(April 28, 2011 at 7:16 pm)bozo Wrote:Hello and thanks for the welcome.(April 28, 2011 at 11:14 am)Maria Wrote: Hello
I'm Maria, 23, from Somerset, SW England. I'm a radiographer, I have a 3 year old daughter and, yes, I'm an atheist. I can't give you a heart-rending account of how I lost my religious faith because I never had any in the first place. My parents, like so many people in the UK, are what I call apatheists. I had religious education in school, of course. I enjoyed RE (what child doesn't enjoy fairy tales?) but I can't remember ever taking it seriously.
As I'm getting older I'm becoming more of an anti-theist than an atheist. Religion is increasingly getting on my nerves. For example, 26 unelected bishops sit in our parliament. That kind of anachronistic nonsense has to stop. RE will have to go too. If people really want to indoctrinate their children there are plenty of other options available. Fortunately, thanks to a recent education act, I can withdraw my daughter from RE when she starts school. But it shouldn't be in schools at all. Half our kids leave school barely able to read, write or count. They obviously need more time to learn the basics. Learning about talking snakes and burning bushes isn't needed.
We have quite a few creationist here too pushing for that nonsense to be taught in our schools. Fortunately, they are nowhere near as powerful as their counterparts in the United States, but they're still here, lingering like a bad smell.
Anyway, that's enough ranting from me.
Maria
Hello Maria and welcome!
Can you clarify something please, you start off by saying you are an atheist and a few sentences later you say you you are becoming more anti-theist. That confuses me somewhat.
As regards the rest of your intro, I believe in secular education i.e. no faith schools.
I was confused by your confusion, but having read over my OP I see what the problem is. I wrote "As I'm getting older I'm becoming more of an anti-theist than an atheist." Which seems to imply that anti-theism has replaced atheism. It hasn't, I'm both. I've always been an atheist but until recently I just didn't even think about it, let alone care. Now I do care. I hope that's cleared it up for you and not confused you even more.
That's it. I'm going to bed.