Groovecat Joins The A-Team

You may have noticed that we have a new author here at HDC. His name is Groovecat and he recently wrote Religion and Sexual Predators for us. I asked him to tell us a little about himself and here is what he had to say:

Born and raised Roman Catholic. Had issues with it early on. Asked one too many times “but who made god?” in catechism and spent a lot of time with my nose pushed against a spot on the black-board that the good sisters used as punishment for asking too many questions. Favorite childhood story is “the Emperor has no clothes”.

Jack of all trades by vocation, musician by avocation. Chaser of women, catcher of few. Hedonistically free. Could lose a few pounds, but hey, who couldn’t, huh? Enjoys his martinis, John Steinbeck novels and the salmon-goat cheese pizza at Tapestry in Los Gatos ( available only in the summer from the out-door wood-fired pizza oven, by request). Favorite movie? Aliens with Sigourney Weaver. A classic story of man vs. nature, along with a kick to the status quo of the time by making the hero a woman.

Hired gun and musical mercenary. Spends his free time sleeping, eating, breathing and watching t.v.

Deconversion story to follow.

The A(theist)-Team is growing! There's me, you're Incorrigible Ring Leader with a Heart of Gold, Johnny the Erudite Superhero, and now the  Intrepid Groovecat.

Questions For You

Some days the creative juices flow easier than others. Sometimes I just can't think of great ideas to share with you. I'm sorry, I am a bit tapped out lately. More great stuff will come, I'm sure. I'll just have to pray about it, I guess. "Dear Mighty Invisible Pink Unicorn...."

I'm going to share some lolcats while I take the opportunity to ask you some questions.

1. Do you have any questions or thoughts you'd like to share with HDC? You can email us at HeavingDeadCats@gmail.com



2. Do you have a deconversion story you'd like to share with us? Send us an email with your story. We'd love to publish it for you. Reading how others have unshackled themselves from religion can be helpful to people who are struggling with such a decision.

Rise of the Gnostic Atheist: A Deconversion Story

Alias: GMNightmare
Name: Jesse
Date: 29 July 2009
Birth: 1988 C.E.
Gender: Male

In my beginning, I was born to both a new mother and new father. My birth was a rather large event to my extended family, for I was the very first great grandchild. As my mother’s family is very close, of course many made an appearance. Near birth, I was blessed and baptized by my great grandfather under Christianity.

Under such pretenses I assume many would suspect that I was raised under a very religious setting. This was luckily not the case. It is worth mentioning that my mother’s ancestors stem from a long line of clergy, and they are all fairly religious… And while my mother is also mildly religious, my family couldn’t seem to find a church that we fit into.

Sure, my family tried—I understand that we were almost sucked into Mormonism. In the end, the situation basically turned out to be a lax kind of religious attitude. There was definitely more church attending during my younger years, but we went less as time progressed. Both my parents worked difficult and long jobs, and Sunday just needed to be an actual day of rest… as well as spending time with their kids.

I vaguely remember somewhere around the age of 10 or so… well, actually quite clearly, a day dining at a restaurant. My parents posed a question, of what we (the kids) thought of hell. My personal response gave the more “good” you where in life the better you would live in heaven... Hell didn’t really exist to me even at this point in my life. My sibling’s response was far cruder; basically amounting to saying a certain relative of ours should go there.

At this point, my parents informed us that our great grandfather had done some “research” into it (Biblical studying hardly amounts to research) and came to the conclusion that hell didn’t really exist as a place. All hell basically amounted to was nothing, you died and that was it. Much like the atheist point of view of death in general actually. This certainly made more sense at the time to me than some torturous place.

Johnny Shares His Deconversion Story

Our resident superhero has posted his story for you to read. Also I changed the Testimonials page to the Deconversion page. I always hated the title of it but it took me awhile to come up with a better one in Deconversion. Testimonials are for AA meetings and churches, if you ask me.

So I wanted to bring to your attention Johnny's story, which I found quite interesting and inspiring. I think we're very lucky to have him on our team!

If you would like to share your deconversion story, you can email it to us at heavingdeadcats@gmail.com. I think it's good for us to share these stories because we all step away from faith and religion, and into atheism and freethought in unique ways. It's helpful to read the stories of others to see that we are not alone on our path, even when it seems like it.

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver - My Favorite Poem

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

from Dream Work by Mary Oliver
published by Atlantic Monthly Press
© Mary Oliver

Why am I sharing this?