the topic at hand. I got distracted by some Christian kid who really got upset by my comments. He got so scatological I wasn't sure how to handle it. Sometimes I think I'm too thin skinned to be an atheist writer. Hate mail is a terrible thing and a weapon they use to discourage exchange of free thought.

So back to the topic. You can list some of your misfortunes at the hands of religionists in further posts.

As for me, I never believed the God stuff so it didn't bother me much. I kept my mouth shut and learned what I could. For a little background, I went to Bishop Loughlin H.S. in Brooklyn and was in a lot of classes with Rudy Guiliani. I considered him just average and killed him in chemistry, bio and 11th year math. He was so religious he went to Holy Communion during the week. (For extra credit, you might say.) It's a terrible shame that so few of the Repubican candidates believe in evolution.

But the school did keep me from going to some pretty tough NYC high schools. My life would have been completely different if it weren't for Bishop Loughlin. So I take the good with the bad. The worst harm religion did to me was Bible classes and going to mass—a dreadful waste of time.

Other than that, for me at least, it wasn't too bad.

I deal with this topic in Mirror Reversal, from the point of view that church officials act like students want to be there and take every liberty to proselytize young minds. The truth is most of the kids just want a safer environment and a chance to learn without gang members hassling them.

The church in entrenched in the education system and it’ll be very difficult to deracinate the roots of control.

To be continued…

I’ll remember you to Barbara whom I meet with right after this post.

Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on December 31, 2011 at 8:54pm

Good story, Drew. "I know it's silly, but my children still say the blessing before they eat...it's just a tradition."

That's cool, sort of like believing in Santa Claus. Just teach them to think critically and let them make their own decisions. It's only when there's proselytization that these bizarre myths linger into adulthood.