A.A. Increasing our numbers, one human at a time
Karl E. Taylor
overtones, I have just received the greatest holiday gift of them all.
Please, indulge me as I explain.
As many of you know, (and some new folks don't), I am one of those
rare oddities that seems to find very long marriage as a suitable and
enjoyable endeavor. I have been married to my charming wife now for
almost 20 years. And our son, who turns 18 in September, is a very
bright, and well educated young man. Ready to make his way in the
world, I hope.
About 4 years ago, I finally gave up on religion and gods. Granted I
had been raised in the church, educated by the church, groomed to be a
preacher for the church, but I always had those nagging questions that
just never seemed to get any answers. So, I quit. And have never
been happier.
My wife on the other hand, Quaker. Now, don't get me wrong, I love
the Quakers. I have said it here before countless times, that if my
mind ever again turned to insanity, I would be a Quaker again. No
questions asked.
Well, happy holidays. Because of my postings to this group, and her
being sneaky and using my sent folder for information. My wife has
now informed me that she renounces religion, her god, and her faith.
Her reason, all of my arguments, and yours, showed her that there can
not possibly be a god. That there are just to many holes in the whole
religion concept. That I'm right when I ask the question, "which
god?", when someone says I need to have a god. And that in reality,
religions have done more harm than good in this world.
For her, it all started several weeks ago when she was teaching our
son world religion for one of his classes. She said she was trying to
find an unbiased history of middle east and western religions. One
was not to be found. Either they condemned every other sect as being
"of the devil", or, they had so many ludicrous stories, that they were
fairy tales and not to be believed.
She further started looking into old religions and mythology. No
points to anyone that can guess what she found. Yup, they all seemed
so similar. Same stories, same saviors, same miracles. Odd, she
thinks, maybe Karl is right.
Then, while I'm at work, she starts getting into my computer, and
reading my sent folder. That folder contains almost 3 years of
postings to this news group. She sees the arguments. She sees how
people run away from hard questions. And she starts to make up her
own mind. Years of brain washing and indoctrination started falling
away. And my wife started finally to question what she believed and why.
Two weeks ago, she announced to me in my office, as I was trying to
figure out why it looked like my X-Windows kept crashing, that she had
been using my machine to read my posts. And that she no longer had
faith in any gods.
My holidays are looking up.
--
There are none more ignorant and useless,
than they that seek answers on their knees,
with their eyes closed.
____________________________________________________________________
Rev. Karl E. Taylor ktay...@qwest.net
A.A #1143 ULC Minister
Home School Educator for Computer Science
Apostle of Dr. Lao EAC: Virgin Conversion Unit Director
____________________________________________________________________
Snorky2k
Graham Kennedy
>
> In this the week of turkey, and stuffing, false piety and religious
> overtones, I have just received the greatest holiday gift of them all.
Woo hoo! Score one for the good guys! Congratulations!
--
Graham Kennedy
Creator and Author,
Daystrom Institute Technical Library
http://www.ditl.org
J Forbes
>
> Now you have to get her her own computer so she quits crashing yours.
Now he needs to get a new computer and give her his old one...
Jim
EAC Economic Development Committee
Liz
<3DE55665...@qwest.net>, wrote:
[-----]
>And that she no longer had
>faith in any gods.
Congratulations to you and your wife.
Überwench #658 Now a *real* atheist!
Dame Liz the Undaunted BAAWA
Charter Member of SMASH
and Queen of the known universe
Mark Richardson
>Well, happy holidays. Because of my postings to this group, and her
>being sneaky and using my sent folder for information. My wife has
>now informed me that she renounces religion, her god, and her faith.
>Her reason, all of my arguments, and yours, showed her that there can
>not possibly be a god. That there are just to many holes in the whole
>religion concept. That I'm right when I ask the question, "which
>god?", when someone says I need to have a god. And that in reality,
>religions have done more harm than good in this world.
Great Story Karl!
Thank's for posting.
And congratulations on being happily married for twenty years!
Thats a rarity in itself these days.
8-)
Mark ( happily married for 5 years!)
--
Mark Richardson mDOTrichardsonATutasDOTeduDOTau
Member of S.M.A.S.H.
(Sarcastic Middle aged Atheists with a Sense of Humour)
-----------------------------------------------------
Daniel Kolle
>In this the week of turkey, and stuffing, false piety and religious
>overtones, I have just received the greatest holiday gift of them all.
Congrats.
Adam Marczyk
news:3DE55665...@qwest.net...
That's fantastic! Congratulations to you and your wife. This is a *real* holiday
miracle. ;) (And congrats to everyone on a.a. whose postings spurred the
conversations that helped get us to this pass.)
--
a.a. #2001
"Blasphemy is a victimless crime."
Director, EAC Black Monolith Division - "My God, it's full of stars"
Operative: EAC Electronic Warfare Division
EAC Subversive Fiction Division
http://www.ebonmusings.org ICQ: 8777843 PGP Key ID: 0x5C66F737
Michelle Malkin
That's fantastic, Karl. And, that she came to her own conclusions
all by herself makes it even better. You have every right to be both
happy and proud of her.
Welcome to the non-existent EAC, Mrs. Karl! :-)
Michelle Malkin (Mickey)
http://questioner.www2.50megs.com
atheist/agnostic list ordainer
EAC Bible thumper thumper
BAAWA Knight who says SPONG!
Raptor514
Wow! That is so cool!
Congratulations to both you and your wife.
Raptor514
Dread
Congratulations. Don't think for a second this means she'll become
rational in other matters, though. After all, she's still a woman :P
--
Tschüß,
Dread Atheist #1299
Head of the Division for Theist Subversion of BAAWA
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to
believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"[Douglas Adams]
Mark Gradwell
"Karl E. Taylor" <ktay...@qwest.net> wrote in message
news:3DE55665...@qwest.net...
