Pretending

[Fye]

Hi Sten,

I was not born in a Christian family, and became Christian under my own will at 13 years old. I remained a relatively strong Christian for 5 years, always striving to be as much a believer as I could be until I turned to atheism last year.

So yes, I have gone through quite a bit of religious experiences. Firstly I'd like to say the thing about Christianity is Christians believe you simply need faith or you won't be able to fathom or understand how God could exist. Some confusing concept about you need to believe before you can begin to believe.

Did I believe in my religious experiences? I didn't but according to the concept above, I believe that I needed to anyway otherwise the reality of it wouldn't surface to me. So I spoke in tongues and felt stupid talking nonsense but somehow thought that that's how my human mind saw it but in God's eyes it was a real language of worship and praise.

Was I pressured to experience those things? Sometimes, yes. Once I was "spiritually baptized", which in a Christian sense means that you are anointed by the Holy Spirit. What really happens is usually a church leader is praying fervently for the Holy Spirit to touch you and at some point you fall on your back and people will be ready to catch you so you don't hurt yourself when you fall. I did want that very much...to experience God, to have him made so real to me. So maybe I did let go of my balance, and tried not to focus on the room I'm in and bring my mind somewhere else (some secret divine place, I suppose), so that I could fall and claim that I was spiritually baptized LOL.

Why did I still continue to believe nonsense after experiencing nonsense? I guess it was the delusion that whatever logic I had or whatever I thought about my experiences was a human perspective and that I could never completely understand things from God's eyes...so I still disregarded my logical thoughts to a certain extent.

Hope I gave you some insight on what you were looking for.

Fye

[aguster]

Originally Posted by Sten

What I was hoping to get were some responses from some former true believers of the Bible thumping, blathering in tongues, praise be to Jesus kind, that had managed to regain their sanity and join our number. I want to know if they really believed it all absolutely, and really thought they had a close encounter with Jesus, when they were in this state of mind.

I am, however, inclined to believe that many would tend to fake it (the born again experience) to some extent in order to belong. I also believe there is a high degree of uncertainty among the faithful in spite of, and perhaps indicated by, the language they use when they continually refer to the "truths" they are chanting.

I'll admit it. I was a "born again" Christian for about a year and two months before I came to my senses and came back to atheism. It wasn't that I was pretending; I think I was lying to myself because I was desperate to have something to believe in.

But I think we've got wires crossed as far as "born again" is concerned. As a Baptist, I didn't speak in tongues, but I always referred to myself as a "born again" Christian. Later, I met a woman who wanted me to "receive the Holy Spirit" so I could speak in tongues. The two are completely separate things to me. Speaking in tongues is nothing but gibberish that gullible Christians believe is really a divine language (the only reason I don't include myself is because I could never get myself to do it). What these idiots don't realize is that in Acts, "speaking in tongues" referred to languages spoken that others could actually understand. But modern "speaking in tongues" can't be understood by anybody. It's utterly ridiculous.

[aguster]

Originally Posted by Sten

Both failed bank fraudsters! Well that is interesting.

I knew that Joseph Smith had a reputation for telling tall stories and Hubbard started off as a science fiction writer but not this information.

Another thing about Joseph Smith, was that he was a failed conjuror. He used to try to do séances and all that fun jazz before he got tried for fraud. Fortunately, I know nothing about L. Ron Hubbard. The fact my fave horror writer (HP Lovecraft) loved him is kind of embarrassing for me.

[nambawanatheist]

Hi Sten,

I grew up a muslim...I'm not aware of a 'born again' theory in is-lame but I could be wrong.

Muslims do love a good possession though...I saw my mother being, aaah what's the bloody word, you know when they beat the devil out of you?? I can't believe I've forgotten the English word for it...

Anyway, I was about 10 and a sheikh came to mums friend's house where we were staying to 'rid her of the devil that caused her to leave her husband'. I think mum wanted it, for some really really strange reason (she's a terrible muslim, always was, always will be if only she'd just opt out already) Her husband had beaten her to a miscarriage, yet apparently she was the one that needed a devil beat down.

EXORCISM! Ahhh, that was going to bother me..

I stayed to watch for as long as was deemed appropriate. Basically, the sheik just yelled at mum while wielding the quran and then beat her senselessly. There was one point when I left, and from outside I could hear mum screaming in a voice that was not her own, a strange deep creepy movie devil type voice..it was telling the sheik to go fuck himself..

Maybe that's why she did it.. just to tell the cunt to go fuck himself

But I doubt it. I think she wanted to feel like a good muslim because she had found herself in a situation where every part of her system of thinking was telling her that she was evil. Hmmm...

Even at 10 I knew that it was all crap. I was angry that mum was being hurt, by a man, wearing a fucking dress. But after all was said and done, she believed that the devil was gone (not sure how he got in) and that she was purified.

I think she was punished into submission. I also think that the creepy movie devil voice was just her damaged vocal cords being strained from the screaming and the quitting of the cigarettes.

And did I mention crazy brainwashing mind control?

I don't even know if this is on topic, but the point of my story is...
wait...

ummm...

Islam is a religion of peace?

[Sten]

Thanks nambawanatheist for your great story.

So Muslims share this idea of demons/the devil invading people with the Christians then .... interesting. I wonder if the Jews believe in this also?