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RE: Why did you come to this board?
July 31, 2015 at 12:06 pm
Community (I live in Texas after all) and knowledge. I enjoy religious debate. I also want a chance to talk about Jewish humanism because, well, as a nonbeliever I find a lot of joy in it and wonder if others might as well if they knew about it.
Humanistic Judaism 101: Humanistic Judaism embraces a human-centered philosophy that combines rational thinking with a celebration of Jewish culture and identity. Humanistic Jews value their Jewish identity and the aspects of Jewish culture that offer a genuine expression of their contemporary way of life. Humanistic Jewish communities celebrate Jewish holidays and life cycle events (such as weddings and bar and bat mitzvah) with inspirational ceremonies that draw upon but go beyond traditional literature.
"God is one of the many different poetic expressions of the highest value in humanism, not a reality in itself." -Erich Fromm
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RE: Why did you come to this board?
July 31, 2015 at 12:07 pm
(July 30, 2015 at 7:53 pm)SnakeOilWarrior Wrote: I started out at AF.com because one of the regulars, a guy by the username BadDogma, was a co-worker and turned me on to it. It was nice to be able to vent to a crowd of like minded people without worry. At the time, it was a vibrant, active community. Granted, it had its share of assholes, but only it's share. As time passed, the founder lost interest, the good regulars started to leave, server problems started becoming the norm, culminating in a horrific board crash caused by yours truly and my epic "the last person to post, wins" thread. Not something intentional, it seems their board just couldn't handle a 1000+ page thread. The second largest was their member picture thread at a mere 800+ and most threads, even the popular ones, never made it past 100 or so. After the crash (they were down for two or three days) the draconian policies started and I finally gave them up for the far superior AF.org, which was getting rather regularly bad mouthed when I left.
I was a member over there, and the crash was when I stopped visiting. I was already burning out on the fetish many there seemed to have for pedantry. Drunkenshoe couldn't make up her mind if she hated me or not, too, so it was always up in the air what sort of experience I was going to have on any given day.
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RE: Why did you come to this board?
July 31, 2015 at 1:03 pm
(July 30, 2015 at 4:46 am)FreeTony Wrote: (July 30, 2015 at 1:24 am)Jenny A Wrote: I'm here because I got interested in the question of god again. Why? Because my children are struggling with Christian friends at the same time we are visiting in-laws in the Bible Belt more often. I stayed because I like the give and take. And because of the people here.
I do feel so sorry for all you Americans who have to put up with this nonsense everyday. I only get my fix of religios insanity on the internet. It's nice because you can just leave when it frustrates you.
Christianity hardly ever gets mentioned here, and if it does it's most likely in a negative sense. If anyone said "amen" or "praise the lord" in a unironic way at work they'd get very funny looks.
Where are you anyway, in heaven?
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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RE: Why did you come to this board?
July 31, 2015 at 8:23 pm
(This post was last modified: July 31, 2015 at 8:24 pm by IATIA.)
I have never been to AF.org. I was at evilbible until the owner went into meltdown then CVAtheists until the spambots staged their successful coup. A couple of the previous members came here and liked the forum enough to invite the rest of us over. I do not remember the names to blame, but here we are! 
You make people miserable and there's nothing they can do about it, just like god.
-- Homer Simpson
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers
Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders
Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
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RE: Why did you come to this board?
July 31, 2015 at 8:37 pm
It's funny how genuinely entertained I am by all your stories of your older forays. It's like listening to the old timers at work tell stories of their youth, except about the Internet.
I can't remember where this verse is from, I think it got removed from canon:
"I don't hang around with mostly men because I'm gay. It's because men are better than women. Better trained, better equipped...better. Just better! I'm not gay."
For context, this is the previous verse:
"Hi Jesus" -robvalue
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RE: Why did you come to this board?
