Introductions:

Post introductions here --

I think it would be nice if we could all re-post our introductions so new members can see who we are, and we can get to know the new members:

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My name is Kris. I am married to Fletch (poor guy!) and we are raising four daughters together. I run a blog (it's still new!) called: Momma Heathen -- Godless Parenting - A True Non-Prophet Organization.

http://mommaheathen.blogspot.com/

I am also helping our CFI branch start up a Sunday Skeptic School for kids.

In my 'spare' time I am currently an Assistant Director for The Haunt (a local haunted house), I do freelance theater work, and I work at various conventions (horror movie and comic book).

So, there I am! Want to know anything else? Just ask!

I'm Fletch and I'm a doubtcaster. I was raised Christian Reformed, but I got better.

Along with my wife Kris I'm raising four daughters, I run a radio station (http://www.publicrealityradio.org) and I teach.

Hey everyone, I'm Nick from Chicago. I do systems admin work, I'm a student at NIU, and DJ at various places throughout the city.

I took a vested interest in atheism, philosophy, and science (particularly the social sciences) several years ago once I committed to getting back into academia, which eventually led me to seek out information regarding many of the popular arguments for various worldviews. I came across RD on iTunes simply by browsing the 'other' category under religion, and the sample episode I downloaded ('Get to know a fallacy') led me quite deeply down the rabbit hole. I've since become a strong advocate of the show and recommend it to those that I know.

I'm really glad this forum has been created. It allows originally passive listeners like myself to become more active and participate in discussion, and I appreciate that.

I'm Sam from Grand Rapids, originally from Cleveland. Was raised a 7th day Adventist (fundamentalist christian sect). I started moving towards the more progressive movement of the church and eventually abandoned all of the beliefs of the church.

Hi, I'm Jarno, a Finn, an ex-christian, a skeptic, an agnostic atheist with a fully naturalistic world view.

And, as I said in the earlier lost thread, I listen to many outstanding podcasts of the skeptical/atheistic/philosophical/science kind, and still find Reasonable Doubts to be the podcast who's episodes I always look forward to the most.

So, once again, you're the recipient of the prestigious, highly contested "random Finnish dude" award for the best podcast. Congrats!

Hi from Australia

About me?
High School Maths Teacher
Upbringing was Baptist, fully dunked at 17.
Enjoy reading science, philosophy, maths
Hobbies are fishing, camping, tennis, woodwork, guitar.
My views now, agnostic, atheistic tilt from centre.
One day I would like to learn ancient greek, as well as write a book.
Music, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden (yes, showing my age).
TV Show, Lost of course.
Married, 2 boys.

Looking forward to conversing, and edging closer to the truth.
My approach is the truth at any cost, no sacred cows.

yours
snafu

Today is 9/11/09.
Eight years ago this morning, give or take just a few minutes, I stood at a window at JFK airport watching the twin columns of smoke arc out over New York harbor. Hours later, after an extended adventure getting back into Manhattan, a new friend and I tried to work our way downtown on foot. We threaded our way between countless people who filled the streets from sidewalk to sidewalk trudging silently in the opposite direction. Lots of them were holding hands or leaning on each other as they walked. Many streams of tears streaked ash covered faces.
I knew already that at least some people I knew were dead - murdered - along with thousands of others, but I didn't know and couldn't find out who they were.
The next morning, I held my knees and wept in the street after I learned that one of the most gentle, intelligent, and compassionate men I'd ever known - a husband, father of three young daughters, and a very special friend to everyone who knew him even slightly, had been among those killed, along with many more of my work colleagues.
Later, I waited in a volunteer line at the rescue coordination headquarters (Javits Center) with a group of fully outfitted firefighters who had driven to NYC from Kansas. Eventually, we were all turned away, along with many others, because the only new volunteers being allowed at what was already being called "Ground Zero" were professional welders.

Though raised as a fundamentalist Christian, I hadn't been a god believer for many years. In the 1990s, as I'd traveled around the world, followed current events, studied history as a hobby, and reflected on my own experience, I'd begun to think that god beliefs were not just a harmless or even helpful form of wishful thinking, but were instead a source of great evil. I knew from experience and observation that a great many believers did "good works" for our fellow man. Still, I'd begun to perceive that the net effect of belief in deities was enormously, stupendously, harmful.

