Proper Introduction
Offline Hello Everyone,
I just wanted to say hello and properly introduce myself.
I am originally from south Jersey and now live in south Florida. I'm 27 and I've been an atheist most of my life.
My family went to church every Sunday until I was about six years old. One Sunday my parents were sick, so I decided to go to church by myself. I felt like I was doing something good. When the service was over, the priest pulled me to the side to yell at me because of my shabby clothes. It's not like I had anything better since my family was dirt poor, but that didn't matter to him. Looking good was very important in church. That experience never left me. I always wondered why God would care how I dressed while worshipping him.
For years after that experience, I had a phobia of religious people. Whenever someone would start talking about God with me, I would get extrememly nervous and uncomfortable. That's the reason I personally stopped going to church. I didn't understand the feeling for most of my teen years. It wasn't until I was out of high school that I started to realize I wasn't the only one who didn't believe in God. I had never given it much thought. I was very indifferent to my atheism. At the time I didn't even know the word atheist was in the vocabulary.
I joined the army after high school and one of my roomates was an outspoken atheist. It was the first time in my life I was able to discuss things with another atheist and we had a blast. Suddenly the world made sense to me. Everything I had been questioning finally all fell into place for me and I haven't turned back yet.
At this point in my life I am still surrounded by religious people. I have many religious friends and most of them have no idea that I'm an atheist. I don't have many places to go for the kind of conversation that I am looking for.
Glad you guys are here.
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Welcome to the forums!!
I remember being sent to church with my sister (my parents never went...I think they stayed home and had sex or something) and sitting in the pews just not believing a thing the pastor had to say. I thought something was wrong with me because I just didn't get it or believe.
I remember the relief I felt when finding out I wasn't alone in thinking the story of a god and his "son" and a creation sounded like total nonsense.
Jump right in DanMullin and have fun!
Slowly building a blog at ~
http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/
Welcome!
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
Ahoy Thar! Welcome Aboard this here site! Stay as long as yea like, as long as the Super Secret Spy Agency for the Vatican Doesn't Find ya first!
No seriously welcome!
Welcome. Glad to have another "born right the first time" atheist.
Welcome. Jump in and have fun. I'm also from Florida, the Orlando area.
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"I guess it's time to ask if you live under high voltage power transmission lines which have been shown to cause stimulation of the fantasy centers of the brain due to electromagnetic waves?" - Me
"God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, - it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks please. Cash and in small bills." - Robert A Heinlein.
Welcome, Dan.
Your story is much like mine, except I never got yelled at for my clothing. I just never quite got the internal contradictions inherent in Christianity. Fortunately, I've been lucky enough to have quite a few atheists around me my whole life (including my mom).
You've come to the right place.
"Yes, I seriously believe that consciousness is a product of a natural process. I find that the neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers who proceed from that premise are the ones who are actually making useful contributions to our understanding of the mind." - PZ Myers
I wouldn't put any weight into the "shock" of the priest blasting you for your cloths. Kids can be scared into or out of holding any position based on what an authoritarian figure "adult" might "shatter" them with.
There is only one good reason to hold a position on any issue, regardless of a "personal experiance". Evidence. Thats it.
And as far as being nervous or uncomfortable about being around theists. Many here, including me, avoided the topic for many reasons, but mainly for me, as I only speak for myself, because I didn't want to rock the boat.
I used to be afraid of confronting theists, especially when they quoted the bible. But now I don't care what verse or quote or parable or story they throw at me, even if I have not read it before, I'll look it up and 100% of the time I can find a contradiction or absurdity, or scientific absurdity, or moral objection.
Welcome to RRS. If you are ever unsure of an argument, this is the place to pick brains, just not mine. My brain makes the market crash of the 1930s look like gold rush boom.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Thanks for the welcome everyone.
I wholeheartedly agree. This has been my position for most of my life. The catalyst was the scolding for my clothes, but I've held that position for about as long as I haven't believed in Santa. I suspect my feelings of nervousness around religious people was due to the fact that I thought they were genuinley insane. I get the same sick feeling when someone tells me they believe in God as I do when they tell me they believe in Santa. No difference in my book.