genessa's Profile

Hello my beautiful heathen friends.

genessa comments on Jan 23, 2019:

i never connected god with death, so that isn't the scary part for me. when i believed in a god i didn't have any conception of a heaven or hell; judaism doesn't have the same kind of afterlife christianity does. so that, to me, isn't a scary part of atheism. it's scary, but no less scary than before i was an atheist. since i can't think of anything else scary about atheism, i guess nothing. g

Women, gays, transgenders in the U.

genessa comments on Jan 22, 2019:

you read that the israelis determined that women didn't work out so well in the military? that's funny, because women are still obligated to serve in israel, and In 2014, they appointed major oshrat bacher as israel's first female combat battalion commander. that isn't exactly a vote of no confidence! you read wrong. if the problem of rape is rampant in the u.s. military, then the people who need to be eliminated from the military are the rapists, duh! that would be the straight men. you are right that the men do not need to be educated not to rape. they need to be prosecuted when they do. if the army needs to become all female so be it. as for trans people in the army, they're just people. if they want to serve and are qualified, there is no reason to ban them. or we could ban black people like we used to, when we stupidly thought blacks were inferior. g

Do you think Jesus actually existed?

genessa comments on Jan 22, 2019:

i don't know (or care that much) but if he existed and was even minimally as described (divinity aside) he was jewish and did not have a greek name. if the greek name (thanks to paul's unsuccessful attempts to convert the greeks to judaism and his successful attempts to convince them jesus was a god) was an attempt to keep his real name more or less intact, his real name was likely joshua or yehoshua. at any rate, if he existed he may have been an essene. if he wasn't an essene, he was surely married with kids. it is almost impossible to believe we could ever know for sure whether he actually existed, but if he did, he was almost certainly nothing like the person portrayed in the christian bible (ANY version thereof), again divinity aside. anything he is said there to have said or done that might accidentally be historical is probably a stranger's interpretation of then-traditional judaism (the last supper's being a normal seder, for example, or his being pissed off at money-lenders being in the temple -- it has always been traditional for money not to be brought INTO temple much less dealt with!) understood through the lens of his judaism, he was more likely a rebel against change than for it, unless of course he was an essene, in which case he was one of the first jewish monks (not called that of course), recruiting young men into the religion instead of marrying and having kids and perpetuating the religion and culture that way. again, we'll never know. he could be as fictional as ulysses, or just a real guy who got fictionalized, and it won't make a bit of difference to those who invoke his name in reverence. g

Anyone else who’s a closeted atheist? Message me, let’s be friends:)

genessa comments on Jan 22, 2019:

no one is closeted here even if they're closeted everywhere else, so it's fine if y'all want to message each other but it's not necessary with regard to anyone's being closeted. g

Is the Atheist Community a Cult? - Genetically Modified Skeptic [youtube.com]

genessa comments on Jan 22, 2019:

it is a ridiculous question, and could only be asked seriously by someone who did not know what a cult was and also did not know what an atheist was. g

It does not matter if you are pro life or pro choice! It about the rights of women to control ...

genessa comments on Jan 22, 2019:

i agree with what you've said, of course, but i want to put forth a quibble that doesn't change the premise but is nonetheless important. the people who call themselves pro-life aren't. they may or may not be against the death penalty; they tend to be for it. they may or may not be for taking care of children who have already been born and need help; they tend not to be for that. they are pro-birth, and pro-controlling-women, not pro-life. meanwhile, no one is pro-abortion. reasonable people are pro-choice, not pro-abortion. and as has been said many times, if they don't like abortion, then they should choose not to have one, and not interfere with the lives of those who also might not like abortion but need one and therefore choose one. g

Steiner education, should it be a choice available to parents through the sate system or not?

genessa comments on Jan 22, 2019:

from wikipedia: Steiner offered counsel on renewing the spiritual potency of the sacraments while emphasizing freedom of thought and a personal relationship to religious life. He envisioned a new synthesis of Catholic and Protestant approaches to religious life, terming this "modern, Johannine Christianity". they can call it spiritual if they want but to me, spiritual is just religion light. i would not send a child to such a school. it has been said that the difference betwene waldorf education (steiner education) and montessori's methods is that the former focuses more on the imagination. i used to teach drama at a montessori school and i am here to tell you i did not focus on technique; i focused on imagination. g

If you had a time machine would you go back into the past to kill baby Hitler or would you try to ...

