there’s such a pressure to be atheist in pretty much any geeky community i’ve encountered in my adult life, and it drives me absolutely batty. i remember one time a few years ago, when i was at the hackerspace, there were some people sitting there, just bashing anyone who believed in God for being stupid, anti-logic, anti-scient, the whole nine yards. when i butted in to argue against them (and all of these people were people i had told before that i did, in fact, believe in God…), they pulled the whole “you’re okay, it’s okay, all theists are dumb…except you.” i think i left soon after that. it just rang so hollow; i still get annoyed when i think about that incident.

i have a short fuse for people who make assumptions that religious people are intolerant, ignorant, or out to condemn anyone who doesn’t believe what they believe. even though there are those who are…they’ve been merely a very loud minority of the people i’ve met along the way, and there are plenty of people who aren’t religious who are just as intolerant and judgmental of those who do believe, as they accuse others of being.

if you enjoy being in school, or see some kind of career value in getting another degree (though, knowing that you are interested in information security, i’m not exactly aware of the career value of an advanced degree in that field…), that’s one thing. but, if you only think about one because other people expect it of you, or you don’t want to let other people down, that’s not reason enough.

besides, it’s a lot more of an achievement to learn something on your own initiative, as you pretty much have to do with infosec, than it is to learn something because Professor Jackmonkey told you to read pages 34 through 75 by tomorrow, every day for two years.