Hi Everyone, Beware of Incoming Teenager

[knight]

I stumbled across this forum and thought I may as well check it out.

I'm seventeen and live in a fairly secular area of the US. I became an atheist when I was 13. Actually, that probably is too over simplified. For most of my life, I've questioned why for basically everything. It was only a matter of time before I questioned my Christian religion. For a few years, I spent hours at a time doing research on religion. I became obsessed with a fear of Hell/death and nearly went insane searching for answers. I ended up stumbling upon another atheist forum (evilbible.com, which is no longer in operation). As a Christian, the site infuriated me, and yet it sparked my curiosity greatly. Before that day, I had never heard of an "atheist." The concept of not believing in a God seemed comical. I was determined to save a few souls.

I'll skip some of the details, but I'll gladly share them if anyone is interested. Alas, my plot ultimately backfired. I ended up forcing myself to reconsider by beliefs. I went through a period of denial. I just couldn't accept that there was no God. At the same time, however, I realized that I would simply be lying to myself if I pretended to believe in a God any longer.

There's my story in a nutshell. Now for some of the basics. I am a music fanatic. I play the trombone in symphony and marching band, and I play the alto saxophone in jazz band. I'm a complete marching band geek, and proud of it.

I love doing community service. I would much rather spend my life bettering another's life than wasting it on things that ultimately won't matter.

Hmm, I suppose that's it for now. I look forward to meeting all of you (and by meeting, I mean exchanging written conversations via the forum, but still, there's no need to get technical).

[curiosityandthecat]

Marching band geek, eh? You think about colleges yet? I hear Ohio University has a good marching band...

Glad to hear you left the dark side.  

[knight]

Marching band geek, eh? You think about colleges yet? I hear Ohio University has a good marching band...

I would love to do marching band in college, but I'm making a career choice instead. I actually want to go to Eastern CT State University to major in elementary school education. I love working with children, and I love teaching. Most of my friends think I should be a music teacher, though. I'm not sure. We'll see what happens.

Glad to hear you left the dark side.

 

[curiosityandthecat]

Sorry, I was doing a bit of shameless promotion, since I work for OU. Graduated from the College of Education here, too. English 7-12, though, not elementary.

[SallyMutant]

Welcome and bless your jazzy self! Salute--just knowing how to play your instrument is heretical in this world of drecky pop music. My ux claims to be agnostic but many times utters "Monk is God."
Music Ed. is a most honorable quest.

[PipeBox]

Greetings from a fellow trombone-playing band geek.  Same instrument ever since the fifth grade, though college convinced me to drop all music courses.  Those were a bit too brutal for me, practice- and skill-wise.

Happy to have you here.  Between community service and a desire to teach, you sound like an ace person.

[joeactor]

Nice to meet you, Knight (can I have a cookie too?).

Worked with some great music teachers at the Dallas School of Music.

Someday I'll pick up my guitar again (just learning).

Happy Day,
JoeActor

[Prometheus]

Hello. We'd all be glad to discuss any thing that peeks your interest. Few people here are close minded to much of anything and I doubt anyone has an agenda to convert you one way or the other.

What specifically about god/theists made you become an atheist? I didn't like the brainwashing and people basicaly saying, "Stop thinking or go to hell!" Plus the logic flaw of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent diety creating Earth. Too much bad stuff happens here(An ant just bit me earlier!) for all 3 of those to be true.

[Whitney]

Hi Knight, welcome to HAF.

[karadan]

Hello Knight!

Nice to see a marching band enthusiast here

[knight]

Sorry it's taking me a while to respond. I've tried to post a response two times, and both times my computer froze due to wireless Internet problems (there were two names on the network, apparently, and they were conflicting with each other...but it's fixed now).

What specifically about god/theists made you become an atheist? I didn't like the brainwashing and people basicaly saying, "Stop thinking or go to hell!" Plus the logic flaw of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent diety creating Earth. Too much bad stuff happens here(An ant just bit me earlier!) for all 3 of those to be true.

Actually, an argument practically identical to the one you brought up perhaps pushed me the most towards disbelief. Just replace an ant bite with a house fire and a few natural disasters and you have the argument that was used. This did not make me an atheist, though, or even fully abolish my Christianity. It took this, combined with the fallibility of the Bible (with countless contradictions and absurd science) as well as learning the overall history of religion that finally made Christianity seem too ridiculous to believe.
For a while, I was in a state of denial. I was no longer a Christian, but perhaps I was a deist. I'm not even sure exactly what I believed. I finally became an atheist when I thought about the problems an eternal God would create. I don't see how it's possible for a being to exist "outside of time." The argument used to make sense, since I viewed God as some supernatural being "unbound from natural laws." But even if God is supernatural, how can a being exist outside of time AND still interact with existence that lives INSIDE of time? It seems much more rational for the universe to just exist. Saying we had to be created creates an infinite regression crisis...such as who created God. I was done with the mental gymnastics and finally declared that I did not believe in a supreme being.