Is anyone else an atheist with BC besides me?
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Too beautiful, "Anatma" - thanks for posting, where I can read it easily. I'm still and possibly forever will be on dial-up.
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Hi Fearless. My crisis of faith must have lasted 20 years. Then BC and a family who took a powder when I was diagnosed, loss of my husband, some hard years, finished it off. I too became agnostic and finally I just couldn't believe in a man in the sky any longer. Floundered around for awhile and have come to a sort of unsettled peace.
Hope you find your peace.
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Humanity and justice are the
principles on which to govern a state.
- Sun Tzu
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I think many religiions have nice quotes..but that is not a religion for me
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flannelette, is that a new addition to your family? I have an all grown up orange tabby. I didn't know him when he was that size. He'd been living outside and needed to be inside. He loves climate control! Enjoy that pencil-tail.0
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I have looked into many religions after I left the faith of my upbringing. I never found a religion that made sense . The philosophy of Buddhism is something I cherish, especially the teachings on kindness, compassion and equanimity but rebirth/reincarnation doesn't make sense to me. Now recycling certainly does make sense. We are made up of the stuff of the Big Bang and death is a reorganization of that stuff into something else.
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Flannelette - you have a new avatar! Do you have a new little kitty in your house?
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The wee kitten's our Sunny and that was him about 3 weeks old. A year and a half ago. I (we) volunteer for our Humane Society and someone had dumped a pregnant cat and people caught it and brought it to the Humane and next thing - we were the foster parents. After a month she had 7 kittens on a wicker chair in the porch. and we raised them, and I took pics all the time. So much fun! then, naturally, we were in tears at return to Humane society time so we kept mom and 2 kittens - they are the Mummy family - Sunny Mummy, Binky Mummy, and Mommy Mummy. I hope to give them all a turn here. Sick of looking at chemo-head me.
Our shelter is no-kill - nobody on death row! and most of baby kits & their moms are fostered, to socialize them, so it's easier to get a "forever home".
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Flannelette, I think I love you.
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River Rat - are you a cat lady too? we used to have ours on our houseboat - yes, I'm part river rat too, essentially same river, just further down, and I used to row them around the marsh in my canoe! a total nut case. but they loved it. have lots more kitten pictures......
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"Flannelette, I think I love you." -- River Rat
That makes two of us. Another cat lover.
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I love cats but don't have any pets anymore. The grandkids and grandpets keep me busy.
I love the mental pic I'm getting of rowing a cat around in a canoe.
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Flannelette - you are wonderful! Kitty is adorable.
Maya2 - your kitty is also adorable. Looks like my youngest when she was a kitty - blue eyes and the attitude as well.
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Isn't the blue-eyed thing just gorgeous? And their little ear-flaps unfolding. Not often I get to see it, since I'm not so clueless as I used to be about unwanted animals and for many years have spayed/neutered my cats.
Today's Wisdom of the East calendar:
To observe evil acts and
do nothing to stop them is to
share responsibility for such acts.
- Tsunesaburo Magikuchi
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I love the pink bottoms of their feet.... they are just tooooo cute.
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Another cat lover, here. I have two rescued boys. I'd have another one or two except DH put his foot down hard on that!
Funny, I woke up this moroning pondering reincarnation. Tough topic for my brain before a cup of coffee! My firend thinks her previous dog has come back as her new one. I haven't asked her about people she's lost...or does she think that because she misses her other dog so much that it's comforting to think it's back with her?
Is it/afterlife beliefs all about comfort...?
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Anne .. I think it is about comfort. I have no problem thinking of my beloved dog Bobo in heaven .. but me someday, not so much. Although it will give comfort for my family and friends to think that. I just believe that my last breath is my last breath.
Hope everyone is having a good day,
Bren
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did anyone read last week's Time magazine expounding Singularity?
very interesting
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Coming back for another life is what scares me most. What if I come back as a chicken in a chicken farm - and live my life caged up, or a dog that gets beaten by its owner. Do you think we stay the same sex each time we come back?
