Is anyone else an atheist with BC besides me?

AliceBastable

Whoo-eee, I had to come in here for some fresh air because I just saw a post that said "blah blah God cured me! Blah blah!"

INHAAAAALE. DEEP BREATH. EXHAAALE.

Okay, now maybe my head won't explode.

Trishyla

I may have seen that same post, Alice. Urghhh. I want to tell them their imaginary sky daddy didn't save them. Modern medicine and science did. But it would do no good, so I don't.

moth

it was the word 'cured' that got me all huffy and puffy

Spookiesmom

Saw that too, didn’t want BP to go up so didn’t bother to open it. What happens if she reoccurs in a few years. Snort.

Trishyla

My thoughts exactly, Spookiesmom. Would that mean her God hates her?

Trishyla

She wants to "share" her story about how god healed her. Any bets on whether said sharing involves money changing hands?

illimae

Ugh, me too. I had to keep telling myself to be nice and let them live in their delusion.

KIDI919

No sense changing peoples minds. My MIL often told me me and my kids were going to hell b/c we have not accepted Jesus. This while I was raising 3 kids and maintaining her house and ours. I guess he son was exempt. HA HA try to keep a 4 bedrm house in order for someone that keeps cat hair in old pill bottles. And doesn't mind cat shit every where. (her house not mine) But Jesus is taking care of everything. WTF

KIDI919

IDK how to make a new topic but this coming week is meteor shower. 8/11 -8/14 is the best time , 12am til am. I have a telescope and Jupitor and Saturn are to the South if you live in hmmm WNY? Makes you feel awful small fry in this universe. But beautiful

AliceBastable

This all comes back to the thing I hate the most about some religious people: after a disaster, they'll say their god was the one who saved them. Never mind that other people died, including children, this smug shit thinks they're extra-special. Makes me wish for a lightning bolt to zap them right in the middle of the interview. Now THAT would be a god whose acquaintance I'd consider.

Trishyla

That would be either Zeus or Thor, Alice. Both of who's (whom's?) believers were just as convinced of their omnipotence and omniscience. And who were just as mistaken as the current crop of god worshippers

KIDI919

You are too funny Alice!

Ilikedogs

I am so happy I found this thread. I obviously haven’t read 272 pages yet but I am glad I am not the only one there who cringes when people say they would pray for me.

Wren44

Welcome Ilikedogs. It is indeed an oasis for us.

AliceBastable

Welcome to the land of sanity, Ilikedogs!

DivineMrsM

In general, I don't mind when people say they're praying for me. I take it as sort of a shorthand expression to mean, “I care about you, it sucks what you're going through and I hope things get better."

What rankles me are the ones who believe that prayer has had the most influence on keeping me well, negating everything else that is working towards keeping me healthy. If the disease is eradicated or in remission, it is due to prayer! These people do not acknowledge the 8 years of medical school, internship and residency, plus 20 years experience your oncologist has before you've ever stepped into his/her office. They don't/won’t acknowledge the years and billions of dollars spent researching and developing medicines and techniques for cancer treatment, or the clinical trials or the people who participate in those clinical trials so effective treatment is available to all. They disregard the college degrees of nurses and pharmacists and nuclear medicine techs who all work in conjunction to see that you are getting the right care. And what about my own involvement? I have to take medicine daily, make it to doctors appts, report new symptoms, research complimentary treatment to enhance the traditional treatment I receive and do my best to always advocate for myself.

But no. THEIR prayers is the reason I am doing so well! Why, they did not even have to get off the sofa or out of their bed to help me! They just prayed and believed and it was so! My, my. They is so proud o theirselves.

Trishyla

Amen, Divine. So to speak.

magiclight

Ilikedogs - I like dogs too and find much comfort in the comments on this thread. With only about 3% of Americans and 18 % of Swedes admit to being atheists, it is good to have this thread. Looking at much of society today, I am thinking that way too many religiously affiliated folks do not practice what they preach, yet want to impose laws mandating that which they do not do.

KIDI919

I agree Magiclight

MinusTwo

Wow MagicLight - only 3% in the US?

Wren44

There are probably a lot of people who just say they are unchurched without going into why.

Spookiesmom

That’s what I say, while wearing my pentacle necklace, if someone is rude enough to ask

Elderberry

magiclight: the Peanuts meme cracked me up.

tinkerbell: good luck tomorrow.

