Member introductions.

[QUOTE="RationalAtheist"]Speaking of which: Jazz_Fan. Are you really a fan of jazz? I am! Jazz_Fan

Indeed I am :>

Who are some of your favorite artists? Sadly I haven't listened to much jazz recently, but my most recent adventures was into the surreal (and sometimes terrifying) works of Pharoah Sanders and Albert Ayler.

Albert Ayler - now that is terrifying - but awesome!

I've been into John Scofield's work for a long time now. Initially, I was hooked on his guitar playing with Miles Davis, but I really got into his electric stuff with his band (featuring Omar Hakim, then Dennis Chambers on drums) and Larry Grainger on bass. I had the good fortune to see them live a few times (in the UK and abroad) and they were the best gigs I've ever been to.

This is him with Dennis Chambers and Grainger, if you have a spare 10 minutes:

http://youtu.be/6a-_x4aJbIU

Just joined. I just recently became atheist. I was an agnostic for about 5 years and before that I was (against my will) Pentecostal. I'll try to be active and I look forward to learning new things here and meeting new people. l4dak47

Thanks for joining and welcome. 

Just joined. I just recently became atheist. I was an agnostic for about 5 years and before that I was (against my will) Pentecostal. I'll try to be active and I look forward to learning new things here and meeting new people. l4dak47

Hey Rich, welcome man :)

[QUOTE="l4dak47"]Just joined. I just recently became atheist. I was an agnostic for about 5 years and before that I was (against my will) Pentecostal. I'll try to be active and I look forward to learning new things here and meeting new people. SteverXIII

Hey Rich, welcome man :)

Just joined. I just recently became atheist. I was an agnostic for about 5 years and before that I was (against my will) Pentecostal. I'll try to be active and I look forward to learning new things here and meeting new people. l4dak47

Howdy, and welcome! And I love your sig :3

[QUOTE="l4dak47"]Just joined. I just recently became atheist. I was an agnostic for about 5 years and before that I was (against my will) Pentecostal. I'll try to be active and I look forward to learning new things here and meeting new people. wis3boi

Howdy, and welcome! And I love your sig :3

[QUOTE="wis3boi"]

[QUOTE="l4dak47"]Just joined. I just recently became atheist. I was an agnostic for about 5 years and before that I was (against my will) Pentecostal. I'll try to be active and I look forward to learning new things here and meeting new people. l4dak47

Howdy, and welcome! And I love your sig :3

Thats the singer from Paramore right? Would smash

[QUOTE="l4dak47"][QUOTE="wis3boi"]

Howdy, and welcome! And I love your sig :3

SteverXIII

Thats the singer from Paramore right? Would smash

Yea it is :P

I just want to say hi.

People bounce back to their creed when somebody whom they are fond of dies.

My case is the opposite. I became an atheist if not an agnostic because of my father's death.

Yo.

My name is Joey I'm 18, and I live in New Zealand. Both my parents are Anglican christians, but I didn't buy into all that crap. Me & my brother are both agnostic. I'm a very open minded person, and I believe that there is a possibility that we came from something other than a particle or something beyond our understanding could be true. (maybe, I don't have a clue, I'm just saying it's possible :P) and so far I have dismissed Mormonism, Christianity, Scientology, catholicism, Jews,& Muslims as people with no clue and I'm currently reading about Buddism andJapaneseBuddism in particular as I'm studying Japanese at uni.

Yo.

My name is Joey I'm 18, and I live in New Zealand. Both my parents are Anglican christians, but I didn't buy into all that crap. Me & my brother are both agnostic. I'm a very open minded person, and I believe that there is a possibility that we came from something other than a particle or something beyond our understanding could be true. (maybe, I don't have a clue, I'm just saying it's possible :P) and so far I have dismissed Mormonism, Christianity, Scientology, catholicism, Jews,& Muslims as people with no clue and I'm currently reading about Buddism andJapaneseBuddism in particular as I'm studying Japanese at uni.

Chuubby

Welcome here. I can't fault your logic.

We have a Buddhist specialist here in the union with some interesting views on that faith. 

Yo.

My name is Joey I'm 18, and I live in New Zealand. Both my parents are Anglican christians, but I didn't buy into all that crap. Me & my brother are both agnostic. I'm a very open minded person, and I believe that there is a possibility that we came from something other than a particle or something beyond our understanding could be true. (maybe, I don't have a clue, I'm just saying it's possible :P) and so far I have dismissed Mormonism, Christianity, Scientology, catholicism, Jews,& Muslims as people with no clue and I'm currently reading about Buddism andJapaneseBuddism in particular as I'm studying Japanese at uni.

