I have a confession: Can you forgive me?

We’ve all said our share of stupid stuff (I have my own list), and you certainly aren’t among the worst offenders in either incarnation. How about we just offer a general amnesty for stupid stuff said and agree that we’re all starting with a clean slate as of now?

Some atheists are anti Christian, some are not. I am not. I see good things in Christianity. Although I believe there are no gods, I see the advantages for some, and I believe many people are better off having a God.
I am sorry you are feeling uncomfortable. I don’t want you to leave.
I don’t agree with all your opinions, but I want you to feel comfortable giving voice to those opinions.

I’m just bad you’re back and active.

For the record, I’m not Christian, but I’m not anti-Christian. It’s your right to believe what you want.
However, anything I see as proselytization will get my back up.

Agnostic is part of what I am, but being agnostic doesn’t inform everything I say, do, and think.

I don’t recall the NaturalMineralWater persona, but @Apparently_Im_The_Grumpy_One seems like a productive member to me.

I remember him and didn’t guess it was you. Happy to have you here in both incarnations! We need more grumpy Christians in the tidepool!

I recall the name but not for any reason other than I thought it was a cool name. You do not need forgiveness from anyone here because we all say stuff we wish we hadn’t.
I only wish that one lone jelly hadnt made you feel bad enough to leave and to come back under another name.

I don’t know what you are referring to but I wouldn’t worry about it. The problem is that too many people are leaving Fluther, many for the reasons you give.

Never heard of your former name & if someone told me to reel off a dozen or so users here, yours would not be one of them. That’s because you, along with the vast majority here, I personally find unremarkable, no bad intent, just simple facts.
Anyway yeah, stay or don’t, your call.

There is nothing to forgive. You are one of us. I seems like half the tide pool members have changed names or been reincarnated. We still luv ya’!

Dude! What’s the big deal? Aren’t you entitled to as many personalities here as you choose? Whoever was upset enough to tell you to leave probably regrets it, and this place can’t afford the loss of anybody. I think you’re wrong about the number of Christians here. I think there are plenty of them. Where you aren’t wrong is in believing that the slightest move toward attributing anything at all to divine influence will get you an immediate and sharp reaction. But you can’t be ducking out of here or changing your name behind the heat of discussion here. I don’t give a shit if you’re God fearing or the devil himself. What matters is that YOU’RE ONE OF US.

“What if God was ONE OF US?”

He too will catch hell here, though I fear He will have little difficulty in either stating His case or defending His positions.

You rang?

If hell be ridicule, relentless mocking & endless debate, then…then…oh I dunno.

No, no finish the thought. Is fluther somewhere in the conclusion?

This fun phone is driving me crazy. Constantly trying to correct my spelling

There. It just changed fkn to fun!

There was no thought, merely random words typed on a screen, us agnostics are like that.

@Apparently_Im_The_Grumpy_One What’s to confess? I knew you were a prvious member, just didn’t connect the two. So you have your beliefs, I have mine. I’m not going to judge you on what you believe, that comes from your heart and is personal to you. I believe differently, so what. We can’t respect each other’s views? Bull. Stay here, every member we lose because some idiot drives them away diminishes the site. I like the site, I hate to see that. I lost a real good friend to this crap recently. I’m certainly not better for that, and this site suffers. That sucks. I thought we have a free country. Let’s keep it that way.

How is this a meta question? Or is that another meta question?

@Apparently_Im_The_Grumpy_One Because it’s about Fluther.

Wow, you got me. I’m usually pretty good at figuring out new users who’ve been here before.

I really liked your former identity. I’ll admit I didn’t get to know you as well with this identity, but my life has been kind of crazy this whole time. Anyway, it’s nice to know who you are. Welcome back? =)

oh, btw I’m jonsblond. haha

I’m absolutely awful at picking out revamped users, and you definitely got me.

No apology or confession necessary. We’re all in this together.

I wasn’t the jerk, was I? I don’t think I was, but I do get emotional sometimes and forget my manners…

Nothing you’ve posted (in either incarnation) has been problematic for me, so nothing to forgive. Stick around.

It’s unfortunate that you were previously driven off by some overzealous atheist/agnostic. You have as much right to your opinions and beliefs as anyone else.

It’s been my experience that any of my atheist friends or acquaintances in real life just don’t have the type of hostility as many I’ve encountered on the Internet (both on Fluther as well as Internet in general).

Whenever, someone is spouting off about how they’re sick and tired of Christian prosetylizing, it helps if I remind myself that I’m not in that category so their remarks aren’t applicable to me.

Whatever offense or hurt they’ve experienced in their life hasn’t been caused by me so if they need to rant, i’m not obligated to reply. “Not my circus, not my monkeys.”

It is a shame tho that many fruitful discussions get derailed by all the brouhaha but that’s Flurher for ya :)

I have more than enough people in real life with whom I can meaningfully discuss these issues so I’ve just accepted the fact that Fluther just isn’t.

Anyhow, glad you decided to come back and hope you stay regardless of who decides to tell you to leave. They certainly are NOT speaking for all of Fluther so you can feel free to just ignore them.

Formerly @Bellatrix, pleased to meet you @NaturalMineralWater. Nothing to forgive as far as I can remember. Don’t sweat it man. It’s good to have you here.

