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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsSouthernAtheist - An Introduction:
Last edited Sat May 16, 2020, 01:33 AM - Edit history (1)
Good evening, Everyone.
Why do I feel like I've just walked naked into a roomful of strangers? Let me pause to check my hair, zipper, and my breath. Okay, all's well there, now what?
I'm really not good at cold introductions, but as I had to get 10 post under my belt to get here, you have a small taste of my opinions with which to start the conversation if what follows does not serve its purpose.
You will also have noticed that I have typos even though I spell check before posting. As I am partially deaf and grew up in the south where people are notorious for mispronunciation and poor annunciation, this coupled with the English language’s mish-mash of words collected from numerous other languages, spelling was always a living nightmare. I ask for you forbearance in this regard, although it is only through correction that we learn so I’ll trust your judgment as well.
Full disclosure: I voted for Ronald Reagan against Jimmy Carter. I have no excuse and the shame has never left me. I will not say ‘in my defense’, but I will say that I was still living through my ‘young republican’ period and still torturing my soul by trying to pray away the gay while fighting suicidal ideation on a daily basis.
It would be fair to say that my childhood as a Methodist and my college years as a Southern Baptist, and what I call “The Lies Of Christianity”, robbed me of my of my childhood in the first case and of my self respect in the second.
Today, I am an atheist with a fierce intent to no longer abide the lies that have done me and so many others such incredible, often life long, harm for thousands of years as well as and providing cover for the rape of children for thousands of years in the name of “the one true God”. I am not anti-Christian. Some Christians are the very finest people you could hope to know, but I believe such individuals are good in their hearts without the need for religion to justify their good deeds.
I have noted in several of my posts that I have been reading DU since at least 2008, and that I owe all the long time posters here at DU a very large “Thank-You” for all the silent support that I have drawn from you over the years. I will take this opportunity to repeat that here. To know that you are not alone is half the battle against all encompassing darkness. Thank you again.
I turned 60 years old this year and seem to have lost all my previously practiced patience with stupidity, ignorance, and self righteous hypocrisy. I will do my best to be kind and respectful to all I encounter here and in life, but tolerating liers who lie to abuse others will find no quarter with me.
I'll end here with a bit of a rhyme:
I was a melancholy boy,
I am a melancholy man.
I fear I am a writer,
I hear they’re a melancholy clan.
If there is anything here that has piqued your interest, the floor is open for questions on any of the above or anything in my post history that you would like to explore in more detail.
With kindest regards,
SouthernAtheist
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Laelth
(32,017 posts)
-Laelth
The Velveteen Ocelot
(129,722 posts)
SheltieLover
(78,202 posts)Nice to meet you! 
SouthernAtheist
(45 posts)SheltieLover
(78,202 posts)Archae
(47,245 posts)I'm not hostile towards religion, but I do detest fundamentalists.
And greedy TV evangelists.
That out of the way, welcome to DU, I've been here since 2001, hope to see you in different forums.
Greetings from Wisconsin...
SouthernAtheist
(45 posts)I shared your position with respect to non-hostility to religion for many years after I discarded the God of Abraham and the immoral morass passed off as a guide for moral conduct.
But once I became convinced that the hard core fundies were both deadly serious and equally determined to achieve here what ISIS would have in the middle east, I have changed my position to active resistance if not hostility.
Religion at it’s heart teaches the majority to persecute the minority in direct proportion to the power and control they are allowed to exercise. This is the opposite of the foundation of democracy: protect the minority from the majority principle.
I think the present situation in the United States is ample proof that the time is long past for remaining on the sidelines, silent and impotent, in the face of ignorance and deadly incompetence enabled by the blind adherence to religion in defiance of human decency. I believe we have reached a point where inaction is no longer an option.
I offer you the words of Fredrick Douglas to consider:
"Find out just what the people will submit to and you have
found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will
be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are
resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits
of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they
oppress."
-- Frederick Douglass, civil rights activist, Aug. 4, 1857
I have reached the place where I must use whatever force of words I can muster for fear that if I do not, physical self defense will become an increasing unavoidable consequence.