genessa comments on Jan 22, 2019:

baby hitler was doomed from the start, with a violent, horrible father and a mom who had lost so many babies that by the time she got to little adolph she was ready to smother him with love and protection. you could not change, with your time machine, her death, which affected him horribly, or his later parkinson's. i'm not saying killing him would change anything either. his rise took place in the perfect storm(trooper) and if it hadn't been he in charge, someone else might have been. (mussolini rose to power without hitler's help, right?) so you probably couldn't change him, and killing him wouldn't have worked. and who KNOWS what other things would've been affected, not all for the better. if you ever get that time machine, go back and tell the jews who said "what're they gonna do, kill is all?" to get out while they can, or rise up against the nazis. tell the nonjews to rise up, and show them what's going on. neither tactic might work but that would be what to try. g

Hello, everybody! I'm kind of new here.. what's up? How does this thing work?

genessa comments on Jan 22, 2019:

hi. welcome. first, click the LEARN icon at the top of every page. you'll learn a lot there. but here it is in brief: i see you're here for community, so how that works is that people post on topics of interest to them, and others respond if they're interested and have something to say. you can find posts by just browsing around or you can click on the categories and see what's there. there are also groups for specific interests, if you'd like to join any. meanwhile, you get points for participation, and the points open levels, which open access, such as being able to message members, or having a longer window to edit your posts if you've made a booboo or thought of something to add. so what do we all like to post/read/respond about? everything! the only thing most of us have in common is a lack of belief in a deity, although believers are sometimes present, and they're not ALWAYS trolls (sometimes they're just curious, or even beginning to think twice about their beliefs). poke around and enjoy yourself! g

Do you actually watch what you're watching on TV?

genessa comments on Jan 22, 2019:

my eyes are bad, and my body hurts. to watch tv i have to turn in a way that is often painful, and then i can't see very well anyway. so i mostly listen, but i listen intently. if i am doing something else at the same time, that usually doesn't interfere. occasionally i will turn and just watch. that doesn't happen often. i also keep the tv on while i sleep because i have tinnitus. g

We end up in toxic relationships because.....

genessa comments on Jan 22, 2019:

some of us do not end up in toxic relationships. "you're responsible for your experience, nobody else is" is -- apart from its common really needing to be a semicolon -- not completely true. the first half is partly true. the second half is definitely false. more than one person can be responsible for someone's experience. victim-blaming is NOT HELPFUL. yes, we should know warning signs and see red flags. not everyone has the wherewithal -- emotional, physical or financial -- to get up and go at any point during a relationship. some people get tied to radiators. are they completely responsible for their experiences? some people get murdered. guess what? it happens after they leave, TOO. g

Is the U.S. government shutdown affecting you or anyone close to you personally?

genessa comments on Jan 22, 2019:

it affects people in the private sector too, and people who are in no sector at all. it affects anyone who needs any kind of government service that isn't being offered, or will soon stop (if we're still shut down by the end of february, my guy and i won't have food, because the snap program won't be open). your food isn't being inspected right now, no matter WHERE you work. you can get food poisoning and die even if you work in the private sector, and if the tsa workers, currently not being paid but being forced to work, go on strike, you'd better not need to fly anywhere. wanna visit a national park? don't step in anything icky, and don't bother looking for redwood trees, because vandals are cutting them down. g

The Sugar Pills in Your Birth Control Pack Were Put There to Placate The Pope

genessa comments on Jan 22, 2019:

the whole papal connection is total crap. the ONLY reason the placebos are there is to keep the count -- it's hard enough even WITH them to remember to take the pill on time every day. the explanation about the pope makes no sense at all. no pope ever cares how many pills were in a contraception pack. why would he? he didn't want the pack to exist the start with. this article is SO full of it. g

This is nuts LOL

genessa comments on Jan 22, 2019:

we didn't use those. we had an old crocodile made of brass. when my mother died, crocky (and polly the bottle opener parrot) came to me. g

The devotion of the human dad separates us from other apes | Aeon Essays

genessa comments on Jan 21, 2019:

the premise is incorrect. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161109112334.htm this one is interesting but you have to dig for the relevant parts: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b1a0/30beca6ef0b1a7a84e2a543f5f3c4c61ced0.pdf g

So how many of you have heard of Pantheism and how do you feel about it?

genessa comments on Jan 21, 2019:

since i am an atheist, why in the world would i be more receptive to believing in lots of gods than to believing in only one? i am not receptive to any kind of theism, mono- or pan-. g

You can't be agnostic and athiest so..

genessa comments on Jan 21, 2019:

you are right that you can't be agnostic and athiest, because there is no such word as athiest. however, you can certainly be agnostic and atheist, and i have explained that in response to your other post on that subject. g

Literally every person I've seen on here that listed themselves as agnostic also listed themselves ...

genessa comments on Jan 21, 2019:

it is not contradictory. an atheist can be someone who believes there are no gods or someone who simply does not believe there are any gods; the latter is compatible with agnosticism, which is the admission that one doesn't know. you can admit you don't know and still not believe there are any gods. "i don't know; i don't believe so" is not a ridiculous statement. as for the former definition, someone who believes there are no gods, one can believe in something without proof (theists do it all the time) so someone can say "i will never know for sure because there's no proof (agnostic) but i believe in my heart there are no gods (atheist). so you see, the two do not mean the same thing but they are not necessarily contradictory. g