I can only imagine how you must be feeling. I thought I made a mistake once, but I found out that I was wrong about that. It is difficult to be perfect all the time, but I guess that it’s my cross to bear.

In general the only people I think I need to confess to are those whom I have tried to correct in vocabulary – and given a bad definition – or spelling – and misspelled a word in the correction – or grammar – and mangled the syntax of the explanatory sentence (even worse than this one, I mean).

You don’t owe any apologies, I think, unless it’s for the relatively common ‘crime’ of promoting religion. (Please note that I condemn “all religion”, and not specifically Christianity. Not that you care or anything; I just want to be clear.) Also please note that I’m not particularly adamant about that condemnation, either. I don’t give a rip, really.

You’re certainly not the first one to say something stupid on Fluther, but I think you very well may be the first to even recognize the fact, much less to own up to it. Good for you on that account!

Hey, NaturalMineralWater! I remember you! Nothing to forgive as far as I’m concerned. :)

Thank you for your responses (even the ones I found to be cold, and slightly sociopathic.. eh hem.. @ucme).

I don’t know what it is about Fluther that keeps draggin me back. It’s unlike any other Q&A style site. For that it deserves recognition I think.

I certainly remember those former names that were posted (though I don’t remember in what capacity (insert parentheticals inside of parentheticals (maybe that’s a good thing))).

My memory isn’t very good these days either – so that might have contributed to my disguise. All in all, I think I’ve gotten wiser.. but dumber over the years.

“I don’t even know what I’m talking about” – Costello

Sociopathic? Hahahaha, that rather erratic conclusion when I simply stated a fact.
Me saying I find you & others unremarkable should not in any way offend anyone or in your case, catch a mild dose of butthurt. It simply means you don’t stand out for me, doesn’t mean anything other than that, I don’t dislike you, or have any problem with you. I suggest you reconfigure your moral compass, it seems somewhat awry if you fail to grasp such simple meanings.

@thorninmud
Sounds good. Though, I’m sure I’ll need the fresh start every single day. xD

@Here2_4
I’m not feeling uncomfortable. I’ve just been taking a good look at my life the past few days. I’ve been looking at cutting things that aren’t worth it, cutting foods that aren’t good, quitting smoking (again), drinking less, spending more time with my kids.. you know.. general mid-life crisis material. Anyway, I came across a post the other day that had my old name in it and I had two reactions to two separate posts I’d made. One was – wow.. that was worded pretty damn good. I seem to have been smarter back then. Two was – nope. There it is. That was a dumb thing to say. xD

I’m doing my best to adopt a Bruce Lee-ish mentality.
“Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own”

@ibstubro
Well thank you. I’ve tempered my responses as much as I could this time around. I’ve written, re-written, and deleted a lot more. I’ve also avoided some questions entirely as I knew they would be unprofitable. I hope this self-induced policy is helpful. xD

@janbb
Couldn’t agree more!

@chyna
Honestly, it was just the one person that broke the camels back. Being a few years younger I was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of people who completely disagreed with pretty solid and basic parts of my beliefs/life. They seemed incredibly blind to me. Some still do. But now I hope I can keep my scoffs and chortles to myself and only provide something (hopefully) productive.

@flutherother
If you aren’t a liberal democrat this can be a tough pool to swim in. That’s just the nature of the beast. I have noticed, though, that the community has become a bit more relaxed and tolerant of differing views over the years. It is very encouraging.

@LuckyGuy
Why thank you! I’ll try not to be such a wimpering ninny from here on too. xD

@stanleybmanly
I appreciate it. I guess the thing is.. I don’t want/need another personality. I’m done with that. Here I am in all my glorious madness. xD

@Adirondackwannabe
Agreed.

@janbb
I was just having a moment. I felt so…. moderated… xD No worries.

@dammitjanetfromvegas
I’ll tell you a story some time about how paranoid the internet has made me. This is a ruthless highway. xD

@Seek
I’m sure I was the jerk at some point. We all are at times. xD Some are just better at deleting it.

@Buttonstc
I hear you. In fact I was just thinking back to when I was a non-Christian. I remember meeting Christians and pitying them.. thinking.. If only they could be bitter, cynical and sarcastic like me… then I allowed myself the notion of “what if they’re actually right?” .. and I became one of them. Life has been vastly different since then.. and wanting that peace/joy for other people is often frustrating when they don’t want it.

@Earthbound_Misfit
I remember the name. =) Thanks.

@CWOTUS
I may have already committed that “crime” in this post. I’m not sure. xD I’m sure I won’t stop either. Lock me up Guv’nah!

@augustlan
Haven’t seen your name in a while. How’s it been? Good to see some of the ole long-timers still here and kickin. =)

Not for nothing. But I really need to stop using emoticons. Geeesh!

What emoticons? I don’t see any.

@Apparently_Im_The_Grumpy_One Everything’s been good, more or less. No longer running this place, but am steadily employed. :)

@augustlan Good to hear! I’ll soon be jumping back into the job market myself. I’m not excited about it. Sometimes I just want a menial job with perpetual benefits. Like inheriting a fortune. (insert smiley emoticon)

I’d take that job, too. :D

Apparently your previous incarnation was before my time; either that or I have been my usual unobservant self.
I enjoy your contribution to the site.

Dude, if your a Christian, I totally forgive you!

Thanks, Jesus?