Hello all!  As I'm sure you've guessed by now, I'm new here.  I stumbled across this place a few days ago and just felt like I had to join.  Most everyone I know (with the exception of my husband) is fairly religious.  My parents are Southern Baptist, my father has been a Deacon with the church for over a decade now.  I used to attend church with them, when I was a child, but when I entered my teens I pulled away because I didn't want to live a lie.

I just couldn't buy into it.  Logically, it didn't make any sense.  I never considered the Bible to be anything more than a collection of fairy tales...  Now I sometimes read the stories to my own children, right in between Goodnight Moon and The Cat in the Hat.

I've spent a lot of time studying religion.  Not formally, but still fairly in depth.  I've read every religious text from every religion no matter how obscure or outdated... I needed truth.  I needed answers to my questions and the only place I ever found any was in science.  For a very long time I considered myself agnostic.  Who was I to say for certain that God was an impossible entity?  I wrestled with this for years, until I finally came to terms with what I really am and really believe. 

This has helped me a lot.  Now I tend to live more in the moment.  Life is short, there's no heaven or hell, just this, right now.  It goes by too quickly to mourn it, I choose to celebrate it.

I'm a stay at home mom at the moment, but before that I was a Graphic Artist and aspiring novelist.  I write all of the time, every day, without fail.  Most of the things I've written thus far are science fiction or fantasy, I'm really just a geek when you get down to it.

To sum me up.  I'm an atheist, duh.  I'm sort of a hippie, I'm completely liberal, I love british tv shows, coffee, politics, movies, hiking, pop culture, music...  I'm fairly easy-going, really.  This place seems to be much the same.  Everyone has been very nice so far and I love that.  Most forums or discussion boards these days are so vile and hostile.  I have no time for that in my life, so I'm thrilled to see how cool everyone here is.

I look forward to getting to know everyone better and oh my word, did I really just type that much?  My curse is verbosity.  :P

-Tracie