PredFan
Diamond Member
I was born in 1955. I was raised Catholic, was an altar boy for years, went to Catechism on Saturday and Church on Sunday. When I reached the age of 18, I showed up on Sundays, almost never.
A movie came out about then called "The Chariots of the Gods". I watched the movie and had a life changing experience. The movie tried to prove that the earth had been visited in the past by space aliens and those aliens were viewed as Gods by the primitive peoples. They showed the lines of Nazca and proposed that they were landing strips for space vehicles, they showed the Easter Island Statues and showed how they never could have been done by humans of the time, and on and on with example after example.
I was convinced that Jesus and God were aliens. That's how the virgin birth was achieved (artificial ensemation), how all of the miracles were done and so on. I still believed in God and Jesus, I just looked at them differently.
Then one day I was sitting at home on a Saturday morning with nothing to do and I was watching PBS. A show came on where a group of scientists were debunking the movie and it's so-called facts. When I realized I'd been duped, another life-changing event happened. I became a skeptic. Completely, totally. I vowed that I would never be duped again. For many many years I remained atheist. I had a great number of discussions and debates with people over everything and anything meta-physical.
Over time, life began to eat at the iron curtain of my dis-belief. Even having two degrees in medicine, a scientific discipline, I still saw the wonder of creation. I softened my stance to agnostic (literally meaning "doesn't know"), and quit trying to convince people that religion was a fairy tale.
These days, I still don't claim to know the answers. I call myself a Catholic again, and I do this proudly. The reasons for that are a lengthy discussion itself. I have not fully returned home, I don't believe that the Bible is the word of God, nor do I believe that the earth is >10k years old, but I do believe in God and I have seen his presence in my life. I recognise that he was there even when I denied it. I attend church on occasion, and I think God for the gifts he has given me despite what I've done. That is where I satnd these days.
Of alien visitation, ESP, ghosts and such? Total bullshit.
A movie came out about then called "The Chariots of the Gods". I watched the movie and had a life changing experience. The movie tried to prove that the earth had been visited in the past by space aliens and those aliens were viewed as Gods by the primitive peoples. They showed the lines of Nazca and proposed that they were landing strips for space vehicles, they showed the Easter Island Statues and showed how they never could have been done by humans of the time, and on and on with example after example.
I was convinced that Jesus and God were aliens. That's how the virgin birth was achieved (artificial ensemation), how all of the miracles were done and so on. I still believed in God and Jesus, I just looked at them differently.
Then one day I was sitting at home on a Saturday morning with nothing to do and I was watching PBS. A show came on where a group of scientists were debunking the movie and it's so-called facts. When I realized I'd been duped, another life-changing event happened. I became a skeptic. Completely, totally. I vowed that I would never be duped again. For many many years I remained atheist. I had a great number of discussions and debates with people over everything and anything meta-physical.
Over time, life began to eat at the iron curtain of my dis-belief. Even having two degrees in medicine, a scientific discipline, I still saw the wonder of creation. I softened my stance to agnostic (literally meaning "doesn't know"), and quit trying to convince people that religion was a fairy tale.
These days, I still don't claim to know the answers. I call myself a Catholic again, and I do this proudly. The reasons for that are a lengthy discussion itself. I have not fully returned home, I don't believe that the Bible is the word of God, nor do I believe that the earth is >10k years old, but I do believe in God and I have seen his presence in my life. I recognise that he was there even when I denied it. I attend church on occasion, and I think God for the gifts he has given me despite what I've done. That is where I satnd these days.
Of alien visitation, ESP, ghosts and such? Total bullshit.