Is anyone here who can define herself as an Atheist and Buddhist at the same time?

genessa comments on Jan 21, 2019:

i don't know whether they conflict. some say no. i myself am not a buddhist, but i am an atheist and a jew at the same time. i like judaism but do not follow it. i like jewishness and i embrace it. so it's not the same thing, since buddhism would be something you followed. whether or not they conflict may have to do with how you perceive buddhism and you how perceive your relationship to it. g

What are your opinions on laveyan satanism ?

genessa comments on Jan 21, 2019:

do whatever you like, and i have no particular feelings about it, except for feeling sad that satan (a fictional character) has become something other than what he was written to be, for better or for worse (the bible being a rather jumbled, if occasionally interesting, work of fiction). satan is ha-satan, the prosecuting attorney for god, in the hebrew bible. he's neither good nor evil; he's just the prosecuting attorney. it's a title, not a name. his name never is given. there may even be more than one of him; the bible isn't clear about that. he most certainly is not anti-god or anti-religion. the whole fallen angel bit -- that's not IN the hebrew bible. since i have not read the christian one, i cannot say how he is portrayed there, but i know how he is portrayed by people who purport to get their ideas from the christian bible, and it represents a whole different being from that portrayed in the hebrew bible. so i think satanists who worship an evil satan have the wrong guy, and satanists who just think he represents antitheism have the wrong guy too. i mean... you can turn him into anything you want but that's not who he is, as written. so it's like fan fiction, and if you're not a fan, it's meaningless. you may as well worship captain kirk, and say he represents left-handed ghila monsters. it would be just as accurate. he'a a fictional character; he's not going to complain about it! (his creator could've, but he's dead now, isn't he? maybe his estate would balk. who knows?) but whatever turns you on. g

I know some folks will be triggered, so here I go.

genessa comments on Jan 21, 2019:

obamacare isn't something you HAVE. it's a law. it has many parts. one part is that your dependent child, up to age 26, can be covered by your insurance, WHEREVER you get it. you can't opt out of that; it's optional to begin with. another is that you can't be denied coverage or charged extra for having a preexisting condition, nor for being a woman, both of which were commonly done before the law was passed. another part was that the states had to expand medicaid so that more people would be covered by it, and it would cover more conditions, but the supreme court made that optional, and many red states refused to do so, even though they would have been given money to do so. another part was that employers with more than a certain number (50?) of employees had to offer health insurance. another was something really important that i'm forgetting so i'll add it as a comment when i remember; i had it -- but it fell out of my head. that yet another part was that states could (not must, just COULD) set up exchanges so that people who could not get insurance another way, or did not wish to get insurance another way, could get it from companies that would compete against each other and thus lower prices. those who could not afford even that would be eligible for financial support to pay for it. now, tell me this: are you against seat belts too? because you can't opt out of that. auto makers have to install them, and you have to use them. how horrible! g

What do you wear to bed?

genessa comments on Jan 21, 2019:

unless it's very cold, i wear my birthday suit. g

We are born as atheist, without the influence of others and society , everyone will be atheists.

genessa comments on Jan 20, 2019:

without the influence of others, get enough humans together and they'll devise some religion or other. g

Does the thought of a pansexual or bisexual partner make you uncomfortable because you think they ...

genessa comments on Jan 20, 2019:

so if a guy likes women i shouldn't be afraid because he likes me and i'm a woman and therefore there are no other women in the world, but if a guy isn't particular about the gender of his partner and has chosen me, i should be afraid because there are suddenly other potential partners in the world? that makes no sense. if he's my partner and we've chosen each other, either he's true or he's not, whether he likes one gender, the other, some or all. g

only athiesm can create unconditional love.

genessa comments on Jan 20, 2019:

that is completely ridiculous and untrue. besides, there is no such thing as athiesm. atheism, on the other hand, exists, but has nothing to do with the ability to love, or types of love. atheism doesn't create love or hatred or anything else. to say it does is to confess to not having a clue what atheism is. g

Is it true that educated women do not want a relationship with a guy who has a good career, but is ...

genessa comments on Jan 20, 2019:

well, what in the universe would make you even consider the possibility that all educated women want the same damned thing? that's the most ridiculous premise i've heard since the last ridiculous premise i heard. (and who says working with your hands means you don't have a good career? do you know how much money construction workers can earn?) g

This place has 2 goals.

