h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't remember what number we left off on, and none of the business forums have been restored just yet. I imagine that the last one will give the moderators a healthy dose of work to do, since we let that one carry on for quite some time. But, rather than wait for the old forums to be reestablished, I have opened up the floor for new business.

Welcome back, brothers and sisters. I missed you desperately.

Good morning CS. It's nice to be back, i think i had some serious withdrawls from this place. I got stuck having to vent in my astronomy class, probably not the best place, for some reason, they're all avid christians. It's kinda upsetting.

But now I have found a reason to exist, h2g2 is back

Honestly, I didn't manage to miss H2G2 *too* terribly, because I did manage to find other ways to occupy myself. But I find myself with a lot of time on my hands this weekend, so H2G2's new arrival came at a most opportune moment. Besides, where else can you have the kinds of conversations that made the FFFF famous?

You may notice that the page has changed just a bit. The nice graphics from Evolvefish had to go. New terms and conditions... unfortunately, they are a commercial site. I miss them already, they added so much color to the page...

Well, at any rate, you may now feel free to vent whatecer you need to vent. Maybe if you get my dander up on some subject, I'll be able to forget about those lovely, lovely graphics...

nah, I don't think I'll ever stop missing the graphics, now that you mentioned them. It was funny though, I had thought there was something missing, it just didn't click. Well, I think i've managed to get most of my venting out in class, much to the dismay of my professor. it just bugs me that people will use the bible as a end all to any conversation. There just has to be more to it than that, and it sometimes just becomes frustrating to argue against a person who beleives that.

I will miss the graphics though, kinda a bummer about the new terms too, I had to remove a nice graphic of Pinky and the Brain from my World Domination for Dummies page, i was pretty upset. Even though the article itself wasn't that great, I was kinda partial to the picture.

Ask Peta for a BLOB for the evolvefish pics - you've got permission to use them, and the site isn't purely commercial - by my reading of the ToC you're ok.

worth asking, anyway...

You are misled, or you haven't actually visited Evolvefish. They are entirely commercial. And as a reward for borrowing their bandwidth, I promised them a link. That would constitute an external link to a purely commercial site, which is not allowed by the new T&C's. So, since I cannot borrow their own graphics, and I cannot promise them a link, I don't feel like I have anything to offer them in exchange for permission to duplicate their graphics into blobs.

This does make me wish we had been able to settle on a design for a graphic uniquely for the FFFF when we originally discussed it, though. We wouldn't have had any trouble getting permission to make that into a blob.

Hmmm...I do believe JB had some good sketches done for that (I've seen some of the conceptual stuff in person) we live in the same for the most part, and I talk to him all the time. I'll see if he's got them worked out yet. I don't think he's back on h2g2 yet though, he's struggling through his last batch before he gets too caught up in this again. Lucky me, not batch as of yet...

We had the concept drawings, but he didn't develop them too heavily. So then I got Lil to take a stab at it, but she wasn't too interested in our previous concept. If jbliqemp is interested in following up on the project, I'd be more than happy to see it.

Hi there. Missed you guys. Just wanted to say that I thought it was colossally dumb of the editors not to email all the researchers to tell them the place is back up and running. Anyhoo, I suppose it's back to business as usual around here. If you haven't checked them recently, CS, go to landoverbaptist and check out the new creation science textbook for teens, "Donkeys can talk, people can fly, and a man named Jesus lives up in the sky!".

Yippee, you're all back again!! I've missed you. You wouldn't believe how much work I've got done in the past few weeks.

So where's our latest and newest way of winding up born-agains, then? Oooops, did I say that? It's great to be back.

Pattern-chaser

Welcome back, guys. I haven't checked on landover lately, but that sounds hilarious.

On a personal note, this whole religion quandary has come home to me. While h2g2 was down, I finally hooked up with that cute little number that sits at the front desk at work. The religion thing was never a problem for us, because she doesn't take it seriously. She's not atheist, nor xtian. The best way you could describe her beliefs is apathetic.

Until, that is, she went to Mexico on some family business. There, she was fed a steady diet of Catholic dogma and guilt. Now she's confronted with the problem of theology, especially since she is dating an avowed atheist. I'd be more than happy to let her work this thing out on her own, and accept whatever it is she decides, but it is affecting our... ummm... intimate life. Quantity is not affected, but quality is taking a hit.

She's in the questioning phase, though, and she is looking for answers. For balance's sake, I'm presenting her with a copy of Dan Barker's book (Barker is the spokesman for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a real-life organization whom I nearly unwittingly plagiarized for the name of our little organization) entitled "Losing Faith in Faith". I imagine there will be some fallout if her mom finds it lying around. Bring it on!

And on another personal note, I'm going to hostile ground Saturday. Dan Barker is going to be participating in a debate on a local college campus, with god as the topic. It should be interesting.

Cool. Bring copies of FFFF literature with you (print em off?) and pass it around. I hope to get back into writing entries shortly (it's been a while) but I'm proud to say that I feel I've built up a nice little body of faith-shaking stuff, and I'd love to see it go to good use. Heck, visit that Jack Chick parody site and print off some of those pamphlets, heh. Or even the Principia =) If there's one thing all Christians deserve, it's to have literature forced on them.

Ahh - if ever there was a stealth missile of literature, it's the Principia. "It's just a joke book", you say, as you watch their model of the world go into paroxysms.

I hope the lady in your life manages to retain or regain her nontheism - The decision for either atheism or theism, no matter which is chosen, has always seemed... well... a kind of corruption of innocence, I guess. Ignorance is bliss, and ignorance of the absolute is absolute bliss.

Or something...

I didn't even notice the site was down. I was hard at work researching Sloth and Gluttony. It is my job to look into these things.

Someone mentioned a friend questioning religion and looking for answers. See if you can get her to investigate other religions for a while. They're all basicly about "Be nice to others and be nice to yourself" with some variation on when to party and how. I became pagan because I could relate to the stories better. When the parable is about wandering in the desert I don't get it. I've only been to the desert once, in mild weather, after it rained. Frost Giants on the othr hand, I know all about them. Everyone on Canada who has to shovel a driveway knows what a frost giant is.

Once you find the right mythology, it's a simple matter of remembering it's all symbolic. The idea of a race of gods having adventures is too much for me, but what they stand for rings true. Odin=Wisedom, Thor=Strength, Tyr=Courage etc.

That might make a good article for me to write, when I'm done studying sloth.

I was mistaken. The debate isn't until next Saturday, so you'll all have to wait a week to get the updates. I won't be bringing any literature, though, because I think it's too preachy, and I hate that sort of thing. Then again, perhaps I will pack a few Chick tracts, and hand them out to anyone who tries to hand me religious propaganda.

And on the girlfriend front, she's taken to the book quite nicely. I've discovered that she was pretty caught up in some wacko fundie stuff shortly before I met her, and that she broke away from it because it was getting too weird and self-contradictory. Plus, she hated how everyone seemed so filled with self-loathing. She's finding a lot to identify with in the Dan Barker book. So there is hope for her yet.

Why Colonel, I just realised (it takes me a while sometimes ) - you're trying to *convert* your lady friend, aren't you? You closet evangelist, you.

Pattern-chaser

Actually, I haven't. When we broached the subject initially, she said she wasn't really religious, and I told her I was an atheist, and we pretty much left it at that. She has told me that my nontheism is one of the things she really appreciates about me. When she came back from Mexico, though, I was alarmed, because her behavior had changed a bit. I just wanted to undo a little of the damage, and I asked her if she wanted to read that book, to get a little balance. She said she would. I also told her I would be happy to discuss what I've learned, if she was interested.

You'll notice that I asked her if she wanted the book, and I'm letting her approach the subject in conversation. I'm not about evangelism, but I'm all about educating.

Our Glorious Leader wrote: "You'll notice that I asked her if she wanted the book, and I'm letting her approach the subject in conversation. I'm not about evangelism, but I'm all about educating."

Hmmm. Well, your technique is good, and your presentation slick. I'll give you that. "Education" is the word we use to describe teaching people things that are good for them. "Brainwashing" is the word we use to describe teaching people things that are bad for them.

[You will note that, in both sentences, the decision as to whether the subject matter is good or bad is not made by the person being taught.]

Hah, I'm just playing, as I hope you can tell. In trying to inform, you cannot avoid some attempt at brainwashing/education. I'm just picking fights; I'm bored. Are there any Christians about? The lions are hungry...

Pattern-chaser

>>Hah, I'm just playing, as I hope you can tell. In trying to inform, you cannot avoid some attempt at brainwashing/education. I'm just picking fights; I'm bored. Are there any Christians about? The lions are hungry...<<

You could always take Stockwell Day of the Canadian Aliance party. If he ever wins Prime Minister, I'm moving to Australia.

Sorry - never heard of Stockwell Day here in Liverpool, England. Would you care to describe this highly undesirable character, Guardian?

Pattern-chaser