Hi ladies and gents. Hope you all find a minute to read my brief(ish) introduction and reasoning for joining these forums.
So i'm just some guy from the UK who has been pondering the big questions etc for a while now. For some time (particularly during and immediately after my student years) i've been an agnostic of some sorts. Raised in a not-that-observant anglican family (and christened) I probably stopped believing in any sort of personal god during my late teens, but always adopted the safe-bet 'Open minded' Agnostic tag when describing myself, at least that's how I thought of it at the time.
I'd always had a tendency to defend religion or religious people from absolute hostility and confrontation because I believe that freedom is important, but in the last 24 months in particular i've come to seriously quesiton just how much certain elements of religious dogma actually threaten the freedoms that I hold dear. I've come to the point where I can no longer reconcile my firm belief in such things as women's rights and the importance of scientific endevour with my realisation that certain people within religious circles are actively seeking to undermine said values, and not in some daft primitive desert tribe from a time long gone, but in the here and now.
The tipping point for me was working with a number of muslim and christian colleagues, in 21st century Britain, in a Pathology lab no less (where science is THE modus operandi) and finding that educated adults from modest backgrounds think i'm a quack for believing that humans evolved from lesser hominids, that women should be allowed to work, and that the earth is not only 6000 years (ish) old but that the earliest humans were 30 metres tall (rather than slightly shorter in stature as the fossil record actually demonstrates). The unusual opinions that I previously tolerated were now actively engaging me in debate and even mocking me on occasions.
This, plus some run ins with unwanted door-to-door preachers handing me "scientific publications" which are riddled with lies and misleading quotes, has led me to harden my stance when it comes to the acceptance of ideas that are neither rational nor reasoned. I'd owned a bible and koran for some time but I wanted to broaden my scope so i've been reading the usual stuff; Hitchens, Dan Barker, Dawkins, Krauss etc to get a range of ideas, and it's left me feeling almost intimidated in that I feel like I'm the one in the minority in an ocean of nonsense, in a developed western country where secular reason had been gaining ground in recent decades. I feel like everything is under assault from some truly loony (and I have to use that word) individuals.
It's left me feeling quite isolated and frustrated almost (not in a lonely way, it's just that my partner, friends and family on the whole do not see the assault in the same way that I do) and I suppose I felt an urge to search out some sensible discussion in order to A) Reassure myself that i'm not the only one that isn't completely bloody barmy, and B) Perhaps engage some theists in debate and get a chance to let off some steam (in an appropriate and measured manner of course).
So, hi guys.
So i'm just some guy from the UK who has been pondering the big questions etc for a while now. For some time (particularly during and immediately after my student years) i've been an agnostic of some sorts. Raised in a not-that-observant anglican family (and christened) I probably stopped believing in any sort of personal god during my late teens, but always adopted the safe-bet 'Open minded' Agnostic tag when describing myself, at least that's how I thought of it at the time.
I'd always had a tendency to defend religion or religious people from absolute hostility and confrontation because I believe that freedom is important, but in the last 24 months in particular i've come to seriously quesiton just how much certain elements of religious dogma actually threaten the freedoms that I hold dear. I've come to the point where I can no longer reconcile my firm belief in such things as women's rights and the importance of scientific endevour with my realisation that certain people within religious circles are actively seeking to undermine said values, and not in some daft primitive desert tribe from a time long gone, but in the here and now.
The tipping point for me was working with a number of muslim and christian colleagues, in 21st century Britain, in a Pathology lab no less (where science is THE modus operandi) and finding that educated adults from modest backgrounds think i'm a quack for believing that humans evolved from lesser hominids, that women should be allowed to work, and that the earth is not only 6000 years (ish) old but that the earliest humans were 30 metres tall (rather than slightly shorter in stature as the fossil record actually demonstrates). The unusual opinions that I previously tolerated were now actively engaging me in debate and even mocking me on occasions.
This, plus some run ins with unwanted door-to-door preachers handing me "scientific publications" which are riddled with lies and misleading quotes, has led me to harden my stance when it comes to the acceptance of ideas that are neither rational nor reasoned. I'd owned a bible and koran for some time but I wanted to broaden my scope so i've been reading the usual stuff; Hitchens, Dan Barker, Dawkins, Krauss etc to get a range of ideas, and it's left me feeling almost intimidated in that I feel like I'm the one in the minority in an ocean of nonsense, in a developed western country where secular reason had been gaining ground in recent decades. I feel like everything is under assault from some truly loony (and I have to use that word) individuals.
It's left me feeling quite isolated and frustrated almost (not in a lonely way, it's just that my partner, friends and family on the whole do not see the assault in the same way that I do) and I suppose I felt an urge to search out some sensible discussion in order to A) Reassure myself that i'm not the only one that isn't completely bloody barmy, and B) Perhaps engage some theists in debate and get a chance to let off some steam (in an appropriate and measured manner of course).
So, hi guys.