genessa comments on Jan 20, 2019:

half the site isn't for agnostics and atheists. the whole site is. only part of it is for dating, as you say. meanwhile, the fact that this site is partly for dating leads people to treat it like other dating sites, dedicated dating sites, where you write a profile and put up a picture and hope someone contacts you, and you look at other people's profiles and pictures and hope you find someone you like and that they respond if you get up the nerve to contact him. but the truth is, this site is better than that if you know how to use it, because the community side is where you get to know people. you will never get to know someone from a profile and a picture. from the posts and comments you will, at least a little, more than from the profiles and pictures anyway. and you can actually make friends that way, and sometimes that turns into something more. local? well... good luck. it's a big world. but you say you looked at some of the available local men. that's not going to give you a good picture. anyway, good luck. g

Does anyone else notice people creep your profile but never say "Hi"?

genessa comments on Jan 20, 2019:

in what way is clicking on your name to go see who you are when you've made a post they like, or dislike, equal creeping? there is no obligation or need for anyone to say hi just because they checked out your page. what if they checked out 20 pages? do they need to say hi? if everyone who visited my page said hi to me, i'd be creeped out by that! g

As gene therapy evolves would you support using the technology to eliminate diseases?

genessa comments on Jan 20, 2019:

no, let's just hack off body parts with saws. if it was good enough for union soldiers, it's good enough for us, right? geez, of COURSE we should use whatever technology we can to eliminate diseases. don't worry; more diseases will develop, many of them not genetic at all. overpopulation won't be any more dreadful than its current exponential growth would predict without gene therapy. g

Looking for that one friend with benefits who is actually fairly local to me and not in the US lol

genessa comments on Jan 20, 2019:

before you look for a friend with benefits, shouldn't you look for a friend? i don't mean "should" as in judgmental, moral crap. i mean "should" in a practical way. friendship isn't automatic. if you are looking for a friend with benefits who isn't yet a friend, you may well find the benefits without the friendship. that's the same thing as screwing strangers. g

Should the Government Allow Immigrants Who Are Here Illegally to Become US Citizens?

genessa comments on Jan 20, 2019:

of course they should. we can say "they should have followed the proper procedures" all we want, but the fact is, the proper procedures are broken, and people may have to wait all their lives. if a person has broken the law only the one time by coming into the country illegally -- that being a misdemeanor, by the way, comparable to a parking ticket -- and has not committed crimes (other than, say, not telling anyone, but you know, actual CRIMES) then yes, that person should be given amnesty; even a joker like reagan knew to give them amnesty. if they've become criminals, then of course not, but immigrants (legal and otherwise) commit crimes at a far lower rate than native-born citizens, so that's not going to be a huge problem. immigrants, documented or otherwise, contribute greatly to our economy and their children tend to become productive as well. they are the kind of people we need here, people who want so badly to be here they risked everything to get here and stay here, people who love america. g

When I meet new people, I have three questions that I like to ask to determine if we are compatible ...

genessa comments on Jan 20, 2019:

if that's what it takes, we can't be friends. someone asked for my top 10 movites in the early 1990s. i stopped when i got to 138, and a lot of good movies have come out since then. there is no WAY i would be able to answer any of those three questions, and i can't possibly be the only one. besides, someone who likes the same music you like might still be a horrible person. it can happen. g

Stop Telling Women to ‘Act Like a Man’ – Noteworthy - The Journal Blog

genessa comments on Jan 20, 2019:

i have never EVER heard anyone tell a woman to act like a man. i hear women who are being just normal intelligent human beings told to act like a lady (never like a woman). i hear girls being told they throw like girls, as if there's something wrong with that. i am not going to read an article whose headline's premise i don't buy (no offense to possum, who i am sure posted in good faith). i even think the article might be good... and mean the opposite of what the ttle says, from the comments i see below. what a terribly unfortunate title! but you can't tell us to stop doing what no one is doing. everyone keeps telling us the opposite. g

Good Morning Hippies! Have a groovy Sunday. We have snow! Over a foot so far! Snowy Sunday!

genessa comments on Jan 20, 2019:

our snow from yesterday is melting but i'd still like the service for which we homeowners pay to come clear the ice off our drive. they did everyone's but ours. why? because the people across the street park one of their cars across from our drive and the plough can't get in. we had the management company for the homeowners' association call them but there was no change. finally yesterday richard went across the street and talked to one of the young women, the nice one i've met and talked to a couple times casually, and she said she understood, and promised they'd not park there when it has snowed (why is that not "snown"?) so... we shall see! i don't see a car there now and usually on a sunday morning i would, so maybe we got through! g

Paypal, you are world-class dicks.

genessa comments on Jan 20, 2019:

this could be useful to people who have no other way to pay their mortgages or buy food. i think $500 would go farther toward a mortgage payment than skipping, say, a $20 monthly payment. not to mention it's interest-free, not at ALL like payday loans. g

