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Greetings one and all. This is the first formal outburst of atheism I’ve had (in written form) and I’d like to begin our journey together as close to the beginning as possible, as it will help to understand the outspoken atheist and how he arrived where he is. This isn’t meant to be a “here’s why”, and that’s it, but rather a stepping stone into what I hope will be numerous writings between intelligent theist and secular readers.
The question of my faith (or lack thereof) I can remember in very sharp contrast as being one of my first memorable memories. I was somewhere between three and five years old, in the front seat of my single mother’s car as she was returning from her job as a hair stylist. Shortly into our return drive to the apartment I asked: “Mom, am I a Christian?”. This strikes me even now as odd for I had an incredibly small view of the world at that time. I remember reading Tarzan from Tor Publishing, the occasional trip to Wendy’s to get a frosty, and my first question regarding religion. She explained to me the idea of God, and how one who believed in the higher power was in fact, a christian. Unfortunately I can’t remember all of her explanation, but in the short she asked me if I believed in God. Immediately I knew I didn’t but she left me with a severe feeling regarding those who did not believe. I told her I did, lying to her, fearing more the consequences of my mother than an omnipotent being.
About seven years later my mother remarried, and the question of faith arose once more.

Before we delve into this, yet more backstory is required. (Sorry)
My mother grew up catholic in the 60’s to 70’s, which meant very liberal. Divorce, abortion, drugs, not going to church, all ok. Her parents were of much more conservative stock, her mother a “little southern bell”, and her father dieing of liver failure due to alcoholism. My father and I didn’t have a good conversation into my mid teens but as it turns out, he is also an atheist. My stepfather brought more than a little religious entertainment to the table. His father was(way back when) an ordained Methodist minister, his mother was raised Mennonite. (From Kansas) His mother and father converted both, later to Islam. His endeavors into religion and my mothers drive to please led to a brief foray attending church. These forays were always short lived but residual in their occurrence. I bring this up as his faith became later a question of convenience.

About seven years later my mother remarried, and the question of faith arose once more. He wanted to go to church out of some sense of humility or guilt I suppose, and I of course was bored to tears hearing an old man tell me about hell and what a good life should entail. Luckily enough, this didn’t last long as church became a scheduling burden. Shortly thereafter, we moved from the city to the country side and re-established in the footsteps of his parents and raised horses. This never rested well with me as I have no interest in livestock and the young male in the house inevitably ended up with a whole new slew of chores. (Back to the damn story)
His parents converted to Islam, and we became somewhat immersed into the Muslim world. Some of their new found friends told my stepfather what being Muslim was all about and discovered a loose religious rite. As it stood, the father of a family had a duty to give his son enough money(resource) to start a business with which to support himself and maintain a family of his own. In the circles we found ourselves in this equaled about $100,000. However, my stepfather was not about to get this from his father and converted back to Christianity within a few months. Wouldn’t you know it, back to church we went. At this point however, I was not interested in the idea of religion at all and told my parents as much. It didn’t seem fair to attend something I didn’t believe in, and frankly group worship was still boring a hell. (No pun) Rather than not let me attend, I was given the option not to, so long as I would write a paper weekly explaining what it was I did believe in. Easy enough to do. What do I believe in? Nothing! Not quite but close enough. I found I would rather go to church and be bored and insulted than have to defend my own views. So go to church I did but again, never for long as it always got in the way of life.
On my own I began reading the so called tomes of religion, books of God, etc… I did this not out of respect for the various religions, but rather to argue more effectively with school mates. In my small town churches almost outnumbered people which led to a lot of conflict with those of my own age. Funny to consider, my graduating class was 42 persons, and still religion kept us from all interacting peaceably. In the effort though, I found I could still learn that which I had no interest to and the arguments would simply increase in volume as my approach would change and theirs would not. On a side note, it gets me every time a religious person starts yelling the same argument instead of changing it to encompass a contradicting point, but we tend to as well…(Scratch that)

It became telling that my only two friends were another atheist and an agnostic, but with them I found what those heavily armored with faith couldn’t. My agnostic buddy varies from me in belief, politics, life goals, size and shape. Oddly enough, we get along just fine, and can have discussions regarding our beliefs!!! WE DON”T EVEN FIGHT ABOUT IT! My atheist buddy and I still share much in the same viewpoints. Inevitably we’ve concluded, faith will have to die altogether before man can attempt to ascend as a race, but that’s a different arguement.

