hello, new to these forums

[RDCH]

Alright, hi everyone,

I'm a young (18) and (I like to call myself) ambitious man, and have become very much interested in religious debates. As a matter of fact I thought Youtube was not enough for me to expand my thoughts, so I looked for a forum on these subjects, and found this one.
I am intrigued, not only by religion, but also by politics and the "mysteries" of language (I study English & German)

A brief overview of my (non-) belief:

As a young boy, the only notion of God I had was that he would punish me if I did something bad. Of course my parents used it only as a fact to scare me. I'd define my parents as atheists, or in any case, not more religious than agnostic atheists.
In the primary school I attended , religion was an obligated subject matter, and so I had two hours of religion per week. When I went to high school, (in a Jesuit school, but not very religious anymore), I would have defined myself as an agnostic... or perhaps a deist.
But i just accepted that fact that God was there. As I started to ask myself questions about religion, I quickly became atheist... I'd love to strive for equal respect towards atheists in America, because in Western Europe, there is no such thing as "atheist discrimination".

I will aknowledge the rules of the forum, nl. even though I might not have the same point of view as others, I will stay polite and respectful.

Greetings,

RDCH

[otseng]

Welcome to the forum.

[Kuan]

Welcome to the forum! Im 18 also, I think youll enjoy it here as there is no bias towards any side.

[McCulloch]

Welcome
We like people who can disagree (otherwise there would be no debate) but can remain polite and respectful while doing so (that way the debates can remain debates about evidence and ideas not about people and personalities).

[ChaosBorders]

Alright, hi everyone

Hello. Nice to meet you.

As a young boy, the only notion of God I had was that he would punish me if I did something bad. Of course my parents used it only as a fact to scare me. I'd define my parents as atheists, or in any case, not more religious than agnostic atheists.

Wait...they're atheists but they used the notion of God to scare you?

I'd love to strive for equal respect towards atheists in America, because in Western Europe, there is no such thing as "atheist discrimination".

Certainly not in France anyways. Would be hard with almost half their Catholic population claiming to be atheists. I've found that tidbit of information bemusing ever since I discovered it.

[RDCH]

Wait...they're atheists but they used the notion of God to scare you?

Yes, they only "used" it not in the sense of "believing it". Compare it to a scary fairytale

And by no means I regret to have had religion taught, because, -true or not true-, it is still undenyably of historical importance

[Lux]

Wait...they're atheists but they used the notion of God to scare you?

That's exactly what I thought One of my favorite things about my parents being agnostic/atheist was that they denied the Hell tale which other grown ups tried (and largely succeeded...) to scare me with

Welcome to the forum, RDCH

[Murad]

Greetings; ill be your host for today