(July 3, 2017 at 11:05 am)TheBeardedDude Wrote: Grew up in the Bible Belt of the southern US. Wasn't raised in an overly religious household but eventually I started wanting to attend church with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. We went to a southern baptist church. Got pretty serious with it by middle school but then stopped going to church by high school. Senior year of high school I start going to youth services at a different southern baptist church. Realize while there that I don't buy the youth ministers literal interpretation of the Bible. Then realize that I don't trust other people's interpretations either. This leads me to conclude that I have no objective standard to compare my interpretation to, which is a big deal if you're dealing with something that is supposed to be an objective truth about the universe. Once I realize this, I decide to start figuring out what I believe and why as well as what other people believe and why. The error I made here is that I still assumed that belief in a god was a more rational starting point, so I didn't question whether or not I actually believed in a god. Eventually I realize my error (after a few years) and ask myself if I believe in a god and I realize the answer was no. That's when the real fun began because that meant I had to start from square 1 to figure out what beliefs actually where since I was an atheist nowThere was a time when I also thought that believing that a God exists was more rational. At first I thought that God controlls almost everything, than that He controlls just some things. I started to look at the world around me and saw that everything had a cause and an effect, and a God that controlls that was improbable. So I became a deist. Then I've put myself the question, if God created the Universe, why would He not interfere in it? And why would He create such a big Universe? Why so many humans? Why so many planets whithout life? Why some creatures have rationality while others don't? And so on. I then become an agnostic atheist, and I'm proud to be one!
Cheers
TheBeardedDude
"By simple common sense I don't believe in God, in none"
Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin