Are 1/10 Atheists left handers??

[Siz]

I'm a left-hander - I have been for as long as I can remember

My wife is obsessed with it - she loves to sit and watch me use my left hand. She says she wouldnt have married me had I not been left-handed. I guess we'll never know...

I didnt realise what a f**ked-up left-hander I was until the age of about 6 or 7. In school the teacher asked us all who were left-handed. I proudly raised my hand along with a couple of others (in a class of 30). She then handed us the left-handed scissors (I never knew they existed before then). I soon realised I couldn't use the scissors with my left hand at all - I'd never considered which hand I used for scissors. I felt a fraud but couldn't turn back. I ham-fisted my way through the lesson - the artwork was terrible!

So, turns out I do everything except writing and playing pool right-handed. No wonder my wiring's a bit loopy (and my handwriting rubbish). But I can use a screwdriver and power-tools with either hand so that's a bonus! I wouldnt say I'm ambidextrous but I'm more adaptable than most.

Many great artists and thinkers were (are) left handed (including Bart Simpson apparently!). So I wonder if we have a disproportionate number here...

Are there any of you here who were forced out of using your left hand as children? Let's have your left-handed stories...

[Buddy]

I'm a lefty. I actually had to teach myself to write sideways because I was tired of getting pencil smudges on my hand.

[Asmodean]

Voted ambidextrous... Oh, wait! 

[Siz]

Voted ambidextrous... Oh, wait!  

Of course you are. Try now...

[Asmodean]

Voted ambidextrous... Oh, wait!  

Of course you are. Try now...

Typical, aint it? If there is a choice left out, The Asmo will usually find it. 

[xSilverPhinx]

I'm a lefty. I actually had to teach myself to write sideways because I was tired of getting pencil smudges on my hand.

Da Vinci seemed to have solved that problem by writing in mirror text

[xSilverPhinx]

I'm right-handed.

1/10 is an oddly low number, even if it's a recessive gene, and so needs two copies to manifest into left-handness. Would it be a long shot to say that the fact that left handers were persecuted in the past have anything to do with it (not exactly a fitness question per se, but a purely superstitious one)?

Out with you, sinister devil!

[DeterminedJuliet]

I remember reading something about how lefties tend to be more ambidextrous. It kinda makes sense given that they're forced to live in a mostly righty world. I'm right-handed. Though, weirdly enough, picking up dance lessons has improved my left-side "usability."  

I also find it interesting to watch my son. He's just started getting into the "I'm obsessed with colouring" phase and he's definitely right-handed. If you hand him a marker to his left hand, he'll instantly switch it to his right. He's only started doing this in the last few months. When he was smaller, he could scribble with either, but now that his motor skills are starting to hone a bit, it's like he's realized that one side is better than the other. It's really interesting to watch.

[xSilverPhinx]

I remember reading something about how lefties tend to be more ambidextrous. It kinda makes sense given that they're forced to live in a mostly righty world. I'm right-handed. Though, weirdly enough, picking up dance lessons has improved my left-side "usability." 

I also find it interesting to watch my son. He's just started getting into the "I'm obsessed with colouring" phase and he's definitely right-handed. If you hand him a marker to his left hand, he'll instantly switch it to his right. He's only started doing this in the last few months. When he was smaller, he could scribble with either, but now that his motor skills are starting to hone a bit, it's like he's realized that one side is better than the other. It's really interesting to watch.

Same with my niece.

Out of curiosity, do people still insist that lefties use their right hands to write? back in my day the number one justification for doing that was that writing with the left arm strained the muscles near the heart, which I'm skeptical of...

[Siz]

I remember reading something about how lefties tend to be more ambidextrous. It kinda makes sense given that they're forced to live in a mostly righty world. I'm right-handed. Though, weirdly enough, picking up dance lessons has improved my left-side "usability."  