Chuubby

Welcome, welcome!

Hey All,

My name is Josh. I'm 24 years old and live in the United States. I've been married for a solid year (which has been good so far, luckily) and I spend most of my time at work, unfortunately. I identify as a non-denominational Christian, and have for at least the last ten years. I didn't grow up in a strictly religious household, and can probably count on one hand the number of times I went to church in my youth.

I suppose my reason for coming here is the wealth of interesting discussions that I've seen play out. I don't really plan on debating on the side of Christianity, as playing "devil's advocate" for faith against what is logical is a losing battle, and will always be since there is no proof that can be given for the supernatural. Therefore, my stance on apologetics is that they are useless. 

Anyway, happy to be here! It's always been a place that I've been more than willing to lurk, and maybe now I'll feel compelled to actually get involved in some of the discussions that are had. 

Hey All,

My name is Josh. I'm 24 years old and live in the United States. I've been married for a solid year (which has been good so far, luckily) and I spend most of my time at work, unfortunately. I identify as a non-denominational Christian, and have for at least the last ten years. I didn't grow up in a strictly religious household, and can probably count on one hand the number of times I went to church in my youth.

I suppose my reason for coming here is the wealth of interesting discussions that I've seen play out. I don't really plan on debating on the side of Christianity, as playing "devil's advocate" for faith against what is logical is a losing battle, and will always be since there is no proof that can be given for the supernatural. Therefore, my stance on apologetics is that they are useless. 

Anyway, happy to be here! It's always been a place that I've been more than willing to lurk, and maybe now I'll feel compelled to actually get involved in some of the discussions that are had. 

Assassin_87

Welcome Josh and thanks for joining. It is great to have a whole spectrum of beliefs and ideas here.

Hi and welcome to the cult....err....union :3

*hugs you*

here is your complementary necklace gift

You can always decide to join the atheists, we have cookies. O_O

There is to be NO graven images allowed in this union. No idolatry! It is disrespectful to depict the image of the FSM here. There will be no drawings of invisible teapots either. Let me make this rule clear.

Also, NO FOOD allowed. Please eat outside the union before coming in and don't leave crumbs.

Hello everyone,

I have seen this union advertised in many different user's sigs and have always been interested in joining. 

I live in South Dakota so I grew up in a very heavy conservative and Christian state and was a devout Catholic until my last couple of years in high school and have been an atheist ever since. Living where I do, I have never met another atheist in person and all of my friends and family are Christians so the internet is a good way for me to see how other atheists and people from other religions view the world. 

Welcome Bane, hope you stick around and make some friends :)

Hi and welcome to the cult....err....union :3

*hugs you*

here is your complementary necklace gift

wis3boi

Hi guys,

I'm Dave; 35 year old from Australia. I was raised practical and, as such, I have never really understood how people can so fervently believe in something unprovable. I respect many of the moral and ethical valuessome religions aspire to hold however I can't honestly say I respect people's decision to attribute something they can't explain to something made up.

To those who say that there is "proof" in old documentation I point out that there is documented proof that the world is flat too. There's also documented proof of thousands of other gods... so they're wrong but your particular choice is right? To those who have had a religious experience I say that many of us have experiences we can't explain. Attributing that to a divine presence makes no more sense, to me, than attributing it to ghosts ora level 5 laser lotus! Hell, go to an insane asylum and see how many people have significant experiences every single day. The mind is a complex thing.

I like atheism because we look at history, man made documents, observe the way leaders used similarly structured processes to control masses and we say "you know what? We may not know why but at least we're not going to attroibute it to something akin to a tooth fairy".

I don't hate religious people. I'm just amazed that, in this day and age, people can still believe in something like that without a shred of proof.By proof I mean measurable and repeatable evidence.

To be honest, am quite jealous of religious communities and the appeasement many believers attain as a result of their faith. 6 years ago my Dad died; earlier this year my Mum died; in between that we've lost around 8 relatives... it would be so nice to believe they're "with god" now or have gone onto the next cycle of life... but I don't. So I just have to deal with the fact they're gone and enjoy the impact they had on my life whilst here.

Anyway... I hope that consititutes a decent intro. I love arguing providing both sides use real arguments and not just "well that's what I think". I think I'm gonna enjoy this union as you all seem pretty damn level headed :D

Welcome, welcome! Have fun, make freinds, bash jesus, draw mohammed....whatever floats your boat.

Welcome Dave. :)

Thanks guys

Welcome, welcome! Have fun, make freinds, bash jesus, draw mohammed....whatever floats your boat.

wis3boi

Hello everyone, i have been part of the union for a while but haven't really been active, good to meet you all.

