Introducing Proper Gander
Offline I just thought hey, sure... lets introduce myself to the family! I'm not very good at these kind of things though, so I'll just try my best and you'll have to suffer the result. Or not - you can always back out in time.
... you sure you don't want to turn back while you still have the chance?
Really? No? All right - just don't tell me I didn't warn you... thrice.
Okay. My nick here is Proper Gander, which originates from the word "propaganda", which I made into two words and changed "propa" to "proper" so that it's a meaningful word, and "ganda" to "gander" for the same reason plus the fact an animal name feels apt, since I love animals and, well, both my first and second name means some kind of animal anyway ("bear" and "dove"
. Why I chose the word "propaganda"? I don't know. I really don't.
Anyway, to give you a little info on my background, I'm Swedish, and I've never been a theist. I've tried to be one - oh yes, when I was younger I wanted to believe my own version of Christianity, which exotically enough involved reincarnation. I wanted to believe that if you had lived a bad life, but truly regretted it before you faced death, god would give you a "second chance", in which you could earn your way to salvation by living a good life to help others. I thought that if we're supposed to turn the other cheek, god would have to abide by that too. Of course, as I implied when I said "tried", I never succeeded in actually believing this, because deep down I knew it was just bull, but I still tried.
Here on the RRS, I mostly come at night, mostly. I find it very entertaining to read how atheists on this site crush the arguments of theists, especially in the "Atheist vs Theist" part, since I've never been fond of holding back... anything, really. But while I'm on the subject of RRS, I feel that I must first say that you've definitely changed my worldview, to the better I think. I used to be one of those who thought that we should respect other people's (religious) beliefs, but when I came to the RRS my opinion was changed completely. Before I came here, I hadn't had any confrontation with theists (that is, I may have talked to theists, but if I had, I didn't know), and I was kind of thinking that no one could take religion seriously - just like I had tried and failed, I just thought others were trying to believe, but not really believing at all. I still have problems wrapping my little head around that, especially with the more nutty ones. But when I came to the RRS I realized that wow, there really are people who believe that shit. There really are people doubting evolution? "Intelligent design"? WTF?! It was just too much, and when I also read the personal stories of Iruka amongst others, with how their becoming atheists have affected their lives and relationships (not the least with their own family!), I became outraged. I realized it was time to stop with this pussyprancing around other people's ridiculous ideas and challenge them like they should be challenged. I'm quite thankful for this wake up call, so... thank you, Rational Response Squad, for helping me. I know you don't hear that enough, so I'll say it again: thank you so much. 
I don't know what more to say, so I guess that's it. Have a good day, and all that.
Cheers!
(edited the name Iruka in for Proper Gander)
"Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There's too much fraternizing with the enemy."
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Welcome!
Ah yes,even though I used to be a fundamentalist, I can still be shocked by the ignorance we see. A little reason goes a long way. And I couldn't agree more,the RRS has inspired me to be more outspoken,though it's still very hard most of the time. But it all helps. Hope you'll stick around and enjoy
Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible
Argument from Sadism: Theist presents argument in a wall of text with no punctuation and wrong spelling. Atheist cannot read and is forced to concede.
Welcome to the hizzle!
Thanks to both of you!
Oh, I'll stick around, you can be sure of that. What's still to see is how much posting I'll do though, seeing as I've been quite the lurker, but uh... I'll try to spread the wealth with my two cents whenever I feel that the taxes are due. Dunno how often that'll be though, as I don't know jack about shit, and prefer learning over teaching anyway. But we'll see. Two posts in one day is a milestone already, even if it's in my own introduction thread.
"Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There's too much fraternizing with the enemy."
Don't worry.I lurked for ages before I joined,then barely posted. But when the bug gets you...
So how's it living in Sweden? You must not have much encounters with theists.Or do you still get some fundies?
Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible
Argument from Sadism: Theist presents argument in a wall of text with no punctuation and wrong spelling. Atheist cannot read and is forced to concede.
So next time a theist says that our site is full of atheist propaganda, we can now say "Well, he is one of our many members..."
Hi Proper,
I was very much like you. Never really believed but wanted to believe and did formulate my own belief system that I wanted to believe in. I hope you enjoy it here, I've been here over a year now and love it.
Atheist Books
Well, outside of the internet I think that my grandmother is the only theist I've ever (knowingly) met, and she is the kind of theist who will keep her religious beliefs for herself. I mean, I only know she's a Christian because my mom told me that, and that's despite me spending every summer and many winters there in my early years (she lives about 110 miles away from me, so when I'm there I tend to stay a while). Other than that... no, not really anything at all that's worth mentioning. If denying evolution makes you a fundy, then I've met two fundy Swedes on the internet. The other one seemed not to have heard of gravity, as he, upon hearing that I'm an atheist, asked me if I thought a stone rolling down towards me did that by itself (as opposed to an invisible creature pushing it)... so yeah, we have our fundies too, though there's very few of them.
