Greetings & Salutations!
October 4, 2010 at 11:17 am
(This post was last modified: October 4, 2010 at 11:21 am by IceSage.)
Hello my good sirs and/or madams!
Although this would indeed be my 90th post contributing to the forums, I decided it would be best to eventually and properly introduce myself to this community! I'm going to use this thread to introduce myself, and also give my background. (Although it could fit into "converts corner," I don't believe I'm a convert, and honestly, I hate empty intro threads with barely any content.)
Background
Obviously, as you could tell by now, my viewpoint on religion is none, I consider myself atheist. In a sense, I've always been this way. While growing up I was constantly around people who believed in Christianity, the subject of it was never highly touched upon while I was growing up. The actual term "Christianity" and the whole belief system itself, wasn't actually revealed to me until WAY later on in life. Growing up, I was told there was a "God," and I knew that occasionally attending church was a "good thing." I actually loved going to church if the opportunity every arose. However, I never understood it, or what was going on. I just liked spending time in unfamiliar places with my grandmother. Eventually, I'm not sure what prompted me to ask the question to my mother, but I have a memory of asking her, "Hey Mom, what religion are we?" and she replied, "If anyone asks, you're Christian, and you believe in Jesus." Of course, even then, I never understood what that meant. So, my knowledge of Christianity at that point was, "God + Jesus + Bible = Christianity."
While growing up, I've always believed a "God" was watching over me. Of course, I had a different view of what this God was. I believed it to be the ultimate "good" and moral entity. So, I was confused when people would say horrible things or do horrible things, and then say they were religious. Were they not afraid of this God? Did they not want to be good in front of him?
Eventually, I learned what Christianity was, and I found out quickly that "Christians" were rather odd people. I had not only heard of them being extreme, but I would constantly hear and be around people who seemed to be very snobbish and arrogant. My town is a small town, and it has a religious community within it, especially amongst the older people. Of course, at this point, I believed that these people were "extreme" and took the bible too seriously.
I also for a time, believed in ridiculous things, like magic and ghosts. I found the concepts fascinating, and was a little too "open minded" for my own good. I knew some people who claimed to talk to ghosts, and other such stuff. I easily bought into it. (Yet at the same time, always knew that it wasn't possible, because such things simply don't happen. I was envious of the people who have had "magical" or "paranormal" experiences.)
Now, of all things that you would think that would turn me into a "Meh, God exists, ghosts are possible" to a person who rationally looks at things going, "Whoa... That's just ridiculous!" -- What would you think it was?
A bad experience that "turned me away from God?" (Although I never believed one actually existed, I always believed "If one existed, I should do X, etc.") I found out something wasn't true when I was told it was, and lied to?
Hah, not really. It's something rather silly, in fact. It was Kevin Trudeau. Now, those familiar with this asshole may be thinking, "What?" -- If you don't know who this guy is, he's basically some lying nut who has these infomercials on TV, in which he tries to sell some book about "Natural Cures" about how the government is lying to us, and that the FDA shouldn't be trusted because they want you to get sick, and they kill people who have "natural cures."
I was watching this infomercial going, "Wow, really? The FDA does this stuff? Wow, this is... interesting, maybe I should look this guy up."
So, I go to my computer, type in "Kevin Trudeau" (and maybe some other variants) and press search. What do I find? "Kevin Trudeau, scam" etc. I was like, "Wait, what? This guy seems so reasonable!"
The website that I discovered that changed the way I thought about the world... was the JREF website. An article by James Randi about Kevin Trudeau and his ridiculous claims. This got me curious about other things... And I started researching them. I had never before actually investigated some stuff, as I just considered them "there." My world was turned upside down to discover everything I thought of as "silly, but possible" was actually "insanely silly and destructive." I watched a few lectures by James Randi, read the website some more, did some research... And eventually I was like, "Whoa, wow... How did I buy into all this stuff?" I changed my mind from "Wow, this sounds reasonable" to "Whoa wait, this sounds a little shady, maybe I should investigate."
In fact, I'm actually not sure what happened or how my thinking process got changed. I know it was somewhere in this time period. One thing I can say for sure, is that the JREF (James Randi Educational Foundation) did it's job... In educating.
I basically realized that a lot of stuff in my life, I never really believed in anyway... But for some reason always had this urge to defend it, it was weird. Like, I never REALLY believed psychics or mediums existed. However, in my mind I was like, "Hmm, but, they probably do!" -- Somehow irrationally defending them.
