Another Stefan emerges!

[Stefan]

Hello everyone,

 

I apologize in advance for the long-winded introduction – I will split it into parts and try to make it interesting and to-the-point for anyone who decides to read it.

 

My Name

 

This is of course a silly section.  I am Stefan, and also go by Stef. I prefer my name to be pronounced like most male names ending in an –Dylan, Brian, Nathan, Ryan, Evan, Jonathan, etc. – though many try to call me Stef-ahn. I enjoyed finding a somewhat famous Stefan as there really aren’t many of us.

 

A brief biography

 

I am 25, and grew up in Asia, where my parents were Christian missionaries. I now live in Arizona, where I am an international health insurance salesman, and lead worship at a small charismatic church. I play a number of different instruments, play tabletop games (think Catan and newer), and study Chinese in my spare time.

 

How I got here

 

My parents were neo-conservatives, but growing up, I grew more and more disillusioned with politics, until I hopped on the Ron Paul 2012 bandwagon. He seemed to be a person with a history of integrity and more consistent ideals, but obviously that did not go well in terms of him being elected. While I was looking at some libertarian videos, I saw one of Molyneux giving a good case for a stateless society (basically that any state no matter how small or limited would grow – with an example of the U.S. government quickly becoming the biggest in the world). I was intrigued, so I watched a few of his videos, and have now read most of his books, starting with Practical Anarchy. I find anarcho-capitalism an intriguing, enticing system like I have not encountered anywhere else, and I find myself wishing it could be actually tried within my lifetime.

 

Why I am here

 

Smattered throughout the books I read (and focused on in the one I am reading now - “Against the Gods”) there was a lot tied to atheism and the harm that religion has done. This has coincided with me having a lot of doubts about God in my personal life. Surrounded as I am by friends and family who are passionate believers, I still do not want to run from the truth, whatever that may be.

 

My plans

 

I endeavor to study non-theistic arguments, if not exhaustively, as objectively as possible, as I have never really done before. Stefan Molyneux is a good writer, and seems like a deep thinker, so I am starting with his book, and the links he provided in the “For our religious friends” post. I also intend to personally test my religion for myself.

 

What you can expect from me

 

Much as I enjoy the idea of an intellectual community like this, I honestly have never really liked the communication format of forums. I am mainly joining so I can post a request in “Technical Issues”. I suppose an ulterior motive is to gauge the reaction of members of a community like this to someone in my situation. I am not an argumentative person, I think I am rather mature, and I understand the value of healthy conflict resolution. My main purpose is to learn. If this seems acceptable and I am welcome, perhaps I will make a forum post or two, or try out the chatroom. If not I am happy to disappear without further ado.

 

In any case, thank you all for being committed to liberty and truth.

 

Stefan

[MysterionMuffles]

Dang man, welcome to the boards. What a great introduction. I raised an eyebrow when I read you lead a church group and that eyebrow raised to the back of my head when I also read that you're going to start testing your religion. Hope you have a good time here and get the most out of philosophy when discussing stuff with us here. You never know, despite not being argumentive you might develop some good arguing skills.

[Wesley]

I would be very interested to see you read up on whatever you feel like you need to in order to be prepared and then to have a conversation with Stef (the other one) on this topic. I think if you dislike the written media, then the spoken medium may be a good way to iron out points and hear ideas. As well as make an interesting show.

 

When I first came to FDR I was still religious, but questioning with many of my friends and family being religious (so not too dissimilar to you). My preference was to listen and read the arguments and then try to counter them (bouncing ideas off a friend who got into FDR with me) or find holes wherever I could. The minarchism to anarchism took me a while, but by the time I got to analyzing religion it did not take me too long to realize some of the logical problems.

 

For me, more of the pain in the realization was that almost all of my friends and family did not hold those values.

 

The main point is that it does not matter where you start, as long as you are willing to do the whole logic, reason, and evidence thing. Maybe you will find a massive hole that we haven't thought of, and it would be great to be corrected on the error. If people agree on the standard of logic and reason, then I tend to think they will eventually end up in a very similar area.

 

P.S. I am a board game fan as well! Catan is awesome!

[FiddlertheLeper]

Welcome to the FDR community, always great to see another person interested in these sort of topics.  I hope that you find the community welcoming, and helpful.  I think it's great you are willing to question your own emotional investments if you think they might not be true, if more people were willing to question for themselves the things they have been taught to believe in, and really search for their truth, i think this world would be a much less confusing and complicated place.  

[Stefan]

Wow, thank you so much for your kind welcomes!Wesley: Thank you for your own story too.

 

I don't mean that I don't like written communication - I email or chat, and read books and such frequently. I mean that the open nature of a forum has more often stressed me out in the past - trying to keep up with it and have a meaningful conversation in that way seems great in theory but unnatural to me in practice somehow. At least that has been my experience the times I have tried out forums in the past. Still it may be worth another try...

 

I doubt after all this time FDR has been around I can bring anything that you haven't heard to the table - we religious nuts are quite common I think - but if I come up with something maybe I'll try posting a question in the forums somewhere or chat with someone in the chatroom - I'll try to search first to make sure I don't just rehash something already talked about if that is the case. I will try to tread carefully but please let me know if I say anything untoward.

 

In any case, my main purpose is to learn without being a bother. I already have some difficult questions raised in my mind that challenge the beliefs I grew up with. It's a little scary, but we'll see where this takes me.

 

Also, I am curious; did anyone who was a Christian on here come from a charismatic/pentecostal background or mostly more liturgical (catholic, orthodox, presbyterian - the more traditional type churches/denominations)?

 

See y'all around! 

[FiddlertheLeper]

Previously Episcopal/Lutheran here, (though my education on the differences in denominations or types of churches is less than complete so i am not sure whether that falls into the Pentecostal or Liturgical category)

Hope you thoroughly enjoy your journey towards personal truth and that we here can be of some small help in your journey. and yes it is scary to question your beliefs, (or atleast it was for me) but in the end i think for me it was highly worthwhile, i hope your experiences lead you to a similar overall worth for you.  I hope to see you around in the forums!