Is anyone else an atheist with BC besides me?

magiclight

Alice, so true.

Spookiesmom

DivineMrsM

magiclight

HMMM! Maybe there is a Broomba in my future.

magiclight

Guess virgin births are not a miraculous event!

A new study says endangered California condors can have "'virgin births." Researchers with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance say genetic testing confirmed that two male chicks hatched from unfertilized eggs in 2001 and 2009 were related to their mothers. Neither was related to a male. More at KNAU.org

AliceBastable

Divine, that is hilarious!

Hey, here's an idea for a future Halloween costume!

magiclight

Pope appoints a woman to No. 2 role in Vatican governorship

Lup1nf2346

I'm an atheist. Finding peace and support in nature and in my significant other, friends and family, as well as other BC patients and survivors. And music. Tried going to a Christian prayer meeting at a friend's invitation, but I felt very uncomfortable and had to leave. I hope you've found a way to make peace with your cancer.

New to this group and not sure how I add the parts about my diagnosis... Having a mastectomy next week to hopefully remove the ducticle carcinoma!

Miriandra

Welcome Lup! I hope your surgery goes smoothly with an excellent prognosis. I made peace with my cancer by designing swim suits and clothing that look great for women who had unilateral mastectomies but don't want reconstruction nor prostheses. I just finished a haute couture evening ensemble for a formal dinner party coming up. Working on an asymmetrical form brings in some really fun approaches with diagonals and curves.

If you want to add info on your diagnosis and treatments, scroll to the very top of the page, click on the little person icon in the upper right corner, and click on My Profile. This will bring up a screen where you can go to various tabs to add information to your profile. You can choose whether your information is publicly shown under your posts, or if you want to keep it private.

DivineMrsM

Hello Lup1. Hope you find support and helpful information on the forum!

It’s only been in the last ten years-ish that a whole lot of factors came in to play about the same time and all added up to my having an epiphany of seeing the patriarchy, recognizing the cult-like ways of organized religion and realizing I no longer believed in Christianity. (Presently I lean more towards being agnostic and not atheist.)

Since this time of moving away from previous religious indoctrination, I am constantly aware of how often people press their religious views on others. It’s constant! And if you don’t believe as they do there is instant judgment. No one seems to question me about my religious background, they only seem to want to get me to “go to their church” which often seems to be about belonging to a social group and getting in with the “cool crowd” and not about my spiritual life. There’s never discussion about the faults that lie in religion, it’s always a big positivity thing, the “keep sweet” mentality.

I also resent that people think I’m not capable of making my own choice of beliefs, that they need to lead me to some kind of truth which, btw, is their truth.

Many women suffer from depression and can’t put their finger on the cause. My belief is that it’s often caused by the patriarchy that they don’t see, the oppression of women that often is invisible to us because we’ve grown up in it. Women are often thwarted from reaching their full potential because our world, and religion is so male dominated.

Wren44

Divine, Our book club just read Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez. It documents how women are left out of everything and seen as inferior to men by the patriarchy. Interesting read.

moth

oh that's a great book. I think I recommended that one early on in the feminist thread. Great but maddening reading ...

magiclight

Wren and Moth, I agree it looks like a substantial read and after just a quick glance through a chapter realize that the authors do not belabor the most well-known disparities, rather bring to the fore topics when reframed unearth a multitude of systemic biases.

Elderberry

magiclight: My husband once rudely joked that "Immaculate Conception" meant no stains on the sheet.

Interesting about male condors!!

Wren44

Hi Elderberry, I've been wondering if you're underwater.

Elderberry

wrenn44: thank you for asking but we are on higher ground, on the coast and at the crest of a very long long slope. My sister lives in the interior in Kamloops and their stores ran out of basic supplies like produce and dairy. She laughed that she had to use ice cream for her morning coffee. The only veg left in the produce section were a few lonely turnips. Goods are having to be shipped in from the east. The Fraser Valley is a total mess. It is so sad to see the losses. A farmer was in tears about his new calves who were only three feet high and the water was six feet. Sumas Prairie was once a lake. 100 years ago they diked and drained it and found some of the best agricultural land. It is prone to flooding but nothing like this. The last catastrophic flood was in 1948 and I don't think it reach this magnitude of loss.

I suppose they were will be folks out there saying "God's vengeance" -- he drowned us before after all.

AliceBastable

Elderberry, I'm glad you're high and dry. Do you know of any regulars on here that are in areas affected? Silly me, I always think of Canada as perfect except for an occasional picturesque blizzard, so this flooding has been such a shock.

wrenn

My daughter's cabin is under evacuation alert but things are ok in Vancouver

wrenn

Luckily we don't have as many thoughts and prayers here. Most keep their beliefs private. 😎

AliceBastable

Wrenn, I'll send you a mental image of the beverage of your choice - much more useful than thoughts and prayers. I hope your daughter and her place are okay.

wrenn

Thanks Alice. We are all ok and so far cabin is too.

I'll take a cold beer or scotch with ice and water.

MinusTwo

Alice - I like the idea of a virtual beverage of choice instead of prayers. I'll have a gin & tonic.

Spookiesmom

12 yo scotch and soda for me, thanks❤️❤️😆❤️

Spookiesmom

A bit late. I HATE kale

DivineMrsM

My choice: margarita. A frozen one even better!

A couple weeks ago, a man who dh used to work with tragically lost his young adult daughter to an overdose. The man and his family are extremely well known and liked in our small town; the young woman had even been Homecoming Queen in high school. We knew this meant that half the town would show up at the funeral to pay their last respects. Because of Covid concerns, dh chose not to go and we sent them a card instead. Knowing the family is big on “their faith", I still wanted a sympathy card that had no religious overtones whatsoever and surprisingly found one that was worded in the most caring way. I wrote a personal note on the inside with no mention of faith or God or heaven or anything of that nature. People are quite capable of offering heartfelt condolences without dragging a patriarchal God into the mix.

AliceBastable

Well, that settles it. "Cheese and booze" will be my new comfort phrase.

DivineMrsM

AliceBastable

Hilarious! I guess I'll be an Edamvangelist!

Elderberry

AliceB: Edamvangelist, that is really funny. Until I moved to the West Coast I was fine with believing all of the country was in the deep freeze from November to April. We were stoic. We were Canadians. I was fine with the cold until it got down past minus 10 F. Now I whine when it is 26 F. I translated to F for all you Americans who haven't gone metric. For much of the country blizzards are not occasional. They are a fact of life in the winter. A friend of mine in Saskatoon had a winter where they hit -67 F. It was colder than the Artic. Glad to be here where we whine because it rains and rains and rains. At least at -67 F you see the sun. When we get two inches of snow the place is paralyzed.

Spookiesmom: Never too late. I only like Kale when it is crisped up in the oven. I swap out kale for Swiss Chard when needed. Mine is still thriving in my otherwise dead garden.

AliceBastable

I have a friend who lives on the north coast of Michigan's upper peninsula, which is basically redneck Canada. The snow pictures she posts are incredible, but they start way too early and last way too long. I'm good with one snowfall per winter.