Hello. I am an atheist who is putting his foot in the water here. For the most part, I’m just stopping by to see what this forum is about.
FWIW, I respect Christianity a ton. I have found the Gospels–in particular–to contain a unique and inspiring morality, the likes of which few other religions or intellectually oriented philosophies possess.
On the whole, I find fundamentalism to be unreasonable, unrealistic, and misguided. (Of course I could be wrong about that, but that is my honest impression of it.) I sometimes think that I would agree more with Christians if they treated the “red letter” portions of the Bible as central to their beliefs… and treated everything else as footnotes… or perhaps… “supporting arguments.”
I was raised Catholic. But around the age of twelve, I began to consider the idea of a godless universe to be most plausible. Philosophically speaking, I’m your typical naturalist/materialist. But I’d like to think I’m not devoid of a spiritual dimension. Last year, I regularly attended a small Quakers meeting for around six months. I don’t consider myself a Quaker or anything, but (if I might be allowed to express an opinion on it) Quakerism seems to be one of the most authentic and morally committed modes of religious thought I’ve encountered.
So, anyway… hello everyone. Nice to meet you all.