Is anyone else an atheist with BC besides me?
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HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Alice, that meme wins the internet! I love it!!!!!
😂😂
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Love the meme Alice.
My paternal grandmother kept a kosher kitchen. One set for meat, one set for dairy. I was forever mixing up glasses and dishes, since my family didn’t keep kosher. My grandfather kept a hot plate and frying pan in the basement. That way he could cook bacon whenever he wanted. He also had a tattoo of a pig with a K (for kosher) on his foot. Grandpa was quite the rebel.
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Grace. There, I said it. Let’s eat.
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Cardplayer, I adore your Grandpa!
Spookiesmom, I remember kids saying "Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub, yaaay God" to piss off adults. I thought it got right to the point.
I need to find something to use on Thanksgiving (or any day) that thanks the earth. Maybe this riff on a Christian blessing that I just thought of:
Thank you for the food we eat, thank you for the friends we meet, thank you for the life we live, thank you, Earth, for all you give.
Suggestion welcome!
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Alice, I like that one.
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Alice - Funny meme. Never heard the "Rub-a-dub-dub" one that kids said. When I was a kid, that sentiment was expressed with, "Good food, good meat, good God, let's eat!"
I do respect that grace means a lot to many people, so whenever I'm at a table where someone says grace, I just sit quietly and politely. We never said it while I was growing up, but some of my friends families always did.
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One way to test the waters is to say "Blessed Be" instead of "Amen". All the pagans and earth-religion people will look up.
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Alice - since we have different beliefs in our family, at Thanksgiving we go around the table and say what we’re thankful for. No prayers.
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Cardplayer, what a nice tradition!
Miriandra, that would get a couple different responses: a knowing wink from the open-minded, and an "amen" from those who latched onto the "blessed" part. I was shocked and highly amused to see a FB meme that said something similarly snarky, and all the comments were "amen" with crosses and other silly paraphernalia. Which merely reinforced my opinion that the more religious people are, the lower their IQs.
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That nailed it perfectly.
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Yes, I'll always be respectful of someone saying grace by being silent and a small bow of the head. There were almost 20 people at the lunch I went to, seated at three long tables pushed together. We were in the middle of a noisy restaurant. The upper half of the table could not hear the lower half. Those of us in the middle could barely make out what was being said. I think sitting through three different groups at the same table saying grace and sort of overlapping each other was too much. Plus the last woman announced loudly and authoritatively that she would say grace, all puffed up and important. No one asked her to do it. She could have been more humble. She also wasn't the first to initiate the prayer. Only when she heard others doing it did she try to capitalize on making herself look like some pious and holy leader. Grr.
Of course, I never act unbecomingly because the minute you do, the religious ones are talking behind your back about how rude you are and how you're in desperate need of their god. I won't give them ammunition.
Growing up Catholic family, we said grace, "bless us oh Lord and these thy gifts…." I like the Earth prayer, Alice. I had a Thanksgiving blessing that didn't mention God but spoke about being thankful for the wonderful harvest bounty as well as family and friends both near and far, but I've misplaced it. It was a combo of something I found online and a few personal tweaks.
The thing is, I'm very grateful for the food I have. I never take it for granted. It's just that I don't profess that the bounty is some gift from God. I have two causes I always donate to, and one is food for the needy. There are several food pantries in my area that where I donate both food and cash. (The other cause I get behind is winter coats for both kids and adults.)
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Divine - I totally know what you mean about the loud, showy "could have been more humble" thing. I also know about large restaurant groups where the one end of the tables can't hear the other. I've been at work things that wound up that way (no grace, just couldn't hear each other).
My job often takes me to visit people in long term care facilities, and many of those are run by different religious denominations. Most places you would never know that they were owned and operated by a religious group, but one in this area is well known and very "showy" about being run by an evangelical group. The agency I work for has had a few clients residing there over the years. and so I've visited them there. Well, I was super shocked when I went there once, and had to have a meeting with some of the employees, about a client's status, and they insisted on beginning the meeting with a "let's all join hands and start this meeting with a prayer" thing. I had never encountered anything like that at all in a work situation. They just grabbed my hands (from both sides, different people, "prayer circle" kind of thing), and began to say some out loud prayer. I was both shocked and highly offended, as they never asked me about any of this, but simply imposed their way on me - and it was a business situation! I was so offended that I wanted to say something, but I also didn't want to make waves for my employer (small family business of raised as, but non practicing, non showy Catholics) or cause any problems for our poor elderly disabled client who resided there, so I did the respectful minutes of silence while they prayed, and didn't shake away their hands, although I desperately wanted to - and to wash them. That rude "holier than thou" imposition of their values on others is simply inexcusable and totally uncalled for. I too do not understand how these people can consider themselves "Christians".
Alice and Divine - Re the thankfulness to the earth. I like that idea too, but I don't think it is necessarily "atheist", like I don't really consider myself an atheist either, but I do really appreciate this thread. I'm more of a "sometimes agnostic", "secular Christian", pantheist, etc. Anyway, many cultures and religions honor the earth as in "Mother Earth", a goddess. Gaia was the Greek goddess of the earth, and I think the Romans had one too - Terra? I think some Native American groups have a "Father Sky" (God?) and "Mother Earth" (Goddess?) perspective where each is responsible and to be thanked for various aspects of life, and yes, the "Mother Earth" figures are invariably the ones seen as providing good harvests, i.e. food, comfort, warmth, etc.