July 31, 2015 at 8:41 pm
(July 31, 2015 at 12:07 pm)Parkers Tan Wrote: (July 30, 2015 at 7:53 pm)SnakeOilWarrior Wrote: I started out at AF.com because one of the regulars, a guy by the username BadDogma, was a co-worker and turned me on to it. It was nice to be able to vent to a crowd of like minded people without worry. At the time, it was a vibrant, active community. Granted, it had its share of assholes, but only it's share. As time passed, the founder lost interest, the good regulars started to leave, server problems started becoming the norm, culminating in a horrific board crash caused by yours truly and my epic "the last person to post, wins" thread. Not something intentional, it seems their board just couldn't handle a 1000+ page thread. The second largest was their member picture thread at a mere 800+ and most threads, even the popular ones, never made it past 100 or so. After the crash (they were down for two or three days) the draconian policies started and I finally gave them up for the far superior AF.org, which was getting rather regularly bad mouthed when I left.
I was a member over there, and the crash was when I stopped visiting. I was already burning out on the fetish many there seemed to have for pedantry. Drunkenshoe couldn't make up her mind if she hated me or not, too, so it was always up in the air what sort of experience I was going to have on any given day.
Did DrunkenShoe like anybody more than two days running? I still remember the epic meltdown she had because I had the audacity to claim that Kubrick makes shit book adaptations. It was like I murdered favorite puppy.
Thief and assassin for hire. Member in good standing of the Rogues Guild.
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RE: Why did you come to this board?
July 31, 2015 at 8:46 pm
(July 31, 2015 at 8:23 pm)IATIA Wrote: I have never been to AF.org.
You're at AF.org.
Thief and assassin for hire. Member in good standing of the Rogues Guild.
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RE: Why did you come to this board?
July 31, 2015 at 8:58 pm
(July 31, 2015 at 8:46 pm)SnakeOilWarrior Wrote: (July 31, 2015 at 8:23 pm)IATIA Wrote: I have never been to AF.org.
You're at AF.org.
No, you are just hallucinating again. None of us are here, only you.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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RE: Why did you come to this board?
July 31, 2015 at 8:58 pm
(This post was last modified: July 31, 2015 at 9:09 pm by Simon Moon.)
Quote:lkingpinl
I'm interested to know the reasons why people came to this forum. Was it to maybe get some answers on things you were struggling with? Was it for a sense of community of like minded individuals? Was it to promote debate?
For me I came to listen to voices of differing opinions than my own. I feel the only way I can grow intellectually is to continue to branch in to areas I don't know enough of as well as to listen to those that draw different conclusions than myself to the same questions.
Why did you come and what keeps you coming back?
As others have said, the community.
But more importantly, to hear different views. I am naturally a very inquisitive person.
One of my goals is to have as many true beliefs as possible, and eliminate as many false beliefs (no matter how comfortable). If someone has a different view of reality than I do, I want to know what it is, and most importantly, why they believe it. If their beliefs are based on demonstrable, falsifiable, repeatable evidence, and reasoned argument, I will be compelled to accept their evidence and alter my views.
I used to go to Christian and Muslim forums, but no matter how nice, how respectful, I would quickly be banned for doing nothing more than asking questions, and responding by, pointing out fallacies, scientific and historical errors when they were used in responses to me.
So, I come to atheist forums instead, to have these discussions with the theists that post here.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
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RE: Why did you come to this board?
July 31, 2015 at 10:59 pm
(July 31, 2015 at 8:41 pm)SnakeOilWarrior Wrote: (July 31, 2015 at 12:07 pm)Parkers Tan Wrote: I was a member over there, and the crash was when I stopped visiting. I was already burning out on the fetish many there seemed to have for pedantry. Drunkenshoe couldn't make up her mind if she hated me or not, too, so it was always up in the air what sort of experience I was going to have on any given day.
Did DrunkenShoe like anybody more than two days running? I still remember the epic meltdown she had because I had the audacity to claim that Kubrick makes shit book adaptations. It was like I murdered favorite puppy.
I usually avoid the adjective "epic" in regards to such a tempest in a teapot, but that was pretty fucking close.
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