Is anyone else an atheist with BC besides me?
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My dad had esophageal cancer. Most times it is diagnosed well after it has spread. And it spreads pretty quickly to the lymph system, stomach, lungs and other organs.
It looked like he was treated with chemo. If it is advanced they will use radiation and/or stent. I hope he gets another 5 years like he said in the video.
Bren
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I have had six different oncologists due to the Navy transferring people and they have all done breast exams...both men and women...I do say that if you felt uncomfortable with the way in which it was done, then you should change doctors..all of mine have given me a cover up and either pulled the screen when I undressed or left the room...but your gut reaction is important...listen to it
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sorry, that was just a mistake
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Bumping the thread . . . mainly to say, "hi" (hi!), but also to flag this website:
Y'all are going to love it. It's the brainchild of two guys who are themselves observant Christians, but who bridle at seeing their faith hijacked by the forces of intolerance, ignorance and humorlessness.
Enjoy!
Linda
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I was raised as a good Catholic. In college,after a particular philosophy, religion, and literature class, I began to wonder about "religion". The concept of "God" is universal through all ages.. I found a book called "Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and Religious Belief" and began reading it. It posed an interesting theory that our brains are wired for transcendental experience. Unfortunately, chid-raising got in the way and I never did finish the book. And I wonder is the idea of a "god" something that humans need. Do we use him/her as a crutch for when things go bad we can blame him/her? Or do we need to have someone to run to ( i.e. pray to ) when life deals us a problem over which we have no control?
A few years ago I realized that I do believe in a supreme being and I can reconcile belief in a god with the science of evolution. But I can not tolerate the close-mindedness of organized religions.
When people say that they will keep me in their prayers, I respond with a simple thank you.
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You may have seen the video of Christopher Hitchens discussing his esophageal cancer. One thing he wanted to make certain of was that no one would say he had a death bed conversion. He said that if someone did report that they would be lying or Hitchens would be out of his mind on pain killers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgCq2T-v-Mo
Now, in his latest book, Stephen Hawking has made it clear where he stands as he comes closer to his death and explains that the universe can spontaneously come from nothing. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100902/lf_nm_life/us_britain_hawking
"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist," Hawking writes.
"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."
I have been recently told by someone that I will have a death bed conversion because 'there are no atheists in fox holes.' I corrected her false impression with other links but Hitchens and Hawking both make it clear that atheists can face their own deaths with equanimity. I wish them both ease.
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It really did take me a bit of time to decide if that Christwire site was serious or satirical. The loony stuff some people say is waaay too close to what is on that site!
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I know exactly what you mean. Someone, somewhere is surely posting a link to Christwire to "prove" their point in some discussion board debate. ;-)
I find that both hysterically funny and deeply disturbing.
L
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Betty is so helpful in explaining things from the OT to modern politics.
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Lewing - I agree it is disturbing and I think this is one example of a huge problem - too many people take things out of context and without doing any quality control on the info, to prove points about all sorts of things - that is the danger of the internet and its readily available and uncensored information. As a librarian I try to educate kids on the need for verifying info sources before using them but you can see they think I am being pedantic - they seem to think if it is on the net it must be ok - scary.
Madalyn - thanks for introducing me to Betty Bowers! And I quite enjoyed Christwire too.
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What the hell has the "God" to do with this?0
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why did this just jump over to another thread?
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But taking things out of context is the American Way!
I picked up an interesting book this weekend called "The Muslim next door." It basically confirms all the stuff I remember from my history/poly sci classes in college about how distorted the reports that are put out --by news by whomeever--on islam and muslims, how half of a line of scripture is being quoted and not the whole in order to support whatever opinion one is espousing. And of course, its done by both sides.
Is it that we as a people or as humans "need" an enemy, "need" a "them" to be "us" against?
I don't get it.
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I think in caveman times, fearing "the other" was probably a good trait because what we didn't recognize could end up being deadly. To me, however, learning how to set aside these types of caveman traits is part of the goal and struggle of becoming civilized.
--CindyMN
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In order to keep war going and to get good people who wouldn't hurt a fly to kill another human being, the other side must be dehumanized. There is a great deal of money to be made through war and the weapons of war. People depend on war for their livelihoods.
