Member introductions.

Bah it looks like danwallacefan has disbanded the atheism union. Its a pity because I really enjoyed arguing over the positions that he defended.domatron23

Well that's interesting -- I wonder why he left?

[QUOTE="domatron23"]Bah it looks like danwallacefan has disbanded the atheism union. Its a pity because I really enjoyed arguing over the positions that he defended.MetalGear_Ninty

Well that's interesting -- I wonder why he left?

I dunno I thought he was a good member.

[QUOTE="Lansdowne5"]

[QUOTE="DrSponge"] I am an atheist, and have been all my life. Funky_Llama

Even when you were two? :P 

Hmmm, is it a lack of belief? Or is it a conscious decision 'not' to believe?  

It hinges on whether it is: a) the doctrine or belief that there is no God, or b) a lack of belief in the existence of God.

[QUOTE="Funky_Llama"][QUOTE="Lansdowne5"]

[QUOTE="DrSponge"] I am an atheist, and have been all my life. Lansdowne5

Even when you were two? :P 

Hmmm, is it a lack of belief? Or is it a conscious decision 'not' to believe?  

Since the second implies that the atheists are merely stubborn, then I will say that there atheists of that type (meaning the ones who become atheists not out of the process of examining the data in hand - the Bible or other scripture - but out of rebel), but I haven't seen anyone here.

It hinges on whether it is: a) the doctrine or belief that there is no God, or b) a lack of belief in the existence of God.

Lansdowne5

It hinges on whether it is: a) the doctrine or belief that there is no God, or b) a lack of belief in the existence of God.

Lansdowne5

Make a seerate topic about strong/weak atheism if you want to discuss that in depth.

Also what the hell, danwallacefan isn't to be found in the members tab, the atheism union doesn't turn up under the "my unions" tab in his profile yet here he is making topics. I'm confused.

[QUOTE="Lansdowne5"]

It hinges on whether it is: a) the doctrine or belief that there is no God, or b) a lack of belief in the existence of God.

domatron23

Make a seerate topic about strong/weak atheism if you want to discuss that in depth.

Also what the hell, danwallacefan isn't to be found in the members tab, the atheism union doesn't turn up under the "my unions" tab in his profile yet here he is making topics. I'm confused.

I hadn't join even for the first few months of posting in the union; in fact when I first put myself forward for the Officer election, I wasn't even a member then. :P

Perhaps he was never a member to begin with. :shock:

You don't have to be a member to post.

MetalGear_Ninty

Well I mst admit that explains an awful lot. My bad.

Hey, I just joined. My name is Nathan (I prefered to be called Nate). I'm 14 and currently residing in Maine (sadly). I used to consider myself a Christian, but I spent a lot of looking and studying different theories relating to science and I've decided that an existing God is illogical.

Anyway, I wanted to keep this brief, so yeah.

Welcome Nate. I just saw you in OT. Have a good time here.

And, let's not forget... have a good relationship with the dynamic Greek trio and nothing ...bad... will happen to you. :)

Kidding. :P

Hello, everybody!

I'm an atheist from Detroit, Michigan who was raised in a religious environment--church, grace before dinner, and the ten commandments hanging on the wall. I admittedly believed in God, but only until my early teen years. I didn't stop believing out of rebellion, it just didn't seem right and I wasn't too concerned with religion anyway--I didn't know "atheism" even existed. Around the age of 16, I started getting concerned with how religion is impacting our lives. Now, at 24-years-old, atheism is a crucial part of who I am.

Anyway, this union seems pretty cool and I enjoy talking with like-minded people so here I am!

Hello, everybody!

I'm an atheist from Detroit, Michigan who was raised in a religious environment--church, grace before dinner, and the ten commandments hanging on the wall. I admittedly believed in God, but only until my early teen years. I didn't stop believing out of rebellion, it just didn't seem right and I wasn't too concerned with religion anyway--I didn't know "atheism" even existed. Around the age of 16, I started getting concerned with how religion is impacting our lives. Now, at 24-years-old, atheism is a crucial part of who I am.

