I am new to the forum, having voluntarily left a different atheist forum due to the direction in which it was going. This forum seemed to be the most promising, after having scoured the internet for the past couple of days.

I love to read and write. Jogging is also another passion of mine.

Beautiful eyes, preferably those of the male persuasion, is what turns me on.

I do not consider myself a materialist. I own very little. However, one of the few things I own that I love is my PS4.

I would describe myself as beguiling and intelligent.

I am currently unemployed, though I normally work in retail; which is something I am seeking to change since the older I become the harder I find it to deal with the general public on a regular basis.

Sorry but I am honestly shocked at how many older people are on this site! It makes my heart happy to see that. I am new to this site and to atheism as well. Honestly I'm still kind of soul-searching between agnosticism and atheism but I hope I am still welcome here haha. But definitely not searching for any other form of organized religion. I am a 22 year old female, engaged, and we have a 2 year old boy. I've lived my entire life in Louisiana. I work for the government in Consular Affairs in my local office. I have a four year degree in psychology at my local university. Although my city tends to be the most liberal in the deep south I am still bombarded with religion every day of my life with private schools on every corner and three churches in a one block radius. I was actually raised with a separated family in regards to religion. My mom is an atheist and has been for as long as I have been alive. My father was a moderate christian and got "super-saved" after he went to GA and AA and this contributed to the downfall of their marriage. My father put me and my brother into RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) but we weren't really adults. We were teenagers and were pressured by our religious family, community, and school to follow through with it. My mother did not like it but she supported our "choice". Once I went to college I realized how effing brainwashed I had been and left as fast as I could. Leaving the church was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I was depressed for about three years. I lost so many friends and references and life mentors...I was in youth group and went to private catholic school my whole life so this was a huge culture shock for me. My soon-to-be husband is atheist and my mom is too so this helped me kind of transfer over to this side of the grass.
I would say I am generally a friendly person. I like beards on men and all that heatheny stuff like tattoos and piercings haha. I really dreamed of being a psychologist but that dream is slipping farther away as the reality of tuition costs and the lack of time (being a mother with a full time job) have set in. I love politics and have contemplated going back for a smaller degree in political science. I spend most of my free time playing video games or reading a good book and being a mom and wife and all that jazz. I'm excited to learn more about this forum!

@julesann2614
on a side note: agnosticism and atheism are not mutually exclusive so maybe you can have your cake and eat it too!

Welcome to AR!

Wow this thread has been very interesting. I am surprised at how old most of the people who have responded are.

I am 29 years old, a classical liberal who lives in the very conservative state of Montana. I greatly enjoy studying the Abrahamic Religions, Mesopotamian Mythology, and Philosophy, mostly Eastern, Greek and the Enlightenment, and a huge science buff. I was told by a friend about AR on Facebook, after my posts kept pissing people off. I don't remember how long ago that was because I smoked a lot of pot during that period and my memory is spotty.

As anyone who has engaged with me over my time here will know, some days I can be very civil and open minded, other days I can be jaded and incredibly impatient...and a vindictive troll. I get a lot out of coming here because it gives me a place to put out my ideas and practice my writing. I sometimes copy the criticisms offered to any argument I put forward and past them into my original essays as notes, so I can either make the proper corrections or add to my essay by coming up with a response to the criticism, or just use it as a new topic to write about. This is very effective because I hear a lot of criticism that I would not have considered on my own. I study other peoples writing style and techniques to improve my own.

I have been an Atheist since 14 years old, long story short, I could not justify believing in God, when I never even read the Bible, so I read it over 3 months and after I finished I simply could not believe its contents. I have never been in the closet about it, I was always one to openly express myself and ask questions, completely unaware that some people did not like having their beliefs/worldview questioned, so at times it blew up in my face, like with my parents.

I was horribly uneducated and uninformed until the age of 21, I was introduced to Carl Sagan's Cosmos and his books and they had a huge impact on me, I had a sudden epiphany and realized the scope of my ignorance, and then began the road that lead me to who I am today.

I work at Lowes, and what I want to do with the rest of my life changes with the wind. But I have always stuck with writing so I think Journalist or Essayist is a possibility. I listen to Fox News, Conservative Talk Radio, MSNBC, and CNN because they enrage me and it's a good exercise in becoming aware any beliefs I hold on dogma. I strongly believe that no questions are off limits and no topic is taboo.

I have learned a lot here and look forward to exchanging ideas with anyone, of any perspective.

