Re: How Atheism Helped Me.

Alonzo Davis (alonzo@mca.edu)
Wed, 27 Nov 1996 08:31:06 -0600


Michael Lorrey wrote:
>
> Chris Hind wrote:
> >
> > When I was a little kid, my parents used to tell me about satan and demons
> > and such and how I had to pray to keep them away. When I was younger my
> > parents were religious zealots although they've lightened up in their old
> > age. (ie. When I was born, they had never heard of colic and they were
> > afraid I'd die so they baptized me at home!! hahaha! And this is in Los
> > Angeles, CA people!!) I have slight Tourettes (noone even notices it) as
> > well as my younger brother who has it quite worse than I but a side effect
> > of this seems to be a highly active imagination so when I had Tourette
> > panic attacks when I was a kid it was due alot of times to their telling me
> > of demons and satan and when I finally fought back the religious crap I
> > realized a greater sense of reality as opposed to the more imaginary
> > metaphysical religious world I viewed previously and had far fewer panic
> > attacks. I also think it was due to puberty setting on that my Tourettes
> > faded but I also think atheism played an integral part. Could it be very
> > tramatic and damaging for some kids to be exposed to religion?
>
> That is rather unfortunate. I fortunately had some rather rational
> parents, both technically degreed, who practiced partly from family
> tradition, and a need for a solid moral upbringing for their kids. One
> thing I would be adamant about defining two different types of religious
> behavior: The difference between religious theology or theosophy, and
> religious mythology. The former in my opinion tends to have a bit of
> extropic potential, while the latter is highly entropic. Seems like
> you've been tortured by quite a bit of mythic superstition. I've seen
> both types of behaviors by people in the church I was raised in, and the
> idiocy of the mythic superstionists made me not wish to continue formal
> practicing. Rather, I tend to live a proactive life under the guise of:
> " "God" helps those who help themselves". I also, unlike
> supertstitionists, have no idea of the location or nature of whatever
> caused our universe to come into existence, so rather than atheist, I
> tend to be agnostic. I have no convictions either way, and demand proof
> of both sides, religious or atheist for their postion. My mother for
> example considers herself a Catholic Agnostic, if you can believe it!
>
> Mike
> --
> TANSTAAFL!!!
>
> Michael Lorrey
> ---------------------------------------------------
> President retroman@tpk.net
> Northstar Technologies Agent Lorrey@ThePentagon.com
> Inventor of the Lorrey Drive Silo_1013@ThePentagon.com
> ---------------------------------------------------
> Anything I say can and should be used against me.

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