Ex Theists

[Kyuuketsuki]

I operated in the real world back then. early 80's computer You remember actual conversations don't you?

Back then Frodo? I was first debating online, in a forum, in 1998 ... earlier on Compu$erve, I've been using PC based personal computers since the late 80', computers that have been pushed by users rather than business since the early 90's (a major reason why Windows rules the desktop world) ... you talk about two years ago as if computers and forums didn't exist ... and they were extremely popular even then!

This may shock you but I still talk to people now, I don't (like most commuters it seems) lock myself within an iPod shell and pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist but instead prefer to hear the real world, smile at and chat with others and so on.

Sending 5 1/4 floppy disks by post wasn't condusive to much more than "hey, got any good programs to swap?". I bow to your geekery Kyu.

Geek I may be (and proud of it) and yeah, I still have a case full of FD's but I haven't sent or given stuff to people on one for getting on for 10 years and only use them for BIOS updates, drivers (XP type builds) and computer imaging and those things are almost no longer needed. My preferred medium of exchange for many years now has been e-mail, MSN, personal FTP sites, USB drives, hard disks and, where necessary, CD/DVD.

No, I accosted people in the street. Various nutty flavours of the door to door variety. Vicars and professionals I'd meet. After resigning from a church you can imagine the even richer pickings. I'd consider online badgering possibly tame next to that. My meaty morsels were usually live bait confined.

I think Sir is being more than a little disingenuous in his claim to atheism.

I did participate in a very long thread between myself and a strange person on Beliefnet a few years ago. I was relating spiritual experience and they were talking about speaking to me in my dreams. Atheism takes many forms of course. As we see on here.

On here? No evidence yet again? Sir shocks me ... NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST!

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But more telling is the fact that every single time a theist claims this kind of thing they are NEVER able to substantiate it! It doesn't prove they aren't but it builds up an impression about the disingenuous little fucks!

You want us to substantiate that we used to have atheist or agnostic leanings by linking to old forum threads? What if, like Frodo, I didn't forum back then? I also remember taking on theists, and still to this day I will debate with the religious if I have too. But not in a form that I can link too now. I too try to live in the real world.

Do you not get that your answer is EXACTLY what I expect and have got from EVERY FUCKING THEIST WHO HAS EVER CLAIMED TO BE EX-ATHEIST?

You can believe everyone is lying to you.

I don't ... I just believe theist throw in such claim like, "I used to be atheist" either as some kind of implicit "but now I've seen the truth!" or because they genuinely don't understand what an atheist is, thinking it is not rejection of claims to deity but a kind of falling out with God or that they can somehow choose to be atheist when they can't (no one can in any real sense).

You can take our word on our histories, or not.

Not!

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Philosophy is a great way to spend your life not getting answers.

BRAVO! Well said that man

Still a waste of time, there are no answers. People are actually paid money to sit around and think about a range of issues but are not expected to produce any meaningful results or evidence.

Yeah, although I accept such things can be interesting and philosophy can sometimes play into science making a claim that can be tested (metaphysics never does as far as I can tell) that's why I refer to it as psychobabble and mental masturbation.

I will change my view on it the day someone points out something that is pretty much globally accepted by scientific, academic and the smarter theologists purely on the basis of modern day philosophy ... until then I will regard true philosophy as the search for knowledge and science/math as the only reasonable way of acquiring it.

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Still a waste of time, there are no answers. People are actually paid money to sit around and think about a range of issues but are not expected to produce any meaningful results or evidence.

I personally enjoy it. And if only for that reason and that reason alone - I personally don't find it a waste of time.

That's fine but as a means of establishing things it's pretty fucking useless!

Kyu