Doing the total 180

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Checkpoint
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Doing the total 180

Post #1

Post by Checkpoint »

Have you ever done a full 180?

To turn around by 180° means that you have turned right around to be facing in the opposite direction to where you started.

So, to do a 180 is to adopt a position or point of view that is the exact opposite of your previous point of view.

Thus, if you are in favor of X then change your opinion to be against X, then you have done a full 180.

Such a radical change of viewpoint can and does indeed happen in life even if rarely. Usually, it is because the person has come to realize what had been taken for granted is not in fact really on as solid a ground as had been assumed.


How about you? What changes of viewpoint(full 180 or less) have you had, and how did they come about?

Please share your own story, whatever it is, right here.




This now is the story of my most significant full 180.

''
It is actually more life-changing than a single viewpoint change. It was a basic lifestyle change that remains to this day.

My parents were not churchgoers and did not talk at all about God or anything of a religious nature.

So, as I grew up I remained ignorant of such things. Further, I readily imbibed what was taught at school of society values and truths. These included, of course, science and its view of evolution.

That was where I was at into my early twenties. By then I had left home and locality, and had moved elsewhere. Into a house with other single guys, with an older housekeeper lady who supplied our rooms and prepared our meals.

Then two things happened to me(out of the blue", as it were), one immediately after the other, that together completely changed my life and its focus.

The first of these happenings was a movie I went out to watch. It was based on a trial that had taken place in the 1920s which was re-enacted.

Known as the Scopes trial, it pitted science against religion, majoring on creation vs evolution, as to which should be taught in the schools.

As is well-known, science was the clear winner.

So I left the movie in a good mood, having seen my own view convincingly confirmed in that first happening.

And being completely unaware and unprepared for the second happening that was about to take place.

After I got back to our house, I had coffee with the housekeeper, enthusiastically telling it all to her.

All I can remember of her response are these few words: ["You don't really believe that, do you".

Not said as a question, but confidently said as a statement of fact.

Those few words hit me like a ton of bricks. I went to my room in confusion that overnight was replaced by a firm conviction that what she had said was absolutely true.

I immediately visited Christian bookstores(my first time), and got my first Bible and other literature. I also began going to church, something I had never done before.

After that the lady invited me to her room once a week, and we had sweet fellowship there for some time, until I moved to another house and locality.

I had done a complete 180, of such magnitude that it had changed my thinking, my lifestyle, my decisions, and my goals, for the rest of my life.

Those few words had cut so deeply, and so effectively exposed me, that they could only have come from God Himself, through another human.

I am so grateful.
Hebrews 4:


12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
Last edited by Checkpoint on Thu Dec 31, 2020 4:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Doing the total 180

Post #2

Post by nobspeople »

[Replying to Checkpoint in post #1]

I was a worshipping, singing, several-times-a-week church going, bible studying, communing partaking, witnessing Christian for a long time.
Once I got a chance to experience other religions, and break away from the cult-like workings of Christianity, I changed my mind (though I'm still friends with many of my former brothers and sisters).
But my experience is likely not very unique
Have a great, potentially godless, day!

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Re: Doing the total 180

Post #3

Post by JehovahsWitness »

nobspeople wrote: Thu Dec 31, 2020 2:31 pm

I was a worshipping, singing, several-times-a-week church going, bible studying, ..
Out of curiosity, what did your study of the bible involve?

- was it classes? Or individuel tuition?
- did you have text books?
- was it by theme?
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Re: Doing the total 180

Post #4

Post by Miles »

Checkpoint wrote: Thu Dec 31, 2020 12:01 am Have you ever done a full 180?

To turn around by 180° means that you have turned right around to be facing in the opposite direction to where you started.

So, to do a 180 is to adopt a position or point of view that is the exact opposite of your previous point of view.

Thus, if you are in favor of X then change your opinion to be against X, then you have done a full 180.

13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Yearrrs ago when I was a Christian, Lutheran to be precise, I was shown the error of my ways after reading.


