hello there...

[oryn]

My name is Cory...I'm new here, and new to Atheism in general. I've been an Atheist for about two or three years now, and I come from a very religious, Roman Catholic family. I haven't always expressed my beliefs for the fear of disapproval from my friends and family, so it's nice to find a forum like this to finally do that. Still in Highschool, so it's an interesting mix of all sorts of beliefs here.

[SteveS]

Hey (oryn - welcome to the board!  Is spring coming to Minnesota yet?  The fews times I was there in winter it was wicked cold.  

In the summer I've been up to Hinckley (which isn't too too far from Isanti, according to my map) a few times to go gambling.

[Whitney]

Hi Cory, welcome to the forum.

[the_atheist_organist]

yay for new atheist, ex-catholic teens!

[oryn]

Hey (oryn - welcome to the board!  Is spring coming to Minnesota yet?  The fews times I was there in winter it was wicked cold.  

In the summer I've been up to Hinckley (which isn't too too far from Isanti, according to my map) a few times to go gambling.

Thanks guys.

Spring is slowly coming; and you're right about our winters...most say it's colder than Alaska itself. I think our lowest temp was at least thirty, or fourty below.

I've been to Hinckley many times! Fun casino...though, of course I'm not of age to gamble. :wink:

[Seosamh]

at least you get a winter...

[SteveS]

I think our lowest temp was at least thirty, or fourty below.

Yeah - that's definitely worse than Chicago - we only got down to single digits below zero (Fahrenheit, for my international friends).  -10 is a big deal in Chicago.

of course I'm not of age to gamble.

Yeah, that's true, I tend to not notice or simply disregard age laws - I find them arbitrary and without justification.  Same for R movies, same for Driver's Licensing, same for alcohol, same for elected public official --- blah, I hate 'em all.

Let's see - there's a few more places I've been to in Minnesota.  I spent a day in Duluth, a week in Brainerd at a hockey camp (I played competitive ice hockey in my youth - now I just play old men's adult rec. league, haha).  I also played in a few hockey tournaments in St. Cloud.

That trip to Brainerd we drove past Mille Lacs, which was really cool - that's an enormous lake!  (We got to Brainerd by way of northwestern Wisconsin, where I have relations).  You might have cold winters, but the state has some great features --- all those lakes to go and play on, summer or winter.  Plus, being the hockey mecca of the midwest makes your state pretty darn cool in my humble opinion....  :wink:

How do you find the "pulse of religion" beating in the high school?  Where I went, the topic almost never came up.  Honestly, nobody ever really talked about it.  There were a lot of Catholic students, but they never really said much or discussed religion at school.

[MommaSquid]

Welcome to the forum, (oryn.




p.s. Winter is highly overrated.  

[the_atheist_organist]

Welcome to the forum, (oryn.




p.s. Winter is highly overrated.  

True that! Can't wait for summer to REALLY get here!

[oryn]

I think our lowest temp was at least thirty, or fourty below.

Yeah - that's definitely worse than Chicago - we only got down to single digits below zero (Fahrenheit, for my international friends).  -10 is a big deal in Chicago.

of course I'm not of age to gamble.

Yeah, that's true, I tend to not notice or simply disregard age laws - I find them arbitrary and without justification.  Same for R movies, same for Driver's Licensing, same for alcohol, same for elected public official --- blah, I hate 'em all.

Let's see - there's a few more places I've been to in Minnesota.  I spent a day in Duluth, a week in Brainerd at a hockey camp (I played competitive ice hockey in my youth - now I just play old men's adult rec. league, haha).  I also played in a few hockey tournaments in St. Cloud.

That trip to Brainerd we drove past Mille Lacs, which was really cool - that's an enormous lake!  (We got to Brainerd by way of northwestern Wisconsin, where I have relations).  You might have cold winters, but the state has some great features --- all those lakes to go and play on, summer or winter.  Plus, being the hockey mecca of the midwest makes your state pretty darn cool in my humble opinion....  :wink:

How do you find the "pulse of religion" beating in the high school?  Where I went, the topic almost never came up.  Honestly, nobody ever really talked about it.  There were a lot of Catholic students, but they never really said much or discussed religion at school.

Oh, I love the Mille Lacs area. It's beautiful. And we have lots of hockey players up here.  

I should probably restate myself: there isn't that wide of a variety of advertised religions, merely the christian ones. You know, like youth groups such as YoungLife or ROC. They're pretty scary about it, they put up posters everywhere and if you've never been to one you're considered to be completely retarded. I guess it's just a pretty faithful area. :roll:

Oh, and let me just sum up my thanks here...all of you are so kind and welcoming!

And winters are muchly overrated ;].

[SteveS]

Thanks for the response (oryn.  That's interesting about the groups like YoungLife or ROC --- I (fortunately) didn't experience any of that.  As far as non-religious childhoods go, I guess I have to count myself lucky in that I didn't really get this sort of pressure.  Good luck with everything, and keep the unfaith!  :wink: