ChazR

For sure. It can be like putting antibacterial ointment on a wound.

I couldn't agree more with that statement.. I play some instruments, and your mood is definitely affected by music.. If I start improvising on guitar, I get an idea of how I'm really feeling in that moment, more so than if I was just sitting there thinking about how I feel.

Haha yeah, you're right about that.

Thanks! That gives me a lot to work with.

Not really any specific genre.. I like most genres. I just find it hard to turn on the radio and find something worth listening to. So basically I'm just looking for musicians who have somewhat of a grip on how things are in the world.. Basically I'm wanting to discover new artists.. I'd also be interested on hearing anyone's thoughts on music and how it pertains to our lives. Does it matter what you listen to? What do you look for in the music you listen to?

Does anyone out there have any philosophically strong music that they listen to? Something that dives a little deeper than flings with someone you just met.

Thanks! I will definitely check some of that stuff out. And yes, this does seem like one of the friendlier and helpful Internet forums. Most of the time these kind of forums are full of egotistical trolls, but from what I've seen that's not the case here.

I actually live in south east VA so I don't deal with that bad of traffic. Not as bad as DC traffic anyway. And yeah things for me now are good.. Right now Im looking for a basis to structure my views and reasoning on. Which is partly why I joined this forum. To have people to bounce ideas off of and to learn from.. I personally don't know anyone in my area that is even willing to have some go these discussions. So I'm kinda on my own right now, and I don't trust myself to just start making right choices morally or practically without a solid basis.

I discovered the show through Stefan doing a Joe Rogan podcast. I don't necessarily like everything that comes out of Joe Rogans podcast, but he has some interesting guests sometimes. So ya, I watched the 3 hour podcast of him talking to Stefan, and I was really intrigued by the things he said and the kind of person his is. I then found his freedomainradio show on youtube and started watching his videos. More recently though I have been really digging through all the information he has put out and that led me to his website which led me to this forum, and I'm all about talking to people about all this stuff so here I am. And man, more like Transformation. You have to completely break down as an individual and work to build yourself back up. And even now after two years I still have to weed out some bad thought patterns and preconceived notions.. The hardest part for me was changing what I saw as reality.. That is not a simple thing at all. I'm not a depressed person but during the early stages I struggled to find reasons to continue living. Christianity and religious people in general have this built in need to live for an everlasting purpose. Physical reality is made out to be this sad thing that is only here for a moment and has no real value other than for the determination of how you will spend eternity. The only thing that really kept me going was me telling myself "Be patient, keep learning, maybe you'll find a way to get over this." A buddy of mine during those beginning stages of my departure, actually called me in the middle of the night, very angry and depressed and threatened to jump out into the street. He was struggling with Christianity and faith at the time as well, and the one thing he kept telling me was "What's the point???" but he eventually went back to Christianity and is going full force. So it isn't easy at all. You have to come to a place where you realize you don't know much of anything, and you have to be open and honest about yourself and the world you live in.Hope that wasn't more than you were asking for. haha

Hello! My name is Chaz Ralls. I am 20 years old, so I am probably one of the younger members on this forum, but I am very excited to see what I may be able to add or take away from the conversations that go on here. I'll give everyone a little bit of an idea of my background, and if anyone is interested to delve a little deeper Id be happy to discuss my life in more detail. Anyways, I currently live in Virginia. I was brought up in a Christian environment. My parents are Baptists, while others in my family are more Pentecostal. Not only that but I was put through christian schools that had a large part to do with my indoctrination as a child.. In early high school, my mind was so overwhelmed with the implications of a Christian reality.. I knew what my teachers and family was saying about the Bible didn't really match up. This started me on a journey to become a true biblicist and theologian. That only led to my "spiritual demise." It didn't take long for me to discover that the Bible was in no way divine. The only proof and the only authority that the book and the faith had given me was the very objects that I was questioning (i.e. the Bible, faith). So here we are two years after high school. Two years of no longer being a Christian. And my thirst for truth and wisdom could not be any greater. I love that I have the internet to go to for new ideas and good ideas; otherwise, I would probably be a very confused and miserable christian. Currently, I'm not an anything. I guess one could say I'm Atheist; in that, I don't believe in any gods. But I'm still trying to learn more about the world and about people; so, I wouldn't say that I'm anything more than a truth-seeker. I just recently stumbled upon FDR and Stefan, and I've quite enjoyed all that I've seen and heard. I joined the forum because I want to be a part of the discussion, and I definitely look forward to getting to know some of you and contributing to this movement of ideas and truth. Be Well!