Hi fellow travelers
May 30, 2013 at 12:32 am
(This post was last modified: May 30, 2013 at 12:32 am by Zarith.)
Hi. I'm a 33 year old guy from Atlanta. I've been one kind of unbeliever or another for close to 20 years now.
I wasn't particularly raised to be religious, but being in the southeast USA, evangelical Christians types were never very far away either. I went through a time in my life where I had many friends that believed this kind of thing, and very much wanted to fit in and believe what they believed.
Try as I might, I simply could not fit all the puzzle pieces together, it just did not make sense to me. I reached a point where I basically said screw it, I can make better sense of things without, and I've never really looked back.
In college, I majored in and graduated with a degree in cognitive science, which is basically a combination of neuroscience, philosophy, computer science, linguistics, and psychology. It was a great experience.
Lately I have been making an effort to educate myself on things I may have missed out on, and in so doing have discovered just how much I don't know. So I am looking to remedy that.
I've also finally reached the difficult but necessary conclusion that while discussion of opposing points of view on religion is a necessary and important thing to do, I was doing it too frequently, and it was starting to do more harm to me than good. So I am looking for a community where I can talk about things that I like talking about, without being subjected to an endless barrage of nonsense from people largely hostile to what I believe. I also believe that it is valuable to be able to respond intelligently when these types of situations inevitably do arise.
I'm also attempting to put together a good reading list on rational inquiry, ethics & science in general, so any suggestions as to that are welcome. I've always been a math & physics & computers buff, but feel that I have neglected other areas.
So that's who I am and why I am here, and aside from that, hopefully I can add at least 1 new thing to the discussion. Thanks all and look forward to meeting you.
I wasn't particularly raised to be religious, but being in the southeast USA, evangelical Christians types were never very far away either. I went through a time in my life where I had many friends that believed this kind of thing, and very much wanted to fit in and believe what they believed.
Try as I might, I simply could not fit all the puzzle pieces together, it just did not make sense to me. I reached a point where I basically said screw it, I can make better sense of things without, and I've never really looked back.
In college, I majored in and graduated with a degree in cognitive science, which is basically a combination of neuroscience, philosophy, computer science, linguistics, and psychology. It was a great experience.
Lately I have been making an effort to educate myself on things I may have missed out on, and in so doing have discovered just how much I don't know. So I am looking to remedy that.
I've also finally reached the difficult but necessary conclusion that while discussion of opposing points of view on religion is a necessary and important thing to do, I was doing it too frequently, and it was starting to do more harm to me than good. So I am looking for a community where I can talk about things that I like talking about, without being subjected to an endless barrage of nonsense from people largely hostile to what I believe. I also believe that it is valuable to be able to respond intelligently when these types of situations inevitably do arise.
I'm also attempting to put together a good reading list on rational inquiry, ethics & science in general, so any suggestions as to that are welcome. I've always been a math & physics & computers buff, but feel that I have neglected other areas.
So that's who I am and why I am here, and aside from that, hopefully I can add at least 1 new thing to the discussion. Thanks all and look forward to meeting you.
