# Catholicism ruined my life



## Guest (Nov 21, 2005)

does anyone feel like whenever they try and pray, they can't somehow or other connect, it just seems like u run through the motions, put your hands together and go through some meaningless ritual?

Mine came from roman catholicism. I grew up thinking i was sick and twisted, and eventually came to the extremely painful realization that the whole thing was fake (religion) and developed a nihilistic attitude towards everything. I became faithless, which is almost worse than believing you are going to hell. At least when i thought that, i believed in something, even if it was terrible. its more terrible facing the existential reality with no buffer. I often times run through a thought/feeling cycle like this:

thoughts dont mean anything we are just chemicals and biological parts thrown together, then picture myself evaporating into the millions of parts that make up my body, then feel disconnected, like i dont really exist, like i have split into a million pieces.


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## Martinelv (Aug 10, 2004)

Now listen here. Just because (and I agree) we are the result of biochemical processes, doesn't negate the fact that we are alive. I don't give a s**t if we're made up of cabbages and suphur, as long as we're alive and happy, who the hell cares?

The religious can't get it into their thick skulls, but Atheism does NOT mean Nihlism. It is freedom !! Freedom from the appauling religious dogma, freedom to realise that you can look up at the sky in awe at the 'miracle' of the universe, the miracle of your biochemistry being so wonderously complicated that it has given birth to awareness...to wonder, to have the ability to look at nature and gawp with wonder at it all. Cherish it, don't be afraid of it. Who cares if all we are is the the result of biochemistry. What difference does it make?



> thoughts dont mean anything


This, is the crux of your problem. People with faith assume that those without it have no 'purpose', and that nothing has any meaning. Total pisswank. It give's your MORE purpose. The purpose to live, to seek out what life can offer, to make purpose for YOURSELF, not have it rammed down your throat by some crusty old priest reading from some 2000 year old book written by a bunch of madmen. There doesn't have to be any 'cosmic' purpose to be happy. Our purposes are our own. Love, children, art, happyness, sacrifice, whatever, THAT is the purpose. And for everyone except the religious and the scared, you come to realise that it is more than enough.


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## Guest (Nov 21, 2005)

you know you made me think about that comment. and to be perfectly honest with you, i could not explain my logic on that one, ya got me. 
but the fact remains that i overwhelmingly feel that way. i suppose it may have something to do with vulnerability. maybe i just dont want to grow up, still stuck as a child with a magical belief that i cant be touched. just the thought of a million chemicals............u know this dp thing is so fd up. i find it impossible to experience a positive emotion, i know that sounds weak but i swear its true.


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## MrMortgage (Aug 26, 2005)

I agree with what martin was saying when it comes to people pushing or forcing religion on other people....It's just dumb, to force someone that doesnt want anything to do with it...

As a Christian it is not my job to make sure everyone gets saved! I let people know about God and move on!

People talk to me about the Lord and their eyes open wide! They've never heard the Gospel the way I talk about, the Gospel has been tweaked so much that it revolves around feeling better and getting rich and making the church rich!!! Bull Crap man the Gospel is not about that!

Being Christian is a complicated thing and at times its easier not being Christian and just living life just to live it.


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## Scattered (Mar 8, 2005)

Martinelv said:


> The religious can't get it into their thick skulls, but Atheism does NOT mean Nihlism. It is freedom !! Freedom from the appauling religious dogma, freedom to realise that you can look up at the sky in awe at the 'miracle' of the universe, the miracle of your biochemistry being so wonderously complicated that it has given birth to awareness...to wonder, to have the ability to look at nature and gawp with wonder at it all.


No. Atheism isn't synonymous with "Freedom". It can be a form of freedom like many other things can be liberating in their own right. However, to be an Atheist, is not automatically to be free or to have a greater appreciation for the universe. Its a choice like anything else. If you're happy with that choice and it fits you, then great. If the beauty of the universe, and wonder of our biochemical reality brings you such joy, then apparently your worldview is working out for you.

Otherwise I don't think we should reduce Eros's worldview to an inability to come to terms with the joy that is atheism because alot of times a lack of religious community or support can lead to problems for some people. I have the same problem. I can't see the world as being beautiful or wonderous or awe-inspiring. For every beautiful thing in the universe, there are hundreds of people ready to strap bombs to their chests and blow up children. Hundreds of thousands starving to death, more that are becoming the victim of infectious diseases. Theres too much sh*t in this world to ignore. So please, forgive me, if when you go all Carl Sagan on me it doesn't fly.

This world needs God. It needs something to make it more than it is. We need transcendence or lasting beauty or compassion. I'll take that any day over the soul-sucking, mind-numbing, gaping maw of science.

(PS- Don't take this personally. Just a bad day. Mulling things over, etc etc)


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## sleepingbeauty (Aug 18, 2004)

> I'll take that any day over the soul-sucking, mind-numbing, gaping maw of science.


wow thats harsh. :shock: 
i dont see science that way at all. to me science is about truth. its about knowing. and that knowledge, when applied, is the path to wisdom. i find science much sexier as apposed to being led with blinders on.


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## Scattered (Mar 8, 2005)

Science is truth. But theres a price that is paid when we completely buy into our new faith, science, and treat it as the only way to live. The price is one where we exist in a cold, impersonal, objective universe that has no meaning outside the workings of atoms and chemical reactions. I'm not even religious, im agnostic, I'm simply calling attention to some of the damage that this has done to our way of living and our view of life itself. There should be balance, but there isn't balance. Insulting religion has become an honored past time of our so-called advanced society.

So if people want to speak out on the "blinders" we put on that constitute religion, then thats fine. I've been there done that and its like beating a dead horse. Science is reducing religion to irrelevance, and I don't see a need to push that along. A society without any religion is one without any hope. We do need some higher power to save us from our own lust for destruction. Science isn't going to serve that purpose. In fact, Im sure that science left unfettered will only allow us new ways to destroy ourselves and meaning in general for that matter.


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