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Re: Doing the total 180

Post #5

Post by Compassionist »

Checkpoint wrote: Thu Dec 31, 2020 12:01 am Have you ever done a full 180?

To turn around by 180° means that you have turned right around to be facing in the opposite direction to where you started.

So, to do a 180 is to adopt a position or point of view that is the exact opposite of your previous point of view.

Thus, if you are in favor of X then change your opinion to be against X, then you have done a full 180.

Such a radical change of viewpoint can and does indeed happen in life even if rarely. Usually, it is because the person has come to realize what had been taken for granted is not in fact really on as solid a ground as had been assumed.


How about you? What changes of viewpoint(full 180 or less) have you had, and how did they come about?

Please share your own story, whatever it is, right here.




This now is the story of my most significant full 180.

''
It is actually more life-changing than a single viewpoint change. It was a basic lifestyle change that remains to this day.

My parents were not churchgoers and did not talk at all about God or anything of a religious nature.

So, as I grew up I remained ignorant of such things. Further, I readily imbibed what was taught at school of society values and truths. These included, of course, science and its view of evolution.

That was where I was at into my early twenties. By then I had left home and locality, and had moved elsewhere. Into a house with other single guys, with an older housekeeper lady who supplied our rooms and prepared our meals.

Then two things happened to me(out of the blue", as it were), one immediately after the other, that together completely changed my life and its focus.

The first of these happenings was a movie I went out to watch. It was based on a trial that had taken place in the 1920s which was re-enacted.

Known as the Scopes trial, it pitted science against religion, majoring on creation vs evolution, as to which should be taught in the schools.

As is well-known, science was the clear winner.

So I left the movie in a good mood, having seen my own view convincingly confirmed in that first happening.

And being completely unaware and unprepared for the second happening that was about to take place.

After I got back to our house, I had coffee with the housekeeper, enthusiastically telling it all to her.

All I can remember of her response are these few words: ["You don't really believe that, do you".

Not said as a question, but confidently said as a statement of fact.

Those few words hit me like a ton of bricks. I went to my room in confusion that overnight was replaced by a firm conviction that what she had said was absolutely true.

I immediately visited Christian bookstores(my first time), and got my first Bible and other literature. I also began going to church, something I had never done before.

After that the lady invited me to her room once a week, and we had sweet fellowship there for some time, until I moved to another house and locality.

I had done a complete 180, of such magnitude that it had changed my thinking, my lifestyle, my decisions, and my goals, for the rest of my life.

Those few words had cut so deeply, and so effectively exposed me, that they could only have come from God Himself, through another human.

I am so grateful.
Hebrews 4:


12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
What about holding the omniscient, omnipotent and consequently, omniculpable, Biblical God accountable? The Biblical God is evil (imaginary or real). The Bible is false and unethical. Please see https://www.evilbible.com and http://skepticsannotatedbible.com Please prove me wrong by proving that the Bible is true and ethical and proving that the Biblical God is real and good. If you can do that, I will do a 180 and go from agnostic to Christian. “Ethics, too, are nothing but reverence for life. This is what gives me the fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, promoting, and enhancing life, and that destroying, injuring, and limiting life are evil.” – Albert Schweitzer, “Civilization and Ethics”, 1949.

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Re: Doing the total 180

Post #6

Post by JehovahsWitness »

Miles wrote: Fri Jan 01, 2021 3:49 pm
Checkpoint wrote: Thu Dec 31, 2020 12:01 am Have you ever done a full 180?

To turn around by 180° means that you have turned right around to be facing in the opposite direction to where you started.

So, to do a 180 is to adopt a position or point of view that is the exact opposite of your previous point of view.

Thus, if you are in favor of X then change your opinion to be against X, then you have done a full 180.

13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Yearrrs ago when I was a Christian, Lutheran to be precise, I was shown the error of my ways after reading.


Image



.


So you needed a book to tell you? You couldn't just figure it out on your own? If Mr Russell had not looked both ways when crossing the road and had not gotten to write his famous book, do you think you would you still be a Lutherian?





