Ive been one now for about two years. I suppose the older you get the better you are at spotting bull crap. tbh, in this internet age anyone can go off in search of the truth. I hate when great achivements of man are simply chalked up to being "gods work/will". Naturally being an american i fell like im surounded by superstitious fools seeing as there seems to be a church in every town here in america. Sadly it will probably take another 1000 years before religion to stop being a part of humanity. Acne has been the big reason why i became athiest and im sure im not the only one.
3 hours ago, fatalbert911 said:Ive been one now for about two years. I suppose the older you get the better you are at spotting bull crap. tbh, in this internet age anyone can go off in search of the truth. I hate when great achivements of man are simply chalked up to being "gods work/will". Naturally being an american i fell like im surounded by superstitious fools seeing as there seems to be a church in every town here in america. Sadly it will probably take another 1000 years before religion to stop being a part of humanity. Acne has been the big reason why i became athiest and im sure im not the only one.
I kind of get what you're saying. When i was a teenager i used to pray to god to fix my skin, and when it didnt happen i suppose i stopped believing in god - well god in the sense of an old guy sitting up in the clouds watching over us 
I started thinking what sort of a god would let me suffer so much, or did god hate me because i was wicked and somehow cursed?
I do like to think that there is a part of us you might call a "soul" that is seperate from our bodies. Hence why we often face these "moral" dilemmas in our lives where one part if us urges us to do one thing and another part wants something else. You might also call it listening to your "conscience" or following your "heart."
I guess organised religions bring comfort to some people. Unfortunately they also lead other people to do some really stupid or terrible things.
4 hours ago, Iahmeeobop said:Interesting, but how could acne be a reason for you turning atheist and wanting religion to stop being part of humanity?
Acne has convinced me there is no god due to the amount of suffuring and humiliation i have had to indure over the years. Religion as a whole i just dislike in general, i dont believe anything that cant be proven without evidence now. Imagine a world where only the facts mattered, i bet you the human race whould be better off as a whole.
1 hour ago, Geekgirl13 said:I kind of get what you're saying. When i was a teenager i used to pray to god to fix my skin, and when it didnt happen i suppose i stopped believing in god - well god in the sense of an old guy sitting up in the clouds watching over us
I do like to think that there is a part of us you might call a "soul" that is seperate from our bodies. Hence why we often face these "moral" dilemmas in our lives where one part if us urges us to do one thing and another part wants something else. You might also call it listening to your "conscience" or following your "heart."
I guess organised religions bring comfort to some people. Unfortunately they also lead other people to do some really stupid or terrible things.
Yes i too asked god to help me with my face and of course it never answered my call for help. As an athiest i believe the voice in your head to be nothing more then the conscious representation of your mind. No mind, no voice in your head and no feeling of a "soul". The brain is a powerful thing, its imagination seems endless. Im sure someone thought of the idea of a soul a long time ago and other people simply accepted it as fact. Well im sorry but im the kind of person that needs proof otherwise, ill start to think crazy ideas are true... i just wish people would cut the crap already and move on from primitive ideas made thousands of years ago.
6 hours ago, Geekgirl13 said:I kind of get what you're saying. When i was a teenager i used to pray to god to fix my skin, and when it didnt happen i suppose i stopped believing in god - well god in the sense of an old guy sitting up in the clouds watching over us
I do like to think that there is a part of us you might call a "soul" that is seperate from our bodies. Hence why we often face these "moral" dilemmas in our lives where one part if us urges us to do one thing and another part wants something else. You might also call it listening to your "conscience" or following your "heart."
I guess organised religions bring comfort to some people. Unfortunately they also lead other people to do some really stupid or terrible things.
I can relate to the first paragraph ALOT, I still pray to God and ask for help with my acne - I've even wondered whether i'm being punished for something i've done in my life.
When I was younger I was basically forced to go to church almost every Sunday because my mom made me go. I can't really remember if I believed anything that was preached back then. In high school I was too busy to go to church and in college I was also busy but did not go because all of my close friends did not go.... I went to a science/tech college. I was basically an agnostic or atheist during those years.
