Welcome new Members! Introduce yourselves here!

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I caught early days with him here, but in January '08 life reared its ugly head and I lost contact with lots of people I'd been hanging with on the web. Luckily, before all that happened, Jeff and I did manage to get together for a face to face. We hadn't seen each other in decades, but we caught up.

A bit of my childhood is gone...Mr Skinny (and trust me, he most certainly was) will be sorely missed.
 
Just attended my second TAM

The people were so congenial, i decided to join the Forum. I'm a college professor in NYC, and especially interested in science and the debunking of alternative medicine and new age practices. I'm also Catholic, so in the minority in this group.
 
Hello

I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Brian and I work in the health and fitness technology industry.

When I was working for one of the largest gym chains in the world they made the decision to sell branded supplements. Part of my role was to evaluate the formulations and then develop the education for all the gyms in multiple countries.

Upon review the formulations I was very concerned. After discussing the situation with the executive team I was informed to move forward as there is a lot of money to be made. They also decided to include homeopathy. I spoke to my wife that evening (who was pregnant with our first child) and decided to resign the next day despite the bad job market.

At the end of the day, one must be able to look in the mirror and be OK with what they see.

I shall continue to be active against pseudoscience for my son, for society and for life.

I'm happy to be a part of this community.
 
happyskeptic said:
When I was working for one of the largest gym chains in the world they made the decision to sell branded supplements. Part of my role was to evaluate the formulations and then develop the education for all the gyms in multiple countries.

Upon review the formulations I was very concerned. After discussing the situation with the executive team I was informed to move forward as there is a lot of money to be made. They also decided to include homeopathy. I spoke to my wife that evening (who was pregnant with our first child) and decided to resign the next day despite the bad job market.
Click to expand...


I tip my hat to you. Not many people would have done that and it's admirable.

Welcome to the forum.
 
New Skeptic

I guess in certain areas I have always been skeptical-however in many others I took things at what they call "face value". Not sure what that really means, but in my newly questioning mind it is something like "Hmmmm, that sure sounds like it would make sense. You are pretty smart so you must have done some research-I am just going to go with it......I am way too busy to look it up myself."

DUUUUUHHHHH!!!!!! What the H was I thinking???? Oh, yeah-I wasn't.

Well, after a weekend at TAM 2012 I saw the error of my ways. I had no idea so many people believed so many crazy things (cancer caused by a liver fluke? SERIOUSLY??) and then realized I am no better than they are. Because I didn't take the time. AND I AM RAISING CHILDREN!!!!!! Ugh!

So not only did I learn a lot of valuable information, I learned a lot about myself. And I was incredibly inspired by the people I met who made it their mission to EDUCATE! So I took it upon myself to become one of them-instead of sitting back and letting people spread ridiculous ideas which could potentially hinder my children in knowledge, health and desire to learn the truth. My greatest fear is allowing my children to grow up without learning how to think, and here I was setting a horrible example!!

Well no more I say!! Thank you JREF, TAM speakers, and all the attendees that opened my eyes and my mind!!

If you are interested in seeing the fruits of my inspiration, I am now "tweeting" and "blogging".....jeez those just sound odd!! lol

I am at thebarefootskeptic.blogspot.com/ and you can follow my tweets @barefootskeptic

I am always open to comments, so would really appreciate anyone who wants to take a look.
 
Hi Barefoot Skeptic.
The Barefoot Skeptic said:
I am at thebarefootskeptic.blogspot.com/ and you can follow my tweets @barefootskeptic

I am always open to comments, so would really appreciate anyone who wants to take a look.
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Here's those links all linkified:

http://www.thebarefootskeptic.blogspot.com/

http://twitter.com/BarefootSkeptic

The Barefoot Skeptic said:
... Well, after a weekend at TAM 2012 I saw the error of my ways. I had no idea so many people believed so many crazy things (cancer caused by a liver fluke? SERIOUSLY??) and then realized I am no better than they are. Because I didn't take the time. AND I AM RAISING CHILDREN!!!!!! Ugh!

So not only did I learn a lot of valuable information, I learned a lot about myself. And I was incredibly inspired by the people I met who made it their mission to EDUCATE! So I took it upon myself to become one of them-instead of sitting back and letting people spread ridiculous ideas which could potentially hinder my children in knowledge, health and desire to learn the truth. My greatest fear is allowing my children to grow up without learning how to think, and here I was setting a horrible example!!...
Click to expand...

It seems to me you are not like them. You re-evaluted your position after examining the evidence. Don't be so hard on yourself.

The Barefoot Skeptic said:
...Well no more I say!! Thank you JREF, TAM speakers, and all the attendees that opened my eyes and my mind!!