The problem for the Middle East is not creating peace but what will be done with all the young people who's only way of making a living is waging war. The same goes for the USA. There are 3,000,000 people directly involved in the US military. This does not count military contractors, businesses surrounding military bases, arms and weapons manufacturing. Arms sales alone add up to $62,000,000,000 dollars a year not counting the cost of weapons directly used by the military. War is big business.
If we ever were allowed to see people as being just like us, war would be greatly reduced and much, much profit would be lost. To make certain that won't happen we are carefully taught that "they" are not "us".
My "Muslim Next Door" is my oncologist. He is a great guy.
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"War is big business." Didn't Pres. Eisenhower warn about this 50-odd years ago?
Unfortunately, he didn't foresee the 24/7 cable news networks which are always eager to take tiny, relatively inconsequential events (balloon boy, Pastor Jones etc.) and blow them up into "breaking news" to fill up their round-the-clock programming. I think the most egregious, and potentially the most frightening and damaging, has been the whole ground zero (NOT) mosque (NOT) controversy. Inciting hatred and bigotry, these Cable News Networks have a lot to answer for, and of course they'll never be held responsible...<sigh>
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Hi, ladies. I know I've been MIA for a while, but I was trying to stay away from online during the summer and just sort let all my communities drop. Unfortunately, I find myself back because I need the support of my sisters during a little bump in my road. My PET scan last week confirm liver mets. Ouch. Not happy about that. One of my friends asked me how come I was not bitter. She could not understand why I could just "sit back and take this" without being bitter. I reminded her that I don't believe in any sky daddy who is supposed to be keeping me safe. So to whom should I direct any "bitterness"? My family? For what? Myself? Again, why? At nature? Yea, the fact that cancer exists in nature sucks no end, but . . . . it's not like nature does this "on purpose" and there was never any promise from nature that we would either live forever or live illness free.
I'm pissed, because this sucks. But bitter? I'm so glad I don't have the burden of religious fairy tales to add one more crappy emotion to my list! Bitterness I can do without.
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Ah, Michele, I agree with Madalyn - CRAP!
I've been skeptical about religion and the existance of a 'higher being' since I was about 10 or 12. I never could figure out how there can be so many different religions, each with their own 'higher being (or beings)' and each one believing that they're got it right and everyone else is wrong. It made no sense to me, even as a child. My skepticism crossed over the line to disbelief when confronted with a personal tragedy. I cannot believe that a god would be vindictive and cause someone's death because of something they did or didn't do. I cannot believe that a god who is supposedly watching over us and listening to our prayers and rewarding us for being good would allow a good person to get cancer, or allow a little child to be abducted and murdered, or allow so much of the world's population to live in such squalid conditions. I cannot believe that a god who is supposed to be good would 'test' us by allowing horrible things to happen either to us or those we love (who many be totally innocent). I cannot believe that a god who is fair and just would be responsible for one woman's survival from BC but would allow another equally deserving woman to develop mets. It's ludicrous.
We live in a world where $#!+ happens. When it happens to us, it's not because of something we did or didn't do and there is no 'higher being' at the controls who's decided to allow this to happen or, worse yet, caused it to happen. It just happens. Random acts of crap. Michele, I am glad that you don't have to deal with the burden of wondering why this happened to you. It's happened, you have every right to be pissed about it and then you will figure out what you will deal with this.
((((Hugs))))
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Thanks, ladies. I knew you'all would understand.
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Michelle - sorry to hear about your liver mets. My thoughts are with you and I am hoping real hard that treatment will get rid of them. It is funny to me to see you ladies write "pissed" meaning angry - in NZ it means drunk!
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Same here Raeinnz, but it's also used in 'pissed off' here, which means angry too.
Some of our English language differences are quite funny when you hear them used in all innocence by those from another country.
Sheila.
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Yep Sheila - we use 'pissed off' for angry as well. Maybe we have added the 'off' because of our different meaning for 'pissed'. I guess it goes the other way too - some of the things we say must be a bit odd for others. It's all good though - we seem to understand eachother and that is the main thing eh? See there's one that might be a NZism - 'all good' meaning everything is ok or that's ok with me.
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Me too, newly diagnosed and athiest. Am I venting if I say the god faith keep it up lingo is just a lack of education and imagination?
We have both or plenty, or I do as an athiest. I wish you recognition, respect, and love.
