User:Coloradoatheist

Well, where do I start? The screen name says it all, but below is what I used in my personal blog. However for a brief introduction, my real name is Scott, I'm 37, and I live in one of the "reddest" areas of the country, near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Home of all kinds of neat organizations who are all for diversity, choice, individual freedoms, and staying out of your business and minding their own like Focus on the Family and New Life Church (of Ted Haggard fame).

Now for the deeper background and discussion, if anyone cares. LOL

"I know that there are few, if any reads, of my blog so far but I'm hoping that will change eventually. Regardless, I believe it is important for you, whenever you read this, to know who I am at least to give you an understanding of some things I really believe and how that leads me to post some of what I post here.

Anyhow, I'm not talking about giving you an introduction that says "I'm married, etc etc etc" rather this will be an introduction of my 'worldview' as some people might say.

I'm an atheist and I suspect I've been an atheist for about 23 or 24 years, maybe a bit longer, but I seem to recall that during my pre-teen and early teenage years is when my doubts of the existence of an unseen, all knowing and all powerful being existed. How did this occur, you might ask?

Well, I was raised Catholic, in fact my parents are still very faithful Catholics today. However, I might describe them as 'selective' or 'liberal' Catholics to some extent. The reason I say this is because there was no reason given to me, that I clearly recall, for which to go to church on Sunday and select holidays other than 'because we/I said so.' There was no discussion of the bible, religion, the weekly sermons, or anything similar in our house. The only mention of church in our house was 'hurry up and get in the car so we're not late for church.'

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing my parents rather giving information that supports my development over time in regards to religion and to show why I use the term selective or liberal to describe the family view of religion and specifically Catholicism at the time.

I often asked myself, there has to be a better reason than simply 'because I said so' but I couldn't find one. The service itself was largely the same from week to week, the only thing that really changed was the brief sermon and the music for the most part and while the teachings from 'Father Don' were well spoken they were also based in fear mongering. It soon became apparent to me that the reason the Catholic Church wanted me to be good was because 'God says so', not because it is the right thing to do for humanity. We'll come back to this one later.

So that formed some of my early movement away from theism. I was probably 12 or 13 when I started thinking about this.

The second event I recall is when, during a summer catechism class one of the nuns who was teaching us told us that we had to pray with our fingers up and our hands in the form of a steeple, otherwise we were praying to the devil. I didn't understand the term plausible at that time, but I knew now and that explanation was the least plausible possible. She should have just been straight with us and said they demanded discipline to prove that if we were 'physically obedient' to the theism we would also be 'mentally obedient' as well. That's all it was, use fear to demand obedience and discipline.

The third event was in this same environment, maybe the same year. After a class I approached the nun with what I thought was a simple question, 'How old is the earth?' The response shocked me when she said that the earth could be no more than about 10,000 years old because that's what has been determined by those who study the bible. So being the inquiring mind I still am to this day, I said "Sister, could you please explain for me how there were dinosaurs millions of years ago then?" This response did it for me, instead of coming up with a faulty explanation of how in Genesis the days weren't counted like we count them today (something that I will attempt to take apart in a future post), she simply said 'Scott, it is not good to question the word of God and you should never ask those questions again.'

So as you can see, I was given plenty reason to question the accuracy and the plausibility of a supreme, spiritual authority at an early age.

Fast forward quite a few years. I entered the Air Force and decided it was time to take back my weekends. I continued attending church services on weekends in basic training, but only because it was the one place that we were largely left alone and the drill instructors couldn't screw with us. At this time I had no other reason to attend a service, looking back I had absolutely no belief in God at this age, however at that time I felt I was in a much greater minority than I am today.

That evolved over time to the point that I felt compelled to 'give religion another chance' during my failed first marriage. By the way, I'm not dwelling on that one or wish for anything to be different. During that marriage, I was told numerous times that 'if we only went to church, our problems would end.' Yea, right. The problems weren't that there was no church in our life at the time. The problems were that we were completely incompatible and I got married blindly at 19. So over the course of the next 8 years I 'just dealt with it', going so far as getting baptized in a Christian church in Colorado to appease my ex-wife. I even enrolled in a Christian college to finish my studies in Information Systems Management and yes, I do feel like a hypocrite quite frequently, however they don't seem to mind taking my money with no question so I guess that evens it out.

During the 'fall out time', that being the time leading up to separation and divorce I found that I questioned everything. I questioned my own desires for the future, I questioned whether I was making the right decision by staying away from religion, I questioned love or lack of love for my ex-wife, and was led to wonder whether I should just do what everyone else thought I should do. One thing I remember hearing was my ex-wife and her sister praying 'Dear Heavenly Father, please help Scott find the way to you so that this marriage can be saved.' Or something silly like that, like that was the problem. It wasn't, well it was part of it, but not a major part. There were a lot of other things that I'm not interested in discussing.

Finally I decided that enough is enough, I'm tired of 'doing the right thing' for everyone else and found that I had to live my life for me, think free, be free, and be good because it's the right thing to do not because an invisible, mythical, fear mongering deity says so.

What was funny is that my ex-wife called my mom to say that the reason we were getting divorced was because 'Scott doesn't believe in god'. Big deal, but it was hilarious because my mom sent me letters and actually called to say she was disappointed and would pray for me. Whatever, her god has bigger problems to worry about: starvation, poverty, AIDS, earthquakes, typhoons, etc. So that is silly too.

Fortunately, around the time of the separation and I determined that there was no chance or interest in reconciliation on my part, I met the most wonderful person in the world, who continues to be to this day. My lover, my best friend, and my partner for life. Some people use the term 'wife' or 'spouse', I recently decided those terms are not accurate descriptors for our relationship.

This is a much more complex and detailed road to get where I am, but I decided for the sake of brevity to share only some of it.

But today I write this with a clear mind, completely confident and comfortable with the choices and decisions I have made and the beliefs or non-beliefs I have. I have complete support of the people that matter and I'm raising my son to think freely and demand evidence for things that he is asked to take on 'faith' or simply because it's folklore that's been passed down from generation to generation. My family is happy with that.

You will see many views and posts from me and quite simply you may get offended, but I can promise you sarcasm in some posts, some will be thought provoking, but I can promise almost all will challenge you to look beyond mysticism and fable and think for yourself. If you open your mind, you very well may learn something as I continue to do.

So now as I get ready to close I will revisit one comment I made earlier in regards to 'morals' and generally being a good person. I find it curious that Christians are highly eager to point out that since I don't believe in a god (specifically their God) I have no moral basis and therefore am not a good person, this is curious because I don't believe the word 'moral' is used in the bible to discuss the preferred way to act.

As I've said, I'm comfortable with who I am and what I choose to believe or not believe, but the one thing that I am absolutely comfortable with is that I'm a good person and Danni and my son are good people because we know it is RIGHT to be good to all living beings. That said, I would venture to say that most Christians/Bible believers are good because if they aren't their 'God' will get pissed and send them to hell. I ask you, who is really the better person?

Finally, at times you'll see posts regarding the political environment in our country. I'll simply say that I'm a Liberal Democrat, primarily because all people should be treated equally, something that the Republican party fails to realize. Anyhow, as an Atheist Liberal Democrat I want each of you who read these posts to realize that I do homework and review evidence for fact. I don't take anything on 'faith' or 'because I have to because some authority said so'.

I'll close by simply saying, be open to reason, do not accept a myth at face value, and hold the government accountable to tell the truth.

I'm out...."