As I write this the 34th Annual American Atheists Conference is going on 20 miles away from my house, and I can't go because I'm watching my kids! I'm excited that Richard Dawkins is so close, but so darn frustrated that I can't attend and meet Dawkins. *Sigh*
At least I'm not stuck in traffic right now fighting through our lovely Spring snowstorm.

Anyway, my name is Eric and I've been a self identified atheist for about 12 years. I was raised in a very conservative evangelical home in which we prayed before every meal, attended church every Sunday and Wednesday night, and even went to Bible school and Summer church camp every year. My aunt was a faithful follower of Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart, James Bakkar, and Jerry Falwell. In fact she donated thousands of dollars to their respective empires until she died.

After tuning in to my innate skepticism, which I had at a very young age, I finally established total disbelief in the the silly fairy tale stories about a talking snake, forbidden fruit, woman born from man's rib, Noah's Ark, resurrected messiah, walking on water, parting the sea, heaven, hell, etc.

I've been married for almost 10 years, I have three children, and I'm living out the American dream in Twin Cities suburbia. However, I can't help but feel that I'm missing out on an important social element that my children's friends participate in: belonging to a church. Sometimes I've considered joining a local church just to simply get my children involved in more social activities. My daughter is involved in Girl Scouts (a religious organization) and my sons are almost school aged.

My 4th grade daughter currently has a negative reputation of being godless because she has disclosed to her friends that she doesn't believe in God. Furthermore, her PUBLIC school ostracizes her, her lack of belief, and her parents' secular teachings by not only recognizing "God" but also encouraging her and her peers to pledge their allegiance to a nation that serves under Him every morning.

So to summarize, I'm a frustrated atheist parent.


But I also like to have fun and not take issues too seriously!

Hi ,I typed alot of responces to your post but my crappy connection reset.
Zappa,you can't be all bad.Uncle Meat was kinda weird stuff

Zappa is a mad musical genius.
I find his work to fall into two columns: Completely awesome or Completely weird. For me, there is no in between.

Stinks you couldn't see Dawkins. I told an awful joke when we met him, and I think he finally thought it was funny, or maybe he just laughed so he wouldn't embarrass me. I think he seems pretty straight forward though, so he probably did think it was funny. haha.