Hello, I'm new to this site. I was apprehensive about joining, because between my Facebook and Twitter profiles, I wasn't excited about adding another social media platform to absorb more of my time.

That said, I think I will like this site, one of my current objectives is to do outreach to local freethinkers to form a more cohesive community.

A little about me: I have lived in a rural, small town community 16 miles west of Seattle for 47 years. I was raised Lutheran, but questioned things as a kid. As an adult, I lived a secular life and didn't spend much time questioning the supernatural. At some point in the mid 90's, I looked at the tenants of what defines a Christian and decided that I did not fit the definition.

I became more politically aware during the G W Bush era; in the build up to the 2008 elections, I was newly divorced and had a lot of personal time to reflect and reinvent myself. As the political-religious rhetoric gained ground, the claims of the "Christian nation" thing, and "if you don't love God, you're not an American", was the point that I became a militant atheist, I was pissed off.

I have calmed down over the last 12 years. I have come to except that a diversity of belief should be respected as long as others don't use religious beliefs to suppress the rights of others - that is my threshold that defines if I will publicly criticize religion and call others out on their beliefs.