Is anyone else an atheist with BC besides me?
Comments
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Hi, I'm new to this board, 100% atheist, was raised Catholic (to which some people think it's okay to say, "Oh, that's why!") and left the church immediately after making my confirmation.
To TooMany, I've become a bit witty in my older age, I think it would have been fun to say something like, "And what makes you think I'm not Jewish," in as good a Barbara Streisand impersonation as I could muster. ;-) Then I would have said something in a very nice way like, "You know, you really shouldn't go around assuming everyone else thinks exactly like you do Hon. You know what assume spells, right? Ass-U-Me! So what's say we end this nonsensical conversation and I get back to my book before you make yet one more enemy for yourself.
Anyway, this conversation started back in 2008, WOW! Glad to have found this discussion. I'm having a similar one over at Team Inspire on the late stage breast cancer journal page. Anyone else a member of Team Inspire?
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Don't want to raise a problem here-- but would like to raise a discussion---------First I respect the fact that each has the right to thier own belief except if it includes killing.
As an athiest-------what do you believe happens when you die? sheila
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Personally, I believe that I will cease to exist on any level. I will just become dust motes as in, "Dust to dust, ashes to ashes."
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I've read enough near death experiences to believe something of us survives physical death but I don't believe that proves any particular religion or supreme being. And If I'm wrong that's fine too. We can't expect to know about something we've never experienced.
My father got mad and denigrated me if I spoke about anything like this (NDE's) but I heard he had some experiences in his last months that changed his mind. I think he had a prophetic dream that included long dead relatives.
So I'm not strictly an atheist.
Edited to add my name. Three in a row!
-Sheila-
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When we die our component parts decay or are burnt through cremation and the by products are recycled as a continuing part of the universe. Religion is an attempt by some humans to cope with this inevitable change in phase. Atheists don't need this coping mechanism.
sas-schatzi,
If you want to discuss religious belief vs non belief, why don't you start a new thread?
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Religious vs atheist is all over the internet. Nearly every You Tube discussion manages to turn into a mud slinging contest. It never strikes me as showing either party in a good light. Both sides want to be right at the expense of good manners and respect. So far this thread has been really respectful and supportive which is refreshing.
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maybe sheila #1 from Florida is particularly interested in what different scenarios atheists in particular have.
I've noticed there seems to be a variety of atheists who post here. Some have spiritual yearnings/tendencies and some clearly do not
I, for instance , am an atheist in that I am an " a" (not) "theist" (theism= to do with god, or creator god) at least that's how I see it. So I don't believe in a creator god, as in xianity. but oddly, I do believe in Jesus - and Buddha - and all of us, really, as the "sons of god" ie it is possible for all of us to become enlightened, which is away of seeing the universe that is not our normal way, and which the 2 mentioned certainly did.
A mish-mash, to be sure. I flip-flop between bam, that's it, you're dead, you decompose and become stardust again (out of which our galaxy and the sun and earth came) or - maybe, there's something else - some continuum of "consciousness" - not exactly the right word, don't know what is - where we rejoin the one-ness of the universe. some people might call this "god" - I don't know. I don't "believe" in anything in particular, but based on one experience I did have, which I would call transcendental, in which I did for a short time feel I became one with the universe - it's there, as a possibility - who knows? I do think we should not ignore death, as if it were never going to happen.
Tibetan Buddhists are atheists who have a very clear understanding of all phases of death and what happens after, leading to rebirth.
Anybody correct me if I've presented aspects of the various kinds of Buddhism wrong, but I've just been reading the Tibetan Book of Living and dying.
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Nothing happens to us when we die..but I will be happy to have my ashes placed in a National Cemetery..but that is for my family
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That's my view too Arlene. Either nothing at all.. or our "spirit/consciousness" departs our body and joins the Universe/All that is. But it's not important to me. If I die and then there's nothing, I won't know. And if there's more I'll find out when the time comes. Without religion I'm not worried about being judged. I do what I think is right because I'm somehow compelled to, not because of some rule book or promise of reward in the afterlife.
I also took Sheila's enquiry to be out of curiosity and to be informed. I welcome such enquiry though I don't see myself as a typical atheist. Atheists generally don't think there's anything after death.
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After I die my body will be cremated. I will live on in the memories of my loved ones while they're alive. I don't think beyond that because I don't believe in anything beyond that.
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Sheila, I have no idea what happens, or not, when one dies--and neither does anyone else. But there are varying beliefs--belief doesn't make something real. At some point in my life I no longer needed a deity. My feeling is that faith is somewhat like whistling in the dark, it helps people cope. (Think how short the life span was, for instance, when Christianity evolved.) Religion is just fine for people who want it--as long as they don't try to convert me. But I prefer to have faith in myself and I'm comfortable not having all the answers.
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I don't know, and I delight in the Mystery.
Flannel said something close to my feelings.... during those experiences of "transcendence"..I feel differently than when I see a beloved friend suffering. So I am not a "theist" - but I have deep Faith in the mystical, transcendent mystery of all life, which includes death for me.
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I have always felt that when I die, I die. It does not worry me that I don't believe in an afterlife. Death, for me, is not something to be feared -- it just is.
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In doing geneology, I am learning about ancestors I never met. In some way, that is them living on generations later.
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flannelette mentioned Buddhism so I would like to add another thought. Where some religious teaching tell the dying to focus on their sins and desire for forgiveness from their god, the Buddha recommended that we focus on our good deeds and actions so the memories of kindness and compassion enable us to face death with equanimity.
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Sad news. Elizabeth (konakat) is gone. My heart hurts.
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Mine too.