Other than that, it's very, very hard to know, because we really don't talk about religion here. Consider this: as I've already said, I only know about my grandmom's faith because of my mom's words. I know that my mom's agnostic - but not if she's a theist or not (but I think she's not). I don't know about either of my brothers or my father either, though I think they're all atheists too, most likely agnostic ones, and they're definitely not religious in the sense of going to church. But I don't know if they believe or not, because religion isn't something that influences our personal lives, or our interaction with eachother. Another thing to consider: we've got a political party called "Kristdemokraterna" ("The Christ Democrats" ) who, in order to win votes, has said that they're not a religious party. Quite a contrast to America, huh?
As for how it is to live in Sweden, well, IMBO, fuckin' A. I just love it. I spend most of my year in Stockholm, which is a very beautiful city, and then in the summer and winter I go up north to my grandma's place, where the sun never sets in the summer. The fishing's awesome, and in the fall comes the delicious cloudberries; and in the winter it's really dark and cold, which sets the mood all right - I love to just lay out in the snow, watching the stars and just thinking for myself about whatever. It's really relaxing, and it sets a low pace which I enjoy a lot. Then when spring comes down in Stockholm (I've yet to experience the breaking of spring up there in the north, which I think would be an even stronger experience) I think it's the best. The nature just blossoms up completely, and the woods are once again a dreamful place to walk in with the wind in your hair and the warm sun in your face... it's like waking up again after a long, deep slumber, and it makes me enjoy life just a little bit more. Then I take a deep breath and realize that I still have some studying to do...
But I've lived my whole life here in Sweden, so I'm hardly an unbiased reporter. If you really want to know how it is, I encourage you to come and see for yourself. We've got women and beer...
Thanks, I'm sure I will. Nice to have it confirmed that there's more like me out there... makes me think that perhaps I'm not that nutty after all.
"Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There's too much fraternizing with the enemy."
In Northern Europe, the women are blonde and beer is dark. In the tropics the beer is blond and the women are dark. Funny how that works.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
Actually sweet stouts are pretty popular in the Carribean.
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
As long as you've got both beer and women, I'm there.
"Yes, I seriously believe that consciousness is a product of a natural process. I find that the neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers who proceed from that premise are the ones who are actually making useful contributions to our understanding of the mind." - PZ Myers
I dunno, I'm pretty nutty. My version kind of had me as a second Messiah.
Atheist Books
The upside of that, I guess, is that you didn't suffer from bad self-esteem.
In any case, complete and utter sanity is overrated anyway - you have to do something crazy now and then. Me, I like to be a frog. A small frog, more exactly, as the frog-song dictates. I become one every summer.
"Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There's too much fraternizing with the enemy."
Just like real family! Welcome to it.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence
Welcome to the family
Have fun!
-Renee
Slowly building a blog at ~
http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/
Yeah, uhh... right.
Uhh... yes. It was either low self-esteem or pure egotism, probably both. The good thing for my sanity is that I didn't actually believe it, I just wanted to. I still want it to be me that saves the world.
Atheist Books
Well,that's good enough for me. Theism should learn from this. Maybe they'd get more people then. Instead they say, we don't have beer and you a woman after you marry her.
Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible
Argument from Sadism: Theist presents argument in a wall of text with no punctuation and wrong spelling. Atheist cannot read and is forced to concede.
Welcome Proper Gander! Looking forward to seeing you around here.
Oh yeah, on second thought that makes perfect sense. I should've seen that. Sorry to hear that, anyway (I mean, that you had a low self-esteem - not that you want to save the world
), and I hope you're over it.
Looking forward to be seen around here! Thanks.
(Edit: Oh, Renee and Will, you shouldn't think I missed you! I just waited to thank you guys too until after I had posted this, so I had an excuse to edit it. Would you buy that story?)
By the way, as a school project I'm supposed to analyze a webpage, and I've chosen to make my analysis on the RRS. If I don't get a good grade for it... I'm going to blame you guys. Just thought I'd give you a heads up.
"Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There's too much fraternizing with the enemy."
Hey! I know this is a week after your original post, but I thought I'd say hi anyway. I don't know if you mentioned earlier, but what school are you in? And congrats on the most quotes-within-quotes I've ever seen on this site! In your first week, too! I've never had the opportunity to do anything that epic here. I recommend you check out the "most controversial opinions" thread. Don't be scared by some of the stuff you find there, it's mostly venting. I think it's quite entertaining. That's why I want you to check it out; it's gone a bit slow and some new stuff would be cool. well, whatever you do, welcome!!
"We are the star things harvesting the star energy"
-Carl Sagan
CAUTION: It has been reported that reading my posts can lead to serious mental illness, and even brain cancer !
Atheism Books.