Interview with Amergain

FrostCloud Member Interview [March 2004]
This Month’s Member: Amergain
Profile: http://www.frostcloud.com/forum/member.php?userid=418

> 1. Amergain, please describe your hobbies and your life goals.

My hobbies are hiking, mountain climbing, palaeontology, and aquatic ecology. I can't pass a wet land without stopping to explore it and its wild life. My indoor hobbies are writing poetry, reading History (Celtic and Roman), Fantasy Novels (De Lint, Ann Bishop), and various books on Evolution, Freethought literature (esp. Robert G. Ingersoll, Bertrand Russell.)

My life goals are complex to define. My major goal has been to support my family (wife and two children). Yet I hope to do more than make a fine income. This led me into much of my medical research in Neuroscience and Neurogenetics (hoping to "make a difference".) It led me to East Africa in the Hutu-Tutsi Wars as a physician fighting plague, drought, and war injuries. I did that for three long years on subsistence income.

> 2. What’s your favorite book?

THE BARD by Morgan Llewllyn, a historical novel of the early Irish and the Druid poet (Bard) Amergain. I have read Gibbon's DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE as my favourite history book. My favourite fantasy series is the Xanth series by Piers Anthony.

> 3. Why did you choose your username (Amergain), and
> what’s the meaning behind it?

I write poetry, English and Gaelic. I was fascinated from a young age by the ancient poems of Amergain, who is believed to be the oldest recorded poet in history. He was a brother of King Eremon who led the Celtic Conquest of Ireland from the Tuatha de Danann.

> 4. From your online biography, I see that you’re a
> neurologist. What got you interested in neurology?

I got my first degree in Biochemistry but by the time I earned it, I found myself bored. I then went to Medical School at U. of Edinburgh and decided on Neurology specialisation, after an Internal Medicine residency, because Neurology was the most "scientific" branch of medicine. Having migraines also stimulated my interest in Neurology.

> 5. How do your family and friends feel about your
> views on religion?

That was easy. My father was an Atheist, and my mother a liberal Christian letting me be free to form my own beliefs. My wife was an Atheist since childhood as well. Unbelievers are about half of our population, so that is not coincidental. My son went to religious school and decided he was an Atheist as well. My daughter Fiona died of Lymphosarcoma at age 7. That was the darkest time I will ever have.

> 6. Do you ever feel frustrated by the fact that the
> overwhelming majority of people are religious, while
> atheists/agnostics remain the minority?

I get frustrated at the intense anti-Atheistic feelings of so many Americans I meet on your forums.

In Scotland do I not feel outnumbered. We are 50% of the population, the remainder being liberal Presbyterians or Anglicans (We have an official church of Scotland). There is not the religious intensity one sees and feels in America or Iran. I worry about freethought surviving in America. In Europe Christianity has been steadily declining for years. A poll of Dutch college students shows only 17% believing in God. Similarly in Scotland most churches have closed or turned into museums, libraries, Highland Council Offices, banks, and apartments. The few churches in the North are rarely filled except for weddings (of unbelievers). Most of those who attend regularly are elderly folks.

> 7. The 21st century looks to be a “make” or “break”
> time for humanity. We are on the verge of so many
> new scientific discoveries, while at the same time,
> we are continually threatened by terrorism and war.
> What is your personal outlook on the 21st century?

I feel somewhat pessimistic. Science and technology are advancing rapidly. Knowledge expands exponentially and how we can handle that is worrisome. Will we genetically engineer our children? At the same time as knowledge is moving so rapidly, mental attitudes are regressing in much of the world toward mediaeval barbarism, hatred, and intolerance. America seems to be exceptional in the "Christian World". It is hyper religious while Europe is becoming overwhelmingly secular. Will the aggressively Christian America fight a major war on the Islamic World becoming even more aggressively Muslim.

> 8. Who are your personal heroes and role models?

You might guess William Wallace (Braveheart) and you would be right. I admired King Malcolm III Canmore of MacBeth fame. I am a direct descendant of Malcolm. I admire Charles Darwin who brought Biology into the modern world. Americans like Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and James Madison were quoted by reformers who then brought democracy to Britain without needing war. I could list Americans like Abe Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, John Kennedy, Robert Ingersoll, and Martin Luther King Jr.

> 9. Anything else you like the people of FrostCloud
> to know about you?

I am often accused by Fundamentalists who believe that works do not count for salvation. They say that I cannot be moral nor care about my fellow man. I would remind them that I have a strict moral code. And as for my "neighbour" I served a little more than three years in the bush of East Africa in very unpleasant conditions. That experience was terrible yet also I am glad I did it.

Here is a challenge to Christians to follow Jesus' and really do something for the disadvantaged people in Africa and Latin America. Doctors and Nurses are needed of course, but non-medical people can do many tasks helping at refugee camps in Rwanda or other places.

> Thank you, Amergain. We sincerely appreciate your time with this interview!