Thanks from sweaty Australia? No, that doesn't sound right...

(February 14, 2012 at 12:59 am)Tempus Wrote: Thanks from sweaty Australia? No, that doesn't sound right...

Where is the "Wide Brown Land" are you?

Zen and I are in Perth. pad in SA and many more on the east coast.....

And yeah ...it's sweaty over here.

Welcome from Melbourne

Soon, our plan for forum domination will be complete *insert evil laugh here*

Nah Michelle...Aussies couldn't be bothered...mind you the rest of the forum participants may wake one day wondering just how many of us there are!!

(February 14, 2012 at 1:28 am)KichigaiNeko Wrote: Nah Michelle...Aussies couldn't be bothered...mind you the rest of the forum participants may wake one day wondering just how many of us there are!!

True. If only we weren't such bludgers - imagine what we could do!

(February 14, 2012 at 1:40 am)Michelle_Patton Wrote:

(February 14, 2012 at 1:28 am)KichigaiNeko Wrote: Nah Michelle...Aussies couldn't be bothered...mind you the rest of the forum participants may wake one day wondering just how many of us there are!!

True. If only we weren't such bludgers - imagine what we could do!

I don't think we're bludgers... but we certainly are not as easy to stir up as our cousins across the pacific

I'm originally from Adelaide, but I currently live in Tasmania.

I'd have to agree that the stereotype of Australians being more laid back generally seems to be true.

(February 13, 2012 at 6:04 pm)Tempus Wrote: I don't usually bother with introductory posts on forums, much less begin them at the tail end of an all-nighter, but what the hell I'm an atheist. Depending on what the claim is it may be of the gnostic, agnostic or ignostic variety. As for other positions I hold; I'm pretty much a determinist and nihilist. From there you can probably figure out my positions on other things pretty easily. My hobbies include composing music, modding, watching anime and reading.

I don't usually bother with responding to anyone halfway seriously, much less in an introduction thread, but fuck it all.

Ignostic?

From the information that you are an atheist, determinist, and nihilist... I cannot figure out your positions on these topics:
*Your stance regarding homosexuality
*Your stance regarding abortion
*Your favorite food groups
*If you desire to be in a sexual and/or romantic relationship with anyone
*Much of your personality
*How you feel about recreational use of drugs
*Your position on green energy vs usefulness of fossil fuels
*If you believe in the existence and/or interference of space-faring creatures.
*Really... I can't tell you much of anything about you from that.

Cool that you like to compose music. I also enjoy watching anime, and I can enjoy reading greatly at times.

Quote:While I haven't always been an explicit atheist, I was never religious - more just vaguely spiritual. The previous year and a bit has been an intense period of self contemplation for me in the sense of evaluating my meaning / purpose / goals / etc. I began reading and frequenting anarchist-esque sites and became briefly enthralled by their talk, however after reading (among other things) Ted Kaczynski's criticisms of the naive attitudes of many anarchists and the realities of primitive peoples lives I gradually became disillusioned with the idealistic visions of eternal sunshine and hippie communes. Not to mention the impossibility of having the available knowledge I love to pursue in book and digital form... Still, I harbour a soft spot for some of their goals and think things can be salvaged from the movement. One excellent and inspiring piece I found around this time was this: http://deoxy.org/rst.htm
It seemed to echo back to me my own dissatisfaction with the way the world worked. I remember feeling so frustrated with being locked into this merry-go round of media, work and socialising in which no real meaningful contact was actually made. This was a time of great despair and aimlessness for me.

Might interest you to know that most of the 'top economic minds' on this forum are anarcho-capitalistic in many regards, and I think one of them calls himself a 'minarchist', at the least he did. Rest assured that you'll not hear talk of sunshine from me often, only that I firmly believe in people's capacity to volunteer as a result of my own experiences (I subscribe to anarcho-syndicalism). I have no idea where you got the bolded statement from... seems like a ridiculous a thing to say to me.