Well, that's my story of how I came to accept the term "atheist" -- As I discovered what the term truly meant, and discovered that... it describes me exactly. I've never really believed in a religion at all, and I've always been open minded about things... just now not gullible.
This sounds like such a weird story to tell, and some theists or believers in other paranormal or nonsensical stuff will be like, "Wow, that sounds like... a dumb story." But, oddly enough, learning about 1 scam, led me to be skeptical about other scams, and other things... And I eventually learned to think for myself.
I actually learned more about Christianity while being a skeptic, rather than when I was growing up. I never understood things like the "trinity" and what Jesus' purpose was, etc.
Interests
Well, I got all the "background" stuff about me out of the way that explain why I read and contribute to such forums. I might as well describe what I'm like now, eh?
Well, I don't exactly look like it, but I'm a huge Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Anime geek. Don't get me wrong though, I don't geek out too much and I'm not EXTREME about any of my interests. I just have geeky interests, as I grew up with a lot of shows and the like since I was a child. I literally grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. I even remember the promos for it, the commercials always seemed more epic than the actual episodes. The guy's voice was just so awesome. Other shows I grew up with were shows like Quantum Leap, and Sliders.
These days, as my interests grew, I also got involved with watching shows like Stargate: SG-1 / Atlantis / Universe (yes, even universe, I like it...), Doctor Who, etc.
As for my interest in Anime, I actually discovered and got interested in anime WAY before it became "popular." There wasn't a Cartoon Network back in the day... the kind of anime I watched were 5th generation bootleg VHS tapes of shows like Ranma 1/2, Gunsmith Cats, Dominion Tank Police, New Dominion Tank Police, Dirty Pair, and Dragonhalf. (I even have a fansubbed VHS copy of Mewtwo Strikes Back.) I was rather proud at the time to have watched a movie YEARS before it came out in America.
Then Cartoon Network came along, and while I'm glad people are interested in anime, I find it rather disappointing that a lot of fans start off with some of the stuff they air on there. And now today, we have people attending conventions... Which, are awesome, I love conventions... But... Some of these people are WAY into like, 1 show, that isn't even a good show (in my opinion.)
Speaking of conventions, I do in fact go to them... Well, one in particular... Anime Boston, naturally. I've been attending Anime Boston for nearly 5 years now. I've never had the courage to actually dress up at it at all though, and I admire people who do. As a guy, I feel severely limited with the kind of costumes and ideas that I could dress as. Girls seem to have the spotlight on both male and female costumes, and do it so insanely well. My motto is, if you're going to cosplay, at least do it right. And honestly, I doubt I can ever do it right.
And also, speaking of Anime Boston, it's managed by some of the friendliest and coolest people you will ever meet. *waves at Eilonnwy* By an odd chance of events, I've inadvertently come across and know OF (but do not actually know) your awesome and lovely admin, on the internet.
If anyone else here has attended Anime Boston, I've probably passed by you literally hundreds of times at the convention, as I tend to do laps around the Hynes Convention Center with my friends, instead of actually... you know... doing stuff and going to panels.
Anyway, I have other television interests, like Dexter, etc, that aren't exactly sci-fi. I'm sure I can think of a few other shows that aren't ultra sci-fi... Uh... MythBusters... of course.
The Atheist Experience? That's a TV show... right?
I also read books on occasion, of course, probably nothing you've heard of... and oddly enough, I never have the time to read a bunch of books that I thought would be AWESOME, but bought anyway. (I tend to like medieval / fantasy types of books.)
As for music and stuff, I made a short list in the other forum, but I guess I could retype it here. Some bands that you probably have NEVER heard of that I enjoy, are: Freezepop, Blue October, Eurythmics (And almost anything 80s), Switchblade Symphony, Crystal Castles, VNV Nation, Nightwish, Flogging Molly, La Roux, Dragonforce, and Hania (An unsigned unprofessional singer.)
I sincerely congratulate anyone who has read my entire introductory post. You have quite the dedication!
So far, everyone has been warm and welcome here towards me, and I appreciate it!
Thank you all for accepting me in your wonderful part of teh interwebs.
(Also, don't be afraid to PM me or add me to your favorite IM program, I love meeting and talking with new people.)
