Alabama atheist, born and raised in the Bible Belt.
Offline I'm a 40 year old graphic designer from deep in the Bible Belt. I was raised by a lapsed Southern Baptist and a lapsed Presbyterian in a community where being Christian and Protestant just meant you were breathing. The Catholics had been driven out of town by the Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians long before I was born. Unlike most of my friends, I didn't attend church. My mom and dad were both forced to attend church as kids, every time the doors were open. As a result, when I and my brother were born, they decided against going to church. Although my parents still consider themselves Christian, they are Christian in only the widest of senses.
By the time I hit high school, I considered myself a Deist. By the end of college, I was firmly in the atheist camp.
Living here in the land of raving fundamentalists, I take any opportunity I can get to speak with other like-minded folks. I'm on about a half dozen atheist, freethought and skeptic forums, and I'm considering starting a "Skeptics in the Pub" or "Drinking Skeptically" group in my community, because there just aren't any groups around. The nearest group to me is almost an hour drive.
To complicate matters, I'm married to a wonderful woman who happens to come from a deeply religious, evangelical Southern Baptist family. She's much more liberal than they are. Think United Church of Christ. Still, we spend a lot of time with her family, because they are very close-knit. I find myself biting my tongue clean off.
I work both freelance and an 8-5 M-F job, both doing design work for advertising. At my company, they still say grace before company-provided meals.
Yeah, I know.
Anyway, I hope to be able to contribute something of worth to the forums. I'll answer any questions and receive condolences now.
http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/thebluefrogsays/ http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/ [email protected] • [email protected] PS3: TheBigBlueFrog AtheistNexus: TheBigBlueFrog http://www.facebook.com/TheBigBlueFrog
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Welcome aboard. I sent you a facebook friend request.
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Hi, jump in, and welcome.
Welcome on board, we do have other bible belt atheists on site. Personally I am from the deep south of Canada. Mississauga is actually 100 miles south of where I grew up in the state of Maine.
"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?
My wife and I are also from alabama, I'm from south Alabama and my wife from north. Tell me is it just me or does growing up around baptist and have there shit shoveled at you day after day make you a little more hostile toward them. I don't mean boomer hostile, but out spoken. Are you as tired of seeing praise god sticker as I am? Anyway welcome to the site.
Throughout human history as our species has faced the frighten terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are and where we are going; it has been the authority (the political, the religious, and the educational authorities) who have attempted to comfort us. By giving us order, rules, and regulation. Informing or forming in our minds their view of reality. To think for yourself you must question these authorities. THINK FOR YOURSELF…
Welcome
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
BBF - look forward to seeing you round.
As I am in Portland, OR, the bumper sticker I'm sick of is the COEXIST one.
There is, apparently, a big legal wrangle going on over the ownership of this design. But the bumper stickers still abound.
If you are not familiar, the symbols are said to represent, in order,
Islam (though this symbol dates back to the older astronomical deities-father sun, mother moon, etc)
Peace symbol for all the greenies
Male and female symbols on the letter "e" are to encourage gender harmony.
Judaism (Star of David)
The symbol on top of the "i" is supposed to be a pentacle for all the Wiccans and similar.
Yin and yang on the "s"
And finally, the christian cross.
Half of which I had to look up.
-- 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 have this sticker on my car but I also have the darwin fish. I'm in search of the flying spaghetti monster now. I did figure out how to make the flying spaghetti monster christmas lights too. So this christmas while everyone is putting up their nativity scenes I will be putting a bright ass flying spaghetti monster in my yard for all to enjoy.
If all the Christians who have called other Christians " not really a Christian " were to vanish, there'd be no Christians left.
You can guess what the FSM looks like to me and it isn't a pair of eyes on a pile of spaghetti. And the image of a large set of balls all lit up on your yard........... I can't breathe.
-- 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.
Crap!!! I never even thought about that. Oh well, they can take it for whatever they see in it....."this is what I think about your nativity scene" lol.
If all the Christians who have called other Christians " not really a Christian " were to vanish, there'd be no Christians left.
