User:Neural













Current favourite quote:

 'What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.'  - Christopher Hitchens

Articles started:

 * An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Atheism (a book by Daniel Harbour)
 * Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life (a book by Alister McGrath)
 * The Rage Against God: Why Faith is the Foundation of Civilisation (a book by Peter Hitchens)

Likes:

 * Freethinkers (see freethought)
 * Computer games such as Deus Ex, Morrowind, and Civilization IV
 * Monty Python
 * Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
 * Horror fiction and science fiction
 * Films
 * Erotica, non-exploitative porn, and sex in general
 * Women
 * The Wicker Man (the restored 99 min 1973 version)
 * The insights and efforts of Richard Dawkins
 * Questioning beliefs and assumptions

Personal Dislikes:

 * Social conservatism
 * Censorship
 * The "big three" Abrahamic world religions - Christianity, Judaism, and Islam; especially all forms of religious fundamentalism
 * The constant proselytising of many Christians and Muslims
 * Attempts to enforce brands of religious morality by passing laws that apply to everyone, religious or not
 * Uncritical faith in anything
 * The popular anti-paedophile witch-hunting
 * Poverty
 * Neo-Nazis and those with a similar mentality
 * The nonsense that some people take seriously
 * And the mouth-foaming insanity that some people think is a virtue

General Interests:

 * Chess
 * Pagan religions and rituals
 * Psychology
 * Neurotheology
 * Sociology
 * Philosophy
 * Nietzsche
 * Programming
 * Transhumanism
 * The universe!

My Political Compass:
My political compass result (Economic: -2.50 Social: -6.26) I am strongly libertarian (or perhaps I should say anti-authoritarian), and slightly to the left on the economic axis. My result for the latter seems a bit exaggerated to me, although I did answer every question honestly. I think my natural distrust of huge multinational corporations and my belief that writers/artists are as important as manufacturers is showing here. Take the test here

Some interesting and/or controversial links:

 * RD.net
 * Rationalia forum
 * Rational Skepticism forum
 * Richard Carrier: Why I am not a Christian
 * Sam Harris: The End of Faith
 * Women and the death penalty in modern Iran
 * The Bible
 * The Qur'an
 * Free will vs determinism