Answering Questions: Part III – Public Edition

 

So, today I will tackle a myriad of questions that are approved for a wider audience. If you’ve missed parts one and two then you really need to work on getting on my favorites list.

Anyway, we’ll start with questions from lauren_debachle.

what is your favorite color and why?

Red. Because it always has been. I have no idea what my original reasoning was, so this is as honest of an answer as I can give.

have you ever been to a music festival?

No, I haven’t.

do you like starfruit?

Never had it. Wow, these questions are moving quickly.

if you could only eat two food products for the rest of your life, what would they be and why?

Hmm – should I think in health terms or taste terms? Realistically I should probably think in health terms, but I have no idea what two foods would realistically be the most healthy to choose and, honestly, the thought of never eating cheese products for the rest of my life is absolutely horrifying. So cheese is one of the foods. I’ll go with apples for the other (I have to have something healthy right?)

tell the truth, have you ever watched dancing with the stars?

I honestly have not, but I am aware of its existence. I don’t watch much TV.

And now we tackle a set of questions from Erin, starting with:

Do you always do this on November 3rd?

 

Now, this is a good question – obviously if I begin the Annual Ask Matt Questions event on the same day each year then it would be easier to mark the event on your calendar and count down the days to its arrival. Unfortunately, I do not start the event on November 3rd each year – instead it is merely held sometime in November annually. It began as a part of NoJoMo several years back, when I was desperate for material to write entries and I found that I quite enjoyed it, so the tradition has continued ever since.

Tell me about the moment in your life in which you felt most close to God.

When I was around 11 my grandmother became very ill and at one point the doctors called the family in and said that they did not expect her to make it through the night. It was an incredibly emotional event – my grandmother was an especially well liked person in our community and there was quite a gathering of family and friends and many te

ars were shed. As it turned out she did make it through the night and made something of a full recovery – proving in my mind the power of prayer and that miracles really could happen. It was essentially scientific evidence proving the existence of God in my 11 year-old brain. I felt an incredible intimacy with God because for one of the only times in my life I felt like he had very directly answered one of my prayers and it caused me to feel a true connection with him.

Tell me about the moment you realized you were atheist.

It’s tough to define the “moment” though I do know the change happened when I was in 10th grade over the span of a few days. My mind got opened to the possibility by one of my high school teachers who, when asked by students, said that she did not attend church anywhere. I believe that this was literally the first time I was ever personally exposed to knowing someone who apparently did not believe in, or live their life around, Christianity. I found this idea interesting and did an online search on atheism – I had hardly ever been even exposed to the idea other than reading that one of my favorite athletes was an atheist several years earlier. After being exposed to differing viewpoints and in particular being exposed to all the obvious fallacies running through Christian doctrine, I rather quickly “converted” to atheism. It was actually a surprisingly short process – I do remember praying about the issue briefly for a few days, but even when I tried to do so it felt completely hallow and I really already knew that the prayers weren’t going to be answered. I’ve always been a person who is moved by logical arguments and it became very clear to me very quickly that there wasn’t much logic behind Christianity or any other religion (at least in my opinion).

For the record, I consider myself an atheist in the sense that I “do not believe in God” however, I also consider myself agnostic in the sense that “I do not believe it is possible to know God in this life.” I don’t believe atheism and agnosticism are mutually exclusive concepts. If you define atheism as “knowing” there isn’t a God, then I deny that knowledge – I don’t think it’s something that we have the knowledge to prove or disprove. I do think the typical notion of “God” being this singular being that made everything is a simplified idea though and just seems very unlikely in my mind, anyway.

What is the happiest moment of your life?

Picking Heather up from the airport the first time that she visited me in Georgia. Meeting her for the first time is another contender, but after all the hurt and hard times we went through following that meeting, it was especially meaningful for her to visit me and meet my family and stay in the house that I grew up in. There was definitely a period where I didn’t know if I would ever see her again and this trip itself was in doubt until about a week before she actually came, so her actually coming was an overwhelming experience in the best way and it really meant the world to me at the time, because it was signifying of so many things. Not least of all forgiveness. So thanks Heather.

The worst?

When Heather broke up with me. So thanks Heather. I’m kidding! All things considered, it probably was for the best. But it was still absolutely devastating for me at the time.

If I called you at four in the morning, would you pick up?

No, probably not, but that’s because I either put my phone on silent or leave it in a separate room when I sleep. So I don’t answer any calls once I’ve gone to bed. However, if I were awake and you called at four in the morning, of course I would pick up!

And we’ll end on that note. There are still several more questions to come and still time to ask more – so don’t hesitate to do so!