Introduce Yourself
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Hey all,
I'm relatively new to this site. I am commiting myself to eating more mindfully in 2013. I did not do a great job of following a healthy lifestyle consistently in 2012. I would love to add some friends to share support, recipes and laughs day to day.
A bit about me: Almost 30, unconventionally married, child-free by choice, queer, vegetarian, love video games, cheesy TV shows and action movies.
Cheers
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Hi everyone,
I'm not new to MFP, but I am new to this group. My boyfriend and I are joining forces with other family members to do a 6-month Biggest Loser competition this year. We actually started on December 30, so we're a few days in already. I was just looking for a few like-minded individuals to share this journey with me!
I'm 28, not married (obviously), no kids, 2 cats, recovering evangelical, and I spend entirely too much time on my computer. Hoping to change that this year.0 -
Welcome guys.... best of luck!0
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Hi, I'm Mel.
I've been here a little while, was on Livestrong before. I've lost 50+kgs, with about 40 left to go.
So much bad science on the boards here, just like Livestrong. Turns me right off communities. ;(0 -
I agree, mel, I hate having to deal with the bad science. I've mostly just tuned it out now.0
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I've been on here for about 4 months, lost quite a bit of weight. I am thankful there is a group of rational thinking people on here who don't just tell me to "pray and the results will come"0
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Hi, I'm Amy. I've been using this site sporadically for quite some time, but kept my page private. I thought that if I went public I'd be more serious about sticking to my goals.0
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You just have to find the thing that works for you. You are trying to lose weight for some reason and to accomplish that you are going to have to make some changes in your eating habits. You have to decide if losing the weight is worth more than eating the food that you want to. When you find your reason that is worth more than the habits that make you gain weight you will be able to stick with it.0
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Hey everyone.
I'm a 27yo queer child-free atheist from South Australia. Been godless pretty much forever.
It's so awesome to see so many people in this group! I've seen a lot of christian groups around, and I'm glad there's a hangout for us too.0 -
We are vastly out numbered and I am not entirely sure just how active the members that we do have are. You can add me if you would like a fellow atheist on your friends list though.0
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Hi, all. I am a 57 y/o heterosexual femaile. I am somewhere between Atheist and Agnostic. I am not superstitious and do not attribute everything from creation to my personal accomplishments and failings to the interventions of an imaginary sky god. With that in mind, I decided that I could not, "in good faith" so to speak, continue to blame my weight gain on my abusive mother and dysfunctional family. I have always been about 133 (my "military weight"). Over the past 10 years I gained weight and am now 162. It is time that changed. And I am the one who has to do it.
Anyway, I guess I have always been a nonbeliever, even though I was raised Catholic. During my recent involvement with my dysfunctional family I not only gained weight but, hold onto your hats, tried to turn back to the church for answers to why I was in such a situation. After actually reading the bible and, more importantly, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a realized what a glut of cognitive dissonance and bent logic Catholic dogma is made up of. I feel I have cognitively returned to sanity. Now its time I physically regained my health as well.
As you can see from my picture, I have one less item on my "bucket list"!0 -
I was also raised in the Catholic Church and I am glad to be rid of that ball of crazy. Congratulations on scratching sky diving off of your bucket list. I am also trying to get down to my military weight of 185. I think of a good way of describing me is Agnostic Atheist I don't know if there is or is not a god but I don't believe there is one. If evidence for one were brought forth then I would have to evaluate that in turn but up to this date no such evidence has been brought forward.0
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I was also raised in the Catholic Church and I am glad to be rid of that ball of crazy. Congratulations on scratching sky diving off of your bucket list. I am also trying to get down to my military weight of 185. I think of a good way of describing me is Agnostic Atheist I don't know if there is or is not a god but I don't believe there is one. If evidence for one were brought forth then I would have to evaluate that in turn but up to this date no such evidence has been brought forward.
