hello everyone, i'm new here but not new to atheism. i've been lurking around for a couple weeks and figured it's about time i introduce myself.

i'm Greg and i'm 25 years old. i grew up in what some could call a fundamentalist christian household, but i never took on all of the beliefs i was taught although i pretended to so i didn't get lectured. i even got baptized at the age of 13 without believing any of it for fear of what would happen if i didn't. my parents church is the type that you get baptized when you feel ready rather than baptizing infants.

i'm still "in the closet" as far as my atheism is concerned, only a select few people know about it and it will probably stay that way because although i don't agree with their beliefs, i'm very close to my family now after many years of struggling with them--i have piercings and tattoos and that caused MANY fights between my parents and i when i was a teen. when i pierced my ears and my dad saw it, he said that i must be gay and that i'm going to hell for it, and promptly tried to rip them out. we are now at a point that i can be around them with my 2 inch plugs in my ears and my tattoos exposed without them getting on my ass about it.

i'm also married to my beautiful wife, she's agnostic, and we have a 17th month old boy who we are very proud of

i look forward to posting more and continuing my quest for logic

Welcome sir.

Thank you for the right awesome self introduction! My father too made claim that I was gay when I got my ears pierced. He's still no fan of the tattoos either but at least he keeps his mouth shut now that I'm in my late 30s.

Welcome

Welcome.

thanks guys!

(May 5, 2012 at 2:38 am)Cinjin Wrote: Welcome sir.

Thank you for the right awesome self introduction! My father too made claim that I was gay when I got my ears pierced. He's still no fan of the tattoos either but at least he keeps his mouth shut now that I'm in my late 30s.

yeah it's kind of funny, we were still on bad terms when i met my wife and my parents first question was if she had piercings or tattoos, but they ended up meeting her and liking her despite her piercings and tattoos and ever since they haven't said a negative word about it. this gives me some hope that i might eventually be able to talk about atheism with them. i know i can't yet though, cuz i was talking to my dad about the boy scouts and how i think it's wrong that they discriminate against anyone besides christians, hates gays and atheists, etc. and my dad very calmly said, i "completely agree with them." i had to walk away

Welcome

Welcome.

Welcome!

Welcome! Hell, even my parents still hate my tattoos... and I'm in my mid 40's. And when I got my ear pierced, it was 1982. My parents didn't think I was gay, but they thought it made me look gay. They were more worried that I was worshipping the devil or joining a 'heavy metal cult'. Even they realize how stupid that was now.

Wow, kinda disproved your Dads "must be gay" due to earrings concept huh?
Seriously, I'd bring that up every chance I got and go:
"Hey... turns out I'm married with a kid and shiz... can you believe that? Because that earring theory? I really thought you had something there, that shit was scientifically sound as fuck. Where do you think it fell down? :-S"

Oh, welcome by the way.