Well, Hello There

[blankppr]

A little about myself? Well... I'm 19, a sophomore in college, and I'm an agnostic. I grew up in a Christian home. First I went to a Catholic church and then, because me and my brother complained about how dad never went with us, we stated going to a Protestant church. I still have some fond feeling for Catholic church but it's just because it's one of those nostalgics things. I'm a little unsure about what I believe to be honest. I find myself believing in some type of after life because I'm a duelist (I believe that the brain and mind are two separate things) and I somehow can't seem to believe that without there being an afterlife. Plus, I kind of believe in ghosts. Also, it seems like whenever I do put my mind to prayer, my prayer comes true. (The weirdest time being when I went over a friend's really late at night and by the time I had gotten to the dorm, he was asleep. I didn't want to go home because it had taken me an hour and a half to get there and I kept calling and calling, thinking in my head "Please answer." Finally, in desperation, I thought "Dear God, please let him answer," and immediately after I finished thinking it, he answered. That moment kind of shook my beliefs though it could have been a coincidence.) I know, more than anything though, that I do not believe in the Christian god and that I do not believe in creationism. All I know is that I will probably never be able to come to a definite answer and I do not agree with the people in this country who blindly follow religion and spout the fallacies that turn into urban legends of the religious community.

[minorwork]

If that prayer stuff is workin' then quit shootin' sparrows and go for the Lotto. If you're gonna' be a bear, be a grizzly.

By the way welcome to the den of the chewed upon skeptics.

[chasm]

Hey, MW - love what you've done with the hair. That yellow and blue thing just wasn't cutting it.

[minorwork]

Yeah, chasm, I got tired of lookin' at it, and lorryfach mentioned something about it. I left it to honor my son as he was the artist. Even at 23 he is unsure of his talents and where they lie. We initially scanned the photo for the avatar here. Took it from a frame where the wife had kinda hid it. Well my son put back the doctored eye patch thing. I thought it would take her a week or more to spot the joke photo we copied to paper and cut out. There are a lot of photos she has put up in the living room. She walked in and in less than 2 minutes asked what happened to my 1991 photo. Gee, it was just a joke. The new one is from 1977 at the drop zone. I'd post a current photo, but David wants to increase members here not get tossed off the air. But I might.

Hey blankppr this was my old avatar.

21

[phrog]

Welcome Blank, I do hope you'll become an active member here. I'd like to hear more about your experiences. My guess is we can move you far laft of the agnostic stand. I do believe in coincidence, I do not believe in prayer. Start a thread below and we'll discuss it.

[blankppr]

Hey, thanks for the welcomes. I should try the lottery. lol. And MW, I wonder why your wife noticed... lol

I sure, it was just a coincidence but it was eerie enough that it shook me. Other things have never really amounted to: "Prayer did this." But that really weirded me out since I had been calling for 15 minutes and I knew that he was drunk when he fell asleep. It really freaked me out at the time. Since, as a child, I was pretty religious, things like that easily shake me. I also went from believing in the Christian God, to realizing I didn't believe in Jesus as part of God, to being Wiccan (very briefly and not to seriously), to believing there's a god out there who doesn't really care whether you worship him or not and doesn't care how you do it, to what I am now which is just... unsure. I tend to pick and choose things to believe by what makes sense to me in a real life aspect but prayer is something I never really figured out my stance on. I do partially believe that there's no such thing as a coincidence (only in the sense that I think that most things happen for a reason though... not a preordained one...) but... I don't entirely believe the whole prayer and then answer thing was because I prayed. It left me wondering whether it would have kept ringing if I hadn't thought that. It's one of those situations I wish I could rewind and chose differently, just to see what would happen. I don't know. I'm really not sure on my stance... mainly because, while I do not want to be religious, I do what to be a spiritual person (I guess it deals more with being in touch with my self rather than just living.). Which is a bit of a contradiction and makes things complicated. It's hard to state my opinion on this because my opinion is highly fluid at the moment, I could easily lean either direction. This incident with the prayer and telephone answer just happened last Thursday and with a busy weekend and midterms, I haven't gotten around to sorting out my feelings about it.

As you can probably tell I'm a mix up of agnostic feelings and a religious upbringing.

BTW Phrog, you said start a thread below and I'm not sure what you meant. lol

[minorwork]

If you scroll to the top of this page you will see in the upper left a directory tree with gnawed.com at mostest upperest leftest. Click it and see the general topics. Click on one like Science, Evolution, and Logic. You will see the various threads. To start one click the "new thread" button above the threads in forum header, it will be on the left side, just above the announcements, it has a pen over a paper. Click it and give your thread a title like, oh, "The Science of Visions" leave your thought for posterity, hit the preview to see what it'll look like. If you can, get the spell checker working, its above the smilies. "abc" over the check mark. Use it and submit. I don't know about the others but I like a joke here and there. I'll let you find out for yourself what Grumpy likes.

Hope this be some help.

[phrog]

I tend to pick and choose things to believe by what makes sense to me in a real life aspect

You already have the key to critical thinking. Apply liberaly, you'll do fine.
Oh, and I was referring to opening a thread in the fora below this one. Musings will do just fine.

[stan2reason]

Hi Blank! I'm glad you're here and I'm looking forward to hearing your story. 19 though huh? Damn I'm starting to feel old on this forum.

[grumpytheBright]

A little about myself? Well... I'm 19, a sophomore in college, and I'm an agnostic. I grew up in a Christian home. First I went to a Catholic church and then, because me and my brother complained about how dad never went with us, we stated going to a Protestant church. I still have some fond feeling for Catholic church but it's just because it's one of those nostalgics things. I'm a little unsure about what I believe to be honest. I find myself believing in some type of after life because I'm a duelist (I believe that the brain and mind are two separate things) and I somehow can't seem to believe that without there being an afterlife. Plus, I kind of believe in ghosts. Also, it seems like whenever I do put my mind to prayer, my prayer comes true. (The weirdest time being when I went over a friend's really late at night and by the time I had gotten to the dorm, he was asleep. I didn't want to go home because it had taken me an hour and a half to get there and I kept calling and calling, thinking in my head "Please answer." Finally, in desperation, I thought "Dear God, please let him answer," and immediately after I finished thinking it, he answered. That moment kind of shook my beliefs though it could have been a coincidence.) Can you answer a question for me? Why would god grant you this rather insignificant request and ignore the prayers of the thousands who were in the way of Katrina, or the millions who were in the way of the NAZIs? Who are you, or what have you done, to deserve this special consideration? I know, more than anything though, that I do not believe in the Christian god and that I do not believe in creationism. All I know is that I will probably never be able to come to a definite answer and I do not agree with the people in this country who blindly follow religion and spout the fallacies that turn into urban legends of the religious community.