If you are interested in seeing the fruits of my inspiration, I am now "tweeting" and "blogging".....jeez those just sound odd!! lol...
Click to expand...

You do know we have a Humor section, right? It's perfect for upping your post count to sport a shiny new avatar.

See you around!
 
Thank you

for the linkification, and the welcome.

You are right, I should have put i WAS like them! ;)

Will have to check out the humor section-have a great story about my 8 yr old and his research lol
 
This is not a title

A quick hello to everyone!

I'm a 33 year old white, homosexual, American, atheist, libertarian, skeptic, attorney, and nursing student. I was raised in Bakersfield, CA where I went to evangelical schools until university. After university I was a Dean's Fellow at Pepperdine University School of Law (if there is one thing we can learn from Jesus it is this: don't represent yourself in a capital trial). *skipping boring legal career*
And now I'm a nursing student intending on (eventually) getting my MSN for teaching and being an expert witness.
The most important news, however, is that I'm recently affianced to the most beautiful and wonderful man in the world.
 
Welcome to this forum, Charles :)

I'm really happy for you that you found true love. I think that is the most important thing in live.
 
Greetings from the North East

Hi All,

I have been a lurker for some time on the JREF forums (mostly the conspiracy theories section 9/11 topics... I know there are sooo many more educational topics on the list but I just can't help myself :D) quietly observing and learning TONNES of amazing things. I am a business owner and Volunteer Firefighter and have few noteworthy skills beyond that :blush:

Cheers!

Jeff
 
Hi Jeff.




You seem to have at least a couple of skills more than me, not least of them being able to deal with the CT subforum. It gives me cold shivers just thinking about that place.

Welcome to the Forum, mate.
 
Welcome, Jeff, and thanks for being a volunteer firefighter. :)

That, and venturing into the CT subforums, means you are braver than I. ;)
 
Thanks for the welcome Akhenaten and Adman. I will be honest, some of the things people reveal about their personalities on the CT subforum scare me more than anything I see on the fireground. :eek:

I look forward to visiting the rest of the main forum, for a breath of sanity!

Jeff
 
Hello Everyone,

I have been a long time you tube follower and just recently found out about this forum. A little about me Im in the military, part time locksmith, and full time skeptic. I take nothing at face value anymore and have personally seen and been involved with enough BS to fill a black hole 2x.

Any questions about me feel free to ask.
 
Hello Forumites

Hello, My name is Steve. I went to my first TAM this month. I had a saturday only ticket. I enjoyed the conference and am getting active in a local skeptics group. I've been an atheist for over 40 years. I wasn't closeted but would only talk about it if asked.

I was raised as a half a**ed Catholic. - Mom and us kids went to church on sundays, Dad didn't, except on Easter and Christmas, even though it was a mortal sin. I didn't go to a catholic school but did go to catechism once a week, except when I skipped it and walked to the Mall instead. As an adolescent I enjoyed the music of Bach, Handel and other baroque composers. During a period of depression I appealed for help from God. I had a "vision" of angels, clouds and cherubs etc. that was straight out of the album covers of the baroque imagery. This was as vivid as a dream but I was awake. The skeptic in me thought this was totally a delusion from my own mind. I came to believe that this imagery came from my own mind and not from some higher power. Why would the Devine copy album covers? I extrapolated that to think what if other religious beliefs are based on elements or delusions of the minds of the proponents and not from some Devine word? I was then demoted from half a**ed Catholic to recovering Catholic, I abandoned my imaginary friend at that time, who, by the way, didn't help me with my problems, and haven't looked back.

I'm interested to hear from other people who had "religious" experiences that they later believed were false. I'm reading "The Believing Mind" by Michael Shermer and he talks about 2 people who had religious experiences that were life changing for them, but the author felt were delusional. Indeed my experience was life changing but in an opposite direction. In the movie Letting Go of God, Julia Sweeney talks of an experience that kept her in the church for a longer period but didn't last. A common theme seems to be that these experiences occur in times of physical and/or emotional stress. Perhaps this subject has been beaten to death in these forums but my search skills failed to disclose any. Any links to previous threads on this would be appreciated.

I'm still waiting for someone with a "Near Death Experience" come out and say it was all a hallucination instead of writing best selling books. I personally know someone who was under cardiac arrest for 45 minutes and survived without brain damage and she had no recollection of anything during that time period. Just a blank spot.
 
Hiya Steve,

There's lots of formerly-religious folks here, as well as a number of lifelong heathens and a good few who are still in, as it were.

Quite cosmopolitan we are. Or at least would be, if we didn't fight like cats and dogs for most of the time.

:)

Anyway, the last thing you need to worry about is whether a subject has been beaten to death. There are horses here being flogged this very day that were first buried more than a decade ago.

Welcome aboard. Enjoy!
 
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