Another Texan Joins the Fold
Offline Greetings, fellow rational thinkers! I'm an atheist from Texas (another one, apparently) and I'm happy to have found a place to commune with like-minded people. As you can imagine, the atheist community in Texas, while it may be numerous, tends to be quiet.
A bit about me: I was raised in the Church of Christ, though my parents were never strict about religion in our home and even encouraged free thinking. I've always been a skeptic and advertised myself as an agnostic during High School and college, led primarily by my love of science and inability to consolidate what I knew about reality with what I was taught about god and religion. I graduated to full-bore atheist soon after college, though I almost never shared that with friends and family. Almost everyone I know is religious to some extent, and even now atheists make up one of the last groups that people are not ashamed to denigrate and judge.
I think the next step for me is to become more comfortable sharing my atheism with everyone, and possibly becoming more active as an American and Texan atheist since, frankly, the rise of fundamentalist religion as a political force in America frightens me.
I'm looking forward to being a part of the group!
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Yet another atheist in bible-belt Texas, who-ray y'all!!! I'm in Toronto area of Canada, eh? Do you ever watch the Atheist Experience pod cast out of Austin, every Sunday 4:30 to 6:00 CST? What branch of science do you specialize in?
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
We should start a club, "rednecks in disbelief" or something.
Welcome.
Signature ? How ?
Thanks for the welcome!
I'm actually not a scientist. Though I love it, I have no talent for it. I'm in business strategy (formerly a lawyer).
I went to UT in Austin, and spent several years practicing law there ... I miss that town! It had a very diverse flavor, including the political landscape. I wouldn't call it un-religious, though. In fact there's a Catholic university (St. Ed's) just a few miles away from UT, and I didn't have much experience with the atheist community while I was there.
I haven't heard the podcast, but I will definitely check it out!
Signature ? How ?
I always thought "redneck" was a derogatory term that was originally used to identify white manual laborers, mostly farm workers, who had sun burned (red) necks from working in the fields.
Here in the NW - and probably other parts of the country as well - we call it a "farmer's tan". Includes your head, neck, hands and lower arms. Whatever isn't covered by your short sleeve shirt.
Welcome. Enjoy.
-- I feel so much better since I stopped trying to believe.
"We are entitled to our own opinions. We're not entitled to our own facts"- Al Franken
"If death isn't sweet oblivion, I will be severely disappointed" - Ruth M.
I was going to mention that too. They have more than a podcast, they have a weekly public access TV show, a bi-weekly pod cast, and the meet regularly in 'real life' too!
Everything makes more sense now that I've stopped believing.
I'd love to take part in their get togethers, and summer bat boat cruise, but it's unlikely I'll ever be in Texas (or an act of god maybe) so you locals go on over and say howdy for me, with a Canadian accent, eh?
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
Welcome to the forum.
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
Holy cow! That makes 5 Atheist Texan's I have found in the past 2 weeks. Now we have the fundies by the short hairs! Welcome...
It's "cool" around here I guess.
It seems to be heavily associated with "southern pride" or racism or being a dumbass in general, lol.
Just watch one episode of the dukes of hazzard.
Faith is the word but next to that snugged up closely "lie's" the want.
"By simple common sense I don't believe in god, in none."-Charlie Chaplin
Spot on.
It's presumably partly what motivates a lot of us to think and say 'enough is enough'.
That's the point of being an anti-stamp-collector.
Born in Dallas, Tx....
( Lived in Austin as a kid, watched Charles Whitman shooting from the UTA Clock Tower on TV.... )