How did you choose your denomination, Veeky Forums?

I think I'm half way through the transition between confessionally reformed and atheist right now. I can't shake the fear of the eternal consequences of my decision though.

To an atheist, atheism is the truth and telling the truth is spreading "good news."

Chosen of Khorne.
>born with a dick

well new atheism is a religion

It chose me

I had the good fortune to be born in the first world at the present period, which for all its troubles is infinitely preferable to most previous eras.

Together with the above historical accident, I had the other good fortune to be born to a well-adjusted non-religious man (who is very private about it and keeps it to himself, he wouldn't even describe himself as an atheist), and a Lutheran woman. Although mom had me do a pretty low-key confirmation process, once it was over, I stopped attending church and no one gave me any further grief on the matter.

Then I had a conventional first-world education in the sciences which gave me all of the usual substantive fodder to disbelieve in religion. During this, 9/11 happened while I was finishing high school, a pivotal period where you're almost-thinking like an adult and you actually remember things. The historical event later became a meme and a joke of course, but it was timed well to my adulthood. I think it is fair to say that that was as good of a spectacle, an object-lesson as any, with the act itself, the Falwell denouncements immediatley afterward, and the cynical Scientolgist clean-up crews, to on both the above evidence-based/empirical basis, and also on the emotional, rhetorical one, to reject religion.

During my teens and early twenties I privately described myself as agnostic, but during my mid-twenties I realized that this was pointless. I've privately described myself as an atheist ever since, and to bring things home, I'm going to engage maximum edge now, on a purely emotional level.

I'm older than most of you. I'm past thirty, I've had good times and bad. I've had friends die, I've seen people suffer. I've entertained the arguments, read science, read bits of the bible. and the older that I get and the more I think about it, the more I hate the idea of god. It seems to me that the only genuinely moral course of action in the case of a god would be to reject it or to kill it if possible.

euphoric

And, as expected, the usual gainsay, the usual denial, which does not want to engage with the substance of the ideas. Beacuse the idea is currently "popular" in western society, conventional, accepted, as far as the average Veeky Forums user can tell. This in spite of the fact that the atheist is the most hated minority group in America, according to recent meme-surveys. It is only from a very comfortable and peculiar first-world position that the average Veeky Forums user, whose first task is above all is to be /contrary/, that the notion of atheism is part of the typical landscape, or can even be conceived as such.

Whereas before, the contrary tack of Veeky Forums entailed latent bits of old-left counterculture (hence 420 chan and degenerate old /b/ culture), it has lately swung in the other direction, so that the task is always and above all to be contrary, without engaging the substance of ideas.

The irony of course is that Veeky Forums is large enough that there are some more conventionally left-boards, principal among them being Veeky Forums, the granddaddy of Veeky Forums. But everywhere in the culture of the website is there a requirement of contrarianism to the point of self-hatred. Witness the banner ads which have historically played on the site. There is constant self-deprecation and putting-down of the culture of a given board itself.

And yet, for whatever reason, every individual one of us keeps coming back, despite the daily protestations to some degree of hatred or dislike for this or that part of the site. Even the /pol/ user sometimes sense the hypocrisy of congregating on a site which is heavily devoted to japan, fetishes, and pornography.

Or maybe the fact that you're 30 and think you have it all figured out makes you come off as an insufferable fedora?

What are your thoughts on Aristotle and Aquinas?

i have chosen the denomination who propose the worst end for the atheists.

>Even the /pol/ user sometimes sense the hypocrisy of congregating on a site which is heavily devoted to japan, fetishes, and pornography.
Do you mean that it's strange for people who advocate traditional moral values to brows a site which largely revolves around porn and other degenerate content?
I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just asking.

>he irony of course is that Veeky Forums is large enough that there are some more conventionally left-boards
No they aren't kek

Friendly reminder that not being /pol/-tier doesn't make you a lefty.

i meditate

When I turned 20 (currently 25) I had an existential crisis. So I spent the next three years basically working through the attached chart and trying all these ways to give my life a sense of meaning. After a few years of reckless hedonism, aggressive atheism, and dabbling in Eastern mysticism, I found that ultimately the most fulfilling (to me) was Christian existentialism. I read Kierkegaard and Merton, and came to understand that faith isn't faith without doubt, it's gullibility. So for me, part of having faith is also allowing for the possibility you could be completely wrong, but believing anyway. I was raised Baptist in the American South, but I mostly go to high churches now, episcopal or catholic, and I'm perfectly happy with that.

