etceterae

Wow. This is amazing; I hadn't expected so many people to reply and so quickly.

And you all are (for the most part) so non-judgemental! I suppose it's where I come from that's given me an awkward experience with overzealous faith. I live in the Bible Belt, after all. =]

I don't believe that I'm "lost" or have no goal because I'm an atheist. Is it necessary for a divine being to determine for me what I am to do for my life? I would rather choose my own path of my own volition and passions rather than have it spoken to me.

One more thing: and no offense, musicmom; I'm just going on something you touched upon =] It really bothers me when people say that they can simply ask for forgiveness when they die, and their deity will grant it to them. In that case, I don't see what holds people back from murdering without cause and thinking, "If I ask for forgiveness, it'll be okay."

A rational counter to this could be that one has to truly feel remorse and then ask for forgiveness for any deity to grant it. If so, then what if a person was killed in order to prevent him or her from doing something worse (blowing up a building)? The sin has not yet been committed by the imagined sinner, but the killer has taken matters into his or her own hands and prevented the sin from ever happening. The killer might not be able to feel remorse - after all, he or she just prevented something terrible from happening. But he or she also committed manslaughter without a tangible reason to (the supposed sin had not yet been committed). Thou shalt not kill. And there is no remorse. Can this person be granted forgiveness, in that case?

On a sidenote: OH MY GOODNESS! LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! I get to be in the 11th grade soon! So excited! So incoherent! XD

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