Is anyone else an atheist with BC besides me?
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Me too. I may not display the overtly religious crap but I'm always appreciative. Hell I had some neighbors come over and lay hands on me and pray. I was hoping it would make me feel better since I was familiar with the practice from being raised in a very religious environment but nope, got nothing out of it beyond poking at my atheist children and giving them mean eyeballs so they'd be respectful. But my neighbors got something out of it and that made me feel good and they've been so kind in practical ways, too, so it's all good. At this point I figure the more support the better regardless of the beliefs of the people giving it to me.
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When I was a little kid I had my best friend freak out when I told her I had never been baptized. She was terrified I would end up in Limbo. I figure now, if such mythical places exist, I will end up in Purgatory and stay there since I have to be undeserving of "punishment" get to Limbo. I have lots of minor sins on my rap sheet
moth: I had a GP once who was religious and sort of weirdly so. I had a persistent ganglion on my wrist. I have heard of hitting those with a heavy book. He had lots on books on the shelf behind him but he whacked mine with a huge Bible. Praise the Lord, it worked. I never had to have surgery
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Hi All:
I thought I would share this on this board. Sent to me by my candle magic Pagan/witch friend. It is a nice painting. My Irish relatives, even though Catholic, would still have celebrated August 1st. Anyone ever seen "Dancing At Lughnasadh"
Lammas - if you are Catholic.
Edited to say: I should have said Ancestors. The closest ones have Irish in the gene pool, diluted with Scots, French and German.
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Does anyone here follow Randy Rainbow? He's outdone himself today with his brilliant "Thoughts and Prayers."
https://www.facebook.com/100044148563838/posts/pfb...
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Alice, this was wonderful. He is so creative and timely. Love that he chose Cruz as the spokesperson.
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I really needed a laugh today, Alice. That was awesome.
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Randy Rainbow is brilliant!
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Moth recently stopped treatment. She asked on Twitter about a talk on atheists and dying, but no one has replied with any link . I’ve searched, but came up with nothing. Does anyone know of it?
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I'm sorry I can't help with any links, but I do want to say that I am just so very sad to hear that Moth is in this situation. I really hope that you can locate the link for her and that she finds some peace.
Thanks for doing what you're doing, Serenity.
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I’m not sure if this is it (why you want a physicist to speak at your funeral):
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4675953
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Oh that was beautiful speech. Much better than any preacher I've ever heard.
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li77 - That sounds like it might be. I now remember seeing this before, but I had forgotten it. I’ll reply to moth with it. I don’t know if she’s reading the threads or her PMs. Thank you!
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I replied on Twitter and by email. In the email I added a link to the Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. I have the book and saw the video long before cancer found me. Now I want to watch it again with the kids. Mine are adults, but it’s never too late to learn life lessons. I admit I have succumbed to converting to Apple products, but not the Mac!
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I don't consider myself an atheist, but probably somewhere between agnostic and believer. Over the course of my life I've pondered the "enduring question" about whether God exists, etc. over and over. I came to the conclusion for myself that if there is a God, it/he/she probably transcends any general concept that any of us have, and that whatever God is might actually have more to do with the forces of the universe; forces out there for good and bad (good and evil), forces that create, and forces that destroy. I am no scientist by any means, but this idea came to make the most sense to me over time, with my non-scientific brain.
It was fabulous to read the transcription in the link that li77 sent above. I had never before heard of anyone putting this sort of idea "out there" - thought it was just some wacky thing in my brain that I would be careful who I mentioned it to. The content of the transcription completely jives though, with the kind of stuff I've been thinking about when it comes to God, life (and "eternal" life), and death. I think that organized religion can have some comforting ways to frame all of this, and that it can be a true help to many people, and I think that conventional religion actually uses a lot of analogies that would fit with what this physicist has described, but I can't help but think that in the final analysis, our actual living and dying is more specifically/truly explained by this "physicist argument".
Interesting, my brother who has Asperger's or Autism of some kind told me when his cat died, that he was comforted in part by the fact that "her molecules were inside" him and would remain there for the rest of his life. Weird as this will sound to most, he even told me that he waited to take her to the vet for cremation and kept her in his apartment for a day after she died, just so that "more of her molecules would be in me".
Maybe those who are on a little different plane than the rest of us really do have some true and beneficial insights into the world - insights that most of us are just never able to see or understand.
Thank you for your post li77.
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I’m heartbroken to learn that moth has stopped treatment.
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Serenity, I’ve seen the video talk given by Randy Pausch and also read his book, both prior to mbc. Several years after his death, his wife wrote a memoir which I also read. All were very memorable and meaningful.
