Skepticus
New Member
Hello All.
It's nice to discover this place and see such a bright and vibrant rationalist community. Providing an independent port of call for youtube rationalists is a nice idea, as I am sick and tired of the persnickety youtube software. Trying to use the comment section for a discussion is pure torture. It will be nice to read the various blog entries on here and be up dated on the latest news in the thinking persons world. I am an Aussie guy in my early 40s and (yes girls) still single
I have been an atheist, skeptic, rationalist and secular humanist, pretty much my whole life, although I dabbled in Christianity in my adolescent years and Wicca in my 20's. Christianity was like trying on a cheap ill fitting suit and wicca was more of an anthropological curiosity, albeit with Wiccan friends I really liked, I identified with their nature loving philosophy and minus the supernatural embellishments I could easily be pagan. For years later I identified as pantheistic/pagan holding out hopes for a non-supernatural but spiritual dimension to life.
I have long since dropped all vestigial affiliation with religious apologetics, as in my mid 20's I became interested in the creation evolution debate. That lead to a long term love of science, via popular science literature. I devoured every Stephen Jay Gould book I could find. There were books like Chaos by James Gleick, and In Search of the Double Helix and several books by Paul Davies who inspired me much more than I expected. But shifting gears and discovering just how exhilarating nature and science could be was left to my favorite mentor, Richard Dawkins. I read many of RD's books and from the Blind Watchmaker on and they changed my life.
As a popular science lover, skeptic and an atheist with interests in the creation evolution debate, by the mid 90's I didn't need too much excuse to delve into the on-line world and identify as an atheist. I spent some time with 'the brights' in their on line community but I found them a little too soft and forgiving on religion. I had long felt the need to make a stand and take back our pride as atheists, but even more so as a global citizen on the Internet, than as an Australian. When the atrocities of 9/11 shocked the world, I felt the solidarity of the atheist community, as we turned into a movement with a firm resolve. I was the forum admin at richarddawkins.net for the first few months when RD formed the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. At that time RD had 'The God Delusion' hit the shelves and was on tour promoting it. It was an exciting time for atheists as many other authors (Harris, Hitchens, Dennet et. al.) also published successful books at about the same time.
Since then I had taken a hiatus from the Internet and briefly returned to full time study, then full time work and then investing in my personal welfare as I addressed some long term issues, which seem to have been caused by an attention disorder. It has taken over a decade to identify this debilitating condition which untreated results in general disorder and disorganization. I am only a few months into treatment now but I am optimistic about gaining control. Lately, I have been preoccupied with finding interesting youtube clips of atheist and science promoters, but I find myself struggling to do debate on the comment section. This place will be a nice place to be I think. Kudos to the folks who thought of it and put it together.
It's nice to discover this place and see such a bright and vibrant rationalist community. Providing an independent port of call for youtube rationalists is a nice idea, as I am sick and tired of the persnickety youtube software. Trying to use the comment section for a discussion is pure torture. It will be nice to read the various blog entries on here and be up dated on the latest news in the thinking persons world. I am an Aussie guy in my early 40s and (yes girls) still single
I have been an atheist, skeptic, rationalist and secular humanist, pretty much my whole life, although I dabbled in Christianity in my adolescent years and Wicca in my 20's. Christianity was like trying on a cheap ill fitting suit and wicca was more of an anthropological curiosity, albeit with Wiccan friends I really liked, I identified with their nature loving philosophy and minus the supernatural embellishments I could easily be pagan. For years later I identified as pantheistic/pagan holding out hopes for a non-supernatural but spiritual dimension to life. I have long since dropped all vestigial affiliation with religious apologetics, as in my mid 20's I became interested in the creation evolution debate. That lead to a long term love of science, via popular science literature. I devoured every Stephen Jay Gould book I could find. There were books like Chaos by James Gleick, and In Search of the Double Helix and several books by Paul Davies who inspired me much more than I expected. But shifting gears and discovering just how exhilarating nature and science could be was left to my favorite mentor, Richard Dawkins. I read many of RD's books and from the Blind Watchmaker on and they changed my life.
As a popular science lover, skeptic and an atheist with interests in the creation evolution debate, by the mid 90's I didn't need too much excuse to delve into the on-line world and identify as an atheist. I spent some time with 'the brights' in their on line community but I found them a little too soft and forgiving on religion. I had long felt the need to make a stand and take back our pride as atheists, but even more so as a global citizen on the Internet, than as an Australian. When the atrocities of 9/11 shocked the world, I felt the solidarity of the atheist community, as we turned into a movement with a firm resolve. I was the forum admin at richarddawkins.net for the first few months when RD formed the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. At that time RD had 'The God Delusion' hit the shelves and was on tour promoting it. It was an exciting time for atheists as many other authors (Harris, Hitchens, Dennet et. al.) also published successful books at about the same time.
Since then I had taken a hiatus from the Internet and briefly returned to full time study, then full time work and then investing in my personal welfare as I addressed some long term issues, which seem to have been caused by an attention disorder. It has taken over a decade to identify this debilitating condition which untreated results in general disorder and disorganization. I am only a few months into treatment now but I am optimistic about gaining control. Lately, I have been preoccupied with finding interesting youtube clips of atheist and science promoters, but I find myself struggling to do debate on the comment section. This place will be a nice place to be I think. Kudos to the folks who thought of it and put it together.