Agnostic.com

37 1

What's the one most negative/detrimental effect religious teachings had on your life?

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

37 comments (26 - 37)

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

1

Nothing to declare. No effect on this guy.

1

It has tainted humanity to the point I would like to give back that chromosome and live out my days as a chimpanzee.

1

When I was 4, our home had a small bit of gravel in a corner of the garden. I arranged the "gravel pit" to look like a village with streets and buildings and small pebbles for people. Then, I entertained other kids in the neighbourhood with stories about the lives of the pebble people. UNTIL ... one Sunday School when the teacher convinced me that I was telling lies and would be horribly punished for it. (It didn't help that I had abusive parents whom I was terrified of and who would have beaten me or worse if anyone told them I was telling lies.)

As soon as I could, I dismantled my "village". Even though the other kids asked, I refused to tell anymore stories and even hid when they came over.

Years later, when I was in grade 5, our teacher assigned us to write a fictional story. Boy, was I conflicted. I was afraid to write something that wasn't true and could be punished for telling lies. I was afraid not to write because I would be punished for not doing the homework. Eventually, I wrote. I based my story on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The teacher was so impressed, she contacted my parents to praise my talent - not good.

I was petrified, waiting for extreme punishment. It didn't help that I felt I had stolen from Lewis Carroll in addition to telling lies. It also didn't help that my mother was angry that I had, again, drawn attention to myself.

Decades later, I still feel uncomfortable when writing fiction.

I hearya. I used to get shouted at and lectured and whatnot for 'drawing attention to myself,' too. They never said what was so earth-shatteringly horrible about it. Not, it was just Wrong and I was Wrong for doing it and don't you dare question it.

@memorylikeasieve Totally different for my brother - boys were allowed to get attention. Was that the case in your family, too?

@RobLawrence Yes, sometimes responses, quality and quantity, can be unexpected. Other times, there's a desert with blowing tumbleweeds. Part of the charm of this site. 🙂

I post some things here that I never mention in RL because there are so many people on this site who have been through the fire, too. We emerge, perhaps a bit scorched and sooty, but tough, like tempered steel.

P.S. Thank you for your kind words.

@pixiedust Not quite. They gave my brother the same treatment.

@memorylikeasieve That's sad. hugs

1

No religious teachings other than my own.
No negative effects from that.
So I'll go with the incursions into law by religion.

1

Well, as a kid, the normal guilt and fear that those "unsaved" are going to hell, but after piercing the veil of absurdity, now I oscillate between horror and humor realizing that two thousand years of western civilization have been shaped by a big falsehood or misunderstanding.

Fins Level 4 May 29, 2018

@RobLawrence It's interesting that human cultures have always made up stories to explain things they didn't understand, but yet fascinating how even in what we consider to be the pinnacle of civilization, stories from 2,000 years ago wield amazing power. It makes me think that when you strip away the smart phones and cars and such, we're really not much different than ancient cultures who threw people into volcanoes to appease the gods. : )

1

How evil and abusive "powerful" people can be towards those and are thought to less than they are.

1

None. It was providing contrast and a context for one perspective like any and all my experiences in my life to help me choose what works and what doesn't for me.

1

Taught me the meaning of hypocracy

1

Nothing. I just couldn't believe in emaculate conception, resurrection, and that every human being, since the beginning of time, who had never heard of Jesus Christ, was either burning in hell, or on the way there.

0

I was lucky, figured out religious was BS when I was still a child.

However, speaking for another who can no longer speak for herself. . . I once knew a lovely (inside and out) young woman who missed her dead father. Her friends found her suicide note next to her hanging body. It read "I have killed myself so I can live forever with my dead father and Jesus in heaven".

0

For me personally, no effect.

@RobLawrence Good parenting, l was lucky. ☺

@RobLawrence That saint stuff is alot to keep up with. ☺

0

I grew up as a Baptist, but frankly, I can’t think of any negative/detrimental effects. There were, in fact, some very good and positive things about my Baptist upbringing. Whatever Ill effects I suffered in breaking away were purely of my own doing—my own thoughts.

I don’t believe in Christianity as presented by traditional churches, and I will never go back, but I try not to wallow in anger, and I do not look down upon those who remained.

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:94116
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.