Is anyone else an atheist with BC besides me?
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Yes, I like the image of the fear passing through me and then being gone. "Only I will remain."
When I fret and worry, it's like the fear gets loud and chaotic. It's almost as if I'm holding onto the fear, clutching it to myself. Just thinking the words: "Fear is the mind-killer" helps me put fear in its place. (Although sometimes it doesn't work! <grin>)
In reality, it's just another way of saying "Hang on. This, too, shall pass."
--CindyMN
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I'm not sure if I've ever posted here but I read it often. Thanks everyone for all the reading recommendations. I can't keep up! It would be wonderful if all the recommendations were consolidated in one place.
Does anyone know if it's possible to post a reading list along with this topic? I'd be happy to go through the topic and make a list of recommended titles and authors if there is a way to post it so that it is easily accessible to everyone here and updatable. It would be great if we could attach it to the original topic post.
This may just be an attack of "organizational fever" on my part, and I have started my own list. If you think it's of benefit to the thread I'll start it, otherwise I'll go back to sleep.
Phyllis
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F= Fantasy
E = Expectations
A = Appearing
R= Real
Or as Michael J. Fox has said, worrying about something that might happen is a waste of time, means you get to possibly experience it twice. ( paraphrase)
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My Grandma used to say, "Don't worry. It might not happen."
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phgraham.
You might want to start a new thread with the title "Atheist Reading List" or "Reading list for the non-believers" or just plain "Reading List". The last one might end up with quite a few religious works, but maybe that would be interesting as well. I read religious works even though I consider myself an atheist.
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Charles - thanks for tellling us (me) about Slaughterhouse Five. Now i want to read it. The only thing in my reading I can associagte with Kurt Vonnegut, and I may be WAY wrong here - is "rented a tent".
No? well, you;ll know!
One of my fave series (though I didn't watch it at the time cause we only had an old-fashioned antenna - is the Sopranos. black, black black humour. I love it! ok, yes, it's only tv and not in the realm of a great novel, but somehow I can dissociate myself from the violence -like we are alll watching these guys from a distance, even though sometimes we're in Tony's brain. I think the humour puts us at the distance.....
anyway, going to get it from the lib rary when the current pile of interloans get overdue and I have to send them back. I just started the Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen, have forgotten most as last read it maybe 10 yrs ago, but love, love, love it.
I would love for people here to tell us all who is their fave author/book of all time. Mine is anna Karenina - the translation that Oprah had on her book club a few yrs ago. IMHO, the translation makes ALL the difference. Next might be Howards' End, by E.M. Forester, or anything written by him. Same for Tolstoy.
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One of my favorite books of all time...The Name of the Rose.
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I feel kind of bad posting this while you all are having an intellectual conversation ... but I just found this on Facebook and thought it was cute ... the Atheist Hymnal ...
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WR hysterical I LOVE Steve Martin....
Umberto Eco - gotta go to my used book store to find that one....don't think I've read it. LOVE mysteries. P.D. James was one of my favorite authors - not her few latest books, but the earlier ones were better for me.
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Funny...I never remember that The Name of the Rose is a mystery...but, of course, it is. It is such a treatise on reason versus faith.... on science over religion... on love over anything else.
I enjoyed PD James very much. I haven't read anything by her in over 15 years.
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CLC
if you wanna keep loving her, suggest you keep it that way..IMHO...yup, it was a mystery, didn't know about the other stuff about it...will find an old copy....
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I like WEB GRIFFIN books, especially the Army series starting with "The Lieutents" and the Marine Corps series. I have read all of his many books. His military humor is great!
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I love science fiction and mysteries, especially those set in the past and laced with humor. I used to joke that I got too much of the present in my newspaper job, so I escaped into the future or the past when I read. <g> Two of my favorite authors are Lindsey Davis (Falco series set in AD 70s Rome) and Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series (time traveling into mid 18th Century Scotland).
I did buy "The God Delusion" for my Kindle (after learning about it on this thread) and enjoyed the first few chapters, but then I got distracted with other books and haven't gotten back to it.
--CindyMN
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Chumfry - you want to go "back in time" with an expert: DOROTHY DUNNETT. I've read everything she's written. It is SO exactly detailed, there is also a Compendium also in paperback, sold to refer to - two main series, Lymond Chronicles, and Gemini ( something, can't remember name...auuggghh) and you HAVE to read them in order, in each series. She was from Edinburgh, Scotland. Not as well known in States as in UK.
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Thanks for the tip! I'll look her up. <g>
--CindyMN
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chumfry, have you read any of China Mieville's books? Embassytown and The City & the City are both sci-fi and are fantastic. Literate, beautiful, and really really imaginative. The City & the CIty is also a mystery.
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Kadia - interesting that you mentioned China Mieville - I love scifi and fantasy, but SLOGGED my way through Perdido Street Station. Imaginative, yes, probably even beautiful and beautifully written, but it didn't grab me and propel me through like so many other books that I've read.0
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Cookie--
Perdido is next on my list...sorry it didn't work out for you! I definitely found Embassytown and The City to be page-turners.