Perhaps my experience with the loss of a close personal friend to anti-homophobic violence precludes me from any delusion of their capacity to act on their God ordained hatred.
tblue37
(68,340 posts)Laffy Kat
(16,900 posts)So glad you joined the fun! 
I am also a godless heathen from the south, although I've lived in Colorado since '81.
SouthernAtheist
(45 posts)If I had money, I would have already moved out west to your neck of the woods or to Washington state maybe.
Laffy Kat
(16,900 posts)I miss all the trees and greenery and the food at times, but it was soooo worth it.
happybird
(5,381 posts)It’s nice to meet ya!
AJT
(5,240 posts)You have gone through a lot and managed to survive. You are accepted and respected here.
UTUSN
(77,302 posts)SouthernAtheist
(45 posts)I am more confident now than at any other time in my life that I am more than capable of defending myself from religious hypocrites.
I have spent time unraveling the shroud of lies that is the God of Abraham and will not accept being belittled by those clothed in false righteous.
I worry only that I can veer off into being overtly preachy to others than the self righteous and thus become again that which I rejected long ago: an unmitigated bore.
UTUSN
(77,302 posts)alwaysinasnit
(5,570 posts)SouthernAtheist
(45 posts)
Aristus
(71,868 posts)
I'm a Southerner in exile, living in Blue Washington State, where my liberal family feels most comfortable.
My story is similar to yours. My last vote for a Republican was for George Bush, Sr in 1992. The GOP was never a good fit for this liberal kid. I've voted all Democratic since that time.
abqtommy
(14,118 posts)long, happy lives.
As one of my high school teachers once said: "Language is made for communicating; rules are optional."
I turned away from organized religion years ago but I may need help to choose a designation. I'm not
sure if I'm an animist, an atheist, an agnostic, a cynic or a cygnet...oh, wait. I did say that I needed help!
SouthernAtheist
(45 posts)That is one of the few things I've written that is not some form existential purging of darkness from my soul which I refer to as my 'poetry of psychosis'. here's another:
Poetry is truth,
Distilled by strife.
'Til all that remains
Is fate's only gift.
That is...
your life.
If I find more courage I may post more in the reading and writing topic section.
SouthernAtheist
(45 posts)I think human would be sufficient. Or perhaps I should say that I wish human was sufficient?
The tendency of religion to enable people to discount the humanity of others, in a more perfect world, would be sufficient cause to result in a quick death by attrition.
diva77
(7,880 posts)...looking forward to reading more. Loved the rhyme too!
SouthernAtheist
(45 posts)
Martin Eden
(15,440 posts)One of my biggest problems with religion is that children are indoctrinated with religious beliefs long before they are old enough to understand the concepts or mature enough to embark on their own spiritual journey of discovery.
More or less (probably MORE in most cases) they are FORCED to believe in a god and the religion of their parents. They have no choice in the matter, with very limited means of defending themselves from such indoctrination.
Of course it is the duty of parents to teach their children right from wrong and to give them a moral compass, which is essential for human beings to live and work together. Unfortunately, for most people on this planet, the religious belief handed down from one generation to the next is a core element of that compass.
And all too often that makes a faulty instrument which does not point true north.
Organized religion has long been a means of control and manipulation. Earthly motivations for wealth and power will always seek hooks and leverage. Religious belief is an effective tool for the unscrupulous.
One need look no further than today's Republican Party. They clutch the bible while worshipping Mammon, disparaging the poor, hating the stranger, and neglecting the sick. They are Christians in name only, practicing hypocrisy.
The religious right paint themselves as victims and claim that Christianity is under assault as their ranks diminish.
They are their own worst enemies, tarnishing the religion they claim to hold dear.
To be sure, there are millions of Christians who are as true as flawed humans can be to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Charlatans and hypocrites do not change what may or may not have been said or occurred 2000 years ago.
But you cannot be a true Christian and also be a member of the cult of Donald Trump, which has become inseparable from today's Republican Party.
I do not despise them for their religious belief. I despise them for the very real harm they do.
SouthernAtheist
(45 posts)What you say is spot on and can not be debated in it's general point and presentation. I do, however; have one issue with your observations that is the direct result of my interest in the "Sodomy Lie".
