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Hello all

Started by Hooch761, November 19, 2017, 04:00:08 PM

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Hooch761

Greetings to all. This is the first time for me to join an online forum. I'm an extreme newbie. I've just recently came to the conclusion that I need to branch out more and explore the wonderful world of rational thought and sober mindedness. I'm a little late entering the game but feel compelled to find like-minded people who share the same or similar convictions about the damage and ridiculousness of theism. I hope to learn much and enjoy discussions about why atheism is the only logical choice worth investing in.

Dave

Hi, Hooch!

Quote. . . rational thought and sober mindedness . . .

:headscratch:

Well, sometimes maybe!  We have our moments, somewhere between the humour and sillyness. Tell us a little about yourself please.
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

xSilverPhinx

Welcome to the forum, Hooch!  :wave hi:

If you have any questions please ask!  ;D

Hope you enjoy your time posting here.
I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


Hooch761

I'm currently living in Illinois and am a retired Army medic. I have five children ranging from ages 5 to 20 and have been happily married for 21 years. Before joining the military I was a worship leader for a mainline denomination and did that for about two years. I've always had doubts about my faith but always rationalized or was taught to ignore it. When I had questions about religion I was always told that god was bigger and he would give me answers in due time. Well...the answers never came or were so irrational that it was beyond comprehension. I was apart of the ground invasion in Iraq in 2003 and ended up doing two back to back year long deployments there. I witnessed unspeakable things that still keep me from getting sleep at night.

It was upon coming home from my second deployment that I was diagnosed with severe ptsd and was medically retired from the military. Searching for answers to some of my greatest questions at the time I had decided once again to fall back on religion to try and make sense out of my combat experience. I decided to go back to school and become a pastor myself. Unfortunately that only heaped more burning coals on my head. I was now an insider and came to see the ugly truth of religion for what it was. A lie.  Now I spend most of my time reading a lot of books on atheism and time with my wife and children.

Dave

Hooch, I am not sure if any of us have shared your specific experience, my own RAF service was mostly free of my actual involvement in violence - just riding shotgun or static armed guard in Cyprus during the second lot of trouble, Greeks versus Turks - a battle thst has gone on for millenia. But that time in service taught me a lot about serving, comradeship, covering your buddy's back.

The fact that religion is so often either the cause, or excuse, for that kind of violence shows it for the force that can be do easily corrupted that it is.  And, for the "protestants" in the forces the churchmen blessed us and our actions.

I think you made the right choice.
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

Tank

Hi Hooch

Welcome aboard. We have a couple of ex-military here. Quite a few ex-theist atheists too. So plenty of people who could have an insight into some of the things you have experienced. I'm a never-theist atheist. Brought up by a Christian mum and atheist dad. Chose the rational over the irrational at 14 (1964).

This is a moderated forum which means you won't be abused or trolled so you can feel free to discuss what you want without any worries. We have members from many countries mostly in the USA/European time zones.

Regards
Chris
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Hooch761

Thanks for the kind welcome. Dave: pleasure to meet someone who is familiar with military. I did indeed learn a lot of good things about my time in the service. Sacrafice to serve others and how to look out for one another. I chose to be a medic to help others who couldn't or were unable to help themselves; for that I have no regrets.  Your absolutely right about war and it's many causes. Unfortunately religion and politics, usually a combination of both, are it's cause. It's a sad but undeniable fact that there's always a casualty that is not on either side. It's to those that my heart bleeds for. The ones caught in the middle.


Sandra Craft

Welcome, Hooch.  We also have a very open-minded (he puts up with us) Xtian member who I believe is also a lay pastor, and of course many of us were raised theist.  Should make for some interesting discussions.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Biggus Dickus

Hello and Welcome to the Forum Hootch,

As Tank said we have a number of folks here from all around the "Flat" globe who have served in the Military (I believe fellow member Guardian who serves in the Norwegian Army just got called back into reserve duty, he's a Viking lad)

I am an Army vet myself, and also did time with the Michigan National Guard. Sorry to hear about your experiences and what you had to go through and endure, and I'm also sorry to hear how you are suffering.

