I didn't really know where to put this so I guess I'll put it here. I'm sick of religion in general. I don't enjoy going to church, I'm not even sure if I believe in a god, I don't enjoy having to learn something that clashes with my beliefs in Sunday School...when I'm 17. (Something that really bugs me is that fact that the Christian religion, and others, deem all other religions as pagan and they're gods aren't real and just made up and there's is real. Is there proof? No. So fuck it, Thor is the reason why we're getting plagued with cold and storms over here.) Just today, we were sitting in Sunday School, two 17 year olds, a 15/16 year old and a 12/13 year old, watching some video about creation that was meant for teens. I am a believer in evolution, why? Cause it makes sense when you boil everything down. So our Sunday School teacher (who I could make an entire rant on just about her) asked why God wanted to make man in his image. I didn't care and was just like "Because making giraffes as humans would be weird." She took that as "because God wanted to create the only thing that can think for itself." This is wrong, very wrong. Animals can think for themselves, which is where monkeys got brought up. This kid Eric said, "well monkeys are pretty smart." His sister Anna responded, "well we did come from them." And she caught herself. Our Sunday School teacher then smirked, "Nope, no we're not." She then went on saying about how our occasional substitute pastor has a sermon prepared on why Creation is real and how there is all of this evidence against evolution. I wanted to bang my head off of the table. My sister yelled at me before for believing in evolution. She said that I grew up for believing in creation and that it's basically sacrilegious to believe in evolution. I have Catholic friends who believe in evolution and all that fun stuff. Why must I be forced to believe in something that does not fit with my ideas and actually contrasts it? I'm not even allowed to skip church. If I consider it, I'm not allowed. I didn't even get out of bed until 8:30...church is at 9 with a 15 minute drive. I was still forced to get a shower and go. -_-. I stay up late, waking up early does not bode well with me. Yesterday I had to wake up at 6 to go bowling. Is it so unreasonable to let me sleep in? The part that sucks is I'm stuck there for another year. Until I graduate. To make it better I have to sing. I hate singing. Because my Sunday School teacher thinks that her grand-daughter should learn the songs that we stopped singing years about, about the time I was 13...only guy in the Sunday School...I assume you can understand where me not wanting to sing with a bunch of girls and pre-pubescent boys can be an issue. So I didn't have to sing. Now since apparently I have a great voice we're going to sing all of these little kid songs...and later sing them for our church! Like wtf? No. Did any of us get a say in this? No. Lastly, these people can be so hyper-critical. My Sunday School teacher decided we were going to do some thing where we take the song 'Firework' by Katy Perry and relate it to God. She went on saying about how a lot of people in the church probably don't like her. Open researching, Katy Perry used to be a Christian singer. Bam! Anyways, they were going to show the music video and she watched it with this girl Anna one day. They never even finished. Reasons included: "They're partying", "there're all of these girls in bikinis", etc. If only they got to the guy in the club who kissed another dude. And seriously, girls in bikinis? Yes, because that is such an unnatural and immoral thing in today's society. What can I do people of EC? I'm tired of it all. I'm sick of it all and them. Once I go to college I'm not going anymore even if the college I'm planning on going to is only a town over. I can't argue with anyone involved because then I'll just seem like some horrible, blasphemous person. Help!
I am sorry you feel this way. Every church is different and maybe when you graduate you can find a church that accepts you as a gay man. I don't what your reasons are for not believing in God but as a Christian you don't have to go to church to worship God. Religion is abhorred by God and ministers twist the word of God to fit their own beliefs. The truth I'd the original bible was not in English and it did not condemn. I get sick of conservatives citing the bible as their argument when their bible is wrong. If your reasons for not believing in God is because of anti gay teachings I would read open minded videos on the bible and homosexuality. Most importantly God lives you no matter what.