"Charlatans and hypocrites do not change what may or may not have been said or occurred 2000 years ago."
While I think your point is that what Jesus said and/or stood for is not easily obscured by those who came after him, it would not be correct to extend this to the bible in general.
In my research on the Sodomy Lie, I have complied a list of English language translations of the bible that illustrates that since the middle of the 20th century Christian bible translators have consistently* bastardized the translation of Genesis 19:5 – the lynch pin of the Sodomy Lie by forgoing the traditional literal translation for a euphemistic translation. They have done this I believe for the purpose of strengthening the foundation of the Sodomy Lie in the face of increased public awareness of homosexuality and in response to the first whispers of the gay rights movement that emerged at the end of World War Two.
This does, interestingly, prove the validity of the charges made against William Tyndall that he allowed his Protestant presuppositions to influence his translation of certain words or phrases in order to undermine Catholic doctrinal positions.
* (From 1961 to 2020, there have been no less than 33 new versions of the English language bible produced for which I could locate a PDF copy. Of those 33 versions, only 6 used the accurate literal translation of the Hebrew word “yada: to know” in Genesis 19:5; all the other 27 versions used some form of direct sexual descriptors rather than the literal translation.)
Martin Eden
(15,440 posts)However, I do know the bible was written by men, interpreted, rewritten, revised by the church, and rewritten more than once afterwards with different versions.
My point was the bastardization of the Christian religion and the unscrupulous purposes to which it has often been put are not a reflection on Jesus Christ himself or his teachings -- which I qualified with " may or may not have occurred" 2000 years ago.
Whoever Jesus really was I doubt he intended his legacy to be a rationale for war, or persecution of nonbelievers and homosexuals.
Have you ever read the LTTE written by Sharon Underwood in 2000? This Vermont mother of a gay son wrote a very powerful condemnation of the "moral little thugs" who made her son's life a living hell as he was growing up.
SouthernAtheist
(45 posts)My apologies...
It was not my intent to dispute or question anything you said and I fully agree with everything you said.
I made my point regarding the changing of the bible only out of necessity in order to placate my obsessive compulsive nature. I have a hard time letting even the smallest quibble pass, and I will freely confess to having a permanent burr under my skin when it comes to Christian hypocrisy. Having been burned in real life by Christian hypocrisy repeatedly through out my life, the mere hint of its scent in the air sets me on fire. I do not deny this and I confess that I no longer have much if any inclination to contain it. I did not intend to imply any lack of understanding on you part, and I apologize doing so.
I should have also clarified the term Sodomy Lie; it is entirely mine. It represents what I consider to be a long standing slanderous lie. A lie told so often that it has been literally codified into not just the English language but countless others by Christians as they marched across the world. The Sodomy Lie is the claim that God destroyed Sodom for the sin of homosexuality or homosexual rape. This lie is refuted in Ezekiel 16:48, 49, and 50. The use of the word abomination in Ezekiel to substantiate the charge of homosexuality is further refuted by Proverbs 16:5; where pride, the very first sin attributed to Sodom in Ezekiel, is called an abomination. The very word sodomy is - by its literal definition and by its usage, a lie.
My compliments on your choice of avatar, Frederick Douglass is someone I admire for his courage and for the sheer strength of his will - to be and to live free.
Thank you again for engaging with me and allowing me to contribute to your community.
Martin Eden
(15,440 posts)You were entirely civil, and I consider our exchange over your minor quibble with my first post as nothing more than a clarification which enhanced mutual understanding.
My parents were not religious and I've never experienced any kind of discrimination for my beliefs or who I am (62 year old white male heterosexual agnostic, lifelong liberal, lifelong resident of Chicago and environs). I chose Frederick Douglas as my avatar because I deeply admire him.
Below is a link to the Sharon Underwood letter I mentioned.
http://www.otkenyer.hu/uw-lev-e.php
SouthernAtheist
(45 posts)and thank you for the link. I could have been her son. Perhaps if more courage finds its way to me, I'll post some of the poetry that helped me to expunge the poison that Christianity infused into my spirit as a child.