Hi guys & gals!
My name is Kent and I'm a 3rd year geology student. My primary hangout is, of course, the carrel room in Wallace with The Daily Bread coming in close second for it's great coffee and relatively fast lines (compared to, say, UC Timmy's in the morning between classes).
I'm an atheist who could essentially be considered an anti-theist were it not for the fact I really don't care too much what others believe so long as it's not being shoved down my throat, or being used in a public context to influence politics. I don't really consider myself political in the sense that I have partisan affiliations, but nevertheless I am interested in the political circus and have definite political views. You could essentially class me as a traditional 'reform liberal' - liberalism as an economic foundation, but with great respect for social services based on the idea of rational self-interest. Essentially, I care less about what people believe in favour of the reasons for those beliefs.
Which brings me to the whole atheist/theist thing. I was raised in a very Christian home, but became an atheist around 18 (I'm 25 now) as a result of a sincere questioning of my faith, and religious claims, etc. I found in every regard they failed, and in the intervening time have found that my original assessment strengthed the more I read about science, psychology, and logic.
A big part of my 'education' has been going online and getting into debates. I've been a long-time poster at Internet Infidels, as well as other like-minded forums, and found there's no better way to clear up your own thinking than to get thrashed by someone more knowledgeable than you. I've learned a lot about logical fallacies, burden of proof, and that sort of thing, and it makes me wish more people could follow a similar path to see the inner-workings of their own thinking process.
As someone who wants to be a geologist - either in private industry as an explorationist, or perhaps even someday as a research scientist - I have nothing but awe and respect for the scientific method. I often encounter creationists posing the, 'they are both theories' argument with respect to evolution and intelligent design, and it's a personal pet peeve of mine. It shows to me that the person making the claim is just regurgitating what they've been told, and hasn't looked at the underlying mechanisms of each idea to see how much more substantial of a model evolution is compared to what someone divines from the Bible (their own personal, subjective, and in most cases, internally
inconsistent interpretation... nice alliteration, eh?).
So to make a long story short, I'm glad I found this group and forum. Have you folks talked at all yet so far this term on some of the things you'd like to get going for this year? I'm not into trying to 'deconvert' people, but Dawkin's-style consciousness raising is always a good time.
I'd love to help out if the opportunity arises.
