Hello

[The Boatman]

I hate introductions, but here goes.

My name is Scott. I'm seventeen and a high school senior living in California. My two favorite things are probably video games and singing.

I was raised as an Episcopalian, and was fairly active in church - I was in the church choir, I served as an acolyte, and I attended a Sunday youth group, but I don't think I ever thought about my religious beliefs much. They were really no more than a label. Anyways, when I was in my freshman year I realized that I'm gay, something that I had avoided thinking about up until that point. I ended up surfing the net a lot more, and became a regular member of another forum, this one a debate site. I was still a Christian.

One day I ran into another member in the chat room, and the conversation eventually steered itself towards my homosexuality. I opened up a little about how I was feeling concerned about how my religion was at odds with my sexuality, but rather than getting the sympathy I was looking for, I got a sermon on the immorality of homosexuality. That incident and a bit of posting led me to question my religion, and eventually abandon it.

Anyways, I now consider myself to be a weak atheist. I'm no scientist and could never claim to have evidence of god's nonexistence, but I certainly could claim that there is insufficient evidence of god's existence to accept such a belief. Even if I were a theist, I would certainly not follow any of today's organized religions. I also believe, as a secular humanist, that religion is a negative impact on the world, on mankind, on reason, and on morality.

Wow, I guess I went pretty in depth - but those are probably the topics I'll get into here.

Nice to meet you all.

[AlP]

Hi The Boatman. I'm sorry you were disrespected because of your sexuality and I'm glad you came here. Welcome to the forum!

[theTwiz]

I'm no scientist and could never claim to have evidence of god's nonexistence, but I certainly could claim that there is insufficient evidence of god's existence to accept such a belief

Hey The Boatman, I'm new here too so fellow newbie welcome!

Anyway, I quoted the above because I'm kind of the same way and have been for some time.  One of my favorite quotes on the matter is from Prof. Richard Dawkins, where he talks about how on a scale of 1-7, 1 being absolutely positively certain there is a god, and 7 being absolutely positive there is not a god, he would be a 6.  His reasoning is that to claim absolute nonexistence is equally ignorant as claiming absolute existence.  He sums it up nicely by finishing with a comparison to pink unicorns: Even though I cannot prove they don't exist, I'm pretty sure they don't  :bananacolor: )

[The Boatman]

Hey The Boatman, I'm new here too so fellow newbie welcome!

Anyway, I quoted the above because I'm kind of the same way and have been for some time. One of my favorite quotes on the matter is from Prof. Richard Dawkins, where he talks about how on a scale of 1-7, 1 being absolutely positively certain there is a god, and 7 being absolutely positive there is not a god, he would be a 6. His reasoning is that to claim absolute nonexistence is equally ignorant as claiming absolute existence. He sums it up nicely by finishing with a comparison to pink unicorns: Even though I cannot prove they don't exist, I'm pretty sure they don't  

I'm not pitching the above viewpoint, just wanted to share in case you'd never heard it.

Also, even though I'm new here, I just wanted to offer to you or anyone else reading this to feel free to PM me regarding homosexuality. I don't know where you are with it, but I've helped several of my gay friends with different situations arising from intolerance, such as being present when they came out to their parents, or telling several of my fraternity brothers to stfu when they tried to depledge a guy just for being openly gay. (my argument: he will work wonders for sorority relations    :cool:

I know I've heard Dawkins say something like that - several times. Well, at least the pink unicorn part. My parents found out some time ago when they found me posting on the aforementioned debate site about my homosexuality... I wasn't very happy about the fact that the discussion didn't happen on my terms. They accepted it, though... After a fair amount of crying from my mom. One thing that frustrates me is that they still avoid mentioning it openly around me in the way that they would ask my brother about cute girls from college.

I don't know how much advice you can give, but I've been planning for some time to sort of... start over when I get to college. I'll be out from day one... that way I won't end up being friends with people who wouldn't accept it and then being afraid to tell them. I'm still trying to work something out about what to do with my friends back home. Tell everyone? Tell just some friends? Don't tell them? IDK. What do you think?

[theTwiz]

Going to College is a great time to start anew, but it's up to you to determine how open you want to be about it. I'd advise finding the local GLBTQ organization and meeting up with them, but you probably already had that in mind.

As far as friends back home...not really sure.  There are a couple of guys that I went to high school with that came out in college, and as far as I know they just came out and let people figure it out for themselves (i.e. through Facebook, word of mouth, etc.).  It seemed to work out fine for them, but that's only a couple of examples.  I can tell you that I personally would find something to the tune of a mass notification a bit of overkill.  I think you'll find very quickly if you haven't already how many people have the "ok some people are gay, not a big deal" mindset, and those that don't, well, you probably won't be seeing much of them.

