In order to better understand my worldview and why I blog about it, I think it's important to understand a little about who I am and where I come from.
I grew up in a small Texas town where the biggest religious question anyone seemed to have was what to wear to church this Sunday. My church was mainstream (Disciples of Christ) and pretty liberal compared to the dominant Baptist denomination in the area. We went to church on a regular basis, and I was baptized at 11 years old. I grew up believing in God and not really realizing there was an alternative.
After graduating high school, I left for college and rarely went to church or thought about religion at all. I could probably count on my fingers without using the same one twice how many times I've been in a Christian church for religious purposes (tourism doesn't count, Notre Dame and Westminster Cathedral were beautiful, but I was not there seeking God) over the last 15 years.
A few years ago I started to think about religion again. I wasn’t real comfortable with traditional Christian doctrine, so I began to explore other paths. I read books about several different religions, and initially felt a connection when I came across Religious Science. But after attending services at a local church for about a year, it still didn’t feel quite right. So the search continued. When I came across deism, I thought I’d found the answer, but it just raised a lot of unanswerable questions. After all my searching, I have come to this conclusion: There is just no good reason to believe in God or gods at all.
Which leaves me where I am today...
I am a dedicated husband of 14 years.
I am a loving father of two kids.
I am a proud veteran of the United States Military.
I am an atheist.
I now attend a Unitarian Universalist church, but cannot bring myself to make the commitment of membership. I love the emphasis on social justice and the sense of community there, but I’ve become so skeptical of religion that I feel the need to distance myself from any incarnation of it.
The purpose of this blog is two-fold. First, I want to use it to clarify my own thoughts on religion and atheism, hopefully with some helpful dialogue from both sides of the issue. Second, if I can help even just one other person clarify his or her own thoughts on this important issue, I will have accomplished something significant.
