Hi there: I hope yall like reading!

[gentle_dissident]

Edit: My friend who is also an atheist thought of a really cool symbol idea! We could put an ∞ behind âˆ... to symbolize that we believe humans are not infinite beings who either have an afterlife or reincarnation to look forward to after death. That now is all we have because we do not have infinite time. We are finite.

Behold, the Coil of Mortality.

[Bluewind]

tl;dr

...okay. Then I will take your comment as a jest (since I did warn it was long) and say nice to meet you :)

Behold, the Coil of Mortality.

Interesting. Where did you get it from? I can't seem to find it online.

[kilodelta]

@kilodelta
Coldplay was my first big concert, so I will always love them. I also have (in no particular order and only what I have on my shelf because my ex kept some including Nirvana) Evanescence, Garbage, Seal, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pink, Adele, The Goo Goo Dolls, The Who, The Beatles, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Heart, Queen, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Alanis Morissette, Everclear, Eminem, Barenaked Ladies, Alicia Keys, Rihanna, Santana, Angels & Airwaves and various classical music. Odds are, if it's not country and has more depth than a puddle, I'll listen to it. I've heard several good songs on the hard rock station (some I know word for word), but never fell so in love that I wanted a full CD by a particular band.

Ahhhhh! A fellow Skyrim fan (wabbajack, wabbajack). I started out with a high elf, but after several games I found I had the most fun with my Argonian named Bloodlust (lost THAT 400 or 500 hour save when the ex kept all the systems. Dad got me an old model PS3 for my Christmas present). That anoying Talos worshiper in Whiterun did not live long with me around. XD Also, did you ever go to Apocrypha? God that place was CREEPY! O_O

Mountain Dew is the best soda with caffeine, but since I can't have caffeine anymore, I like Peach. Once you try it, orange soda will pale in comparison.

We have a video game sticky that regularly returns to the topic of Skyrim. I tend to go the single hand weapon / destruction route on my characters. I had a sneaky archer. But, it killed things too quickly with less challenge than adding melee into the mix. The Argonians seem to lack character or personality in my opinion. Maybe it's the lack of Argonian cultural information in the game(?) Perhaps that's the point: mystery

Video Game sticky: http://atheistforums.com/index.php?topic=1332.1830

I'll admit to your decent music and soda tastes in comparison to my own. Avoiding caffeine must be difficult.

[Mike Cl]

Also, my dogs are rescues. Sugar is a 13 year old black and tan minpin born in a puppy mill. She has a lot of health problems but she's a sweetheart. Missy is a 7 year old Rat Terrier who was thrown out of a moving truck into a ditch. She was in a garbage bags filled will other Rat Terrier puppies that were around 4 months old, but she was the only one of them alive. She has OCD and can be a handful at times, but I love her.

I applaud that you have rescue critters.  We have three dogs, all rescue.  Yankee is an 80 lb Shepard mix--very, very smart but very very jumpy.  He was found in an old corn field full of ticks and fleas.  Marco is a Chi mix and is the alpha.  He runs the schedule, letting us know when it is feeding time, dental treats time, walk time and bed time.  Honey is the youngest and is about 20 lbs.  She is super affectionate and is the real alpha animal; she gets all the chew bones she wants. Both Honey and Marco were rescued from 'death row' in the local pound.  All are fantastic dogs--and really, they are not dogs, but furry children.  I'm glad you rescued the snake, but I'm not fond of them; they come my way and I go the opposite direction. :)

It would be nice if you could get a PC that could handle Skyrim--I know you'd love the mods.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I don't argue with the pious. I can't prove them wrong and they can't prove them right ,but no matter what the argument is they're almost never convinced and personally I don't much care if they believe it or not and don't much care if they believe me or not.
They can't disprove the tooth fairy, but I do know that I got cold hard cash from the tooth fairy, but not a red cent from big spooky.

[Draconic Aiur]

hey didnt read. but welcome

[Solomon Zorn]

@Solomon Zorn
You know I'm gonna have to ask right? Which captain did you like most? It's been years since I've watched (antenna tv and online via my phone) so a lot of the info is blurry, but I always liked Picard.

I grew up with Kirk, so I have a lasting love for him, but if I had to serve under one of them, I think I would have to go with Picard.

I really think we deserve a symbol which stands for Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists, Freethinkers, and all those unaffiliated with any religion or religious practices (that are not farce of course) just as much as if we were vegetarians/vegans. The rejection of something does not make beliefs any less real, important, or defining than the acceptance of something.

I see where you're coming from, but atheism is difficult to satisfactorily symbolize with a pendant, in my opinion.

[Mr.Obvious]

I see where you're coming from, but atheism is difficult to satisfactorily symbolize with a pendant, in my opinion.

How 'bout a necklace without a pendant?

