Confront your Mom! If your unhappy with your family she seems like an understanding person and it's seems she is interested in your and your sisters well being above all if you keep quiet and don't do anything nothing will happen. Confront her about your problems and you should be able to get what you want.

I was rereading my long post.
I'm sorry if it came out sounding legalistic. That was unintentional. That is your dad's original problem as far as I can see.

More importantly, you should be able to get what your family needs.

She's been confronted by a lot of people outside of my sister and I, but for whatever reason she is still waiting. I know she'll divorce him, that's no secret, I just don't understand why she's still waiting.

Well I guess it is a secret to my dad, but he's incredibly unobservant anyway, so no surprises there.

But there are other means of help other than divorcing him. He needs an intervention and a deprogramming. Divorcing him would just make him an angrier man and possibly put your mother's life at risk, despite his so-called "Christianity."

He has no idea? Do you live under a lie of a happy family? Seems like your father is stuck in a tunnel of belief that he can't see the real world... Maybe your dad should go to therapy. Has money been hard is your dads job stable because at least in my case, money can be a determining factor in religon.
When my dad was hopping from one entreprenurial venture to another he was very hard line on church but once he settled down with a buisness and we gradually become wealthier he has become a lot less strict.

We're not wealthy, but he has a steady job, and he got a promotion a little over a year ago. There's no illusion of happiness in my family, but he's just incredibly stupid and can't realize that his wife not only doesn't love him, but wants to leave him. He won't even go to marriage counseling with my mom, because he says that he and my mom have to work things out on their own, because its their marriage, not some counselor's marriage. Even if somebody cared enough to send him to therapy, which nobody does care enough by the way, he would never go, because he refuses to accept that his "faith" is a problem.

Well pardon my french when I say You are just dealing with one arrogant son of a bitch!
The best way to solve your problems is confront both your parents!

Do you know what provoked his church going?

Some guy that he met at his work.

When I think about my religious or spiritual experience during the first 45 years of my life, it would be most accurately described by words such as rituals, rules and regulations. From the time that I was baptized as an infant in the Catholic church, I virtually never missed mass. It was part of every weekend’s ritual. I took “holy communion” at most services and carefully avoided all “mortal” sins (according to Catholic teachings, these are the sins that will send a person to hell). Any “venial sins” (according to Catholic teachings, these are the minor sins) I committed, I would dutifully confess to a priest once every month or so, but these confessions never really changed the way I lived my life or provided me with any lasting victory over these sins.

Along with my three brothers, I attended Catholic school from kindergarten through the tenth grade. I vividly remember my “first communion” while I was in second grade in Catholic school. I was dressed in white—from my shirt and tie right down to my socks and shoes—to symbolize purity. My confirmation by the bishop of the diocese took place when I was in fourth grade in Parochial school.

Throughout my childhood and into my teen years, I tried to be a “good Catholic”. Even when I married my wife, who is an Episcopalian, we had a “con-celebrated” ceremony with priests from both churches participating. For the next several years, I went through all the right motions, and almost never considered becoming inactive or dropping out. I was comfortable with the church that I had known all my life and had no desire to compare or change religions. I essentially never questioned or doubted what I was being taught, but faithfully followed the teachings of the Catholic church.

But, God changed all that when He caused one of His servants, named Jim, to intersect my path and initiate a friendship. I met Jim at work, where he and I were both employed as accountants. We began walking together during our lunch breaks to get some much-needed exercise and our walks included many talks. I noticed that Jim often brought Scripture into our conversations and was able to quote many verses from the Bible. For any question that I brought up (and I tend to be very inquisitive), Jim always seemed to have an answer from the Bible, which made quite an impression upon me. I found that I could not refute anything that he said. Growing up as a Catholic, I had respect for the Bible, even though I never read it for myself. Over a period of several months, Jim’s talking to me about spiritual things really got my attention.

I listened to some sermons on cassette tapes that Jim gave to me. The first message made a huge impression on me. The pastor gave the following illustration: If you were sick, you wouldn’t just go to the pharmacy and say, “Just give me a bottle of pills, any kind of pills, because I am sick. I just need some medicine.” They would want to know exactly what type of illness you had and then give you a specific kind of medicine designed just for that illness. You would never think of saying, “It doesn’t matter what kind of medicine you give me—just give me any bottle of pills. And don’t bother giving me any instructions on how many to take and when to take them—I’ll just take a handful whenever I feel sick.” You are probably thinking “that would be crazy”. But many people have that mentality about religion—it doesn’t matter what teaching you are hearing, or how much, just as long as you are sincere and believe something. But it DOES matter what you are hearing and believing. The Bible is the book that contains God’s plan of salvation.

As I listened to the sermons on cassette tapes, and the things Jim had to say to me, I realized I was finally getting the truth right from God’s Word. When Jim invited me to visit his church, Lehigh Valley Baptist Church, I readily went with him and very much enjoyed the preaching. Soon after that, I did a Bible study with Jim to learn more about how to be saved. (Note: salvation, saved, and born again are Biblical terms referring to the forgiveness of sins by God and the rescue of a person from the power and penalty of that sin. This is God’s requirement for everlasting life.)

At the conclusion of the Bible study, I prayed a prayer to be saved. However, I was so trained to follow rituals and do what was expected of me, that I did not realize that I had simply gone through the motions of a false profession, without truly repenting of my sin and trusting in Jesus Christ alone as my Savior.

