Hello,

My decision to join this forum was pretty much made when I saw the name.

Hello, I'm Sean. I don't have an intriguing and emotive life story in which I was raised by fundamentalist parents, imbued with large amounts of metaphysical guilt, before undergoing a metamorphosis in which I shed my theistic beliefs and became some kind of sceptical butterfly, aloft on a zephyr of logic and reason (though I'm starting to wish that was my story). I'm just an atheist who one day asked his mother if he could be Christian, because he was interested in someone who was a Christian, and she said no because she didn't want to get up early on Sunday. After I thought about it, I realised I didn't want to get up early on Sunday either.

I enjoy discussing topics rationally and with an eye permanently on the rights of the individual. I believe in tolerance and co-existence, but when someone attempts to use science to justify their theology, that makes me very fucking angry. I also enjoy swearing.

So, er, excessively-florid and horrendously-overblown introduction finished, I say simply this: thank you for having me. I hope I can contribute something before I die.

Sean

Nice intro. Welcome aboard.

Welcome.

Interesting subject - why some atoms and molecules dont go to church on Sunday and others do.

Apologies in advance if I make you angry. (Science/Theology etc)

If you swear a lot it must mean you really know your stuff!

I'm not very new and the only vaguely interesting thing about me is that I used to go to school with Faye Tozer from Steps. Consequently, I try to bring this up as often as I can even when its not at all appropriate. Other than that, I really haven't got anything to say that would be worth being bothered to listen to, and I can only apologise for the time you may already have wasted reading any of the above.

Welcome to the forum :cheers;

Lion IRC wrote:If you swear a lot it must mean you really know your stuff!

Fuck yeah!

"excessively-florid" is a tautology.

Must do better.

nearestthingtonone wrote:I'm just an atheist who one day asked his mother if he could be Christian, because he was interested in someone who was a Christian, and she said no because she didn't want to get up early on Sunday. After I thought about it, I realised I didn't want to get up early on Sunday either.

I think you'll fit right in here, Sean! (Same name as my son-in-law)

Not wanting to get up early on a Sunday is as good a reason as any. I'm always up early so it doesn't affect me. It's just some accident of design has meant there is a pub on the path between my house and the church forever sidetracking me.

Hello New-and-Therefore-Interesting Sean! Welcome to the forum

Thank you all for the kind welcome. I hold my hands up to the tautology (although, if ever an intro was grandiloquent enough to deserve a pleonasm, I think that may have been it) and beg your forgiveness. I must say, it's a new experience to be begging for forgiveness from someone who has the outward appearance of a man of the church. Though you didn't capitalise the first letter of your sentence, so perhaps we can call it even.

Oh, and what I meant by the science/theology thing was people who say, for example, that the craters on the moon were caused by water rushing off the planet during/after the Flood (man, that one made me mad).

Welcome to RatSkep.

I swear quite a bit too. Usually when exasperated by the idiotic discourse of some of our resident apologists for supernatural mumbo-jumbo bollocks. And relax ...

nearestthingtonone wrote:... was people who say, for example, that the craters on the moon were caused by water rushing off the planet during/after the Flood (man, that one made me mad).

Doesn't make me mad, so much as it makes me sad. And exasperated. Hence my tendancy to swear at such idiocy.

Welcome Sean! Hope you have a great time here. It's a great place. I'm a resident woo btw, so you should disregard anything I say lest you end up believing in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster and the theory of Atlantis. And bollocks to chairman bill!

j x

You made me laugh - good on ya - welcome

Great mom BTW

I, for one, welcome our new and interesting member.

nearestthingtonone wrote:I hold my hands up to the tautology.

All is forgiven.

nearestthingtonone wrote: Though you didn't capitalise the first letter of your sentence, so perhaps we can call it even.

(This one's trouble.)

Hello and welcome, nearest!

I sometimes ponder about how different and empowering it would have been to come to atheism over a long, hard road. I seem to have been plunked here at birth. Ha!

I gave you a hearty welcome belch but obviously you didn't hear it, trust me, it was a fucking goodun

Welcome

Welcome.

Welcome to the show

Thank you to everyone else who has welcomed me so far. Especially Crocodile Gandhi - I've been following your debate with Lion IRC with interest. I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

nearestthingtonone wrote:Thank you to everyone else who has welcomed me so far. Especially Crocodile Gandhi - I've been following your debate with Lion IRC with interest. I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

I think it's already turned out.