Hi There, Mr. Frog.... Based on Mis Vito's testimony, was there any way the defendants car made those tire tracks? ..... Welcome sir...
www.RichWoodsBlog.com
Thanks. It's always good to connect with skeptical folks on Facebook.
http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/thebluefrogsays/ http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/ [email protected] • [email protected] PS3: TheBigBlueFrog AtheistNexus: TheBigBlueFrog http://www.facebook.com/TheBigBlueFrog
Unlike Miss Vito, I know nothing about split rear differentials.
http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/thebluefrogsays/ http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/ [email protected] • [email protected] PS3: TheBigBlueFrog AtheistNexus: TheBigBlueFrog http://www.facebook.com/TheBigBlueFrog
There's a version of that which uses the same basic symbols to spell out "Fiction".
http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/thebluefrogsays/ http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/ [email protected] • [email protected] PS3: TheBigBlueFrog AtheistNexus: TheBigBlueFrog http://www.facebook.com/TheBigBlueFrog
Always nice to "meet" another Deep South atheist. Also nice to meet another Williamson.
The only time I get really frustrated is when I hear the local church folk talking about how oppressed they are, and how downtrodden and persecuted they are. Then I look around and think of all the churches, church billboards, crosses on highways, t-shirts on teenagers, restaurants with discounts for churchgoers, etc. and I just shake my head.
http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/thebluefrogsays/ http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/ [email protected] • [email protected] PS3: TheBigBlueFrog AtheistNexus: TheBigBlueFrog http://www.facebook.com/TheBigBlueFrog
If there's anyone who will see it as obscene, it will be the church folk. They're so obsessed with sex, they see naughty things wherever they look.
Reminds me of the guy who goes to see a psychiatrist. The doctor shows him a series of ink blots, and for each the man says he sees two people having sex. The doctor considers this, and says, "Sir, I think you are obsessed with sex." The man replies, "Well, you're the one will all the dirty pictures."
http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/thebluefrogsays/ http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/ [email protected] • [email protected] PS3: TheBigBlueFrog AtheistNexus: TheBigBlueFrog http://www.facebook.com/TheBigBlueFrog
I've heard southern Alberta is Canada's Bible Belt. What's it like in Ontario?
http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/thebluefrogsays/ http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/ [email protected] • [email protected] PS3: TheBigBlueFrog AtheistNexus: TheBigBlueFrog http://www.facebook.com/TheBigBlueFrog
Vastet and Atheistextremist, thanks for the welcome.
What platform do you game on, Vastet?
http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/thebluefrogsays/ http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/ [email protected] • [email protected] PS3: TheBigBlueFrog AtheistNexus: TheBigBlueFrog http://www.facebook.com/TheBigBlueFrog
Sweet home Alabama, lard I'm babbling on to you
Sweet home Alabama, praise god and pass the ammo
I can identify with living in the babble belt. I used to live in the same city as that xenophobic jackass Jerry Fuckwell. Even the Christians outside his church couldn't stand his bullying the city. When I left in 05, I had spent 10 years speaking out against his right wing bullshit. His family is a joke and more and more people in that city are getting wise to his families power grab and getting increasingly tired of it.
Don't give up in Bama, when people are exposed to things outside their own little world, they may not switch positions, but the more they see the less the fear mongers have control over them.
"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
Is that Lynchburg, Virginia? Isn't that where the Virginia State Colony for the Epileptic and Feebleminded was located back around the middle of the last century? I always wondered if Falwell wasn't the result of a couple of randy escapees who managed to avoid their eugenics program.
http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/thebluefrogsays/ http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/ [email protected] • [email protected] PS3: TheBigBlueFrog AtheistNexus: TheBigBlueFrog http://www.facebook.com/TheBigBlueFrog
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
Thanks. I like the profile pic. What kind of bird is that?
Welcome!
Everything makes more sense now that I've stopped believing.
Thanks for all the warm welcomes. If anyone wants to friend me on Facebook, put RRS in the message field so I'll know who you are.
http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/thebluefrogsays/ http://www.bluefrogdesignstudios.com/ [email protected] • [email protected] PS3: TheBigBlueFrog AtheistNexus: TheBigBlueFrog http://www.facebook.com/TheBigBlueFrog
The Lynchburg Va, yes.
To quote Ace Ventura Pet Detective, "It's nice and cozy, if you like Hannibal Lector".
"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
It's a Woodland Kingfisher.
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
Nice. We have belted kingfishers here.