Glad of my current stance, but think about the past.

[DeavonReye]

I was raised in a christian home, and for about 30 years, I believed it completely. You can read my introduction story in the Introductions part of these forums. Anyway, now that I am no longer a christian, . . . I have to wonder how my past belief negatively affected my life today. I'm 44 years old. I got a degree in a study that was "safe" for a christian. But the other day, I was pondering what my life COULD have been like if I hadn't been scared away from the sciences? It makes no difference in the present. What is done is done. But I know that my lifeline was greatly affected by a religious belief that wasn't even true. Would I have gone into physics? Geology?

Does anyone else have similar thoughts? Those of you who were a christian in your younger days, wondering where your life would have taken you if you hadn't been influenced by an irrational fear?

[Erxomai]

Yes. Welcome to the club!

[Misanthropik]

Thankfully, I let go of my faith when I was 20, so there was (and still is) plenty of time to pursue things. But even back then, there were things I might have otherwise pursued if not for my faith. For one, I'd be married right now.

She was beautiful, funny, a little twisted , and loved me for me. She had some shitty qualities (I do try to keep that in mind), but nowadays, I might have been able to accept that. We weren't just a boyfriend and a girlfriend. We were partners. She wasn't just a woman I loved; she was my buddy. The only one who understood me and vice-versa. But, over time, I came to the conclusion that she wasn't as good a christian as I thought she should be. In an extreme expression of my faith, I chose God over her, and dropped her from my life completely. I then moved on to a truly reprehensible individual, at which point my life took a plunge into the most horrific depths of despair - and it almost literally killed me.

I don't know what would be different if I hadn't been raised with faith, or if I would even have prefered the difference, but I do know that things would have been different.

[DeavonReye]

Wow,. . . . that was quite the story. That's kind of where I was at, the other day. Wondering where my life would have been if I hadn't been so blindly indoctrinated through most of my life.

[Free Thought]

Look to the future and find what resolve you can to do what you wish within, dwelling on things past that were beyond your control is pointless and wastes time.