I also find it interesting to watch my son. He's just started getting into the "I'm obsessed with colouring" phase and he's definitely right-handed. If you hand him a marker to his left hand, he'll instantly switch it to his right. He's only started doing this in the last few months. When he was smaller, he could scribble with either, but now that his motor skills are starting to hone a bit, it's like he's realized that one side is better than the other. It's really interesting to watch.

Indeed.

Between my penchant for 'experimenting' with our children and my wifes obsession with left-handedness my kids had many a crayon thrust into their left hand. From very early on it was obvious that both had a right-handed dominance. Wife was very upset!

On the causes, wiki says:

Hand orientation is developed in fetuses, most commonly determined by observing which hand is predominantly held close to the mouth.[2]

In 2007, researchers discovered that specific alleles of at least one of three single-nucleotide polymorphisms upstream of the already known LRRTM1 gene were linked to left-handedness.[3][4]

Twins theory: this theory postulates that left-handed individuals were originally part of an identical twin pair, with the right-handed twin fetus failing to develop early in development. Although Australian researchers claimed to have debunked[5] the related vanishing twin theory, it is re-examined in Rik Smits's book "The Puzzle of Left-Handedness (2012)", which considers the fact that twin children have a high frequency of left-handedness / right-handedness in the pair.[6]

Prenatal hormone imbalances may play a role in the gene expression for left-handedness. While the Geschwind–Galaburda testosterone hypothesis is often cited as cause, there is not any evidence to support the theory. However, more recent research has emerged suggesting that high prenatal estrogen exposure is a plausible alternative to Geschwind. In a study endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), it is suggested that men who were prenatally exposed to diethylstilbestrol (a synthetic estrogen based fertility drug), are more likely to be left handed.[7]

Here're some interesting snippets about animals handedness:
http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/left-handed-animals.html

[OldGit]

I'm plain right-handed, right-footed and right-eyed.  When I taught shooting, it was much harder to train a right-hander who was left-eyed.  Left-handed shooting is no problem except with a bolt-action rifle.

[Stevil]

The Sri Lankan cricket players are mostly lefties.

[Amicale]

Leftie here.

When I was very young (under the age of 6 or 7), I could print with both hands. I was slightly better at using my left, but I could use my right, if I had to. My 2nd grade teacher was teaching us cursive writing (sadly something that doesn't seem to be much of a focus nowadays... *waves old person cane, haha*) and she noticed me switching back and forth between hands. She insisted I pick one, and stick with it. So I chose the left. The rest is history. 

[Buddy]

Leftie here.

When I was very young (under the age of 6 or 7), I could print with both hands. I was slightly better at using my left, but I could use my right, if I had to. My 2nd grade teacher was teaching us cursive writing (sadly something that doesn't seem to be much of a focus nowadays... *waves old person cane, haha*) and she noticed me switching back and forth between hands. She insisted I pick one, and stick with it. So I chose the left. The rest is history. 

You really do not want to see my cursive. It is awful.

[DeterminedJuliet]

I remember reading something about how lefties tend to be more ambidextrous. It kinda makes sense given that they're forced to live in a mostly righty world. I'm right-handed. Though, weirdly enough, picking up dance lessons has improved my left-side "usability." 

I also find it interesting to watch my son. He's just started getting into the "I'm obsessed with colouring" phase and he's definitely right-handed. If you hand him a marker to his left hand, he'll instantly switch it to his right. He's only started doing this in the last few months. When he was smaller, he could scribble with either, but now that his motor skills are starting to hone a bit, it's like he's realized that one side is better than the other. It's really interesting to watch.

Same with my niece.

Out of curiosity, do people still insist that lefties use their right hands to write? back in my day the number one justification for doing that was that writing with the left arm strained the muscles near the heart, which I'm skeptical of...

I had never heard of that, although I doubt it's likely. I think they let kids do whatever nowadays. I remember hearing stories about the nuns in Newfoundland whacking kids with rulers when they'd use their left hand, but when I went through it never seemed to come up.