At a blog like this, it’s easy to be pigeonholed into labels—usually “atheist” or “theist.” I am assuredly an atheist, but that’s not all I am. You and I should take this post as an opportunity to introduce ourselves as more than just an atheist or theist, because understanding each other as people and not just points of view makes for better discussions.
And while many who frequent this blog are members of USU SHAFT and are friends, other visitors have never been to a club meeting and may not even attend Utah State. This is yet another reason why introductions are in order.
I’ll go first. You can find the basics (name, majors, etc.) in my blogger bio. Here, I just want to share those things that you wouldn’t know about me from this blog.
For starters, I’m a bit of a teutophile—that is, I have a love for German culture. My dad and that side of my family is German, so it’s my heritage. I own a $400 dollar pair of lederhosen, some German WWII memorabilia, and an ungodly amount of German punk-rock. In fact, I have an entire YouTube channel dedicated to translating and subtitling German music videos.
I cried (several times, actually) during the movie Hairspray.
I started shaving in 6th grade.
Believe it or not, I used to be an avid Bill O’Reilly fan back in middle school. I bought his books, watched his show, and applauded his shouting down liberal guests. To this day, I rather like O’Reilly. He’s one of the most reasonable voices at Fox News, but—to borrow a line from Jon Stewart—that’s like being the skinniest kid at a fat camp.
My orange-peeling skills are totally unrivaled.
I have two boxer dogs that I spoil and love to death.
Final factoid: I am romantically-challenged. I have never been in a relationship, and only recently received my first kiss at the age of 20. 
Your turn. What would you like the readers of this blog to know about you?
I like the introductions idea, Jon. I hope you don’t mind if I follow you…
While I am not an atheist, I enjoy visiting the SHAFT blog. While I can be a bit of a contrarian at times, I really appreciate the intellectual depth presented by the variety of bloggers here (especially Jon), and I am glad that I am given the opportunity to share my opinions.
Some random facts about me:
While I am very political and according to some, rabidly conservative, most of my closest friends are liberals/progressives.
I absolutely love reggae, ska, and rocksteady, and have played in a few reggae/ska/rocksteady bands over the years. I love to go to shows and dance, and I am a supporter of local music. (Seriously, if any of you want to get into reggae— good reggae — or any music from Jamaica worthy of your ears, let me know… I live for the stuff)
My father was a very intelligent and ambitious individual. He got his PHD at Stanford and later went to Law School at the University of Chicago. He died when I was seven, and since that time I have struggled with feelings of inadequacy. Sometimes I worry that my own unyielding ambition is attributed to his death and my subsequent desire to somehow live up to his legacy.
I can’t sleep without a fan on, even in the winter time.
I used to be a really successful swimmer and set a number of state records when I was younger (100m backstroke and 200m freestyle).
I am an avid coin collector (numismatist).
I have had a gambling addiction (still sober).
Anyone who knows me recognizes that I am social and enjoy listening to myself speak. They don’t know that all through middle-school and well into my Sophomore year in high school, I was shy, withdrawn, and scared to get too close to other people. Debate and a mission cured me of that.
Marc modestly neglected to mention that he has a political blog (My Daily Roast) that’s well-worth checking out:
http://www.mydailyroast.com/
My name is Josh – I am not a USU student though my wife is pursueing her PhD there (which I will say no more of, lest I incriminate her by association). We have been living in the Cache Valley since last summer and generally are quite happy here, though I lament the complete lack of Vietnamese food and the single mediocre Thai restaurant.
I come from a computer science background, though my schooling took place back when dotComs would give recent grads new cars as hiring bonuses because they were so short staffed (alas, I graduated just as that bubble burst and did not get a free car, but I did get a job when they were scarce so I can’t complain too much about that) so many concepts that I was once very strong in have atrophied through lack of use. I work as Director of Application Security for a fairly large enterprise, working to reduce the amount of vulnerabilities in the software my company produces and ensuring we react to vulnerabilities that slip through the cracks to customers in an effective manner (CS students that hang out here, if you ever want a presentation of AppSec I would be happy to give one, since the more folks that understand some basic principles the easier securing software gets in the future). This puts me on the road fairly often since our development offices are everywhere in the world but the Cache Valley, so it is rare that SHAFT meetings coincide with my schedule, which is unfortunate because I would like to put faces on the various folks that have so far tolerated my presence on this site.
