My last name, Hell, points to a firm Catholic background, but my paternal grandfather married a Protestant and had the idea that the mother's religion should be the children's religion in case of conflict. So I grew up in a nominally protestant family who went to church once a year, at Christmas. By the age of 16, I became a firm believer and even introduced some Christian practices in my patient family.

Between 22 and 25, I became much less religious and in many discussions with age peers developed first a denomination free belief into something like a God who was a compromise of many different ideas of a God, and, later, the idea that there may be no God afterall. With 30, I left the Protestant church because I did no longer believe into the fundamental beliefs of the church. Jesus was Jesus for me, an admirable man, but not the Christ.

With 35, I came close to rejoining the church for the simple reason that my then girlfriend would have lost her job when marrying a heathen. We broke up and I had not to rejoin church.

Now, I'm not just an atheist but a convinced naturalist. I believe there is nothing supernatural at all which includes, of course, God(s). I don't like aggressive atheism and I might not like aggressive theism if I'ds encounter it. I share roughly 90% of liberal protestant ethics. The only faith that has a tiny appeal to me is deism.

Wolfgang