I am married to the most awesome woman, and father to the three most amazing children in the world. When I am not working, I find myself at home with my family in our small home in north Georgia.
I started off in life as the oldest of three children in an evangelical Christian home in northern California, and as such, I had the longest exposure to my father's religious indoctrination. I'd like to say that I had an idyllic childhood, but that would be untrue. My parents divorced shortly after my tenth birthday, but were estranged under the same roof long before my mother left my father for another man out of state, which was the reason for the actual divorce. After my mother's abdication, my father turned to his religious beliefs for consolation, and unfortunately dragged us along with him. Still, we loved our father and we knew he loved us as well, even if he was a bit unpredictable and heavy-handed. It was easier to follow our dad's beliefs while he was still a major part of our lives, but he remarried in the 1990s and because the woman he married was (and is) completely selfish, we were left more and more to our own devices.
I joined the military after high school, and had to watch from the other side of the country as my family disintegrated because of the bad decisions my father made to keep his obsessively narcissistic wife happy. My youngest sister was the first to flee religious belief. She glommed onto the progressive teachers at her (my former) high school and lost her religion. Of course, she disowned our father a few years later because he once again set aside his religious beliefs and allowed his wife to hurt his daughter. He did worse to our other sister for her a few years later; he let his horrid wife tear his daughter to shreds after her daughter had been exposed as my sister's homewrecker.
Needless to say, my father's poor performance as a religious Christian gave me pause concerning my own religious beliefs. I had always had doubts, but my I had refrained from pursuing those doubts too eagerly because of the high level of love and respect I had for my father. When I stopped respecting my father so much (I still love the old man), it freed me up to pursue my own system of belief--even though the process took a few years (and is still ongoing). This blog is simply a record of my trials and tribulations, as well as any thoughts I may have regarding contemporary atheist or scientific thought.
Last note. My wife and I do not force any system of belief upon our children. We would prefer that they take a secular, humanist perspective in their own lives, but if one or more of them choose religious belief, that will be their prerogative. I was given no such choice, and I had to find my way to where I am now, atheist and aspiritual.
I started off in life as the oldest of three children in an evangelical Christian home in northern California, and as such, I had the longest exposure to my father's religious indoctrination. I'd like to say that I had an idyllic childhood, but that would be untrue. My parents divorced shortly after my tenth birthday, but were estranged under the same roof long before my mother left my father for another man out of state, which was the reason for the actual divorce. After my mother's abdication, my father turned to his religious beliefs for consolation, and unfortunately dragged us along with him. Still, we loved our father and we knew he loved us as well, even if he was a bit unpredictable and heavy-handed. It was easier to follow our dad's beliefs while he was still a major part of our lives, but he remarried in the 1990s and because the woman he married was (and is) completely selfish, we were left more and more to our own devices.
I joined the military after high school, and had to watch from the other side of the country as my family disintegrated because of the bad decisions my father made to keep his obsessively narcissistic wife happy. My youngest sister was the first to flee religious belief. She glommed onto the progressive teachers at her (my former) high school and lost her religion. Of course, she disowned our father a few years later because he once again set aside his religious beliefs and allowed his wife to hurt his daughter. He did worse to our other sister for her a few years later; he let his horrid wife tear his daughter to shreds after her daughter had been exposed as my sister's homewrecker.
Needless to say, my father's poor performance as a religious Christian gave me pause concerning my own religious beliefs. I had always had doubts, but my I had refrained from pursuing those doubts too eagerly because of the high level of love and respect I had for my father. When I stopped respecting my father so much (I still love the old man), it freed me up to pursue my own system of belief--even though the process took a few years (and is still ongoing). This blog is simply a record of my trials and tribulations, as well as any thoughts I may have regarding contemporary atheist or scientific thought.
Last note. My wife and I do not force any system of belief upon our children. We would prefer that they take a secular, humanist perspective in their own lives, but if one or more of them choose religious belief, that will be their prerogative. I was given no such choice, and I had to find my way to where I am now, atheist and aspiritual.
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