Thats pretty much the Dawkins position.... can never be 100% sure, but there sure isn't much evidence...certainly nothing that indicates anything in the bible is true....0 -
Certainty is such an elusive thing. All we can ever do is a have a strong rational justification born from pragmatism. It is this reason that prevents me from being a gnostic atheist I am sure Dawkins would have a similar reason. Now if we change the context the verbiage can change with it. For example I can say there is no such thing as god in the same way that I can say there is no such thing as leprechauns.
Now one could say well now you have to prove there are no leprechauns because you said there are no leprechauns but people know what I mean when I say there are no leprechauns. It is just that people don't tend to go to such great lengths to defend leprechaun belief as they do with god. The truth is I just haven't seen any evidence of a leprechaun in the same way I have not seen any evidence of a god.0 -
Hi all --
I'm Henry. I've been on MFP on and off for about two years now. But, for reasons you can see in my profile, I've got a lot of good reasons to keep going on it this time, and it's going extremely well so far.
I have never been a particularly religious person; I guess I'm what happens when you don't brainwash your kids from a very young age. We never went to church regularly until I was about 10 years old. My inquring mind always had questions about how things in the bible could be true, but I never asked them or thought too long on them because...well, you just didn't do that!
Not to feed the whole "liberal college ruined a good christian boy!" myth, but my freshman year in college was really an eye opener for me. I took my first philosophy class, and all the questions I had always had in my head were laid out on paper, with thousands of years of thought and debate to go with them. How amazing!
That summer I worked overnights in a call center and had lots of time to read. Between the books from this philosophy class and the internet, I solidifed my atheism when I realized that I wasn't alone and I wasn't the only one who thought like this. And here I am today
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Hey, I'm Abby. I'm 24 years old, 5'3" tall, and 161lbs (about 170 at my heaviest).
I make my living as a singer in the Tampa Bay area of Florida, but I'm originally from South Bend, IN. I'm in a relationship with an awesome atheist man who is also my musical partner. We're both trying to lose weight, obviously for the health benefits and self-esteem boost, but also because being thin is helpful for career advancement in the music industry.
I just joined MFP last week and I'm finding it really helpful so far. I was so excited to discover that there is a group for atheists here! I didn't think I'd get into the social aspect of MFP until I found this. It would be nice to have a support group of people who don't think praying will make the weight come off faster. ;-)
Anyone in the group, feel free to add me as a friend!
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Hi, I'm a yo-yo dieter from Texas who has created and destroyed in frustration several accounts on here in the last few years. I hope this one will stick. I've got about a hundred pounds to lose and I'm going to do it one...by...one.
I was raised in a secular household. I was never told God existed but I was never told that God didn't exist. I figured out the latter on my own after having jumped into the former headfirst for a few years as a teenager. My parents were supportive of my beliefs except I was not allowed to tell my brother he was going to hell.
I'm in a mixed marriage - my husband is Christian and I am decidedly not even spiritual. We are extremely happy despite this fact. I hope to be as tolerant as my parents were with my own children, and like my parents, never stop giving them opportunities for curiosity and discovery. You don't have to indoctrinate anyone if you show them how to come to their own answers.0 -
I find it interesting that you are married to a christian. Is he just not that in to it or is it a case where you don't ever discuss it? I imaging if he were the preachy type it would get a bit annoying trying to live with him.0
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Hi, I'm a yo-yo dieter from Texas who has created and destroyed in frustration several accounts on here in the last few years. I hope this one will stick. I've got about a hundred pounds to lose and I'm going to do it one...by...one.
I was raised in a secular household. I was never told God existed but I was never told that God didn't exist. I figured out the latter on my own after having jumped into the former headfirst for a few years as a teenager. My parents were supportive of my beliefs except I was not allowed to tell my brother he was going to hell.
I'm in a mixed marriage - my husband is Christian and I am decidedly not even spiritual. We are extremely happy despite this fact. I hope to be as tolerant as my parents were with my own children, and like my parents, never stop giving them opportunities for curiosity and discovery. You don't have to indoctrinate anyone if you show them how to come to their own answers.
