*tiny warning label reads: "abrasive person wrote something silly"*
Oh, it's Christmas Eve again.
Another day with friends tomorrow? I don't know. Christmas Day has been a relatively pleasant experience. I get together with those that don't celebrate and we have a grand time.
To you, dear reader, it may seem like just another long day of relaxed conversation, but I love every minute of it.
Anywho, have I told you I'm atheist? I wasn't always one. I left my faith, actually. I was a big fan of Christianity back in elementary school. Oh, it's as if those days were yesterday...
One year, a friend's grandmother, being a missionary, thought it would be a good idea to give me a bible of my own (with my name engraved on it!) I'd only read a few passages here and there, and was quite ready to sit down and pull an all-nighter to read the thing. Long story short, once I had read the whole thing, I was rather disappointed. I found the stories ridiculous. The text contradicted itself more times than I bothered to count.
It wasn't the contradictions alone that made me decide to leave the faith. The bible is an excoriating portrait of the Lord. It's almost like he needs us to worship him. Reading the bible made me realize the implications of what was accepted as the truth. For example, one is damned (because of their sins) if one does not believe in God/Jesus Christ and make Him your one deity. This makes absolutely no sense. That would be like a firefighter not rescuing a man from a burning building because the man doesn't believe the firefighter is ready to save him. (By the way, the firefighter started the fire.)
I don't even know if I want to say what I just typed. Feel free to rip on me all you want; I've got a bunch of stuff to worry about, so I won't notice. I'm having a mediocre evening (if that can be said about evenings)
Argue away, if you dare read that massive monolith wall of text
^see? feeling extra jerky today, too
More jerkiness:
religion is regarded by the common people as true (at least, back then?)
the wise as false (at least... way back when?)
and rulers as useful (4EVER)
I'm an atheist because the bible is poorly written? -Ish?
Doesn't make for a convincing story