Lennon

Been a while since I posted. But today's a good day to do so. 

No, it's not (directly) about what a loss John lennon was, the tragedy, or even that there have been over a million shooting deaths since 1980. No, this is far more personal. 

I've mentioned it before, but at this time in 1980, I was... young, and very religious. Deep in my fundamentalist pastor's sway, and yeah, Chick Tracts made sense. As did the whole "Rock is evil and a tool of the devil." And, of course, Lennon was one of the "high priests" of this depravity and evil. (I believe - though it's been ages since I've read it, for obvious reasons - something similar was repeated, if not about him than about multiple other bands, in "Backward masking unmasked." A typically hyperbolic, proof-light (especially in the days pre-internet) book about the evils of Rock Music.) 

Regardless. As a contrast between then and now. With that background, when Lennon was killed, I was actually happy. I thought it was good news, even if "the world" was blinded by his satanic was, blah blah blah. 

Yeah. I look back now and wander just what was wrong with me - and realize just what sort of path the people who kill abortion doctors and the like are on. 

Atheism freed me from many things... zealotry being one of them.

"First I came to God...

While doing dishes today, a phrase came to me that I'm... admittedly rather pleased with. As a soundbite type phrase, it does explain things rather well.

"First I came to God. Then I came to my senses."

It really does work that way, for myself as well as many others. Many of those who call themselves atheist started off as believers, to one degree or another. (And not just to Christianity, though it's what we in the US are most familiar with.) We went to church, were "saved" one way or another - because, face it, there is really no agreement among the sects on how "saved" you are, and they insist the others are wrong. We "brought God into our lives" or "invited Jesus into our hearts."

Then something happened. Things didn't make sense. Many of us went out and actually did more than the Sunday Skip - you know, "read Romans I... now back to Ezra... now over to II Corinthians... a verse from Deuteronomy... and let's throw in some Revelations for spice." This is not reading the Bible (or any other book, "holy" or otherwise.) No, many of us *read* the bible, or perhaps the Qu'ran, and found it more than just wanting, but even vile. Hardly a moral book. Definitely not consistent. And searched...

Eventually coming to "I cannot believe in God, not as described. God and religion do not mesh with reality." Maybe we drifted through other religions, seeing them with a critical eye, before settling on atheism - a lack of religion, a lack of belief in a deity, because the world works the way it does without the intervention or need of one.

So, yes. First, I came to God. Then I came to my senses.

How true it is...