I suppose I had about as normal of a childhood as can be expected these days. My mother was a teacher and my father deceased, but she did remarry and I have two sisters. We all attended Sunday school and went to the local Catholic Church. I stopped it all when I got to high school because I did not agree with Catholic ways, though I did believe in God. Joined the army, did two tours, one in Afghanistan and a second in Iraq. As a medic in an infantry battallion I,of course, saw much, did much and was subjugated to much, but I kept my faith. More and more in order to keep my sanity I told myself that the horrible attrocities in this world would not matter because there was a peaceful kingdom awaiting me.
It was not a single event or epiphany that led me to atheism, but the slow realization that by doing no good in the hopes that another world awaited me I was, in fact, helping to make this world worse. The worst part is that if we, as intelligent humans, allow ourselves to think that way then we will waste this life, the only one we will ever have in any world. To me atheism represents the knowledge that god or no god we will never live in this world again and that we need to be happy, seek truth, wisdom, logic, reason, respect and, above all else, answers. I do not want to spend my life fearing a god that boasts about himself committing genocide and tells his follows to commit murder, rape, child molestation, spousal abuse, slavery, torture and many other horrible things. I do not, in any way shpe or form believe that a god whom is supposed to be better than us would subjugate us to such horrible things and fearing him will no longer be my mainstay in life. I am much happier without the threat of christian beliefs and that, in itself, is more than enough reason for me to not believe.
Hiyas ... welcome here, and thanks for your service.
Welcome Wild. Your reasoning is sound and more will follow. I look forward to talking with you later.
Be sure and barbecue kittens, record the NFL without their permission, and rip the tags off your mattress.
Hey there, welcome. :)
Welcome to the forums. You sound like a good kind of guy.
Welcome to the forum, hope you like it. Liked your 'origin story'.
Quote from: "Brian37"Be sure and barbecue kittens, record the NFL without their permission, and rip the tags off your mattress.
ripping tags of your mattress is just plain WRONG!
Be sure and barbecue kittens, record the NFL without their permission, and rip the tags off your mattress.
Do you have this as a welcome template? Any one of these by themselves may not get you time, (except bbqing kittens maybe) but combined, you're looking at three strikes dude!
hi and welcome
Welcome. My eldest son did two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, the last two in an MRAP/Cougar. Got medevacked on his first tour for injuries. Glad you survived. Enjoy your time here.
Hi.
What is this 'origin story' term?
To me fighting for this country is not heroic . I applaud you for recognizing the error of violence . Killing people because a government tells you too is about as non thinking as it gets . Most religions preach non violence but political and religious leaders twist the truth so that solders think that they are martyrs who are guaranteed access to heaven if they die in battle .. The hypocrisy is amazing . Religion and nationalism is a tool for humans to get other humans to do as told I am glad you broke the spell of misguided thinking.
Welcome. Glad you're here.
Stick around.