Despite a degree in CS I have a huge interest in most sciences (and lament that the “social sciences” aren’t very scientific, as I feel they should be and would be incredibly interesting if they were). Even post graduation I continued to take classes across most of the scientific disciplines because I have an insatiable need to understand everything (this tactic, by the way, makes answering the “Why” questions of children much easier), and read various science websites for usually about an hour a day (RSS is the greatest utility of the web in my mind). I am by no means an expert, but I have enough familiarity with a broad enough subject set that I can typically follow most conversations of people who are, and sometimes even contribute in a meaningful way. As is no doubt apparent from much of my discourse here, I have embraced empiricism fully. Any concept that cannot emperically be verified, or at least reasonably infered, cannot be assumed to at all reflect reality (it also helps that rationalized physical laws, such as Aristotle’s laws of motion, are ridiculously wrong). For this reason I don’t have a great deal of trust in the accuracy of deductive scientific theories, such as string theory, until such time as they can be emperically verified (string theory does explain many things with emperical evidence, but not with definitive strength to establish its supremecy over competing ideas), nor theistic explinations (especially those that are contrary to emperical evidence. YEC = Fail).
I grew up an atheist, in an atheist family, with athiest friends, in an area with very little religious tradition. My Dad imparted on me a huge sense of wonder at the notion that my personal existance was the result of innumerable coincidences, both locally and cosmically, and I have always found that notion far more beautiful than the idea that I am nothing but a biological android, created and programmed by some creator (an idea I actually find deeply insulting, and cannot understand how that comforts people). He also taught me to question everything, to be properly skeptical (not a denialist, but to judge likelihood based on evidence), which further puts me of a non-religious (or at least non-organized religion) mindset. The notion that some ideas are sacred and it is blasphemous to question them is antithetical to who I am, and I believe inhibits proper critical thought. I resent that aspect of organized religion as I believe it weakens us as a species. I also resent how much the abrahamic religions focus on the virtues of obedience since I believe that a similarly dangerous notion for our species.
I enjoy being exposed to new ideas, or seeing ideas discussed, which is what has brought me to this site, though my basic nature is to question them when I hear them (both to understand them more, and to judge how strong they are). Eventually my schedule will be sufficiently flexible that I will have the chance to do so in person with you folks, which I look forward to.
I would actually love a software security presentation, as that’s been pretty absent from my education so far. While SHAFT seems to be stuffed to the rafters with CS folks, it would probably make sense to do that outside of SHAFT itself.
“it would probably make sense to do that outside of SHAFT itself.”
Certainly, and I suspect some non-SHAFT CS’ers might be interested. Schools seem to be getting a bit better about offering some security courses (though many still focus on network security, which isn’t the primary attack surface anymore) but it is still pretty light. I don’t know about USU, but at the school I attended many of the professors were straight up researchers with no professional exposure, and those with professional exposure had been out of industry for quite a while, so the current state of software security wasn’t something they were equipped to talk about (that said, there are some folks who do nothing but research it in academia and they are a wealth of knowledge, they just didn’t happen to reside at my school).
Anyway, I’d be happy to give a talk, or several talks (since it is an incredibly broad topic), or even organize an OWASP chapter if there was enough prolonged interest.
Hello,
I’m not a SHAFT member and don’t even live in Utah — though I’ve been to Canyonlands and Arches Nat Parks, which I thought were very beautiful. I happened on this blog and thought it was interesting. I check out a number of atheist/theist blogs and try not to be too obnoxious. I used to love trolling conservative blogs since I loathe the modern conservative mentality, though I can stand being around conservatives if they don’t talk too much politics. I particularly can’t abide Libertarians. I’m saying this so that all conservatives here can save time and start hating me now.
Graduated from UC Berkeley (no surprise). Math degree. Live in Hilo, Hawaii now. Unemployed (also no surprise, why else do I have so much time to troll?) But seriously, I’m a pretty amicable fellow. I love outrageous humor, have interests in biology and other sciences. Like many others here, I program computers. Currently deciding whether I like Ruby but am a little discouraged by its performance numbers.
In terms of secularism, I consider myself agnostic atheist. Agnostic because we are but mortals and are not privy to absolute knowledge. But I believe there is no God or ultimate agency in the universe. I was not raised religious and think that the correlation between upbringing and professed believe is a clear indication that religion is arbitrary. This was evident to me even as a boy, and I wonder that it doesn’t make more of an impression the world over.