How Can Someone be an Agnostic and an Atheist at the Same Time? | Courtney Heard

genessa comments on Jan 20, 2019:

i don't think most people who are one also are the other, so it's kind of an insignificant question. i suppose it is possible for the reasons cited by others below. i am not both. i'm an atheist. g

What is religion?

genessa comments on Jan 20, 2019:

actually a small child has a good deal of that path chosen for him/her. so s/he has no choice at that time, and maybe people just follow the path on which they're set from childhood. that's the reason. you know what religion is. why do you ask? it's not actually an issue. couldn't you think of anything else to post? what has my happiness got to do with any of the rest of your question? i'm an atheist; what has religion got to do with my happiness? g

Fact-checking Trump's border speech

genessa comments on Jan 19, 2019:

apart from the outright lies (that this is what democrats want; that a wall would stop heroin from coming across the border; that mexicans are rapists and criminals (or that the immigrants are even mostly mexican), that the crisis at the border is that immigrants are illegally entering the country (they're presenting themselves at legal ports of entry, and for their efforts being teargassed or arrested and being separated from their children or finding that the legal ports of entry have been closed for no reason), and apart from the misdirection (talking about the humanitarian crisis as if it's that women get raped on the way to america instead of that once they get here they have their kids taken from them BY TRUMP; not admitting that he is the one who created the crisis) -- apart from all that, there is nothing in this offer. he is offering to temporarily restore what he himself needlessly destroyed. it is, as i have said elsewhere, the schoolyard bully who stole your lunch money saying "i'll take my foot off your neck for 10 minutes and lend you back your lunch money until 4 pm if you give me everything i want." that's a compromise? that's an offer? feh! g

Medicare for all - are you for or against it?

genessa comments on Jan 19, 2019:

i probably would not be in as bad a shape as i am right now if i'd had health care for the few years after i returned to the states from japan, but i was unable to get health insurance of any kind. i was broke. being sick makes it hard to work. not working makes it hard to afford food and shelter, much less health care, much less health insurance, which typically doesn't even cover all of one's health care. it's no way to live. of course we should have single payer health care. that's a stupid name for it and i wish it was called something else, such as "health care for all" ("medicare for all" is scary because medicare, lifesaver though it may be, is also insufficient, and is, after all, health insurance too) or :fred: or "helen." but what is actually IS, as opposed to what it's called, yeah, we need it. g

I just was wondering why those people who criticize others so often on this site do not post any ...

genessa comments on Jan 19, 2019:

i have not noticed this as a trend. i myself both comment on others' posts (positively AND negatively as seems appropriate) and make my own posts. quite frankly, i think it is more useful to comment on others' posts and not sit solely in one's own head. i only post, myself, when i have something to say that i see hasn't yet been said. g

WHo else likes Pedro Almodovar movies?

genessa comments on Jan 19, 2019:

oddly enough, though i have not seen his movies, i have been in the home of one of his stars, assumpta serna, who was at that time married to patrick bauchau, with whom (along with my late best friend, patrick's then-manager) i'd had a wonderful dinner and conversation just outside of paris the night before. patrick had concocted a magnificent fruit bowl for assumpta's breakfast. it was difficult not to drool, and to this day i am not sure whether i was drooling more over the breakfast or patrick. g

What is my link for those who want to see my profile?

genessa comments on Jan 19, 2019:

@Bierbasstard is correct, so you don't need to provide a link, but if for some reason you wish to do so anyway, just copy the url at the top of the browser when you're on your own page. it should be the same url people would use to see your profile. g

How does the church influence your life?

genessa comments on Jan 19, 2019:

i'm a jewish atheist so there never was "church." shul is different -- and as i was raised quite secularly, that was not an influence on my life. when i meet other jews they sometimes ask me which temple i go to, and i tell them i don't go, or if i'm with my guy i ask him which one we go to for the high holidays because i always forget the name. it's nice, though. other people don't spontaneously ask me that, or which church (assuming, right?) or anything like that. i tend not to hang out with religious folks lol. i live in a 'burb of a major metropolitan area. there's no small-town everyone-in-your-hair feeling here. g

.

genessa comments on Jan 19, 2019:

getting through it is rough enough, as though you're coughing up dough while teetering on a bough, not as easy as it ought to be. but i've HEARD canadians say "aboot." so at least some do say it that way. g

Does anyone here play online MMO games like Everquest II or Wow?

genessa comments on Jan 19, 2019:

throne: kingdom at war. i play two others as well but they are not the same kind as the ones you mean. g

I'd like to think our consciousness is valuable enough to continue in some form after our bodies ...

