When I was a young guy, thirteen and fourteen years old, I was living with my divorced mother to whom everything was a sin. She was a devout " Born again", raised in the Church of God. Sex was a sin and even with ones spouse it was something to be endured and only then to bring forth children. Wearing makeup was a sin, listening to anything except religious music was a sin, likewise was dancing and anything that could be considered personal pleasure. I was dragged to church each Sunday and was thoroughly immersed in the literal teachings of the bible. It was the word of God. If the bible said Jonah lived in the belly of a whale or Jesus turned water into wine, or made a blind man see, it was so and was not to be questioned. It was then that I began to ask questions.

My Mother called my questions blasphemous and called the pastor to talk to me. He angrily told me that God moved in mysterious ways and there were things we were not meant to know. When our meeting was over and he could not answer my questions about the myths of the bible, he told my mother, "I can't do anything with this boy. He is lost. Satan is in him. He has no faith."

As I went through life I read all I could about the world's different religions. Somehow they all seemed to be based on a similar premise and failed to register on my mind. Then a friend loaned me a copy of The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine which I read cover to cover. It was my thoughts exactly. It was then I found I was a Deist. Then I found there was an organization devoted to Deism and it was right here in my home area. That is how I became a Deist.