Yeah, I really don't know what I'm doing here. I guess I thought it would be more fun than signing up to a Christian forum.
Since people seem to describe the history of their relationship with religion in these bits, I guess I'll go ahead and do the same. Though it will likely be pretty close to the opposite of most members.
I grew up in an atheistic family, there was never a mention of God so far as I can remember at all. My only encounter with religion was at funerals, though since I'm in England, where it's sometimes pretty hard to tell if even the heads of the church are actually religious or not, it wasn't too bad. Oh, and the Jehovas witnesses with their weird pamphlets, I remember those guys coming knocking, though they don't knock any more. I think I got myself put on the Jehovas witness blacklist, when I see them coming round our street now, they invariably knock on every door but mine. If anybody wants to know how to get rid of the crazy little dudes just ask.
My first real contact with religious people was when I was at university studying biology. I had a real nutty girlfriend who also studied biology whilst being a christian. I began to wonder how she squared all this cool science stufff we were learning with her religious beliefs. But she would never talk to me about it. It slowly became apparent that she didn't square them. She didn't even try. She just kind of ignored any problems. So I, kind of justifiably, began to believe that religious people were just weird.
This getting way longer than I intended, so I'll start skipping through it. So, I became one of those atheists who thinks all religious people are nuts and the world would be better off without them. ALL OF THEM!!! Started reading Nietzsche. Got interested in philosophy more broadly. Broadened my mind (or polluted it, depending on your viewpoint) with dudes like Kierkegaard, James, Aristotle et al. and many more philosophers, both theistic and not. This made me realise that I didn't know half as much as I thought I did. I became an agnostic and realised that going around saying things like "Oh, all theists are just irrational" was just a bit stupid. For a while I decided I wanted to become a christian, but couldn't quite make the leap, so I gave up, and just stayed agnostic.
So, that's me. Hello All.
Since people seem to describe the history of their relationship with religion in these bits, I guess I'll go ahead and do the same. Though it will likely be pretty close to the opposite of most members.
I grew up in an atheistic family, there was never a mention of God so far as I can remember at all. My only encounter with religion was at funerals, though since I'm in England, where it's sometimes pretty hard to tell if even the heads of the church are actually religious or not, it wasn't too bad. Oh, and the Jehovas witnesses with their weird pamphlets, I remember those guys coming knocking, though they don't knock any more. I think I got myself put on the Jehovas witness blacklist, when I see them coming round our street now, they invariably knock on every door but mine. If anybody wants to know how to get rid of the crazy little dudes just ask.
My first real contact with religious people was when I was at university studying biology. I had a real nutty girlfriend who also studied biology whilst being a christian. I began to wonder how she squared all this cool science stufff we were learning with her religious beliefs. But she would never talk to me about it. It slowly became apparent that she didn't square them. She didn't even try. She just kind of ignored any problems. So I, kind of justifiably, began to believe that religious people were just weird.
This getting way longer than I intended, so I'll start skipping through it. So, I became one of those atheists who thinks all religious people are nuts and the world would be better off without them. ALL OF THEM!!! Started reading Nietzsche. Got interested in philosophy more broadly. Broadened my mind (or polluted it, depending on your viewpoint) with dudes like Kierkegaard, James, Aristotle et al. and many more philosophers, both theistic and not. This made me realise that I didn't know half as much as I thought I did. I became an agnostic and realised that going around saying things like "Oh, all theists are just irrational" was just a bit stupid. For a while I decided I wanted to become a christian, but couldn't quite make the leap, so I gave up, and just stayed agnostic.
So, that's me. Hello All.
