I was born and raised a normal kid with normal parents who in the summer sent me to the church across the street when I was 5, presumably as a sort of free day care in their busy day (I'm not criticising them). The affect of the "cool stories" and the easing of the young minds' questions on death, hatred, etc by the words "God" and "heaven" quickly gave way to rational thinking. I hated Christians for a few years then for a few more I accepted them with pity. For the last 15-20 years it has become apparent they really need to be kept in check! I don't mean a religious war ;) I just mean let's not be so afraid to tell them we think they believe in a child's bedtime story and should grow out of the hypocrisy - their not a hell of a lot better than Muslims and at times a hell of a lot worse!!!

Enjoy your life and come to grips with the fact that when you die, you die. That doesn't mean there aren't wonderful unexplained things in the universe and it doesn't mean you can't tell your kids there's a Santa Claus. Just have fun and be good, and enjoy the one life you have.

I have two beautiful children, a wonderful wife, two university degrees and work in a blue collar job. Life can be good and life can really suck but life IS...simply IS. You don't control the universe of contributing factors in your life and never could. Sometimes it will suck. Sometimes it will be awesome. But when you look at how your life has been, the part you think about most is how you dealt with it. I regret the bad things I've done or the times I've given up and let someone else take the wheel for a while (the way Christians do every day). I cherish my inner strengths and the way I think they've positively affected the world around me via my interactions with it. Ask yourself - are you a real person or a follower of someone who else?

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