> In this the week of turkey, and stuffing, false piety and religious
> overtones, I have just received the greatest holiday gift of them all.
>
> Please, indulge me as I explain.
I will.
>
> As many of you know, (and some new folks don't), I am one of those
> rare oddities that seems to find very long marriage as a suitable and
> enjoyable endeavor. I have been married to my charming wife now for
> almost 20 years. And our son, who turns 18 in September, is a very
> bright, and well educated young man. Ready to make his way in the
> world, I hope.
I'm sure you gave him the best possible start.
>
> About 4 years ago, I finally gave up on religion and gods. Granted I
> had been raised in the church, educated by the church, groomed to be a
> preacher for the church, but I always had those nagging questions that
> just never seemed to get any answers. So, I quit. And have never
> been happier.
Your'e obviously smart and articulate. Good preacher material.
>
> My wife on the other hand, Quaker. Now, don't get me wrong, I love
> the Quakers. I have said it here before countless times, that if my
> mind ever again turned to insanity, I would be a Quaker again. No
> questions asked.
If only conversion were always so civilized. I hear the second most
vulnerable candidates for cults are those of around our age.
>
> Well, happy holidays. Because of my postings to this group, and her
> being sneaky and using my sent folder for information. My wife has
> now informed me that she renounces religion, her god, and her faith.
> Her reason, all of my arguments, and yours, showed her that there can
> not possibly be a god. That there are just to many holes in the whole
> religion concept. That I'm right when I ask the question, "which
> god?", when someone says I need to have a god. And that in reality,
> religions have done more harm than good in this world.
Seems the quiet contemplation of others words on a computer screen has it's
effects. It does rub off.
>
> For her, it all started several weeks ago when she was teaching our
> son world religion for one of his classes. She said she was trying to
> find an unbiased history of middle east and western religions. One
> was not to be found. Either they condemned every other sect as being
> "of the devil", or, they had so many ludicrous stories, that they were
> fairy tales and not to be believed.
I'll take her word for that. Why not, she's your missus and I can't be
bothered to wade through all that stuff:o).
>
> She further started looking into old religions and mythology. No
> points to anyone that can guess what she found. Yup, they all seemed
> so similar. Same stories, same saviors, same miracles. Odd, she
> thinks, maybe Karl is right.
:o). The plot thickens.
>
> Then, while I'm at work, she starts getting into my computer, and
> reading my sent folder. That folder contains almost 3 years of
> postings to this news group. She sees the arguments. She sees how
> people run away from hard questions. And she starts to make up her
> own mind. Years of brain washing and indoctrination started falling
> away. And my wife started finally to question what she believed and why.
She delves into your belongings and finds a dark secret. Well, dark to her
in that she's never thought about religion in this way before. I love this
story:o).
>
> Two weeks ago, she announced to me in my office, as I was trying to
> figure out why it looked like my X-Windows kept crashing, that she had
> been using my machine to read my posts. And that she no longer had
> faith in any gods.
A small price to pay for radically changing your wife's view of the world.
Wish I could help with the maybe damaged files on your operating system and
programs. Hmm, what you using...Linux and Netscape. Nope, no idea with
those.
Usually I do a virus and spy-adware scan followed by a defrag. But that's
Windows which suffers greatly from all manner of ailments.
This Saturday I'm going to help a friend re-install Win98se on his machine.
He got WinXP working but later found he couldn't find drivers for his
Pinnacle Studio 400 video editing equipment.
>
> My holidays are looking up.
> --
> There are none more ignorant and useless,
> than they that seek answers on their knees,
> with their eyes closed.
> ____________________________________________________________________
> Rev. Karl E. Taylor ktay...@qwest.net
>
> A.A #1143 ULC Minister
>
> Home School Educator for Computer Science
>
> Apostle of Dr. Lao EAC: Virgin Conversion Unit Director
> ____________________________________________________________________
>
>
--
Yours,
Mark
aa#1478
Kalle Helenius
religious
> overtones, I have just received the greatest holiday gift of
them all.
>
> Please, indulge me as I explain.
<snipp>
Thanks for restoring a little bit of my faith in humanity. And a
great story too. :)
--
The fact that a believer is happier than
a skeptic is no more to the point than
the fact that a drunk man is happier than
a sober one. The happiness of credulity is
a cheap and dangerous quality.
- George Bernhard Shaw
AA# 907, BAAWA
George Ricker
"Karl E. Taylor" <ktay...@qwest.net> wrote:
<SNIP> Great story about wife "seeing the light."
Congratulations. This calls for a celebration.
--
George Ricker
The most accurate way to spell "one nation under 'God'" is T*H*E*O*C*R*A*C*Y.
chibiabos
[minor snippage]
> Two weeks ago, she announced to me in my office, as I was trying to
> figure out why it looked like my X-Windows kept crashing, that she had
> been using my machine to read my posts. And that she no longer had
> faith in any gods.
>
> My holidays are looking up.
Karl, I gotta say, as one who has lived with an atheist woman for the
past five years, removal of this conflict from a relationship only
makes it stronger.
Best wishes to you and to your wife. I hope she continues her clear
thinking, and that she shares it with you and your child(ren).
-chib
--
Member of SMASH:
Sarcastic Middle-aged Atheists with a Sense of Humor
(email: change out to in)
johac
> In this the week of turkey, and stuffing, false piety and religious
> overtones, I have just received the greatest holiday gift of them all.
>
That is a great gift! Congatulations to the both of you.
--
John Hachmann, aa #1782
It was the schoolboy who said: "Faith is believing what you know ain't so."
- Mark Twain (1835-1910).