Hello my name is Benjamin Porter and I am an Atheist. This simple statement can grant you a lot of hardships no matter where your at. I'm not sure if this is especially true in Kansas or not, but I know it has caused a lot of people to get angry at me.
When I first accepted my atheism I was 16 years old and I enjoyed the music of Bad Religion. I ordered a t-shirt of the bands and was ridiculed by one of my best friends for it. His opinion on it was that the shirt offended Christians because it had a crossed out cross on it. I told him if disagreeing with beliefs was offensive that the Christian t-shirts offended me. I will always remember the response he gave to that. His response was that one was a belief system to live your life the other denies belief systems and makes life pointless. Therefore it is an asshole move to wear a shirt that takes meaning away from peoples lives.
I've always found this interesting because I don't think my life is meaningless. I am now 21 and am still friends with this individual. I have also been yelled at by many other people because I supposedly make fun of their beliefs. Now I don't bring my beliefs up to strangers I consider that to be quite rude, but I am often asked what I believe in. I assume this is an attempt to preach to me. I than tell them what I believe and will debate against their points. At that time I supposedly become the asshole even though they asked.
So my Kansas experience seems to be people don't mind that I'm an Atheist, but i better stay quiet about it. I have heard a lot of statements and about a lot of policies that would not fly in several states. I want to blog about them and get this out there. I also want to blog my opinions (from this limited perspective) on issues in the Atheist community, and philosophy in general.
As I learn more about the site I hope that I can make this an enjoyable reading experience and share more of my story growing up in Kansas. Now a video i just stumbled upon by Meridian Frost. I found it quite intersesting.
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