I was born and raised in a very religious family but trough my life i have found a healthy dose of questioning everything is good, when i came to question my belief system, my logic and reason told me to reject religion as it didn't make sense.

I first didn't really cared about religion as long as it didn't have anything to do with me, but then the more i learnedd about religion i really think is against knowledge, real morality and free thinking.

Anyway good to be here and let's hope we can learn a bit more every day. 

Hi Krelian :)

Interesting to see how many of you were given religious upbrining. Do you have a "coming out" story pertaining to when you told your family you were an atheist? Some of those story's are great.

Too true! It's your God given right! ;)

Hey guys I'm Bruce Wayne and I'm not atheist, I'm just passing through to say wassupbrucewayne69

*high five* :)

Hey guys I'm Bruce Wayne and I'm not atheist, I'm just passing through to say wassupbrucewayne69

Hi Bruce and welcome. Good to see you passing through. 

Hey guys I'm Bruce Wayne and I'm not atheist, I'm just passing through to say wassupbrucewayne69

Sup guys. I have to say, although I still believe in God, I'm getting disturbed by my fellow Christians. Some of them seem to have misguided and frankly irrational views about atheists, which really puts me off. My religion teacher teaches that you guys are atheists because you're too lazy to change your lifestyle :D. I raise my hand and say, "What if they just think there is no proof?" and his reply was, "What? Why would they think that? Theres the Bible!" Needless to say, I decided to drop the conversation there. It's things like that, and when we had to write a sentence today with the word atheist, and many people were saying stuff like, "I don't understand how atheists live without God," and such that I can see why people are put off by religion. In conclusion, sup.brucewayne69

THat's one step in the right direction for you asking that question.

[QUOTE="brucewayne69"]Sup guys. I have to say, although I still believe in God, I'm getting disturbed by my fellow Christians. Some of them seem to have misguided and frankly irrational views about atheists, which really puts me off. My religion teacher teaches that you guys are atheists because you're too lazy to change your lifestyle :D. I raise my hand and say, "What if they just think there is no proof?" and his reply was, "What? Why would they think that? Theres the Bible!" Needless to say, I decided to drop the conversation there. It's things like that, and when we had to write a sentence today with the word atheist, and many people were saying stuff like, "I don't understand how atheists live without God," and such that I can see why people are put off by religion. In conclusion, sup.wis3boi

THat's one step in the right direction for you asking that question.

[QUOTE="wis3boi"]

[QUOTE="brucewayne69"]Sup guys. I have to say, although I still believe in God, I'm getting disturbed by my fellow Christians. Some of them seem to have misguided and frankly irrational views about atheists, which really puts me off. My religion teacher teaches that you guys are atheists because you're too lazy to change your lifestyle :D. I raise my hand and say, "What if they just think there is no proof?" and his reply was, "What? Why would they think that? Theres the Bible!" Needless to say, I decided to drop the conversation there. It's things like that, and when we had to write a sentence today with the word atheist, and many people were saying stuff like, "I don't understand how atheists live without God," and such that I can see why people are put off by religion. In conclusion, sup.brucewayne69

THat's one step in the right direction for you asking that question.

It rather depends on what you settle on as regards what "proof" is.

I don't find statements like  "I don't understand how atheists live without God" as off-putting. That one seems like an honest appraisal to from one who admits a lack of understanding.

Classifying atheists as lazy is a different thing, but there are plenty of atheists that would be condescending, needlessly insulting and off-putting to religious types - as we've seen here ourselves.  The mention of alternative views on beliefs, especially when they are closely held and designed not to be challenged (like many religious ones), is bound to cause some ill-feeling sometimes. People need to trascend their sense of outrage, offense and being directly attacked before conflicting ideas can be discussed.

[QUOTE="brucewayne69"][QUOTE="wis3boi"]

THat's one step in the right direction for you asking that question.

RationalAtheist

It rather depends on what you settle on as regards what "proof" is.

I don't find statements like  "I don't understand how atheists live without God" as off-putting. That one seems like an honest appraisal to from one who admits a lack of understanding.

Classifying atheists as lazy is a different thing, but there are plenty of atheists that would be condescending, needlessly insulting and off-putting to religious types - as we've seen here ourselves.  The mention of alternative views on beliefs, especially when they are closely held and designed not to be challenged (like many religious ones), is bound to cause some ill-feeling sometimes. People need to trascend their sense of outrage, offense and being directly attacked before conflicting ideas can be discussed.