What did you want to be when you were little?

[Phazite]

Yeah, that's my main area of interest.

It's my main area of interest as well. Perhaps you could become a scientist.

At the moment, I'm studying to be an engineer, but I still have my eyes set on becoming a world-class poker player. (A beautiful blend of probability, logic, and psychology; my three favourite disciplines )

Now I must ask you. Which branch of engineering are you studying?

I would want to prove any religion wrong, being athiest, but Buddhism and Christianity are the two that I'm most influenced by. Sometimes I can't believe Mom believes in such statements like "Desire = Suffering" and the existence of 2,000+ gods... It just doesn't make sense to me, especially that she converted just a few years ago. I just let her be though, as I can only constructively oppose her arguments.

Being an athiest don't necesarily imply the desire to disprove religions (I'm sure you agree). I think the important thing is critical thinking.

Excellent point, but you cannot escape your worldview. You can only exchange it for a different one. Once you start looking at the worldviews your associates/antagonists adhere to, you may start to find fallacies in your own.

This statement presupposes that your opponent's worldview is unsound. But how is it that you are sure that your own worldview is sound and that theirs is not?. There is a set of rules, called logic, that are (or should be) independent of your or any worldview. If a given worldview is inconsistent by the rules of logic, then you might say that it cannot support itself logically. That would give you an independent set of rules by which to judge a particular worldview. However, if your own worldview becomes threatened, I can guarantee that you will react with emotion and not logic. You just have to see the exchanges over the 'global warming' arguments to see this in action. Watch for 'ad hominem' attacks, as they usually arise first when people's worldviews are threatened.

Ian

Can't disagree here. I think the best I can do is try to challenge myself and try not to be too attached to my beliefs that aren't grounded in solid reason and evidence. I don't think I hold many strong views because I'm so uncertain about everything. Still, I can't deny that I hold a world view and would feel emotionally uncomfortable if it were threatened. Maybe this is one down side of being a human.

Mechanical engineering. My program sort of had a focus on developing countries though, so we spent a month in a factory in Kenya, and I did my Bachelor's degree project in Tanzania.

Nice! Sounds like an "Engineers Without Borders" type of project.