genessa comments on Jan 19, 2019:

i would like to think it too, but i'd be deluding myself. wanting something doesn't make it real. g

great tits

genessa comments on Jan 19, 2019:

did you know that the proper spelling of tits is teats? it's still pronounced tits though. g

Always remember

genessa comments on Jan 18, 2019:

every other day? most days we won't! before we were born, whole lots more days we didn't than we ever will, and after we die, whole lots more. g

What kind of hair style do women favor?

genessa comments on Jan 18, 2019:

the same hair style on two men may look good on one and not on the other. baldness may suit one guy and not another. i can't say i like one hair style universally or whether baldness is handsome. i look at the whole guy, not the hair without the guy. that being said, i tend to favor longer hair on men, and i think mohawks, buzz cuts, brush cuts, crew cuts and (despite having long bits) mullets look silly on everyone. there may be someone out there who looks good in one of those but i haven't seen such a thing yet. g

I went to church because our family went to church.

genessa comments on Jan 18, 2019:

i am SO glad i was not raised christian! i can't speak for every rabbi in every synagogue, especially since my experience in shul, other than for weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs, is all from adulthood, which means all of it comes AFTER my realizing there are no gods. in general the experiences have been interesting and enjoyable. i mean, the sermons tend to be about, say, recycling, or reducing our carbon footprint, being educated in science, ending slavery worldwide.... interesting, cool stuff, cool enough that if i just take the god bits, if and when they appear, as metaphorical it's fine. so do i go to shul? well, on rosh hashanah and yom kippur, if i'm not sick, and i am often sick, not because i feel i have to but because i enjoy it, especially the music. otherwse, it never even crosses mind. but my point is, i never actually rebelled against judaism, even though i am culturally jewish -- i have jewishness, rather than judaism. i just realized there were no gods. that's all. it was very easy, not traumatic, didn't require any rebellion at all. if i'd been raised christian, i just don't know. i might have become an atheist BEFORE the age of 15 in that case lol! g

Should sharia law be banned from the West?

genessa comments on Jan 18, 2019:

why bother? there is no sharia law in the west. well... we have no islamic sharia law in the west, anyway. we do have christian sharia law, though it's not called that. there are still seven states in which it is illegal for atheists to run for elected office, and courts have incomprehensibly ruled in favor of discrimination based on religious principles -- not protecting religious freedom but failing to protect other freedoms being trampled in the name of religion. but theoretically we do already have separation of church and state here, and that means that theoretically we have no sharia law, and there is thus no need to ban it. g

Did you ever see yourself as a loner, but then realized you're not the loner you thought you were?

genessa comments on Jan 18, 2019:

nope, i never saw myself that way, even though i actually have been alone and sometimes lonely for much of my life. asof rmputting all those things you said you'd care about exclusively, nope, not me. people were always a priority -- but not in the sense of "oh i have to be with people" or "i must not be alone" or any of that. it's just that people have priority over money, for example. it has to be. and... if all you care about are the things you list, what kind of significant other will you find? seriously! g

Indoctrinating children into religion is child abuse. Prove me wrong.

genessa comments on Jan 18, 2019:

prove yourself right. i am not saying i completely disagree, but on the other hand 1. "indoctrination" is a loaded word. are you considering having any religion whatsoever in the home to be indoctrination, or do you mean serious brainwashing? there IS a difference, regardless of how atheistic we are. not everyone who subscribes to a particular religion is deeply religious, and not everyone who brings a kid to church threatens the kid with fire and brimstone. 2. if the religion and the regional culture are intertwined, NOT teaching the kid what it's all about is a kind of child abuse. the kid needs to know how to survive in his/her world. that is not the same as indoctrination, but again, i don't know if you're using the term more broadly than its dictionary definition. 3. if you have a premise, the burden of proof falls on you. "i think this, prove me wrong" is somewhat offputting, especially since you're posting on a site that isn't going to work too hard in favor of religion. whom exactly are you challenging? g

Nobody actually chooses Christanity.

genessa comments on Jan 18, 2019:

that most certainly is not true. christianity is not a default religion. no religion is a default religion. i was raised as a secular jew. i became an atheist at age 15 but still consider myself jewish. it would never occur to me to become a christian, and what is the alternative to christianity that's so scary? it's not even the only damned religion in the world! people are christians for a variety of reasons but the main one is that they were born into a christian family. that's not default, because plenty of families are not christian. in fact most families in the world are not christian. g

Have you or someone you know taken statins?

genessa comments on Jan 18, 2019:

p.s. if you don't know what your doctor meant, it's your doctor who can tell you what he meant. we don't know him.