I just find religion and "non-religion" and the religions of all cultures and times and places fascinating. Most all seem to have some common threads and that's where I think any religious "truth" that exists lies - in the common themes of things like "do unto others". Most all religions and "non-religions" have that basic tenet and others.
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“…they never asked….but simply imposed their way on me. …..That rude "holier than thou" imposition of their values on others is simply inexcusable and totally uncalled for. I too do not understand how these people can consider themselves "Christians".
threetree, your post has finally given me the words to explain what I feel: “imposed upon". That they are *imposing* their religious beliefs on everyone present and insisting that everyone go along is what pisses me off. By doing so, they're saying their's is the only one, true, right belief, so get in line. They will never so much as pause to consider someone may not hold the same beliefs. It is arrogant, self-righteous bullshit. A few people, like Miss Loud Prayer, who knows I don't pray or go to church, seem to like to try and taunt me with their beliefs, maybe hoping I'll blow up at them. I won't. Avoid them, tho, I will.
Btw, I consider myself agnostic, too.
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Not just "imposed upon." ASSAULTED. The "hands off without permission" can cover everything except maybe emergency medical intervention.
ETA I am personally somewhat pantheist with a side order of Secular Christian, which is what's behind the blessing I wrote.
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I LOVE that song. So true. My DD found it, I have it on my phone, sing along in my car at the top of my lungs.
Watch football in their underpants. Y’all have to listen to it!!!!!
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I was raised in a "mixed" religion family, but, both my parents were very vocal atheists. when I was 9, I went to a sleep away camp- when someone asked me if I believed in god I said no- no one in my cabin spoke to me for the rest of the week- quick lesson. never did that again.
at this camp you had to go to a service on Sundays-, there were two choices, general or Catholic- I had no idea - someone said- go to the Catholic one- you get hot chocolate afterwards- I went- took holy communion- had no idea-
later with kids, I thought that they shouldn't be as ignorant as me- I felt closest to Buddhism- but, be a good person is the key, have a moral compass- don't use religion to convince people you are good-
Love both of the songs
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The Atheist song is a hoot!
Funny that this clip popped up on my FB feed a few minutes ago. Very apropos.
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Excellent!
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Funny one, Wrenn!
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That was great!
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So Tennessee has apparently decided that the godless unwashed need to be singled out from the good christian sheep.
TikToker Reveals TN License Plates Can Be Dangerous
Hopefully they won't last long. They're already looking at redoing them because automatic traffic cameras can't read them at night.
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I used to be a churchgoer every Sunday, then it became going for a Christmas Eve service although my mother and I always enjoyed O Holy Night by one of the choir members more than the actual service. I do not currently have any particular faith and don't tell people I am praying for them, I let them know I will be thinking of them. I do not mind if someone says they are praying for me though.
As long as people don't try to tell me that I am wrong in my non belief, I don't bother them about their faith in whatever religion they subscribe to. I do like thinking about putting my family I have lost, pets and human alike into my mind so I can imagine seeing them when I pass on. That would comfort me.
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Just catching up. Love this thread. I dipped into my archive to retrieve the article I wrote e a few years ago on atheism. People here were generous in sharing their thoughts
https://malebc.org/thanks-for-your-offer-of-prayer-but-im-an-atheist/
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TravelText - As always, a very nice post. Thought provoking, indeed. I love this thread too, but as I've said on here before, I'm really not an atheist, but a "kinda/sorta agnostic", "sometimes Episcopalian", "sometimes pantheist", or whatever. I can totally understand why some are atheists however, and I have no problem with it.
I saw an interesting interview with a nurse once, during the height of Covid deaths, before we had any vaccines or anything. She was an ICU nurse who was with many, many people at their worst and she made the observation that those who said their condition was all "in God's hands" and/or that they were just going to "turn it all over to God", etc. invariably died, while those who felt differently, didn't always die. Some of those people who didn't die, were believers, but more of the "pray, but row for shore" type who also thought there was more to it than just praying or turning it all over to God. I honestly don't know what the ultimate answer is, but I do think it's not just blind faith and feeling like everything is simply "in God's hands". I think we all have some individual control over parts of our troubles, and need to look to both science, our own personal strengths, the beauty and wonder of nature, and the love and support of others, etc. to successfully navigate through this mess. Some of us might make it, and some of us might not, but I think we will all have a longer and more fulfilling time on this earth if we are proactive and don't take the "cop-out" view of just "turning it over to God".
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I have a friend in New Orleans who is a Voudon priestess. She says the trick of "removing curses" is like opening a door or knocking down a wall. The path is clear, but you still gotta walk through it to get where you wanna be.
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I'm not looking forward to news stories about Hurricane Ian with the inevitable Bible Belters proclaiming that gawd saved them/their property/whatever while surrounded by destruction, which, if their tiny brains could think, means their gawd was a real SOB to their neighbors who lost everything. Just once, I'd like a reporter to ask one of those self-centered shits about gawd not saving the family down the street.
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A friend just sent a pic of where her moms condo and car WAS. Not there now. Fortunately mom is up north so is ok. Agree, why did sky daddy allow this and let me escape with some twigs in my yard. Was supposed to be a direct hit on me.Why did a “ loving” sky daddy allow it at all
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Hey Wolf, can you stick your foot a little farther into your mouth?
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