In article <1992Dec18.013213.2910@cnsvax.uwec.edu>, nyeda@cnsvax.uwec.edu (David Nye) writes:
|>
|> The postings here seem to be mostly from atheists and fundamentalists
|> with minds made up. I'm curious to know if there are many searchers
|> lurking. Perhaps you were raised to believe in God but the facade is
|> starting to crack. Are there people who started reading this group as
|> theists and have since become atheists? Vice versa? Is the discussion
|> here helpful to people struggling with religious doubts?
|>
|> David Nye
|> nyeda@cnsvax.uwec.edu
Well, I'm still wondering if this newsgroup can help me understand more about my decision to become an atheist. I was raised a Christian and was involved in
a very unusual church going experience for most of my child years. I became an atheist after I started questioning if I was a good Christian. After trying to talk to my minister about why I should stay in the church, he just said
"here's the door, have a nice time". So I left, and after a long difficult
time in which I questioned my Christian beliefs, I became an atheist.
I didn't make the decision by reading this newsgroup, but hoped that this
would be a good source of information. I think I'm somewhat open minded, especially since I was able to adopt Buddhism as a belief system, which was difficult, seeing how indoctrinated I was as a child. "Switching" religions involved a lot of guilt, and fear on my part.
I'm not going to suggest that Christians stay out of this group. I think it would be great if people could have discussions of controversies, reasons for being atheist, life stories, bad and good experiences with religion, etc.
But what seems to happen is that Christians get here and try to convince atheists that they need Christ or are missing something. If there wasn't so much proselytizing, it would be a much better group.
