christian, Some, recovering, resources, good

slowmothe1st

Hi everyone,

I'm from overseas and stumbles upon your website while doing searches on fundamentalism in HK and China. I was borne and raised in HK and came to Canada many years ago, I speak/write cantonese/chinese but cannot type them fast enough on my computer, so I'm very very sorry that I have to write in english.

I became a christian many years ago when I finished my education here, I left the church after some intense disillusionment several years later. The chinese churches here in Canada and US are just as harmful and deluded as in HK, the people in these churches are no different, that's just the nature of the religion.

There are some very excellent resources I find very useful and like others to know on recovering from religion. They are as follows:

Books (you can look at and buy these books at Amazon.com)
1. Leaving The Fold by Dr. Marlene Winell
A psychologist and an ex-christian brought up by missionary parents tells you her story of recovery. As a psychologist she tells you what had happened to you, what's wrong with the religion and how to recover from it. The author is now helping others to recover from harmful religion, her own website is http://marlenewinell.net/, very good book.
2. The Dark Side by Dr. Valerie Tarico
Another psychologist brought up by fundamentalists gives you an analysis of how the religion can harm you and many good points on the twisted beliefs of the religion.
3. Godless by Dan Barker
A former fundamentalist pastor turned atheist and is now running the Freedom From Religion Foundation, he shares his own story and many arguments to counter the christian beliefs.
4. Why I Become An Atheist by John Loftus
Another former fundamentalist pastor argues against the chistian belief from an ex-believer's standpoint. It is written for believers to re-examine their religion. Excellent book.

Websites (these sites also contain many good resources and references to recover from the religion, such as the books above)
1. www.ex-christian.net
I think this site is already listed in your site. You are not alone! This is the largest site for people leaving the religion and you can find many stories and support here. This religion does as much harm in the western world as in any other places!
2. http://www.infidels.org/
Perhaps the largest site set up by ex-believers and atheists, many of them priests, pastors, bible scholars, bible historians, philosophers, scientists. Here you'll find many testimonials by them and arguments against the religion, from a very scholarly standpoint.

There are many good resources to help people recover from this religion but just too few in chinese, I hope this'll change in the future and I commend the people setting up this site, this is good work and as more people recognise the harm this religion can do to people, more resources will spring up to help all those in need.

Lastly, for those who're recovering, I want to tell you you're heading in the right direction! With work and persistence, you WILL leave this thing and have a new life again!

Thank you and regards,

PM

抽刀斷水

謝謝你的資料。

你離教至今有多長時間呢？可否分享你自己的經歷？

潔瑩

1# slowmothe1st

感謝你的光臨和鼓勵。對於你覺得缺乏關懷離教者的華語社群，這個想法我們都深有同感。我們心裏也抱著一個希望，藉著我們這點星星之火帶動更多有才幹有愛心的人去推動這方面的工作，讓有需要的離教者不再彷徨無助。

你的支持和參與對我們來說是最重要的，你可以帶來許多我們未必想到和做到的新元素，令我們的網站更豐富，更充實。誠意邀請你繼續光臨並指導。

slowmothe1st

Hi,

Thank you for your replies. It feels a little odd when people talk to you in chinese, you talk back in english, but if you can't write, you can't write, so that's that.

I left the church more than ten years ago, but the recovery was fairly long, that's why I know how insidious this religion is and it's effect on you. It wasn't that easy for me to believe in a religion, but this one is so sophisticated that it can trick people into believing it is true, especially when you come across these fundamentalist "heavyweights" such as 滕近輝，唐崇榮，梁燕城 and the like. When you're not equipped with the necessary critical thinking abilities, this thing can easily fool you.

Having said this, I forgot to list one book on critical thinking that may benefit the members here:
How To Think About Weird Things by Theodore Schick
This book is easy to read but may be a little harder to understand, but once you understand the technique it is probably the best thing you've ever learned because it teaches you how to tell what's true and what's real.

There are many websites that teaches you how to think critically, here's one to start:
http://www.freeinquiry.com/critical-thinking.html

One problem everyone will eventually face after leaving the religion is how to build up a new set of moral and values again, here's one everyone can look at:
http://www.freeinquiry.com/humanists-meaning.html

I've seen someone here mentioned that christianity is a cult, it is and is a big one. I think any religion that robs a person of his/her independent thinking abilities can be considered a cult. Here's another book written by a researcher who has been in a cult herself:
Take Back Your Life by Janja Lalich

If I can figure out how to write chinese I'll probably post a testimonial here. Does anyone know any good 中文手寫板 that they recommend? And how do you enter the 廣東俗字?

Hope all these infomation help.

Thank you and regards,

PM

slowmothe1st

Oh, one more link to a good site.

http://www.recoveryfromreligion.org/

Regards,

PM

潔瑩

手寫板和廣東話輸入這類問題不是我的專長，很抱歉要你稍等別人來提供協助了。
多謝你不嫌輸入中文麻煩，方便大家閱讀和交流。其實用自己習慣的語言來發表便可以了﹗假如有心想了解的人，一定會主動向你問個明白。另，感謝你推介的好網和好書﹗

沙文

What part of Canada do u live? They have some Chinese writing pads down here in Ontario. It recognizes 一尐廣東俗字, though not all.  
http://www.inmax.ca/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=304

hope this blog helpd :"中文打字輸入法調查及比較" (http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/faisaha/article?mid=123)

slowmothe1st

Thank you. I am in Alberta and we have stores that sell them too but I just want to know if there are any popular ones that's easy to use so I don't have to shop around. But that's good enough, that's good information.

Does anybody here knows the Flying Spaghetti Monster（飛天義大利粉怪獸）? I hope I'm not the first one to introduce him here but it was invented by Bobby Henderson as a protest of an action by the Kansas School Board to teach creationism in it's schools. Henderson won and the school board drops the issue. You can read more about it at:
http://www.venganza.org/

Someone has created a video of the FSM on YouTube, you can see it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL7FcvEydqg

I'll post this also on the 閒聊 section. Enjoy and thanks!

PM