Have you or someone you know taken statins?

genessa comments on Jan 18, 2019:

my cholesterol is borderline high so i was prescribed statins. my blood pressure was up too so i was prescribed meds for that. the two meds had a war. my body was the battlefield. i lost. i stopped taking both. now i can actually go through a day without wearing an adult diaper. g

What is ome thing you have learned about yourself in the past year?

genessa comments on Jan 18, 2019:

well, i confirmed that i'm not dead yet. i also learned that i might have cancer. maybe this year i'll learn that i have to do something about it. g

Any words of wisdom for a newcomer to this site?

genessa comments on Jan 18, 2019:

since you are here to use the site's dating aspect, my advice is... don't treat it like other dating sites. this doesn't work as well, i am told (since i'm not looking) if you just put yourself out as a product, or someone looking for a product. rather, it works best when you find posts on topics that interest you and respond to them, and make posts on topics (other than dating) that interest you, too. you will learn who everyone is, make some friends, and maybe make a friend who becomes more than a friend. in this respect it's more natural than most dating sites, where you say who you are, say who you're looking for, and then either sit back and wait for bites, or go bite someone else's promo. this way, you can really get to know people to an extent BEFORE trying to get intimate. watch out for scammers: if the picture looks like a model, it's probably stolen, and the profile along with it. you'll get hit with private messages designed to hook you and then rob you. love just doesn't happen that fast. friendship is the best basis for love. g

What's your opinion on unitarian churches?

genessa comments on Jan 17, 2019:

i have no opinion about unitarian churches because i have never been to one. first of all, unitarianism has to do with christianity (it simply rejects the trinity). i've never been a christian and have no interest in becoming one. second of all, it's all about the unity of god. as an atheist, i feel sure enough to say there are no gods, so why would i want to go to a church that's about a god (or a church at all)? so i don't know if they're nice or nasty but they're certainly not of any use to me. g

"Who are You to Question God?

genessa comments on Jan 17, 2019:

answer: i am not questioning god. there is no god. i have no questions whatsoever for a nonentity. g

Could 'consciousness' be considered a religion?

genessa comments on Jan 17, 2019:

no. why would it be? consciousness isn't a system of deity worship, nor a set or so-called moral precepts. are we now going to redefine consciousness and/or religion, and if so, why? g

Valentine's day is coming so I have a question to throw out there.

genessa comments on Jan 17, 2019:

no. if she knows that's why you're doing it, it's charity and embarrassing. if she doesn't, then it's romance, and misleading. don't do it on v-day. go to lunch some other day. g

Elderly lesbian couple lose discrimination case against retirement home

genessa comments on Jan 17, 2019:

the facility defined marriage as being between one man and one woman, as delineated in the bible. i can't help wondering which bible they mean, since that actually is not how marriage is either defined or portrayed in the bible! g

If and when the entirety of God died he or she was left with only so much.

genessa comments on Jan 17, 2019:

are we expected to understand this nonsense? anyway, there is no god and there never was any god, so there is no possibility that this nonexistent god died, nor that it has always been this way," whatever "this way" means. g

The church will tell you having multiple sex partners is a bad thing.

genessa comments on Jan 17, 2019:

so there are NO other reasons why anyone could possibly decide to control their carnal desires? i'm not saying everyone should (or shouldn't), but in every single situation, just because the church says something, automatically the opposite is true for everyone? g

New poll: 57% of voters say they’ll vote against Trump | Pentagon to expand scope of missile ...

genessa comments on Jan 17, 2019:

why only 57 percent? what's wrong with almost half the population? g

Another day, another outrage!

genessa comments on Jan 17, 2019:

another outrage revealed. more new outrages being committed meanwhile. it adds up. g

Is it me or do all racist people talk in the Fox News accent?

genessa comments on Jan 17, 2019:

it's you! but they have other uncanny similarities. racism does that. g

If you have grown children, what was the most important value you taught them?

genessa comments on Jan 17, 2019:

i have grown furbabies. the most important value i have tried to teach them is that if they feel as if they're going to puke, they should jump off the bed first. well, that and no claws when patting mama's face. g

The pain of love burns bright in the night of the broken heart only for the embers of passion to ...

genessa comments on Jan 17, 2019:

or sometimes it just hurts. g

Hugging is good medicine.

genessa comments on Jan 17, 2019:

theoretically fabulous. but then there is fibromyalgia. g

The Importance of Being Scared: Polish Nobel Laureate Wisława Szymborska on Fairy Tales and the ...

genessa comments on Jan 17, 2019:

sounds like what bruno bettelheim wrote in the uses of enchantment. also doctor who. g

The English Language and all its parts are changing once again, somewhat more rapidly than ever ...

genessa comments on Jan 17, 2019:

i doubt it. besides, it changes constantly. it's not as if there's a wave, then nothing, then another wave. the big change i see these days is that no one uses comparatives or superlatives anymore (except incorrectly). things are two times better instead of twice as good. soon we'll have more good instead of better. advertising is doing this; it's not a natural change, just as using adjectives as nouns is not natural but rather the result of advertising. advertising can control language pretty directly, quickly and deliberately. g

