Happy Atheist Forum

Hey folks, just stumble across this place and thought I would join up.  I'm a regular on a few other forums but one of them is decidedly fundie Christian so it's nice to relax with more like-minded folks!

I grew up secular.  My parents didn't really much talk to us about religion and I was never interested in it until I went to an Episcopalian private school at age 14.  Been a proclaimed atheist since!  My entire immediate family is atheist and about half of my extended family is.  My husband's immediate family also is.  So no pressure from the grandparents to get the kids baptized, whew!  Also, as I work in a scientific field, all of my coworkers are of the non-religious variety.  I feel 'blessed' (hehehe) to live in such a situation!

I vacillate between being entirely intolerant of organized religion and having a 'live and let live' attitude.  Lately I've been much more intolerant as more and more religion is being pushed down my throat (through laws, schools, my obnoxious neighbors, etc.).  Growing up, I guess I was sheltered from religion but now that I'm out on my own and trying to raise my own family, I see the pressure to conform.  It disgusts me in a lot of ways and I want to be an advocate for a religious-free lifestyle.

So here I am, connecting with members of that community!

Welcome madness

To our little oasis of sanity  

Regards
Chris

Howdy from a dry county.

the goblin welcomes the new member saying "...it's all hush hush actually and I feel I can trust you here, but this site is, in fact, just a front for the "Homeland security service" and their operatives in their ongoing undercover work to root out the threat of cyber terrorism on the Internet...", the goblin paused knowing that it was all too hard to comprehend in one go, but he continued "...simply think about it, which site would you least expect a cyber attack to originate from, that is between some ultra smart nerdy eastern block country, the Taliban's site, the Nigerian spamming site, well any of those types of sites on the one hand, and well, just somewhere like this site here then, where the members can, and do, manage to hit the "post" button from time to time, so that's right then, the members here are really ultra sharp "Homeland security" operatives only pretending to be otherwise, very snide of them I know but in fact they're probably the best America has..."

(https://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi498.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Frr348%2Fach1997%2FMONKEYSINBOLACK.jpg&hash=6955056eb292063bb03cd22531dcd9e8e3243bf2)
45

Hi...I'm in Dallas.  Fyi, the Texas Freethought Convention is going back to Austin in 2012.

Did you happen to attend the Dallas convention...and if so, Did we meet?  I think I was the only whitney there.

Thanks for the welcomes, all!

Unfortunately Whitney, I was unable to attend the convention.  I did seriously consider it but having a 6 month old that wants to be permanently attached to my boob right now kinda put a damper on those plans.  

Quote from: "madness"I did seriously consider it but having a 6 month old that wants to be permanently attached to my boob right now kinda put a damper on those plans.  

I seriously doubt an atheist convention would be a place where people would be offended by you suckling your offspring.

Quote from: "PoopShoot"

Quote from: "madness"I did seriously consider it but having a 6 month old that wants to be permanently attached to my boob right now kinda put a damper on those plans.  

I seriously doubt an atheist convention would be a place where people would be offended by you suckling your offspring.

Though they might not like the ear-splitting screams of an infant that is bored of listening to a lecture...!

Quote from: "madness"Though they might not like the ear-splitting screams of an infant that is bored of listening to a lecture...!

That's easy, just shake vigorously until she's quiet.

 

yo madness, you rap don't you?

or at least breakdance.

I'm getting a hip hop vibe.

Quote from: "madness"Unfortunately Whitney, I was unable to attend the convention.  I did seriously consider it but having a 6 month old that wants to be permanently attached to my boob right now kinda put a damper on those plans.  

I think you might have been the mother on facebook that Amanda and I were trying to talk into going.  But I agree that it would have made things difficult on you having to leave the room every time baby gets fussy...

Anyway, welcome to HAF.

Ha!  TheWilliam, I'm not hip-anything!  That includes not being hip enough even for a facebook page.  Though my husband claims he created a fake one for me so no one would know how lame his wife is...

Hiya Maddy.

Quote from: "madness"That includes not being hip enough even for a facebook page.

Good for you.  Facebook is a plague.

Hola fellow Texan - there's actually quite a few Texans on here....we should have a Texas meetup or something....that would be cool...anyhow, welcome and stuff from your friendly neighborhood Squid in south Texas.

Welcome!  

Quote from: "Squid"Hola fellow Texan - there's actually quite a few Texans on here....we should have a Texas meetup or something....that would be cool...anyhow, welcome and stuff from your friendly neighborhood Squid in south Texas.

Being exiled to SoCal, I love how many Texans are here.  Takes me home.  

Howdy madness.
I spent hours Texas Rangeren when iza yougen, that's how I nose how to greet folks propa.

Howdy madness!
I'ts been suggested that the primary source of government revenue is from Texas.

Quote from: "madness"I vacillate between being entirely intolerant of organized religion and having a 'live and let live' attitude.  Lately I've been much more intolerant as more and more religion is being pushed down my throat

Hi Madness. I'm new here, too. I struggle with the same thing. I'm a science educator. More and more, I find that a supernatural world view, even a moderate one, gets in the way of appreciating the true wonder of the world. For instance, if you believe that evolution is how "god did it," then you miss the true message of evolution, that we're damned lucky to be here. If you believe that everything happens for a reason, then you can't see the dangers posed by things like environmental collapse, supervolcanoes, asteroid impact, and so on.

Someone recently told me that you can't fill a container that's already full. So now my question is, how do we empty those containers? And should we?

How exactly does one determine the true message of evolution?  I wasn't aware that evolution even had a message.

Quote from: "PoopShoot"How exactly does one determine the true message of evolution?  I wasn't aware that evolution even had a message.

Then you get it!

Here's the thing. I've encountered many people who can accept evolution, but believe that's just the way god did things. I want them to understand, then, that they believe in and worship a god who uses pain and death routinely. When male lions and gorillas take over a group, the first thing they do is kill all the infants. This makes perfect evolutionary sense, but what does it say about a god who would use such a method? The natural world is full of pain, terror, and horrible death. Exactly what you'd expect if there were no plan and no designer.

And, to look in the other direction, we can expect the future to be full of the same thing. The universe (metaphorically) will certainly kill us if we don't do something to save ourselves. I think Pascal got it exactly wrong. There is terrible, terrible danger in having a supernatural world view. It blinds you to the reality of our unlikely arrival here, and our precarious continued existence. Our only hope is us.

How's that for a cheery morning thought?

Quote from: "madness"Ha!  TheWilliam, I'm not hip-anything! :(

Quote from: "ablprop"How's that for a cheery morning thought?

It's one that I disagree with.

Quote from: "PoopShoot"It's one that I disagree with.

OK. Do you disagree that the universe is a dangerous place and that without active effort we will become extinct? Or do you disagree that natural selection is built on pain and death? Or both?

Neither.  I disagree that a supernatural worldview is inherently detrimental.

Quote from: "PoopShoot"Neither.  I disagree that a supernatural worldview is inherently detrimental.

OK. Thanks for clarifying. You may be right. It may not be detrimental (who am I to say), but in my experience, it gets in the way of my teaching.

I'm glad we agree on the other two points.

Quote from: "ablprop"but in my experience, it gets in the way of my teaching.

Yeah, but i think that often has more to do with the specifics of the supernatural view.  I bet teaching a buddhist wouldn't be any different than teaching any student with a more natural worldview, with the possible exception of their annoying tendency to parse everything in overly mystical terms.

QuoteI'm glad we agree on the other two points.

What's to agree on?  they're not opinions, they're facts.

Welcome!

I can clearly understand where you're coming from.