But, God was gracious and merciful to me. I continued under the regular influence of good Bible preaching, and it was not long before I realized that my life had not changed and that I was still unsaved. The Bible teaches clearly that when a person gets saved, he becomes a “new creature” and “old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (II Corinthians 5:17) I felt the same old way, trapped in mechanical rituals without a changed heart.

I continued to hear the truth of God’s Word at each and every service, and God continued to convict me about my lost condition. In September of 2003, while driving to church, I was thinking about my lost condition before God and certain eternity in hell. I was scared and had come to the end of myself. I cried out to God, “What do I need to do to be saved”? I had nowhere else to turn, but to Jesus. As Jesus says in the Bible in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

As I continued to pray to God, I let go of any dependence I had upon my religion or self-righteousness for my salvation; I repented of my sins and put my faith totally and completely in what Jesus Christ had done for me on the cross of Calvary as my only means of salvation. At that moment of surrender and commitment, I sensed Christ’s presence and the peace that only He can give in my heart. I knew I was now saved!

Since then, God has changed my heart. I have seen God at work in my life, answering prayers, giving me a burden for those who do not yet know Jesus as their Savior, and giving me victory over sin in my life. I praise the Lord for seeing me, this lost “Religious” man, and patiently working in my life to bring me to Jesus for eternal salvation.

If you are a member of any religious denomination, and feel you are just “going through the motions” of a variety of rituals, but you don’t see any real change in your life, please consider a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as the answer to your situation. My personal relationship with Jesus Christ has not only changed my life in this world, but has also given me assurance of Eternal Salvation in the world to come. Will you give Jesus the opportunity to do the same things for you in your life?


That's something that he wrote for his church, something I guess they have all "saved people" do, but I've never seen it at his church, so I'm not sure what ever happened to it. Anyway, that's his story, complete shit in my opinion, but feel free to read it and decide for yourself.

Thanks for all the advice and thought guys, two in the morning is enough for me, but I'll try and get a hold of a few of his college buddies and see if they can help me out. I bid you all thanks, and good bye until I get some sleep.

Good luck!

vamos - we should meet in Kutztown for drinks.

When KU is in session, of course, so they'll be hot chicks there.

It's amazing and sad how much people's theology and actual practice can diverge...

Once I get myself a license over this coming summer, I would love to get my 16 year old self down to Kutztown for a drink with you Acosmist:]

Awkward.

lol

My belief in God comes from me knowing that I need it, even though I know he might not really exist. I have convinced myself that he does exist and have forced good morals down my throat so I can enjoy life. (I noticed that the religious generally are more fun!) To be ingenuous, I don't believe God exists but I do at the same time. Call me an unbeliever or call me a freak, but I'm a winner in God's eyes.

if god has eyes!!! zaza we are not as different as you think we are, i almost want to be like you are but my security and happiness are not reliant on a possibly imaginary thing. that's the difference. i live on the edge, you seem to play it safe. i have plenty of atheist, theist friends, and they're all fun. you don't need god to be happy if you can get through the month or two long transition periodl. for example i went from being a deist (happy compromise of reason and belief) to atheist, and i was very depressed for a while, now i'm fine and happy with things, you'd get over it faster than you'd think.

I've never myself understood the concept of faith, of any kind. It seems to me to be a total abdication of the mental faculties. The man who thinks he has proved that God likely exists I can understand- he may be logically or factually wrong, but we are all wrong about many different matters ourselves, inevitably. The man I cannot understand, yet who appears so very frequently, is the highly intelligent, largely sceptical man of sound, unquestionable logical capability who nevertheless believes that God exists. He even acknowledges that his belief is not rational, something he may claim to be a virtue.

I don't get this at all. I've never felt any 'faith' as such, certainly not religious faith. I've experience intuition, and if that is the same thing, well: its always been too plainly fallible to trust. I've asked this question before, but the only response I got was a condescending "you wouldn't understand." but I'll try again: "What is faith, and why or how is it valid?"

Belief in God is irrational? Aquinas would be surprised to hear that.

ghostmaker you are a legend. everything you said i agree with completely.

Faith, defined in my dictionary as belief without proof, is non-rational (I deliberately avoid using a loaded term).

If you reason, as Aquinas thought he had, that God exists, that's another matter, as I said. (You are also wrong, in my view, but that isn't important here). What I really don't understand, and wish I did, is faith.

Where are the proofs of axioms, Ghost?

Dare you answer my question, instead?

Since I doubt that you are a nihilist, you have to defend your own case, rather than damn the alternatives.

I'll take it to be "belief without proof." I'm comfortable committing to that. If that's not rational, then Euclid and Peano were not rational.

You never heard of reductio ad absurdum? Awkward.

I have indeed heard of it.

Regarding Euclid, he was not rational in as much as he thought his axioms of Geometry were:

a) The only possible axioms
b) "True"

The first is wrong and the second meaningless. Mathematics distinguishes itself from sciences, and religion can only be an allegory to science, not mathematics. In mathematics, the axioms, however absurd, can be chosen, provided that they are logically consistent, and the the question asked "what follows?" That is at the core of the mathematicians work.

The scientist is rather different, and must take a different approach to this, something you must surely accept?

In other words, there is a difference between the logical axioms (A is A) and the non-logical axioms (e.g. Euclid's or Lobachevsky's).