But I thought nothing significant could be done about religious lunacy because it's so pervasive around the planet and has so many variations. And surely one person like me, within the scope of one lifetime, couldn't have an effect, right?
But as I wandered the New York streets after having been turned away from volunteering at the WTC site, I realized that I had to make an effort, no matter how small, to increase the prevalence of reason and understanding and well, sanity, among my fellow human beings. A journey of even billions of miles begins with a single step, too, I thought. And I was dimly aware that there were some active atheist and secular humanist organizations around with whom I could join forces, so I'd be far from the first with the same goals in mind.
But most of all, the prospect of doing nothing in the face of this new tragedy and insanity was not one I could bear.

Since then, I've become a member of many secularist and atheist groups, have participated in lots of group meetings and quite a few internet forums, and have started writing a book that I hope will add something worthwhile and different to discussions about deity beliefs and their consequences.

I'm happy to be here joining with others who share similar ideas and ideals, so thanks to Momma Heathen for setting up this forum.
Thanks, too, to the Doubtcasters, who I think are doing a great job!

Hi doubters!
I'm Jenny. Born and raised in secular Sweden. Atheist, rationalist, humanist and liberal. Project Management and IT Service Management is my trade, photography my passion. My iPhone is filled with alternative americana, electronica, industrial, indie and of course podcasts (of which RD is my current favourite). I'm currently reading The Greatest Show on Earth, but when I'm not reading lots and lots of popular science books I can usually be found reading a fantasy novel. The latest movies I watched were Inglorious Basterds and District 9, both of which I highly recommend.

Today I'm sending a special thought to the families and friends of all the victims of the 9/11-attacks, as well as to the family and friends of the Swedish Foreign Secretary who was murdered 9/11/02.

blacklens wrote: The latest movies I watched were Inglorious Basterds and District 9, both of which I highly recommend.

Those are the last two that we saw as well, and they're GREAT! We actually saw Inglorious Basterds twice!

Momma Heathen wrote:

blacklens wrote: The latest movies I watched were Inglorious Basterds and District 9, both of which I highly recommend.

Those are the last two that we saw as well, and they're GREAT! We actually saw Inglorious Basterds twice!

I'm definitely going to see IB again. And again. It's a masterpiece. I love the way they use the nuances of the languages to tell the story, and how you as the viewer actually have to pay attention and think. And, of course, the hilariously funny and violent nazi killing business

I'm a 48 year old guy from Sacramento and a member of a number of atheist and church-state separation organizations...
AHA + local chapter HAGSA
American Atheists
Atheists United
Brights
Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Atheists and Other Freethinkers (AAI affiliate)
ACLU

I'm part of the organizing committee putting together Freethought Day in Sacramento which will be held October 11, 2009. I've been a committee member for the last few years. I also am the primary organizer putting together a FSM Pastover celebration for the last couple of years attended by about 65 people.

I'm also a libertarian and paralegal student. Took a sabbatical from work to wrap up my mom's estate and go back to school to change careers. I look forward to making the acquaintance of all of you.

(Seemed right to channel Minnie Pearl. I don't know why)

My name is John, I live in Tucson but spent half of my life in New England. I hate snow, so I am here.

I'm 40, I'll be 41 on November 30. I write poetry from time to time, also suffer gadget lust from time to time, though it has abated over the years. I love to read as well. Mainly science fiction, but at the moment I'm reading Guns, Germs and Steel. Fascinating.

I am single (divorced), no kids, and at the moment all is well.

Here's my hello, redux. (Gee, I hope I can remember what I wrote before.)

I'm Nicholas.

I live in the great state of Maine. (NO, it's not part of Canada.) I was raised Roman Catholic in an Irish family, so I am quite familiar with both the wine and the guilt (and how the two intermingle oh so well). I got my undergrad degree in theology and philosophy from a Catholic college, and have been a skeptic and freethinker for most of my adult life. I like Thai food, practice martial arts, play video games, read The Hobbit once a year every September, am a Taurus, like long walks on the....oh wait, wrong website.

Hello everyone. I have been listening to RD for a few months now. By far it is my favorite podcast and I look forward to it every week.

About me: I live in Syracuse NY. Working in publications, specializing in graphics. I have a 3 year old daughter and a son due in November. I like all things “geeky”: Comics (pulp, horror), Punk/Psychobilly, Gaming.