To add to this already overblown sense of atheism comes several of my experiences that have stood out to me. The above mentioned set a good stage and I’ll briefly share what for me were the nails in the coffin.
1. In my early youth a younger lady became enamored with me. I had no interest in her, but she invited me to her baptist church and I had never been to a revival. While I had planned only to go once, she assisted the decision by giving me a “Teen Study Bible”, built for the modern teen. Once home I threw the thing into the bookshelf next to my Torah, Tanakh, Holy Bible, Further Readings on the Scriptures, The Watchtower, and two copies of the Koran and never once opened the thing. She had also hinted that it was important for her to have christian friends and influences. As nicely as possible I let her down and never gave indication of wanting to continue. It felt absolutely wrong in our modern society to be forced into that situation and to have another try to change me to make me more to their liking. I don’t mind changing but this was altogether wrong.
2. A gentleman tutoring me and my agnostic buddy happened to be a Methodist minister. Out of all the Christians I’ve met he was easily my favorite. He could separate church from his life (even as a minister) and we could talk of things other than faith. When it came around to talk religion, we never tried to convert one another but found ways to argue back and forth. I remember telling him that Christianity felt like a cult to me, and he informed me that cult didn’t have that many people. (HAHAHAHAHAH) Nevertheless, he’s the only christian I’ve met who hasn’t told me the dangers to my soul for lack of faith. He let me know his belief, why it was so, and how he tried to help others but never imposed. Why can’t all of us take a fucking hint and do the same? (Says the Narrator, pffft!)
3. The grandmother of my girlfriend is very Jewish. We’ve been together four years and the pressure gets worse and worse. Not only do I have a Jewish nose, but Jewish eyebrows, a Jewish sense of humor, I look good in a Kip pah and apparently I’m Jewish, I just haven’t figured it out yet. To make matters worse, she will argue that I am Jewish and use her beliefs as proof of her faith and start crying every time we talk about it. What I mean is, she is fond of a story in which her mother died and shortly after she felt someone play with her hair. Then she will begin crying for us (my lady and myself) to convert and come with her to synagogue. I don’t have the heart to tell her to stop being silly and I can’t argue with what she takes to be truth. Her sword and shield are her faith and emotion, and no amount of convincing will help.
..but I’m wrong and that’s enough. Then again she does think the government is gassing us in our sleep and Obama is the anti-Christ so who am I to judge?

I’ll leave you with this for now and hope to see some good churning arguments for or against the faith soon. Keep in mind I haven’t left you with a near to close telling of myself but enough for you to get a taste. I’d love to hear your story, for or against a higher power, and will elaborate on my ideas once I’ve seen some of yours. I love conflict and will entertain good objection, but leave my character alone or I’ll bug yours. To I guess drive the point further so home, I don’t like any kind of religious affiliation. I find it silly, stupid and a waste of time. With everything else going on in the world I would think one would leave Santa alone and pursue their own life.

Until Next time,
Metalyx

Hey guys, sorry to take so much space. I’ll be opening this bad boy up for further discussion and elaboration in a forum. My apologies.

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Hello,

Since I can’t even begin to sum up my beliefs in one short paragraph, I’ll just say hello. I’ll become familiar with the site in time, so for now I’ll give a little bit of background.

I graduated from CSU with a major in philosophy a little over a year ago and now I’m a personal trainer. I don’t get many opportunities to discuss religion without seriously offending my clients. Not great for business. I’m glad to be able to let off some steam here.

I’m partial to many atheist arguments, or at least those that argue against ancient notions of what God is supposed to be (see Mackie’s discussion of the Problem of Evil). I’ve got to say, though, that I have a soft spot in my heart for good arguments in support of God’s existence. Whoever God is, if He is, He’s no Christian or Catholic, I’ll tell you that much.

Anyway, chat back and we can discuss.

BB

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Greetings Fellow Faithless

It’s a great pleasure to write a few introductory words for Going Churching (PBUI).

Some of you may have seen the VictimlessCriminal videos I post on YouTube and thus may know something about my history of religious cross-dressing. I was a Methodist lay-preacher at the age of 16 (apparently the youngest in the UK) then, through a powerful and emotional conversion, I became a raving Born-Againer while at University: preaching, speaking in tongues, healing the sick, performing miracles, casting out demons, converting the godless, reading the Bible from cover to cover and ensuring that I rammed it down the throat of everyone I met!

When I finally realized that I and all the rest of the ‘happy clappies’ were just pretending to get drunk on the Holy Spirit, I slipped off my holey thong and existed backstage right from their holy throng. As the years passed and with the kind assistance of the genuine Alcoholic Spirit and the irreverent Frank Zappa, I eventually laid aside those wonderful Christian virtue of self-hatred and even my overwhelming guilt about merely existing.

I drifted in and out of New Age stuff for a while and have now eventually ended up with my current outlook on this wonderful world: calm and rational. No god, no superstitions, no fear. Nice! In fact, more than nice - fulfilling, tranquil and full of potential.

So, potted history aside, I look forward to walking hand-in-hand with you through some of those hallowed portals through which we may pass to learn about those great mysteries. Oh! I’m not talking about the divine mysteries, oh no! I’m talking about the psychological mysteries of the human mind turned religious.

On a closing note, I thought I’d share a comment that one of my more enlightened commentators recently made on one of my videos. She says:

“Well, I for one am grateful to have Jesus Christ in my life. I’ve gone through almost a year of despair (back in 1999), and thought I had no bright future. I found out there was even deliverance from THAT! And I certainly don’t take credit for my high grades in college or the courage I found to go skydiving last October. I’d thought God had left me, and I came across so many ‘Godincidences’ that my despair finally dissipated in time. I even wrote ‘Trinity,’ one of my over 40 poems, afterwards.”

My question to you is this…

What would surprise you most: That there indeed was a god or that someone using such reasoning would be more likely than us in discovering it?

Of course, you will say, she has to be tongue in cheek, doesn’t she? I wonder. I really do.

Best wishes to you and yours,

VC

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Last night I was sitting around and started thinking about how much I’d like to see the episode of Wife Swap with that crazy “Christian warrior” lady. Thanks to Youtube, we can all bask in the insanity once again.

::sigh:: This is what TV should be like all the time. Talk about entertainment!

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Technomonk gives us a beautifully written account of his thoughts and feelings on raising his little girl to be free, independent and rational in his blog post, THRIVE!. I thought I would pass it along to everyone.

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