Introduce yourself!

[Ravenone]

Hey everybody,

Thanks for joining us here. Please take a minute to respond to this message and introduce yourself so we can find out who is behind all these pretty faces.

Raven

[Izzibeth]

Hey all, I'm Izzy.
I live in Delaware, recently moved here from Massachusetts. I'm 23, mixed race, and was raised Roman Catholic by my parents. I would classify myself as agnostic from age 9ish to 12ish and atheist from then on. I have gone through all the fun Roman Catholic stuff including being Confirmed against my will in the 10th grade. I had "come out" to my family before the ceremony but that didn't go over well and I was made to go through with it anyway. My family was upset about it but has since moved on (mainly due to the fact that I moved away and don't talk to many of them that often and therefore do not talk about religious matters with them). Or at least I think so. ^_^ Stop by my random, horribly maintained site! It's the one with the unnecessarily long url. ^_~

[The Barefoot Bum]

I'm Larry. I'm a more-or-less lifelong atheist, amateur philosopher and writer. I used to be quite active on the Internet Infidels discussion board, but now I just blog. I'm a firm believer that, "it takes religion to make good people do evil things." I also thing the truth matters in itself.

[Ruhal Hazim]

Hello,
My name is Ruhal. I was born and raised Muslim. I'm a grad student in Neuroscience by trade, with a strong science background. While I've almost shed the religious indoctrination, that is, I'm a "non-practicing" Muslim, I guess, like I've said before, 30+ years indoctrination and being immersed in a fairly religious upbringing and environment, all that learning and old habits are hard to shed. Funny how facing a court date for driving with a suspended license or an especially hard exam, I find myself thinking things like "God, I hope..." while still questioning the existence of God on a daily basis and the the merits and uses of religion. I guess I'm more disillusioned with the hypocrisy, hate and anger that religion, any religion produces. I think I finally get Nietzsche's statement the "God is dead..." (i may be paraphrasing). I've always been very inquisitive and was always taught that one of the central tenets of my religion was to question everything, all beliefs, statements, ideas, etc. ... except God's existence, of course. So that's what I've spent my the better part of my life doing (and still do) I've found many inconsistencies in both the practice and dogma of my religion and many others and therein lies the recreation of an atheist (still in the making, I guess). Well... still questioning, still learning, still searching, and probably will for a really, really long time to come... let's see where the next leg of this journey takes us...

[The Barefoot Bum]

You might be interested in reading my wife's blog, The Apostate. She's an ex-Muslim atheist.

[Ruhal Hazim]

Really interesting blog. Thanks for turning me on to it. I've often found myself thinking a lot of the things she expresses in type. While I don't find as many objections to Islam as she does, but then again, as she points out it is a man's religion, and I guess I've viewed Islam with a rose-colored lens but those shades are coming off. Still, it's nice to soak in other points of view. Thanks again

[Ravenone]

Wow , I checked out your wifes blog....The Apostate, what a great read!!!! Thanks for the link and thanks for being here.

Peace,
Raven

[The Barefoot Bum]

She's pretty much totally awesome, and much smarter than I am. That's why I married her. :-D I'm still not quite sure why she married me, but I don't question that too closely.

[gypsygraver]

Hey Peoples,

My name is Sonja and I'm more of a humanist/agnostic. I was raised as on of Jehovah's Witness most of my life. That religion is truly a cult that sucks you in and won't let you even consider any other point of view but their dogma. I was disfellowshipped at the age of 19 (excommunicated) and about 2 years later I went on a truth-seeking journey and so started doing some serious reading. I learned that the religion I so reverred was indeed a brain-washing cult and that christianity and the bible most definitely are not the holy guiding light many beleive them to be, but are actually tools used to control and divide the masses; to distract them from seeing the bigger picture, as are most fundamentalist religions. I also learned that it is possible to control ones own belief system, so now I beleive only what I choose to beleive, which includes angels, faeries and spirit guides. Whether or not they really exist, I honestly can't say, but I'd like to think they do. As for god, if there is a god, I prefer to think of it as a female, or a large ball energy if it even exists. I do also believe in evolution, and that certain substances helped spur the advancement of the human mind....

[Bee PenisWinkle]

Hello Sonja,

It's good to meet you. I would love to hear more about your truth seeking journey. Have you been able to construct a supportive social network?

It's so difficult to replace family and friends that you had for a life time.

I am looking forward to getting to know you.

Peace,

Raven

[gypsygraver]

My truth seeking journey started with Crisis of Conscience which led me to the conclusion that JW's don't really have "the truth", so I figured if they don't, then who does? Then I read a few books about the bible and the origins of christianity, such as "The book your Church Doesn't Want You To Read", or "Jesus and Yahweh, Mythologies Last Gods", "Secret Origins of the Bible", "The Bible Myth" and "101 Myths of the Bible how ancient Scribes invented Biblical History", as well as "Children of the Matrix". After reading those, I really felt like I knew what the truth was and that's that religion is indeed a snare and a racket. I still have quite a bit of interest in new age belief systems, specifically taoism, rastafarianism, and Wicca (which I delved into head first at one point in my life.), but I am forever done with organized religion.

As for a supportive social network, myspace has been wonderful in that it has helped me find many others in the same or very similiar situations. Unfortuneately I haven't had as much luck in the flesh though.

I'm looking forward to getting to know you as well, Raven! Thank you so much for inviting me here:)

[Bee PenisWinkle]

OOOPSS!!! Didn't see that I was on my daughter Bee's profile....hehehe!
This is Raven .... not Bee.

[Skeptic]

Hello all, My name is Trevor and I have found my way here through some of your Blogs. I hope to participate in this community and will be adding a link to it from the website SecularEarth.com. This is a site I started to network and meet like minded people. Feel free to use the chat rooms or create you own Blog as it is absolutely free.

Hope to talk to all of you soon. Bye.