Good Evening all.
Offline Hello.
I am a former Apostolic Pentecostal, YEC, tongue talking, born again, goober of a pompous arse! I found myself slowly pulling away after a steady injection of knowledge and good old Missouri hose sense. In a nutshell, I woke up one day and discovered that I no longer believed any of it.
Granted, there were many, many nights of pain and psychological withdrawl that led me through some of the darkest and most liberating paths I ever walked, but it seems a long ways off now.
I am now a fully functional and politely grumpy atheist who may have the only ten year old in Missouri who is reading Sagan, thinks Dawkins is awesome and can have a pretty impressive conversation on the problems with Lamarkian theory and how he would have got it right had he only understood genetics....
She aspires to be an evolutionary biologist. I'm proud of that. She will grow up without the debilitating ignorance and apathy towards knowledge I had to fight through.
I look forward to chatting with everyone.
Bard
Wisdom lies not in thinking outside the box. Wisdom is the realization that there is no box. Truth and reality extend as far as the eye can see and infinitely further.
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Welcome, you have an awesome kid. Im jelous.
I like your profile picture, welcome to the forum.
Welcome.
There are other no-longer tortured former fundies here but not many penties.
Congrats on your escape and your smart kid. I guess that's called the application of free will? Sagan at ten? Impressive.
We look forward to a detailed unraveling of tongue speak at some time of your convenience - it's a point of regular discussion.
Did you know you were doing the tongue speaking yourself or did you feel something?
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
If it pleases, I will start a thread in one of the other areas to launch into the subtleties and odd nature of glossolalia, a topic I find wildly fascinating!
Bradthebard
edit to add: ...as it turns out there already exists a thread so I posted in that one!
Wisdom lies not in thinking outside the box. Wisdom is the realization that there is no box. Truth and reality extend as far as the eye can see and infinitely further.
Welcome you should enjoy being here. I do.
Welcome!
Everything makes more sense now that I've stopped believing.
You might want to look into Daniel Dennet's interviews with still practicing clergy who are affirmed athiests. Sounds similar to your situation. Welcome.
Understanding that there is no purpose in the Universe frees us all to find one.
Welcome to the forum.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whip cream."--Frank Zappa
http://atheisticgod.blogspot.com/ Books on atheism
I am in the middle of Conciousness Explained right now. I love Dennett.
He has an awesome beard too....
Wisdom lies not in thinking outside the box. Wisdom is the realization that there is no box. Truth and reality extend as far as the eye can see and infinitely further.
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whip cream."--Frank Zappa
http://atheisticgod.blogspot.com/ Books on atheism
Lol, I think everyone loves his avatar.
Everything makes more sense now that I've stopped believing.
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whip cream."--Frank Zappa
http://atheisticgod.blogspot.com/ Books on atheism
Hello!
Where are you from in Missiouri, I'm from STL myself.
To quote Obe Wan from the original Star Wars,
"You will never find a more retched hive of scum and villainy"
(Note to self: Did I think this, or type it?)
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
I work in St Charles but I live out in Troy. About forty miles west of St Louis proper.
Wisdom lies not in thinking outside the box. Wisdom is the realization that there is no box. Truth and reality extend as far as the eye can see and infinitely further.
Hey, welcome.
I am also a Dennett fan.
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
Cool, I mainly stick to the suburbs and downtown when at university.
YEA WELL, you're not the one who embarrassed himself by asking Dennet, "Why would I want your autograph?"
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
I probably would have made a fool of myself in the opposite way, if I had met him like that.
"Oh, Oh, you're Daniel Dennet! You're my hero! I've read all your books! I'm your biggest fan!" etc.
Assuming I wasn't completely tongue-tied.
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology