Survey

[Nerdanel]

1. What is your religious upbringing?
Lutheran. My parents aren't very religious, but still registered in church. My mum got a bit more religious when my sister died, but she's not talking about it or being very active in church. Here, we're also taught religion in school (Finland has a state religion, unfortunately). I went to Sunday school and sang in all choirs the church had to offer.

2. Do you currently attend worship services?
No; I signed out of church the day I turned 18. I'm an atheist.

3. Do you use any drugs including alcohol and tobacco (not caffeine)
I drink wine and beer occasionally, and I smoke waterpipe far too seldom.

4. Are you superstitious?
Absolutely not.

5. Do you censor your thoughts or ever worry someone can "hear" them?
Nope.

6. What kind of music do you like? Do you ever sit down and listen to music (i.e. not background music)
All sorts of music.. From punk to folk to industrial rock and metal to classical music and jazz. And yes, sometimes I just sit down and listen to music without doing anything/much else. I need to do that to properly appreciate it.

7. Describe your loss (or lack) of belief in the Easter bunny or Santa or Sinterklaas or anything similar that exists in your culture
I don't remember it.. So it can't have been traumatic.

8. How is your relationship with your parents?
Pretty good. It's become more and more of a friendship with my dad over the years, whereas my mum has become more and more selfish over the years.. But it's still an ok relationship.

9. What do you want to happen when you die? An afterlife, or no? Details?
I want to be buried in a way that gives the decomposers as easy access as possible to the nutrients and trace elements in my body. In short, I want the elements that have already been recycled millions of times to be recycled again. That's the only afterlife I believe in.

10. Do any of the following apply to you: homosexual/bisexual/etc., pro-choice, participant in sex outside of marriage
Omnisexual? I believe that there are more genders than two, which is why I don't call myself bisexual, and I don't restrict my sexual or emotional attraction to only some of those.
I am pro-choice.
Sex before marriage, sure, and sex outside marriage if everyone's ok with it.

11. What do you like to read, or watch on TV?
Read: sci-fi, popular science, science text books, poetry, some history and politics.
Watch: sci-fi shows (like Doctor Who 8), nature and other documentaries.

12. How well you do deal with anger?
I tend to be able to stay quite calm, and I'm learning to stay more and more reasonable as well. And not to get angry. :P

13. How much do you know about world culture/history?
How do I quantify this? Far too little in my opinion, but apparently far more than the average western human being.

14. Do you believe in a soul? If so, describe it.
No.

15. How much have your religious views changed since you were very young? Have you converted to a different religion or to or from atheism/agnosticism?
When I was young, I liked listening to the fairy tales they told us in school and sunday school. I did believe in some old guy who lived up in the clouds until I was about 6. After that I didn't think too much about it. When I became a teenager I started thinking about it again, and got more and more critical of it. Now I can analyse and think of religion as something that has developed in many societies, and has (had) a social function to control a population or a group of people. In short, I can stand outside and look in on it.

16. What is your favorite and least favorite animal and why?
Water bears (phylum Tardigrada). 8D They're extremely cool, they can survive radiation, temperatures, pressure and dehydration that would kill almost any other animal. And they're not that well known. And one of the research projects on them is called T.A.R.D.I.S. (Tardigrades In Space).
I don't have a least favourite animal.

17. What is the most moving thing that has ever happened to you that is not explicitly religious?
Watching my grandfather die.

18. Will you be disappointed if nothing happens in 2012?
Something happens every year. I will be very surprised (or dead) if nothing happens in 2012.