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Is anyone else an atheist with BC besides me?

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Comments

  • ananda8
    ananda8 Member Posts: 1,418
    edited September 2012

    I remember the "F" key! One could add all sorts of little symbols with it.  If one wanted to use a bullet point in a document one hit a specific "F" key.  Those were the days...that I am glad are gone. 

  • gardengumby
    gardengumby Member Posts: 4,860
    edited September 2012

    I remember when we got our first television - instead of just hearing the radio, now we could actually watch pictures.  I kept looking in the back of the tv, because I thought there would be little bitty people back there.  I also remember playing in the box the television came in....  I made a cool little house out of it.

    oh and remember the first color tv's?  the horrible purple grass and green people???

  • Cindyl
    Cindyl Member Posts: 498
    edited September 2012

    Actually before there was Netscape there was Mosaic ..

  • lassie11
    lassie11 Member Posts: 468
    edited September 2012

    I recall phoning for the second line when we had dial up and three kids at home. The woman at the other end asked if the reason for the second line was teenagers or the internet. I said "both". She said they'd set it up as quickly as possible.

  • CLC
    CLC Member Posts: 615
    edited September 2012

    Arlene...how is your rash?  How are you faring?

    This thread has been very quiet.  I hope you all are well!

    I am back to work and training for my upcoming 10k, and so have been very quiet.  But I just wanted to pop in and say hi to everyone at my favorite thread!

    Wishing you all a happy fall!

    Claire

  • river_rat
    river_rat Member Posts: 317
    edited September 2012

    Claire, happy fall to you and everyone else too!

    SoCalLisa, I hope you're safe, that the fires aren't near you. 

  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Member Posts: 1,017
    edited September 2012

    More good pumpkin wishes to all the Flying Spagetti Monsters among us -

  • bevg49
    bevg49 Member Posts: 461
    edited September 2012

    Hiya guys... I wanna say something which is off the topic of BC but on topic as far as religion/atheism goes. As we get closer to election time, I am thinking, the more right wing a person is, the more religious they seem to be. Many right wingers are also very rich, like the rep. candidate, so you have very rich=very christian. It is ironic. The bible states the "the love of money is the root of all evil".... Jesus, the man, didn't hang with the rich folks and believed im feeding, clothing and housing the poor....How do you connect the dots here? It is totally fake. Born again greedy rich people? It's hypocritical.... More reason to be an atheist or a Pastafarian. 

  • chumfry
    chumfry Member Posts: 169
    edited September 2012

    What kind of freaks me out is that I think it will be a long, LONG time before an admitted atheist is ever elected president of the United States. I feel like we're perceived to be morally deficient. (Even though I believe we may be *more* moral, since we don't have to be threatened or scared into doing the right thing.) Ah well. My two cents.

    --CindyMN

  • CLC
    CLC Member Posts: 615
    edited September 2012

    I have met some religious people that live consistently with their moral beliefs.  Truly ethical people.  I have met some atheists that live consistently with their moral beliefs.  Truly ethical people.  Neither atheism nor religion corners the market on morality, imho. 

    However, I have met many many many hypocritical people that spout the religious line, but have no idea what that means in real life.  And worse, I have met many many many people that hurt and harm in the name of religion.  I have never met atheists that do either of those things with their atheist beliefs.  But I have met some nasty unethical atheists.

    I think it comes down to this:  religion is frequently used as the basis and/or smokescreen for immoral behavior.  Atheism cannot possibly be twisted toward those ends.  But, in either case, it takes discipline or kindness or compassion or something to get someone to behave morally...NOT religion.

    Well, that's my take on it all...

    Nice to see you all here!!  Smile

  • Maria_Malta
    Maria_Malta Member Posts: 667
    edited September 2012

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/13/dalai-lama-facebook-religion-is-no-longer-adequate-science_n_1880805.html

    Hi all, 

    I think you'll enjoy what the Dalai Lama has to say about the fact that religion is no longer enough, and that compassion is the basis of morality and ethics, regardless of religion.... very sensible I think.. check the site above ...

