Roland Joins AFA Forums.

[Roland]

Hi All,
I'm a mature aged guy (still married by some miracle...and I don't mean religious) who probably has always had an inquiring mind and always thought that religion was not quite "rigi-dig" even at Sunday school as a 5 yr-old.
I thought the images of suffering on the cross were awful and related to nothing logical.
In my early twenties I tried to become a Catholic in order to permanently acquire the attentions of the most beautiful girl I had ever met. However, this did not come to pass, mainly because I could not become a Catholic after all. The lesson I gained from that little foray into religion was that it was divisive and dictatorial and only caused pain and rejection to someone who simply wanted to love and be loved.
I also found that I could not do the required mental and emotional gymnastics, nor repeat the required spiel with any sincerity (not that sincerity seemed to be an essential....they just wanted you to say the "right" things and do the "right" things at the right time).
I was also always sceptical of anything paranormal or unscientific.

Initially I found Bryan Paterson's Faithworks blog to be an interesting motivation to contribute and argue, but I have to say that the level of personal abuse directed at me, combined with the constant wild distortions of "logic" and deleting of any telling posts that were difficult to counter, have made me less interested in contributing lately. I mean, why bash your head against a brick wall?

It was, in fact, ironically, Bryan's recent reference to AFA that made me look it up, so here I am.