Where hast thou been-ist???????    There are at least three woman; and Maury Povich( here who want to see you about a paternity test,  Now man-up and state your intentions.   Do you have a paying job? A Lawyer? An alibi?

 Jeff:

I got my old podcast pretty popular. But then my wife decided it was time for a divorce. We were both in school and she bailed on me in my last semester. Breaking up got real expensive and complicated and I couldn't pay my podcast bill. 

The break up ended up with me trying to patch things up in New York and getting kicked out by her on the street. I almost moved to Philly, interestingly enough. 

I came back to Texas, where I worked a job at 7-Eleven and certified to be a teacer. I did this while couch surfing and in the process have remarried and am now working full time as a 5th grade tacher. A very religious environment I am afraid. 

During the harsh climb it was very difficult for me to find time for my atheist acitivism and by the time I was stable enough to do any of it my perspective had changed. I think that there is definitely a role for aggressive atheism, after all its hard to tell someone everything they hold dear is a big fraud and not be perceived as rude. But I think my strengths lie more in a conscilatory approach. 

I think a lot of the reasons people are religious is because a.) they have not thought it through b.) they have not really defined their beliefs. 

But thank you for asking. I am happy to be back. 

Hanging out on this board has definitely had a positive effect on my life and has resulted in at least one friendship which has spanned the years. 

 Thanks Rich! 

Always liked Carrier, this is right up to my expectations.

Found your partner's comments fascinating.

She sounds nice enough, but I didn't like her "I don't want to destroy the magic" attitude. Knowing how things work doesn't mean that you have less of an appreciation for them. When she said, "there is just too much out there that our emotions to respond to" is allowing her sense of awe stop her and fill in the gap.

I have a "sense of awe" too when I look at my cat, and damned near died from a melted heart when he ran up to me as a kitten and hugged my leg. But knowing that my cat shared common ancestors with tigers and that all mammals for that matter shared common ancestors doesn't take away the joy of that moment.

Knowing how Penn and Teller preform an illusion doesn't take away my appreciation for their imagination for dreaming them up and I certainly don't default to assuming that they really sawed the woman in half, simply because I might not know HOW the trick was preformed.

She is basically saying she prefers willful ignorance to actual knowledge.

 For what its worth Brian, I don't think she meant to portray herself as preferring ignorance. She's not really used to the whole atheist argument and debate. She is solidly pro-science. Pro-evolution. Pro-skepticism. She just gets a little fuzzy when it comes to ruling out God. 

Recently Diana told me privately that she is probably closer to agnostic. I think she is just merely beginning to figure this shit out, I think the kind of intellectual inventory that makes people atheists does not come naturally to most, hence why atheists are in the minority. We had a big fight about atheism several years ago, and she was solidly theistic back then. Take that as you would like, but I think its progress. 

And if you are curious about whether or not she's good looking there is a picture of her in day of the dead makeup on the website on the Man Marries Robot episode. 

http://mindcorepodcast.blogspot.com

Thats definitely how I feel. I am glad you liked it.  I like the way Sam Harris does it. He seems to have a fully open mind, but gives as good as he gets. 

Though he is nice. He even practices and endorses meditation. Which, so do I. 

 This is good because it shows that he is looking for the appeal of "religious" experience. But then he shoots down the obvious backwardness with no slack cut for tradition. 

I have a long way to go before I reach my own finesse with it, but he is an inspiration. 

I think a lot of atheists don't understand the psychological appeal of religion, they just dismiss it as stupidity all the way through. Even those of us who have been religious. 

I think there is just some misguided aspects of it, and that it seems to really be built on things that are appealing to most people. The trick is to figure out what is useful and get rid of the rest. 

I think Harris got us off to a great start by saying we need to get rid of faith. 

Faith in of itself has little role as a virtue. The fact that it is considered a virtue is a problem.

This is wonderful. I think you may have caused me to fire up my atheist nexus account. I completely agree. Wonderism is a brilliant idea and I intend to borrow it.