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Me, too, sittin here with a heavy heart. Wishing I'd twigged on to her posts earlier - that dream that was reposted - so beautiful, and I think deeply meaningful. Do you know if there's a way to access her old posts? I think I started to follow her too little too late.
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If you do a search on KonaKat it should pull up her old posts. KK was one of a kind. A warm, witty, spunky woman who took the worst breast cancer could throw at her ... and turned it into a funny story. Always there for anybody who needed support. Lots of broken hearts here today ...
If there is another realm of existence past this one KK deserves a place of honor ... surrounded by hunky guys feeding her cake and chocolate and her kitties purring on her lap.
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Flannel
this is KK"s screen name: Konakat - do a serach under that, or go to the thread "wecome to my bizzaro world" and click on her screen name to take you to her posts...
what a loss, to us, to the world, makes me RAGE with my tears at this disease.... thinking of RobinWendy too - too, too many wonderful women...
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And analemma - Brenda - from this thread. Too many of the best amongst us
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I'm so sad we lost Elizabeth. She was a warm and wonderful woman ..kind and compassionate. I will miss her talks on this thread. She always wrote that she wanted to end up as fertilizer for her roses. We both wanted to return to our mother earth when our time came.
RIP Elizabeth .. you will be missed so very much,
Bren
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It surely has been a tough week.
I want my ashes to be spread on a stream or river that flows into the Mississippi River, which of course goes into the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. All the oceans, really, because they’re all interconnected. That’s what I want – to be a part of that great cycle of water. It must be the Aquarius in me.
My hope is to start out (so to speak) in the Tennessee River, which I’ve grown to love since I moved here nearly 30 years ago. But, if dh gets impatient or thinks it’s silly, or if he doesn’t want to drive that far, I guess any free-flowing body of water will do. No ponds or land-locked lakes, though, and no rivers that are dammed without a passageway. I don’t want to end up as sludge on the bottom or piled up at the base of a huge concrete structure. Go with the flow, I say; and recycle. Always.
otter
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I understand Otter. I hadn't thought of letting water take me around the world, but I want my ashes thrown into the air from the top of a mountain. That way I will soar through the air and see all the places I missed during my lifetime. And maybe I'll meet an otter, say around the Horn of Africa. That's an exciting place.
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I love this song "Dust in the Wind". It sort of sums up what we've been talking about. I find the video, filmed at the time the song was released, absolutely charming. I will be content to be dust in the wind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qxSwJC3Ly0
I close my eyes
Only for a moment and the moment's gone
All my
dreams
Pass before my eyes a curiosity
Dust in the wind
All they
are is dust in the wind
Same old song
Just a drop of water in an
endless sea
All we do
Crumbles to the ground though we refuse to
see
Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind
(From:
http://www.elyrics.net/read/k/kansas-lyrics/dust-in-the-wind-lyrics.html)
Now
don't hang on
Nothing lasts forever but the Earth and Sky
It slips
away
And all your money won't another minute buy
Dust in the
wind
All we are is dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind
Dust
in the wind
Everything is dust in the wind
Everything is dust in the wind0 -
I loved this. Thanks notself. Then I remembered this one, "Blowing in the Wind." This version is by Peter, Paul and Mary (miss you Mary).
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Hello all...read the title of this forum and was immediately interested...have also read in this and other threads that a wonderful woman called Elizabeth passed away recently and although I haven't had time to read any of her posts it's obvious she was a really special person, so goodbye to her and I'm so sorry for all of you who had her as a friend. Notself I love the song you posted, thankyou.
Very quickly I'd like to introduce myself.. 56 years old, teacher and Head of English Department in a large secondary school over here.. married, 3 kids, girl 26, boy 19, girl 17, latter 2 students and living at home. Was diagnosed with BC 3 months ago, large tumour grade 3 TN having neo-adjuvant chemo 8 sessions, followed by surgery sometime in summer, and then radiotherapy.
I'm glad to have found a place where other women find ways to find succour, consolation and support without having to revert to traditional religions and dogma. I was brought up, as everyone here in Malta is, in a very strict Catholic way, and religion today is still very much part of people's lives... When I was younger I felt so angry at what I felt the church was making us believe... now I'm older I'm a bit more philosophical I suppose.. I don't practise or believe myself, I suppose I'd call myself an agnostic, but understand that religion can be of great solace to people, and I find that's ok as long as I'm not forced to participate... But as someone said somewhere above, that doesn't mean I can't appreciate beauty, that there isn't magic in nature, and that people can't be wonderful and good and strong regardless of what they believe.Goodness, in my experience, is not reserved for the most religious, on the contrary it is often found in the most unexpected of places...anyway, that's my bit ...glad to meet you all.
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Welcome, Maria, I hope you will find comfort on this thread too - I love how you use the word goodness. Finding when I "look" for it, I too find it everywhere. And have to remind myself, sometimes, to keep looking for it. Many, many years ago, living in Washington DC., I went to a large meeting where His Holiness the Dalai Lama was speaking, and when asked about his religion, he said: "My religion is kindness." I've always remembered that. Seems what most of us need, expecially our sisters experiencing the terror of bc, is, kindness. I too hope you find it everywhere.
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Precisely C-Sunflowers (what a mouthfull!)... that is what being human beings in the same world should be all about, rather than the rule-ridden 'laws' I was brought up in which seem to me to preach mostly of exclusion, rather than the opposite!
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If I really had my wish, it would still be possible to be put in a wooden boat and pushed out to sea as the boat is lit on fire. Second best would be on a funeral pyre. I like the idea of cremation, just hate the thought of having to be closed in that small space while it is happening. I think the worst alternative is being lowered into a box in the ground. That has always bothered me, even as a little kid when I barely understood what death was.
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