I certainly can see how nowadays with all the science and technological advancement, it can be harder and harder for people to believe in God or what any of the organized religions teach. Science has been making huge advancements for the past few hundred years, BUT it still has its limitations. As I have gotten older and have had other health issues and read/watched and witnessed other people have worse conditions than I have, I have started to have a change of heart about religion...
The things I have thought about to bring about this slow change have been:
- Yes, we (the developed world mainly) have incredible science and tech, but how much better have the lives or ordinary people become???
- The "cure" to the saddest and most profound of human living conditions (poverty, starvation, drought, disease, etc.) does not really require any new science or tech to be developed - rather a will for those who have the power to "cure" things to actually take action rather than just lip service...
- Are people actually happier with all these electronics, smartphones, computers, game consoles, etc.? It might just be my age showing, but it all seems like these are just things which provide instant gratification and distraction for people. I don't know if most science and tech these days actually leads to a better understanding of the human condition...
- Yes, I acknowledge that science and tech says that all life on earth evolved from very basic lifeforms in a primordial soup. It is possible, but what are actually the chances that animals as distinct and intelligent as humans evolved on their own?
- I know I said in other threads that humans might be nothing more than slightly smarter apes. I said that because with the state of the world, it does seem like the majority of people don't really function above the lizard brain level - that is, they don't rise above basic animal instinct.
Some of my friends said that I think too much.... I am starting to believe that a higher power just maybe may have "seeded" life on earth (quite possibly only made the humans unique and special from all the other live that evolved on its own). The old monotheistic religions may just be an incomplete attempt to explain just that.
Here is one thing I believe to be completely true and beneficial.."Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it." - Charles R. Swindoll.
It's all about perspective. You can choose to hate the situation you're in, or learn to live life fully in it. I personally have suffered with acne since puberty. It used to be even more severe then than it is now, but it is still bad. I hated it. I too would ask God to please heal my skin. Now, I'm on the acne.org regimen and for the first time since I can remember, my skin is actually clearing up. It has recently occurred to me, is acne seriously the worse thing to happen to someone? Absolutely not. When I was thinking back on my severe acne, I realized that it made me who I am. I could have chosen to be depressed, bitter, and humiliated. But I am so thankful for the confidence that it gave me because I had to make myself develop it just to go through each day! I can truly say that I was never bothered by my acne to an extreme, and I honestly just didn't notice when or if people were staring at it, because I chose not to. I believe what others saw in me was my happiness and confidence, because that is what matters. Don't let a temporary skin condition control your life! You will overcome this, and it's just a bump in the road.
Do I believe God was punishing me with acne?No. Way. Like I said, I am thankful for the humility and confidence that it gave me. Acne is not the worse thing in the world. Does God have to answer yes to every prayer? No. Does He have to answer right away? No..Sometimes "no" or no answer at all is exactly what we need. I believe God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows what is best for us, just like a true father does.
When I first found acne.org, I had no clue about it. I was honestly praying again for a cure to my acne. I had tried everything and every acne system available throughout the years. I had given up hope, and knew that the only way it would go away was through divine intervention. I felt a complete peace when I came across a youtube video talking about acne.org. When I ordered the regimen, I felt true peace again. This was the answer to my prayer. Today, I am one month through the regimen and i can see a significant difference in my skin! Why now, and not years ago? God knew what He was doing..and I am content with that.
