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Islamic Apostates

Being a Christian apostate can be difficult. Being an Islamic apostate can be dangerous.

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Comment by Terry Groff on February 15, 2012 at 2:42am: I was "raised" in the baptist church but we didn't attend "religiously" (pun intended). My uncle however was president of the southern baptist conference for a while and my aunt is a devout baptist. She went ballistic one day when I mentioned that human beings were animals too. She wouldn't hear it. I knew then that a serious discussion about religion, or the lack thereof, would be impossible with her.

I dabbled in other religions. I even visited a few Hari Krishna temples. Each time I would look at these faiths and tell myself "these people are nuts". During one "Satsong" a hari krishna priest told us that the Sun was closer to the Earth than the Moon. The logic was that during a battle two gods fell in to an ocean of milk and it splashed on to the Sun but didn't touch the Moon. Ergo the Sun is closer. Typical religious logic.

I guess it was the sciences that made things start to make sense to me. I couldn't find it in religion.

Comment by Tom Sarbeck on February 15, 2012 at 2:27am: Terry, I quit Catholicism for agnosticism fifty years ago, and quit agnosticism for atheism two years ago. Now retired, I have time to visit atheist sites.

I do volunteer work with a man who's trying to leave Catholicism (but failing) and he recently teased me with "Once a Catholic, always a Catholic." I told him I had heard that about priests but not about Catholics.

He repeated his tease and I wanted to tease him back. I watched his working style and saw something I had forgotten. I teased him with "Once a Catholic, always helpless."

Catholicism, and probably other religions, survive because they teach kids to be helpless, which supports your point: religion can be hard to leave. And harder for clergy. I think FFRF, one of whose founders had been clergy, has a "Clergy Project" that helps practicing clergy to leave.

While I was in Catholic schools, I heard many attacks on apostates and heretics. In almost 2,000 years, Catholicism developed serious skill in bullying children.

Comment by Terry Groff on February 15, 2012 at 12:56am: Hi Tom,

No, not really. It actually came quite easily for me. My parents were always loving and supportive of my decisions, a rarity I know.

I was thinking more of those who grew up in strict religious environments or were part of the clergy. Apostasy has to be extremely difficult for them.