I just recently joined the board, and I thought a blog I wrote last week would give a good history of my "religious" views n' stuff.  Yes, I'm just copying and pasting here, but the point is the same.  I look forward to being involved!

Written March 24th, 2012:

In honor of the Reason Rally, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on religion.

First off, I consider myself Agnostic.  It wasn’t a conscious choice, it’s just the way it is.  My parents tried their best, but after being suspended twice from CCD and being refused confirmation, they felt they brought me as far as they could and the rest was up to me.

Church to me was a part of life I just didn’t understand as a child.  It was like going to the doctors so they could look up your nose.  You didn’t know why, bit it was just something you had to do.

Then, they started to teach us the bible.

I must admit, I’m an antagonist.  I don’t know why, but I love pushing people’s buttons.  I have a knack for figuring out what pisses you off and use that for my own amusement.  It was during these bible tutorials that I think I learned and refined this skill.

The first bible story I learned was Noah’s ark.  As taught to us, the moral was not to be vain.  You see, in the twisted version I learned the story explained why unicorns don’t exist anymore.  Apparently, unicorns were so confident and vain, they refused Noah’s help, thus drowning with the rest of the world.  Now, I’m not going to list here all the holes I saw in this story as it was told to me, I’m sure you’ve asked the same if you are reading this.  My problem was I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.

I didn’t really question adults as a child, I just trusted they knew what was best.  That is until they told me the story of Noah’s ark, and actually expected me to believe it really happened.  I guess this is the point that I started reasoning things out for myself.

Next came CCD.  I don’t remember why I was suspended the first time, but I know the second was because I tried to convince the rest of the class that the story of Adam and Eve was bullshit.  My reasoning was that if the story were true, we’d all be related.  Adam and Eve had children.  Their children, as brother and sister, would have had to have sex to continue having children.  Wasn’t that a sin?  It didn’t make sense.  

After a couple long meetings with church officials, my mom convinced them to allow me my communion, but after that I was done.  I can’t say this disappointed my 8-year-old self.

Religion continued on in my life of course.  I sat through weddings, Christmas mass, and am even godmother to my cousin.  To me, there really was nothing wrong with religion.  The people around me didn’t seem to take it too seriously.  It seemed religion was a compilation of stories that were designed to instill morals, and to that extent they were successful with me.   I consider myself a compassionate person.  I’ve never hurt anyone or stolen anything.  I will bend over backwards for my friends and family, and just yesterday gave up my seat on the bus to an elderly lady.

My views on religion changed once I moved to what is considered the baptist ‘bible belt’.  After three days of living in my new townhouse, I had at least 6 different church groups come to my door wanting me to join their congregation.  Problem is, if you tell them you’re Agnostic, they’ll tell you how it’s now their job to save you.  If you tell them you’re Catholic, they’ll give you the stink eye and get away as quickly as possible.

I used the “Catholic method” when meeting new people, it’s a great way to weed out the bible thumping ass fart crazy evangelicals.  The first thing a Southerner will ask when meeting you the first time is what’s your name.  The second is what church you belong to.  After awhile, I was tempted to become Jewish just to really get a rise out of them.  Some were good people, but for the first time in my life I found people not wanting to talk to me or bad mouthing me simply due to my religion, or lack there of.

You see, I don’t care what religion you are, I just care about the type of person you are.  If you refuse to talk to someone based on how they spend their Sunday, I won’t consider you a decent person.  But to some, that’s more important than being kind and helping out your fellow man.  What’s more important to you?