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Ginab, taking this opportunity to wish you the very best. Hope you will be in the best of health and put this very worrisome time in the past very soon. It's interesting what you said about faith as lack of education and imagination. I saw a segment on the news the other day where they asked folks, some just leaving church after a service, very basic questions on religion. The purpose of the study was to compare knowledge of religion between the religious and non-religious. And by a wide margin the non-religious group scored higher, had a greater knowledge of the bible, old and new testament than the religious folks. Haven't we all heard ... "I don't know for sure, but I'll be a believer just in case".
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I'm in a discussion on another board under the topic "Death Anxiety" -- it's an interesting discussion and interesting in the difference in which theists view death and atheists view death. In the course of the commentary, one poster posted something that pretty much sums up my feellings on our "immortality." It's actually a quote from Schmeelkster:
Here's a way of approaching the universe: You are a tiny speck of insignificant biological material in an immense universe that probably defies your brain's ability of understanding. Yet you are remarkable, in innumerable ways. Every second of every day you are a walking ecosystem of life, housing trillions of microbes that continuously interact with you to keep both you and them alive. Your body is constantly building and rebuilding itself, encoding information on simple strains of molecules at the speed of jet engines, in each and every nucleus-possessing cell in your body. You are a walking, talking, living, breathing orchestra of life, a beautiful display of the potential inherent in our particular universe.
You are the remarkable product of an unbroken, let me say that again, UNBROKEN line of descendants stretching all the way back to the very first interactions of seemingly pointless inanimate molecules. You share a common ancestry with every living thing ever, including the estimated 106 billion humans who have ever lived. You are tied to the trees and the birds and the small phytoplankton that gently ride the crests and dips of the oceans of this world. You are part of the vibrant tapestry of what we refer to as life, a piece of art that stretches back billions upon billions of years. Everything this universe has thrown at you and your ancestors has been roundly defeated - from harsh radiation, to extraterrestrial objects, to volcanic eruptions and more. You are a symbol of utter perseverance, of the sheer will to continue onwards. You are a cry in the dark, the voice of one who will not be quiet.
So now you've realized that there is no inherent meaning to existence. So what? This doesn't mean life has suddenly lost meaning - it means there was no meaning in the first place. So you haven't actually lost anything. Instead, you have gained a wonderful opportunity. Give existence the meaning it is seeking. MAKE a purpose for yourself. Maybe it should be your kids, or maybe it should be giving from the bounty you have (because let us face reality - if you have an internet connection and personal computer, you are in the top 10%, maybe even the top 1%, of humanity). Maybe you should learn a new skill, explore a new facet of creation that you never realized was open to you.===============================
I don't know about you, but it makes me feel good to know that within me is the stuff of the stars. We each have in us a piece of the universe and that piece will continue on and on and on and on. . . . .
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Oh, Michele, I couldn't agree more. I've got tears in my eyes just thinking of it!
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Here is a link to the blog on which I found it. It's a lot longer. It was originally a reply to a woman who is overwhelmed with the "nothingness" -- It's a fun read.
http://alstefanelli.wordpress.com/2010/09/19/the-meaning-of-life/
The star stuff comment was a nod to Carl Sagan who reminds us that we have within our every cell the same stuff that is in everything in the universe. The Stuff of Stars.
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Ezscriiibe,
I am so sorry to hear your news. Have you decided on a treatment plan yet?
My brother, a Marine Corps Veteran, has a t-shirt that says
Foxtrot Union Charlie Kilo --- CANCER
We are all of us stars in the universe. Our life is part of the universe and at our death our matter and energy is still part of the universe. Physicists say that information is never lost so even the activities of our lives remain written in the stars.
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notself - I want one of those tee shirts! No quarter given, just like this disease.
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Hehe. I just had a "born again" show up in one of the other forums I post on who was railing against non-theists and how arrogant we are. He seems to feel we care about his rantings and doesn't realize that the threats he gives us from his imaginary friend have no relevence to us! He did try to do the "god is punishing you" over my cancer diagnosis. I told him that I'm sorry he feels that way because a lot of other women in the same boat as I who are highly religious and believe in the same imaginary being he does are also dying of cancer. So apparently, according to his own logic, you're damned if you don't . . . and damned if you do! Nice!
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