Anyway, this union seems pretty cool and I enjoy talking with like-minded people so here I am!

Small-Change

Welcome.  It is nice to have more like minded people around, some of the non-like minded ones have a nasty habit of reporting us for moderation here.

Hello, everybody!

I'm an atheist from Detroit, Michigan who was raised in a religious environment--church, grace before dinner, and the ten commandments hanging on the wall. I admittedly believed in God, but only until my early teen years. I didn't stop believing out of rebellion, it just didn't seem right and I wasn't too concerned with religion anyway--I didn't know "atheism" even existed. Around the age of 16, I started getting concerned with how religion is impacting our lives. Now, at 24-years-old, atheism is a crucial part of who I am.

Anyway, this union seems pretty cool and I enjoy talking with like-minded people so here I am!

Small-Change

Welcome Small-Change! :)

.........hum......yeah, I would be the one you give the 50 dollars for the Atheism Union subscritpion. But for 100 $ you can get an extra.... - - kidding. :P

I'm subrosian.

I'm not an atheist because I find the absolute rejection of all "god-beings" to be a logical absurdity. However if "atheism" is defined as a rejection of the "religion of the era", then yes, I am ethically and epistemologically opposed to many contemporary religions.

Welcome subrosian. :)

That's my opinion on strict atheism too.

Hello, I figure I would join up considering how much time I waste defending my beliefs on OT... :Pwarbmxjohn

Welcome Matty. :)Teenaged

[QUOTE="Teenaged"]Welcome Matty. :)mattykovax

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:P

[QUOTE="mattykovax"][QUOTE="Teenaged"]Welcome Matty. :)Teenaged

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:P

I don't get it D:Funky_Llama

Anyway, I am not good at jokes. I know. I promise I'll stop.

[QUOTE="Funky_Llama"]I don't get it D:Teenaged

[QUOTE="Teenaged"]

[QUOTE="Funky_Llama"]I don't get it D:mattykovax

You said you are glad, implying the you like the AU. And I said that you shouldn't rush to conclusions meaning that maybe the AU is not such a hospitable place after all for newcomers.

It's a bad joke. Sorry. :(

[QUOTE="mattykovax"][QUOTE="Teenaged"]

[QUOTE="Funky_Llama"]I don't get it D:Teenaged

You said you are glad, implying the you like the AU. And I said that you shouldn't rush to conclusions meaning that maybe the AU is not such a hospitable place after all for newcomers.

It's a bad joke. Sorry. :(

Welcome sheepdk. :)

(no jokes this time)

Christian, 16. Never been religious. Ever...not so much to say except, I've never gone to church (voluntarily) So have never been indoctrinated into religion. Come from a non-religious family, however I was "Konfirmated" (Only to get presents, if i didn't do it i wouldn't get any presents, so that's why);)sheepdk

Welcome matty, warbmxjohn & sheepdk. I appreciate you all joining, there are members of most and no faiths here, so add in any topic you wish.btaylor2404

Hello all. My name's Rob and I'm from the north of England. I'm an atheist and I have been for a few years now. I was brought up in a semi-religious environment (one parent is religious, the other is indifferent), but I didn't really start to think about it more closely until a few years ago. I started reading around -Richard Dawkins, Chris Hichens etc- and eventually came to the conclusion that most of the beliefs I held didn't hold up under scrutiny. This, along with my predominantly scientific education, subsequently lead to me jumping ship and joining the growing atheist camp.

Looking forward to getting to know you all.

Hey, my name is Astrapsody (not really) and I'm currently an atheist. I was raised as nothing, my Mom became Christian and the family followed. I had always claimed to be Christian up until about a half a year ago. I have strong beliefs about my nonbelief, but I'll save that for the forums.

By the way, I got here because Teenaged had the link to this union on his sig.

Hey, my name is Astrapsody (not really) and I'm currently an atheist. I was raised as nothing, my Mom became Christian and the family followed. I had always claimed to be Christian up until about a half a year ago. I have strong beliefs about my nonbelief, but I'll save that for the forums.

