Greetings, Andrea! I notice you haven't been active at Atheist Nexus lately, excepting for one short post. <sigh> Sometimes it can seem a bit fragmented, with different groups for every interest. Please consider a group for socializing, where we talk about whatever's on our minds,Hang With Friends . :D You might feel more at home.

Thank you. I hope you too are doing well.

Hey! Excuse my own late reply, lol.

I find your literary preferences absolutely, uncannily similar to my own...! I also completely adore Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles... I just started The Witching Hour, since a friend of mine says that "it's Rice at her best".

I have no desire to read her Jesus books. I was so disappointed when she went back to Christianity... and Catholicism, no less. I was relieved & so happy when she announced she was "quitting christianity" and left the Catholic church. Now if she would just take that extra step... but she seems pretty deep in her "belief" in christ. I wanted to read her "spiritual confession", "Called out of Darkness". Knowing some of her bio, I think that she became an atheist for all the wrong & stupid reasons in the first place (it wasn't a logical, thoughtful realization)... I don't think she was a "true" atheist. Anyways, I digress.

1984 is also definitely one of my favourite books - it changed my thinking forever.
I absolutely love Chuck Palanuik... "Diary" and "Choke" are awesome books.

Also loved "A Handmaid's Tale," by Margaret Atwood, "White Teeth," by Zadie Smith, "Left Hand of Darkness," by Ursula K LeGuin...

...and classics like "Paradise Lost" and the works of Shakespeare (I actually took a Shakespeare lit course as an elective, lol). I've been reading through some of the stories in Ovid's Metamorphoses... I've been fascinated by the idea of transformation & "becoming" for years... I can see it almost everything I gravitate to...

Call of the Wild, Alice In Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass were my favourites as a kid.

I've been wanting to read some of Douglas Adams, but haven't had the chance to. I haven't read anything by Neil Gaiman yet either... maybe I'll have to. So many books, and no time -- I have 200 books on my to-read "bucket list" ...

Oh, and I've also been reading through "The God Delusion"

[us and our ridiculously long posts,eh, lol]

Thank you -nice page & pix!

Yep, I completely agree with you! :)

I do have photographic evidence of my formerly funky hair... I thought of putting some pics on here, so I guess I will... hopefully it doesn't attract too many creepers... I used a pic of me sitting on a stone lion as a profile pic on another site, and I got dudes saying "I rly wish I were that lion!" lol, I guess it's flattering.

And, as you can see, I also tend to write lengthy comments (mostly due to my overuse of ellipses), so no worries!! I like long comments!

You're into literature? What are your favourite books/authors?

Hello :) Your story feels very familiar... (except I was a baptized Baptist, lol) I suppose many of us have almost the same experience. I sometimes think those kids are who get free-thinking parents are so lucky... but I also feel like I learned a lot from my experience...

btw, I love your hair! I used to dye my tips with Special Effects' Blue Velvet & miss it

Anyways, us Canadian girls kick ass! ;)

Welcome to the busy discussion group "Origins".
Terry

Ah, joy. My mother was the religious wacko of the family, at least. She stopped exerting much control after I hit 9 or 10 years old. It helped that she's manic depressive and never had much energy for that sort of thing.

My father was really relaxed about religion, particularly considering that he was planning on becoming a priest, at one point.

Despite my ... essentially Atheism ... from the age of 5 or 6, I really wanted there to be magical stuff and an afterlife. I can relate to your period of constant prayer for Him to give you anything you could believe in. Obviously, I never got my answer, either.

Mass was a little more entertaining, for me. I was an altar boy for the last 4 or 5 years of my churchgoing life. It was something to do, at least.

Hmm, sounds like you approached Wicca from a sort of Pantheist angle or something. I was beyond the reach of religion, at the point that I dabbled with it. A little earlier in my life, though, I latched onto stage magic/illusions. I think that's the only place I ever found the wonder and the magic that I wanted from my religion.

You say it like there's something wrong with having to learn skepticism and critical thinking skills. I imagine I had to, as well. I was just always filled with scientific stuff and computer stuff, as a child. I had an unfair advantage. Hell, my father might have been one of those Atheists who maintain a false front because of family. His parents and siblings were all quite Catholic. One of his sisters became a nun. Never mind the fact that my mother is quite religious. I just wish he was still around for me to talk with about it, now that I'm out and getting more militant about my Atheism.

Hello Andrea
Welcome to this friendly meeting place with atheist freethinkers who recognise that fictional gods and crafty religions have always been used to deceive and control vulnerable superstitious people including defenceless children;
----and how tragic and inexcusable it also is that women and minorities have been oppressed these last two thousand years and longer.

Terry Meaden
founder of the busy group "ORIGINS: Universe, Astronomy, Life, Earth, Humans, Religion, Evolution, Darwin..." with its 300 discussion topics.
We invite you to join us and 1800 others.
http://www.atheistnexus.org/group/originsuniverselifehumankindanddarwin