15 - Spirituality Became Bigger & Complex

“Mine was more of a gradual process. The earliest catalyst was noticing a stark hypocrisy when I was about 12. The preacher in my Mississippi Southern Baptist church stepped down in front the congregation, admitting to have been cheating on his wife with men in New Orleans. Meanwhile, it was a common recurring theme that being gay was a sin - in fact, a guy a year older than me was sent off to pray-the-gay-away camp a few years later. Around this same time is when I started asking the big existential questions that couldn't be answered other than with an appeal to "faith" and The Bible. For years, I just quit even thinking about God or Christianity; it wasn't until I was 19 or so when I started identifying as "atheist" and reveled in watching people like Christopher Hitchens eviscerate Christian apologists in debates. After getting sober and being introduced to other spiritual practices, my relationship to Christianity has changed. I'm no "Christian" but am a Jesus fan similar to Buddha” -Kyle

“The more I learned about human history and the human story (like the Sumerian People), the more I just saw christianity as another made up thing. We see ancient human religion as a myth, as made up... is that because we've never seen our god so we dismiss theirs just as easily. We "know" theirs are fake because we know ours are fake. Honestly wasn't even a catalyst... it was gradual... from theist, to deist, to agnostic, to atheist. I wanted to believe. I wanted to believe that everyone I learned was the truth, that I didn't just waste my time and destroy friendships telling others they'd go to hell one day But the more I learn about human history, geology, archeology, ancient religions, honestly the UFO phenomenon, and even ancient artwork, the more I think there's something much much more at play and it has nothing to do with Jesus.” -Devon

11x14 acrylic on watercolor paper in wood frame