Greetings, Introductions and Salutations

Greetings all! My name is Jake, and I’ve been graciously given the opportunity to share with you some musings on the subject of religion. Given that most of what I’ll be writing about is beliefs, I’ll start with something I firmly believe in, a good introduction. Introductions are like first kisses: you only get one and generally speaking they’re hard to get over. Here goes.

When I sent the mail off asking to write for this site it was so I could fill the shoes of a religious writer who was spiritual, but not necessarily religious. This describes me to a T. Now, I know what a lot of people will think. They’ll think that means I’m some wishy washy agnostic who can’t make up his mind about whether or not he believes in a God. Quite the contrary. I’m a firmly entrenched believer in “something” and through the course of my writings I’m sure that “something” will become clear to an extent.

I was raised in a staunchly Baptist family, my upper elders (the grandparents, great aunts and so on) being practicing fundamentalists and the not so upper elders (my mother) being a pseudo-practicing liberal Baptist. Though I have attended weekly services at various points in my life I’ve never been baptized, and never quite felt at ease in the surroundings. This wasn’t because of any particular negativity I experienced, more perhaps a personal and unexplained feeling of unease.

In my high school years I ran with a very liberal, extremely out there crowd of atheists, secular humanists, pagans (Wiccan, Celtic, you name it) and a smattering of folks from all the other major world denominations of monotheism. These days my friends are still an across the board representation, though most of my closer confidants tend to be skeptical spiritualists (if such a term even exists).

I’ve debated militant atheists and fire and brimstone preachers in public forums, I once even carried on a year long philosophical discourse with a very dear Mormon friend (and at one point companion) of mine. If there’s a merit badge to be gained for seeking out God, I’m well on my way to earning it.

Anyway, that’s me, and hopefully will give everyone at least a brief introduction to who’s doing the talking before I drop you in the deep end of the pool.

Next time I’ll discuss: The Deep End

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