SoCalLisa, I haven't read it, is it online?
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Molly .. if we do come back as something else, I want to be my dog.
Lisa .. is there a link to the Time's article online? I think I'll check.
Bren
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http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2048138,00.html
Lisa .. is the article?
The difficult thing to keep sight of when you're talking about the Singularity is that even though it sounds like science fiction, it isn't, no more than a weather forecast is science fiction. It's not a fringe idea; it's a serious hypothesis about the future of life on Earth. There's an intellectual gag reflex that kicks in anytime you try to swallow an idea that involves super-intelligent immortal cyborgs, but suppress it if you can, because while the Singularity appears to be, on the face of it, preposterous, it's an idea that rewards sober, careful evaluation.
Bren
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Molly 52 - my thoughts precisely -could come back as a chicken? no thanks. IMHO heaven and hell are right here. I think that probably once you're done, you're done, and get recycled. sounds so harsh, put like that, but there are ways (I haven't reached) of understanding, or at least accepting it. Others have. The sheer improbabliblity of having to come to consciousness as a human is, to me, staggering. But I think once was enough, thank you very much. I have a friend who says- the first thing I do when I die and get to "the other side" where I join my friends and family is ask - what the hell WAS that?
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Yes - once was enough. Don't know if I have the strength to do it again. But it haunts me, that I have a purpose to fulfill ..... if I don't do it, I'll have to come back and try a second or third or fourth time. Problem is, I don't know what is my purpose.
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Generally I have found that philosophys which believe in rebirth/reincarnation seem to tie the next step to how you were as in this life. So once you become a human, unless you are REALLY Awful you don't come back as an animal on a lower level.
Re that singularity thing---very interesting. I think we heard a report on NPR about it the other week. DH and I immediately thought of the Cylons [sp] in Battle Star galactica.
I do think the world my monsters will live in will be unrecognizable from my own because of the technology. And I agree completely that the changes are exponential---I won an IPod back in 2001---it was the most high tech because you could load photographs on it! It was only a little bigger than a deck of playing cards yet you could load thousands of songs on it. But to charge it, you had to either use a computer or hook the line to a little transformer box.
My co-worker got her daughter an mini itouch for holiday gift. Its the size of a stamp, holds thousands of songs, can show movies and doesn't need a transformer to charge. And it cost maybe 1/3 what my Ipod cost 10 years ago yet has more computing power.
I hope the cyborgs will like me!
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Molly52: "Problem is, I don't know what is my purpose."
There in lies the rub.
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3monstamama - yes that seems to be my take from the hindu/buddhist philosophies. I guess this is a presumption of superiority of humans.
The native philosphy considers all to be equal. The trees, rocks, water, animals, people - all equal. As far as I know, we have no way to really know.
The native philosphy does give cause to think. If that tree is equal to me, do I have the right to cut it down? For use perhaps, but not abuse. It put a different, but similar spin on conserving our environment.
These are thoughts that go nowhere, although I find them interesting to ponder.
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molly52,
yes, I was thinking of the buddhist and hindu version. Not sure what other groups, off the top of my head, believe in reincarnation and not sure if they all interpret it the same way. But I do think that belief that human is the highest level is pretty common among humans. The pre-christian nordic stories have humans at the top of the food chain, well right under the gods, as do the greek and roman beliefs.
By "native" to whom do you refer? "native" americans? Native ugandans? Native peruvians? So many options. I seem to recall from all those anthropology classes that many many peoples would say a thank you to the spirit of the "object" before using it.
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Sorry, Native Canadians/Americans aka aboriginals.
It would be natural for humans to put themselves at the top of the food chain. Which makes the Native philosophy so interesting to me.
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I wonder if bears put themselves at the top of the food chain? Maybe it depends on what species you happen to be. And do dolphins think humans are complete idiots? What's the matter with us that we don't live in water? If only we could communicate better.
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Bren thanks for the link to the article that Lisa mentioned. My brain hurts now.
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