Well I suppose I should post something. I'm a 43 year old married male with 0 kids. I was never a believer which I explain by my upbringing. I was raised by my grandparents, my grandfather had been a Unitarian minister at some point in his life. We did bible readings (even before I could read) but the bible was presented to me as a series of parables about how to live your life and not history. So when I was old enough to start going to Sunday school (maybe 6-7) I was shocked to realize that the other students and the instructor believed the characters and stories were real (this was a rather profound moment in my life, when I realized I was different). But I was required to attend never the less. I was also lucky that I attended an incredibly liberal church that actually taught lessons about evolution and had us watch science videos. I joined the army for a single tour after high school and later attended college on the armies dime to study physics but ultimately switched to mathematics because I was better at it. I'm also interested in computer programming and chess but I'm only an amateur at both. I've worked a lot of different jobs, but I've spent the last decade+ working in a risk department but mostly I work on special projects.

Politically I was very conservative when I was younger, but as I've gotten older I've become more and more liberal. The army shattered much of my previous world view, college did more of the same, and the corporate world finished the job.

I guess I'm the odd man out on spiders. If I see a big spider in the house I go for my camera for a really nice close-up. I found that by lightly crumpling up a Kleenex tissue I could gently grab a big spider (not huge now, just big!) so that it was trapped in the Kleenex folds. Works almost every time! That spider gets a free ride to the back yard.

I call myself Swedish, after my dad, but I'm also happily German. My dad was navy and my first job was as a sailor on an aircraft carrier. I slept below the spot where the planes hit the deck! Those puppies come down with a whump and even the armored deck and some 10 feet or more of intermediate compartments below that doesn't stop the dust from being shaken up in the "coup"! The worst part was not the crash landing but the screeching as the cable was pulled taught again. I did get to visit Japan and I've always greatly admired much in Japanese culture.

Later I worked for Hughes Aircraft Company as a programmer and, through them, took in a Richard Feynman lecture. His physics lecture was on a deep topic, but for a brief moment I actually felt like I understood it! Lucky students who had him for a professor! There's something about Feynman's "common sense" approach to physics that I really like.

Call me a perpetual student of the sciences. Researchers bust their tails discovering a few wonderful facts, whereas I can read a nice, well-organized university textbook, loaded with colorful diagrams and photos, and get the big tour! Many of them are over 1000 pages, a bit of a read, but if you are in no rush and read a little every morning with tea, and are having fun, you'd be surprised and how many textbooks you put away in a few years. But it has to be fun! Popular books are nice, but there is nothing like a university textbook to get some real insight into a subject. Math problems are fun too provided I don't get stuck!

Photographing wildflowers in the hills of Southern California has been a big activity over the past dozen years. Birds came later. Ants, always, and bugs too. The trails are lovely and always turn up something interesting to photograph. Eventually, I could identify a lot of plants and critters. Chess is another big hobby, and the bane of all serious chess players is a small library of books unread (mostly)! I'm enjoying one right now on pawn endings.

Every year I would snorkel off of La Jolla Cove, a preserve near San Diego, California. Today, elephant seals have taken over! Each swim was different. One time I found myself swimming among ordinary seals, and they played a game of zipping just under me while looking up! Another time I scared a young Tiger Shark with my shadow. Never did I see anything move so fast underwater! It was gone! Once I found myself among Brown Pelicans. A bunch of them had landed on the water and some were diving. There was a big school of tiny, silver fish in the cove. Being in the water, I could get quite close to the pelicans. Having a face mask, I could also watch them shoot into the water to catch the fish.

I don't like labels, but "liberal" probably comes closest. At least in California, people had the sense to reject Donald Trump.

I want to thank all the other posters who have shared their stories. I appreciate it more than you'll ever know.

While I've been an atheist for nearly 30 years, I am just now interacting with other atheists. I do not consider myself to be a militant atheist. However, if you have any inclination of forcing your beliefs on me, I strong encourage you to take an alternative route as I do not tolerate any form of authoritarianism or coercion.

I lived my childhood in a very religious, fundamentalist family. There were two principles out of the bible that my father understood very well: the man was the head of the household and spare not the rod.

My personal transformation from Christianity to atheism was a process over several years instead of a single event that caused me to see the total fallacy of Christianity -- or any religion.

I am married. My wife and I will celebrate out 30th wedding anniversary this year.

My hobby is playing table tennis with a group of international players every Sunday.

I learned early in my adult life that I could not maintain my sanity working for someone else. As a result, I owned my own business for 32 years. I retired at age 55 and moved from the U.S. to Ecuador, South America. I chose to no longer live in a country in which the #1 export is war.

Politically, I am an anarcho-socialist which is often times referred to as libertarian socialism. This is my passion in life. It's not what I am ... it's who I am. I will, without reservation, risk and give my life fighting for the ideals and principles of anarcho-socialism. Though I'm a socialist, I oppose Marxism and centralization as much as I oppose the State and capitalism. There are three issues that keep me motivated to get up every morning and continue this thing called life:

1. Freedom from the exploitation, oppression, and domination of others.
2. Equality of opportunity (not sameness) for everyone, and
3. Justice for all regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation or religious belief.

