gearl's Profile

How many Careers have you had?

gearl comments on Jan 16, 2018:

Apple picker, factory worker, carpenter, inspector at a power plant, home builder, handy man, computer tech and retiree. After not getting a college education I had to be versatile and keep taking whatever I could get. We always paid the bills.

What are your favorite methods of procrastination? Do you procrastinate?

gearl comments on Jan 16, 2018:

I've never been a procrastinator or gambler. Now my wife and daughter!

Is it snowing where your at?

gearl comments on Jan 16, 2018:

I wish. We need some badly. It's really dry here.

And how cold is it where you are?

gearl comments on Jan 16, 2018:

I live in the White Mountains of Arizona. Unlike the East, we have experienced the warmest winter that I have seen after living here since 1976. Normally our temperatures are about the same as the midwest but this year it has gotten down to 20 a couple of times and 60s in the day. I burn wood and have used about half what I would have used normally. No snow on the ski-run either and they have been able to make very little. It's also the driest winter with virtually no moisture for the last few months.

Do you know anybody that refused medicine to a family member?

gearl comments on Jan 16, 2018:

I was friends with a young man that was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident and his parents refused to allow him to have a blood transfusion because they were Jehovah's Witnesses. He died.

The objective meaning and purpose of life

gearl comments on Jan 15, 2018:

There is no objective meaning and purpose of life.

Kids

gearl comments on Jan 15, 2018:

Whatever she wanted but I emphasized critical thinking. "If you think I'm wrong tell me" and she did. She's a junior at university and an atheist.

So does anyone out there have any good friends that they are able to have friendly conversations ...

gearl comments on Jan 15, 2018:

I made friends with the pastor of a Baptist Church. He would call me to be his Devil's Advocate. When things started to go awry with bickering in the church, he quit and went back to school and became a nurse. He is still religious but much less so and we're farther apart (location) so I don't see him too often any more, but we're still friends.

Besides religion, what's an example of magical thinking?

gearl comments on Jan 15, 2018:

Thinking that Trump would make America great.

What is with the hatred of police officers?

gearl comments on Jan 15, 2018:

I have no problem with cops in general. I do get at least a call every other week wanting me to donate to a fund to help retired cops. I know they get a hell of a better pension than me because I don't have one, just SS so why should I give them money. That's ridiculous. Most cops have a job to do and do it and for that I give them all the credit in the world. If they are bad cops then they should lose their jobs like any other occupation. They put their clothes on the same as the rest of us.

Things like this gives me a smile and hope that the future generations of kids will be less harder ...

gearl comments on Jan 14, 2018:

I went to school in the 1950s and 60s and what I remember is that science, in the school I went to, was looked up to as something to attain. Scientists especially Einstein were admired as much as movie stars. Even in the first grade our curiosity toward science was encouraged. I'm not seeing that early encouragement now.

Why do so many Americans not believe in vaccines, climate changes or evolution?

gearl comments on Jan 14, 2018:

I tend to believe that the same people that believe in magical sky creatures, souls, heaven and hell without evidence are also not going to look for evidence about vaccines, climate change or evolution.

Where are all the new female atheist book writers and famous debaters these days/

gearl comments on Jan 13, 2018:

Here are a few more to add to @ VictoriaNotes’s list. Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley, Emma Thompson, Katharine Hepburn, Julianne Moore, Zora Neale Hurston, Diana Nyad, Helen Keller, Sarah Silverman, Emma Watson, Natalie Portman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jodie Foster, Lisa Randall, Sarah Haider, Maryam Namazie, Chelsea Handler, Jaclyn Glenn, Laci Green, Cristina Rad, Deven Green, Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci.

Is Holy Water supposed to sizzle when it hits your skin? Asking for a friend.

gearl comments on Jan 13, 2018:

Ask Sam and Dean.

It's Time to Start Calling Evangelicals What They Are: The American Taliban

gearl comments on Jan 13, 2018:

It was encouraging to see "The Handmaids Tale" up for awards. A lot of people see the correlation.

If you don't believe in God , and feel that man made religion is just a vain attempt to tell some ...

gearl comments on Jan 13, 2018:

I would imagine, without evidence, that belief in the afterlife came about through dreams. Our mind shuts down somewhat a bit like dying, and yet we dream about fantastic events. We now know quite a bit about dreaming but there is no evidence for life after death.

I am researching nuclear energy.

gearl comments on Jan 12, 2018:

I'm with you but as yet it seems to be a subject that people on both sides of the political equation fight tooth and nail. I see it as an educational problem but how to solve the problem I don't know.

When I first told someone I was an Atheist they said I didn’t seem like an Atheist. ?????? Lol

gearl comments on Jan 12, 2018:

I've got it a couple of times.

I always had doubts about the story of Lot.

gearl comments on Jan 11, 2018:

Perhaps it's just a story told around a campfire or among a bunch of guys dreaming about having a lot of forbidden sex.

Is it just me who thinks 99% of sexually oriented jokes are authored by men (boys)?

gearl comments on Jan 11, 2018:

I tend to seek out female comedians so I watch about as many women as men and I don't see that difference. Women can tell jokes as well as the men and they can be more effective with them.

Technology and age

gearl comments on Jan 10, 2018:

I've been a computer tech for about 30 years. I can still fix them but there is just a lot of stuff I don't like. I have a Facebook page but check in every couple of weeks. I don't give a crap if people know what I do every minute. I have a cell phone but only use it when I travel. I don't want to be bothered by people when I'm camping or at a movie. It's a difference in generations mostly but I also know a lot of older folks who just love for everyone to know every time they take a crap.

