TEST POST FROM HOME...nothing to see here

[NukleoN]

Move along, move along.

[buymenow00]

:D

[NukleoN]

Hi Mike,

Even though I am here responding to this, I cannot read most messages on the board, though I can post. Something is SERIOUSLY amiss here..I think someone tried to block my IP from somewhere, as I am using an anonymizer program to even get this far (from home). From work things are fine.

Something is fishy. I wonder why this happened in the last few days...very very curious.

Anyhoo...I hope it goes away on its own, but I suspect foul play. I can see most any other site on the net..but I just can't see this one and a few others on the same server. Paul's been trying to help me with it..thanks Paul. ;)

[buymenow00]

That is bizarre!! How could that even happen? Why would someone block you? Have you pissed someone off?

[NukleoN]

Hey Mike...

This kind of crap has happened to me before when getting into debates online..some pissed off Christian usually finds a way to try to block me from free exchange of information. I can't say for sure what's going on, but I know it's a little suspect that this happened recently when these religious debates heated up (in the off topic section). I guess some people think we need to return to the Dark Ages where information was suppressed.

I am fairly positive it was a malicious IP block by *someone*, but I don't know who. Either way, I outsmarted them. ;)

I find it HIGHLY SUSPECT that I can get to this site by logging on anonymously. What do you think?

[buymenow00]

Dude - I checked out that thread from hell...I was so tempted to chime in there, but thought..."what's the point". Being an agnostic/atheist myself...but having an extended family of fanatical Christians, I could relate to your feelings. I wanted my grandparents to respect my beliefs and leave me the fuck alone...nothing irks me more than someone trying to impose their beliefs on me! At the same time, I felt that I should be content with my own personal philosophy and not try to convince them that they were wrong. Anyway..."organized religion" is an oxymoron...

I can't believe that someone could hack the system like that a block your id...how do you learn how to do that???

[Monte]

At work, we sometimes get accounts that are bugged for whatever reason...people log in and have trouble viewing pages and stuff like that, and the account needs to be scrapped and re-created. Maybe something like that has happened? *shrug*

Anyway, maybe this will give me some time to get caught up on the "thread from hell". :D

[NukleoN]

Hey Mike dude,

The reason why I am so adamant about truth (by railing against lies) is well, because I care about what is true, not about political correctness or mere tradition. People who believe in these fairy tales are *always* going to be offended by skeptics, but I imagine people were offended when Galileo found that the Earth is no the center of the Universe...in fact, the Catholic church forced him to recant his findings and put him under house arrest. How is that for religion hindering progress? That's just one example.

When people proffer their 2000 year old myth as 'truth', I will always be there (when possible) to tell them they're full of it. Same goes for psychic claims or whatever.

The other problem is, religion is not inert.

The followers of religion in America, namely, Christians, have actively tried and somewhat succeeded to insert their fairy tale in US government.

We see this simply by looking at our paper money (In God We Trust) where a religious slogan was added, and that slogan did not exist on our paper money before 1956. Before 1956, the slogan was 'E Pluribus Unem' which means, 'Many as One'. This slogan does not exclude anybody, but that wasn't good enough for those with a Christian agenda who wanted their space pixie to be honored on our cash, held by non theists and non Christians around the world.

Our Pledge of Allegiance was ass raped by the Christians in 1954. The original Pledge, as schools make a point not to teach you, never included 'under god'. This asinine phrase turned our Pledge into a prayer, it violates our Constitution, and it EXCLUDES atheists and non-Christians. So much for religion helping bring the country together.

Theists continually try to outlaw reproductive rights (abortion, RU 486, counseling on abortion, etc.). They want to control what you see such as movies or video games (see Joe Lieberman), they want to try and force Evolution OUT of schools (see Kansas and various Creationists struggling to get their myth sold as an 'alternative' and putting disclaimers on science books). Many theists also stand in the way of progress (problems with cloning research, fetal cell testing based). In fact, it was the church which actually was against autopsies and anesthesia (especially for childbearing) in the past for fear of 'offending god'. The Bible was even used to defend slavery (since the Bible condones slavery) and it was used to attack the women's suffrage movement (Eve caused the downfall of man, or so they think).

Basically, there are Christians working very hard to Christianize the nation. If it weren't for watchdog groups, the ACLU and the individual raising questions to the theists who want to tell you how to think, they'd run amok and we headed right back toward the Dark Ages...hell, the president of the United States is even required to 'swear' on a Bible...and do you think an atheist could even get elected president? Not a chance in Hell...not *yet* anyway. The fact that atheists are probably the most hated minority in America shows one how far we have left to go....and it belies how seldomly the theistic view is opposed. Nobody should ever be 'shocked' as to the existence of atheists, and yet, when we come out, people tend to treat us quite badly as if we are wrong to question. We need to come out of the 'other closet' and be heard!

So I argue for what is true and against lies sold as 'truth'. I argue against those who want to foist their fairy tales not just on you and me, but on society in general. I debate theists so atheists can be free to disbelieve without getting castigated...and that's nothing compared to how atheists were once killed for merely disbelieving. It is my opinion that if you can convince enough people to have the courage and will to think criticially about all things, including their fairy tales, we'll eventually see people coming to reason instead of sacrificing their minds to the altar of faith.

As for my IP thing..I think I have been blocked...I noticed that using an IP anonymizer fixes the problem. Whoever it is that tried to maliciously block my IP has been outsmarted. :D