Archive for the 'Testimonial'

Bad news: I’m informed offline by Mattir that fellow hordeling crowepps has passed away, not particularly expectedly. She wasn’t the most loquacious commenter here, and I didn’t know her at all aside from reading what she wrote here. But I always liked what she had to say. She was funny: I am boggled by the lack of logic behind “Make me a sammich.” Seriously, so you don’t want to listen to someone’s opinion, you want to treat them as having no more value than a household appliance, so you send them into the kitchen, where all the *poisons* are, to prepare food? Want a side of Valium overdose with that, or just a garnish of the traditional rat poison? I didn’t know her well enough to say with certainty that she made the world a better place — those who knew her can weigh in on that — but she definitely made Pharyngula a smarter place. Thanks for that, crowepps.  

I’ve been an atheist since before I knew the word “atheist” existed.  It still seems silly to me that we need a word to describe people who aren’t convinced by a claim that has zero evidence behind it.  After all, we don’t waste time talking about a-ghostism or a-sasquatchism as if these were worldviews that had content and needed followers gathering weekly to reinforce. Read more

Its amazing how being “saved” can begin to change your attitude towards religion. My family did not regularly attend church, but as an young teen, my mother brokered a deal with my sister and I that if we attended church on Sundays, our chores would be waived for that period of time. Sounded like a great deal to an adolescent. After a couple of weeks of attendance, I was invited to an event featuring a religious speaker who everyone said I would really enjoy listening to. After receiving permission from my mother, the trip was set and we arrived there on a weeknight evening to listen to the individual. Read more

I never got the man in the sky.  I was brought up in an ultra Reform Jewish home, with holidays celebrated at home in English, and no formal religious training after I was about 8.  I read the stories, but my connection to Judaism was cultural (food, some major holidays, know you’re Jewish in case there’s another Hitler, etc.), rather than religious.  I learned about science and mythology when I was quite young, and couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.  I was interested in science and math; my earliest books were about science, and my favorite “toy” was a chemistry set.  I thought myths were kind of interesting and amusing stories, but not something to be believed.  Sometime in junior high school (grades 7-9 when I was there), I came across the aphorism “Man created God in his own image.”  That made sense to me.  I never gave it any more thought. Ravel

Because there’s no other rational, thinking choice.  Barbara Eckstein