So this is technically my 2nd post. Doing a little research, I wouldn't classify my first post as spam or advertising in a strict sense, since it wasn't promoting a product/service. But it was soliciting help in a project. So in a sense, I can see how it appears as an ad. So there's a 30/30 (days/posts) rule to overcome such posts. I don't quite know what the extent of my presence will be here. But I'll certainly make a better effort to introduce myself, at any rate.
I've been interested in religion to an extent, and atheism to a much larger extent, most of my life. I fell into my beliefs (insomuch as I "believe" a non-existent being truly doesn't exist, but you can't disprove a negative) at an early age. For an argumentative research paper my senior year of high school, I wrote why I thought religion was nonsense... I wonder what my teacher believed on the subject. She almost said I couldn't do it because it couldn't be proven (but isn't that the point of an argumentative topic?) but I was too far in. Got an A, she said mostly for style rather than whatever else she originally had in mind. I thought it was a pretty bold paper personally.
At any rate, I went on to study biochemistry in college and only became more convinced from such classes. Separately, in 2007, I made an earnest attempt to involve myself in politics. My parents were republicans (mom was a former democrat who was bludgeoned over the head by my dad's constant brainwashing by Fox - guess where my allegiances are?
). But I was definitely smarting over the Bush presidency. So I thought I'd follow the primaries closely and see which party/platform I supported. It was my first foray into politics. And in addition to my scientific background, my atheist background roots me firmly in the democratic party. I've been following politics fairly closely ever since. I've learned a great deal, but still have a lot more to learn (particularly our history).
So it's clear I'm not shy when it comes to polemics. Controversial issues are controversial because they're 1) important to society, 2) sometimes a little murky in figuring out what truly to do. So people can be concerned about an issue without doing research, and that leads to dicey arguments and positions. I'm definitely passionate and engaged in a variety of topics. So maybe I'll find some issues here where I can display that.
But my other passion has been music (Metal, classical - Dream Theater, Jason Becker, Bach, Mozart, etc). I've got an ear for it. Picked up the guitar 15 years ago and haven't set it down since. I've been a very active member in the powertab community under the same name. Indeed, I'm a moderator over at the forums there. So I understand the need for rules and spam suspicions.
But I also felt my first post was an honest (and decent) idea aimed at spreading our cause. I googled "atheist forum" to find one to sign up with, and looked at what seem to be 3 largely equivalent forums in terms of members/activity. But I started here because I liked the layout, the banner, and the live chat window at the home page. So I'm hoping my idea won't have to be shelved for a month to get any feed back. I see it as a community-building project, which seems like it'd be only beneficial to a site like this.
As more background, I've been a big fan of Hitchens for awhile now. Found him a few years ago, before he got sick. Then I watched his slow demise almost in real time.
Actively reading his god is not Great. I've also read a couple of Carl Sagan's books. And recently, I've been watching a science of a lot of (read: hell of a lot of, but I don't believe in hell, so it's getting a make-over) Sam Harris. I'm definitely going to pick up a couple of his books. And I've only started to get into Richard Dawkins. Saw his Militant Atheism clip, interview with Stephen Hawking, and TED talks from like 15 years ago.
I'd like to re-emphasize (from the first post) my interest in converting Sam Harris's speeches into songs to help popularize them. What kind of Christmas music do we have?
... actually, I've never looked. There's probably some awesome atheist music. I can think of at least one progressive metal jam that isn't anti-god, but at least pro-science, that could be seen as celebrating atheism, or maybe used as a theme at a convention or something...
(Andromeda - Two is One <around 4:19>). As an aside, I focus largely on the music, and only scarcely on the lyrics. So I bet I could be way off on that.
So maybe that's a good place to end it here. What are your favorite atheist jams that I can check out? You'd think I should ask that at the power tab forums, being musically focused. But contentious topic is still contentious.
Cheers,
~Golbez
I've been interested in religion to an extent, and atheism to a much larger extent, most of my life. I fell into my beliefs (insomuch as I "believe" a non-existent being truly doesn't exist, but you can't disprove a negative) at an early age. For an argumentative research paper my senior year of high school, I wrote why I thought religion was nonsense... I wonder what my teacher believed on the subject. She almost said I couldn't do it because it couldn't be proven (but isn't that the point of an argumentative topic?) but I was too far in. Got an A, she said mostly for style rather than whatever else she originally had in mind. I thought it was a pretty bold paper personally.
At any rate, I went on to study biochemistry in college and only became more convinced from such classes. Separately, in 2007, I made an earnest attempt to involve myself in politics. My parents were republicans (mom was a former democrat who was bludgeoned over the head by my dad's constant brainwashing by Fox - guess where my allegiances are?
). But I was definitely smarting over the Bush presidency. So I thought I'd follow the primaries closely and see which party/platform I supported. It was my first foray into politics. And in addition to my scientific background, my atheist background roots me firmly in the democratic party. I've been following politics fairly closely ever since. I've learned a great deal, but still have a lot more to learn (particularly our history). So it's clear I'm not shy when it comes to polemics. Controversial issues are controversial because they're 1) important to society, 2) sometimes a little murky in figuring out what truly to do. So people can be concerned about an issue without doing research, and that leads to dicey arguments and positions. I'm definitely passionate and engaged in a variety of topics. So maybe I'll find some issues here where I can display that.
But my other passion has been music (Metal, classical - Dream Theater, Jason Becker, Bach, Mozart, etc). I've got an ear for it. Picked up the guitar 15 years ago and haven't set it down since. I've been a very active member in the powertab community under the same name. Indeed, I'm a moderator over at the forums there. So I understand the need for rules and spam suspicions.
But I also felt my first post was an honest (and decent) idea aimed at spreading our cause. I googled "atheist forum" to find one to sign up with, and looked at what seem to be 3 largely equivalent forums in terms of members/activity. But I started here because I liked the layout, the banner, and the live chat window at the home page. So I'm hoping my idea won't have to be shelved for a month to get any feed back. I see it as a community-building project, which seems like it'd be only beneficial to a site like this.
As more background, I've been a big fan of Hitchens for awhile now. Found him a few years ago, before he got sick. Then I watched his slow demise almost in real time.
Actively reading his god is not Great. I've also read a couple of Carl Sagan's books. And recently, I've been watching a science of a lot of (read: hell of a lot of, but I don't believe in hell, so it's getting a make-over) Sam Harris. I'm definitely going to pick up a couple of his books. And I've only started to get into Richard Dawkins. Saw his Militant Atheism clip, interview with Stephen Hawking, and TED talks from like 15 years ago. I'd like to re-emphasize (from the first post) my interest in converting Sam Harris's speeches into songs to help popularize them. What kind of Christmas music do we have?
... actually, I've never looked. There's probably some awesome atheist music. I can think of at least one progressive metal jam that isn't anti-god, but at least pro-science, that could be seen as celebrating atheism, or maybe used as a theme at a convention or something...
(Andromeda - Two is One <around 4:19>). As an aside, I focus largely on the music, and only scarcely on the lyrics. So I bet I could be way off on that.
So maybe that's a good place to end it here. What are your favorite atheist jams that I can check out? You'd think I should ask that at the power tab forums, being musically focused. But contentious topic is still contentious.
Cheers,
~Golbez
& enjoy the forums 
