Greetings from Mont Saint Hilaire, Québec.

(Québec place names are almost always linked to some Saint or other. Even towns with a non-Catholic name get a Saint's name tacked on - like Sainte Émilie de Brompton, for example.)

I'm Jeff Schallenberg, and I'm obsessed with learning the early history of the Christian Church.

I have never been religious. My parents weren't, either, but they were pleased to send me and my sister Jill to Baptist Sunday School to get a little time alone.

When I married my Québecoise wife in Alberta in 1967, I HAD to take Catechism lessons so we could be married in the Church.

Now that I am retired, I am fascinated by the prevalence of fundamentalism in the United States. The current Republican Primary campaign is just shocking - Mormon vs. Catholic!

So, where did Christianity come from? What is the history behind the Gospels, the Apostles, the Resurrection, and so on?

I am hoping to find a discussion group here at the Atheist Nexus in which we can concentrate on documenting these and similar topics. Does such a Group already exist here?

Currently, I am reading Acharya S.'s ''The Christ Conspiracy - The Greatest Story Ever Sold'', and Michel Onfray's ''Atheist Manifesto: the case against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam''.

I'm looking forward to learning from you!