Hello Everyone

[Mister Agenda]

Hey, Shai, thanks for stopping by. I hope you like what we've done with the place.

[Whateverist]

I'm a Catholic who probably should hang out more on Catholic forums, but another atheist board is my primary escape from it due to politics and...excessive piety?  Is that the polite way to call people "holier than thou, more Catholic than the Pope, jerks"?  I tend to enjoy a few different podcasts like God Awful Movies (I too, suffer an addiction to bad Evangelical cinema), Scathing Atheist, and The Thinking Atheist; some of the older episodes of the latter, with topics like the Satanic Panic and Harry Potter fears remind me a great deal of growing up as a Baptist, prior to leaving that faith. I'd love to say I had some grand reason for leaving it behind, but it was a series of smaller things that just snowballed; there's a long story there. Suffice to say on the short version: Assistant Pastor did a Night of the Long Knives to get himself promoted on the membership rolls, purged things like the volunteer librarian and church library (verbatim quote, "Nobody reads any more"), and skipped the wedding rehearsal of my cousin to officiate a high school football game...and that was just part of his stuff. There were contemporary vs. traditional worship wars, a woman wanting to, quite literally, burn books at a rummage sale, and being told by the worship band that prayer wasn't as important as setting up finger foods.

My username is based off of the Dune books by Frank Herbert; it always tickled my interest that the Bene Gesserit were so adept at spreading their own religious superstitions across pretty much everywhere, even into the tribes of the Fremen of Arrakis, who held on to legends despite their reverence for the sandworms. Partially also using this name, instead of another, so that folks over on a Catholic board I used to moderate, don't start messaging with certain questions.

I definitely look forward to some great discussions, some silly ones, and not having people justify everything with God.  Even over on Facebook, with Lists, it's hard at times to discuss certain more secular topics without people chiming in and waging a Crusade; looking at you cousin's Baptist minister husband who is patently unable to discuss Christianity prior to the Great Awakening in America and got upset when I posted that Intelligent Design isn't science, and got upset when I posted a link you saw that had come from Friendly Atheist, and gets upset I post things you disagree with because your kids see them and I need to censor everything because you let them use your account to play games.  Can anyone tell that we don't see eye to eye?  

Anyhow, sorry for the long post compared to other Intros I glanced through.

Nothing to apologize for.  I was enjoying it so much I cried when it was over.  Looking forward to the second installment.

[The Industrial Atheist]

Welcome aboard.

Good introduction and good name.

Ex-Catholic here.  You'll find we're a pretty easy bunch to get along with (mostly), and we have our fair share of theists here from the fun (Catholic_Lady, come on down!) to the utterly insane (I won't need to mention names, you'll soon see who I mean).

Just a word of caution:  look out for the people here from Australia: they're weird.

Thanks for the welcome!  I've not seen my fellow name checked Catholic yet, but um...spent about two hours lurking before registering and think I saw some of those folks you didn't mention by name.  

Know some folks who would go "oh poor Catechesis is to blame" on being an ex-Catholic, but not one of them.  Usually, at least in my opinion, people tend to think such things through...at least as far as atheist ex-Catholics go.  Hope to not offend anyone, but it seems like a lot, though not all, of the Evangelical ex-Catholics I've interacted with, are all about the Feels and Woo at times.   

On the Australians...that warning seems both vague and interesting.

Welcome Shai. I find The Scathing Atheist to be really funny. I also listen to The Kyle Kulinski Show. That's just plain awesome but Kyle sometimes goes on about how religion is silly and not correct. I don't know if that would offend you or not.

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Thanks for the welcome!  Kyle's show is pretty fun for the most part, and not offended at all.  I'd be the first to agree with him sometimes.  After all, it's not a religion it's a relationship...sorry couldn't help myself, so easy to snark people who say that line seriously.  Honestly, I watched Sword in the Spirit Publishing's Gramps Goes to College recently, and it offended me way more than anything any atheist has said.

