Is anyone else an atheist with BC besides me?

DivineMrsM, that's perfect!

Is this post about Atheism?

Says pope Francis, the man with no children says that "people who do not have children "are lacking something, something fundamental, something important." You just cannot make us this stuff about religious leaders.

Kris...I think not. The population of Italy is declining, as it is for many countries and that could have economic effects. He is not speaking as an economist but a theologian and like you, I think his statements are way out of line considering the effects on unwanted children etc.

I'm not an atheist, but I'm agnostic. I believe there is a higher power but I'm humble enough to admit that I don't know the details. I just try to be a half decent person and hope that'll matter.

Sometimes I wish I had an easier time buying into religion as it seems to be a comfort when thinking about the afterlife, etc... but I can't quite seem to get there. I've also had some not so great experiences with some really hypocritical "religious" people that have left a bad taste in my mouth. I'll give you an example.... my mother in law (who is church- crazy) one day blurted out randomly that "she is sad that my husband and I won't be in heaven with her".... that was fun.

Not to mention the Catholic Church’s abominable, horrifying cover-up and enabling of pedophilia. Please don’t tell me you value children, Pope. The pedophilia epidemic has run rampant in the Catholic church parishes throughout the world for decades or longer, probably centuries, with priests having almost no accountability let alone be prosecuted and serve time for their crimes.

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2022/01/not-having-kids-is-selfish-says-man-who-lives-alone-in-golden-palace/

I guess I'm weird. I kind of believe in some sort of afterlife, but I don't believe in any religion. I've never seen how an afterlife has anything to do with any gods, and the afterlife belief seems to be fairly universal no matter what religion a culture has. I certainly don't see it as some horrible judgy thing, though.

Yeah, no thanks to the creepy old man. And don't get me started on angels, I think they're gross! The worst are cupids or any kind of baby angel. So many people say "Oh, how precious" and I want to scream "Are you out of your mind! Those are dead babies according to your religion! That's disgusting!"

KID1919, you might like the illustrations of Inge Löök to give you a version of growing old with your SIL and maybe smile as you remember her.

https://www.instagram.com/ingelook/?hl=en

My eldest made an emoji angel. They were very proud of their work.

lol tinkerbell, I definitely do! (Stealing this btw)

I had an experience yesterday that re-affirmed why I want nothing to do with the religion I was raised in.

A relative on my husband's side died recently. she was a breast cancer survivor, but died of unrelated medical issues. At her funeral, the catholic priest, who had not known her, was giving the service, and I guess, tried to talk about her life. she was married for x number of years, raised two sons, had grandchildren. then asked her husband "was she a good cook?" he said yes, and the priest talked about this woman in terms of how she raised sons, kept house, and cooked for her family. As if her purpose in life had been serving food to men, cleaning up after men, etc. Nothing that indicated that she had any other qualities, interests, or worthiness.

It made me profoundly sad. Not that there is anything wrong with being a wife and mother, but is that how we sum up a woman's life? the priest ended with telling her husband to not be afraid to accept help - if someone offers to cook for him, or to clean for him, he should accept it.

I know it's indicative of the society at large, and not just the catholic church, but a priest talking about a woman in terms of cooking and cleaning just irked me. Will my worth as a human being be seen as whether or not I can make a good pot roast? Why does a PRIEST get to determine a woman's role, and hint that a widower would be unable to feed himself or do housework ? (he had been doing fine feeding himself for the past year while his wife was in and out of hospitals, and they've had a cleaning service for many years) Or maybe the priest was making the assumption that once a wife dies, the women in town will all line up at a chance to apply for the position.

I told my husband I was bothered by it, and he joked that, yeah, if I died and a priest asked him about my skills as a "housewife" he'd end up replying, "eh, she was OK I guess." I told him that if he allowed a priest at my funeral, I would have to come back and haunt him (my husband, not the priest)

thanks for letting me vent here.

Tinkerbell, that's annoying and disgusting. Of course, priests have housekeepers, so that's how they see women. My husband is Catholic (not very anymore) and I used to get so mad when we were first married in the eighties, when they were doing the big church cleaning for Easter, they'd schedule the women for during the day. On a weekday! In the freaking eighties! That's the Catholics, women are lucky if they're only several decades behind instead of the several centuries that most priests are.

Minus, that’s sweet that he missed the girls laughing. And, flying saucer pies, lucky you! The strawberry one might be the best pie I’ve ever had.

I only scrubbed the kitchen floor on hands and knees once, DH kept saying how “hot” it was, so I had him take a picture because I knew it was never happening again. This was about 15 years ago and he’s still got the photo.