Introductions

[Skullymund]

[font=Times New Roman]A forum in which I may choose my own font, impressive.

Hello everyone, I'm Sonny, and my username is Skullymund.

My tale begins behind a curtain of religious delusion. From early on I had been taught about God, and had been taken to Church throughout childhood. Not until my teenage years did I begin to question my faith.

When I began highschool, I discovered Einstein and his theories of general and special relativity, which then led to my discovery of the big bang theory. After spending a great deal of time studying physics and cosmology, I became convinced, based on the mountains of evidence and research, that the universe could in fact exist plausibly without the need of God.

I spent some time as an agnostic, rather than an athiest. But increasingly I could smell the foul stench of organized religion about me. Around this period in my life, I discovered Sam Harris, and then the man who I chose to model myself after, Christopher Hitchens.

It is now of my opinion that the world needs to shake off the shackles of wish thinking. I am a staunch Anti-Theist, as Christopher might put it, and I'm not afraid of debate. Some say that agnosticism is a wiser course, but I say no. No, let us be free of it.[/font]

[OnceConvinced]

Hi Skully! Great to have you with us!

[font=Times New Roman]A forum in which I may choose my own font, impressive.

Hello everyone, I'm Sonny, and my username is Skullymund.

My tale begins behind a curtain of religious delusion. From early on I had been taught about God, and had been taken to Church throughout childhood. Not until my teenage years did I begin to question my faith.

It was the same with me but I didn't wake up until I was 40 years old!
](*,)

I spent some time as an agnostic, rather than an athiest.

I travelled the route from Christian to Deist (because I just couldn't let go of the belief that a god created everything) then to agnostic and then reluctantly to Atheist, when I realised that I just didn't believe in God at all. It was no longer a matter of sitting on the fence. But it took around 8 years to go from believer to atheist.

It is now of my opinion that the world needs to shake off the shackles of wish thinking.

Completely with you on that and you will find so are many other members here. Some Christians wonder why we bother to debate. Well the world needs shaking, so where's the best place to start? Debating with those that promote that wishful thinking.

Some say that agnosticism is a wiser course, but I say no. No, let us be free of it.[/font]

For me atheism was inescapable. There is just no convincing evidence that there are any gods, let alone anything supernatural at all. The evidence strongly indicates otherwise as far as I can see. Until someone proves otherwise I see no good reason to believe it.

[puddleglum]

[Replying to post 1 by Skullymund]

But increasingly I could smell the foul stench of organized religion about me.

This tells me something about your spiritual condition.

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.
(2 Corinthians 2:14-16 ESV)

[Clownboat]

[font=Times New Roman]A forum in which I may choose my own font, impressive.

Hello everyone, I'm Sonny, and my username is Skullymund.

My tale begins behind a curtain of religious delusion. From early on I had been taught about God, and had been taken to Church throughout childhood. Not until my teenage years did I begin to question my faith.

When I began highschool, I discovered Einstein and his theories of general and special relativity, which then led to my discovery of the big bang theory. After spending a great deal of time studying physics and cosmology, I became convinced, based on the mountains of evidence and research, that the universe could in fact exist plausibly without the need of God.

I spent some time as an agnostic, rather than an athiest. But increasingly I could smell the foul stench of organized religion about me. Around this period in my life, I discovered Sam Harris, and then the man who I chose to model myself after, Christopher Hitchens.

It is now of my opinion that the world needs to shake off the shackles of wish thinking. I am a staunch Anti-Theist, as Christopher might put it, and I'm not afraid of debate. Some say that agnosticism is a wiser course, but I say no. No, let us be free of it.[/font]

Good to have you.
I'm also a fan of the late and great Hitchens.

(Comparing the dictatorship of N. Korea and the Christian religion)
"At least you can f'ing die to escape N. Korea"

[help3434]

[Replying to post 1 by Skullymund]

Hmm. I don't know that it a good thing to allow people to post in such small type.

[Divine Insight]

[font=Times New Roman]It is now of my opinion that the world needs to shake off the shackles of wish thinking. I am a staunch Anti-Theist, as Christopher might put it, and I'm not afraid of debate. Some say that agnosticism is a wiser course, but I say no. No, let us be free of it.[/font]

I too have concluded that Christianity, or any of the Abrahamic religions cannot be true.

Like you, I have also studied science. In fact, science became my life's career. None the less, it wasn't science that ultimately convinced me of that falsehood of the Biblical God. Ironically it was actually the Bible itself that did that. Even if science and the Bible were 100% compatible I would still reject the Bible based on its own self-contradictions.

On the topic of "Atheism versus Agnosticism", I would like to offer my position on:

First off, with respect to all of the Abrahamic religions I am a very strong atheists. In fact, I am certain that the God described in the Bible cannot possibly exist as described. I am also an anti-theist when it comes to all the Abrahamic religions, and possibly some other as well.

However, I do no claim to be an "Atheist" in general. Science neither rules out a "creator God", nor does it explain how life as we know it could exist without a "creator God". Therefore science does not answer the question of why our reality exists at all, much less for why it exists as it does.

This is where the agnosticism comes into play for me. I recognize that a mystical magical element may very well be involved, potentially one that has some sort of higher consciousness, or intelligence. However, as I have already stated above, I'm certain that the Bible does not describe this higher entity (if it does indeed exist at all).

In the meantime I remain "Agnostic" in general, and I even lean toward the possibility that the Eastern Mystics may actually be onto something. I can't rule out Eastern Mysticism, and neither can science.

So I'm not about to become a devout "Pure Secular Materialist" (which would actually be a "religion" in its own right). Especially if it is being supported as truth, when the real truth is that every human is necessarily agnostic (i.e. without knowledge) with respect to the answer to that question.

[Divine Insight]

[font=Times New Roman]A forum in which I may choose my own font, impressive. [/font]

By the way, if you would like to use TNR font and keep it the same size as the font everyone else is using just include [ size=14 ] [ /size ] around your text as well as the TNR font tag (like I did to your quote above). That way people won't need to squint to read your posts.