More of a ranting than raving atheist

Well, what do I say about myself? As a child I was a typically religious little thing, taken to church each Sunday, confirmed, and became a member of the church choir. It was as a member of the choir that I first began to realize there were things of more interest than religion. I put a shilling each way on a horse called Mr What in the Grand National then had to go to church to do a solo at a wedding. All through the ceremony I kept thinking: Have I won anything? I had, 2 shillings and sixpence, it came in third. Gradually, I began to lose interest in the choir and church youth clubs. I joined the army where I met a priest who used the word f*ck a lot in his sermons, not quite the thing I had been taught to expect at school and in the choir.

I bought a book by a historian, Robin Lane Fox, entitled The Alternative Version. Made me think, I can tell you. I later married and had three children, two of which were twins. The second twin was born severely disabled. I was advised by a doctor to take the hospital to court for negligence but all the 'experts' my barrister approached said it was an 'accident'. I thought: if doctors, who are supposed to save lives can cause such damage to a child then lie about the cause there's no way they were made by a caring god. After my daughter died, I used to go to Canterbury Cathedral to sit and think about her. That was until the cathedral authorities started charging an entrance fee. That was it as far as I was concerned. I became progressively more atheistic until I eventually joined the National Secular Society and signed one of their 'Declaration of De-Baptism and Renunciation of Religion' certificates. I became a fully-fledged atheist.

I joined the Brights but the last time I looked in at their UK group it seemed I was in the company of a bunch of Allah-lovers. Haven't been back since. I've had a few neurological problems and still have to rest for periods throughout the day, and my wife has Parkinson's Disease. But at least I can feel content in knowing that as I have had children I have at least done my bit towards the evolution of our species. It does not worry me that I will not exist after I die, that death is the end. I feel sorry for those poor souls who are so egotistical that they need to feel they will exist, in some form or another, for eternity. I've had enough experience of life to know that if I had to live forever I'd go completely and utterly insane!

[Smellyoldgit]

You'll find some good, sympathetic company here.
I too have been de-baptised.
I too have never won my fortune on a horse.
I too was in a sunday school choir - but got booted out for drawing computers in a hymn book!
Never had the saddness of disability - but I help support a Downs Syndrome niece.
Keep smiling.

[Eva]

welcome to our humble forum, philo.

Welcome aboard. You'll enjoy yourself here.

Thanks everyone. Now, there's all those posts to look through ...

[Waddlie]

Wooh, another Brit from the South East. Welcome Philop, you'll have to come along to one of our London beerfests...

Welcome, dude.

PS. We are not a misogynistic bunch of limp dicked cunt pricks