Do you ever want to believe in the afterlife? (Post is sad.)

genessa comments on Jan 17, 2019:

no, i don't. side question first: i don't know when life ends because i'm not a doctor or a scientist, but i know it does end, because (among other sources) i have lost loved ones. i am sorry about your mother. back to main question: the idea of an afterlife is horrific to me. let's imagine you're in heaven and you're with everyone you love. what if they don't love each other? then this is only heaven for you and not for them. okay, so then they get to choose with whom they hang out. then it's not heaven for you. i wouldn't want to go, permanently, anywhere where i could not choose the menu and the music. again, how selfish, heaven for me, not so nice for everyone else, although my taste in cuisine and music are, of course, exquisite. nope. i do not wish i believed in an afterlife. that would scare me to death. g

What is the meaning of the words we use to hide behind from each other.

genessa comments on Jan 17, 2019:

one meaning? as if everyone hides behind the same words? as if everyone hides? i use words to do the opposite of hiding from others. it's why i'm a writer and it's why i'm here. g

Can Science be the answer to everything?

genessa comments on Jan 17, 2019:

everything? you mean why do fools fall in love? wouldn't it be convenient to know the question before speculating about who's (or what's) got the answer? g

OK.... Can someone please explain the line between Masculinity & Toxic Masculinity?

genessa comments on Jan 16, 2019:

i know! it's not as if women served in wwii as nurses, ambulance drivers, wacs, waves or anything other than waiting receptacles for the random heroic penis. masculinity: hi honey. i'm home. i have a penis. i see you're making dinner. why don't i do a little laundry while you do that? yep, i still have a penis. toxic masculinity: hi honey. i'm home. i have a penis. you don't. you're my slave. my penis is your boss. masculinity: good morning miss wiggins. please type up this paper, cancel my lunch date, send flowers to my wife and make 100 copies of this drawing my daughter made of the next door neighbor's cat. thank you. oh by the way, did i mention i have a penis? i didn't? good. i was trying to remind myself not to mention it. i'm glad i didn't. toxic masculinity: hey sexy. wow, nice teats. type up this paper, cancel my lunch date, send flowers to my wife, make 100 copies of this drawing my daughter made of the next door neighbor's cat and bend over so i can rub my penis against your butt. what, you want me to take my hand off your breast? what are you, a lesbian or one of these feminazis? masculinity: it's terrible that miss wiggins got raped the other day. i hope they catch the guy who did it. i hope she testifies, even though i have a penis. toxic masculinity: what was she wearing? how much had she had to drink? did she smile at him? what was she doing there anyway? she was asking for it. she just had second thoughts the next day. i can put my penis anywhere i want. it's MY penis. g

I am boycotting Trump’s “ State of the Union”. Who’ s with me.

genessa comments on Jan 16, 2019:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/01/pelosi-trump-state-of-the-union/?fbclid=IwAR2EthCcLAGpqWQUh1GkAcxh6jqyafpFwPtBasYGu3DZDHvQvfNeW1kH0Qg since if he does one anyway, and it may eventually bring him down, and since there should be a pretty hit rebuttal, i intend to watch. the sound of his voice makes me sick but i don't see any virtue in hiding my head in the sand. g

Jesus is the original fentanyl ??

genessa comments on Jan 16, 2019:

oh, did religion start with jesus? g

Did you? I did for 2 years.?

genessa comments on Jan 16, 2019:

i avoided it as long as i could. then i got hired (as an adult) by the department of justice as a clerk (typist) gs 4, from which i was quickly promoted to clerk (typing) gs 5. when they initially hired me they said they needed me to pass a typing test. passing meant 40 wpm. i took the test three times before i passed. (btw, my last test was 101 wpm, corrected.) they really wanted me and were willing to let me try again and again until i passed. a year later they got around to sending me to two classes: typing, and using the mag card ii (word processor) i had been using for a year. my typing had already reached maybe 60 or 70 wpm by then but slowed right down in typing class, so i quit. i liked my own system better. as for the computer class, the teacher told us how to turn the machine on and then told us the next button to push. it was the wrong button. i corrected her, then walked out of class and went back to work. but i have this strange memory of sitting in a large classroom in high school with a typewriter in front of me. i know i never took a typing class so why do i have that memory? it's very odd. g

Here's a couple ideas / thoughts on how to respond to nonsense on the site....

genessa comments on Jan 16, 2019:

silence is not always the best way to reply to a fool, particularly if you see other people listening and believing. sometimes it is necessary to speak up. the goal isn't to educate the fool. the goal is to warn the others. g

A FB friend posted the meme, and comments followed... I just can't even...SMH