Science-Clapway: My Experience In Christian Life
Few people are as surprised by my militant atheism as they are by how I came by it.
When I tell them that my parents were extremely devout fundamentalist Christians, they aren’t so surprised. It’s a common story, isn’t it? Call it rebellion if you like, but the most Christian of parents tend to produce the most atheist of children. At least, that has been my experience, and the experience of those like me.
Science - Clapway
No, none of that is surprising – it is what comes after that is unexpected.
For a long time when I was growing up, I didn’t really understand that my family was different. I didn’t have much exposure to the outside world, as I was homeschooled, along with my younger brother, Charlie. Our days went something like this:
6:00 a.m. – We would wake up, dress, and kneel at the foot of our beds for morning …show more content…
– Breakfast. We weren’t allowed much, because my parents wanted to teach us the importance of fasting. Jesus didn’t have much, so neither would we. We usually had some toast each and that was it.
8:00 a.m. – Morning Bible study. We learned to recite many passages aloud. We wrote essays on the more involved stories. We often focused on the Old Testament, as our parents believed it was undervalued in current society – not that we knew anything about society, current or otherwise.
12:00 p.m. – Lunch, thank God, was more substantial. It was accompanied by a lively discussion of what we’d learned in “class” just a few moments before.
1:00 p.m. – At this point, we had another hour of prayer by ourselves. Once again, we knelt in front of our beds on the cold wooden floor. I learned more about endurance from those hours of kneeling than I could have anywhere else.
2:00 p.m. – Here were our “normal” classes. Math, science, literature. God still intruded in these most secular of subjects. He was unavoidable, really. But at least we learned something substantial during this time, biased or not.
6:00 p.m. – Supper.
7:00 p.m. – Family
When I tell them that my parents were extremely devout fundamentalist Christians, they aren’t so surprised. It’s a common story, isn’t it? Call it rebellion if you like, but the most Christian of parents tend to produce the most atheist of children. At least, that has been my experience, and the experience of those like me.
Science - Clapway
No, none of that is surprising – it is what comes after that is unexpected.
For a long time when I was growing up, I didn’t really understand that my family was different. I didn’t have much exposure to the outside world, as I was homeschooled, along with my younger brother, Charlie. Our days went something like this:
6:00 a.m. – We would wake up, dress, and kneel at the foot of our beds for morning …show more content…
– Breakfast. We weren’t allowed much, because my parents wanted to teach us the importance of fasting. Jesus didn’t have much, so neither would we. We usually had some toast each and that was it.
8:00 a.m. – Morning Bible study. We learned to recite many passages aloud. We wrote essays on the more involved stories. We often focused on the Old Testament, as our parents believed it was undervalued in current society – not that we knew anything about society, current or otherwise.
12:00 p.m. – Lunch, thank God, was more substantial. It was accompanied by a lively discussion of what we’d learned in “class” just a few moments before.
1:00 p.m. – At this point, we had another hour of prayer by ourselves. Once again, we knelt in front of our beds on the cold wooden floor. I learned more about endurance from those hours of kneeling than I could have anywhere else.
2:00 p.m. – Here were our “normal” classes. Math, science, literature. God still intruded in these most secular of subjects. He was unavoidable, really. But at least we learned something substantial during this time, biased or not.
6:00 p.m. – Supper.
7:00 p.m. – Family