Is anyone else an atheist with BC besides me?

I remember sitting in Sunday school and having the teacher say Pagans think that trees have spirits. I thought, of course they do, so I must be a Pagan. My records say Buddhist. They don't go around bothering people so I don't think they would ever just show up. DS is a minister in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I loved it when a woman in Oklahoma talked the driver's license people into letting her picture be taken with a colander on her head.

They're back now. It was most of the threads. Very eerie.

I have studied Buddhism for years and meditation really helped me in those first years after diagnosis. Well, it looks like NIH agrees.  https://community.breastcancer.org/livegreen/calm-your-mind-boost-your-mood/

Mindfulness is one of the most important meditation techniques for calming and focusing the mind.  It substantially increases concentration.  If anyone wants more information, I will be glad to post some links.

I invited the Church of Christ ladies in when they came to my door.  I ask them about their services, the position of women in their system and other questions.  I didn't talk about my lack of belief, I just listened to them. They were very sweet.   

yep!!!!

Just popping in to say thank you for this thread. I don't post here much, but it helps to know there are other non-believers out there. If I hear one more "everything happens for a reason" I just might explode.

I would like to second what Ananda said about meditation. I was lucky to be introduced to a woman who teaches meditation and is also a Stage IV cancer survivor. She has helped me tremendously with both the emotional roller coaster of this diagnosis and with pain control. I think it has helped my wandering "chemo-brain" too

This is a fascinating study on changes in religious participation in this country over the past 7 years.  http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/

Interesting stats in that survey. A good ? To ask would be why.

I just listened to a radio program about this poll.

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2015-05-13/causes-and-consequences-of-declining-religious-affiliation-in-the-u-s

Shutterbug73,

Here is your link activated.  http://thedianerehmshow.org/audio/#/shows/2015-05-13/causes-and-consequences-of-declining-religious-affiliation-in-the-u-s/110191/@00:00

I enjoyed listening to it, especially the comments of the Catholic priest.  He seemed to be scrambling a bit.

That "pastor" is such a tool. The nerve.

Ugh- also so tired of seeing anything about sending prayers for any reason! Right now we are in the middle of a crazy storm season. People are being washed and blown away, and ppl are "sending prayers"

What would really help is spending some time getting off your asses and volunteering at the Red Cross, or taking the displaced into your home, or donating to the shelters and emergency funds trying to get them a safe place to live for a while. Oh- and educating people on not driving into water or teaching them what to do if a twister pops up. *SMH*

Sorry- rant over. I'm just steamed right now.

I'm with you on that, JWoo and Spookiesmom. Too many christians pray too much and do too little in my opinion. I'm in AR just on the edge of tornado alley. Seems that the "alley" is spreading nation wide though. I don't pray for people or things, but have spent many days assisting with clean up in tornado devastated towns in recent years. There were many individuals and groups there with no religious affiliation. That has been so rewarding. I spent a lot of time in Joplin, MO 4 years ago and hope to never see that type of devastation again. Did "God" cause that much pain and suffering as a test of their faith or for some other reason I wonder ? I must say though, churches were some of the first to step up and offer food, clothing and shelter. If they could just provide the help and don't try to lay their religion on them, I'm all for it. One large "evangelical christian" organization", Samaritan's Purse had many people and lots of equipment there for months. Nice people and fortunately, I only saw hard work, no prosthelytizing.

I just noticed you're triple negative. What I learned from taking curcumin is that it's good for that. Curcumin is very good for most cancers and a lot more...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=triple+negative+breast+cancer+curcumin

Actually, in 1790 the early American colonial population was already 1/5 African and many were free people. Many early settlers were also Dutch, Swedish, Finns, French, German, Irish, and of course English. Their customs, language, religion, and world views differed significantly. Sometimes they clashed.  And don't forget the many Native populations living here. That said, historically we were indoctrinated to believe that early colonization was culturally homogenous (White/English), but this is not true. Even way back, colonial America was a rich mixture of ethnicities and racial differences.  But history fed us a different story, sadly.

Cultural diversity has been a fact of life in the US going back to the early settlers. However, some groups are treated differently, especially depending on where one lives. Racism is alive and doing well in many (Southern) states. As a Californian, my experiences in the South were rather startling. There was so much covert AND overt racism aimed not only at African-Americans, but also other people of color. The history of racism against non-white peoples in America is long and painful to learn about. THAT is our problem, not the many different non-White Americans living and flourishing here despite roadblocks to their success and assimilation. And as a non-Christian, I deal with bigotry and ignorance on a regular basis from people that assume I must be Christian, especially because I am White.  Funny thing is, I am more familiar with the Bible than many devout Christians! I just read it more objectively. It's All Good, I say.  

Ananda8 & 'not' from Atascadero (hey, I have family from Paso and San Miguel): "Right" on comments!  Many Christians and Republican politicos are under the impression that the Founding FATHERS were Bible-toting Christians and that Jesus was a fair skinned, light to medium wavy brown haired man with an Anglican nose. Yeah, right.  Many FFs were Deists and that is a whole other viewpoint. Rewriting history wont change the facts. Including the fact that the FFs deliberately kept religion/overt Christianity out of the picture. As a history buff, I have read tons about early American history. The truth is far more interesting.