RedBuckle (Texas USA)

I was sent to Catholic elementary school (not the dominant religion where I grew up - TX, USA) where I became terrified that my parents and I were going to hell because we were not Catholic (we never discussed religion or went to church). I was in 3rd grade when I asked my teacher if someone could baptize herself in case of emergency and promptly went home, took a bath and said ten "Hail Mary's" hoping that did the trick.

As I grew older I sometimes spent the night with friends whose parents made us go to church on Sundays and experienced a lot of Baptist, Methodist, Episcopal and Lutheran mornings. And a lot of embarrassment when I said the "Our Fathers" wrong and genuflected walking in to the pew, asked where the holy water was and how come there were no Hail Mary's included.

Basically, what I noticed from a very young age was not the message, but the differences and frankly, that just didn't reconcile well in my brain. Then began the quest to reconcile dinosaurs with Biblical teaching. I had actually seen dinosaur fossils, yet I had never seen anything but manmade materials in regards to religion. I didn't really buy the whole Christianity thing after that.

I lack the intellect to explain things like many folks can. I do not have the education, mathematic or scientific background to counter religious arguments. But what I do have is common sense and logic. There has never been a path to religion in my mind that was straight enough, or tactile enough to make good sense. Reconciling what I can see and feel with "faith" is very unappealing to me.