Hello to everyone here. I hope all of you are doing well. This is my first time here, as a member. My name is Marco Antonio and I am a 42 year old male, of Latino/Portuguese descent. I come from a very strict, Roman Catholic upbringing. It was not until around the Christmas holiday, of this past December of 2014, that I became an atheist. I felt like I finally broke free from, literally, living a life of hell everyday, worrying about if a god would punish me forever because I could never be "perfect" enough for a heaven. Looking back, I do not know how I actually believed such biblical fairy tales, especially with my love of the sciences, human psychology, music theory, technology, and commercial airliners. I cannot believe I lacked the most basic intelligence to see the irrational logic behind religion. There is a story of how all this came to be, though, and where it has brought me now, feeling depressed.

I grew up being physically abused by my father, and from a mother, who told me to tell the teachers at school, that I "accidentally" tripped down the porch step and fell, or that I fell off my bike, to explain the marks on my body. I never questioned it, otherwise, my mother would make threats of me never getting to see her again, etc.