If you have any questions for me or just want to talk, please use my intro thread to do so! I'm more than happy to get acquainted with you all! ^-^
Although this would indeed be my 90th post contributing to the forums, I decided it would be best to eventually and properly introduce myself to this community! I'm going to use this thread to introduce myself, and also give my background. (Although it could fit into "converts corner," I don't believe I'm a convert, and honestly, I hate empty intro threads with barely any content.)
Background
Obviously, as you could tell by now, my viewpoint on religion is none, I consider myself atheist. In a sense, I've always been this way. While growing up I was constantly around people who believed in Christianity, the subject of it was never highly touched upon while I was growing up. The actual term "Christianity" and the whole belief system itself, wasn't actually revealed to me until WAY later on in life. Growing up, I was told there was a "God," and I knew that occasionally attending church was a "good thing." I actually loved going to church if the opportunity every arose. However, I never understood it, or what was going on. I just liked spending time in unfamiliar places with my grandmother. Eventually, I'm not sure what prompted me to ask the question to my mother, but I have a memory of asking her, "Hey Mom, what religion are we?" and she replied, "If anyone asks, you're Christian, and you believe in Jesus." Of course, even then, I never understood what that meant. So, my knowledge of Christianity at that point was, "God + Jesus + Bible = Christianity."
While growing up, I've always believed a "God" was watching over me. Of course, I had a different view of what this God was. I believed it to be the ultimate "good" and moral entity. So, I was confused when people would say horrible things or do horrible things, and then say they were religious. Were they not afraid of this God? Did they not want to be good in front of him?
Eventually, I learned what Christianity was, and I found out quickly that "Christians" were rather odd people. I had not only heard of them being extreme, but I would constantly hear and be around people who seemed to be very snobbish and arrogant. My town is a small town, and it has a religious community within it, especially amongst the older people. Of course, at this point, I believed that these people were "extreme" and took the bible too seriously.
I also for a time, believed in ridiculous things, like magic and ghosts. I found the concepts fascinating, and was a little too "open minded" for my own good. I knew some people who claimed to talk to ghosts, and other such stuff. I easily bought into it. (Yet at the same time, always knew that it wasn't possible, because such things simply don't happen. I was envious of the people who have had "magical" or "paranormal" experiences.)
Now, of all things that you would think that would turn me into a "Meh, God exists, ghosts are possible" to a person who rationally looks at things going, "Whoa... That's just ridiculous!" -- What would you think it was?
A bad experience that "turned me away from God?" (Although I never believed one actually existed, I always believed "If one existed, I should do X, etc.") I found out something wasn't true when I was told it was, and lied to?
Hah, not really. It's something rather silly, in fact. It was Kevin Trudeau. Now, those familiar with this asshole may be thinking, "What?" -- If you don't know who this guy is, he's basically some lying nut who has these infomercials on TV, in which he tries to sell some book about "Natural Cures" about how the government is lying to us, and that the FDA shouldn't be trusted because they want you to get sick, and they kill people who have "natural cures."
I was watching this infomercial going, "Wow, really? The FDA does this stuff? Wow, this is... interesting, maybe I should look this guy up."
So, I go to my computer, type in "Kevin Trudeau" (and maybe some other variants) and press search. What do I find? "Kevin Trudeau, scam" etc. I was like, "Wait, what? This guy seems so reasonable!"
The website that I discovered that changed the way I thought about the world... was the JREF website. An article by James Randi about Kevin Trudeau and his ridiculous claims. This got me curious about other things... And I started researching them. I had never before actually investigated some stuff, as I just considered them "there." My world was turned upside down to discover everything I thought of as "silly, but possible" was actually "insanely silly and destructive." I watched a few lectures by James Randi, read the website some more, did some research... And eventually I was like, "Whoa, wow... How did I buy into all this stuff?" I changed my mind from "Wow, this sounds reasonable" to "Whoa wait, this sounds a little shady, maybe I should investigate."
In fact, I'm actually not sure what happened or how my thinking process got changed. I know it was somewhere in this time period. One thing I can say for sure, is that the JREF (James Randi Educational Foundation) did it's job... In educating.
I basically realized that a lot of stuff in my life, I never really believed in anyway... But for some reason always had this urge to defend it, it was weird. Like, I never REALLY believed psychics or mediums existed. However, in my mind I was like, "Hmm, but, they probably do!" -- Somehow irrationally defending them.
Well, that's my story of how I came to accept the term "atheist" -- As I discovered what the term truly meant, and discovered that... it describes me exactly. I've never really believed in a religion at all, and I've always been open minded about things... just now not gullible.