I know you don't believe in God..and I don't want to force you to. That is not my job and in all honestly I'm not even capable of doing that. Nothing I say can change your mind if it is already made up. But, I just want to share with you what I have seen God do in my own life. His presence is so near when I seek Him, and He just encompasses me with love, like liquid. There's no other way describe it. I have seen so many miracles! One of my close friends was deaf in her left ear for years, when last yearshe was prayed for at church one night, and her ear opened up. She is no longer deaf in that ear anymore! I'm telling you this so that you don't just equate God to just a "feeling". He is still moving and working miracles today! It is so amazing to me what God can do when you just seek His presence and His will..His love is like none other. The same night, a boy in the church had been paralyzed on one half of his body since he was born. During an intense time of prayer seeking Jesus Christ and His presence, the boy started jumping up and crying that he was healed! That was the most amazing thing I've ever witnessed. He was moving his paralyzed arm up and down, and his mom jumped up in the back of the room crying because she had just seen that it was her son. Like I said, I just wanted to share this with you to show that my God is not just a feeling..He is a God of love, peace, joy, and miracles..He is a true Father to me. God bless..
"If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me." Jeremiah 19:13
There is a nice quote by socrates that i like. Its goes something like this : true wisdom is knowing we know nothing. Thats the only truth really. Anyone who says they know whether there is agod or not, or that they know what happens when we die is misguided. The only truth is that no one really knows any of this and only when we die will the answers be revealed to us.
Of course its interesting to ponder these questions about life and share ideas. But no amount of thinking will ever reveal the truth to us.
Once, but never again. I can't blame you. I had the same feeling about my acne. I was very angry at that time and was telling my friends and family that if God did exist why would he let this happen to me? To teach me a lesson? For what? Why is he making me suffer all the time? What did I do to deserve all of thepain and embarrassment I am experiencing?Things like that.But after some time, I got to reflect and restored my faith through their encouragement.It's really hard to know why such things happen to us.
I'm happy that on these forums, everyone can share their honest opinions. I believe in God and since beginning a relationship with him, my life is a still a struggle but one with perspective. TheBible doesn't promise a pain free life, in fact, most of the most well known people in there have suffered beyond our imaginations. With that said, I have learned that suffering has the ability to build character and makes us better, more compassionate people. Dueto my insecurities, I have learned to look pastthe superficial traits of others. I'm more willing to accept flaws and i give my time and energies to others versus spending it all on me.
In my times of despair, reading about the journey of others in the bible helps me see that dealing with suffering is a part of living with a purpose. God is not something I will push on anyone but is something I encourage you read about if the path you're on is still making you feel like an aimless wanderer.
hope this helps.
Having acne really sucks and it isn't fair that you (and others) have to live with it.
I know that, I lived with pretty bad acne too (sidenote: I was already avegan but I found by reducing the crisps and snacks I had seemed to help me)
HOWEVER please please please, try and look at it this way:
Regardless of what you believe humanity has been around for a very long time - it is only in the last one hundred years that cosmetics for treating acne (and the scars) and knowledge about ithave seriously developed.
We are the lucky few who have a better chance than ever before at being free from it.
(Also in case I sound grumpy: I'm not trying to make you feel guilty, I'm telling you this to try and make you feel better)
Job 2:7So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. I believe that acne comes from the devil.
1 Samuel 16:7But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
im not an athiest but i also dont believe in "god". i think acne can end up making you who you are. if i hadnt had acne i would probably not be as sensitive to others. i probably would have been arrogant and vain. i believe the more battles one has in life, the more interesting a person becomes. it sounds cheesy. if something were to make me a complete total athiest it would be over stuff like seeing elephants and rhinos with their faces ripped off, with their babies clinging to their dead bodies, or when i see animal abuse footage of factory farms, or hear of people raping children, or modern day slavery. having acne sucks, yes, but things could be so much worse. women in the middle east get acid thrown on their faces all the time by their evil husbands and are disfigured for the rest of their live and still manage to believe in god and have graditude. at least i wasnt born into a third world country where they perform circumcision on young girls with pieces of broken glass with no pain killers and sew up their vaginas until they are married. if you google it, it is even worse than it sounds. sorry if this is graphic or i seem insensitive to your pain. ive been there too "why me??" but more than half the time people could get rid of their acne by stopping the use of aggravating topicals, harsh soaps, bad western diet, hormone imbalance etc. i highly doubt it has anything to do with god.