Has anyone else had one of those friends that expects god to provide for them yet won't make the ...

gearl comments on Jan 9, 2018:

I've been married for 21 years to a wonderful Catholic woman but over that span of years she has become less and less Catholic. She hasn't gone to church for about 10 years. What you describe is the very reason that she has fallen away. She sees the hypocrisy of these folks and bitches about it and I love it.

There is too much hate in the world.

gearl comments on Jan 9, 2018:

In an ideal society I agree but today there a a whole lot of people who don't live by the principals you suggest. We live in a society where the majority of folks want to legalize pot and the government wants to override the will of the majority. The same with abortion, worship and on and on. Speaking up against somebody else's views isn't hate but merely speaking up against somebody else's views. There is too much hate involved, I agree, but keeping quiet is the last thing we need to do.

In making the case for a benevolent God how would you explain such suffering in the world?

gearl comments on Jan 9, 2018:

It's good to know what the other guy is going to say but this is one argument I'd be on the against side.

Some people said there's God. My issue is who are the parents?

gearl comments on Jan 9, 2018:

According to Gnosticism, the Demiurge, the entity who "fashioned and shaped" the material world and was identified by some as Yahweh had Sophia as his mother. She was the last of the Aeons created by the father god and she became separated from herself for a time but on reuniting herself in the passion of the moment gave birth. The result, the Demiurge was pretty ignorant about what was going on and wasn’t even aware of his own roots. His creation, Eve assisted by Sophia in the lower form appeared as the snake and thus Eve gained Gnosis while the Demiurge, learning of it cast them out of the garden. Now you know the rest of the story.

Who wrote thIs book called bIble?

gearl comments on Jan 9, 2018:

Some guy named Anonymous.

Ginuwine Refused To Kiss A Trans Woman On Live TV And Now The Internet Is At War

gearl comments on Jan 9, 2018:

Since when does anyone have to kiss someone else?

These words believed to be from Jesus, sealed and prolonged the enslavement of the black person.

gearl comments on Jan 9, 2018:

There is nothing in the Bible that condemns slavery. There are scriptures that condone slavery. I don't see that scripture does either.

I'm reading Michael Wolff's "The Fire and Fury," the expose of the workings of the Trump White ...

gearl comments on Jan 9, 2018:

I just watched Colbert’s interview of Wolff. He said a couple of things that interested me. Early in the interview he said that the book is nothing more than an affirmation of reporting that has largely already been done. I agree. He also later said that many of the accounts had several sources that were very different in how the event played out and he just had to make personal judgement of how he would present it in the book. In other words there is a lot of room for honest speculation of how accurate it is but I felt he was candid about it. I’m about 40% through the book and a lot of it is just retelling of things we have already known while there are also a lot of things that are not. I’m 74 and I believe this is the first purely political book I have ever read but I wanted to read it because it is so controversial and make my own mind up about it and not listen to hearsay.

Race/ethnicity

gearl comments on Jan 9, 2018:

As a partner in an interracial marriage I will just say that race means nothing but culture can mean a lot. It sounds like you have already have given it considerable thought and I agree with your roommate.

Today, everyone in my apartment building got handwritten note from a Jehovah's Witness in upstate ...

gearl comments on Jan 9, 2018:

I'm an ex-JW. I'm curious what it was about? Their headquarters are now in upstate NY. Maybe it's something new they're trying.

I want to meet and hang out with like minded people.

gearl comments on Jan 9, 2018:

I was born in Toledo and raised in Lancaster. If my nieces are any example I feel for you. I've been gone for forty some years though.

Why does it anger you when a person tries to convert you to their belief?

gearl comments on Jan 9, 2018:

I thought you answered your own question well.

Opinion, please....

gearl comments on Jan 9, 2018:

I don't believe in Ancient Aliens either but I sure wouldn't make an issue out of it especially if I cared for someone. My goodness there are important issues. Good luck whatever you do.

What I'm reading at the moment.

gearl comments on Jan 9, 2018:

I've read several including about a year ago "Sapiens" by Yuval Noah Harari. It was very interesting.

Interpretation of the bible

gearl comments on Jan 9, 2018:

Tendrix, every church interprets the Bible differently from each other. They go to great ends to make that book conform to what they already believe. It's not that hard to do because it's so contradictory. Non-believers just take what it says at face value and they don't have preconceived notions about what it says. Just read the very first chapter and listen to different preachers and you will hear hundreds of versions of creation. The earth is 6,000 years old, 49,000, millions and yes, some billions. I read it and it says there was a firmament above the earth that divided the waters from the waters and the heavenly bodies were embedded in the structure. The Persians and Babylonians believed that also. I can just say that it is an ancient myth by bronze age people who tried to explain something as best they could, and let it go at that. Face value.

Someone made a comment about the flu shot.

gearl comments on Jan 9, 2018:

For several years I got sick for weeks on end every winter. It was miserable to say the least. I've been getting my flu shots for about five years now and haven't been sick in that time. I believe in them.

Nature and 'spirituality'

gearl comments on Jan 9, 2018:

I feel awe and peace. Spirituality uses the word spirit and I prefer more natural terms. It's probably the same feeling though.

In a discussion with a believer, I was asked, "where was my moral authority?