Hey there, everyone!

I've been a member of The Thinking Atheist community for about two years now and have heard a lot about this forum during that time. We've had some of your people come to visit us recently, so I decided to return the favor and introduce myself here as well.

The name's Aaron, I'm an 18-year-old student from Germany and I have a burning passion for the English language. I can sometimes be am, no doubt, a relentless Grammar Nazi, but I'm sure you'll get used to it eventually.

Without any further ado, let me tell you a bit about my background. I come from a Baptist household in Germany. My father and one of my elder brothers are Christians, my mother and my other brother are atheists like me. While I was growing up, I had to attend church every Sunday because my father worked as a Christian pastor before he retired. Not only that, but I happened to live directly above a church until about 11 years ago. I took part in a two years long confirmation led by my father and chose to be baptized at the age of 13. About two years later I entered the German equivalent of the US-American "high school" where I learned about about critical thinking and the scientific method for the first time in my life. I was so intrigued by their methodologies that I decided to evaluate the things I had believed in until then according to their standards. I also decided to take religion classes around the same time which gave me an opportunity to learn about different religions and a chance to discuss the existence of God or gods with others. In our class we came to the conclusion that his or their existence can neither be proven, nor disproven, a view that I still hold today.

It took several months for me to acknowledge that I was no longer a Christian. You see, unlike in the USA, religion is a very private matter in Germany. It's not unusual for people to know each other for years without knowing each other's religious beliefs. As a matter of fact, I didn't even know that my own mother and one of my elder brothers were atheists until about a year ago. I hadn't met someone who told me that he was an atheist back then so I didn't really have something to label myself with. In the process of my deconversion, I started talking to my friends about the topic and it turned out that virtually every single one of them was an atheist as well. Several months later I watched Seth's video "Top Ten Creationist Arguments" on YouTube and checked out his website where I stumbled upon the TTA forum. One day, after lurking for a while, I made the decision to become a member of their community.

In any case, I came out to my father almost a year ago. He reacted fairly surprised at first and obviously wasn't too fond of my deconversion, but over time he came to terms with it. He told me that he isn't going to try to convince me, that he will instead ask God to reveal himself to me like he did in his life. My father and I recently went out for a walk after a pleasant visit at a nearby restaurant and the topic of religion came up again. I was able to make him reconsider his long-held position that there is a conflict between his religious beliefs and accepted scientific knowledge, namely the theory of evolution and the Big Bang theory. I would be lying if I said that this didn't make me feel a bit proud.

That ought to be it for now. If you want to know more about me, don't hesitate to ask; I'll do my best to satisfy your curiosity.