Here Here!!!!

Cap’t Jack

The use of a monstrous Philadelphia lawyer word like apostasy is not impressive but what is worse is actually giving the meaning of the word in the post as if others don’t know it.  Its not important if they do or don’t know it but the way you posted the words sounds like you are talking down to people.  You may not have intended to give such an impression but you did.

deros - 17 May 2012 01:08 PM

The use of a monstrous Philadelphia lawyer word like apostasy is not impressive but what is worse is actually giving the meaning of the word in the post as if others don’t know it.  Its not important if they do or don’t know it but the way you posted the words sounds like you are talking down to people.  You may not have intended to give such an impression but you did.

I do not see the word “apostasy” as a “monstrous Philadelphia lawyer word”. I’ve seen it used quite frequently by ex-believers to refer to their abandonment of their faith. But I’ve seen the word used in two ways. One, the more formal sense, refers to an official disaffiliation from one’s religion (e.g., getting “de-baptised”). The other, more informal sense refers simply to a personal renunciation of one’s faith or religious affiliation. I put “de-conversion” in parentheses to clarify the fact that I was using the word for its second meaning as apposed to the first.

By the way folks, great posts. Am really enjoying reading people’s stories, and now have some more books to add to my reading list!

My background is Roman Catholic. As a teenager, I considered myself devout.

The first glimmers of doubt occurred in my junior year of high school, when we read Beowulf in English literature class. How was their belief in Wyrd different from my belief in the biblical god? I began to explain my belief on the basis of choice, without understanding yet what was wrong with that.

When I matriculated to The University of Michigan a year and a half later, I drew two Jewish cousins as my roommates in the dorm. This confronted me with the question “why is my religion better than theirs?” I realized that I had no answer. That began a three-year-long, gradual deconversion process. On November 1, 1975, during my first year of law school, I walked out of church before mass began and never returned.

Interesting PLaClair.  I grew up in the Church of God, Anderson, where nothing made sense.  Then when I left home, I went to the Episcopal Church where thing sort of made sense, but at least I could question and research, which lead me to atheism.  As strange as it may seem, Anglo-Catholic and Roman Catholic made enough sense to me that I could form questions, but prior to that, nothing made any sense to me in which I could form any questions.  I spent 20 years in Fundamngelicalism and then the next 20 years exploring until I came to my own conclusions.  My questions did come when I was in elementary school, but I was shut down really quickly.