I'd tell your close circle of friends that don't already know, and let them know your desire on how freely they should share that information.  This will alleviate any negative feelings that they could have as a result of you not telling them.  This is all provided you're comfortable telling them, of course.  If you've already done that, you can probably just let it filter down the gossip line from there.  Anyway that's my two cents, love to see what some one else thinks.

[The Boatman]

Going to College is a great time to start anew, but it's up to you to determine how open you want to be about it. I'd advise finding the local GLBTQ organization and meeting up with them, but you probably already had that in mind.

As far as friends back home...not really sure.  There are a couple of guys that I went to high school with that came out in college, and as far as I know they just came out and let people figure it out for themselves (i.e. through Facebook, word of mouth, etc.).  It seemed to work out fine for them, but that's only a couple of examples.  I can tell you that I personally would find something to the tune of a mass notification a bit of overkill.  I think you'll find very quickly if you haven't already how many people have the "ok some people are gay, not a big deal" mindset, and those that don't, well, you probably won't be seeing much of them.

I'd tell your close circle of friends that don't already know, and let them know your desire on how freely they should share that information.  This will alleviate any negative feelings that they could have as a result of you not telling them.  This is all provided you're comfortable telling them, of course.  If you've already done that, you can probably just let it filter down the gossip line from there.  Anyway that's my two cents, love to see what some one else thinks.

GLBT... Q? What's the Q? Yes, I did have that in mind.

And boy, do I know what you mean about the gossip line... Get this... I have a friend who's gay, and when I told him, it just so happened that another girl who I know but am not close friends with was watching us chat over his shoulder. She immediately proceeded to tell her boyfriend, who also happens to be one of my brother's best friends. I was actually pretty fortunate that it stopped there - but there have been other incidents that have spread the knowledge of my sexuality... amazingly, none of them managed to reach my friends, though some of them have come to suspect it or have suspected it in the past. I'm not exactly good at feigning interest in girls.

Some of my friends already do know. Most don't. I'll probably tell most of the rest of them once I'm off to college... I figure that that'll give them several months to stop caring until we're all home again for winter break.

[theTwiz]

Q = questioning

it's the new gay, i'm told

[LoneMateria]

 to the forum.  We are all very accepting of people from all backgrounds.  The religious community is infamous for cherry picking bible verses and holding it over peoples heads while giving them blatantly bad advice (and I use the word advice very loosely) on how to proceed.

[The Boatman]

You a Halo fan, Materia? I could use somebody good to play with - I've been very frustrated lately with the extreme lack of skill on the part of many Halo 3 players... Skill, strategy, you name it. They can't watch their radar well, they follow everyone else straight up the middle of the map, they're too slow... you name it.

If you have Halo 3 and XBL, add me. Th3 B04tm4n.

[LoneMateria]

You a Halo fan, Materia? I could use somebody good to play with - I've been very frustrated lately with the extreme lack of skill on the part of many Halo 3 players... Skill, strategy, you name it. They can't watch their radar well, they follow everyone else straight up the middle of the map, they're too slow... you name it.

If you have Halo 3 and XBL, add me. Th3 B04tm4n.

Yes and No.  I don't have a 360 so I can't play 3.  I loved 2 but my Pic is caboose from Red vs. Blue

[Whitney]

Hi boatman, welcome to HAF.  I have halo 3 but I'm one of those people that just follows everyone else then proceeds to shoot them in the back because I suck.

[The Boatman]

Hi boatman, welcome to HAF.  I have halo 3 but I'm one of those people that just follows everyone else then proceeds to shoot them in the back because I suck.

Better to play with a friend who does that than a total stranger. Feel free to add me.

[The Boatman]

Yes and No.  I don't have a 360 so I can't play 3.  I loved 2 but my Pic is caboose from Red vs. Blue

Aaah. That's a shame. I never really played Halo 2 multiplayer. The only Xbox I've ever had is the 360, so by the time I was into it, Halo 3 was already out. I did enjoy the campaign though...

[G-Roll]

welcome to the forum,
your 17 year life so far sounds alot like mine, only without the gay, and add some drugs, babies, jail.... you know some other stuff.    
really though i hope you enjoy your stay.

[The Boatman]

welcome to the forum,
your 17 year life so far sounds alot like mine, only without the gay, and add some drugs, babies, jail.... you know some other stuff.