I was excited to find this forum! The comment section on YouTube videos for The Atheist Experience was getting a little thin. My restless mind is in need of some exercise, and discussing things I find topically invigorating is like calisthenics.
At 55, I'm a latecomer to my realization; hence, my title, "Better late than never...!"
I think I almost TRIPPED over the search for truth; I was dealing on other sites with people who had some primitively stupid outlooks on things, usually politics and the structure of society, and something just seemed to break loose. I started to examine every little aspect of the faith I'd been raised with (which had undergone REVISION, but not true examination); suffice it to say, said faith didn't survive in the light of reason! (TAE host Matt Dillahunty's explanations went a long way to exposing that light, too -- he's a pretty smart fella!)
Anyway, I HAVE to be reasonable, so as to not be painted into a corner, therefore I stand on the "agnostic atheist" pillar -- no proofs FOR, no proofs AGAINST, so "I don't know" is the base position -- and I'm more amazed DAILY at how vapid the theist positions ARE!
I have a teen daughter, who has 'come out' to share similar beliefs; she recently confessed to me her unexpressed HATRED of Sunday dresses! She seemed to know sooner than I did.... What set her 'over the edge' was a mini-lecture from her mom's new husband; while talking to her about her performance in helping out with a toddler nephew, he equated her level of care NOW with her level of care for a child of her own in the future -- and followed it up by saying outright that "be fruitful and multiply" OBLIGATED her to reproduce! (That was the 'double-tap' for any shred of faith I had left by then....)
So we are a quiet basket of atheism in a close-knit family of knee-jerk theists; keep us in your thoughts and reasons, folks, thank you......
At 55, I'm a latecomer to my realization; hence, my title, "Better late than never...!"
I think I almost TRIPPED over the search for truth; I was dealing on other sites with people who had some primitively stupid outlooks on things, usually politics and the structure of society, and something just seemed to break loose. I started to examine every little aspect of the faith I'd been raised with (which had undergone REVISION, but not true examination); suffice it to say, said faith didn't survive in the light of reason! (TAE host Matt Dillahunty's explanations went a long way to exposing that light, too -- he's a pretty smart fella!)
Anyway, I HAVE to be reasonable, so as to not be painted into a corner, therefore I stand on the "agnostic atheist" pillar -- no proofs FOR, no proofs AGAINST, so "I don't know" is the base position -- and I'm more amazed DAILY at how vapid the theist positions ARE!
I have a teen daughter, who has 'come out' to share similar beliefs; she recently confessed to me her unexpressed HATRED of Sunday dresses! She seemed to know sooner than I did.... What set her 'over the edge' was a mini-lecture from her mom's new husband; while talking to her about her performance in helping out with a toddler nephew, he equated her level of care NOW with her level of care for a child of her own in the future -- and followed it up by saying outright that "be fruitful and multiply" OBLIGATED her to reproduce! (That was the 'double-tap' for any shred of faith I had left by then....)
So we are a quiet basket of atheism in a close-knit family of knee-jerk theists; keep us in your thoughts and reasons, folks, thank you......
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