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Kadia - I'll be curious to hear what you think.
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In reference to WhiteRabbit's post of Steve Martin's Atheist Hymnal, "The 'he' is always lower-case," made me laugh out loud. Nice. Thank you for posting that.
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I'd like to ask for a brief time-out from this month's literature review for something I found on line today: reports of a paper in the journal Science claiming that analytic thinking weakens religious belief.
Commentary: http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/27/losing-your-religion-analytic-thinking-weakens-religious-belief/
Abstract of original report (access to full paper requires a subscription): http://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6080/493
I have to say I'm not surprised at the findings, but it's worrisome if the report justifies even more irrational thinking and anti-intellectualism than we already see in our culture. OTOH, maybe this is just a left brain/right brain thing? (That's asked with tongue-in-cheek.)
otter
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Thanks for posting. Guess that I always assumed that the ability to reason worked against religious belief. Love the "right brain/left brain" comment.
On the other hand, I could not figure out the answer to the baseball bat question to save my soul (forgive the expression.) I would like to think that I am analytical, but on the other hand, I am math challenged (sounds nicer than "impaired"). I think I just figured it out. Sure took long enough.
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sushanna, I'll admit I jumped to the intuitive but incorrect conclusion on the baseball bat question, too.... until I realized (remembered?) that the solution had to be one of those "simple" algebraic equations. So...
First, set up the equations:
cost of baseball = n
cost of baseball bat = n + 1.00 ( = “one dollar more than the ball”)
total cost of ball and bat = n + (n + 1.00) = 1.10
Then, solve for n:
2n + 1.00 = 1.10
2n = 0.10
n = 0.10 ÷ 2 = 0.05
The baseball costs a nickel; the bat costs $1.05.But, I didn't get there right away, so maybe I'm not as left-brain as I thought I was. Or, maybe it's just chemo-brain... <sigh>
otter
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I found the article very interesting to read. The studies are intriguing. However, I had some difficulty with the article's take on "intuitive" as being the opposite of "analytical." I have very strong analytical skills which have only been honed by years of science and legal training. To the extent that the bat/ball question really tests this, I "batted" a thousand. It never occured to me that it would be anything other than 1.05 and .05. However, I consider my intuitive skills to be very strong, too. They frequently lead me to the correct answer, particularly when it comes to interpersonal questions (for example, in how to approach a student whose behavior is unacceptable). I don't think that the two types of thinking are even remotely mutually exclusive. Intuitive thinking does not mean lazy thinking. The article seems to imply that analytical thinking is less lazy and intuitive is more lazy (those that got the right answer on the bat question "take the time to figure out the right answer" and intuitive thinking is "rapid and effortless."). I think the article is being a bit lazy.
My intuitive sense of religious thinking is that it is frequently lazy, not intuitive. The logic tends to be based on poor assumptions and there is a failure to understand causality, coincidence or deduction. There is a tendency to see parallels as proof and a tendency to make broad conclusions based on narrow evidence. That is NOT intuition. That is lousy analysis.
Just some food for thought...:)
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WHAT CL SAID:
My intuitive sense of religious thinking is that it is frequently lazy, not intuitive.
LIKE LIKE LIKE
I don't think I've ever heard my thoughts expressed so clearly, I couldn't put them into words, CLC just did. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I am very clear my intuition has kept me alive, especially when it comes to breast cancer.
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CLC,
Well said. You expressed the types of thinking better than the author of the article. Intuition can often be the result of non-verbalized analytical thinking. They are not mutually exclusive modes of thought.
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Notself,
I've noticed how often "western" people try to make anything into a "binary" choice. Our culture seems to freak out with any mystery, ambiguity, paradox, - always trying to fit everything into yes or no "boxes."
I agree with your post - "non-verbalized analytical thinking" - thanks.
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Western thought also includes the idea that everything has a beginning and and end..why not forever...
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Wish I could have read the whole original piece. Don't think I want to subscribe just for access to it, but the question is interesting. Having seen some things I really do know a lot about misrepresented very badly in journalism aimed for just getting a lot of general audience readers, I tend not to trust it. Or I try not to.
I had read something about "intuition" in medicine recently, can't remember where. How expert clinicians seem to intuit directions to go to find a diagnosis, but really they are relying on heuristics which is actually not lazy but practical. I guess I can't fault Time for not defining "intuition" - all they want is readers - but if the original article is as vague that would be annoying.
CLC - agree with you.
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Okay, maybe there is a God.
I just wrote a long post explaining how I think intuition and analytical thought are connected. And I went on to say that I think religion is scary because it depends on blind faith rather than independent, analytical thought. I pushed the "submit" button and my screen when blank. Everything I wrote was gone. That hasn't happened to me on this site in at least a couple of years, if not longer.
Hmmm..... Well, if there is a God and that's how he or she behaves (spiteful!), I want no part of him or her!
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