Interesting story. Thanks for sharing!0 -
Hi. I just celebrated my 3rd year of no religion. Easter was my awakening. I always had crazy theories that justified gods power, but in reality it was denial. I am happier, freeer, more open minded, and my critical thinking skills are better.
Saw a bomide meteorite yesterday. May have been the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. In an instant I knew we were all interconnected, and we are all one. Thought it was an alien ship, until I googled.0 -
I find it interesting that you are married to a christian. Is he just not that in to it or is it a case where you don't ever discuss it? I imaging if he were the preachy type it would get a bit annoying trying to live with him.
I fell in love with him really fast and hard for reasons that had nothing to do with spirituality. When that came up, it was not an important issue. He's not one of those hatey Christians that are always hellfire and judging. He has a strong personal faith and that's what he thinks makes him a good person. And to me, the end result of being a good person is the important part. I don't mind if he gives credit to God while I give credit to our effort and the help of other people. We generally know where each other stands on matters spiritual (although I have never actually said the A-word to him I think he gets it) and leave it at that.
I don't know if it's going to get more difficult over the years, but my four year old has started saying stuff like "Daddy do Amen and Mommy no do Amen" ... I'm going to do my best to be impartial and let the kids make their own decisions.0 -
I agree with the poster above.
My partner is Roman Catholic and it's really a non-issue. He is laid back about his religion and doesn't have a problem cracking a joke about the church and taking the whole thing with a pinch of salt. His faith on the other hand (as opposed to religion) is something I don't think I am in a position to question. Neither has he ever tried to convert me. Basically we have mutual respect for our believes and the view of the world.0 -
My first wife was christian with a capital "C". I was also christian when I met her but I was on my way out. I guess at the time I just didn't want to painted with the brush of atheism. The word atheist has a very negative connotation that comes with it. She said she wanted to read the entire bible cover to cover. I agreed and so began the end of our marriage. She did not want me to examine what we were reading at all. I guess she was quite literal when she said she wanted us to read the bible. It was just supposed to be reading and nothing more. She declined to go listen to a group of historians discuss the origins of the bible and she was furious that I went. She told me that the bible was handed down to us from God.
There wasn't any room for mutual respect with her. She kept quoting me 2 Corinthians 6:14: "Do not be unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and lawlessness have in common? What fellowship has light with darkness?" She said she wasn't budging so I was going to have to make my faith match hers. I quoted her Ephesians 5:22-33 "Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything."
I don't really believe it but I felt it was a fair play considering she was dropping that line of bull about me being darkness. The bible cause irreparable damage to our marriage and as a result she left me.0 -
My husband is quite a bit the same way about the Bible, in that he holds it in an esteem that I find a little inappropriate for a religion that prohibits idol worship. He was watching the Bible miniseries on DVD yesterday and they had gotten to a part where there was some killin' being done at which I said, "I don't like movies with violence" and he replied, "It's not violence, it's real. It actually happened." So I said, so did the murder of the woman who lived across the street from us, and that was plenty violent. Not sure if he got it or not but he didn't complain that I didn't want to watch the movie with him. (Movies in general are not really my thing and so he's used to me not watching them with him). But his faith, even when I find it absurd, isn't something that would cause me to leave. But sometimes I wonder if one day his allegiance to God will overcome his love for me. It hasn't yet. I hope it never does.0
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That is a legitimate fear and I wish I could say it was irrational but I have heard countless people actually brag to me that if their love of god ever came in to conflict with their spouse they would leave them in favor of god. I hope that is not the case for you.
I like how your husband seem to think the word violence means imaginary. It tells me he isn't the brightest bulb in the box or the more likely explanation is that he just wasn't listening to you and he had a scripted defense already written in his head. He assumed you would claim it was fictional and you claimed it was violent instead. So he ended up saying "It's not violence, it's real. It actually happened."0 -
I honestly think his response came from the fact that he thinks that if it is Biblical then God sanctioned it and it is not a bad thing. I hear it a lot from evangelicals when the subject of God-mandated genocide comes up. God hates disobedience and that's what happens when a population goes astray.
