Hi all 
I'm new here; I found these forums because I was looking for some advice, but I should say hi too of course!
I grew up in a religious background in rural Ireland and went to a catholic boy's school run by priests. Contrary to what many people might think, I never had any negative experience in this background and didn't "lose my faith" because of any one thing in particular.
When I went to university, it was the first time that I could make a decision about going to church or not. I decided that I wouldn't be a half-ass catholic. It was all or nothing; if heaven was the ultimate goal I wanted to be 100% sure that I'd get in. If not then I would give no time whatsoever to religion. I devoted a lot of free time to studying philosophy, especially epistemology, taking part in philosophical debates and taking to as many people from both sides of the discussion as possible. I very gradually came to my current set of philosophical views that is based on understanding the world and being clear that everything has a logical explanation if you look hard enough for it.
I have been much more content since then than I ever was before, since I was always worried about my half-faithful life making my unworthy before. Everything in my life makes sense and I find that a much more beautiful thought than the alternative.
Since I graduated I have been travelling the world to learn languages and have mostly been in Latin countries. These places can be quite religious (although still mostly Catholic, they are very different to my Irish background and are more free about sex for example, which was always talked about negatively for me when growing up, and my age tend to go to church way less often than in Ireland), so I sadly never get to hang out with many other atheists. I prefer to avoid foreigners to help me perfect my languages, so this further complicates things.
Hopefully in these forums I can at least obtain an online presence and learn how to express my thoughts in the non-electronic world better
Looking forward to learning from you all,
Hyperpolyglotte
I'm new here; I found these forums because I was looking for some advice, but I should say hi too of course!
I grew up in a religious background in rural Ireland and went to a catholic boy's school run by priests. Contrary to what many people might think, I never had any negative experience in this background and didn't "lose my faith" because of any one thing in particular.
When I went to university, it was the first time that I could make a decision about going to church or not. I decided that I wouldn't be a half-ass catholic. It was all or nothing; if heaven was the ultimate goal I wanted to be 100% sure that I'd get in. If not then I would give no time whatsoever to religion. I devoted a lot of free time to studying philosophy, especially epistemology, taking part in philosophical debates and taking to as many people from both sides of the discussion as possible. I very gradually came to my current set of philosophical views that is based on understanding the world and being clear that everything has a logical explanation if you look hard enough for it.
I have been much more content since then than I ever was before, since I was always worried about my half-faithful life making my unworthy before. Everything in my life makes sense and I find that a much more beautiful thought than the alternative.
Since I graduated I have been travelling the world to learn languages and have mostly been in Latin countries. These places can be quite religious (although still mostly Catholic, they are very different to my Irish background and are more free about sex for example, which was always talked about negatively for me when growing up, and my age tend to go to church way less often than in Ireland), so I sadly never get to hang out with many other atheists. I prefer to avoid foreigners to help me perfect my languages, so this further complicates things.
Hopefully in these forums I can at least obtain an online presence and learn how to express my thoughts in the non-electronic world better
Looking forward to learning from you all,
Hyperpolyglotte