Would like to welcome you home, and also let you know this is a pretty good place, whether you are a full blown skeptic and atheist or somewhere in between on the spectrum.

Nice thing about HAF is you can come here and discuss anything that is on your mind, whether it is religion, or current events, perhaps music, or your hobbies; or even deeply philosophical issues, such as one we've been currently having as to what constitutes pie.

I contend that a pie is something made with fresh, wholesome, yummy ingredients, like fresh Michigan apples or cherries...not some monstrosity that is shaped like a pie yet has fish heads extruding from the top of it. (Totally gross, amirite?)



Anyway, welcome again and hope to see you around the different threads,

Regards,

Fr. Bruno
"Some people just need a high-five. In the face. With a chair."

Magdalena

^^^
That is a nice welcome, Father.

:computerwave:
Hello, Hooch761, welcome. I hope you stay here with us for a long time.

"I've had several "spiritual" or numinous experiences over the years, but never felt that they were the product of anything but the workings of my own mind in reaction to the universe." ~Recusant

Sandra Craft

Quote from: Father Bruno on November 20, 2017, 01:23:54 PM

I contend that a pie is something made with fresh, wholesome, yummy ingredients, like fresh Michigan apples or cherries...not some monstrosity that is shaped like a pie yet has fish heads extruding from the top of it. (Totally gross, amirite?)




But you have to admit that Stargazey Pie is a great name.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany

Icarus

Hello Hooch. Here is a swarm welcome to the forum.

I am a Korean war veteran.....Yeah, I am older than most of the HAFers.

I cannot claim to have enough battle experience to honestly commiserate with you about PTSD.  Just recently I finished a book whose title is; Shooting Ghosts.  There were two collaborative authors. One was a Marine Sargeant who got blown up three times and the last one concussed him so badly that he was discharged. He had to take his demons with him and there was not much VA help with that problem.   The other author is/was a combat photographer working for Reuters. He was attached to too many combat units to emerge unscathed.  The whole book is about how the two of them struggled to cope with their demons. They did cope over time.

I hope that that you are not as hurt as the guys in the book. I do know that there are a lot guys and even some girls like you.   You will find our HAF members to be damn good and caring people. Hang around for a bit and get to know who we really are.

We are almost all atheists but we do not waste a lot of time reassuring ourselves of the validity of our position. We do not waste a lot of time bashing the theists but we are more than linguistically and intellectually capable of doing so if or when the need arises.  It should not come as a surprise that we atheist, heathens are more thoroughly informed about religion, biblical stories, divine rules, and such, than the run of the mill fundamentalists or other zealots.  As a newly minted  non believer you are not a new kid on the block. Our skepticism goes pretty far back in time......Among historic notables, Lucretius was one of us.

Join the party. We have good fun here.

Tom62

Welcome to HAF, Hooch. No war experience myself, but I'm familiar with the effects. My wife's parents had to escape from the Russians in Poland during WW-II and my father's parents had severe problems feeding their children during the winter (in Holland), after the war has ended. Our thanks to the Americans, British and Canadian soldiers is still enormous.
The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.
Robert A. Heinlein

Dragonia

I'm totally late to welcome you, but welcome anyway, Hooch.
Your story kind of resonates with me, as I am on the other side of your experience, as the wife supporting her soldier husband. My man has been deployed 5 times, (Bosnia, Iraq x 3, Afghanistan) and we are hoping he's done with that part of soldiering. But i have loved him and tried to support him through all of the "after", having nothing to relate to, as far as the Hell he has seen and experienced.
Anyway, I hope you can feel "fed" here. We are nice, and we think we're pretty funny and clever sometimes :wave hi:
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. ~ Plato (?)

hermes2015

Quote from: Dragonia on November 29, 2017, 01:48:35 PM
Anyway, I hope you can feel "fed" here. We are nice, and we think we're pretty funny and clever sometimes :wave hi:

Well put, Dragonia. I want to add my welcome as well, Hooch. Yes, some of us are a bit odd (not me), but there really is a lot of niceness here.
"Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se."
― Charles Eames