  • CLC
    CLC Member Posts: 615
    edited September 2012

    Great link, Maria!  The Dalai Lama always makes so much sense.  I am not sure I agree that religion is always the tea...maybe Buddhism is...but some religions are more like arsenic...

  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Member Posts: 1,017
    edited September 2012

    Haven't gone to the link yet, but had the honor of meeting His Holiness many years ago, and LOVED his answer to a question someone asked about "compassion" - he smiled that DELICIOUSLY wonderful smile, and spoke of Motivation and INTENTION, and that "compassion can be hard work."  LOVED IT.

  • bevg49
    bevg49 Member Posts: 461
    edited September 2012

    Just listened to the link. He is a lovely man. If more were peaceful like him, this world would be a much better place. I brought up the whole topic because I am looking around at the christian politicians (you could insert Muslim in the middle east or Jewish in Israel).... The bullshit and hypocricy is just astounding. They either want to hurt/kill people or disregard a whole segment of the population with the most needs, i.e., the poor. They steal and lie and screw around, all things human beings do, but then they hide behind the cloak of religion. I've always felt this way and known all this but in this ugly racist politicial time, it just seems so much more obvious, disturbing and sickening.

    On another note, when someone tells me to pray to be healed from this awful BC, I have to just laugh..... Can you pray to the surgeon? Or the scientist who might have come up with the drug that will help? LOL....IF there is a god which I don't believe, I am sure he would not have time to worry about 1 individual with cancer... 

  • flannelette
    flannelette Member Posts: 398
    edited September 2012

    Just woke up and this is fresh in my mind from last night's reading. In Exile from the Land of Snows. The whole story of the Dalai Lama and genocide in Tibet. I couldn't read last night's chapter, it was so disgusting, about what the chinese did to Tibet, in vivid detail. So, my thinking is that Ideology seems pretty much to be organized religion's bigger and much uglier brother. Utterly sick.

    And, despite it all, there is the Dalai Lama, with his profound happiness, compassion, and understanding voice of reason. He has about 4 million likes on facebook - checked him out after reading the link. tibetan Buddhism was probably the world's deepest, most advanced religion, so I'd say it's not religion - it's ideology, neatly borrowed and disguised.

  • ananda8
    ananda8 Member Posts: 1,418
    edited September 2012

    What is exceptional about Buddhism is the lack of a creator god or creation story.  Kindness, morality, ethical behavior occur because it is the right thing to do for oneself and for others. 

  • bevg49
    bevg49 Member Posts: 461
    edited September 2012

    I am content with what I believe (or don't)... but really, I am going to have to look into Buddhism which I know so little about. It seems like the perfect "religion"...

  • ananda8
    ananda8 Member Posts: 1,418
    edited September 2012

    Oh, it can have rigid people just like any group.  It has a good amount of Woo.  But all in all the philosophy is terrific and the actual practice brings peace.  Meditation is what got me through the dark days and still does.

    There are four major forms of Buddhism.  There is the Dalai Lama's Tibetan Buddhism which has as much ceremony and rituals as Catholicism.  There is Pure Land which consists mainly of chanting.  There is Zen which has poetry, and puzzles.  With these three one should have a teacher and with Tibetan Buddhism a teacher is absolutely required.  The oldest form of Buddhism is Theravada which is practiced mainly in Southeast Asia and is starting to spread in North America and Europe.

    Theravada does not require a teacher.  There are many translations of the suttas/sutras on line as well as many monks who give online talks.  There is even a YouTube called DhammaTube with many monks, some who take questions.  Theravada has few ceremonies and few rituals.  I would catagorize it as being Quaker like.  I follow Theravada because I am the only Buddhist for about a hundred miles in any direction so a live teacher is out of the question for me.

    There is a thread on Buddhism here. 

