Hello Everyone

[MathKat]

Hello,

I'm new to this forum.  I'm an atheist and unlike most atheists, not all, I have never believed in God.  My parents are both atheists.  My Mom's family is Catholic, my dad is Jewish, and to add the cherry on that sundae, my uncle (through marriage to my aunt), also an atheist, was born and raised in Pakistan and his family is Muslim.

When it comes to religion I've always felt as if I stood on the outside looking in on a crazy world where everyone believed and based their lives around something that simply doesn't exist. I didn't learn a lot about it growing up.  We did celebrate some of the holidays in the form of getting the family together.  We celebrated Rosh Hashana, Hanukkah, Christmas, Passover, and Easter.  I was taught the meanings of the Jewish holidays without all of the God gobbledegook, but I never knew anything about the Christian Holidays until I was old and was taught about it by outside sources.  My uncle doesn't celebrate the Muslim holidays and I admit I know very little about them.

So admittedly, I'm not the best person to debate scripture on religious terms.  I know the basics.  I know how the different religions contradict each other and how a lot of the ideas are also intertwined with each other.  I've also had more of an interest in learning about the history of religion.  Why does it exist in the first place?  Why do people still cling to it?  Which religion came first?  What religion did each holiday start with?  Stuff like that.

I think all religion started with a very basic set of beliefs starting with the Sun God.  They basically started out as a way to explain why day turns to night, why the seasons change and why in one season we plant the crops and in another we harvest them, and also to explain death.  I think death is the main reason why people still cling to it today.  I think people are afraid of the idea of their own death and the death of loved ones. 

Anyway, this is getting long and I do have to make 10 posts before I can post anywhere else.  So I'd like to say hello, get to know all of you, hear your thoughts and make my way into the rest of the forum. 

[xSilverPhinx]

Welcome!

[MathKat]

Welcome!

Thank you!

[Tank]

Hi MathKat

The split between innate atheists and ex-theist atheists is almost exactly 50:50. That is if one takes the population of the Richard Dawkins forum as a representative sample.

Welcome to HAF 

Regards
Chris

[Denty420]

Hi MathKat, welcome to the forum. Very well written and eloquent introduction, I must say Look forward to hearing more from you!

[Good and Godless]

Hi!  I'm new to the forum, too, and just read your post.  If you are interested in the history of religion, I just started reading a great book put out by National Geographic called A Concise History of World Religions.  I'm just starting it, but it is a beautiful book and seems to be pretty comprehensive.  Just thought I'd pass on the recommendation!

[SatanicBurrito]

Hi MathKat and welcome!

I think you probably have some very helpful innate information from your life to share with us "newbie" atheists on atheist family life and dealing with religious nuts in your life.  Looking forward to your posts!

[Too Few Lions]

I think all religion started with a very basic set of beliefs starting with the Sun God.  They basically started out as a way to explain why day turns to night, why the seasons change and why in one season we plant the crops and in another we harvest them, and also to explain death.  I think death is the main reason why people still cling to it today.  I think people are afraid of the idea of their own death and the death of loved ones.  

hi MathKat and welcome to the forum, I think that's a good basic reading of religion. I'd add that the stars, moon and other visible planets were as important as the Sun in a lot of ancient religions. I'm firmly of the belief that religion was originally heavily linked to archaeoastronomy, but then moved to a more abstract conception of god based on philosophy sometime in the mid-late first millennium BCE.

[KingPhilip]

I've also had more of an interest in learning about the history of religion.  Why does it exist in the first place?  Why do people still cling to it?  Which religion came first?  What religion did each holiday start with?  Stuff like that.

I've always been the exact same way. I love learning the history of the religions, how most of them draw from at least a few others in their traditions and/or beliefs, everything like that. This seems to mystify my family, who cannot understand why an atheist would ever have an interest in any sort of religion. I agree with your Sun God idea, as well as Too Few Lions' post, religion is at its base a way to explain everything that people do not, or rather did not, understand. As we come to understand more of it nowadays, truly one of the few things left that people feel they need an explanation for is what happens when we die. The fact that we simply no longer exist is something that very few people seem to be able to handle well, and I can entirely see why coming up with a better alternative was a popular idea.

Welcome to the forum mate, and I hope you enjoy it here.

[Xjeepguy]

DONT CLICK ON ANY OF THOSE LINKS!!!! Damn spammers.