By the way, I got here because Teenaged had the link to this union on his sig.

Astrapsody

:P Other members have it in their sig too. :P

Let's see:

As a little kid I went to church every Sunday though as I got older my family started attending less and less and eventually it got to the point where it was very rare when we went and generally we only attended when my mom started feeling guilty about our lack of spiritual activities. That was fine by me though since I never really liked church. I was an ardent believer in Christianity, but I preferred a very hands-off, calm approach to religious worship, a preference which apparently isn't shared by most people.

It was funny in a way. As a kid I really believed in God. I prayed every night and I never used the lord's name in vain, ever. However, I also wasn't very familiar with my religion other than the basics since we had stopped going to church on a regular basis starting when I was 7 years old which was too early for Sunday School to start introducing all the more detailed aspects of the religion. Those I found out slowly as the years went by, and everytime I found out something new I lost some faith because the religion kept getting more and more ridiculous and at the same time kept diverting farther and farther away from the values I thought it stood for. For example, something that struck me early on were seeing some anti-gay protestors on the news (up to that point I had been under the impression that God loved everybody no matter what since that's what you told in Sunday school. I wasn't pleased when I found out that my supposedly all-loving deity wasn't so all-loving after all though I still went along with it). Another big turn-off for me was when some youth group minister told me about how the crazier parts of the Bible had been selectively removed by the Catholic church back in the middle ages. When I asked him how that didn't totally invalidate our religion his answer was an unsatisfying "do you really think God would allow them to throw out valid parts of the Bible?".

The big thing that killed the religion for me was creationism and fundamentalist christianity. Before that I had been able to reconcile my issues with the religion and for awhile I just laughed at fundies for totally misinterpreting the religion. However, after years I started to see the logic behind fundie beliefs. I realized that they were actually right about the religion and that all their insane beliefs were supported by the bible quite explicitly. It occured to me that the religion only seemed sane when you tried to "interpret" the Bible so that you could weasle your way out of all the horrible and downright crazy things that were written in it. That's when I converted to atheism. Christianity was now too illogical to be reconcilable in my head and all the other religions were even more illogical and fantastical than Christianity.

It's really funny to look back over my post history on Gamespot. You can see me go from Christian apologist and a person who thinks atheists are annoying and misguided to weak Christian to agnostic to atheist over the course of five years.

Anyway, that's my story in short.

We've gotten a bunch of new members recently but it seems like none of them are contributing.helium_flash

Maybe they need time to feel comfortable who knows.

Anyway to all new members: you don't need to contribute in any specific way, you can just voice your opinion about anything that is being discussed, you can get involved into conversations, and say what you think. :)

[QUOTE="helium_flash"]We've gotten a bunch of new members recently but it seems like none of them are contributing.Teenaged

Maybe they need time to feel comfortable who knows.

Anyway to all new members: you don't need to contribute in any specific way, you can just voice your opinion about anything that is being discussed, you can get involved into conversations, and say what you think. :)

Or you can be like me where you don't contribute in any way whatsoever.

Yeah you can be like Teenaged where you kill topics by writing huge paragraphs in them and then no one knows what to say afterwards! (joking :P)

Or you can be like me where you don't contribute in any way whatsoever.

helium_flash

If you want I can do that in every thread!

No I am joking. It's hard for me too sometimes. :P

EDIT: Anywayz I am very proud of those posts but ashamed at the same time because I don't like going at lengths in analyzing what's on my mind. It's that mixture of low self-esteem and doubt. :P

[QUOTE="helium_flash"]Yeah you can be like Teenaged where you kill topics by writing huge paragraphs in them and then no one knows what to say afterwards! (joking :P)

Or you can be like me where you don't contribute in any way whatsoever.

Teenaged

If you want I can do that in every thread!

No I am joking. It's hard for me too sometimes. :P

EDIT: Anywayz I am very proud of those posts but ashamed at the same time because I don't like going at lengths in analyzing what's on my mind. It's that mixture of low self-esteem and doubt. :P