By the Power of Greyskull!

[darkcyd]

I dunno, I always wanted to say that as a kid. Never gets old.

Anyway, I'm 35 and have been an atheist since I was 15ish. Well, I grew up in the bible belt so I went through that "I'm an agnostic" phase so you can avoid arguments. Its so much easier when what you believe is unable to be pinned down and people sorta hope you believe what they believe but don't like waking up early Sunday. I came out as full atheist as soon as I joined the Army at 21, but of course you couldn't be an atheist in the Army so they told me I had to be NO-REL-PREF for no religious preference, ie cookie cutter christian. At some point, I had my own set made off post with the proper stamping.

I am happy to be an atheist and love talking with other atheists/humanists but prefer to have as little as possible to do with religious folks. No offense, but I feel religions seem to exploit the openness that exists in the scientific method to inject whatever they can without quid pro quo in their religious communication channels. For example, I feel you'd see very few atheists going to christian/muslim sites attempting to inject their views. They would simply be flamed and deleted. However, it seems to be an okay thing to do here on atheist discussion boards to have people try to prove god in some insane method. Even this site has a religious section where I imagine much of drivel is directed. I've decided some time ago that the statistical chance of anyone having any useful information to contribute to change my perception of a deity is near 0 and would prefer to simply not waist my time reading that twisted gibberish.

With that said, I brew great beer and my door is always open to anyone.

[The Magic Pudding]

With that said, I brew great beer and my door is always open to anyone.

All that sounds very reasonable, and you offer beer too!
You will be popular.
Welcome cyd.

[karadan]

You cannot be labelled an atheist in the army? I didn't know that. That's kind of odd.  

Welcome to the fray, Darkcyd. I'm sure you'll fit right in here.

[darkcyd]

Yeah, they were pretty pissy about it. When you first go in and you are a private, you are just not trying to make waves so I didn't argue too much. Evidently there is an "approved religion list" out there somewhere and atheist somehow got left out. Nudge nudge wink wink. Dog tags are frequently the domain of religious affairs and there aren't too many atheist chaplains to champion the cause. Having my own stamped wasn't a huge deal when I hit sergeant and I am not sure if it is now approved.

[Tank]

Hi darkcyd

Welcome aboard.

Regards
Chris

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[PoopShoot]

From what I hear, there is a nonreligious category for dog-tags, but don't quote me.

What kind of beer do you brew?  I assume you brew a variety, but what are your top favorite styles?  I personally brew a 12-14% copper beast that isn't really any official style that I know of (it's a bit o' this and a bit o' that to my taste), but gets rave reviews when I make it.  I haven't been able to brew in a while, though.

[parrotpirate]

I thought I heard somewhere that you could pick the "American Atheist" atom symbol for a grave marker if you qualify to be buried in a military cemetery. (Among about a dozen or more other things.) But they wont put it on dog tags? That's just plain fucking silly.

[chrome]

By the Power of Greyskull!

now ya got me... I'm looking up He-man quotes on nice to meet ya

[_7654_]

Ahh, beer, the magical drink of the gods :-) So Hi, yes we do get the occasional theist in here, but we use it to train our debate abilities

[darkcyd]

From what I hear, there is a nonreligious category for dog-tags, but don't quote me.

What kind of beer do you brew?  I assume you brew a variety, but what are your top favorite styles?  I personally brew a 12-14% copper beast that isn't really any official style that I know of (it's a bit o' this and a bit o' that to my taste), but gets rave reviews when I make it.  I haven't been able to brew in a while, though.

I started in the army with a 5 gallon brewpot and using paint buckets for fermenters. Now I use a 60 gallon Groen steam jacketed kettle and conical bottom fermenters. I run a yeast bank and typically have a true IPA, wheat of some sort, pilsner and either an ale or lager in the last. I have gotten pretty good at brewing english beers so I've pushed on to the abbey ales or german style lagers, they are a little more tricky to perfect but I'll get there.

[PoopShoot]

Sounds delicious.  Have you tried a sour beer, something akin to a lambic, yet?  I've heard they're tricky.  I also heard that the secret is to spit in your wort.

[darkcyd]

50 stinking posts? Necro thread rekindled!

First, I'd like to say that 50 posts is an absolute catastrophy. First, I think far too many people talk instead of listen. The internet and arguments in general degenerate into a wordiness/yelling match with the declared winner the one who bumps their gums the fastest depriving the ability for the other to speak. This sort of behavior can only be reinforced by allowing access only to those with 50 posts. It would take me months to find 50 useful things to say.

Reading/listening however should be the scales to judge member and the bar with which one is allowed to floor to speak. Let me suggest instead of requiring a reader post 50 things that they must read 200.

On another negative effect, I have read happy atheist for over a year now and find that I cannot post and I would have liked the opportunity to share and bounce some ideas that were floating in my head instead of bothering running through the "How are you section" posting, "WHAT UP!" 25 times.

[ThinkAnarchy]

You could contribute to the "interview the person below you thread." You can also play the alphabet games, which I personally found boring (no offense), but was an easy way to raise my post count.

[xSilverPhinx]

Whoa, missed this one...

Well, a belated welcome

Yeah, if you want to contribute to the other sections of this forum quickly, you can easily up your post count to 50 without spamming in the Laid Back Lounge or even talking to newcomers here in the Introductions section.

[darkcyd]

Meaningless content is a waist of everyones time to read it.