I've not believed in god or gods for several years now, but I've been wanting to find a place to talk to other like-minded people so here I am. This was actually prompted to some extent by an article on CNN, of all things. A christian pastor gave a ridiculous explanation for how god allowed the murders in Aurora, and the responses led to a follow-up article which proclaimed that the internet is like church for atheists. Since I've missed the social aspects of organized religion, I decided to join a new type of church.
I grew up in rural Montana, where I was taught to be a good christian. Fortunately for me, I was also smart and my family encouraged me to try hard in school, so I earned a college scholarship. Most of the people I grew up with did not get this type of opportunity, and they're now continuing the cycle of ignorance with their own children. During my freshman year, my roommate (a physics major) challenged an assertion that I had made about god working in my life. He asked how it was possible for god to be all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving, and yet be active in the world while respecting our free will. My response was that god works in mysterious ways and humans are too feeble to understand, but the seed was planted. Over the next five years I asked various pastors and bible study leaders how free will could fit with the typical description of the christian god; the response was always a variation of the "mysterious ways" argument, with a warning about doubt and thinking too hard. At this point I thought the answer existed, but I just hadn't found anyone smart enough to explain it.
A conversation with a friend in grad school signaled the beginning of the end of my belief. I was arguing that it didn't make sense that someone would make up all of the stories in the Bible, or go to great efforts to create a religion if it was truly false. He said that perhaps it was just a social construct, one that evolved to fill a role in society. For some reason, I had never heard this concept before, and it hadn't occurred to me naturally. I spent a long time trying to find arguments to disprove this theory; eventually I accepted the fact that I could not, and because it made more sense than my previous religious theory, I had no choice but to accept that god is fake.
Anyway, that's enough about how I abandoned foolishness and chose the path of logic. I look forward to conversations with other logical atheists.
I grew up in rural Montana, where I was taught to be a good christian. Fortunately for me, I was also smart and my family encouraged me to try hard in school, so I earned a college scholarship. Most of the people I grew up with did not get this type of opportunity, and they're now continuing the cycle of ignorance with their own children. During my freshman year, my roommate (a physics major) challenged an assertion that I had made about god working in my life. He asked how it was possible for god to be all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving, and yet be active in the world while respecting our free will. My response was that god works in mysterious ways and humans are too feeble to understand, but the seed was planted. Over the next five years I asked various pastors and bible study leaders how free will could fit with the typical description of the christian god; the response was always a variation of the "mysterious ways" argument, with a warning about doubt and thinking too hard. At this point I thought the answer existed, but I just hadn't found anyone smart enough to explain it.
A conversation with a friend in grad school signaled the beginning of the end of my belief. I was arguing that it didn't make sense that someone would make up all of the stories in the Bible, or go to great efforts to create a religion if it was truly false. He said that perhaps it was just a social construct, one that evolved to fill a role in society. For some reason, I had never heard this concept before, and it hadn't occurred to me naturally. I spent a long time trying to find arguments to disprove this theory; eventually I accepted the fact that I could not, and because it made more sense than my previous religious theory, I had no choice but to accept that god is fake.
Anyway, that's enough about how I abandoned foolishness and chose the path of logic. I look forward to conversations with other logical atheists.
