When are you going to post some pics of you in Hawai`i? :)

Awe sucks, you are my first friend. Thanxs A.D..

Kriss

I am lucky in that regard! My paternal grandparents actually met at an old-fashioned Christian tent revival. :) And my maternal grandmother was an Irish Catholic. Luckily (and amazingly), my parents weren't much into religion and never wasted our time by trying to impose it on me. I feel sorry for people who were raised differently. I'm so glad you've seen the light (so to speak).

Even though I've always been an out atheist in my family, I often hide my atheism in social and professional circles. I live in the most church-dominated state in the Union, outside of Utah or the Deep South. I always say that Hawai`i might be the most successful missionary conquest of all time.

As one indicator, there are *a lot* of scary fundamentalist bumper stickers here. Things like "Why worry? God's in control?" & "If you don't believe in hell, you better be right!" (adorned with bright-red flames). And prayer is expected at every imaginable gathering of more than a few people. Particularly as someone who wasn't born here, I don't need the social grief of quixotically rebelling against that (though I do quietly help secularist organizations).

Those bumper stickers sound inconsequential. But I find them depressing as, well, hell. Imagine going through life believing that you weren't supposed to *use* your God-given mind (i.e., worry) - or that an all-powerful Being might force you OR YOUR LOVED ONES to *burn* for eternity because you or they had lustful thoughts . . . or just weren't baptized the right away. What a sad, fucked-up existence! Talk about a living hell.

Thanks for inviting me here - and for letting me rant a bit.