Is anyone else an atheist with BC besides me?
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I wonder how they know where the tracks are? I've never thought about how they clear tracks before. Very interesting.
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Trains aren't steered like a car or bus or plane. The train follows the tracks. The engineer controls the speed. If you have never taken a train, put that on your bucket list. We took a train from central Arkansas to Chicago. We went first class and had a sleeper car. It was something out of the Orient Express.
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There are plows on the lead engine, similar to what’s on a truck.
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Most of those trains didn't look like they had passengers. When first watching, I was imagining people inside having only snow clouds to look at for miles and miles. I've taken a number of short train trips (under 6 hours). I would love to take the Canadian train from Vancouver to Montreal. It's on my bucket list.
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I believe that trip actually goes between Vancouver and Toronto, not Montreal, but it's on my bucket list, too. Save your pennies - it's expensive!
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wren- a few years ago by former boyfriend and I took a train trip from Vancouver to Montreal. It was incredible. It was during the first week of April we could not believe the amount of snow. Yes we're from South Florida. The wild life was breathtaking. We saw a mama bear with her baby bear, a bunch of elks and numerous animals. It was our first long train trip and we loved it.
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Next year I'll be more careful about my spelling. Merry Christmas to all.
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pin gpong- you are correct it is from Vancouver to Toronto.
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Amanda, that was dark sarcasm.
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I'm fine with it being from Vancouver to Toronto. I've already been to Montreal.
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ananda - love the 'dog'.
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More art from the fabulous fantasist Omar Rayyan. I love his Wind in the Willows illustrations.
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Thanks for sharing - Here is a rather cute one : Three tree turtles taking tee
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magiclight- how cute and funny.
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hello all!! I am an east coast Jew by birth/culture (my family is super Seinfeld/Larry David/Curb Your Enthusiasm in our humor and the way we communicate with one another. I love it!!!
But my studies have had me dive deeply into Daoism and Buddhism. These teachings resonate the most for me and help me make sense of life during difficult times.
Sometimes I feel like I can’t relate to people’s posts because they are so god/Jesus-centric. I try to take them all in as being full of love and positivity but it is difficulty for me to separate the criticisms that many organized religions hold on peoples sexual orientations. It just is so painful to all my loved ones and myself included! So I am grateful this link exists.
My ultimate wish is for us to be able to love one another without judgement and prejudice and to allow us to each be supported in the choices we make for ourselves in partnership, love, sex, chosen religion, chosen gods/goddesses/aliens/spirits/Mother Earth/nature/energy/forces/science whatever you want to call it.
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Lovefromphi - it is not who we love but that we are capable of loving another. Welcome to this thread and I hope you feel included as there are others here, like myself, who have felt judged because of sexual orientation. There is also a thread for lesbians, but sadly has not been active since about October. Search the term lesbian. I do not know of a thread for transgender or bisexual but there are discussions within threads for all LGBTQ conversations, again use those search terms.
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LovefromPhilly, I get you on the godcentricity of so many people here and elsewhere. I don't get how they think Skydaddy will cure anyone. Shouldn't he have prevented the cancer in the first place, along with any other health issues, natural disasters, accidents, murders, etc.? I'd fire him if he worked for me. 😏
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thank you magiclight and Alice!
I am happy to have found this thread and I’ll search for others within the 🏳️🌈 family. I simply love who I love and can’t help who I feel an attraction to. Why such persecution for this?? You all get it and know the story a thousand times over. And yeah about the big man in the sky. It is not something that works for me and my belief system and core values.
Wishing everyone a very peaceful and joyous new year free from pain and suffering!
Love,
Philly
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LovefromPhi - now that is a wish I think everyone can get behind.
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Most of the time I think of religions as a benign approach to dealing with the insecurities and difficulties of life along with a fear of death. When religion enters politics then it becomes a disease on the body politic and should be removed. Where ever religion became the "official" religion of a state, the religion became corrupt and the politics became both corrupt and cruel. Separation of Church and State not only protect the civil realm, it protects religion itself.
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I've experienced sooo many changes in the 8 years since I was diagnosed with metastatic bc, and that includes my beliefs in God and spirituality.
I was raised Catholic but got little out of it. In my early 20s, I became a born-agan Christian and it basically saved my sanity and set my life on the right path. I was a firm believer in prayer, tho I never found a church I cared to attend.
