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RE: well, hello
September 20, 2015 at 3:02 pm
(This post was last modified: September 20, 2015 at 3:03 pm by robvalue.)
Hey Mermaid, nice to meet you!
Don't worry, that loony who messaged you is far from representative. We get desperate theists blowing through here from time to time but they usually either get banned for being dicks or just write a load of crap then run off.
I'm sorry you have to keep your atheism under wraps. How ridiculous at a science job!
I hope you enjoy the forum 
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RE: well, hello
September 20, 2015 at 3:07 pm
(This post was last modified: September 20, 2015 at 3:12 pm by Mermaid.)
(September 20, 2015 at 3:02 pm)robvalue Wrote: Hey Mermaid, nice to meet you!
Don't worry, that loony who messaged you is far from representative. We get desperate theists blowing through here from time to time but they usually either get banned for being dicks or just write a load of crap then run off.
I'm sorry you have to keep your atheism under wraps. How ridiculous at a science job!
I hope you enjoy the forum
Thanks! And thanks everyone for the warm reception.
I have been a forum moderator before, so I do know how that goes. No worries at all!
As an aside, I have found atheistforum.com to be increasingly sexist and hostile toward women. I guess that's the biggest reason I registered here.
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RE: well, hello
September 20, 2015 at 3:12 pm
Welcome.
Dying to live, living to die.
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RE: well, hello
September 20, 2015 at 3:16 pm
(This post was last modified: September 20, 2015 at 3:20 pm by TheRocketSurgeon.)
(September 20, 2015 at 2:56 pm)Mermaid Wrote: You are the person who made me look in this forum, your shoutbox posts made me laugh this morning.
Yeah, that was pretty embarassing. I had never used Google Chrome before, and when I typed in atheistforums (not knowing there was another one), it loaded the .com version. I was too tired from battling with my antivirus software to notice it wasn't just this site displayed in some format that Firefox somehow didn't support. So, yeah, pretty embarassing. 
Before I was set up by an ex and wrongfully incarcerated for 9 years (just exonerated and released in April of this year) as a victim of the Drug War, I was an environmental scientist/field biologist (stream system ecology, endangered and threatened species range-tracking and quantification, and pollution monitoring) for a state regulatory agency. My fiancee works in a genetics lab, studying genes that we share with Caenorhabditis elegans related to aging and stem cell differentiation. I mention my incarceration by way of explaining how, in 2015, I could be so inept with new computer technologies! Heh.
Since the science field is now effectively closed to me, despite the exoneration, without going back to college to catch up on a decade of major breakthroughs in biology, I've taken up my old hobby of motorcycle building as a new career (thus my alias/handle on here). But I still love talking about science, particularly evolutionary biology, and AF is a great way to express that.
Addendum: You don't have to worry about sexism and hostility here. Not only do most of our men self-identify as feminists, Beccs and Losty will chew anyone expressing such misogynist sentiments to shreds. 
A Christian told me: if you were saved you cant lose your salvation. you're sealed with the Holy Ghost
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.
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RE: well, hello
September 20, 2015 at 3:25 pm
(September 20, 2015 at 2:56 pm)Mermaid Wrote: ...
(September 20, 2015 at 1:33 pm)TheRocketSurgeon Wrote: ...
May I ask in what field/specialty do you work?
Parasitology.
You must know a lot about religion. 
"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: well, hello
September 20, 2015 at 3:42 pm
(September 20, 2015 at 3:25 pm)Pyrrho Wrote: (September 20, 2015 at 2:56 pm)Mermaid Wrote: ...
Parasitology.
You must know a lot about religion.
Ha! I thought that, but decided not to say it.
A Christian told me: if you were saved you cant lose your salvation. you're sealed with the Holy Ghost
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.
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RE: well, hello
September 20, 2015 at 3:51 pm
(September 20, 2015 at 3:16 pm)TheRocketSurgeon Wrote: (September 20, 2015 at 2:56 pm)Mermaid Wrote: You are the person who made me look in this forum, your shoutbox posts made me laugh this morning.
