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"Sounds like you've skimmed my writings"

I did only read the last 100 or so posts, so it was ,I'm sure, only a portion of the thread. When drawing conclusions about someones belief system we have a tendency to compare it to our own, 'cause lets face it, there all different, and if they don't agree, we often feel attacked and attempt to defend it.
I have no idea obviously what you believe in or don't for that matter. What I have a hard time understanding though, is atheism.
If i didn't believe in God, and an afterlife, then we would be just animals, and anything goes. We are not all created equal. Murder, theft, rape, molestation are ok. The law of survival of the fittist is the only law, and do what ever 'feels good'.
Humanism is a belief system created by atheist to keep the masses in line. Its core beliefs are that we are all equal, and that crimes against humanity, ie; murder, theft,etc. are bad. But, by whose standard, and based on what, the teachings of Hamurabi, Moses, Plato, Buhda, Christ, Confusius, Stalin? That's horses88t.
Whether, God created man or man created god, is yet to be proven to many, but my life experiences have shown me things that science and mans current level of understanding can't explain. Real miracles, no other explanation, period.
Maybe they'll come up with some understanding in the future, but I'm not taking any chances.

"It's funny (peculiar) though, as I was reading your post I thought to myself, this sounds like a pastor. "

I'm not a pastor, just a dumbass follower of the Church of Rome. My outlook on the spiritual stages of man won't apply to all. Just that I have made observations on my own life and others around me. I was an un-confessed atheist, in my twenties. In my thirties, I came to realise, with the recognition of the finality of life, that there has to be something more.
What that is, not sure, but my catholic up-bringing seems to have many answers, not all, but many.
I suspect from your post that you had a nun as a teacher in your youth as well. I will take the liberty to assume from your writings that perhaps you went through some of the stages I described in my post. That you experinced the stage of looking for meaning to life. I cannot determine if you've found what it was you were/are looking for (I believe we look for some peace of mind).
Am I closer to understanding your background at least yet?
This has been interesting, I've only discovered this website recently, and it has been very stimulating mentally. Being from NJ makes it hard to have any type of intelligent conversation with the overabundance of liberals.
Laugh when ya can!

If i didn't believe in God, and an afterlife, then we would be just animals, and anything goes. We are not all created equal. Murder, theft, rape, molestation are ok. The law of survival of the fittist is the only law, and do what ever 'feels good'.

I find it interesting how you go from, if ‘i’ didn’t believe, to a principle that extends to all others, we would be just animals and anything goes. I don’t agree that we are just animals and that anything goes. Murder, theft, rape, molestation are all ok, only if i agree that it’s ok if it happens to me, because i can reason that that isn’t in my best interest and animals can’t.

But, by whose standard, and based on what.

You know, I find it interesting that the argument always is, ‘if you don’t accept this one system of thought, you cannot reason, you cannot use any of history to work something out, it is either this or a vacuum, you have to start all over and can’t use the sum total of all human history to work out something better.’ This is what your are saying here. This doesn’t ’stand to reason.’ I don’t have to reject all of history because I don’t accept a single view, use all of it.

my life experiences have shown me things that science and mans current level of understanding can't explain. Real miracles, no other explanation, period.

If you have miracles, fine. That you know exactly what their source is ??

I suspect from your post that you had a nun as a teacher in your youth as well.

No, not at all. That whole ‘philosophical, stages of life, and a sort of melancholy resignation to the vagaries of life’ had the same flavor as some writings I‘ve run across.

That you experinced the stage of looking for meaning to life. I cannot determine if you've found what it was you were/are looking for (I believe we look for some peace of mind).

Whenever wasn’t I looking? When did I stop? How can anyone really stop? Doesn’t some part of you die when you do? You think I can question every last little detail as I am here and think that I don’t think I can learn something?