Welcome apophenia!

[Ronja]

I hope you will use this welcome thread to satisfy our curiosity. We iz always very nosy about new members.

For example: how did you hear about Rationalia and what made you decide to join?

Welcome

[Animavore]

'Sup.

[cowiz]

Nice name, welcome

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia

[FBM]

Nice name, welcome

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia

Thanks for the link. Until now, I thought it meant "a person who is both incredibly intelligent and gorgeous".


Oh, hai, Apophenia.

[cowiz]

Nice name, welcome

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia

Thanks for the link. Until now, I thought it meant "a person who is both incredibly intelligent and gorgeous".


Oh, hai, Apophenia.

I iz a intermerlectual

[FBM]

Nice name, welcome

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia

Thanks for the link. Until now, I thought it meant "a person who is both incredibly intelligent and gorgeous".


Oh, hai, Apophenia.

I iz a intermerlectual

Still? I thought Ratz had cured you of that ill.

[cowiz]

Nice name, welcome

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia

Thanks for the link. Until now, I thought it meant "a person who is both incredibly intelligent and gorgeous".


Oh, hai, Apophenia.

I iz a intermerlectual

Still? I thought Ratz had cured you of that ill.

I have a spare brain that I use for Ratz

[FBM]

I have a spare brain that I use for Ratz

Cheater!

[apophenia]

I hope you will use this welcome thread to satisfy our curiosity. We iz always very nosy about new members.

For example: how did you hear about Rationalia and what made you decide to join?

Welcome

Oddly enough, my discovery of this board is an example of me applying the same skepticism about a new poster that I'm finding fault with here. Mea culpa.
I guess I'm a hypocrite.

I was nattering away on another atheist forum, and one of the more irreverent denizens there was chided for not being polite and respectful toward a young earth creationist who was busy puffing his wares. The person doing the chiding was promptly told to mind their own business, and that if being polite was their druthers, fine, but don't go telling others how to behave. Somewhere along the line, she asserted that while she wasn't known there, that she was known on other atheist forums (her point in this, I forget). So being bored, having said my piece and being a busybody, I proceeded to attempt to verify her claim. One of the "other atheist forums" that she had visited was this one. So I made a note of it and decided to come back later and explore. And that's how I got here. My sordid little tale.

I have just this year discovered the forums, so what better way to find out than to sign up and jump right in. The acid test, if you will. While I've faced a lot of heat here, I've been most impressed with the quality and competence of the people I find here. I don't know if I'll stay -- that depending more on answering the existential questions posed in Zilla's thread, namely What is this adding to my life, and how is what I'm doing contributing to the world? Truthfully, the latter question is not as compelling as the first, as since losing nine of my ten fingers three years ago, I've had to reinvent myself and my life, and have made hedonism the primary driving force (intelligent, Taoist informed hedonism -- not just any hedonism, mind you).

Now, I'm shy, but not bashful. So I'll answer most any question put to me -- and if I don't like the question, no biggie, I will refuse to answer.

That being said, there are details which are relevant, but not likely to surface under random questioning. So I will fill in some of the bigger question marks.

As noted, Taoism, atheism and philosophy are major influences in my life. Music, too. But probably more influential has been the fact that I have struggled with mental illness most of my life, starting at a very young age. Specifically, I have schizo-affective disorder, which is sort of a mix between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In the 90s, I spent a cumulative total of 2 years being hospitalized, and that rather dominated much of my 30s. The loss of my fingers is due to mental illness as well, as in 2008 I attempted suicide by going outside in -20 F weather and taking a bottle full of sleeping pills. I was discovered but not in time to prevent me losing 9 fingers to frostbite.

I'm very intellectual, which is a strange thing for a Taoist to be. And living in the head, I have a serious disconnect from my feelings, which results in out of control behaviors like that I've displayed in the pedophilia thread. As values, I recognize truth and morality, almost as if no other values existed. My mother would tease me that I am moral to a fault, but it's no joke -- I am so obsessed with morality that it's a character flaw. And my obsessions with truth and morality frequently work to prevent me from engaging in more human, balanced, socially constructive behavior.

I went to school for Computer Science and Mathematics (which I possessed no small amount of talent in). But my nemesis, mental illness intervened, and by my second year of college, chronic depression left me failing every course I signed up for. *boot!* So I left the small town, moved to the big city and tried to survive.

I'm probably charitably described as a geek and a nerd, fixing computers being one of my favorite pastimes prior to losing my fingers. Over the years I have expressed an interest in languages, studying French, German, Chinese and Japanese, but to no great proficiency. Not being able to write anymore, I saw my studies in Chinese and Japanese as become impractical, and have given up that love.

What else, my philosophical positions include anti-realism, platonic realism, eliminative materialism, and I'm trending towards an incompatibilist position on free will. I am interested in the way human discourses shape belief and belief systems, with the supposition that rather than reason being the master of emotion, it's the other way around, with non-reason on top, dragging reason along behind her as simply an efficient tool for realizing her unreasoning ends; as such I consider both cognitive science and the concept of Bounded Rationality as important components of a sound analysis (and probably the ideas of people like Foucault, Kuhn and Feyerabend too). I have recently experienced a perfect storm of influence which I believe can explain the nature of meaning (contra nihilism), the nature of morality, of self and identity and mind, and the odd sprawl of ripples outward (e.g. explaining the nature of narrative art, and that of shame and guilt). Now I don't pretend to take all the credit -- as Ben Franklin said, if I have achieved anything it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants; my ideas are a synthesis based on the works of two other contemporary thinkers. What I'm going to do with these ideas, I have no clue. I'm vain enough to want to maintain control of them, yet I'm also in it for the hunt -- the thrill of the chase is exciting -- once you've caught and killed the thing, the dull part begins. And I have no philosophical cred, how am I going to get these ideas out? I'm just an ignoramus who happened upon a candy store that the owner negligently left unlocked.

Anyway, I'm babbling, so I should probably put a point on it.

Reminds me, Where does the expression "put it to bed" come from. I don't get the metaphor.

Oh, and long as I've got the soap box, what's a gal got to do to get a sig around here?

Oh, on another board, we were asked who we were musically. This is who I am, musically:






Ya know, modern technology is amazing. I can actually hear Seraph snoring in the background -- and the life-like sound of crickets chirping is stunning.

[Azathoth]

Damn. These walls of text must take a while for you to peck out

[Gawdzilla Sama]

You can add a sig in the User Control Panel. If you want a custom rank, just post it or PM an admin.

[Bella Fortuna]

Welcome, apophenia. Thank you for sharing your story.

[cowiz]

Wow that's quite some tale. Thanks for sharing :-)

[Rum]

Welcome from me too.

[Millefleur]

Hi there