My wife bought god is Not Great at some point in the past few years, loaned it to our daughter some time back and, when I learned of Christopher Hitchens’ death, I got it back from our daughter.  I was mostly interested in reading it because I wanted more insight into his intellect.  I kind of figured out for myself in about 6th grade that I couldn’t buy the whole religion thing and remember writing on a friend’s basement wall at the time, “If God did not exist, man would create him”... or something like that.  I definitely went through a deep interpersonal exploration phase in the 70’s but still never really got into the divine being stuff.

So, anyway, I only read a couple of chapters of the book last night but it had a fairly profound impact on me.  Yes, I already “got it” about the God thing and I believed that religion has always been about power, not redemption, but his examples of fairly recent events all in one place scared the crap outta me!  I went to sleep very disturbed and woke up thinking, if we are to preserve our country’s democracy and avoid the “tyranny of the majority” that I fear is not too far away, those of us who aren’t buying the party line, i.e., Christianity, need to be heard as well as seen.

So, here I am!  My family is, for the most part, fairly close to my beliefs.  I think my mother finally gave up her religious beliefs in the past few years because she has seen all the evil committed against humans and no God there to help them out.  My wife’s family is classic Religious Right!  I just go along to get along and I always respect others’ beliefs but I will not back down from making it clear that WE ARE NOT ALL THE SAME!!!  I think that her mother, who has lived in the same rather small Texas community for probably 60-70 years thinks that way as does my wife’s step father who has the same experience.  In fact, that almost seems to be the NORM in Texas although I live close to Austin which seems to be the most open minded place to be in Texas.

That’s it for now, I look forward to mainly supporting the effort, not so much spouting my thoughts. 

Brad

Welcome Brad.

Like your signature.

IMO, religion is a human invented social tool that can be used for many purposes, both good and evil depending the human using it.

Welcome to the CFI forums Brad. How close are you to Austin? I live in Round Rock.

Welcome Brad.  Glad to have you here.

Darron,

The other side of Austin… San Marcos!

San Marcos is a pretty town. Are you old enough to remember Aquarena Springs? I went there many times when I was a young’n.

DarronS - 20 December 2011 10:02 PM

San Marcos is a pretty town. Are you old enough to remember Aquarena Springs? I went there many times when I was a young’n.

Oh, yes, I was working for then Southwest Texas State University when they bought it and we feasted on Ralph the Swimming Pig… not really, just starting rumors.  ;-} 

I still work here, now with Texas State University, and have been involved with Aquarena quite a bit.  I’m from the D/FW area so I didn’t visit it the way it was before until the early 1980’s. 

Heard lots of stories from the folks here longer than me.  Alligators escaping into the San Marcos River during floods.  The archery team practicing on nutrias.  Pumping water directly from the springs and serving it in the old restaurant.

Brad

BradMM - 21 December 2011 07:52 AM

Oh, yes, I was working for then Southwest Texas State University when they bought it and we feasted on Ralph the Swimming Pig… not really, just starting rumors.  ;-}

Hey, I like dead pig; especially slow-cooked over mesquite.