Heya,
after just having been reminded of what will follow in another thread, I think it might be a good idea to openly announce this here. I'm very likely not the first one who does this, but anyway.
(Disclaimer: Any harsh words to follow are meant to hit, not all christians, but fundamentalists and creationists.)
I am now 35 years of age. For most of this time (until two years ago, to be specific) I was a German protestant christian... and for German "standards", I definitely was more fervent than most of my fellow Germans. Among other things, I was one of the comparatively few people who joined the local group of the "German St. John's ambulance service" for ethical reasons (wanting to help others, partly because of the example that Jesus supposedly was for us all) instead of just being able to get into a number of pop festivals et cetera for free (as long as I'm "on duty" there, as a medic). I was even one of the very few among my fellow medics who memorized the official prayer of the "Order of the knights of St. John of the hospital of Jerusalem", the goo' ol' order of the knights hospitaller which built up, and sponsors, the ambulance service.
Then, in early summer 2003, I deconverted to Asatru, the pre-christian faith of my Germanic ancestors. The circumstances of my deconversion are quite irrelevant to the context of this posting, though if you really want to know, just ask me. Anyway, I left christianity behind without any bitter feelings. I just no longer believed, but that was about it. I considered christians to be basically ok...people like me, just people who believe something I no longer believe.
Then, some two months after my deconversion, I came into contact with US-style "christianity" and the fundamentalist cults, including creationism. It was almost child's play for me to see through the painfully obvious lies and other dishonesties propagated by them ("evolutionists say that we are just animals"? Gee, funny, in all my biology lessons I never ever heard anything like that!). Feeling driven to help enforce justice and truth, I quickly joined the ranks of those opposing this form of fanaticism. To use a parable for a moment, I severed countless heads of that hydra, only to see two new heads growing back. Especially, I saw that the most common tactic of creationists is "If the unbelievers soundly refute my claims as nonsense, I'll just disappear for some days or weeks and then re-publish them. Sooner or later it will work!". In other words, supreme arrogance.
Bottom line? Well:
With every passing day, I find it harder and harder to keep myself from feeling nothing but utter hate and contempt for all of christianity. While I know that it's not fair, while I know that most christians are okay, while I know that it's only some fanatics who taint the whole religion, the sheer amount of disgust within me - directed at the arrogance and dishonesty of the fanatics - threatens to overwhelm me. I am close to contemplating leaving this site, lest I some day start to blindly lash out at everything christian, hitting far too many innocents in the process. And while shortly after my deconversion, it was simply "unlikely" that I could ever reconvert, it's now utterly impossible.
Think about that, you creationists. You can believe whatever you want, but if you want to convince/convert someone else, live your faith instead of just claiming to do so. Specifically, be humble and honest. Be a good example, just like your Jesus supposedly did. This would have more power in and of itself than any amount of regurgitations of PRATTs.
*climbs off soapbox*
Okay, that's it. Let the shells come in now.
after just having been reminded of what will follow in another thread, I think it might be a good idea to openly announce this here. I'm very likely not the first one who does this, but anyway.
(Disclaimer: Any harsh words to follow are meant to hit, not all christians, but fundamentalists and creationists.)
I am now 35 years of age. For most of this time (until two years ago, to be specific) I was a German protestant christian... and for German "standards", I definitely was more fervent than most of my fellow Germans. Among other things, I was one of the comparatively few people who joined the local group of the "German St. John's ambulance service" for ethical reasons (wanting to help others, partly because of the example that Jesus supposedly was for us all) instead of just being able to get into a number of pop festivals et cetera for free (as long as I'm "on duty" there, as a medic). I was even one of the very few among my fellow medics who memorized the official prayer of the "Order of the knights of St. John of the hospital of Jerusalem", the goo' ol' order of the knights hospitaller which built up, and sponsors, the ambulance service.
Then, in early summer 2003, I deconverted to Asatru, the pre-christian faith of my Germanic ancestors. The circumstances of my deconversion are quite irrelevant to the context of this posting, though if you really want to know, just ask me. Anyway, I left christianity behind without any bitter feelings. I just no longer believed, but that was about it. I considered christians to be basically ok...people like me, just people who believe something I no longer believe.
Then, some two months after my deconversion, I came into contact with US-style "christianity" and the fundamentalist cults, including creationism. It was almost child's play for me to see through the painfully obvious lies and other dishonesties propagated by them ("evolutionists say that we are just animals"? Gee, funny, in all my biology lessons I never ever heard anything like that!). Feeling driven to help enforce justice and truth, I quickly joined the ranks of those opposing this form of fanaticism. To use a parable for a moment, I severed countless heads of that hydra, only to see two new heads growing back. Especially, I saw that the most common tactic of creationists is "If the unbelievers soundly refute my claims as nonsense, I'll just disappear for some days or weeks and then re-publish them. Sooner or later it will work!". In other words, supreme arrogance.
Bottom line? Well:
With every passing day, I find it harder and harder to keep myself from feeling nothing but utter hate and contempt for all of christianity. While I know that it's not fair, while I know that most christians are okay, while I know that it's only some fanatics who taint the whole religion, the sheer amount of disgust within me - directed at the arrogance and dishonesty of the fanatics - threatens to overwhelm me. I am close to contemplating leaving this site, lest I some day start to blindly lash out at everything christian, hitting far too many innocents in the process. And while shortly after my deconversion, it was simply "unlikely" that I could ever reconvert, it's now utterly impossible.
Think about that, you creationists. You can believe whatever you want, but if you want to convince/convert someone else, live your faith instead of just claiming to do so. Specifically, be humble and honest. Be a good example, just like your Jesus supposedly did. This would have more power in and of itself than any amount of regurgitations of PRATTs.
*climbs off soapbox*
Okay, that's it. Let the shells come in now.
In that case, why not just let cancer cells mutate into healthy ones? 