Yeah, that was pretty embarassing. I had never used Google Chrome before, and when I typed in atheistforums (not knowing there was another one), it loaded the .com version. I was too tired from battling with my antivirus software to notice it wasn't just this site displayed in some format that Firefox somehow didn't support. So, yeah, pretty embarassing.
Before I was set up by an ex and wrongfully incarcerated for 9 years (just exonerated and released in April of this year) as a victim of the Drug War, I was an environmental scientist/field biologist (stream system ecology, endangered and threatened species range-tracking and quantification, and pollution monitoring) for a state regulatory agency. My fiancee works in a genetics lab, studying genes that we share with Caenorhabditis elegans related to aging and stem cell differentiation. I mention my incarceration by way of explaining how, in 2015, I could be so inept with new computer technologies! Heh.
Since the science field is now effectively closed to me, despite the exoneration, without going back to college to catch up on a decade of major breakthroughs in biology, I've taken up my old hobby of motorcycle building as a new career (thus my alias/handle on here). But I still love talking about science, particularly evolutionary biology, and AF is a great way to express that.
Cool! Not your incarceration, but the biology part. Are you certain the environmental science field is closed to you? I don't think enough has changed in 9 years to invalidate your edjumication.
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RE: well, hello
September 20, 2015 at 4:15 pm
(This post was last modified: September 20, 2015 at 4:31 pm by TheRocketSurgeon.)
(September 20, 2015 at 3:51 pm)Mermaid Wrote: Cool! Not your incarceration, but the biology part. Are you certain the environmental science field is closed to you? I don't think enough has changed in 9 years to invalidate your edjumication.
No, but the work I wanted to do was in biochem/genetics, as well, specifically the genetics of the immune system and viral genetics related to fusion/transcription/protease, which would definitely require more schooling. (I have been an HIV/AIDS charity volunteer and advocate for most of my adult life, since losing someone dear to me as a teenager, and want to work with those trying to reprogram the immune cells to combat the virus.) I saw my initial jobs as a springboard to a career in that field. I would be unlikely to find another job of that type, since background checks are pretty stringent when you're going to work in a job where lots of money is at stake for the companies investing in the research, and "why haven't you worked in the past nine years?" is pretty sure to come up in the job interview. I'd like to believe that people would not hold prejudices, but that has not been my experience, and frankly I'm just not willing to put myself into that emotionally-vulnerable position, ever again. I have had enough of being wrongly judged.
It's possible I could go to school and finish my Master's, once I'm able to afford to do so, but to tell you the truth, I'm now 39 and just not really ready to start school again in the hope I won't be silently discriminated against. Exoneration or no, it's hard for most people to get over their inherent belief in the validity of the justice system. I've heard "won on a technicality, huh?" several times since being released, even from relatives. Yeah, the "technicality" that I was prohibited from introducing what is called "evidence of actual innocence" by the judge, who has since been disbarred (on a different case/issue), and the prosecution was allowed to introduce evidence that was not only manufactured but manipulated to look like evidence when it wasn't, and there was never any evidence to support the charges.
At least, in the field of custom motorcycle design and building, it's somewhat of a "street cred" issue, if clients learn I've been in the joint, since most of my customers are either military veterans (I also do some charity work with the local VA rehabilitation groups, building bikes with mods for riders who have lost limbs in combat, at a big discount) or are "yuppies" who want to purchase biker-cred as an image, like a costume they can put on for the weekend. I'm even growing my hair out long to foster that image, somewhat.
Addendum to Add: I realize my second-to-last sentence is unclear. The veterans don't care about my incarceration because they've seen enough shit to realize what is petty and what's actually worth worrying about, in a way that the average American will never grasp. They always, always treat me with respect. And the banker/dentist types seem to glean some sort of "bad boy by proxy" from having a bike built for them by an ex-convict.
A Christian told me: if you were saved you cant lose your salvation. you're sealed with the Holy Ghost
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.
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RE: well, hello
September 20, 2015 at 4:40 pm
I am sorry this happened to you. I can understand not being willing to expose yourself for potential disappointment after what you've been through.
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RE: well, hello
October 9, 2015 at 8:43 pm
Welcome. I am from the .com as well. Same moniker. I sort of found .com to be cliquish. So, here I am.
"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan
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