New Member and Introduction

[Socratic Meth Head]

Hello and Greetings everyone!!

My name is Jeff and I live in Alabama. I am 37 years old.  I decided to register here because I wanted to talk about my atheism and meet others who share the same belief. My story is quiet boring so I will keep things short.

When you grow up in Alabama, what church you go to is as important as what football team you pull for. Here you are either an Alabama fan or an Auburn fan, a Baptist or a Church of Christ member. I am a relatively new atheist. Long story short, I became an atheist after spending 5 years addicted to pills. I detoxed at a family members house and I have been sober for 2 years now and I feel great! What did my addiction have to do with me becoming an atheist? Well, it gave me the courage to ask questions. When you grow up in the church you are not allowed to ask or even think about how the world came to be, or why certain things happen the way they do. You are not allowed to even ponder if there is or isn't a God. Although I was never the most loyal church goer, I never dared to think outside the box and question things....until I became an addict.

While I was an addict I was depressed and had the ups and downs that are typical of addictive behavior. I went from owning a 3 bedroom house with a wife to living in a 1 bedroom studio apartment with no furniture, except for a bed and my computer. My health was deteriorating and in 6 months I would probably be dead from an overdose or suicide. I didn't care if I died and went to hell for questioning God's existence because heck, I was high and was going there anyways. Since I was no longer worried about my soul at that point, I began to learn and ask the questions I never dared to ask before. I had courage enough to start learning about different religions. After a ton of reading and getting answers to questions that I dared not ask before, I decided to become an atheist. Becoming an atheist saved my life. Since I now believed there was not a heaven and hell and that we only have one life to live, I figured I better get off of my ass and get to doing something about it. Then, at that moment I decided to get clean and drug free.

I love being Atheist although it is quite different. I am not mad at God as many people ask when I tell them I am atheist...I simply deny his existence. People's first question is, "What happened?". I often find myself laughing at people who are praying. I want to reply to my friends on Facebook and tell them how much of an idiot they are for posting that they are "blessed" just because they got a new job, but I refrain. It makes me sick. Where would the world be if there was never religion? Would we have a cure for cancer if scientists were not locked up and sometimes burned for being heretics? Its very interesting to think about. How do we spread our message across the world and get others to wake up??!! I truly believe that in the future all religions will just be a chapter in a history book and everyone at that time will be an atheist in some form.

Anyways, I've rambled on too long. I appreciate any of you who read this and I look forward to participating and being a productive member here.

Thanks!!
Jeff 

Im also from Bama, welcome!