Just joined

[Tom Morris]

Hi all.

Nice to meet you all. I just joined after seeing a link on Pharyngula.org (where I'm guestblogging; I won't slag off smilies). Looks like another forum I can spend my time on instead of working. I'm already a member of Internet Infidels, James Randi Educational Foundation, InfidelGuy, Livejournal's "atheism", "atheist" (and a horde more). I also blog at Legalistic Fingerpointing (http://www.bbcity.co.uk/user/Tom) and Quackblog (http://www.bbcity.co.uk/user/quackblog).

As to who I am, and why I'm here? Simple. I'm an atheist (in a "lack belief in god", Bertrand Russell "philosophical agnostic, practical atheist" manner - also because I think the word 'agnostic' is silly and 'atheist' is a better description) and a skeptic (or sceptic, I'm from the UK, and there seems a lot of wrangling as to which one we should use). I'm currently writing a book called The Disappearing Casino which discusses some of the looney things people believe in (mostly alternative medicine stuff, a bit of creationism and fundy-ism).

I've been an atheist ever since about age eight. My family was never really religious - anyone who knows what "Christmas C-of-E" is will understand. I was never baptised, but I was dragged to a number of religious services - whether it was Roman Catholic Mass (I went to a Catholic school) or the local C.E. (boy scouts et al.). But I have to thank the teaching at my Catholic primary school for exposing me to atheism. Such a god seemed a logical impossibility. Thanks!

Anyway, I rumbled along, and got far more interested in it all recently in life. I started reading philosophy, science etc. Now I'm hoping to go and study philosophy so I can lead a life of unemployed book writing. Woohoo!

As for Casino? Err. It's growing, slowly. Much hair tairing is going on with regard to chapter organisation. Reading list too long. Gym subscription unused. Facial hair unkempt. Too much 7-Up. Need about three more desks to cover with bits of paper, books, old copies of Skeptical Inquirer and about £500 to buy more resources. Oh, and an excuse for when people ask me my employment status.

Nice to meet you all!

[LadyShea]

:welcome3:

[Tom Morris]

Thanks!

[viscousmemories]

Nice to meet you, Tom. :)

I'm a member of IIDB and JREF too, but your introduction makes me think I should warn you that the Freethought Forum isn't deliberately geared toward any particular ideology or lack thereof. We're using Freethought in a more Civil Libertarian type way, as in our motto: "Think what you like, and say what you think." This is described in more detail in my Introduction to the Freethought Forum (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51). :)

[livius drusus]

Hi Tom. Thank you for the great introduction. Dare I ask how far along you are with your book or is that gauche? I'd love to hear more about it. :)

Welcome to the FF.

[viscousmemories]

I'm sorry if my post above came off sounding too abrupt, Tom. I just wanted to make sure you knew we weren't a hardcore atheist site in case that's what you were looking for. Based on your intro you seem like a really intelligent, interesting person and I look forward to your participation here. :)

[Tom Morris]

Thanks, no, that's absolutely fine. I'm not tied to ideologies too strongly.

[Tom Morris]

As for the book, yeah, it's slowly coming along. Wasn't it Douglas Adams who said something like "Writing is the art of not being distracted by the Internet" (or words to that effect). I spent most of yesterday writing about creationists. And today I'm writing about reflexologists.

[livius drusus]

I've always been partial to Thomas Mann's "a writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people." It's a comforting thought when I've been obsessively rewording the same sentence for 2 hours.

You seem to have a nice stead pace going on, though, and from what I understand that's the difference between saying you're writing a book and actually writing one.

[nvexio]

poor thing, joining these boards... what's wrong with you? :D

[viscousmemories]

I can very nearly say I haven't read a book since I discovered the Internet. :(

The only exception, really, is when I was living in a hotel in Hamburg for three months while there on business, back in '97. I read a number of books then.

Then again since the very vast majority of my time on the Internet is on forums such as this, I probably read quite a bit more than the average Joe.