You're so hipster that they haven't even made up a word yet to stereotype you with yet.

May I use my type as an excuse for my habit of picking up conversations days, weeks later as if I never left off? If so, OUCH. How did your surgery go?

Snap! Happy Birthday dude!

If I was hanging out with ya, I'd make you a cake...except I'd replace the water with tonic water, and the sugar with salt.

Yeah, seriously, I can't even eat that stuff anymore. Might as well fix a bowl of cheerios and dump the entire sugar shaker into it.

*bows*

Lol, let's see what sort of defense he puts up to that

I think that's the one aspect of organized religion I dislike the most - getting kids while they're still young and impressionable. Why would you try to hit young children with some of the most haunting and soul-wrenching questions mankind has ever dealt with? Kids don't understand cosmology... they don't think about what's going to happen when they die, or where they're going to go afterwards... they don't think about the consequences of their actions other than a rudimentary sense of punishment from Mom and Dad... in my mind, that's a philosophical undertaking that is more appropriately dealt with as an adult with a competent and mature mind. If a religion cannot stand up to critical thinking or any kind of logical scrutiny - if it can't hold its own against the least little critical questions - and instead relies on targeting young children, then that's not a religion I would choose to follow. There are laws banning advertising of alcohol and cigarettes to minors, and for what reason? Because kids are impressionable.

There may be some good lessons in the Bible, but I think it's the implementation (i.e. congregational traditions) that I can't stand. At some point I think it would be well worth my time to actually read the Bible cover to cover, which I've never done, so I can form my own opinion about its worth instead of judging by the actions of its followers.

The part I didn't mention in the thread was that I left the church because I didn't see any "intelligent" people there. And by that I mean people who had come to the faith as adults because they had read the Bible, applied some critical thinking, and said "yep, this makes complete sense." That led me to think belief was for less intelligent people who weren't as able or apt to think critically. Of course I didn't want to get tarred with that brush, you know? As I settle into middle age, I'm getting a little better about that, but that bias has harmed my relationships with those of the faith.

Ha ha! Very nicely done

Hee! Hee!

Sounds good! Any chance of you making it to the Berkeley meetup in September?

Finally tried a lambic beer. Framboise, I believe. Very tasty!

Ever had the dogfish 120? Talk about hoppy! Their rasian one was pretty decent too.

Well, at least i wash them down with something good, right? After our nerf gunslinger match we'll have a few.

Ah. I was in India, but just visiting.

Damn, that sucks. I hope it goes well. If you don't mind my asking, what're you getting surgery for?

GREAT thread.

Your place, then?

Well, big dirty secret is i never was much of a six-shooter. Saw you're getting surgery? Hope that goes well, man. Mah back been nasty lately but still manegable.

Can we pace off 300m or so?