Is anyone else an atheist with BC besides me?

Like years of water on a stone... my Catholic hubby used to select religious Christmas cards. I'd get something with poinsettias or snowmen, and we'd decide who got what depending on the recipient's belief, if we knew it. This year, he liked my choice of a frosty forest with "Winter Greetings" for everyone, even his VERY religious relatives! It only took 36 years! I must say, he's become one of the most open-minded Catholics I've ever met over the years.

Wonderful snow and trains.  What better video for the season? https://www.flixxy.com/awesome-powerful-trains-plow-through-snowy-railway-tracks.htm?utm_source=nl&fbclid=IwAR0j1Eed4FEPytHvq6p4xwMyznFH75BXEwwucpgp1-kY2P6bqrM8rlrrnko

Trains aren't steered like a car or bus or plane.  The train follows the tracks. The engineer controls the speed.  If you have never taken a train, put that on your bucket list.  We took a train from central Arkansas to Chicago. We went first class and had a sleeper car. It was something out of the Orient Express. 

Most of those trains didn't look like they had passengers. When first watching, I was imagining people inside having only snow clouds to look at for miles and miles. I've taken a number of short train trips (under 6 hours). I would love to take the Canadian train from Vancouver to Montreal. It's on my bucket list.

wren- a few years ago by former boyfriend and I took a train trip from Vancouver to Montreal. It was incredible. It was during the first week of April we could not believe the amount of snow. Yes we're from South Florida. The wild life was breathtaking. We saw a mama bear with her baby bear, a bunch of elks and numerous animals. It was our first long train trip and we loved it.

pin gpong- you are correct it is from Vancouver to Toronto.

I'm fine with it being from Vancouver to Toronto. I've already been to Montreal.

More art from the fabulous fantasist Omar Rayyan. I love his Wind in the Willows illustrations.

http://studiorayyan.com/index.php#

magiclight- how cute and funny.

Lovefromphi - it is not who we love but that we are capable of loving another. Welcome to this thread and I hope you feel included as there are others here, like myself, who have felt judged because of sexual orientation.  There is also a thread for lesbians, but sadly has not been active since about October.  Search the term lesbian. I do not know of a thread for transgender or bisexual but there are discussions within threads for all LGBTQ conversations, again use those search terms.

thank you magiclight and Alice!

I am happy to have found this thread and I’ll search for others within the 🏳️🌈 family. I simply love who I love and can’t help who I feel an attraction to. Why such persecution for this?? You all get it and know the story a thousand times over. And yeah about the big man in the sky. It is not something that works for me and my belief system and core values.

Wishing everyone a very peaceful and joyous new year free from pain and suffering!

Love,

Philly

Most of the time I think of religions as a  benign approach to dealing with the insecurities and difficulties of life along with a fear of death.  When religion enters politics then it becomes a disease on the body politic and should be removed.  Where ever religion became the "official" religion of a state, the religion became corrupt and the politics became both corrupt and cruel. Separation of Church and State not only protect the civil realm, it protects religion itself.

Many religions teach us not to question God. When you've been conditioned all your life like that, it feels like a defiant act to speak your own mind and profess disbelief. After a lifetime of conditioning, there is still some fear of being damned to hell for “going against the teachings of God."

And those people who will tell an atheist, oh, but you're such a good person yet you’re not a believer.Well, what about the flip side of that? What about those who profess belief but are pure evil?And specifically, what about this epidemic of pedophile priests in the Catholic church? Yet someone will give the “Father" a pass and condem an aetheist because they are not a “believer."

The Catholic priest pedophilia epidemic astounds me. It's always a grievous thing when a teacher or coach or doctor is a sexual predator of children. But it is even more heinous with the priests; they are the ones who preside over so many of the most personal events in our lives; marriages, deaths of loved ones, baptisms of children, visiting the ill, the hearing of confession, counseling in troubled times. To me, the Catholic church is the biggest farce on the face of the earth.

All of this said, I still believe in some kind of spirituality. I'm just not sure exactly what. Certain events in life can been explained in no other way other than some kind of spiritual intervention. I respect others' beliefs, including nonbelievers, but don't want dragged in to face to face discussions with them about it. I'm definitely against cults.

I also wonder how many men would join a religion if they were the ones who had to practice submission and where only women could be leaders.

Yes, I have lots and lots of unanswered questions, and I'm learning to live with that.

Mrs M - I thought your first post was particularly "right on". I'm going to look for those two books.

Thanks Mrs. M. I liked Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees. I looked her up on Wiki. Did you know her first writings were for Guideposts before her 'awakening'. I like the full title of the book & will look for it.

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine, 1996