First post, and a rather long one at that!

First Things First.
(a) No, my name is not actually Wilhelm...it is the considerably more boring alternative William. I am plagued with indecision regarding modifying my name to something that will stand out more along with such physicists as Fritz Zwicky, Frank Wilczek, etc. etc.
(b) I am currently receiving my schooling at the University of Washington, as a freshman (at least till the end of this quarter)
(c) I am currently developing a wide range of eccentricities, in order to cultivate a more varied and interesting life in the future.

That should about cover the basics, and other essential attributes of my character can be either interpolated from posts or directed to the comment thread. Which I may or may not answer depending on how worried I am that the asker is stalking me.

Anyway, the remainder of today's post will consist of (a) a brief storytime session, followed by (b) a brief followup consisting of an overview of my various beliefs re: religion (I will desperately try to prevent this, but in the event that it becomes preachy please know that I do not intend to convert you. The wording was accidental.)

To proceed with storytime, I shall first note that it is currently very rainy outside. I had the pleasure of walking back to my dorm after class today, and of course since I was born a Seattleite I have no need for an umbrella and as a result I was rather damp by the time I was halfway there. Anyway, I was walking along the sidewalk, probably looking rather despondent (an effect of the rain), and a man bundled up in a coat (which, coincidentally, is the exact article of clothing that I did not bring with me this morning) walking the opposite direction stopped and asked me if I wanted a Bible. Several things went through my head at once, including but not limited to: "Wow, do I really look that depressed in my damp shirt, dripping hair, and rain-splattered glasses?" In any case, I accepted his offer not only because I am never one to turn down a book, but also because I had never really looked at a Bible before and was rather curious of its contents. So I took the book and tucked it where it couldn't get wet, and continued on my way.

Now, a brief history of my various beliefs. I was raised Catholic, suffered a brief phase of upset (got over it when I realized it was the last throes of childhood combined with a hormonal need to rebel), switched to atheism in junior high (following a decision that since I was interested in science religion had no place in my head), and have slowly grown to become an "other." I suppose I could be loosely described as a permutation of agnostic with a bunch of fun stuff tacked on, if one was determined to stick a label on me.

I think that the basis of my beliefs is that religion is a set of moral rules designed to help people with difficult decisions or to teach them how to be "good," virtuous, and all of those fancy terms. To that end, God is simply the idea of the Perfect Moral Being who is the embodiment of all that is good or virtuous, and all of us must try to emulate that whenever possible. The end result is that, when you die, if you tried your best to be virtuous and apologized for the times when you couldn't, then you got to live at peace; however, those who didn't are plagued with guilt, etc. and cannot live in peace. That basic skeleton is then padded with such things as heaven and hell, etc. etc. or whatever one's particular belief system allows for. The reason that religions such as Christianity are so widespread is that they do a really good job of appealing to the masses, have someone that the general populous can relate to (e.g. Jesus was actually a dude, not an abstract Perfect Moral Being), and all of their basic rules are easily distributable and easy to understand (the Bible is essentially a collection of parables, allegories, and similar literary constructions to make the rules easily digestible).

Please note that I do not say all of these things because I am critical of their intent. I would go so far as to say that religion is necessary for a society in that it brings together communities (churches) and, on a larger scale, provides a common set of rules to fall back on in the event that things go awry. All of the bad things that happen with religion are just stupid people being stupid and ignorant. Just because somebody else believes in a different set of rules doesn't mean you need to destroy them; consider the following example. Little Johnny's parents taught him that hitting girls is bad. Little Timmy's parents did not. When Little Timmy punches a girl at school, one does not expect him to then turn around and stab Little Johnny in the face because he didn't join in.

In any case, right now I am undeclared in my religion because I do not know enough about a large enough selection in order to make any judgment calls one way or the other. Which explains why I accepted the bible from the Gideon dude (for that is the distributor of the Bible). Other religious texts may be collected in the same manner if they become available.

So that's that.