Hello from North Wales, UK

Well the Avatar is one Professor Plumb from the 

Cluedo board game as you know. It was intended as a side-swipe at religious 'cluelessness'.

But anyway, nuff of that all ready since. 

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Why am I here? 

BACKGROUND

I was 'brought up' in a very strange household. Indeed, the more I think about it, the more it depresses me. So I'll stop, stop right there. 

My mother was a non-devout Welsh Baptist from the south, and my father a staunch Atheist and scientist from the north. Dig?. They are so different as people it astonishes me how/why they are together at all. But that is a side matter.

I was coerced/forced to attend Sunday school until the woman who ran it died. Then I stopped going. Or maybe mother realised I wasn't going to turn out the way 'she wanted'. Twas the same when we went to her parents house down south. They attended the famous 'Rehoboth' Baptist Chapel in Britton Ferry, Neath. I say famous because the revivalist of 1905, one Evan John Roberts, use to go there. My mother later found out she was distantly related to him. But by then it was too late. But at that point, I wouldn't have called myself an 'atheist' at all. Just non-religious. I was just a kid. We did RE at school as well. and I disliked that as well. But still. 

The point is that being forced to go was NOT what made me resentful towards religion. It was something way more basic. 

The Children's Bible I had, was like, to me, 'just another book'. That's a crucial point. The 'story' or concept inside it or the writing or the text itself was the basis of my 'denounciation' of everything religious. Because it was so, so 'unreal', 'don't be silly', 'non-scientifically' provable, or even plausible. I made up my own mind there and then.  How can anyone think that that is ACTUALLY how the earth came to be etc, when all evidence shows otherwise? How? My answer would be that kids are forced to see the Bible - not just as a book - but as something way more profound. Some essential life necessity they have to take everywhere with them. My parents left me to my own devices. Maybe they knew they had such 'differences' and religious stuff was a minor thing to them, who knows. 

In my view, The bible is a document. A belief in god is a separate issue. Being religious is a separate issue again. When you get all three together in one person, you get what is called 'devout'. So I guess looking back, my mother wasn't devout at all. Her 'level of religiousness' was mild, or she kept it to herself - and didn't force it on me, or argue with me, after I stopped going. My old man was apathetic all the way through. As a Physics teacher he didn't care.  

As I got older, I saw more and more stories about wars - based on religious differences - nothing else, and reading more and more material about evolution, psychology, philosophy, poetry, sociology, science and everything else non-religious my leaning away from it moved even further. I had, by then, firmer ideas, and more concrete thinking about the whole issue.

But my annoyance hit it's peak in 2002/3 when I went to the north of England. I saw and heard the Asian/Islamic contingent arguing - 'my religion is better than your religion' blah blah blah. That was such a turn off. I never went back there. But it hit a chord inside me, and from there on in, I called myself an Atheist. Rather than just non-religious. 

HERE AND NOW

And now ten years later, here we are. The internet at our feet, and Atheist organisations cropping up all over the place. The opportunity to write something here, and 'vent' some kind of expression about how I feel, having had a strange life in religious terms, being able to 'set the record straight' is a great feeling of, dare I say, 'release'. I wonder how many other people have had similar experiences, or just even harsher ones of having religion forced on them. 

I've been on Twitter and become part of the 'Twitteratti' as it were for three weeks or so. And what an explosion of outrage I found. I didn't realise how angry some people are. How vitriolic their disdain. How explosive their polemics and postings could be. Just reading the tone alone is enough to realise the degree of feeling there is out there.

My intention now is to carry on, trying to become more involved in the whole process. Because my belief is - if you feel strongly about something, YOU CAN make a difference, and add to the discussion. 

Jonesy.