Hello everyone!
After stalking the debate threads for about almost a week, I decided to sign up (you can blame Adrian for this) and start posting... So here I am, signed up, but still trying to post.
I'm an 18 year old girl, I am of mixed race - my dad is Norwegian, while my mother is half Thai/Chinese. I was born in Thailand, and when I was 7 I moved to the US. Spent 4 years there before moving to Norway in 2002. And I'm still stuck here, haha.
I was raised a Buddhist, but I am now an atheist. I was even actually a Christian for several years - I went to church and even prayed every night before bed (makes me feel uncomfortable when I think about the fact that I believed I would be punished harder for ever curse word I said)... You can thank forced Sunday school for that (HELLO ALABAMA!).
It's kind of funny actually, that even though I believed in God, and all of that, I never doubted, for a moment, that the Earth was younger than a 100 000 years. This is probably because I knew of dinosaurs before I knew of the Christian faith/God. Funny isn't it? The way a child's mind can be influenced and even manipulated to believe such things.
I have always had an interest in religion and science. I take a course in "Advanced Biology", here in Norway, and when it came to analyzing how well some creatures/plants had adapted to their environments, it actually made me consider the thought of a creator, even though I knew of natural selection and fully believe in evolution...
I then watched a documentary with Richard Dawkins, and it .... inspired me. It showed me how beautiful the mechanism of natural selection really is. It blew my mind. I then started to read more about him, saw videos on Youtube... Started watching videos of Hitchens, Dan Dennet, Sam Harris... And here I am.
I have to say though, this is sort of bittersweet. Before, I could say that I fully respected everyone's views, and their beliefs. Now... I find it hard to respect someone who believes women are inferior to men, or that homosexuality is a sin and that homosexuals should not be allowed to marry/adopt - comments like this actually come from my classmates , people who I have known for years... They demand I listen to their preachings, yet when it is my turn, they do not hesitate to throw insults and play the "Talk to the hand" card. I find it hard to respect people like this.
Whoa, long post. So I'll shut up and end it here with;
Hi everyone. I'm Linda. And I'm an atheist.
After stalking the debate threads for about almost a week, I decided to sign up (you can blame Adrian for this) and start posting... So here I am, signed up, but still trying to post.
I'm an 18 year old girl, I am of mixed race - my dad is Norwegian, while my mother is half Thai/Chinese. I was born in Thailand, and when I was 7 I moved to the US. Spent 4 years there before moving to Norway in 2002. And I'm still stuck here, haha.
I was raised a Buddhist, but I am now an atheist. I was even actually a Christian for several years - I went to church and even prayed every night before bed (makes me feel uncomfortable when I think about the fact that I believed I would be punished harder for ever curse word I said)... You can thank forced Sunday school for that (HELLO ALABAMA!).
It's kind of funny actually, that even though I believed in God, and all of that, I never doubted, for a moment, that the Earth was younger than a 100 000 years. This is probably because I knew of dinosaurs before I knew of the Christian faith/God. Funny isn't it? The way a child's mind can be influenced and even manipulated to believe such things.
I have always had an interest in religion and science. I take a course in "Advanced Biology", here in Norway, and when it came to analyzing how well some creatures/plants had adapted to their environments, it actually made me consider the thought of a creator, even though I knew of natural selection and fully believe in evolution...
I then watched a documentary with Richard Dawkins, and it .... inspired me. It showed me how beautiful the mechanism of natural selection really is. It blew my mind. I then started to read more about him, saw videos on Youtube... Started watching videos of Hitchens, Dan Dennet, Sam Harris... And here I am.
I have to say though, this is sort of bittersweet. Before, I could say that I fully respected everyone's views, and their beliefs. Now... I find it hard to respect someone who believes women are inferior to men, or that homosexuality is a sin and that homosexuals should not be allowed to marry/adopt - comments like this actually come from my classmates , people who I have known for years... They demand I listen to their preachings, yet when it is my turn, they do not hesitate to throw insults and play the "Talk to the hand" card. I find it hard to respect people like this.
Whoa, long post. So I'll shut up and end it here with;
Hi everyone. I'm Linda. And I'm an atheist.
You'll enjoy it here 