I love this thread and should come back more often. Many moons ago my DH and I tried to be vegetarians. We still ate fish. A co-worker when I told her I was vegetarian she asked "Don't you believe in God?" To this day, and we are talking some 45+ years ago, I wonder why she would ask such a question. Huh? Does the Bible say "Thou shalt eat those that walk upon four legs, those that hast wings to fly and thou shalt not eat but only the fruits and vegetable of this thy world" Even typing this make me shake my head.

ilikedogs: I accept that those who say they will pray for me as a gesture of friendship or love. Depends on how they say it "You are in my prayers" feels different then "I'll pray for you" Don't know why one is better than the other. "I'll pray for you" seems like they are doing an intervention to save me from myself and my lack of "faith" .

If I were to be religious I'd go full-on Pagan and pick a Goddess like Brigit, the Goddess of women, music, silversmithing, wells and fire and a host of other things. She is an All Purpose diety. Or maybe Bast, Cat Goddess and Goddess again of women, cats, intoxication. But I would never shove it down anyone's throat, kill over it. I might say "Hey - it's Beltane. Let us honour Brigit and light bonfires, drink too much, dance around a Maypole, eat things doused in honey and (whispered) have sex. THAT is a diety of whom I could approve.

I was never baptized - thanks Mom and Dad - so if there is a Christian God, I'll be in Limbo. Maybe Purgatory for the things I think and say but I don't think I deserve Hell for my lack of faith.

There is/was a major religion that thought Heaven was on the moon. I guess June 1969 put an end to that one.

Spookiesmom

Hehehehe you forgot skyclad Hehehehe

Elderberry

Spookiesmom: No point being skyclad if you are going to wear a house. Go out in your sacred robe to worship. You just can't be naked out in the open these days. Besides, I think skyclad was invented by men like Gardner. But you did make me laugh. There was a politician in Abbotsford BC. He was running for the NDP, Canada's left wing, labour party and admitted to being a Wiccan and being skyclad. What was he thinking, confessing that?!! Abbotsford is one of the buckles in the Lower Mainland's Bible Belt. Surprise! He had to step down.

As someone once wrote about the Pope "If you don't play the game, you can't make the rules"

See you all in whatever place we will all be sent to. I'd rather be with you then some judgemental religious person -- and I include all of them.....Fundamentalist Christians. the Taliban...all the same.

edited: I should have said Gardner invented the term "skyclad" -- nakedness has been with us since we were born. Ha ha

AliceBastable

Does anyone else read Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels? He's dead now, unfortunately (I HATE the term "late" like someone is going to slither into the room and sit in the back). He was an atheist, but wrote very interestingly (and hilariously) about gods on the Discworld (a more or less medieval setting with modern inventions that are somewhere between Flintstone and Steampunk, with a good pinch of magic thrown in). The major gods are explained as kind of inflatable, with their actual prominence depending on the number of believers. But there are a lot of little gods and similar beings, my favorite being Bilious, the Oh God of Hangovers: he gets sick when people drink, so they don't. I could much more easily believe in little personal household type gods who hide socks and eat the last cookie, but also remind me to put on underwear (and outerwear!) if I'm going out in public. To me, the big gods are just CEO types who everyone knows don't give a rat's ass about anyone except themselves, but want a lot of publicity and as much money as they can get. I ignore those types on earth, as I do in heaven. 😅

saltmarsh

I'm an agnostic. And secular humanist. And evidently, a secular confectionist as well, lol. I am also glad for this thread. Never heard of being "skyclad" before. Looked it up. TIL. Thanks!

Miriandra

I love the Discworld books! Sir Terry was a true blessing to us all. I adored the witches - Granny, Nanny, Magrat, and all the others. And of course Death (and Death of Rats) was brilliant.

wrenn

One of the things I like about Canada (besides never having thought about $ during treatment) is that I have no idea what (if any) religion any of our politicians follows. People here keep their religious beliefs to themselves for the most part.

I might notice this more because Catholicism basically ruined my life for many years.

Elderberry

Allice: I must go look for those books.

wrenn: I so agree. Why should anyone in the USA care about a candidates "faith"? I can remember the howls when JFK ran. Heaven forbid, he's Catholic!! And doesn't the Constitution say that state and religion should be separate?" I was spared

Ah yes - the sock that goes into the dryer but never comes out. Then you see a lone sock in the middle of a busy road and think "okay, that is someone's sock that disappeared from the dryer, got lost in the Time Space Continuum and popped out here."