The Dudeism Forum

After a life of QUITE varied beliefs about god and religion, I've finally settled into what I feel is a very realistic and comfortable place.  One trip I did do was the whole born again thing, and oh gawd - what a trip THAT was.  I was the most uptight fucker you ever could have known.  When I finally dumped it, the popping sound from pulling the 2x4 outa my ass could be heard the world over.

So, finding Dudeism was cool, because I loosened up enough to not take myself so seriously.  After all, I get to call myself Reverend Jim!  (Think "Taxi" - Christopher Lloyd).  And through it all, I've engaged in on-line debates, forums, newsgroups, and created a blog... all about exiting religion.  But it was scattered all over the place, and I couldn't find a place where secular people could go for support.  There's the Clergy Project, which is JUST for professional clergymen who no longer believe in the supernatural.  So I thought, dammit, I'll make my own.  If anyone is interested, check out http://www.refugeesofreligion.com .  It's brand new, so the forum is kinda sparse right now, but I'm hoping more will join as news of its existence spreads.

I even emailed Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Daniel Dennett.  Daniel sent a response already! Pls check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Highly commendable dude, wish your endeavour success.
It must be a terrible feeling to lose your faith.

Not at all - best thing that ever happened.  I changed my approach to life - I now accept knowledge and truth based on facts, evidence, and some personal experience.  In the end, facts and truth trump faith.  As they should.  IMHO.

Lots of people assume that no longer having faith or religion is somehow a sad thing. It's like letting go of that shirt you've had in your closet that you know doesn't fit anymore. For some reason you just kept it. You toss it away because you realized it didn't make sense to keep it anymore.

It's not sad or horrible or a dark day. It's just... no longer an issue.

Good analogy MD.

I am fortunate enough to have come through without any real scars from religion. Other than having parents who did have some scars. I was raised what my Mom always called "Irish Catholic". I'm sort of glad that I was cause I gather that it is a lot harder to overcome the more social brands of religion (Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Mormon etc..)
Being a suburban Irish catholic just meant for me 3 grades of catholic school, confirmation and going to church each year on "the biggies" (easter, xmas yadda yadda) It was not a social thing at all and in my mind it was a dreary dark depressing place that I didn't give one have a crap about. So I just stopped without any issue at all. No pressure.

The theism sort of holds on for a while cause you just don't want to take the last big step of admitting that it's all bull.
After you free yourself of that guilt then the blinders come off.
I listened to some crap about the creation museum a few days ago and commented to my wife how nobody mentions how integral racism is the the creation myth and all that nonsense. Basically if we all came from Adam and Eve then we must all be the same race. So other races can not have been created by god and are less than human. Well of course there is the story of Cain and Able where a curse is put on Cain which is according to Mormon doctrine (Like most Christian faiths traditionally believed) is black skin.

Quote
Those who were less valiant in pre-existence and who thereby had certain spiritual restrictions imposed upon them during mortality are known to us as the negroes. Such spirits are sent to earth through the lineage of Cain, the mark put upon him for his rebellion against God and his murder of Abel being a black skin...The present status of the negro rests purely and simply on the foundation of pre-existence" (Mormon Doctrine, p.527, 1966 ed.).

According to Brigham Young, Joseph Smith classified these people as The Seed of Cain. Young said that "Joseph Smith had declared that the Negroes were not neutral in heaven, for all the spirits took sides, but 'the posterity of Cain are black because he (Cain) committed murder. He killed Abel and God set a mark upon his posterity'" (The Way to Perfection, Joseph Fielding Smith, p.105).

Once you take off the blinders you can see that the most persistent and difficult problems that we are vexed with (racism, misogyny, homophobia) are all so inherent in Christian beliefs. Once upon a time people believed in magic. It was the only explanation they had for most things. They were also tribal and barbaric. We have come past belief in magic except when it comes to religion. We are not barbaric and tribal, not thanks to religion, but in spite of it. Still,  for some unimaginable reason people drag along these ludicrous beliefs from 2000 years ago. And somehow manage (despite the very words of their own faith) to call "good". 

Well now look what you did. You went and got me started.

A good analogy indeed and I stand corrected. I've never been religious so I was perhaps blowing smoke out my arse ;)

Quote from: milnie on April 28, 2014, 05:50:11 PM
A good analogy indeed and I stand corrected. I've never been religious so I was perhaps blowing smoke out my arse

I didn't assume you were having a go at us. I figured you either were never caught up in religion or had never shed one. I sort of remember some of your other posts here, too. That or you were being facetious.

I was going on what I had seen from tv programes about it and the people always seem a mixture of happy and sad

Some good news - the director of the Richard Dawkins foundation hooked me up with the president of the Clergy Project; we'll be chatting on the phone tonight.  TCP provides support for disillusioned professional ministry workers (pastors and priests mostly) who no longer believe in anything supernatural.  Many of them understandably stay in the closet...

Quote from: Hominid on April 29, 2014, 01:09:17 PM
Some good news - the director of the Richard Dawkins foundation hooked me up with the president of the Clergy Project; we'll be chatting on the phone tonight.  TCP provides support for disillusioned professional ministry workers (pastors and priests mostly) who no longer believe in anything supernatural.  Many of them understandably stay in the closet...

Good luck!
A worthy effort for sure.
Does listening to the voices in my breakfast cereal disqualify me?

If you permanently silenced them, that would make you a cereal killer.

Couldn't help myself.

Vagina.

Quote from: Hominid on April 29, 2014, 04:30:35 PM
If you permanently silenced them, that would make you a cereal killer.

Couldn't help myself.

Vagina.

Lol!!!

  IMHO, Snoopy is an iconic dude ...................