I didn't see any snarkiness at all. Either you are very good at moderating yourself or I'm used to the theist or two that go beyond snarkiness here. The former, I'm pretty sure.

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[SteelCurtain]

Hello from Tennessee!

[Aegon]

Welcome!

[Shai Hulud]

Hmmmm this one might be ok. I'll sit over here in my cynical chair for a bit and observe. Nice enough to deserve a baby carrot. Here. (Hands over the bag).

Welcome.

Thanks for the carrot and the welcome, I'll try to be okay!

Hi Shai, nice to see you over here. There are quite a few people here on TTA too.

Mama, yes Shai is one of the good ones [emoji106]

Hey ukatheist, nice to see you too!  And thanks for saying I'm one of the good ones.  (You know, I never noticed how often I link stuff in posts until hitting this 30 day and 30 post rule.)

Welcome!

Didn't the Bene Gesserit spread tailor-made superstitions purposefully so they could exploit them later to control local populations  when needed?

They did!  And now to geek out some...it was neat to see how the Atreides survivors used that to their advantage, and we see that Paul is declared to fit the messianic definitions of the Kwisatz Haderach, in addition to the legends the Bene Gesserit had already laid out about a mother and child seeking safety.  Then Paul's son becomes God Emperor...but neither of them, we find out in the post Frank Herbert books, was the real  Kwisatz Haderach.  So all that religious mania, all those jihads, all that worship...it was all for a lie.  Also if memory serves, the BGs compiled the Orange Catholic Bible that was in use at the time of the Corrino dynasty.

Welcome!

Thanks!

Howdy, Woof.

Thank you!

'Sup, Shai? Pull up a chair.

Thumpalumpacus, hiya.  And not much, I was terribly bored the other night, so since AF kept popping up on TTA, thought I'd give it a look around. Now though, just replying before beginning to grade some Finals.  (Well, some more Finals...actually pretty fortunate.  My colleague in the next office decided to have no exams, only papers, and has 440 pages worth of stuff to read carefully and comment on, whereas I have about a thousand pages of multiple choice questions to go through...and I unintentionally made 2 sections answers almost entirely A.  For which one of the students who feels comfortable around me jokingly said, "You made them all A? What sort of sick bastard are you?")

Hey, Shai, thanks for stopping by. I hope you like what we've done with the place.

Thanks Mister Agenda!  It looks like a pretty nice place.  Must admit to holding my tongue in another intro thread when someone said a Christian forum would kick off atheists really quick though. One Catholic board I'm on has had an atheist poster since 2006, and he's not banned yet.  Do you mind if I inquire, what is the agenda?  Is it the....atheist agenda...that all the Evangelical megachurch leaders insist is real?

Nothing to apologize for.  I was enjoying it so much I cried when it was over.  Looking forward to the second installment.

Thanks Whateverist!  I'll try to continue contributing something decent.  Fun other story I think you all can appreciate, which might not go over the best with some of my co-religionists.  It's not exactly mainstream, but there is a charismatic movement inside of the Catholic Church, a lot like the Pentecostalism that's in a lot of "non-denominational" churches these days.  Some friends convinced me to go with them to a Night of Worship in grad school and be prayed over by this Franciscan priest with terribly bad breath.  Every person in front of me in the line had fallen backwards into the arms of the "catchers" after being prayed over due to being 'slain in the Spirit' if my terminology is correct, so it was a bit nerve wracking.  My turn arrives, the priest raises his hand to my forehead and prays, and says Amen.  I stand there, he stands there, after a few seconds I go, "So...now what Father?  Do I go back to my pew and pray?"  He decided I should, and seemed a bit upset, he'd never had someone fail to fall backwards before like that.  Got stares all the way back to the pew too. 

I didn't see any snarkiness at all. Either you are very good at moderating yourself or I'm used to the theist or two that go beyond snarkiness here. The former, I'm pretty sure.

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Thanks, appreciate that.

Hello from Tennessee!

