Hello Fellow Heathens!

[4DeepThought2]

Where to start........

Atheist.
Teenager.
Catholic School.
Love Science.

My faith dwindled when I was 10/11 but somehow I would teeter between being a believer and not. A few years later I adopted the lack of belief (is that even possible? haha). Am now 14. I am currently going to a Catholic School which is a lot of fun; I regularly argue with my religion teacher in a respectable manner, always enjoyable.

The first time I remember questioning my faith was when, during religion class,  we were having a discussion in 4th grade (possibly 5th) and we were talking about prayer. Kids, as always, were asking why (sometimes) their prayers were not answered. I raised my hand and had said something along the lines of "God answers them in more subtle ways that we do not notice or feel. He has a reason for everything and a plan too. " The teacher, of course, was delighted and gave me a smelly sticker or something....  ) Then I learned of Carl Sagan maybe in 6th grade let's say. He was wonderful to me, as I love love astronomy. Carl Sagan is, as many of you porbably know, is agnostic in some sense. Well, I thought that if someone I admire for intelligence is not afraid of Hell (he had a lack of faith) it must be another fairy tale created to keep kids like me Christian.  THANK YOU CARL SAGAN. From then on I still had to go to Church, yet I never voiced my doubt in public. I confided in myself for a year or two.

7th grade I did this engineering competition with somewhat of a friend. We began to talk religion when we were bored and he told me that "If you think about it...actually THINK about it...it is rather hard to hold such a belief as the one in a personal God". We are now very good friends.......ironically atheist friends who met at a Catholic school. After that enlightening encounter I began to voice my opinion in our religion class more openly.....

I questioned things such as the stories in the bible, the moral values depicted, the idea of an uncaused cause...things of that sort.

And by the way during all these years in my science class we were not allowed to learn about Evolution or the Big Bang. Well that is un-true actually we read a page and that was the only amount that was allowed. Furious, I confronted our science teacher. She said that because it is a Catholic school (private) they can restrict what we learn...I still was angry and planned to complain to the principal, but that never amounted to much.  Although the previous encounter with a friend may have seemed like my turning point it didn't come to soon after that science class mention above.

Somehow we began talking Evolution and Creationsim and Bible Stories. I began to argue with some fellow who had no idea about Evolution or who Charles Darwin was. He said that I should not question God because he will send me to Hell. I was rather rude and called him closed minded and a victim of severe indoctrination. I then exploded about how the Bible contains so many fallacies and contradictions.....it was me and my atheist friend shouting at some other kids. I would have fought the kid......not a justified action based upon the circumstances......but the teacher was in the room.

Now I am an atheist. By the way Christopher Hitchens is absolutely wonderful.

I respect only beliefs that are not morally incompatible with my moral views. Okay I do not respect you if you tell me I am going to hell...but usually if you have a reasonable (lol) reason to believe in God or a religion (haven't heard many plausible reasons in my short life) I would love to listen to your reasons.  I can tolerate criticism of my views and welcome any opposition.

Things I enjoy very much...this is quite self indulgent.......but I dont care if you think so because my taste in the following categories is flawless and perfect Excuse any grammatical errors........I am too lazy to scroll back up and read what I wrote.

Portal is the greatest most creative game ever conceived.


DeepThought

[curiosityandthecat]

It's like reading my life story. Except the whole Catholic thing.

Welcome.  

[4DeepThought2]

I forgot to add..........JAM BANDS RULE THE MUSICAL KINGDOM.......but most other music is good too. PHISH___GRATEFUL DEAD______SOUND TRIBE SECTOR 9__________PRIMUS (not really jam band but a great band)______Any music that does not involve the lyrics:

I don't wanna go to school

or any music that seems to want to play the same transparent guitar chord over and over again as much as possible.......but it is music and I respect all kinds but do not listen to repeating chord songs.

[Tom62]

Welcome to the forum. The parallels between your life story and mine are creepy  .  I also went to a catholic school, lost my faith at the same age as yours and we share the same taste in books and movies. If you like utopia's that went wrong (Brave New World, 1984) you might like to read Walter Tevis's "Mockingbird", which I think is the best book in that genre. I'm not so much into fantasy stories though.

[Kyuuketsuki]

It's like reading my life story. Except the whole Catholic thing.

Me too but with the Catholic thing

Welcome DeepThought ... you and I share some common interest in films it seems. Do you watch any TV series ... ahem ... religiously?

Kyu

[4DeepThought2]

I have seen all episodes of the Office (american version) hysterical. I also enjoy South Park, Family Guy, Mythbusters, anything on Nat Geo or Discovery, The Universe, Planet Earth, any Doc. on BBC, Monk, Spongebob and Dexter's Lab ( I cannot  forget those wonderful cartoons.)

[none]

heaten here.
thanks for the humor.

[Kyuuketsuki]

I have seen all episodes of the Office (american version) hysterical. I also enjoy South Park, Family Guy, Mythbusters, anything on Nat Geo or Discovery, The Universe, Planet Earth, any Doc. on BBC, Monk, Spongebob and Dexter's Lab ( I cannot  forget those wonderful cartoons.)

Never seen "The Office" (hated the original UK version), don't really like cartoons so not so similar then, oh well ... I do, however, like many BBC documentaries. I tend to like a lot of science fiction, action and weird stuff so my current favourites are Battlestar Galactica (currently on hiatus awaiting the final part of S4), True Blood ("God Hates Fangs"), Burn Notice ("Spies don't get fired, they get burned"), Dexter and Pushing Daisies.

Kyu

[selena]

welcome to the family!

[Wechtlein Uns]

Welcome, you young'in.

I've waited a long time to be able to say that.