  • bevg49
    bevg49 Member Posts: 461
    edited September 2012

    I'm going to look into it just because I think it would be extremely interesting and it seems like such a peaceful religion, unlike the other major ones. I don't really think I need a religion though. I am 63, was raised a reformed jew and spent my young adult life searching..... I actually spoke to Jehovah's Witnesses, I'm ashamed to admit lol.. (I had a sister in law who was one).... I looked into Jews for Jesus. Tried to get into the religious aspects of judaism. I think it was about 10 years ago that I had a lightbulb moment. It was after 9/11, after abortion doctors had been killed by christians, after seeing how jews treat palestinians, after the war in Ireland, after all I'd learned about the violent history of religion.... I watched the super rich and very greedy claim christianity as their own and use it as their shield. It dawned on me that religion was the root of evil. It came to me that morality and ethics had nothing to do with religion. I finally stopped searching for something that I thought would bring me peace but which is really the opposite of peaceful....Not to say there are no good, religious folks. Just that it the two don't go hand and hand and it isn't necessary to believe in a fairy tale to be a good person....... and if I want to believe in a fairy tale, there is always that spaghetti monster hahaha.

  • ananda8
    ananda8 Member Posts: 1,418
    edited September 2012
  • Maria_Malta
    Maria_Malta Member Posts: 667
    edited September 2012

    Thanks for book on Buddhism, Notself... looks interesting and I'll print it to read.  Like Bevg49 I'm drawn to Buddhism, as it seems to generate ideas of peace and ways of looking at the world and ourselves/notselves in it, an attitude which resonates with me, and certainly helped me more than anything else in my cancer story.  I also find the mystical quite appealing, possibly it's in my dna from years of genuflection, incense and candles in the Catholic churches of my childhood.Laughing The thing is I'm all 'religioned out' and also like Bev I don't feel I could or need to embrace a particular 'way', while recognising many of its benefits.  Does that sound like wanting to have my cake and eating it? Probably, but why not?  I'd love to be able to lounge around and have a good long face-to-face conversation about all the things we talk about here, but alas I'm too far away!

    Off to work.... 

  • flannelette
    flannelette Member Posts: 398
    edited September 2012

    Thanks for the link Notself, have not opened it yet but will. Yes, Theravada - the way of the Elders - is the arrowroot cookie like the Quakers - universal, applicable to all - and Tibetan the mystical super duper banana split.

    I could never figure it all out - how is buddhism in, say, sri Lanka, realted to tibetan, with the lamas, predicted reincarnations, and state oracle? all vestiges of the indigenous Bon and fierce warrior society that preceded the ontroduction of Buddhism there - yet many Wesdterners are drawn to that mysticim and you don't have to have been raised Catholic to get that attraction! But still, it is gounded in theravada first, so the Dali Lama is also a simple monk (with an incredible amount of sophisticated learning) who can boil the whole huge thing down to My Religion is Kindness.

    One thing I learned that I love - Dalai Lama is the Mongolian term for Ocean of Wisdom, given to him by a Mongolian conqueror.     It was after domination of tibet by the Mongolians that Mongolia became primarily Buddhist. Now, with Tibet and its genocide and spread into the world and the immensely loveable Dalai Lama, who knows?....but it sure is being incorporated into the west during the last and this century.

    In 1959 the Chinese very nearly murdered the DL and the CIA were recruiting Tibetans, taking them to the US for high-altitude training in /Colorado (the tibetans were never told where they went - they had no idea - they were just picked up in a truck in the back country & smuggled though? into the US) and parachuted back into Tibet to form resistance cells. The Americans, and I think one other country, were the only nations to go to their aid, despite pleas for help. The CIA involvement ended when I think it was Nixon went to China and relations were established. Fascinating.

  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Member Posts: 1,017
    edited September 2012

    I LOVE reading this thread...thank you all, for sharing what matters to you, and has such deep resonance for me.

    "Life is a journey..."

    Am also reminded of Meister Eckert: "If the only prayer you ever say is thank you, that would suffice."

