[size=15:7e6eacd93e]Happy to be here, although Mom and Dad are spinning in their urns…

I’ve been with you for decades, of course, but only recently I found the quiet place you can find only if you face yourself and tell yourself the truth. For me the transformative truth was simple and obvious. The religion I discarded 40 years ago is not just wrong and untrue, it is more evil than I ever envisioned. 

Sorry, Dad. Sorry, Mom. You were not just wrong. You helped the minions of the Book spread their hurtful faith a little bit further.

I am not bitter here, though I know it reads that way. Disappointed a bit. What I feel is free, relaxed for the first time ever, and content realizing I know who the enemy is now. No more tolerance of the bad kind; the worst people in the world believe they have cornered the goodness market. This, my friend in disbelief, is intolerable.

Visit my much-neglected website, http://www.inspiredbyactualevents.com. Visitors will compel me to get at it a bit more regularly. You bloggers know the feeling.

Bye for now…next time, a cheery note.  Promise.

rides3wheels[/size:7e6eacd93e]

Hey rides3wheels, welcome to the forum, glad you found CFI. Look forward to reading your blog, it looks very well put together.

Best,

Hello rides3wheels,
Welcome to the CFI forums.
Bob Reasoner

Thank you, Doug and Bob, for your warm welcomes.

I’m spending a bit of time reading through a bunch of threads, before I leap in, to get a sense of forum activity and manner.  I’ve listened to P of I for months and the zines for a couple so I’ve had the CFI idea rolling around my head for a while.  It’s intriguing to read forum writers’ perspectives; this will be a good place to define and refine my own.

rides3wheels

Greetings rides3wheels,

Beautiful avatar I must say.

Got to visit Corpus once when my son was stationed at Ingleside.  One of my goals was to see San Padre Island but we didn’t make it.  Do remember a couple state parks, Sunset and Indian Point - I think, where we spent a pleasant afterevening.

And welcome to the forums.

Thanks for the welcome, Cholla.  Re: my avatar…there’s nothing better than a Christmas morning at the beach with your grandchildren…

You should visit CC again.  It’s sort of fun living in the belly of the beast.  Everyone is friendly here (well…most) even though a vast majority are Christians. San Padre Island is still here and eminently visitable…and we are inches away from banning vehicles from a small portion of the public beaches!  Yeah! You’ll actually be able to go to a beach without gasoline fumes and oil leak stains…or traffic.

Hope to see you around, Cholla. I need to spend more time in these forums to keep sane.

r3w

you know its funny to me having been on the ‘other side’ for many years and   hearing people’s ‘testimony’ of ‘coming to faith’.

it sounds so much better now to me hearing about people ‘leaving the flock’ and putting themselves in the driver’s seat instead.

welcome!

Welcome to CFI. My grandfather was a souther baptist preacher, but luckily for me, I never met him.

Welcome Rides 3 wheels.
Its a good place to find others who can discuss your issues and do so - very much they do so!
Jim

Alex - Thanks for your welcome.  I actually ‘left the flock’ about forty years ago; only recently, I discovered the joys of being an atheist freethinker.  I find most amazing how many problems it brings into sharp focus.  For example…I don’t worry about religious/antiscience/alternative medicine/evangelical/islamist/supernatural/new age/paranormal/fundamentalist extremism anymore.  I simply go about defeating the evil forces of theism.  I find the parsimony in this to be restful.

atheistheretic - I knew my father until his death, and my mother too, and both were caring, loving parents.  They even backslid more and more as they mellowed.  I remember when my sister married a catholic…which should have been a excummunicable offense…my folks saw through generations of crap and became happy clams about it.  I suppose the grandchildren helped.  Unfortunately, they missed a lot by clinging to as much as they did.  Both deserved better lives and choosing to live for Christ instead of themselves was ultimately disappointing.

Jim - And they do discuss and discuss and discuss.  I’ve been a bit reluctant to post until I ‘caught up’ with a discussion, but with the volume of postings, that may not be possible.  Waiting, that is.

r3w