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Started by Wrath, July 09, 2012, 02:37:00 AM

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DeterminedJuliet

Quote from: Asmodean on July 09, 2012, 10:25:41 PM
Oh, and don't mind the everyone-but-Asmo-seems-to-have-a-bad-day day. Usually, the situation is quite the opposite
:D
"We've thought of life by analogy with a journey, with pilgrimage which had a serious purpose at the end, and the THING was to get to that end; success, or whatever it is, or maybe heaven after you're dead. But, we missed the point the whole way along; It was a musical thing and you were supposed to sing, or dance, while the music was being played.

Wrath

I don't quite have it in me to respond to each and everyone.  ;D But thanks Tank, OldGit, ..... Anti-Antidisestablishmentarianism, Ali, AnimatedDirt, Scissorlegs, Asmodean, and DeterminedJuliet.

And don't worry, I didn't take it as passive-aggressive at all.  :P

Right now, I'm just considering what to post in first!

Asmodean

Well, tributes to The Asmo are always appreciated  ;D
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.

Buddy

Quote from: Asmodean on July 09, 2012, 10:54:24 PM
Well, tributes to The Asmo are always appreciated  ;D

And compliments to The Pudding's hats. Those will give you bonus points here.
Strange but not a stranger<br /><br />I love my car more than I love most people.

Dobermonster

Welcome!

I'm interested in what you have to say on abortion - it's still an issue that makes me think, and I like to hear new ideas when they come around.

TheWalkingContradiction

Quote from: Wrath on July 09, 2012, 02:37:00 AM
Hi everybody! Nice to meet you.

My name is Scott. I am a student, a Californian, a queer, and a heathen. I wanted to meet more atheists and tried out a different forum prior to this one but some of the people there were extremely rude and attacked me over one of my opinions without even discussing it rationally.

Cool!  Also new here.  Also queer.  I teach and am 46, but I also take classes all the time.  What do you study?

I also came from another atheist board that I left for reasons similar to yours.

Quote from: Wrath on July 09, 2012, 02:37:00 AM

  • Despite being atheist, I am not liberal on some things -- including pot legalization and abortion.

I also do not support pot legalization and have never been able to undestand why someone would willingly take a mood-altering drug.   

I support a woman's right to choice because I would want to have a choice if I were a woman.  Also, I don't feel men have the right to tell women what to do with their bodies.  But in my heart I cringe when I think of abortion for the same reason I cringe when I read about dashing the heads of infants against rocks/walls in the Bible.

I hope to see you around the board!


Wrath

Quote from: TheWalkingContradiction on July 12, 2012, 03:09:53 AM
Cool!  Also new here.  Also queer.  I teach and am 46, but I also take classes all the time.  What do you study?

I also came from another atheist board that I left for reasons similar to yours.

Hey.  ;D Nice to meet you. What do you teach? I think teaching is very admirable, and I hope to one day after a successful career. I'm studying computer science. Plan on being a programmer. It was kind of inevitable, my entire family is. I'm pretty curious, what was it like growing up gay in your youth?

Quote from: TheWalkingContradiction on July 12, 2012, 03:09:53 AM
I also do not support pot legalization and have never been able to undestand why someone would willingly take a mood-altering drug.    

I support a woman's right to choice because I would want to have a choice if I were a woman.  Also, I don't feel men have the right to tell women what to do with their bodies.  But in my heart I cringe when I think of abortion for the same reason I cringe when I read about dashing the heads of infants against rocks/walls in the Bible.

I hope to see you around the board!

Haha, I have to say, it's kind of a contradiction to oppose drugs because you didn't choose them yet support abortion despite the same reason. I understand though, abortion is a very nuanced issue. I don't really believe that there is a perfect answer to it, and yet I do believe that in a more ideal world, women would have unplanned pregnancies much less often and in the cases where they did, they would still not seek out abortions.

I mean, there's lots of people out there who know how close they were to being aborted and are preeeetty darn thankful that they weren't. I realize aborted embryos and fetuses don't know that, but I still think they should be given the chance to value their own life. Sorry, I kind of rambled on -- please, don't take me seriously.  ;)

Tank

Morning

Can we can the debate in the introductions please and start a new thread on the appropriate subject in the appropriate forum please as everybody has enough posts to do so.