Consider myself Agnostic, but lean Atheist. I was raised Christian (non-denominational). But everything changed in 2000, after being a Christian my entire life a new church I was going to didn’t think I was Christian enough… prolly too long of a story for this thread...story I love to tell though.

Thanks for the podcast and this new forum

Geoff, Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia.
Atheist. Stopped going to church about 20 to 25 years ago. Became an Atheist somewhere between The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and DAAS Kapital.

Hi, Jeremy from Melbourne Aus.

Been an atheist for many years, love the podcast!

So are we doing intros again?

postwaste wrote:So are we doing intros again?

In the process of re-organizing the threads and creating new sub-forums some days ago, apparently the Flying Spaghetti Monster reached down with one of it's noodly appendages, and smote the already posted introductions. Either that, or it was Jahveh.

So we are re-posting, in defiance of any divine forces, constantly ready to duck the inevitable lightning bolts of wrath.

Hi, gang.

I'm Lawrence, known on the 'Net mostly as NH Baritone. I'm the son, grandson, nephew & cousin of Methodist ministers. I grew up in the Jesus-saturated South, and departed as soon as I could ... to go to a Methodist seminary. Ah, well. The apple didn't land far from the tree, but in my case, I rolled. I left that theology school after a single year, and went on to become a psychotherapist, which has kept me clothed, fed, and sheltered for more than 2 decades.

I came out as gay during college, and that experience helped me to slowly re-evaluate "revealed" religions. My homosexuality was undeniably natural and enhanced my capacity to enter into a loving relationship. How could someone else's "revealed" religion tell me my hope for a long-term, loving relationship was sinful simply because of the plumbing?

Slowly I began to understand that religious faith operates as a fear-soothing fantasy, and in no way actually describes reality. Faith at best represents a security blanket & at worst a tool of subjugation. There's lots that we have yet to learn about reality, but the only avenue leading to that discovery is scientific inquiry.

postwaste wrote:So are we doing intros again?

Yes, if you don't mind. In my attempt to organize the forum and add other topic sections, I, by way of some evil force, accidentally deleted an entire section.

I am doing my best to repent for my mistake and build up the forum to its former glory.

Momma Heathen wrote:I am doing my best to repent for my mistake and build up the forum to its former glory.

And you're doing a great job!

blacklens wrote:

Momma Heathen wrote:I am doing my best to repent for my mistake and build up the forum to its former glory.

And you're doing a great job!

my name is jim. i'm abd for my ph.d. in philosophy. i have a b.a. in philososphy and one in english lit. i have an m.a. in linguistics. my primary interests are phil of mind, phil of science, and epistemology, though i've been doing more and more work in ethics.
i was raised a southern baptist, and went to a private baptist school until 6th grade. i don't know when i stopped believing exactly, but i know that by 11 i was having regular discussions about various issues, mostly about satan, with the wife of the minister of my church. she was supposed to be some sort of therapist (though i have no idea if she was accredited in anything), and i was suffering from migraines which, after visiting a couple of doctors, was concluded to be the result of severe stress. it's appropriate to say that by that age i was skeptical about number of issues, mostly about how satan could be so smart yet believe he could take on God when God spoke him into being, how satan could sin in heaven if nothing which isn't perfect is allowed in heaven, who tempted him if he tempts us, and a number of other issues of that nature. even so, it took a long time to actually say the words "i don't believe in God." whenever it occurred, by the time i was 15 i was a full-on atheist, though i kept that quiet around my parents, who, for the record, are still very, very active in their church, attending at a minimum twice on sunday and once on wednesday evening.
i've been listening to the podcast for a while, though i'm always behind by at least two weeks.

i have a blog on which i post along with a good friend of mine who quit our grad program after getting her master's. it's www.appleeaters.com.

My name is Brooks and I'm a liberal gay atheist. I was raised a Christian and was a member of the Church of Christ. I was baptized when I was 15 and I've been a non-believer for the past two years. I'm a college student going to my local community college. I'm a bookworm and my favorite genres are sci-fi and fantasy. I also like reading books about religious history and biblical scholarship. My favorite genres of music are punk and rock although I also sometimes indulge in cheesy pop music. My favorite band is Bad Religion. My favorite book series is His Dark Materials and my favorite movie is the final cut edition of Blade Runner. I discovered the Reasonable Doubts podcast through the ex-christian.net forums. They have a section of the forums with links to podcasts and they had a link to this one, so I clicked on it out of curiosity and I've been addicted ever since.