Hello

[Phil McCrackin]

Hi, I've been reading some of your delightful threads and decided to go ahead and join. My religious journey is an interesting one which consisted of me nearly  transferring to a bible college to become a minister to me renouncing the whole thing and becoming a free thinker. all within the span of a couple years...oh the self-discovery process of college. Anyways, hello people.  

[The Boatman]

Hi, I've been reading some of your delightful threads and decided to go ahead and join. My religious journey is an interesting one which consisted of me nearly  transferring to a bible college to become a minister to me renouncing the whole thing and becoming a free thinker. all within the span of a couple years...oh the self-discovery process of college. Anyways, hello people.  

That's an interesting religious path you took. Can I ask, what religion were you raised into, if any?

Anything else to tell about yourself?

[AlP]

Hi Phil! Welcome.

[Phil McCrackin]

Hi, I've been reading some of your delightful threads and decided to go ahead and join. My religious journey is an interesting one which consisted of me nearly  transferring to a bible college to become a minister to me renouncing the whole thing and becoming a free thinker. all within the span of a couple years...oh the self-discovery process of college. Anyways, hello people.  

That's an interesting religious path you took. Can I ask, what religion were you raised into, if any?

Anything else to tell about yourself?

I was born into a very conservative Christian family. I'm talkin' go to bible camps and VBS all summer, never miss church or sunday school type. I never really took it seriously until high school when I got very religious. It benefited me in the sense that I lived differently (and much better) while taking a new evangelical path. I always thought that my radical positive change was proof of the validity of my faith. I took it very seriously and it ran my life. I was known as the Christian guy while in high school and when I entered into college I was set on doing full time vocational evangelizing and such. To the point where I nearly transferred from my secular and awesome university (Ohio State...Go Bucks) to a small Christian school my church had ties to in order to get some formal bible learnins. I decided to study religion as my major at OSU and through that process came to disavow the faith of my childhood (after years of struggling of course...one doesn't give up the foundation of their life easily).

So basically, I have an extensive past with Christianity (both the good and bad of it). I've baptized people, led bible studies, even led a ministry for high schoolers for a few years before giving it up. I think its given me a great perspective of and sympathy for the religious. I understand where they are coming from and why they are there a lot of the time because I was once there too. I harbor no animosity for religion, it fascinates me and can be good but to me it's a tool, not the Truth. Listen to me preaching like it was the old days haha. Anyways, that's a little bit of my background.

[theTwiz]

Hey Phil, welcome!

I decided to study religion as my major at OSU and through that process came to disavow the faith of my childhood

Funny how that works.  This is pretty much exactly how I came to disavow my faith as well.  Not majoring in it like you did per se, but actually studying it rather than just believing in it.  Reminds me of one of my favorite all-time quotes: "The different between a Christian and an Atheist is that the Atheist has actually read the bible" :D

[McQ]

Welcome, Phil. Thank you for being a Buckeye. I grew up and now live in Pennsylvania and have disliked Penn State my whole life. Became a Buckeye fan when I lived four years in Chillicothe, OH.

Thanks for the intro!

[joeactor]

Welcome fellow Buckeye!

(ok, so I'm not there any more, but I did grow up in Parma...)
JoeActor