Is anyone else an atheist with BC besides me?

funny?

Lots of movement in religions.  Many are leaving formal religious groups.  http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/chapter-2-religious-switching-and-intermarriage/#net-gains-and-losses-by-religious-tradition-unaffiliated-make-big-gains-catholics-suffer-major-losses

Someone asked on Quora, how someone could not believe in god when billions of people do.  This was the answer.

“Where is the graveyard of dead gods? What lingering mourner waters their mounds? There was a time when Jupiter was the king of the gods, and any man who doubted his puissance was ipso facto a barbarian and an ignoramus. But where in all the world is there a man who worships Jupiter today? And who of Huitzilopochtli? In one year - and it is no more than five hundred years ago - 50,000 youths and maidens were slain in sacrifice to him. Today, if he is remembered at all, it is only by some vagrant savage in the depths of the Mexican forest. Huitzilopochtli, like many other gods, had no human father; his mother was a virtuous widow; he was born of an apparently innocent flirtation that she carried out with the sun.

When he frowned, his father, the sun, stood still. When he roared with rage, earthquakes engulfed whole cities. When he thirsted he was watered with 10,000 gallons of human blood. But today Huitzilopochtli is as magnificently forgotten as Allen G. Thurman. Once the peer of Allah, Buddha and Wotan, he is now the peer of Richmond P. Hobson, Alton B. Parker, Adelina Patti, General Weyler and Tom Sharkey.

Speaking of Huitzilopochtli recalls his brother Tezcatlipoca. Tezcatlipoca was almost as powerful; he consumed 25,000 virgins a year.

Lead me to his tomb: I would weep, and hang a couronne des perles. But who knows where it is? Or where the grave of Quetzalcoatl is? Or Xiuhtecuhtli? Or Centeotl, that sweet one? Or Tlazolteotl, the goddess of love? Of Mictlan? Or Xipe? Or all the host of Tzitzimitl? Where are their bones? Where is the willow on which they hung their harps? In what forlorn and unheard-of Hell do they await their resurrection morn? Who enjoys their residuary estates? Or that of Dis, whom Caesar found to be the chief god of the Celts? Of that of Tarves, the bull? Or that of Moccos, the pig? Or that of Epona, the mare? Or that of Mullo, the celestial jackass? There was a time when the Irish revered all these gods, but today even the drunkest Irishman laughs at them.

But they have company in oblivion: the Hell of dead gods is as crowded
as the Presbyterian Hell for babies. Damona is there, and Esus, and
Drunemeton, and Silvana, and Dervones, and Adsullata, and Deva, and
Bellisima, and Uxellimus, and Borvo, and Grannos, and Mogons. All mighty gods in their day, worshipped by millions, full of demands and impositions, able to bind and loose - all gods of the first class. Men labored for generations to build vast temples to them - temples with stones as large as hay-wagons.

The business of interpreting their whims occupied thousands of priests,
bishops, archbishops. To doubt them was to die, usually at the stake.
Armies took to the field to defend them against infidels; villages were burned, women and children butchered, cattle were driven off. Yet in the end they all withered and died, and today there is none so poor to do them reverence.

What has become of Sutekh, once the high god of the whole Nile Valley? What has become of:
Resheph
Anath
Ashtoreth
El
Nergal
Nebo
Ninib
Melek
Ahijah
Isis
Ptah
Anubis
Baal
Astarte
Hadad
Addu
Shalem
Dagon?

All there were gods of the highest eminence. Many of them are mentioned with fear and trembling in the Old Testament. They ranked, five or six thousand years ago, with Yahweh Himself; the worst of them stood far higher than Thor. Yet they have all gone down the chute, and with them the following:

Bilé
Ler
Arianrhod
Morrigu
Govannon
Gunfled
Sokk-mimi
Nemetona
Dagda
Robigus
Pluto
Ops
Meditrina
Vesta

You may think I spoof. That I invent the names. I do not. Ask the rector to lend you any good treatise on comparative religion: You will find them all listed. They were gods of the highest standing and dignity-gods of civilized peoples-worshiped and believed in by millions. All were omnipotent, omniscient and immortal.

And all are dead.”
― H.L. Mencken,

A Mencken Chrestomathy

jo6359 Thanks for sharing that anecdote. Nicely put, your explanation of your beliefs.

This is the second time in 8 months. Prior to that I've never been asked about religion by a healthcare provider other then the standard question "do you have a religious preference "or what is your religion?" Every time I registered for new procedure I was asked about religious preferences. This included surgery , chemo and radiation . It was only during radiation registration when a person took offense at my answer. When she asked about my religious preference and I stated " none" she could not hold back her anger. She let me know in no uncertain terms she believed my cancer could be related to my lack of faith. I informed her she should be very careful in forcing her beliefs and passing judgement onto patients. I also told her they were plenty of people who have very strong religious beliefs and still end up with cancer. Cancer does not discriminate. I also informed her if she didn't complete my registration I was going to report her to a supervisor. I worked at a Catholic Hospital for 10 years and never had any issues with religion.

👍👍

Prior to surgery, chemo, rads or any major procedure, aren't you asked about your religious preference? 99.9 % of the time it is a simple answer and on to the next question.

TB90-Wow! Canada is more advanced than the USA. The purpose is to have the appropriate religious support in place if needed.

I was just asked today at a new dr. Along with a bunch of other? like did I have a living will, poa, I said no to religion question she kept going. No problem.

I think I might have been asked my religious preference once as part of the hospital admissions. Everything I've had done was in the same hospital/medical complex. It's a Catholic one, and the only creepy part is that they pipe someone reciting their lord's prayer into all the rooms early in the morning. As far as I could tell, everyone ignores it.

Magiclight- the individuals who requested my information prior to surgery, chemo and radiation never asked for my height or weight. Their only interest was in my insurance, HIPAA next of kin, emergency contact and religious preference. My doctors assistants asked for height and weighed me but never asked about religious preference. Yesterday was the only time a doctor ever directed a religious question to me. It's usually a simple question, simple answer and move on to the next question.

They always seem to ask, I say none, and then it's on to the next question. I have a new directive on file.

In Ontario I have never been asked and as a nurse I have never asked, however we have an assessment tool called RAI and it is American. In it it has an optional question about spiritual affiliation. The only time I ask is if a patient has no supports I will ask if they have a church or other social group to help support them.

I knew a guy who was a recovering Catholic (eg no longer in the faith). He was in the hospital at the verge of dying and regained consciousness to discover he was being given the last rites. It made him so mad that he sat up and screamed for the priest to get out. He then proceeded to recover completely.

goood for them.