Wow, dude. I myself am an atheist, and while my mother has occasionally tried to stuff the bible down my throat I've never had an experience quite like that. Personally I'd just make it clear that you don't believe what they do. If you can't get out of going to church, that's fine. Just make it clear what YOUR beliefs are. You don't have to argue with them, and frankly you typically CAN'T have a rational discussion with people who still think the earth is 6,000 years old and don't believe in evolution, so I wouldn't bother trying. Oh, as for the bigoted, judgmental, "hyper-critical" thoughts of these people.....you could always bring up that whatever it is, is not as bad as kids getting raped in church. Yeah, it's harsh but let's face it, if they're more concerned about what people wear than they are about sexual assaults at church, then perhaps it's time for them to re-examine their morals. EDIT: By the way, I'm not trying to bash anyone who is religious. In fact, I have several friends who are quite religious. However, I AM against religious bigotry and people who reject FACTS.
Don't feel too bad when my dad found out I was an atheist he lost his shizz, and I still had to go to church every Sunday and listen to what I considered just sheer nonsense on and on and on. I won't compare my experience to yours, because I can tell you have had an even worse one than me, and I don't want to belittle your experience. I'm just saying that I get where you're coming from. You won't make any headway with fundamentalists, it just won't happen. They are stubborn and completely stuck in their ways...no hope for them -.-' When you go to college just forget about your crappy little church and focus yourself on the future and meeting people who will be accepting of who you are, and your knowledge of evolution I don't know what people have against evolution though it's such a wonderful concept, and it makes me feel awesome knowing that it is the story of how we all came to be who we are If you ever need to go on a religious rant please send a message my way because I love religious rants, and I love talking about the subject
The thing is, it’s not that they don’t accept me, I feel kind of stuffed in there. We live in a small town with a lot churches. You can go to our church and ask someone who they’re related to…it’s normally half of the church. And I’m expected to stay with this church, which makes it harder. We’re small and filled with old people, with very few young people and the reality they need to understand is that pretty soon, there will be no young people left. My friend Kylie doesn’t even come anymore, partially because she doesn’t believe the teachings and partly (I think) because she’s LGBT. I honestly don’t know what I would ‘define’ myself as…but it definitely wouldn’t be religious at all. I’ve fucked up stuff before…hell, when I was 13 I did so not so holy things…but did I ever look to a God to repent my sins? No. I’ve also not dealt with any anti-gay teachings. If I had, I’d be done. I would refuse to go anymore because they’d be warping people’s minds. I’m not sure if I would label myself an atheist, because I do believe that there is some sort of afterlife but that doesn’t make me Christian. The thing is, I can’t just left my beliefs out because then there would be some argument and I understand that you cannot have a rational argument with the “The Earth is 6000 years old” people. The first thing I think of is an episode of Degrassi where Adam brings in a fossil and shows it to Becky and asks her if she believes it’s real and she says she does, to which Adam replies how could she if the Bible says the Earth is 6000 years old but the fossil is confirmed to be millions of years old. Becky was speechless. I don’t believe that I’ll bring up kids getting raped at Sunday School though, while it may be true I don’t see it as the best thing to bring up in that setting. I am partially with you on the religious friends things. I am fine with having religious friends, but if and only if they don’t always bring religious stuff up or tweet religious things or stuff like that. This one girl I know, I like her, but when she tweets Bible verses and retweets from religious accounts…I get frustrated. One of my best guy friends is quite religious, however he doesn’t boast about it. He has brought it up very few times, the most recent being when I was sad when my great-aunt died. He told me to pray. That was fine, given the situation. I feel the same way! Granted my parents don’t know my religious standings which I am fine with. I honestly didn’t know my experience was so bad until you people told me, I kind of just accepted it but while rereading my post…fuck…I’d feel bad for myself if I wasn’t me. I’m aware. I hate close-minded people. What is so hard with opening up your mind to learn new things? I have actually found it funny that my one friend Sarah is one of the most religiously tolerant, accepting people I know, and she’s Catholic…I always thought Protestants were known as the more accepting ones. I may just do that one of these days, I have many rants in me, some of the solely religious.
I'm sorry that you're stuck in such a situation, but time will give you freedom Yes, when it comes to how far religion is taken it comes down to the individual and not to the religion as a whole. Unfortunately when it comes to religion people are mostly looking for someone else to tell them what it means because opening the bible and reading it yourself is too much of a chore -.-' I'd be happy to hear any of them
