Philosophical Vegan Forum

Greetings,

I decided to join this forum to discuss my atheism. I'm a Afrikaner South African, which is generally a very conservative society. Because of this I find it hard to express my opinion on religious affairs and I generally just conform and hide my true beliefs.

I was bought up as a protestant christian and I attended church a fair amount. As a young boy I remember trying to find something more from the church. I felt like I was missing something the other people found. Church was just so boring! Why would anyone volunteer to go there?

Later in Sunday School teachings, I was also told that my taste for music was the wrong one. And at that point everything started to look very childish to me. The teacher explained what some band names "actually" mean. (KISS - Knights in Satan's Service. AC/DC - After Christ, Devil Comes.) This was so ridiculous i feel a sense of embarrassment when I think on it now.

Also in our final years, before we were sort of "accepted" as a proper member of the church the Reverend said he's going to challenge us with some hard questions and we had to prove him wrong. He quizzed us on various topics ranging from the creation of life to not being able to see God, and we would have to convince him with an argument to prove God's existence. One weekend we went on a Sunday School camp and I remember we had to write all our problems down on a piece of paper, go up a hill at night, staple the problems to a cross and set the cross alight. Crazy shit.

See you in the forums!

Hi Hans,
welcome to the forum! Is your family atheist as well? if not how have they taken it?

No they are not.
I never told them, but i think they have their suspicions.
But I don't think i'll ever confront them. They seem happy trusting God will make it all okay. I feel it might be cruel if I shatter that for them.

Hi Hans,

Interesting story about the burning cross- never heard that before!

How did the "test" go, or did it happen?

Yes! The cross burning had a very cult-like feel to it.

I can't remember the test exactly, but it was the type of thing you couldn't really answer wrong. Something like: "So what can we learn about God through the book of Job?" then my answer might be: "That God sometimes works in mysterious ways but because he is timeless in his view and we are not, we might be unable to see the bigger picture so should not feel resentment."

The only real way you can answer that incorrectly is by say: "It teaches us God can be a real asshole sometimes." And that was unthinkable to do for me at the time.