Arc

Greetings, all! It's about 1:30 AM New Year's Day, and thanks to the wondrous substance called caffeine I'm still wide awake. So what better time for me to post my first message to these forums?

I've been following the II forums with pleasure for several months now, but I've been a bit apprehensive about posting. I'm more used to mailing lists than forums, and to be honest the sheer amount of very bright people here is a bit intimidating.

Don't get me wrong, I'm bright myself. At least, I like to think so. But I am a mere 16 years of age, still with much to learn I'm know. But I do admire the people of these forums.

Ah, but enough inane flattery, I guess I should post my general views. I was raised (unfortunately) a baptist here in Kentucky in my early childhood. Luckily, though, my parents (especially my father) are not at all religious, and we stopped attending when I was still in elementary school. I can't really say why we even went in the first place-- my dad never went, he's not religious at all, and my mom certainly isn't Christian. Likely for the sake of my grandmother, a very sweet old lady.

Anyway, I never even listened when I did have to go to church. One of the only memories I have of it, in fact, is that I noticed in Sunday school that the maps we were coloring were geographically incorrect. The teacher there didn't believe me, though she wasn't particularly bright. I never liked her-- I remember her telling the class of young and impressionable children that there were other religions-- but that they were wrong, so we didn't have to even think about them. That's some fine tolerance, right there.

Anyway, I was never very Christian, and rejected the idea of hell as frankly very stupid when I was in the sixth grade. After all, if god loves us, why would he punish finite sin with infinite pain?

During middle school I experimented around with various religions, especially paganism(I like fantasy and magic), before just dropping it and shifting into a type of deist perspective. My freshman year of high school I started to learn a little too much about reality and started calling myself an agnostic.

I might have called myself agnostic, but not only did I have a somewhat fuzzy definition of that term, and not until later (read: now) did I realize I was basically atheist. In fact, what made me finally realize this was this wonderful site, the Secular Web. I read a great deal of the information in the library, and learning that atheists weren't horribly depressed people who hated the world, I realized that I was one myself.

If I had to attribute my atheism to any one thing, I would say it is my voracious appetite for books. Of course, being brought up to think for myself and not worry about what others think has definitely helped, the mass quantity of books I have consumed has definitely aided me.

I remember that the first time I really started to question my core inner beliefs was reading a book by Isaac Asimov. It was some nonfiction book, I don't remember the title, but in it he laid out a list of things people believe in irrationally, including belief in an afterlife. Keep in mind that at this time the only reason I believed in any type of divinity is because I was using it as a crutch for my fear of death. Luckily, I have more or less gotten past that. A little too well, in fact. Thanks to my somewhat transhumanist leanings, combined with all the advances we've been making in genetics and nanotechnology, I'm not entirely convinced that I will EVER die of old age.

As much as I would like to go into my views on philosophy and technology and my other passions(many of which have been shaped by these forums, really), I can see that this post is already stretching to epic proportions. And as I doubt many people browse the welcome forums anyway, I'll leave that tale until later. If you read this far, thanks, I hope to be an active poster in the future.

Ronin

Thanks for that fantastic post, Arc ~ you write extremely well.

Welcome to the fray.


PS 'horribly depressed people who hate the world'...nah, don't buy into that one.

Shadownought

I think you're right. You are pretty bright.

I hope you'll stick around. Welcome to the board...

almost_luminous

happy new year
welcome

-Amanda (fellow caffeine-lover)

The Admiral

Greetings Arc

Welcome from The Admiral in sunny semi-tropical S.E. Wisconsin, on the shores of Lake Michigan, the Mediterranean of the Mid-West.

Post away, we're listening.

The Admiral

ruby-soho

Welcome to the board!! I must say, you are very well-spoken for someone your age. We have two things in common, a voracious appetite for books and a love of caffeine! :notworthy

I wish you well on your intellectual journey. Keep up the good posts!

Respectfully,

D

pescifish

Hi Arc,
Welcome!

Your introduction is very interesting and I think it would be a wonderful addition to our ongoing collection of 'deconversion' stories in Secular Lifestyle & Support forum. You will find the thread here: Atheist Testimony

Have fun, too!
pesci <><

Arc

Wow, thanks for your feedback everyone. While I really enjoy writing, I never quite believe it when people tell me that I'm good at it. And thanks for the suggestion, pecisfish, I think I'll make that my first post outside of the Welcome forums.