Long time atheist, first time poster...
April 3, 2012 at 2:29 pm
(This post was last modified: April 3, 2012 at 2:30 pm by JustEd.)
I am an atheist. I live in St. Louis, MO.
I grew up in a secular home that celebrated Christmas and Easter, just without any of the unnecessary religious overtones. I was always allowed to go with my friends to Sunday School or church, which I did from time to time because I wanted to hang out with those friends, not because I ever had any serious interest in the message. I found out my mother is an atheist when I was twelve, and I would guess that at least 50% of my extended family are also atheists, with probably another 49% of them just being secular but sort of uninterested/non-committal. So basically, aside from growing up in a very religious part of the country, I had it fairly easy. I came to officially call myself an atheist when I was around 18 or 19, after I had read "Billions & Billions" by Carl Sagan. Considering my upbringing, and thus the fact that it wasn't technically a "conversion," it was actually a quite painful process, and in hindsight I think that was just because I had never seriously considered my own beliefs before and had internalized a lot more religious stuff than I thought I had. At any rate, I'm feeling much better now.
My wife grew up in an evangelical Church of Christ home. She was homeschooled from fourth grade on, and her three siblings were all homeschooled their entire lives. She was as skeptical as one could be in that environment, but now as an adult, she has basically rejected in full her parents' belief systems, as well as their politics. Though she is not willing to call herself an atheist most of the time, she is no longer interested in having religion in her life in any meaningful way and generally lives a secular existence. Our relationship, though, has proven to be helpful to me in many ways as she is my window into that world, and though I don't pester her as much anymore, I used to bounce questions off of her all the time in the hopes that she could explain to me why it is that religious people hold certain beliefs, how they rationalize seemingly insane things, and why their politics so often seem in direct opposition to the basic tenets of their faith. I should also mention that I have a great relationship with her family, and that they are wonderful, supportive and respectful people. They just happen to be wrong.
Anyway, greetings to all.
I grew up in a secular home that celebrated Christmas and Easter, just without any of the unnecessary religious overtones. I was always allowed to go with my friends to Sunday School or church, which I did from time to time because I wanted to hang out with those friends, not because I ever had any serious interest in the message. I found out my mother is an atheist when I was twelve, and I would guess that at least 50% of my extended family are also atheists, with probably another 49% of them just being secular but sort of uninterested/non-committal. So basically, aside from growing up in a very religious part of the country, I had it fairly easy. I came to officially call myself an atheist when I was around 18 or 19, after I had read "Billions & Billions" by Carl Sagan. Considering my upbringing, and thus the fact that it wasn't technically a "conversion," it was actually a quite painful process, and in hindsight I think that was just because I had never seriously considered my own beliefs before and had internalized a lot more religious stuff than I thought I had. At any rate, I'm feeling much better now.
My wife grew up in an evangelical Church of Christ home. She was homeschooled from fourth grade on, and her three siblings were all homeschooled their entire lives. She was as skeptical as one could be in that environment, but now as an adult, she has basically rejected in full her parents' belief systems, as well as their politics. Though she is not willing to call herself an atheist most of the time, she is no longer interested in having religion in her life in any meaningful way and generally lives a secular existence. Our relationship, though, has proven to be helpful to me in many ways as she is my window into that world, and though I don't pester her as much anymore, I used to bounce questions off of her all the time in the hopes that she could explain to me why it is that religious people hold certain beliefs, how they rationalize seemingly insane things, and why their politics so often seem in direct opposition to the basic tenets of their faith. I should also mention that I have a great relationship with her family, and that they are wonderful, supportive and respectful people. They just happen to be wrong.
Anyway, greetings to all.
