Welcome to the new blog for ex-Friends Reunited atheists, and everyone else too of course!
Introduce yourself in the comments below when you have registered for a WordPress account (which you can use in many places, not just WordPress Blogs) but don’t give too much information away as this is a public posting. No bank accounts, addresses, email addresses or credit card numbers here please – Identity theft is rife as is email address harvesting by spammers.
Cheers,
Norm.
Atheist Chat 
Norman Dunbar – I’m a “Jock” exiled to Leeds in the UK. I’m married, no kids and no intention of having any. I keep bees and until recently I had a Californian Kingsnake but she had to be put down at age 15. I was a religious person for many years in my youth, but I got better one day when something “clicked” and I suddenly started asking questions and not just blindly accepting the “truth”.
I suppose I could be called a militant atheist, but I know the “enemy” so well (he said, humbly!) and can usually hold my own when the Jehovah’s Witnesses come to call – I must be the only person I know who invites them in. After a few visits though, they don’t seem to want to come in any more. Wonder why?
aka Susan MacRow-Hill
I’m an atheist, but I don’t really think of myself as militant – just an egalitarian. I am a scientist and a teacher,
I was married, lived with my husband for 25 years, now divorced and single, and have 5 children. All are grown up, graduated and doing pretty well.
I am an atheist, but I wouldn’t call myself, militant, robust, yes.
I’m married (44 years), retired and living in SW Cork, Ireland. I have a bee hive, but no bees (hopefully I will get a swarm, this year). I help my wife in the garden (labourer and grass cutting), I have reasonably well equipped woodworking shop, which doesn’t get as much use as I would like, too many other distractions. I have been learning to play the violin for the past 12 years (and I’m still bloody useless). The computer is a big distraction for me, but the upside is, I have come across a variety of interesting and intelligent people, who I appear to get on very well with.
I have a daughter and a son, both still living in the UK, whose company I must admit, I do miss, but make up for with a couple of weeks visiting each year and they also visit us in Ireland, when work allows, which is always entertaining and fun.
Plans for the future: I don’t have any, just take each day as it comes and appreciate what I can get out of it.
Hi Terry. A bee keeper, almost, eh? Well, I have another blog called Rants and Raves and I have a bee keeping category that you might be interested in. Perhaps not! Anyway, take a look if you feel like it at http://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.uk/blog/category/bees/.
Cheers, Norm.
So what do you think of the coalition government dragging their feet on neonicotinoid pesticides – thought to be responsible for the catastrophic death toll of bees in the last few decades?
http://www.naturalnews.com/034678_honey_bees_colony_collapse_pesticides.html
Not that Cameron cares – after all they make plenty of donations to the tory party to keep on draggin their feet.
http://www.buglife.org.uk/conservation/campaigns/Pesticides+Poisoning+Our+Bees
To be honest, it doesn’t surprise me a jot. David Cameron is an ex PR man, the only job he ever had, and now he’s ruining the country – like Maggie did all those years ago. He’s got so many lobbyists paying money to influence policy – allegedly – that he’s unlikely to actually do anything – except “take”.
So far, in an effort to make this a “fair” country, as promised so frequently in the election campaigns, he has taken education (except for the rich), he has taken legal aid (except for the rich), he has taken benefits (except for the rich), he has taxed the poor and relieved the rich ….
I do go on dont I!
I’m lucky, so far, in that my own bees are fine. We are quite a long way from agricultural land – being in the middle of Leeds – so the bees are usually in gardens and so on. But that could change.
There’s some other pesticides that are used on ants that could also be affecting bees, as they destroy the social structure of the hive and cause the bees to suddenly think “sod this, I’m an individual” and off they go, abandoning the hive.
There are so many different chemicals in the environment these days, who knows what the combined effects will be. A disaster in the making if you ask me.
The latest disaster in the making is probably the new nanotechnology industry – and the fact that these nanoparticles can cross the blood brain barrier, and are already polluting the environment.
If, of course, the HFCS and TFA (that’s high fructose corn syrup and transfatty acids) found in junk food don’t kill us first.
Where’s Doomwatch when you need it? All these old cult tv programmes being remade and somehow they always miss the decent ones.
Sorry, I should have added, it’s me: Terry Crofton. Aindiaga, is Gaelic for: ungodly, impious.
Hi Terry. Good to see you here.
Interesting name – but how do you pronounce it? I am rubbish with phonetics – being a strictly orthographic reader.
Terry, Susan, glad to see you could make it. I’m going to have troubles with your names though! Still, I’ll get there eventually.
Lets hope this site takes off, but if not, at least we tried.
Trouble with my name?
Susan – named after Susa and the goddess En-susinak, and Kalliste – the original name of Thera/Santorini.
Susan, when I said “trouble with your names” I meant the fact that I am used to knowing you as Susan over on FR. I’ll take a while to remember that kallisthill is you!
I am sure the writing style will convince you, in next to no time š
Remember folks, Friends Reunited didn’t allow you to thread your replies. This is WordPress which does. If you want to add a comment to the entire topic, simply use the “Leave a reply” box found at the bottom of all the comments.
If, on the other hand, you wish to reply to a specific comment, click the link at the bottom of that comment which says “login to reply” or just “reply” if you are already logged in. (You do know that you can follow comments etc without logging in didn’t you?)
In this manner, the comments are “threaded” and you can follow conversations much better than we ever did back in FR Land.
Cheers,
Norm.
See? This is a reply to my own previous comment. Testing testing 1 2 3…
On the other hand – can I edit or delete?
I’ve invited yo as a user of this blog, you should have an email. That will allow you to create edit and delete stuff. At the moment, you can only add comments. There is an “edit” link in your own comments as well – so if your typing is as bad as mine, at least you can change it.
Are you sure? The only thing in my reply box is an option to cancel the reply – so I guess I can always copy, paste, then cancel, and then re-reply – but am not convinced that will be as easy as editing direct.
Either way, thankyou.
You should have an email similar to this:
NormanDunbar has invited you to author Atheist Chat. As an author you will be able to publish and edit your own posts as well as upload media.
To accept this invitation you will need to:
1. Signup for a WordPress.com account. You can also sign in with your existing WordPress.com account if you already have one.
2. Accept Invitation
The “Accept Invitation” is a button you should click. Failing that there’s a URL for you to paste into your browser if clicking fails.
Once you accept the invite, you’ll be able to create stuff and that will allow you to edit your own stuff.
OK – well I did all that – but haven’t posted up a new topic yet. Will give it a go!
I tried – but I am not convinced anything is getting through.
Meanwhile have you seen the latest dictat from No 10?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17576745
Civil liberties and democracy?
I wonder how expensive the new CRB checks are going to be – for all of us!
OK – I think I have “got it” – but apologies if I screw up and overdo it. My only excuse is that it’s still the best way to learn š
Morning Susan,
yes, you’ve got it. I logged in just now (just prior to starting work) and I see two new postings. Don’t worry about screwing it up, if you do, give me a shout and I’ll see what I can do to sort it out.
I’ve added a few new categories too, just in case. I’m not sure if you can do that, so if not, let me know and I’ll add them for you.
Cheers, Norm.
The categories look fine, although I’d quite like to see “religion” replaced with “mythology” š
How about “Religion & Other Mythology” š
Myths and religions? š
Done!