Sorry to register by September, and to say hello only now
Why those three months?
Lack of ease in English, first experience of a forum, new come back on these topics, lack of time, a bit of procrastination also maybe …led me to three months of silent readings

How did I get there?
I was searching comments about Epicurus on Anglo-Saxon sites, to broaden my point of views and breathe away from my usual frame. Then Epicure, as a key word, led me directly to the “myth of atheism” thread … from where I flew over the forum, and spent some time on the “theory of intelligent design” more for the discussion than for the topic itself, I must say.

Why to register?
To share and shake: Information, experiences, opinions? Yes
To participate (or try to)? Yes …
And also, simply because I appreciated the forum’s atmosphere and felt to do it.

Little stories …
I’m an atheist. Why to believe in what can’t be proved? Not a good reason in view …
Got the Catholic Education and felt the contradictions in the teaching, noticing may be even more the high lack of coherence between what those faithful people where saying and what they were doing … so it mainly sounded like another little story I was asked to believe in.
That is all behind now, the most important thing is that it probably reinforced my kind of critical mind, and led me progressively to atheism.

And false believes…
This summer, I realized that with the passing of the years, I had been intoxicated without noticing by some of those false believes which lay in my cultural frame… Most of them take roots in religions, so I went back on the topic in view to identify and throw them away efficiently. It happened to me as to a lot of people, I know, so the result will be to be shared, if I’m constructive enough on it. The aim will certainly evolve by doing, also.

What else?
I wanted it to be short and concise. Luckily I‘m not fluent in English, how many pages would it have been in French!!! Is there still a chance for silent reading?

Happy New Year!!!
So I wish everyone the very best for 2012, filling free to fill its own future with its own dreams

Welcome!!!

Hi!

Thanks very much for your welcome,
About English practice : I like this language even if stammering, at the present time
Beyond that, the most important is to make it usefull, I think,

Bienvenue, Annas'.
(That's about the extent of my French).
And yes, this is a good place to learn English, among other things.

Degemer mat, Annas'

A-hoi Annas' - welcome to the forum Hope to see you around the boards.

Welcome Annas',

Superb introduction & presentation.

Welcome Annas

Maybe sometime you can give us an idea of what your opinion on what the state of catholicism in France is. Is it declining rapidly ? Are most people just nominally catholic but don't really take it seriously ?

Thanks and ... trugarez

[ by chairman bill » Dec 27, 2011 12:37 pm , Degemer mat]

Coming from the "Gallo" side of Brittany, I don't speak Breton, or just a few words, and prefered to go dancing in Fest Noz rather than stuying the language...

[by Regina » Dec 27, 2011 12:34 pm "Bienvenue, Annas'.
(That's about the extent of my French).
And yes, this is a good place to learn English, among other things."]

Yes, languages may accept to be a little bit shaken when they look like barriers. On the other hand, I surprisingly found no French equivalent to this forum. May be there are but don't know where, and anyhow, the dimension of the topic is worldwide, not Franco-French, so ...

Beyond that, as a naive new member, may I ask one of you which of the following buttons is to be used to insert someone's text in a reply ?

Use "Quote" and insert the text you wish to quote.
If you want to quote a post completely, use the "quote" button at top right-hand side of that post.

Welcome to RatSkep, Annas', good to have you on board. I'm a frequent visitor to Bretagne myself!

Here's how to quote: http://www.rationalskepticism.org/feedb ... 22098.html

Welcome to the forum!

twistor59 wrote:Maybe sometime you can give us an idea of what your opinion on what the state of catholicism in France is. Is it declining rapidly ? Are most people just nominally catholic but don't really take it seriously ?

It's not that easy to answer the question. Figures differ a lot on the topic, probably as they rely on self-declarative surveys. The ones I have are coming from an online quantitative one (so?), published in "Le Monde des Religions, January 2011 & September-October 2011". Respondents ought to be French people.

In accordance with the article, religious practices and opinions can be representated as followed:
- Atheists: 34%
- Believers (not detailed per religion) : 36%
- Without established opinion, but asking themselves the question: 22%
- Without neither established opinion, nor asking: 8%

Furthermore:
- 34% of the Catholics are presenting themselves as ones, while not believing... (Tradition, loyalty, need to belong to a community?...)

Some other figures may give a more liable overview of the Catholic practices evolution:
600 priests were ordered in France in 1966, while they were only 89 in 2099, in accordance with the church establishment itself. That shows a strong decline.

Other survey, other figures, which stated that 42% of the French people declared themselves as Catholics in 2008, while atheists and agnostics were 24% each (Futuribles, 2009 (?)). In a last one (IFOP, 2009), 2/3 of the French people were said to be Catholics.

Checking if "Le Monde des religion" articles were available in free access (and they are not), I also found a few figures about the evolution of Christianism worldwide. They show that the average part of Christians is quite stable: from 35% in 1910 to 32% in 2009, with a major increase in Africa and America.
Most of the figures are in %, and with that century gap, ... it may lead to a lot of interpretations and misinterpretations, I think.
http://www.pewforum.org/Christian/Globa ... -exec.aspx

What I can end with is my own experience. Il live in a part of France which is said to be traditionally catholic practicing. Here less and less services are done by lack of priests; the participants are getting fewer and fewer, and more and more aging. Marriages and baptisms are still a part of the familial traditions, confirmations also but most part of the children stop catechesis after it (so when they are about 9).

The teenagers I know are coming quite reluctantly on the topic. It's too far from their own interests and lifestyle, what also mean that their opinion is not really done, yet.

And what about adults: it's not an easy subject of discussion; adults are quite reluctant to go on it too, not such as politics, for example. The people I know are often quite negative toward the religious institutions, but what about believes? It’s not that clear.

And thanks for the help for quoting, didn't find the information myself, at least now it works !!!

Hello and welcome... anyone who posts a picture of a polar bear in their first post and uses one as an avatar is especially welcome in my book!

Hello Welcome to the forum!

Very much enjoying your posts so far, looking forward to seeing you weigh in on other threads!

Spearthrower wrote:Hello and welcome... anyone who posts a picture of a polar bear in their first post and uses one as an avatar is especially welcome in my book!

In fact, that time, those white bears are more linked to litterature than to environmental issues, I should say, even if not so far either...