I made some very meaningful contact with someone in October of last year. I'm quite satisfied

Quote:Eventually I came across the so-called 'New Athiests' via a video of Sam Harris'. Around this time I also found a number of excellent Youtube atheists and also finally realised that agnosticism wasn't a middle ground between atheism and theism. Dawkin's talks about evolution also lead to an even greater interest in science. Although I no longer have that much of an interest in those four anymore they profoundly affected my world view. Around this time was probably when I found out about the concept of the 'absurd' which Camus describes and subsequently lead me to rejecting my pessimistic attitude in favour of a more realistic (though not optimistic) one. The glass isn't half-full or half-empty; it contains a 1:1 ratio of air and liquid.

The glass is half full, but cracked near the base and draining rapidly. Absurdism is a belief to which many seem to think I subscribe. Might be because I'm crazy.

Quote:I don't know any other atheists which is basically why I joined up. My atheism is a very small part of me but being unable to share it and have it understood is lame. Most people I know have this incoherent, wishy-washy, self serving, spiritual nonsense... "Everything happens for a reason" and such. I mean, what does that even mean! What reason?! What are you TALKING about!

Bla bla bla this is getting way too long so I will end here.

Plenty of atheists here. I don't consider my apatheism to be such a big deal as to tell people without them specifically asking. If there are gods, that's cool... unless they get in my way. Then it's on.

Welcome. You should be impressed that I didn't post a single picture during this... such self-control was very difficult.

(February 14, 2012 at 5:38 am)Vaeolet Lilly Blossom Wrote: Ignostic?

I think some god concepts are too poorly defined and vague and thus can't be discussed in a meaningful way. Other quite specific gods like that of Abraham can, in my opinion, be known not to exist as described.

(February 14, 2012 at 5:38 am)Vaeolet Lilly Blossom Wrote: Might interest you to know that most of the 'top economic minds' on this forum are anarcho-capitalistic in many regards, and I think one of them calls himself a 'minarchist', at the least he did. Rest assured that you'll not hear talk of sunshine from me often, only that I firmly believe in people's capacity to volunteer as a result of my own experiences (I subscribe to anarcho-syndicalism). I have no idea where you got the bolded statement from... seems like a ridiculous a thing to say to me.

I got it from my brain which may explain the confusion it caused. To clear up; I should've said 'anarcho-primitivism' which is what I was interested in at the time. I don't pretend to know a lot about economics or politics, although they're both on the (long) list along with many other subjects. But yes, the statement was ridiculous without this clarification.

(February 14, 2012 at 5:38 am)Vaeolet Lilly Blossom Wrote: From the information that you are an atheist, determinist, and nihilist... I cannot figure out your positions on these topics:
*Your stance regarding homosexuality
*Your stance regarding abortion
*Your favorite food groups
*If you desire to be in a sexual and/or romantic relationship with anyone
*Much of your personality
*How you feel about recreational use of drugs
*Your position on green energy vs usefulness of fossil fuels
*If you believe in the existence and/or interference of space-faring creatures.
*Really... I can't tell you much of anything about you from that.

Would you like an answer to all those? I didn't mean you'd be able to figure out ALL my stances, haha. My rationale here was that after you've reached the conclusion that nothing really matters it follows that you have no real reason to oppose things like gay rights or abortion etc. However, in hindsight I guess there's not much that necessitates someone reaching those conclusions from those three positions. If you had direct access to my mind we wouldn't be in this predicament.

• Pro gay rights and homosexuality (and every other sexuality)
  
• Pro choice
  
• Is pizza a food group?
  
• I'm not even sure if I want to be in a relationship, although I do have needs Really I'd prefer something purely intellectual over something purely sexual or romantic. I say that since I've had the latter and it wasn't as good as I thought it would be... Still, ideally both.
  
• I'm not against recreational drug use at all provided people educate themselves on the subject.
  

Hi Tempus and welcome to the forums.

(February 14, 2012 at 6:46 am)Tempus Wrote:

(February 14, 2012 at 5:38 am)Vaeolet Lilly Blossom Wrote: Ignostic?

I don't think some god concepts are too poorly defined and vague and thus can't be discussed in a meaningful way.

Indeed, that is why it is important to find out what it is a theist believes and why, or you are just arguing against a deity that they do not believe in either.