This sounds like such a weird story to tell, and some theists or believers in other paranormal or nonsensical stuff will be like, "Wow, that sounds like... a dumb story." But, oddly enough, learning about 1 scam, led me to be skeptical about other scams, and other things... And I eventually learned to think for myself.
I actually learned more about Christianity while being a skeptic, rather than when I was growing up. I never understood things like the "trinity" and what Jesus' purpose was, etc.
Interests
Well, I got all the "background" stuff about me out of the way that explain why I read and contribute to such forums. I might as well describe what I'm like now, eh?
Well, I don't exactly look like it, but I'm a huge Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Anime geek. Don't get me wrong though, I don't geek out too much and I'm not EXTREME about any of my interests. I just have geeky interests, as I grew up with a lot of shows and the like since I was a child. I literally grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. I even remember the promos for it, the commercials always seemed more epic than the actual episodes. The guy's voice was just so awesome. Other shows I grew up with were shows like Quantum Leap, and Sliders.
These days, as my interests grew, I also got involved with watching shows like Stargate: SG-1 / Atlantis / Universe (yes, even universe, I like it...), Doctor Who, etc.
As for my interest in Anime, I actually discovered and got interested in anime WAY before it became "popular." There wasn't a Cartoon Network back in the day... the kind of anime I watched were 5th generation bootleg VHS tapes of shows like Ranma 1/2, Gunsmith Cats, Dominion Tank Police, New Dominion Tank Police, Dirty Pair, and Dragonhalf. (I even have a fansubbed VHS copy of Mewtwo Strikes Back.) I was rather proud at the time to have watched a movie YEARS before it came out in America.
Then Cartoon Network came along, and while I'm glad people are interested in anime, I find it rather disappointing that a lot of fans start off with some of the stuff they air on there. And now today, we have people attending conventions... Which, are awesome, I love conventions... But... Some of these people are WAY into like, 1 show, that isn't even a good show (in my opinion.)
Speaking of conventions, I do in fact go to them... Well, one in particular... Anime Boston, naturally. I've been attending Anime Boston for nearly 5 years now. I've never had the courage to actually dress up at it at all though, and I admire people who do. As a guy, I feel severely limited with the kind of costumes and ideas that I could dress as. Girls seem to have the spotlight on both male and female costumes, and do it so insanely well. My motto is, if you're going to cosplay, at least do it right. And honestly, I doubt I can ever do it right.
And also, speaking of Anime Boston, it's managed by some of the friendliest and coolest people you will ever meet. *waves at Eilonnwy* By an odd chance of events, I've inadvertently come across and know OF (but do not actually know) your awesome and lovely admin, on the internet.
If anyone else here has attended Anime Boston, I've probably passed by you literally hundreds of times at the convention, as I tend to do laps around the Hynes Convention Center with my friends, instead of actually... you know... doing stuff and going to panels.
Anyway, I have other television interests, like Dexter, etc, that aren't exactly sci-fi. I'm sure I can think of a few other shows that aren't ultra sci-fi... Uh... MythBusters... of course.
The Atheist Experience? That's a TV show... right?
I also read books on occasion, of course, probably nothing you've heard of... and oddly enough, I never have the time to read a bunch of books that I thought would be AWESOME, but bought anyway. (I tend to like medieval / fantasy types of books.)
As for music and stuff, I made a short list in the other forum, but I guess I could retype it here. Some bands that you probably have NEVER heard of that I enjoy, are: Freezepop, Blue October, Eurythmics (And almost anything 80s), Switchblade Symphony, Crystal Castles, VNV Nation, Nightwish, Flogging Molly, La Roux, Dragonforce, and Hania (An unsigned unprofessional singer.)
I sincerely congratulate anyone who has read my entire introductory post. You have quite the dedication!
So far, everyone has been warm and welcome here towards me, and I appreciate it!
Thank you all for accepting me in your wonderful part of teh interwebs.
(Also, don't be afraid to PM me or add me to your favorite IM program, I love meeting and talking with new people.)
If you have any questions for me or just want to talk, please use my intro thread to do so! I'm more than happy to get acquainted with you all! ^-^
I like the way you think!
...But please stop thinking, it's not you.
...But please stop thinking, it's not you.
![[Image: Untitled2_zpswaosccbr.png]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=i1140.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fn569%2Fthesummerqueen%2FUntitled2_zpswaosccbr.png)
