I’ve been meaning to post this for fucking ever. And I keep forgetting! The biggest reason why this one struck a chord with me is Austin mentions that, after questioning his faith, he tried a string of churches. What was the last one he names trying?
And while I’m not 100% sure he’s talking about the same one I was raised in, I suspect he is.
Man have I been swamped lately. Working on two new videos, a backlog of articles, and apologist debates. As such, here’s some great work that I didn’t create.
This is from The Thinking Atheist (found on the Atheist Resources page) and is also posted on the De-Conversion Stories page. You can find the full text version here.
The thing I love about the LDS is it’s completely and easily identified as made-up. Yet, with its staggering success, it commands a certain legitimacy. Thus, whenever the religious of other faiths rely on fallacies such as appeals to popularity, history, or the like to attempt to justify their bullshit claims, all I have to do is point to the Mormons whom even other religious think are crazy, yet are forced to recognize and, to a small degree, respect.
My favorite part is at about 1:36. It’s in the fucking OED, people!! (It’s here too, under definition #-fucking-1.)
I’m very lucky in that I wasn’t raised in a fundamentalist Christian family that believed and taught all of the horseshit so common to many families. (We were taught nicer, sweeter horseshit!) Yet, my mom and I periodically get into annoying conversations in which she makes claims such as “feeling” my dead grandmother’s presence or “knowing” there’s “something out there.” I’ve generally chosen not to engage, mainly because I generally just don’t want to fucking deal with it, but one day I probably will. Especially given what I said here. Luckily, my mom is an otherwise reasonable, compassionate, patient, and loving woman, so I’m confident that the conversation won’t be difficult the way that the converstions in this video are described.
I’m one of the lucky ones. Because I was (partially) raised in the Association of Unity Churches…
…I was never indoctrinated into a belief in Hell or anything like it. I cite this fact as one of the contributing factors to my atheism. Not everyone is so lucky.
