Hurmanetar
New
Howdy,
I found Skeptiko a couple of years ago after reading Dr. Eben Alexander's book, Proof of Heaven, and then stumbling upon the Skeptiko interview of Dr. Alexander. I've since listened to all the episodes and look forward to each new one checking my phone often! The interviews generated a fantastic mind expanding reading list as I have read many of the interviewees publications.
I grew up in militant Christianity and got seriously into Young Earth Creationism at age 18. At age 19, I found EvCforum.net and debated with all the passion and idealism of youth in favor of creationism. After about 4 months and a few thousand posts my faith in young earth creationism as well as everything else I thought I believed, was completely shattered. I fell into a deep depression because the only alternative to the faith I had known was lonely meaningless materialism which to me was nihilism. I explored briefly Eastern religions. I read Bernadette Roberts' book, the Experience of No Self and experimented with contemplative prayer or meditation. At times I fell deep into it and experienced many of the things she wrote about as the identification of self fell away. This felt wonderful but scared me. In particular a phrase in her book put the fear of God in me: "When there is no personal self, there can be no personal God." I ran back into the comforting arms of my familiar religion and dug in deeper than ever before albeit with a disdain for creationism. I went to "spirit-filled' "full-gospel" churches, attempted to work up faith for miraculous healings, etc. and so forth. Health problems that persisted despite my attempts at having faith for healing left me frustrated, depressed, and yearning for a deeper understanding of reality. I always wanted to get back to meditation. In some ways the transformative experience that followed the reading of Bernadette Roberts' book never completely left me. A more open-minded perspective on things had been brewing for a few years before I finally felt it was time to leave the church about a year and a half ago.
I am a licensed professional engineer. I've signed the petition on AE911Truth.org and I'm a prepper and libertarian!
That's all folks!
I found Skeptiko a couple of years ago after reading Dr. Eben Alexander's book, Proof of Heaven, and then stumbling upon the Skeptiko interview of Dr. Alexander. I've since listened to all the episodes and look forward to each new one checking my phone often! The interviews generated a fantastic mind expanding reading list as I have read many of the interviewees publications.
I grew up in militant Christianity and got seriously into Young Earth Creationism at age 18. At age 19, I found EvCforum.net and debated with all the passion and idealism of youth in favor of creationism. After about 4 months and a few thousand posts my faith in young earth creationism as well as everything else I thought I believed, was completely shattered. I fell into a deep depression because the only alternative to the faith I had known was lonely meaningless materialism which to me was nihilism. I explored briefly Eastern religions. I read Bernadette Roberts' book, the Experience of No Self and experimented with contemplative prayer or meditation. At times I fell deep into it and experienced many of the things she wrote about as the identification of self fell away. This felt wonderful but scared me. In particular a phrase in her book put the fear of God in me: "When there is no personal self, there can be no personal God." I ran back into the comforting arms of my familiar religion and dug in deeper than ever before albeit with a disdain for creationism. I went to "spirit-filled' "full-gospel" churches, attempted to work up faith for miraculous healings, etc. and so forth. Health problems that persisted despite my attempts at having faith for healing left me frustrated, depressed, and yearning for a deeper understanding of reality. I always wanted to get back to meditation. In some ways the transformative experience that followed the reading of Bernadette Roberts' book never completely left me. A more open-minded perspective on things had been brewing for a few years before I finally felt it was time to leave the church about a year and a half ago.
I am a licensed professional engineer. I've signed the petition on AE911Truth.org and I'm a prepper and libertarian!
That's all folks!