    In my 68th year, I find myself coming back to my Beloved Ralph Waldo Emerson, in so many ways, his essays, the whole spirit of Trancendentalism of the early New England days, their depth of knowledge of so much history, and appreciation of the individual and commnity ( tho some may say Lousia May Alcott's father carried it a bit to the extreme ;-)

  • river_rat
    river_rat Member Posts: 317
    edited September 2012

    Good morning everyone! 

    notself, thanks for that link.  I will download it to my iPad.

    Sunflowers, I love your Eckert quote.  I think that's something that people don't realize - that non-believers still feel thankful. However I came to be, I am thankful for my life and those I've met in my journey. Perhaps more thankful than believers, because I don't think I'll have another one - this is it - not a dress rehearsal.

  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Member Posts: 1,017
    edited September 2012

    River rat

    I know what you mean - as I get older, I'm learning how much WISDOM there is in the work of some of the very, very early "religious" people - seems to have been lost in today's more intolerant ways...

    I have always been deeply interested in the subject of mysticism, Evelyn ( sp?) Underhill, and the early Friends/Quakers. Remember my first trip to the Lake District in England, going to the earliest Meeting Room, and honestly, almost feeling the presence of those early seekers.  

    No labels, but know I've grown into more of what Notself speaks...but I still so appreciate those early "seekers" and what they shared....

  • chumfry
    chumfry Member Posts: 169
    edited September 2012

    Today, I'm very thankful for this thread and all you wonderful women. What a great way to start the day! :D

    --CindyMN

  • Scorchy
    Scorchy Member Posts: 121
    edited September 2012

    I havent been by in a coupel of weeks and look at all that I missed!  I love hanging out with you smart and thtoughtful heathens!  The world depends on us (even if no one knows that).

    Just wanted to check in.  Hope everyone is having an adequate day out there!

    Group hug.
    Free Smiley Courtesy of www.millan.net

  • ananda8
    ananda8 Member Posts: 1,418
    edited September 2012

    scorchy,

    I read you blog every day.  Thank you for the laughter and the tears.

    http://thesarcasticboob.com/2012/09/28/breast-cancer-in-the-minority/

  • wren44
    wren44 Member Posts: 7,967
    edited September 2012

    I was drawn to Tibetan Buddhism because it was in a foreign language. The chanting made me feel home inside and I couldn't understand the words enough to be put off by what was being said.

  • CLC
    CLC Member Posts: 615
    edited September 2012

    I agree that there are many very wise religious people.  I have always been interested in the mystics, too.  In college, I had the great opportunity to study the medieval women mystics from a feminist perspective.  That was my first intro to the mystics.  Since then, I keep finding Francis of Assisi really fascinating.  I imagine what it would take for a middle class young person to cast off all economic expectations and embrace their convictions so completely. 

    There are times that I want to cast off all of the trappings of modern day life and determinidely (sp?) pursue environmental change.  Of course, my commitments are to my children.  And that is where I really stop and look at someone like Francis of Assisi and wonder at the level of conviction that you must have to maintain such a life.

    Buddhism is wonderful.  After my first brush with bc, I decided that I needed to learn to meditate.  There is a buddhist temple 5 minutes from my house that offers classes in meditation.  I was enthralled.  Unfortunately, I encountered the same dependence on faith and mindless acceptance of dogma among some of the folks and I could not get past that.  It really was unfortunate because I was hopeful that for the first time I'd found people that I could share a world view with.  The ideas of buddhism were not new ideas to me; what was new was the realization that others might see the world the same as me.  I had always felt that all the universe was interconnected.  My scientific and philosophical constructs are completely consistent with it and spiritually, I experience the world that way.  I liked the idea of a drop of water in a pond, intermingling.  I liked a lot of the imagery.  But I could not accept that there were things I must accept in order to move on to nirvana, according to the views of some.  I would love to find a zen buddhist temple.   I expect that I might find more there for me.  At any rate, I just continue on with my beliefs, once again more or less alone.

    I am thankful, too.  I am glad to see that there are some religious views that accept that as enough.  In reality, it is so very much.  To say it "suffices" may underrate it a bit.  To be truly thankful really is such a wonderful and lofty and challenging goal.  May we all have many many many moments where we can achieve it. :)