[Bluewind]

I'll reply to everyone's posts in a few, but I just had to share what I've been working on! I've been brainstorming ideas for a universal symbol for non theists that's positive. I've been focusing on the idea that we all live our lives as if this is all we have. I liked the infinity symbol, but was having trouble coming up with anything but a infinity with a slash through it and that was too negative. Then my friend had the idea of trying to make a symbol of a BROKEN infinity and I ran with it. Here's what I can up with. Sorry about the pixelation, but I am limited on how I can draw.

[Baruch]

an-irish

[Bluewind]

@kilodelta
Thanks for the link! I like the Argonians because of water breathing (so less enchanted stuff to toat), a decent race ability, disease resistance, and a bonus to unarmed attacks. Also, they have a pretty neat history and culture if you read the in game books and go on the wiki to look up information from previous games. I liked Bloodlust so much because I created head cannon for her (taken by bandits as an egg who killed her parents who were traveling at the time, grew up a slave to the bandits, was allowed to sample hist sap on her naming day that had been collected in a vile but it had been laced with drugs for the entertainment of the bandits, the drugs mixed with sap made her go berserk and kill them all, breaking her connection with the hist,...) and spent so much time with her. She was a fun character with red marking on her face (re coloring them is fun!).

I had to get off caffeine when my doctor found a small breast polyp. Turns out caffeine is VERY bad for women. Avoiding it was difficult at first, but once I had been off it a year I didn't even miss it anymore. It's a pain ordering when we go out sometimes though but would the trouble for my health.

@Mike Cl
Sounds like you have some wonderful dogs there. They sound like they are well loved ^_^

I bet I would mod the crap out of some Skyrim (and depending on my mood not all of them would be PG ;) ) considering I did it with Sims 3 when I had a PC. I've heard there's one involving a quest for Sheogorath in Shivering Isles? Sounds fascinating!

I actually didn't start out liking snakes, but my ex wanted one so I did research to find one that didn't get too big and had a good temperament. I agreed to a Sand Boa and got one at Pet Smart (big mistake) we named Carrot. Of course, I ended up doing all the care and training (you have to teach them how to be handled, how to know when it's food time and when it's handling time, to not freak out about sounds like the tv, and so on) and actually got very attached to her until she passed away a year later (birth defect -_- ). I'm glad I got introduced to the breed and that I have Lily now.

PS: Lily is currently nudging my neck because I quit petting her XD

@AllPurposeAtheist
Lol! Sounds like we have more proof for her than a magic cloud man XD

@Draconic Aiur
A pleasure :)

@Solomon Zorn
It's hard not to love a character he does rather he's over aliens in space or mutants on earth.

It is. I think I came up with something interesting though in a broken infinite symbolizing our belief in the finite and living the life we have now.

@Mr.Obvious
You are divinely clever ;)

[Bluewind]

an-irish

I'm not 100% sure what that means, but I would love to know. Also thank you for liking my design. I also did a rather creepy one showing not only the broken infinity, but opened eyes as well.

http://i63.tinypic.com/103626v.png

[Baruch]

I'm not 100% sure what that means, but I would love to know. Also thank you for liking my design. I also did a rather creepy one showing not only the broken infinity, but opened eyes as well.

http://i63.tinypic.com/103626v.png

Google Translate is our friend ;-)  "an-" is a prefix meaning "very" in ... Irish.

[Bluewind]

Google Translate is our friend ;-)  "an-" is a prefix meaning "very" in ... Irish.

That's very interesting! In medical terminology an Latin, the prefixes a- and an- mean no or not XD

P.S: Is there a thread I should post my rough idea in? I really like the design even if it turned out really pixilated and I want to share it. I think it could be smoothed out and shared. Maybe I can show it to some of the jewelery makers on etsy as well. I think they would have fun with it :)

Edit: My friend pointed out that each side by itself looks kinda like a "g". I think this makes it even better! The swirl I used was similar to one used to symbolize wind which is also invisible. Wind however can be scientifically proven as God cannot. Between the symbol as a whole emphasizing a finite life and broken in two symbolizing that unseen doesn't mean it is exempt from scientific proof, I think it covers all groups. We can even put a dot in the center of each side of the broken infinity to symbolized having our eyes open (similar to the second link only less obvious).

[Solomon Zorn]

Actually, I'm less sure of "a finite life," than I am of the lack of a God. I would say the two are NOT the same. In fact, my ankh pendant could reasonably symbolize ETERNAL life, although, to me, it simply represents life itself - regardless of the span.

I don't pretend to know what happens experiencially to the living when they die. (Perhaps the anecdotes, of near death experience, are only evidence of a grand hallucination, that might usher us out of this life, but does that negate the hallucination's usefulness?) Many Atheists believe in at least the possibility of post-life continuance.

It's more difficult than you think to SATISFACTORILY represent what is essentially a negative statement, about gods, with an inoffensive symbol. I think the best you can hope for is something like the symbol for Atheist Forums: throwing ALL religion in the trash. At least that way you're not picking on any particular group.