Freedomain Radio

Hi, im a 19 year old guy living in England and have been listening to stef's podcasts over the last 8 months or so which has helped me change and re-shape my life and to cement my atheism which was what i would call 'religious atheism' pre FDR. I have stopped contact with my father, something that i was thinking of for years but never thought was a real option until listening to FDR and at the moment am trying to clean up my personal relationships which apparently is harder than i thought (strange isnt it!).
  One thing i am finding strange is that i seem to have a resistence to donating which i just cant seem to understand at all, and was wondering if anybody else has had a similar feeling?

But anyhoo, ill be trolling around the forums and chat thingy for a while (i have been anyway but i thought id make my ghostly presence known).

Glad to have you around.  I'm looking forward to you sharing your thoughts :)

About donating:  That's fascinating.  How do you feel when you imagine yourself donating?

Obviously there are other ways to contribue than cash.

As you can see, I too am not a donator and that bothers me.  (don't have a credit card/paypal)  Until I'm able to donate money, I try to link the books and podcasts on posts other forums as often as I can.

Thanks for joining, and it is great to see you surface in the community!

I am quite fascinated by the resistance to donate as well, and I was wondering if it would be interesting for people as a whole -- both donators and not donators -- to have a conference call about it, it certainly would be very helpful to me, and I would consider it a kind donation...

Barriers to donation would be a fantastic show idea.

Perhaps:

To donate is an unconscious admittance to having bought into a 'creed'.  This buying into a creed goes against core asthetic instincts of Atheists and Anarchists.

or

The act of quantifying your amount of committment to saving the world makes some people feel uncomfortable.

threebobs:

How do you feel when you imagine yourself donating?

Im not really sure it just makes me feel kind of empty and sad when i think about it, i clicked the button once and yeh i just closed the window straight after as i didnt feel 'right'.

I apologise for some of the vagueness of the above.

hai

o/

Hi there inco,

Could your donate resistance have something to do with a previous entanglement with a group that exploited people?

Incognito:

One thing i am finding strange is that i seem to have a resistence to donating which i just cant seem to understand at all, and was wondering if anybody else has had a similar feeling?

I hear ya on that one bro, I had the same problem when I first started listening.  When I first heard the request for donations I felt "oh, yup, now it's clear to me why he's doing this! Just trying to grab my money like everyone else!"  I was honestly suspicious of Stef at first, I thought his benevolence and generosity was just a ploy to get money out of listeners.  (Kinda telling of the relationships I had prior to FDR)  After watching him help person after person and seeing him LIVE this philosophy, not to mention the enormous amount of content he was offering for free, my hesitation melted and I became a donor.  I sometimes think about it this way, if FDR was in financial trouble and was forced to close shop for good (no board, podcasts, community, etc.), what would I pay to get it back.  To me, $20 really doesn't seem that much after looking at it from that perspective.  I also found that after donating, I took this stuff a little more seriously.

Anyways, welcome, I hope you enjoy yourself here!

-David

pcrs:

Could your donate resistance have something to do with a previous entanglement with a group that exploited people?

Nope, i dont recall ever being entangled with such groups (thankfully). Well, i did go to a christian school when i was younger but i dont think thats what you mean unless im mistaken.

id be up for that :)

pcrs:

 

Could your donate resistance have something to do with a previous entanglement with a group that exploited people?

I think that was part of my initial resistance to donate. Also, I didn't have much money till I got a job.