I grew up in a devout evangelical family. As a young child I knew that everyone was bad, really bad, but that if I worshiped God, let Jesus into my heart and got saved, God would love me, take care of me, forgive my sins, and one day welcome me into heaven, where we would be happy forever.

As a teenager, I questioned authority and realized that the Bible couldn’t possibly have been written by an omniscient God with modern morality.

If it isn’t all inspired, it’s all up for grabs. People can believe whatever they like.

Even parts that aren’t offensive are contradictory or give bad advice. Jesus threw the moneylenders out of the temple but called meekness a virtue. He encouraged his followers to be improvident.

I chose to ignore it all. Except that I hated myself.

Not that I didn’t enjoy myself. At UCLA ($300/semester), I had a blast. Took art history, music appreciation from Nicholas Slonimsky (what a wit), calculus from Raymond Redheffer (and that’s no bull), symbolic logic, and half again as many credits as I needed to graduate, including tennis, and ice skating (twice).

Marched in the Rose Bowl, Grand Marshal Walt Disney rode by in the in the tunnel, not six feet away. The Bruins won over mighty Michigan with a leap over a pile of people into the end zone (a la O. J. Simpson) with seconds to go, while sky-typers decorated the sky with “Our man Flint.” [Actually, they were publicizing a James Coburn flick, but what the heck]

After graduation, I worked at Hughes aircraft for a while and attended a couple of lectures on math by Dick Feynman. I soon forgot the math, but the attitude toward problem solving changed my life.

Many years later, while rowing a wherry, I went into a meditative state and realized that I wasn’t inherently bad. My self-hatred ended and ever since, I’ve been comfortable with myself and my place in the world.

While working on this website, I’ve come to believe that the teaching of human depravity is the source of most of the world’s problems.

Our man Flint