Atheism is a natural by-product of anarchism as anarchists oppose all forms of hierarchy and (coercive) authority. Most anarchists are atheists. (Anarchism: No Gods, No Masters)

As an anarcho-socialist and an atheist, life is rather lonely as I have not met another person with the same beliefs other than online.

Finally, I could care less whether you (or anyone else) agrees with my philosophies and beliefs. These are my philosophies and beliefs that fulfill my philosophical and social needs – not yours. That being said, I am more than willing to listen to opposing views as long as you bring intellectual reasoning, instead of empty rhetoric, to our discourse.

I look forward to exchanging thoughts and beliefs with all of you!

I was brought up in a born-again christian household where every day of the week consisted of some sort of church or youth group meeting. When I was 14 my aunt had a dream that I was going to marry a dark haired pastor. My parents had me speak with the pastors wife and my dream and life was planned. I was excited and passionate about God and a little too obsessed.
My family members are all pretty extrovert. I always tried but felt more comfortable in small groups or one on one. My dad was head football coach at my high school while mom ran the cheer program. They were very outspoken about Jesus and would often pray with players and council cheerleaders not have abortions. We were the spirited family at school in multiple ways. My older sister was a model and beauty pageant queen, always head of cheer squad and ASB. I was quieter and loved my show choir experiences. Mostly just being around creative people. I loved playing my guitar alone.
As it should have been, my dad got fired for praying with the players as I was beginning my junior year of high school. I was called into the principals office for the first time ever and there he was crying. I asked him if someone died because the pain on his face was so intense. Nope he got fired and we left school for the day. He got rehired at a christian school where he got to do alot more than pray with his players. I was a pussy and had trouble going back to my school where all the senior boys were a part of this drama. It turned into a public case with protests and community meetings. Mom went to the principal the same day dad got fired and quit the cheer program. So I tried one day at this new christian school and the senior football player spoke to me with such intense charisma welcoming me that it freaked me out. I christian homeschooled my junior and senior year. I finished in 9 months not because I'm brilliant, but because the education was bullshit. Got my diploma and I would go in the middle of the night and clean office building with dad, mom too. I loved blasting the music and didn't have to get up early so it wasnt an issue.
I needed to escape my house and so I went on a YWAM mission in Colorado. I met ex drug addicts, sexual deviants, converted homosexuals from all over the world. I started smoking cigs with them and learning a lot about real people. It was 3 months in Colorado to get close with god. Then 3 month on a missions trip to South Africa. I fell involve with the people from this Zulu tribe we stayed with. They live in mud huts with cockroaches crawling around their beds on the floor. Wed hike 45 min up a mountain to get water out of a pump to wash ourselves.Then a sweaty hike back down the mountain with heavy jugs on our heads. The children were the most joyous sweet little souls even though they swam in a river with bacteria giving them worms. They had nothing, but were so sweet and happy and most had never seen a white person before.
So after that the leaders of the organization asked me to come back and lead a team on another mission. I really considered it but I had seen so much bullshit throughout my experience I thankfully said no and went back home to California.
I hadn't found my pastor husband so I figured I should get a job. I googled least amount of school most income. Hairdresser came up and I thought hell why not even though my two sisters are the fashionable ones its only 9 months of school. Sadly thats how I thought back then. So 17 years later I'm doing hair and have a good clientele.
Last year I picked up my guitar again and starting writing songs that were not christian like in the past, and it helps me when I need to be inspired.
So from 18 to 37 I avoided religion, church, because I think I was so glad to not have it rule my life. Then as the election was coming to a close I began getting nervous from what my so called liberal clients were saying. Scared we were going to elect a complete con man cheating asshole I became more outspoken to the point were my agnostic views made no sense anymore. So I'm an atheist as of last year and have a lot to learn. Im dealing with my issues with religion and life as I discover my true viewpoints. Im passionate about fighting to keep religion out of school and government. Im very liberal while my family remains born-again deluded conservatives. I started on the forums couple of months ago and already shared TMI. I also have learned more than ever so thank you for being patient with me.

I'm 19 years old, I've been here no more than a few days, I am Lebanese (That small country in the Arab world), an ex-Christian. I'm a First year Med Student. I speak Arabic, French and English fluently, a bit of spanish and portuguese.

I'm a huge science enthusiast, I watch science videos on youtube in my free time. I'm kind of a book worm too; a big fan of Richard Dawkins and a Potterhead (Ravenclaw if that matters).
I defend feminism, human rights, the LGBT+ community, etc... I despise racism.
And i'm a Grey's Anatomy fan (As you might have guessed).

Edit: Most of the people here are older people. I feel embarassed now that I pointed out that i'm a Ravenclaw.