Hey

[ScourgeO'God]

Hey everyone.  Just joined.  I'm from the Philly area.  I was raised agnostic until about age 9 when my newly divorced father decided to try to force his children to be Christians.  I tried.  I really wanted to believe for some reason.  Try as I might, faith never came to me.  After a couple years I gave up.  One day on a youth group camping trip they asked us to find a place that made us feel special, sit there, and think about Jesus' place in our hearts.  It was at that moment that I realized there was no place for Jesus in my heart and there never would be.  When the pointless little excersize was over they asked me if I had found it and I said "Yes, and my life will never be the same."  I've been a devout atheist ever since.

So that's the least about myself I could say and call it an introduction.

[Whitney]

Hey, welcome to the forum.

[SteveS]

I said "Yes, and my life will never be the same." I've been a devout atheist ever since.

Good answer!

Hello and welcome.  Faith never came to me either.

[Eclecticsaturn]

Hello and welcome to the site. Ive never heard of someone being raised agnostic. interesting

[ScourgeO'God]

Thanks for the welcomes.  

Ive never heard of someone being raised agnostic. interesting

Well... my mother was raised by an atheist and a lapsed Jew and my father was raised VERY Catholic, even thinking about the priesthood at one point.  They were atheists when I was a child (my mother's agnostic now and my father might be Christian again), but didn't want to influence me in any way, so God and religion weren't topics unless I asked.  When I did I always got answers along the lines of "some people believe..."  It was a great way to grow up, knowing my religious options were totally open and never feeling uninformed.... until my father started dragging us to church.  I'll never totally forgive him for trying to get my sister baptized around age 7, though I think he's forgiven me for telling her it was her choice.  I sat her down a few days before the ceremony (I was about 13 and had lost what little faith I had by that point) and asked her if she really believed in God.  I told her that what she was doing was important and she should really only go through with it if she was sure.  She wasn't and we told my father that she didn't want to go through with it.  I was really proud of her.  She's a non-believer now... and it puts a bit of a smile on my face to know I may have helped in that.