That could be. It could also be that you reflexively type memes in lieu of a thought. It's okay, it's Veeky Forums after all, but it does get tiresome.

Yep, that's exactly what I meant about that bit.

A board is comprised of the people and computer algorithms which actually post to it, troll, shill or no. It happens often enough on Veeky Forums that people/computer algorithms have serious discussions about a Marx or a Foucault. A recent thing on multiple boards (mainly Veeky Forums and sometimes on /tv/ ) has been to review the old 90s chestnut: why are conservatives unfunny, why does art (literature, movies) made by conservatives suck, etc. Cue more conservative anons to take umbrage with the conceit, but troll or no, the repetition of the above themes among others is enough for us to fairly characterize Veeky Forums as has been done.

It's also clear that I was contrasting Veeky Forums with the rest of the site, but even taken by itself, my qualifiers work: Veeky Forums is a "more conventionally left board." The phrasing was squishy on purpose: to secure an uncontroversially true observation, but still someone managed to disagree.

Gonna read some more plato first (last exposure was just a few dialogues in college). Would like to get round to the other meme at some point as well but I don't think I'll be making time in my life for the Summa or anything.

Choosing a religion sounds incredibly intellectually dishonest desu. Aren't you supposed to accept and in some level just feel and know its teaching are the supreme truth of the universe? How can you choose something like that based on what you like?

If you just want to follow their life philosophy or learn about them then do it, but don't label yourself if you don't actually believe what their sacred texts say, otherwise congratulations, you're a new-gen fedora.

This is a good observation. I used to think much the same thing when in my teens; if what you're doing is "window-shopping" for a religion, then you're not being honest.

OTOH it's simply true that many people have some sort of spiritual search during their teens and twenties, or else of course they uncritically adopt and stay in whatever they have been raised in. Put this way, both choices can be characterized as disingenuous, in a way: if you go out of your way to experiment and "try different religions", then this hazards being the bourgeois window-shopping mentioned above. OTOH (yet again) if you belong to the Holy Church of X for little other reason than that that is what your parents did, then this also has a dishonesty.

The manner of worship should suit your personality. If you are somber and old fashioned, you would be attracted to a somber and old fashioned church.

If you are constantly seeking to be filled with and moved by the Holy Spirit in song and dance, you would be attracted to a charismatic church.

Churches are not one size fits all, and they do not negate each other's authenticity as the papists suggest.

I liked old fashioned hymn books, lessons right out of the bible, the occasional moving of the Holy Spirit, and potluck suppers. So, Baptist.

>How did you choose your denomination, Veeky Forums?
I am very interested in this.

Pic related.

1/2

2/2

Please, someone respond "rationally".

all those seem like spooks. You don't need to join some group to have any faith or to love god my good man

Well its worth note that from a historical perspective, the book of Revelations came much before many of the other books of the New Testament. So it probably only refers to the book of Revelations alone.

You never believed.

So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

That's completely ahistorical

Many of the epistles were written in the late 1st century, some scholars even put the writing as late as the second century, meanwhile Revelations was almost certainly written in the first century, maybe even as early as 68 AD.

Look it up, broham.

Twas an atheist (I did magic and stuff,) I got invited, and then it was really great and so I stayed. Non denominational w/gifts of the spirit and evangelism. We're really lacking on community though, so there's been an effort to fix that.

It's also worth (note)ing that the name of the book is Revelation, not Revelations.

Paul died in 67. None of the epistles are younger than that. The only gospel written after 70 was John.

It's almost like the Bible coalesced over the course of centuries and an arbitrary canon was declared hundreds of years later in an attempt to consolidate political and religious power.

euphoric

>I liked old fashioned hymn books, lessons right out of the bible, the occasional moving of the Holy Spirit, and potluck suppers
Minnesotan Catholics have all of that.

Well, we're working on purging the Marty Haugen crap in lieu of actual good liturgical music but still.

I'm Catholic because of my parents but I have spent a good amount of my time growing in that faith through my own desire, listing to theologians speak and reading philosophical works of the church.