Hello all

[Gageman]

Not sure how to open this, but that ain't gonna stop me from trying.

 

  Regardless, the name's Gage. I'm a lonely 16 year-old atheist stuck in the middle of Texas. My family thinks I'm a joke and I have very few friends, which is part of why I'm reaching out to people on here (hopefully at least some of you are in the 15-18 range so I can make other high-school aged friends here.) I deconverted around 3-4 years ago after some personal review of Christianity. I've only really ever met a few other atheist/agnostic/etc. people here so I've only really had those friends on the internet. At school I'm either working, hanging out with the GSA club (which has been my only oasis from the toxic religious folk here, even though their members are all Christian too they're at least not obnoxious), or drawing like the loser wanna-be artist that I am. I joined about a month ago and meant to start making posts here, but life started getting in the way at the time.

 

 Hoping to have some good discussions on this site!

[BroTom]

Hi Gageman........welcome.   I'm kind of new here too.

I am in awe of you for taking charge of your own beliefs in early adolescence!  I was a much slower learner.  Maybe not now, but some day in the future, you will be able to look back and appreciate what an accomplishment that was.  Your post sort of forced me to look back and remember how painful the teenage years were.  That's a good thing because it also makes me appreciate that I survived it and then moved on to my own adult life.  If there's anything I'd like to say to you it's to please think and work towards laying the groundwork for your independent adulthood that is coming up before you know it.  Please try to focus  on the hope that your life is going to get a whole lot better.  Hope you stick around.

Tom

[Loopylou]

Hello Gage.

 

Sorry, I'm not in your age group either. It's odd that you say you've met very few atheists or agnostics. If you lived here in Australia, you would have met very few Christians! The US is unusually religious, which must make it difficult. I hope you find fellow teens here, and I hope you stop putting yourself down too -- you're an artist, not a wannabe anything, and definitely not a loser. I'm hoping for some good discussions here too.

 

Linda

[Gageman]

50 minutes ago, BroTom said:

Hi Gageman........welcome.   I'm kind of new here too.

I am in awe of you for taking charge of your own beliefs in early adolescence!  I was a much slower learner.  Maybe not now, but some day in the future, you will be able to look back and appreciate what an accomplishment that was.  Your post sort of forced me to look back and remember how painful the teenage years were.  That's a good thing because it also makes me appreciate that I survived it and then moved on to my own adult life.  If there's anything I'd like to say to you it's to please think and work towards laying the groundwork for your independent adulthood that is coming up before you know it.  Please try to focus  on the hope that your life is going to get a whole lot better.  Hope you stick around.

Tom

Gosh, I had a lot more time to think about life as a kid than most since I used to spend so much time waiting around in waiting rooms from my Mom's health condition so don't feel too bad about not taking charge in those things. Hopefully that means you had a more preferable adolescence than I.

I'll keep trying to prepare with the plans I've set out as as a Graphic designer. I'm Photoshop certified and am currently working on college credit and scholarship opportunities so I feel like I'm making progress there.

Thank you so much for the words of encouragement!

[Gageman]

50 minutes ago, Loopylou said:

Hello Gage.

 

Sorry, I'm not in your age group either. It's odd that you say you've met very few atheists or agnostics. If you lived here in Australia, you would have met very few Christians! The US is unusually religious, which must make it difficult. I hope you find fellow teens here, and I hope you stop putting yourself down too -- you're an artist, not a wannabe anything, and definitely not a loser. I'm hoping for some good discussions here too.

 

Linda

I've visited Australia before, I had no idea there were so many atheists there! (then again I didn't get the chance to stay long) I'll add Australia to the list of countries I might move to if I have the chance.

You're also right about my habit of putting myself down, I really need to work on that. Though I'd say I'm more of a student artist than anything else right now. Here's a recent project of mine.  

[SkepticsApprentice]

Hello there!

 

It's very nice to 'meet' you. I have a bit of an artistic bent myself, at least if my college major in animation and illustration has anything to say about it. I've visited your state once, but since it was only for a couple of days (for a relative's wedding) I haven't gotten to experience the true religious-fueled insanity that Texas can be. Just fortunate, I guess. 

 

I'm sorry to hear that you don't have many friends–although I probably shouldn't talk too much, since I can be a pretty introverted person in real life myself. Being surrounded by hardcore conservative Christians all the time has to be pretty tough at times; at least that's how I envision it. Feel free to correct me if that's just a negative stereotype about Texas; I definitely don't want to make assumptions if I can help it, but that's what I've heard and read about the place. 

 

Hopefully we can have some good discussions here in the future; I'm a relatively recent de-convert and so you definitely have more experience than me, even though you're a bit younger in terms of age (I'm 19). It doesn't often happen that young people seriously question beliefs that they've been taught to adhere to since birth, so I'm kind of curious what got you to question the faith in the first place? For me it was the question of 'objective' morality, but that was soon followed by research into history, science, philosophy, and the Bible itself that ultimately did it for me. I still have questions, of course–that's the human experience–but I'm content to make use of science and reason to find the answers, as opposed to my previous assumptions that all knowledge and wisdom were contained within the pages of a Bronze-Age holy book. 

 

Well, that's enough out of me. Welcome to the forum man; I hope you find a place that's just as supportive as any church, without all the harmful indoctrination that real church entails.