Happy Atheist Forum

Getting To Know You => Introductions => Topic started by: billyportne on February 04, 2022, 10:20:24 PM

Title: Hello from Bill
Post by: billyportne on February 04, 2022, 10:20:24 PM
Hello to Everyone on the Forum,

I stopped believing in God when I was 12. Every Saturday morning, I'd join the kids in my neighborhood to play Spin the Bottle. Penny had bright-red hair, freckles on her nose and sparkling blue-green eyes. When it was my turn, I'd ask God to stop the bottle when it pointed at her. When it was her turn, I asked God to stop the bottle when it pointed at me. But the bottle always stopped with the neck pointed at somebody other than her or me. I eventually decided that God's answer wasn't "No!" because it was God who wasn't. So, I decided to change the way things were myself. One morning, as the bottle was spinning, I reached out and stopped it, then turned the neck so it pointed at Penny. She smiled, leaned forward and gave me my first kiss. Did I think God had finally said "Yes!" No, but I knew what it was like to spin!

My father didn't stop driving me to church, of course, but despite his efforts to get me saved, I moved into adult life without God. Years later, however, the death of my only son drove me back to church thinking perhaps I'd been wrong about God, that maybe He wasn't just a word in a book called the Bible but was a force in the world where something besides words are needed to stop bad things from happening to good people. I tried to resolve the disconnect between religion and reality, but my failure to do so made me think that maybe God had predetermined that I be a vessel of wrath, unable to see that faith is the bridge that spans the unfathomable abyss between the natural, cause-and-effect reality of this world and the supernatural, non-sensory existence of a world beyond this one.

Despite these possibilities, I'm a happy atheist, and not just because I no longer care whether God exists or not, but because I'm happier living in the here and now than I was when I lived in fear of, and hope for, a hereafter. Happier being for the here and now than being against the hereafter.

Cheers, everyone!
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: Dark Lightning on February 04, 2022, 10:50:39 PM
Quite the story! Welcome!
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: Bluenose on February 05, 2022, 12:06:41 AM
Welcome aboard Bill.  You're in a safe haven here
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: No one on February 05, 2022, 03:51:49 AM
Return hello, from not Bill.
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: No one on February 05, 2022, 03:52:18 AM
Also, where are the tacos?
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: hermes2015 on February 05, 2022, 04:41:10 AM
Welcome! I'm sure you will enjoy this forum.
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: Recusant on February 05, 2022, 05:29:11 AM
Cheers, billyportne.  ;)

Hello and welcome to HAF. A game of spin the bottle is a fine place to shed one's faith in deities. Well done sir. I hope you will enjoy your time reading and posting here.

:spagwelcome:
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: Tom62 on February 05, 2022, 07:30:15 AM
Welcome to the club of happy atheists.
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: Tank on February 05, 2022, 09:11:38 AM
Hello Bill

Sorry to hear about your son. So did you end up marrying Penny in due course?

Welcome to HAF and thanks for checking the rules, I doubt many people do, I don't. I just wait till somebody kicks me.

The particular rule you commented on was introduced when it was common for theists to make one 'shit and run' post. We haven't had one of those for a long time.

My son lives in San Francisco. He and his American wife walk their dog on a beach under the Golden Gate bridge.

Regards
Chris
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: hackenslash on February 05, 2022, 10:27:56 AM
:wave:
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: Tank on February 05, 2022, 11:04:04 AM
Quote from: hackenslash on February 05, 2022, 10:27:56 AM
:wave:

Fuck me! You're still alive!  :rofl:
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: hackenslash on February 05, 2022, 11:11:39 AM
Indeed. It was a bit touch and go at times, but still trundling on. Trying to find my mojo and get back to writing.
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: Tank on February 05, 2022, 11:24:37 AM
Quote from: hackenslash on February 05, 2022, 11:11:39 AM
Indeed. It was a bit touch and go at times, but still trundling on. Trying to find my mojo and get back to writing.

You are more than welcome to get back on your feet here :D
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: hackenslash on February 05, 2022, 11:35:47 AM
Nice to see a few familiar faces still here. The forumsphere has suffered.
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: TheFightSong on February 05, 2022, 10:41:52 PM
We need more Bills in this forum.  :snicker1: That way billy rubin won't be lonely here.  ;D
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: Magdalena on February 05, 2022, 11:56:55 PM
Welcome to the forum, billyportne.  :computerwave:

Welcome back, hackenslash.  :computerwave:
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: billyportne on February 06, 2022, 04:13:20 PM
Thanks for the welcomes. Look forward to learning new things and correcting or clarifying things I think I know but probably don't. And no, I didn't marry Penny. A few months after my first kiss, my father moved us out of Long Beach to Granada Hills, a small rural town at the north end of the San Fernando Valley in southern California. Like most, if not all, boyish infatuations, I quickly forgot about Penny. Years later, I heard from a friend who had stayed in Long Beach that she and her brother had spent a few years in jail for some drug related charge. Life is just full of surprises, isn't it? Wonder what the next surprise will be... :)
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: Tank on February 06, 2022, 04:18:30 PM
We never know what's going to happen next :)
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: Dark Lightning on February 06, 2022, 05:54:05 PM
Granada Hills is no longer rural, by any stretch. You must have lived there quite awhile ago!
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: billyportne on February 06, 2022, 11:37:21 PM
Quote from: Dark Lightning on February 06, 2022, 05:54:05 PM
Granada Hills is no longer rural, by any stretch. You must have lived there quite awhile ago!

Yeah, we moved there in the summer of 49. It remained somewhat rural until the late 50's when tract homes began to spring up almost everywhere in the valley to meet the demand for homes. The pasture where I kept my horse is now an elementary school, and the hill where my father built our house is a cul-de-sac with a dozen houses. I still hike to the top of Mission Point every year on my birthday and look down on what is, thinking of what used to be. All good though. As Darwin said, "It's not the smartest nor the strongest who survive, but those who best deal with change."
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: Dark Lightning on February 07, 2022, 12:39:41 AM
My wife lived in Winnetka from '64 on. She used to take piano lessons somewhere on Saticoy Street, which was a dirt road at the time. We lived in Canoga Park from '88-'02 in an area that had been walnut groves, approximately De Soto and Saticoy. That house was built in '52(?). I grew up in Saugus. You want to talk about change, the Santa Clarita Valley turned into a complete armpit.
Title: Re: Hello from Bill
Post by: xSilverPhinx on February 09, 2022, 11:44:24 PM
 :cheers: