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Daley
- Male
- Valdosta, GA
- United States
- Blog Posts (4)
- Discussions (24)
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- Groups (3)
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Profile Information
- Your Religious Status
- Atheist
- About Me:
- I was raised in a Christian 'Church of God' church.
The sect was actually called "Pentecostal Holiness".
Speaking in tongues, dancing and other mystical entertainment was a weekly experience for me. We were taught that this was a necessary step to really be close to god and have him speak through you.
We were put into a room on Sunday mornings to hear and memorize stories and verses. The women didn't cut their hair and they wore long dresses. No jewelry. The men couldn't wear shorts and couldn't have long hair. This was REAL Christianity. No filler and no fluff to make it look good to the world. The world didn't matter. It was all about Jesus. I wasn't even allowed to have sleep overs and we purposely lived outside of the 'city' to be in solitude.
I remember being a child and having frequent nightmares about going to hell. It seemed that there was always another step to take to be more holy. Once, I went to my parent's room and told them I had a bad dream. My father told me that it was Satan coming to me and that I should go back to my room and pray. Obviously, I walked back to my room shivering in fear.
In church, it was very common to be half asleep (unnoticed because my father would have surely snatched me up and taken me outside to the nearest tree branch for a switching) from a boring sermon only to be suddenly startled by a screaming lady running around the aisles of the church speaking in tongues.
The church mostly consisted of 2 families: mine and the preacher's. Needless to say, I was thoroughly brain-washed and basically taught to stay away from anything "ungodly".
Having said this, all of these people were good people. I cared for many of them.
I questioned religion more as I hit puberty and knew that my natural attraction to other men was not in my control like I had been taught.
You like what you like and that's that.
I was being taught to hate myself.
The idea of teaching that natural feelings are wrong really opened my eyes and made me decide that I would live my life in quiet and go to church as I was told until I was able to get away.
At one point, we had boot-camp weekends for a few months where we had to memorize pages of the bible and were forced to run laps around town following our preacher (who was a young obese man that was in his truck ahead of us) to learn discipline. If you didn't memorize correctly, your rights to sing in choir and sit with friends were taken away until you learned it. This was only done for the teens and young adults.
I didn't see anything wrong with this until years later when I decided to leave the church.
Needing something to believe in, I studied Judaism and was very attracted to the idea of Buddhism. I found a temple and practiced Judaism for many years.
My fall from grace came when I started college.
I was introduced to the world, traveled internationally and slowly things made sense to me. Just a simple look at history, mythology and genuinely learning how contorted the ego is made a big difference in my life and perspective.
I decided that stories of history are sometimes wonderfully interesting, but that the emphasis isn't on truth in mystical storybooks.
I have found happiness in atheism and the understanding that we actually have the control in our own lives and don't have to make up fairy tales to feel accomplished or important.
Right now, I am living with my partner of 9 years and having an incredible life away from the horrible judgment of religion and it's people.
"I have found that the most religious people are the ones that know the least about their religion or any other." -Daley (Dale Staines)
- Age
- 25-30
- Why are you here?
- Community
- The religion you left
- Christian
- Think Atheist Travel Network Couch Availability - Are you able to host anyone now?
- No
- http://twitter.com/dalestaines
Latest Activity
Daley commented on Shanika's blog post '"Can you do me a favor? I just want you to pray about it."'"Any conversation like this is some attempt for a 'believer' to reiterate their beliefs to you and find a chink in your armor to pull you back into it, start something or use you for some kind of "good deed of the day". If you…"
Daley replied to Jesse Mathewson's discussion 'I am a gun toting, meat eating Atheist and libertarian...'"My partner and I are vegetarians simply because we are so disconnected from the process of how these animals are raised and slaughtered for meat (seemingly they are mostly abused and treated very poorly). We don't know any other vegetarians and…"
Daley replied to Jesse Mathewson's discussion 'I am a gun toting, meat eating Atheist and libertarian...'"There is a big difference in needed and desired "Freedoms" and not liking or being offended by other people's actions. Just because something offends you does not mean there should be a law to keep people from doing what they want.…"
Daley replied to Mario Rodgers's discussion 'The greatest of religious "evils"?'"Door-to-door spreading! Still constructing my trap door."
Daley's Blog
Teacher Suspended - Homosexuality In Animals Assignment
Posted on November 3, 2009 at 2:00am 3 Comments 0 Likes
Finally, the verdict comes out after about 8 hours of waiting.
Dan DeLong, the teacher that was suspended for assigning an optional article dealing with homosexuality in the animal kingdom, has his job back. The entire meeting that decided this was held behind closed doors while a reported 200 people stood outside in support of him.
I read the article that he assigned as optional material and there were some mildly graphic descriptions (if you call mentioning an ejaculation… Continue
Dan DeLong, the teacher that was suspended for assigning an optional article dealing with homosexuality in the animal kingdom, has his job back. The entire meeting that decided this was held behind closed doors while a reported 200 people stood outside in support of him.
I read the article that he assigned as optional material and there were some mildly graphic descriptions (if you call mentioning an ejaculation… Continue
My Crazy Story
Posted on November 2, 2009 at 3:04pm 11 Comments 0 Likes
I was raised in a Christian 'Church of God' church.
The sect was actually called "Pentacostal Holiness".
Speaking in tongues, dancing and other mystical entertainment was a weekly experience for me. We were taught that this was a necessary step to really be close to god and have him speak through you.
We were put into a room on Sunday mornings to hear and memorize stories and verses. The women didn't cut their hair and they wore long dresses. No jewelry. The men… Continue
The sect was actually called "Pentacostal Holiness".
Speaking in tongues, dancing and other mystical entertainment was a weekly experience for me. We were taught that this was a necessary step to really be close to god and have him speak through you.
We were put into a room on Sunday mornings to hear and memorize stories and verses. The women didn't cut their hair and they wore long dresses. No jewelry. The men… Continue
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