Thanks
Tank
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

TheWalkingContradiction

#38
Quote from: Wrath on July 12, 2012, 10:01:39 AM
Quote from: TheWalkingContradiction on July 12, 2012, 03:09:53 AM
Cool!  Also new here.  Also queer.  I teach and am 46, but I also take classes all the time.  What do you study?

I also came from another atheist board that I left for reasons similar to yours.

Hey.  ;D Nice to meet you. What do you teach? I think teaching is very admirable, and I hope to one day after a successful career. I'm studying computer science. Plan on being a programmer. It was kind of inevitable, my entire family is. I'm pretty curious, what was it like growing up gay in your youth?

Quote from: TheWalkingContradiction on July 12, 2012, 03:09:53 AM
I also do not support pot legalization and have never been able to undestand why someone would willingly take a mood-altering drug.    

I support a woman's right to choice because I would want to have a choice if I were a woman.  Also, I don't feel men have the right to tell women what to do with their bodies.  But in my heart I cringe when I think of abortion for the same reason I cringe when I read about dashing the heads of infants against rocks/walls in the Bible.

I hope to see you around the board!

Haha, I have to say, it's kind of a contradiction to oppose drugs because you didn't choose them yet support abortion despite the same reason. I understand though, abortion is a very nuanced issue. I don't really believe that there is a perfect answer to it, and yet I do believe that in a more ideal world, women would have unplanned pregnancies much less often and in the cases where they did, they would still not seek out abortions.

I mean, there's lots of people out there who know how close they were to being aborted and are preeeetty darn thankful that they weren't. I realize aborted embryos and fetuses don't know that, but I still think they should be given the chance to value their own life. Sorry, I kind of rambled on -- please, don't take me seriously.  ;)

and then

Quote from: Tank on July 12, 2012, 11:08:33 AM
Morning

Can we can the debate in the introductions please and start a new thread on the appropriate subject in the appropriate forum please as everybody has enough posts to do so.

Thanks
Tank


Out of respect for Tank, I won't say anything else about the liberal positions here.  I can talk further about them if you wish to start a new thread--or not at all if that is all you had wanted to say about them at this time.  Whatever your position, though, it's fine.   

I was just drawn to what you wrote because of my own multiple contradictions, and I wanted to say HEY! I feel the same way about aspects of these issues just as I wanted to say HEY! I am also queer and HEY! I am always studying something.

Have to leave for work in a few minutes, so I will be very, very lazy and cut and paste something I wrote to someone else somewhere else in response to another question about teaching:

Ali asked about teaching: I teach four ESL (English as a Second Language) classes a semester (Spring, Fall, Summer-1 and Summer-2)  to university students.  Although I do teach at least one beginners or low level class a semester, most of my students in my other classes already speak everyday English (with errors) but need to bring it up to academic English quickly.  In the spring and fall I also teach a speech communication course to fluent graduate students from all disciplines.  We work on ways to present research orally, strategies for Power Point presentations, techniques for speaking up and being understood better, American classroom/academic psychology, American body language, and accent correction.  The latter is especially hard since the class is diverse with students from many different countries. (The most exotic ESL student I have ever taught was...  a French Canadian!)

I don't speak all of my students' languages, but since I am trilingual myself I know exactly what they are going through in learning other languages.  Also, although I don't speak Arabic, my mother is a native speaker who was born and raised in Lebanon.  (I can say roughly 300 words and phrases in Arabic with only a light American accent, and I crack up my Arabic students by throwing things like leysh ana ya allah? (Why me, God?) and yalla yalla! (Hurry up!) into my conversations with them.


Computer science is very practical, and I when I go into soothsayer mode and scatter the bones, I see a bright future for you.  Actually, I have had to learn a few things about the latest technology myself when used in Distance Learning (teaching classes in other countries via a computer and a live Skype-like thingamajig - in other words, I can be here in New York while all my students are in Saudi Arabia or I have a student in Mongolia, a student in Bolivia, a student in Burkina Faso, a student in Walla Walla, Washington...).  I have not yet had  my own virtual classroom, but are becoming increasingly important to my department.  The writing is on the wall.

Sandra Craft

Quote from: Wrath on July 09, 2012, 04:58:40 AM
You'll have to tell me what it was like being raised Catholic. I've been told that the Episcopal church was a branch off of the Catholic church and that they share a great many things, just not at all conservative and a lot less literal.

My aunt's Episcopalian, she describes it at Catholicism without the guilt.
Sandy

  

"Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet."  Sarah Louise Delany