Hi Steel Curtain!  Hello from Wisconsin, land of cheese, beer, and disturbingly high levels of Creationism! (In all seriousness, we had a Christian group on campus bring in a speaker from the Wisconsin Creation Education Center the other year to tell everyone how evolution doesn't exist.) Thanks for the welcome!

Welcome!

Thanks for the welcome Aegon!

[Whateverist]

Nothing to apologize for.  I was enjoying it so much I cried when it was over.  Looking forward to the second installment.

Thanks Whateverist!  I'll try to continue contributing something decent.  Fun other story I think you all can appreciate, which might not go over the best with some of my co-religionists.  It's not exactly mainstream, but there is a charismatic movement inside of the Catholic Church, a lot like the Pentecostalism that's in a lot of "non-denominational" churches these days.  Some friends convinced me to go with them to a Night of Worship in grad school and be prayed over by this Franciscan priest with terribly bad breath.  Every person in front of me in the line had fallen backwards into the arms of the "catchers" after being prayed over due to being 'slain in the Spirit' if my terminology is correct, so it was a bit nerve wracking.  My turn arrives, the priest raises his hand to my forehead and prays, and says Amen.  I stand there, he stands there, after a few seconds I go, "So...now what Father?  Do I go back to my pew and pray?"  He decided I should, and seemed a bit upset, he'd never had someone fail to fall backwards before like that.  Got stares all the way back to the pew too. 

*applause* Glad you stood your ground. Do I know you by any other name? I spend a little time over at TTA.

[Fireball]

Welcome!

[Shai Hulud]

Thanks Whateverist!  I'll try to continue contributing something decent.  Fun other story I think you all can appreciate, which might not go over the best with some of my co-religionists.  It's not exactly mainstream, but there is a charismatic movement inside of the Catholic Church, a lot like the Pentecostalism that's in a lot of "non-denominational" churches these days.  Some friends convinced me to go with them to a Night of Worship in grad school and be prayed over by this Franciscan priest with terribly bad breath.  Every person in front of me in the line had fallen backwards into the arms of the "catchers" after being prayed over due to being 'slain in the Spirit' if my terminology is correct, so it was a bit nerve wracking.  My turn arrives, the priest raises his hand to my forehead and prays, and says Amen.  I stand there, he stands there, after a few seconds I go, "So...now what Father?  Do I go back to my pew and pray?"  He decided I should, and seemed a bit upset, he'd never had someone fail to fall backwards before like that.  Got stares all the way back to the pew too. 

*applause* Glad you stood your ground. Do I know you by any other name? I spend a little time over at TTA.

Thanks And nope, it would just be this name over there for about a year or so. It wasn't as much standing my ground though as "Okay, not feeling anything but awkward now..."

Welcome!

Thanks Fireball!

[Mister Agenda]

Hey, Shai, thanks for stopping by. I hope you like what we've done with the place.

Thanks Mister Agenda!  It looks like a pretty nice place.  Must admit to holding my tongue in another intro thread when someone said a Christian forum would kick off atheists really quick though. One Catholic board I'm on has had an atheist poster since 2006, and he's not banned yet.  Do you mind if I inquire, what is the agenda?  Is it the....atheist agenda...that all the Evangelical megachurch leaders insist is real?

I like when people participate in their own threads. I imagine the criticism about Christian boards applies more to fundagelical boards than to Catholics.

The name hasn't much significance. The first board I was on was the Hero Games Discussion Board, and I thought Doctor Agenda sounded super-villain-ish. I modified it a little for this board (I don't actually have a doctorate) and mainly kept it because I can be a little naïve and forget that sometimes people have hidden agendas, my handle reminds me of that when I think of it.

There's something to the 'atheist agenda' though in that there's a combination of things most atheists in America at least tacitly support: separation of government and religion, equal treatment of atheists in the eyes of the law; and education, science, and reasonable skepticism. Of course you don't have to be an atheist to support all those things and some atheists don't support all, or even any, of them.