Welcome to Gaia! ::

i'm atheist. i live in britain, which made coming on gaia weird. gaia is mostly populated by americans, and i started reading a lot of topics accusing atheism of just being a "teenage fad"... american teens rebelling against their parents.

it was a weird experience for me as my parents are atheists, and to some extent so were their parents. most of my friends are atheists. britain's politicians are largely atheist or at least keep their religious views very quiet, and according to a recent bbc poll, 50% of people in britain are atheist. atheism is all i've ever known. i didn't know there were so many christians out there.

i guess it's just differences between countries, but over here it's no fad. there's no debate about atheism here... it's just normal. people don't argue with each other over it, because everyone knows that you can't change an atheist's mind, you can't change a christian's mind, you can't change a muslim, buddhist, wiccan or anyone else's mind. so why bother arguing?

but on gaia they flame each other, they troll, they insult each other. maybe it's just because most gaian's are teenagers. but still, it's weird why religion matters so much on here.

It's funny, because I'm a Christian, and when I joined here, all I could think of were the words of Gandhi:



I grew up in a Presbyterian Christian home, but I was never very involved with Christianity until a few years ago. I believed in God, but I didn't necessarily care what He had to do with my life, or anything like that. I just sort of did what I did because my parents told me to.

Now that I'm a bit older, I make my own decisions about what I believe. I have decided that when you do exactly as a man at the front of a sanctuary says, without question or a spiritual desire to do so, then you are following a cult. I do attend a Baptist church on a regular basis, but I do not necessarily believe in organized religion. The main reason I attend is for fellowship, and to worship the God I love.

Really, for me, Christianity is not a religion, anyway -- it's a relationship. It's something that I develop with God on our own terms.

As far as Atheism being a "teenage fad", I do believe that much of it in teenage America, especially the South, is, in fact, a fad. Whether it is or not is not up to me to decide per person, though; rather, it is left to the individual. I do know, however, that a good many scholarly people do choose Atheism as the more "logical" path.

When you talk about not being able to change someone as an Atheist, Christian, Muslim, etc., I believe that to be true. You can share what you believe in, and of they are moved to accept that, then it is their choice, but if they do not feel inclined, then it is not anyone's job to force it upon them.

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints. That's the big long way of saying Mormon. Which is Christan. Which is not fundamentalist (that was after Joseph Smith died and there was a split in the church over who should be the next prophet. I'm on the side that followed Brigham Young after the split, have the name tags, punch, and volleyball, and are on South Park all the time). We don't believe in polygamy, we respect women and aren't against women's rights, I can wear pants and go to any level of school that I want. However, I shouldn't be smoking, drinking (alcohol, hot caffiene), having premarital sex, or swearing (gotta work on that one). I am not perfect, and I don't think I ever will be.

I kind of like the fact that the church was founded by a fourteen year old, because I figure that there's less corruption that way, because I always figured that a kid wouldn't declare that women are less equal then men because Eve got her and Adam kicked out of the Garden of Eden, or twist the gospel around to fit their own desires and views. And I've always liked the, as David Bowie put it, "Let the children use it, let the children lose it, let all the children boogie" idea.

I think the point that we try to get across the most is just love everyone and help eachother the best we can. Haven't been to church in a while though. Probably should start up again.

I really don't what I am. I guess what I am really is Apathetic, meaning I have no interest in whether God exists or not, because I don't believe it affects me in my everyday life. There's not really a reason I am, honestly. My mother was raised Pentecostal, but she quickly grew tired of organized religion. She just told me to do whtever makes me happy, which I guess is lucky for me, since a lot of parents force their child to be what they want, and if they're not, disown them for it.

I'm living now in the American "Bible belt" in which the people around here are very Christian and very (probably) judgemental of you if you aren't. I try not to get into too many religious discussions (actually, preferably, none at all), for I end up feeling somewhat isolated since I'm not a "Jesus Freak" like they are. I can't help it, it's just not the path for me.