Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
but I rarely meet a person who has never needed God. Nor a family for that matter.
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Nor prehistory tribes. They had gods too. And btw, the early Christians, not the Jewish Christians that were the earliest, but the pagan Christians Paul brought in, were called atheists, because they didn't believe in the gods, like required by the ruling Romans (those Christians were blamed for crop failures, cuz they were dishonoring the gods, so they were to blamed for the gods punishing the pagan community).
Look theLCfurry, my point is that, even your parents are atheists. They don't believe in thousands of gods. They are atheists of them all. No big deal. I'm an atheist too, like you -- except I'm fond of Yahweh. For example, I'm an atheist of Zeus.
You're young theLCfurry, and have lots to learn. First of all, true real atheists -- not like Richard Dawkins and the lot -- don't even know they are atheists ; they know nothing of religion, even atheism.
Those here in America, that call themselves atheists, are just atheist in name only. Eighty percent of Americans identify as Christians. So atheists here are rebelling against that. They're anti-Christian, prolly like yourself toward the LC.
But if you don't just want to go out there and party your brains out, like a lot of college students, but want to learn more about these matters, you'll learn that as far back as the eye can see into the fog of ancient history humans have believed in some kind of god(s).
Here's the thing. I'm pretty loosey-goosy about god(s) (maybe more on that later). I'm presently reading "
From the Stone Age to Christianity: Monotheism and the Historical Process," by William F. Albright, a American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist, and expert on ancient ceramics. In the book he speaks of the gods as if they were real, cuz they were, to the people back then. Those ancient peoples -- maybe we can refer to them as primitives, at least the stone age ones -- needed their gods to make it thru their very hard lives. They were petitioning them, sacrificing to them, in hopes they would be favorable towards them, and provide badly needed blessings of some sort.
My point, perhaps following in Ohio's thought, is that historically, people have needed god(s). Here in America, where life is already full of blessings, god or the gods aren't needed so much. But when times get dicey, like with Covid-19, people who don't normally believe, turn to prayer.
I don't blame you for taking a drastic step against your cradle religion. I did that too. So perhaps you're just going thru a phase, and you need time to find your knew footing, to be youself, and not what others want you to be.
Don't despair concerning your parents. Give them time. A little bit before I went on a sabbatical from this site, we had a gay sister that grew up in the local church. She was outed, she got caught kissing another sister, on video, and was hated by everyone in the LC.
Her fanatical LC parents were apoplectic. They're Chinese so they thought they would save her by taking her to Taiwan. It didn't work. The video went viral in the local church, so they hated her there to. The rejection of her local church friends, that she grew up with, and her parents, drove her to the point of suicide.
Long story short, she now lives with her gay lover. She's ecstatic ; very happy. She can now be who she really is. And her parents? Well needless to say, they aren't happy about it. Her father, the most LC fanatic, doesn't fully accept it, but her mother is now making meals for them, and buying her lover gifts.
So likely, once your parents get over the shock of you becoming an atheist, will come around. But isn't it time to be who your are, regardless of what others think, including your parents?
Blessings ....
Harold