Yo

[Arctic_Guy]

Alright, I suppose I have to do this as well. *sigh* I hate introductions, because I can't make them properly...because they are never short. Don't say I didn't warn you...:sorry1:

Bah, all whining aside, let's get started. First off, I'm a 23-years old guy from Finland. I was raised in a rather religion-free home (it's just one of those topics that we never seem to have a need to talk about), though as religion is a compulsory school subject (State Church can be a bit of a pain at times, besides the fact that part of your taxes go straight to them if your a member!), I was introduced into the world of overly cleaned up Lutheric-version of christianity. We mostly concentrated on the journeys of the apostles and the story of Jesse (as we sometimes call him. Hey, if the europeans wanted to change his name from Yeshua to Jesus, why can't we do the same? ), and into the general history of church. On 7th grade we get into more specifics about the different sects of the church that we have (Laestadianism, Pentecostalism, etc), and 8th and 9th grade were reserved for every other religion in the world. Since we started religion classes on 3rd grade, that means that we have some 4 years about christianity, and barely 2 about everything else. I think you can understand why I currently think that this system needs a serious overhaul....

Anyway, later I went through the confirmation (it's not compulsory, rather a age old tradition. Plus, they're not "hit their heads with a bible 'till they believe" type of things either, they're pretty laid back youth camp-style meet-ups. With bible study.). After that, I suppose I could say I had my weird period. I wandered the philosophical wastelands somewhere between pantheism, polytheism and I suppose deism. Then I realized what I was doing and came to my senses and finally understood that I had been an atheist all along. There is not a moment that I can remember that I actually believed in a "god", the bible and all that had the same relevance to me as my mother reading me bedtime stories by H.C Andersen or Brothers Grimm. They were just stories. The time I spent wandering the before mentioned "wastelands" was more to figure why are there so many religions and why do people believe in them, rather then because I believed that there had to be such beings or being.

So here I am today, a Gnostic Agnostic Ignostic Atheist with a sorta-kinda lean towards secular humanism. Noe I know that that four word litany is going to make more then a couple of people to raise an eyebrow, so I decided to make another thread to explain what exactly it is that I mean by it. You can find the thread in Atheism DIR

I have a few interests, perhaps the biggest being history, and warhistory in particular :drool: I'm also interested in astronomy and science in general, however I'm not exactly very well versed in them, but I do my best. But please don't even try to ask me anything math or quantum related....

Other then that, I can't think of anything too important. If there's something you want to know, just ask Oh, and I apologize for any mutilation of the English language that you might have to endure with me :slap:

So, I will be seeing you lot around, hopefully

 

[mycorrhiza]

Welcome to the forums!

Interesting read! It seems like quite a common path, and I'm glad that you finally found what you believe in.

Your education system on religion doesn't sound very good at all, sadly. I prefer the Swedish system, since we put a lot of focus on other religions than Christianity, but there's still a long way to go.

Isn't it close to 5 am in Finland? Did you just wake up or have you been up all night?

 

[Revoltingest]

Greetings!
Such a long intro.....I'll just make some unfounded assumptions about you.

 

[Gharib]

Welcome to RF

 

[Marco19]

have a nice trip in RF

 

[Arctic_Guy]

Welcome to the forums!

Interesting read! It seems like quite a common path, and I'm glad that you finally found what you believe in.

Your education system on religion doesn't sound very good at all, sadly. I prefer the Swedish system, since we put a lot of focus on other religions than Christianity, but there's still a long way to go.

Isn't it close to 5 am in Finland? Did you just wake up or have you been up all night?

Thanks, nice to be here.

And no, it isn't a very good system albeit it's not a horrible one either, as it not in the nature "this is all real, you have believe", but its rather laid back, and as I said, cleaned up view into christianity. Heck, I think I learned about hell outside the classes, though it must have been mentioned at least once. There is an alternative to it though, called "life stance education" (elämänkatsomustieto), though I only heard about it a couple of years back. Its more focused on stuff like Human relations and moral growth, Self awareness and cultural identity, The community and human rights, Me and my planet (taken from a leaflet from the official et-site, meant for English speakers). The biggest problem however is that if your parents are members of the State Church, you are automatically shoved into religious education. No possibility to appeal for a change, as it is in the law. :help:

To be honest I can't see why we still have to have that particular institution, it's a bloody social club anyway. Bah. :ignore:

And yes, it was almost 5am when I posted that. And I did stay awake until then. That's my normal weekend

Greetings!
Such a long intro.....I'll just make some unfounded assumptions about you.

Likewise :jester5:

 

[wubs23]

A guy from Finland?

hmm..

Do you do rally races? ^^