you're athiest or buddhist or wiccan or whatever bullshit, but you subconsciously anticipate later in life you'll have a personal experience with Jesus Christ. The same loving God you learned about when you were young and u'll leave your blasphemous ways and return to traditional christianity?

No. I used to be wiccan and now I'm an Atheist. I've never believed in god and never will. And I've never been Christian, so I can't return to Christianity.

Good post, charizard.

My *phase* was somewhat reversed in that I grew up in a religious environment and ended up being on the opposite side of a dogmatic lifestyle. If you would have told me 10, 15 years ago that I would eventually be an atheist, I would have laughed in your face and denied it.

Perspectives change. People change.

Never get married to a certain mentality, because it's subject to change, too. And that's the beauty of the mind - we can swap perspectives out with others as we grow and mature. I'd like to state that I'm 100% certain that I'll never deviate from the particular stance I take now - but that would be me, inflating percentages just to justify how my perspective sits TODAY.

Instead, I'll just have to say "pretty damned sure", and feel confident in that.

I cant say no, but at this point in my life i dont believe in god and I hate christianity and all the evils that have been perpetrated under the guise of christianity. The question I ask of you OP is do you think that you will ever have different beliefs than you do now, which i'm guessing is orthodox christianity?

yeah maybe santa clause, the easter bunny and the tooth fairy will all come back too!

yeah maybe santa clause, the easter bunny and the tooth fairy will all come back too!

HOLY CRAP!!!

what if they are real? seriously think about it. What if it all was a big trick and when we turn 50 we learn that santa and the easter bunny and stuff were all real. and thats when we start telling our kids about it.

santa, the easter bunny and the tooth fairy ALL EXIST! its just that people from ages 10-49 temporarily lose their ability to sense them!

No i'm not a christian. I used to be. My views have changed drastically in the last few years so i'm sure they'll continue to change.

HOLY CRAP!!!

what if they are real? seriously think about it. What if it all was a big trick and when we turn 50 we learn that santa and the easter bunny and stuff were all real. and thats when we start telling our kids about it.

santa, the easter bunny and the tooth fairy ALL EXIST! its just that people from ages 10-49 temporarily lose their ability to sense them!

but god still isnt real.

Let's see...I was agnostic as a child since my parents never discussed religion with me and I only started meeting Christians when I got into school so it was always an 'if God exists' thing back then. I met an atheist in 6th grade that had me convinced (she was also real pretty) and so atheism was my phase until the age of 19. Now I'm nearly 21, a cheerful absurdist who doesn't invest any care into whether or not God exists. It's completely unimportant to me.

So it seems I came back to the childhood belief in a way except instead of 'if' it's 'It doesn't matter'.

You know, I can call myself black, but I'm still white. I can call myself an atheist, but I'm a Christian. There's this ability humans have, called deception. Labeling one's self means nothing. How many times have you been told that actions speak louder than words? Christ says, "Seek first the Kingdom of God." He does not command, "Speak my name as your herald and seek the spilling of faithless blood."

As George Carlin puts it: Fighting for peace is like fucking for abstinence.

I don't know what motivates one to falsely claim Christ. But I assure you, that if you've honestly let Him into your heart, you will catch a bullet between your eyes before taking another's life.

We are all going "through a phase" all the time. Change is part of life, and spiritual growth is not only essential, it is inevitabe. That is, we are all on the road to sainthood. Some of us ARE trying harder than others to make progress, to be sure, but that in no way means that anyone is better than anyone else.

The phrase "holier than thou" is simply nonsense. We are all equally holy.

Without bring to much religion to spark a fight, theres a line in the bible where Moses is talking to the Flaming Bush and you know the story goes its God and what he says is "I am what I am."

Now to me that always meant something... Like were always acting out something. One year your an atheist the next your a theist again than you may become a Buddhist.

Nonetheless we have put on all these masks to define ourselves yet quite essentially we are the being behind the mask and you are what you are. So yeah it could be phase that right now you are [fill in the blank] but tomorrow you can be a [Fill in the blank].

^Yep, we all play different roles at different times, and there is nothing negative about it. Right now, I am playing the role of totse member. If I do something with a thread, I'll be playing the role of a mod.

When I leave the library and go to the store, I'll be playing the role of a shopper. When I call my wife and talk about how to fix her woodstove problem, I'll be playing the role of a householder. When I play with my cats--the role of a pet lover.

None of these roles are my essential self, which is timeless, ageless and changeless.