Since the forum home page directed me to introduce myself, here goes:
A resident of western North Carolina, I have yo-yo’ed amid several philosophies since adulthood, ranging from the fundamentalist Christianity of my youth to Objectivism, with a stop at Zen Buddhism before finally (?) settling within the rational camp of secular humanism. My purpose here is to participate in reason-based dialog with other S.H.’s since such conversations are hard to find here in the mountains (fortunately, we do have a state university in our midst as an intellectual oasis). A few things about me:
1. I am socially liberal but more libertarian in fiscal matters.
2. I reject all supernatural phenomena. I am a naturalist.
3. I believe ethics are derived from the totality of human experience (evolution, social contract, genetics, brain construction, etc) and are not transcendent.
4. I believe that I probably hold beliefs that may be proven to not line up with reality/reason in which case I will be willing to alter them over time. As much as I strive to live a rational life, I sometimes behave in irrational ways owing to several factors.
5. Finally, I am new to this worldview and am still in the conceptual phase. There will be times when my contributions to this forum will no doubt be questioned or criticized and I welcome all attempts to help me best grasp some of these concepts. However, if I am firmly convinced of my position, I will not argue but simply ignore repeated attempts at flame wars.
6. I am a certified geek so if you refer to the “Greedo Shot First” controversy, I will understand you as well as any other useless but fun trivia.
7. I believe the universe is amazing, beautiful and inspires awe and the closest thing to spirituality that exists. I include humans within that sphere. As Sagan said (or was it Moby), we are made of stars.
8. I will engage in satire, sarcastic humor and other forms of literary device so don’t take offense at anything I might write, I probably didn’t mean it the way you took it.
9. Many will criticize me for this, but I am a closet humanist. Although I don’t hide my beliefs when asked, I do not publicly thrust myself into public debate but I do choose certain battles in which to insert my influence and make incremental change. Perhaps I will eventually plant myself on a firm enough philosophical ground whereby I gain enough confidence to “come out” of the closet of the current national mindthink.
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