On the other hand I understand human weakness and the particular existential state our large brains provide us. Probably we alone as animals understand our fate, although there is some evidence that elephants and others understand death. I have sympathy for those that need to steady themselves by way of religion. This is why I don’t consider myself a “rabid” or “militant” atheist. I’m more or less close lipped in public. I’m more inclined to tell a conservative that they’re full of it than a “visiting” Mormon. I’ve attempted to be more outspoken in the past but find the experience uniquely dissatisfying.
Anyway, hope that gives people some indication where I’m “coming from.”
Finally, I must admit to a certain guilty feeling in that I know this is a USU website and should probably be devoted to the development of university student intellect and sensibilities. In other words, if anyone feels like telling me to shut up and go away, please do so.
You can’t stand conservatives or Libertarians! HA HA! You and I are going to be great friends
On a less political note, I didn’t know you were from Hilo, Hawaii. I have family who live near Hilo and we occasionally travel there to visit them. Very cool place, if you ask me,
Also, thanks for the shout-out for MDR, Jon. You guys rock!
“Finally, I must admit to a certain guilty feeling in that I know this is a USU website and should probably be devoted to the development of university student intellect and sensibilities.”
Don’t feel guilty in the least. I, for one, am thrilled that this site enjoys an audience beyond our campus and I hope you stick around.
I’m able to separate the person from the politics, so it’s not so much conservatives as conservatism, particularly the modern American variety, that I dislike. I used to work for guy who was about as dyed-in-the-wool Republican as you can get. I don’t think we spoke more than five worlds on politics in the six years we knew each other, but I considered him a friend. Eisenhower Republicanism, no problem; Reaganite Republicanism, which I consider a bastardization of real conservatism, problems.
Hilo is pretty cool so long as you don’t mind rain and a certain backwater parochialism. I like the kind of decadent dilapidation here. It’s a little like living in a Joseph Conrad novel.
I’m Vince, an occasional commenter and more frequent reader.
I grew up in Utah in a Mormon family (both parents graduated from BYU around 1950). My father was even a 3-year starting quarterback for the Cougars. I had troubles theologically and politically with Utah Mormon culture during my high school years (Civil Rights era). By the time I attended USU I considered myself an unaligned theist.
I got my undergraduate degree in Physics & Mathematics from USU in 1976 then did various work unrelated to my education. I worked with handicap people, managed a restaurant, and toured as a musician in an acoustic folk-style duo. I returned in 1983 to USU to become a PhD in Physics (1988), then did a post-doc at Max-Planck-Institute in Germany. Now I work as a Physicist at a small company and occasionally take students for masters and doctorate research from USU as an associate professor in the USU physics department.
Near the end of my undergraduate career, I became a born-again Christian after a long investigation of the historicity of the Bible (with allowance for obvious -to me- non-historical portions like Genesis 1-3, Job, Jonah, etc.) This started a long 30-year uneasy relationship with my conservative evangelical friends and congregations. I just don’t fit the profile of “conservative evangelical” because I am an New Deal Democratic (read ‘socialist’ if your a Reagan Republican), a scientist that holds to evolution-big bang science, and moderate Christianity theologian. Recently, (2009) my evangelical congregation leaders took a more fundamentalist turn and requested that I not vocalize any of my differences with their more fundamentalist positions in church settings.
I enjoy the discussion on this website, but perhaps I become a bit defensive when I see overzealous arguments against reasonable theist approaches to life. I have played devil’s advocate for years in my evangelical Church setting, because I dislike overzealous arguments on any side. Generally, I irritate everyone. I seem liberal to conservatives and conservative to liberals.
My favorite philosophers are Buber, Levinas, Kierkegaard and Pascal. Obviously, Jesus is still Messiah and Lord for me. While I consider myself a creedal Christian, I tend to deconstruct a lot of ontology, escatology, and theology into Levinas-type meanings.
Vince, have you attended FOCUS and Philosophy Club events in the past? I’m pretty sure I’ve met you. (And by met, I mean saw ha ha).
I attended one FOCUS event and a couple of SHAFT lunches. I hope to come to the SHAFT event on Wednesday night.
Oops. eschatology, not e-scatology, which sounds like an INTERNET investigation of animal droppings.
That’s very cool about German. I’m currently in an intensive German class that I really like, and I’ve finally gotten past the “this language is completely crazy!!” stage to the point where it’s starting to come together for me.
Also, next time I see you, I’ll be challenging you to an orange-peeling contest. ;)