Fast forward to a couple years into this breast cancer diagnosis. I was learning to really tune in to my thoughts and feelings. I realized I was getting nothing out of my religion. I said to God, “This isn't working for me." It felt empowering to be brutally honest. I began to seek answers. I thought deeper understanding would come in a matter of months.
To my surprise, even years later, I still am not sure what my beliefs are anymore.. One thing this seeking did was open my eyes to the oppressive patriarchy of most organized religions, and once you see it, you cannot unsee it.
I happened upon the book “Dance of the Dissident Daughter". It was salve to my soul. I also read a book called something like “I Broke Up With God." It was written by a woman theology student and was both humorous and poignant. It helps knowing I am not alone in my thinking.
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Many religions teach us not to question God. When you've been conditioned all your life like that, it feels like a defiant act to speak your own mind and profess disbelief. After a lifetime of conditioning, there is still some fear of being damned to hell for “going against the teachings of God."
And those people who will tell an atheist, oh, but you're such a good person yet you’re not a believer.Well, what about the flip side of that? What about those who profess belief but are pure evil?And specifically, what about this epidemic of pedophile priests in the Catholic church? Yet someone will give the “Father" a pass and condem an aetheist because they are not a “believer."
The Catholic priest pedophilia epidemic astounds me. It's always a grievous thing when a teacher or coach or doctor is a sexual predator of children. But it is even more heinous with the priests; they are the ones who preside over so many of the most personal events in our lives; marriages, deaths of loved ones, baptisms of children, visiting the ill, the hearing of confession, counseling in troubled times. To me, the Catholic church is the biggest farce on the face of the earth.
All of this said, I still believe in some kind of spirituality. I'm just not sure exactly what. Certain events in life can been explained in no other way other than some kind of spiritual intervention. I respect others' beliefs, including nonbelievers, but don't want dragged in to face to face discussions with them about it. I'm definitely against cults.
I also wonder how many men would join a religion if they were the ones who had to practice submission and where only women could be leaders.
Yes, I have lots and lots of unanswered questions, and I'm learning to live with that.
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I
lifted this from a sister here. Whose screen name I can’t remember, but this sums up my feelings. MrsM, you may remember her. I use it on my emails.
Religion is for people who are afraid of hell. Spiritually is for people who have already been there.
Lakota Nation
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Mrs M - I thought your first post was particularly "right on". I'm going to look for those two books.
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MinusTwo, the book “Dance of the Dissident Daughter” was written by Sue Monk Kidd. She experienced what she calls an “awakening” while in her 40s regarding her faith and beliefs. It wasn’t just her writing style that clicked with me. As I read her story, I learned she grew up in a Southern Baptist Church; married a Southern Baptist minister (who was a religion teacher and chaplain at a Baptist college!) and they had two children. She hadn’t lived some bohemian free spirited, wayout there existence that I couldn’t understand. She was basically your typical church-going wife and mother, very much a lifestyle I could relate to, and she was no longer satisfied with her church’s teachings. It was reassuring to me to find someone like her was okay with questioning, challenging the Christian status quo.
I love that she described it as an awakening; that’s what I feel has happened to me.
I looked up the title of the other book and found it is called “Breaking Up With God” by Sarah Sentilles.0 -
Thanks Mrs. M. I liked Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees. I looked her up on Wiki. Did you know her first writings were for Guideposts before her 'awakening'. I like the full title of the book & will look for it.
The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine, 1996
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I used to play bridge with Len Lesourd, who was editor of Guidepost and his wife Catherine Marshall who wrote " Man Called Peter" and "Christy". I dated Peter Marshall the son who later became a minister like his father. Guess it didn't rub off on me, the granddaughter of a minister.
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SoCalLisa, Do you ever think that perhaps atheists are born not made? So many of us just sort of slide out of faith and usually at a fairly young age. Perhaps some people need stories more than others and we are definitely a story telling species. What do you think?
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Everyone is born atheist. All religions have to indoctrinate.
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SoCalLisa, your social life has been interesting! I was a huge fan of Catherine Marshall's writing which was a positive influence on my life, and have read both books you mention. Guideposts was also some of my favorite reading, especially the early years when I became a born-again Christian.
I realize this is an aetheist thread so I don't wish to hijack the train of thought too much here. I would say I lean towards being an agnostic. However, it's refreshing to read the posts here instead of people putting their faith in “the Lord." I can never deny that the Christian faith got me through some tough times and saved my sanity, but I just can't go there anymore. It sort of makes me feel like a traitor, but, to use an expression I try not to use often, “it is what it is.”
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