Think of Noah's Ark. One of the most popular nursery decorating themes. Animals! Boats! Animals in PAIRS on a boat! Rainbows! Adorable!! But it's pretty gruesome, actually, to think that all the REST of the animals drowned. As well as all the people, including the babies. How can babies disobey God? And surely not 100% of the kids and adults were such horrible people. Somehow that never gets talked about.
Anyway, he was talking about how he wants his children to see the Bible series (I assumed he was talking about his other sons/my stepsons, who are much older than our children together) and I said, well, as long as they're over 13 and they want to, fine. But I remember even when I was seven years old I walked in on my parents watching Roots (more violence of the type that that actually happened) and had nightmares for weeks of the few seconds of brutality that I witnessed. My daughter saw the part of the Bible series where Abraham was fixing to take out Isaac because God wanted a sacrifice and has been asking me for days now "why dat man want to cut dat girl" (Isaac had longish hair in the movie).
Reality is what it is, and parents do mistreat their children, and people do crazy stuff in the name of God, but these are not themes for a four year old to explore.0 -
I have to agree with you. The themes presented in the bible are way too gruesome to expose a four year old too. I also find it completely dishonest to expose them to the Sunday school version of the bible stories only to tell them the real version when they are older. Which is what happened with me.
When I was a kid I bought in to everything hook line and sinker because every adult in my life was telling me the kid friendly version of every single story there was. As I got older and my assignments were to read the actual bible I remember complaining to my parents and teachers about how key parts of stories were left out. Like it or not these bible stories were different from the stories I was told as a kid. For that matter I felt pretty badly deceived when I learned they lied about Santa Clause too. I defended his existence quite strongly as a child.
To be honest I run in to issues with the bible in the book of Genesis. It is the first book of the bible and I can't even get through that before I start firing out questions that no believer has yet been able to actually answer.0 -
Glad to have found this group.
I am 26, almost 27, married with an almost 5 year old!
I was 12 years old when I told my mom that I did not believe in god. Prior to that i went to church every week, roman catholic at that, so it was not a blind decision. It was made out of logic and the fact that when people preach about god and jesus, that I feel they are almost in a fog and it just seems so disillusioned.
I never really associated myself as an atheist but I guess I am?!? It has only been the past year or so that I have begun to say I am in fact an Atheist.
My husband is also non-religious... I don't think he is as against religion as I am and he has not been open about the anti-religion as I have always been. I guess because I did not hide the fact that I do not believe and I think the bible is a farce that it helped him to be more open about how he felt.
We are obviously raising our daughter as a free thinker, open minded and logical!
We view religion, all of them, as a cult.
Anyway, I am glad to see a group for Atheists on here!0 -
Well hello there meg and I am glad you found us as well. I am raising a 15 year old that is autistic. I have a daughter as well she lives primarily with her mother who is a fundamentalist christian. That is like nails on a chalk board to me but I am work through it.
I look forward to hearing your perspective on our discussions here.0 -
Hello everyone,
Other than a few a posts in one of the other Atheists groups here, I have mostly lurked in this particular group. I think I feel guilty at times for being a lazy Atheist. Now is as good a time as any for a little more background.
Anyhoo. I am married, with 2 boys (10 & 14).
My mother was a Baptist, but church was something we only attended sporadically; for me it was just a place where they made me go sometimes, like being dragged to the mall when my mother wanted to go shopping. :laugh:. I remember going to several different ones as a child, but I probably spent more time looking around than actually paying attention to what was being said. For some reason my brother was baptized, but I never was; not that it really mattered to me. I think he just expressed more interest in doing it. I don't consider myself as ever having believed in God or religion.
My wife is Catholic, but I don't think that religion is extremely important to her. She certainly does not try to convert me, and so far our children have not even attended a church. We've never pushed our sons towards one side or the other.
I just try to live my life, without having to worry about some higher power taking care of anything for me.0
