Labels

by Eric on January 28, 2009 at 1:00am PST

Personal, Religion, Philosophy

For those who find labels useful here are some I won't deny.

Nerd

I program professionally, but rarely as a hobby. I enjoyed Star Trek: TNG and Babylon 5. There was a time when I played AD&D and Magic: The Gathering regularly.

I have been to one nerd gathering, PAX 2005. I drove 150 miles to see MC Front in concert. When I saw the people around me hold up their LED screens in lieu of lighters as they sang along to the Minibosses' performance of Castlevania, my chest swelled with nerd pride. Optimus Rhyme is now in regular rotation on my iPod.

Skeptic

I read a lot about science and skepticism. Too much, probably. Really I just like well reasoned arguments and knowing stuff.

I wasn't always a skeptic, but I'll save my conversion story for another post.

Agnostic

This is just the philosophical position that we cannot know what we cannot know. In this form, agnosticism is simply an explicit recognition of an undeniable bit of logic.

Atheist

If theism is defined as the active belief in a god or gods, and I am without any such belief, then the atheist label works for me.

I try not to accept anything without justification. My lack of belief in gods, then, is not special - there are a lot of things I don't believe in for the same reason.

Liberal

I accept evolution and the consensus on anthropogenic global warming. I believe homosexuality is nothing to be ashamed of, but the state of LGBT rights in this country is. I think secularism is a necessary component of a free society.

I suppose that makes me a liberal, although I tend to identify most with martians.

And more!

The rest I leave as an exercise for the reader.

This name is reserved. Log in required.