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Threetree- I've written elsewhere that I was born atheist into a devout Catholic family. I mostly went to parochial schools. Yet the whole time I found it difficult to accept what I was taught. I had lots of religion but no faith.
When a history teacher said that mythology started as a way to explain phenomena before scientists could, I extended that to religion. It's a way to control the masses. It's a way to comfort people about what happens after death or to answer the meaning of life. I like the physicist's explanation of death. Your brother isn't far off.
While we're not Buddhists, my husband and I like their idea of easing suffering. Moth did that in spades. I wrote to her that in doing so she has left an imprint on all the lives she touched in person and virtually. That goes beyond the physics of dying.
Divine - I confess since cancer I haven't read much on how people handle cancer or death except how to manage side effects of treatments. I used to think of death a lot before. 🙃 There's an old movie with Emma Thompson called Wit. She plays someone dying of cancer. I did enjoy watching it before cancer, but I don't think I could now. I prefer getting lost in cancer-free works.
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Moth posts updates here:
https://nevertellmetheodds2017.tumblr.com/
On Twitter she is Indefatigable/Margaret.
Have been unable to find the article she’s looking for, too.
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traveltext: I find it hard to believe in a God/Goddess, Hairy Thunderer or Cosmic Muffin. But I do believe that in nature everything is comprised of molecules and energy (whatever "energy" actually is) and that the energy gets dispersed, Like the light coming from a long dead star. We aren't gone, but our energy has gone somewhere out into the ether, the cosmos.
serenitystat: I don't think you have to believe in anything, just being a decent human being, cleaning up after yourself, offering a helping hand. Currently, the worst offenders are folks on the Far Right in the USA claiming to be Christians. I don't think Jesus' gospel included gratuitous cruelty.
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Oh yes, the Last Lecture is one of my favorite books.
I am so sorry to hear about Moth. Since BCO turned the site upside down, I no longer read many of the threads I used to follow. Can you give us a link to a thread where Moth is still active? Of course if it's a Stage 4 thread, those of who aren't there won't post. But I'd love to read her thoughts.
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You can read Moth's sad BCO posts here:
https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/163/topics/856706?page=2793#post_5762360
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I emailed Moth about two weeks ago and got a brief reply. She included all her online contact info.
"Thank you, that means a lot. I've been too confused often mentally too with bco. Hi to see you better elsewhere."
https://nevertellmetheodds2017.tumblr.com/
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For those of you looking for a connection to the universe, have you explored Pantheism? Regular Pantheism is kind of a one-with-nature thing, sometimes a little tree-huggy, but mostly nice. Scientific Pantheism is more an in-touch-with-the-universe, hail Gene Roddenberry vibe. It could just be me, but I sometimes suspected there were so-called Objectivists (Ayn Rand ick pooey 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮), involved, but it could just be my suspicious mind. And sadly, there is a contingent of Trek fans that lean that way (trying hard not to say incels, but I lost that battle 🤷), so there may be overlap between them and Sci-Pan.
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This was posted 8 hours ago on Mel's, so about 9:15 Friday night. Damn, but it's good she's with her family.
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Alice - Thanks so much for sharing all of the latest re Moth/Margaret. She seems like a wonderful person and I have always greatly appreciated her contributions to this forum. I'm so glad she has her daughter to help her now.
(As an aside and on another topic, I wanted to let you know that even though I do not consider myself an atheist, I can totally understand why many are, and I am one who has no problem whatsoever with things like your last supper cartoon, and the similar things posted by Wrenn, Divinemrsm, and others. I think we should all be able to laugh at anything and everything from time to time, granted there are certain times when certain jokes aren't called for.)
I too find the concept of pantheism very interesting. I think most all religions have "basics" that are shared and that they are all really looking to explain and do the same thing, e.g. "do unto others".
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Yes, thanks for the update on moth. It is difficult to hear but a sad reality on the forum where we have stage iv members.
I don’t think I’ve heard of pantheism so I will have to look into it. It sounds like something along the lines of how I view things.0 -
Thanks Traveltext & Alice for updating on Moth.
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More news on our lovelyfriend Moth.
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TravelText - Thank you so much for this update re Moth/Margaret.
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Thanks, Traveltext. It's also posted on Mel's thread so I hope a lot of people get to see it. I don't usually read that one, but heard it's where updates on Moth were posted so I've looked at it more recently. I wonder if we need a dedicated topic of updates of this type that anyone could find easily? Although the site is not so goid now, and so many people have left, it might be impossible.
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From Moth/Margaret’s daughter on Twitter:
Margaret died of breast cancer on August 12 at 4pm. She was at home surrounded by her family. There are no words.
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We have lost another beautiful sister. Heartsick.
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