Greetings
 

I'm colpat - age 77
Retired USAF after 22 years
Public school teacher K-12.
Missionary & pastor concurrent with many of other careers
I've been on the board about a week, trying to learn the rules, navigation & conventions. This is a very fast board. It may take me a bit longer to catch on but I'll give it my best shot.
How is this forum supported? I may have missed that?
Thanks for allowing me to join in the discussions

Welcome colpat. You are our only theist right now, so brace yourself for a very full dance card. The forum is owned by Chris who stops by tri-annually. We have three mods, Smelly is the most diligent police officer. Pro tip: he's not a big fan of Christians starting zillions of threads. Most of us have been posting her for six or so years.

I am a strong atheist.

Why do you believe in God? Are you here to save us? Who will you be voting for in 2012 and why? I will be voting for Dr. Paul because I'm not a big fan of killing.

Thanks for the warm welcome and a chance to fill my dance card. I'm still working on quotes I'm not a big fan of starting more than 1 thread, not quite as talented at multi-tasking as in times past.
In my world view that includes the supernatural, I'm a spirit having a human experience. So it's a bit more than belief and faith.No. I don't have that power and that's not in my job description.
The (R) who I hope will be Petraus. (R) Because the (R) goals are more in sync with my convictions than (D) and the (I)
By all means vote for Dr. Ron. That's one of the reasons I risk my life to fight for our freedom to vote our conscience.

Hi there and welcome Colpat. What makes you interested in an atheist forum?

Welcome Colpat. As a slightly younger coot on this forum, it will be good to see participation form someone with more substantial life-experience than some of the youthful riff-raff.

Why have you come to our refuge, our haven? If it is to inform and reform us, your trail will likely be a trial. If it is to inquire of us the skinny on atheism, most of us will happily oblige. If it is to poke us with a righteous stick, beware, our powerful retaliatory sticks have known dark places that your stick could not conceive of. If it is to participate in a rational discussion of ideas and ideals then I say hooray and let the festivities begin.

Threads are IMV a way to circumscribe particular topics to help discussions focus.

The thread for "material that doesn't deserve a thread" is for just ideas and items of interest for which long discussions are not expected.

So, if you have a new thought or interest provoking thing to present, making a discussion thread is the way to go. But, we are no better at multiprocessing than you so lots of threads, especially ones that duplicate existing threads are not a good idea.

OK, now,
Are you a Bible-based Christian, just a theist, a deist, a Young-Earth-Creationist ... Where do you stand broadly; I suspect you are not Muslim, Buddhist. Now that the official count of Christian religions has topped 39,000, it might help us to locate you on the Jeebus spectrum.

Why would you want people other than yourself to believe something that is only true to you, a personal experience that cannot be directly transferred to others? Or, do you have objective evidence for something supernatural that we can all share?

That is, is there any reason other than your internal subjective experience that causes you to include some supernatural in your view of reality?

Could there be a physical/natural explanation for all of the brain states that seem to be supernatural experience to the person experiencing them? If there is a natural explanation, would that not make the supernatural part, not disproven, but merely irrelevant and unnecessary even if strictly true?

Oh, yes, a hearty welcome to you. :):)

Greetings, Colpat!

Please be advised that this is the Raving Atheists forum. The gloves come off pretty quickly here. :)

Greetings ol' phella, when you find the rules, can you let me know?
.... and missionary is a bit boring - I much prefer the good woman on top or on the kitchen table :shhh:

Welcome Colpat.

It would be good to hear some of your views, I haven't been on here long myself, so far the majority of believers I have seen come on, do it purely to tell us why we are wrong, so a nice grown up discussion with a man of experience such as yourself would be a welcome addition.

Now that just hurts. :(

http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscart...s/dpan822l.jpg

Welcome. Are you beginning to doubt your belief system? If not I will ready myself for a stream of preaching and religious justification. If you wish to discuss the weather....well it is sunny here.

Oh and welcome.

Greetings to all and thanks for starting my dance card. My interest in an Raving Atheists forum, where the gloves come off, ol' phella's can spit and whittle and where a nice grown up discussion is encouraged is: for me to become a better teacher by learning the atheist language and be able to foster better understanding of an atheist world view. Much of today's teaching is based on gross misinformation. I welcome the opportunity to engage in a rational discussion of ideas and ideals. I have rare, but valuable experience. I roomed with an atheist for 13 months as an Aviation Cadet in 1953. The result was both strengthened our own world-view and a great friendship. I respect your refuge, your haven. I am located on the Jeebus spectrum at the far right. I asked Jesus to be my Boss at age 8,(saved, but able to backslide)Married 1954 to a Proverbs 31 lady. Before we married we covenanted to base our family on Proverbs 3:5-6. That is my experience. I cite it only to help you understand from where I am coming. I will do my best to choose the correct thread/s for the real festivities.

Smelly might be the most diligent, but I've got other things going for me.

http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/a...er_397583a.jpg

Greetings Professor Chaos
Other things going sounds interesting. I look forward to discussing some of those "things"

Welcome to the forum, colpat.

What, exactly, is a supernatural? How does it differ from assertions of unexplained magic that are portrayed in fiction?

What is your definition of a spirit? Is it something other than an allegation of unexplained magic?

What is this God you say you worship? I assume that you are not claiming to have ever seen, heard, smelled or physically touched this God you are alleging here. So, apart from having a personal belief in this ostensible thing, how is it objectively knowable?

What I mean is "knowable" in the way we can know and experience, say, disease. For example, I'd prefer to not believe in the existence of cancer, but I don't have that choice, because cancer is objectively real and has observable properties.

What do you think any of us here can observe about an alleged God without specific prompting from a devout believer?