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http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 81#p826681


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Romans 14:8

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Re: Doing the total 180

Post #7

Post by Tcg »

Checkpoint wrote: Thu Dec 31, 2020 12:01 am All I can remember of her response are these few words: ["You don't really believe that, do you".

Not said as a question, but confidently said as a statement of fact.

Those few words hit me like a ton of bricks. I went to my room in confusion that overnight was replaced by a firm conviction that what she had said was absolutely true.
This is an astonishingly evidence and reasoning absent statement to have caused such a turn around. Most transitions like this are based on an emotional reaction of some sort. Was there anything more to this event than what you have shared or was it truly this bare?


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Re: Doing the total 180

Post #8

Post by Miles »

JehovahsWitness wrote: Sun Jan 03, 2021 7:47 am
Miles wrote: Fri Jan 01, 2021 3:49 pm
Checkpoint wrote: Thu Dec 31, 2020 12:01 am Have you ever done a full 180?

To turn around by 180° means that you have turned right around to be facing in the opposite direction to where you started.

So, to do a 180 is to adopt a position or point of view that is the exact opposite of your previous point of view.

Thus, if you are in favor of X then change your opinion to be against X, then you have done a full 180.

13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Yearrrs ago when I was a Christian, Lutheran to be precise, I was shown the error of my ways after reading.


Image



.
So you needed a book to tell you? You couldn't just figure it out on your own?
DUH! At the time, when I was 17-18 yo, I didn't have all the bricks in place and was delighted to have someone show me where they went.
If Mr Russell had not looked both ways when crossing the road and had not gotten to write his famous book, do you think you would you still be a Lutherian?
Almost certainly not. At the time I had strong suspicions that Christianity only succeeded, not because it held any truth, but because it appeased the needs of its believers. Therefore its "truth" was not likely factual but contrived. Christianity was pretty much a religion of "look at this, but ignore this" kind operation, and I felt (and still feel) cherry picking was an incredibly dishonest approach to the veracity of its source, the Bible. That, and all the tap dancing it took to make its theology work. So I was well on my way to scrubbing Christianity and only needed a good push of reason to finish it off. So thank you Mr Russel for looking both ways and saving me the time and effort of having put it all together on my own. :approve:


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Re: Doing the total 180

Post #9

Post by JehovahsWitness »

Miles wrote: Sun Jan 03, 2021 4:31 pm
At the time, when I was 17-18 yo, I didn't have all the bricks in place and was delighted to have someone show me where they went.

It's not a critique, most religions people, like you, need a guru or a teacher and it certainly wont be me, a bible believing Christian, to criticize someone for holding a book in high regard. You believe you "saw the light" as a young man ....so does every church going Christian; same tune, different sandals.

Still, thank you for sharing your testimony, it was like the fundamentalist's I have heard, given with passion.


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Last edited by JehovahsWitness on Thu Jan 07, 2021 8:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
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http://debatingchristianity.com/forum/v ... 81#p826681


"For if we live, we live to Jehovah, and if we die, we die to Jehovah. So both if we live and if we die, we belong to Jehovah" -
Romans 14:8

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Re: Doing the total 180

Post #10

Post by Miles »

JehovahsWitness wrote: Sun Jan 03, 2021 6:15 pm
Miles wrote: Sun Jan 03, 2021 4:31 pm
At the time, when I was 17-18 yo, I didn't have all the bricks in place and was delighted to have someone show me where they went.

It's not a critique, most religions people, like you, need a guru or a teacher and it certainly wont be me, a bible believing Christian, to criticize someone for holding a book in high regard.
"Religions people"? What the heck are those? But on the outside chance you meant "religious people," as an FYI, atheism isn't a religion.

And Bertrand Russell a guru or a teacher!! Boy he'd love that. Not because it's true, but because of its irony and silliness. And, of course, you misconstrue interest for need, but that's okay, I recognize why understanding atheists may be difficult for the faithful.
You believe you "saw the light" as a Young boy ....so does every church going Christian; same tune, different sandals.
"Saw the light"? Love it! Love it! Love it! Just as if Russell was a god. :drunk:


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