I want to quit smoking cigarettes!

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

i helped my students to quit. this is what i told them to do (and they told me it worked): 1. count how many cigs you smoke in a day. divide that by 24. 2. whatever your result was in #1, smoke that many cigs per hour. i don't care if you're sleeping, in class, with a client, making love, excuse yourself and have those cigs. 3. after you can't stand this anymore, cut the number of cigs per hour by one. 4. by the time you get to zero you'll be so happy to have your life back! g

When someone says" well it was ment to be" or it was gods will. What is your reply?

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

when i am done throwing up, i generally scoff. what can one say? does one want to spend ALL one's time arguing with strangers? (my friends don't say this kind of thing.) an eye-roll works. g

Who ate this in school? I had it a few times and I remember it was not very good.

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

not me. i went to public school and do not remember pizza in the caf. g

A weird moment I was just having breakfast at Maccas, McDo or whatever you want to call this ...

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

in japan i used to be approached by mormons every time i went to kinko's to make copies. someone told me kinko's was owned by mormons but i have not verified that. i am pretty sure mcdonald's is not owned by a particular religious group... odd that in such an outlying area of china this should happen. by the way, i always wanted to take a boat from osaka to shanghai, while i was out in that half of the world, but it just never happened. i am sure they must have golden arches in shanghai, too, though i would avoid them there as anywhere, but i wanted to see if they still had a synagogue. ah well. tangents. forgive me. g

Around 80% of the conversations I have online go something like this...

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

i taught english (and other subjects, in english) in japan for a decade. i had a few side jobs in addition to my university gigs, and one was an adult cultural center class. one day i asked my students some questions, one by one, and the conversations went a bit like this: 1. what's the best newspaper in japan? the mainichi. why is that the best newspaper? because my father reads it. if your father stops reading it, will it no longer be the best newspaper in japan? 2. why do i see so many white cars on the street? almost everyone has a white car! because we like white cars. but why do you like white cars? because they have higher resale value. why do they have higher resale value? because we like white cars. g

Finding The Calgary Secular Church

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

why do i care about convincing other people to believe as i do? isn't that what religionists do? why would i want to be like them? and what would atheists DO at a church, anyway? sit around and not pray? rofl! i see no need whatsoever for an atheist church (and while we're at it, i'm jewish, so why couldn't it be an atheist synagogue? but i still wouldn't see a need!) g

Bullying and the Myth of Goody Two Shoes/Nagging Women

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

i don't get out much, so no.... but i know it happens. g

How many here have a goal to optimize health and happiness and how do you do that?

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

i cannot optimize my health as i have none. happiness is not a continual state, or a thing. sometimes one is happy. sometimes one is not. it can be momentary or last a day... i don't worry about it. g

What are you all up to?

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

my neck in trouble? still sick after three and a half weeks, about to nap, almost at the point where i should expect a t-shirt in the mail, thinking, it'll happen; i don't have to push. sleep is better. g

Why We're Waiting Until Marriage to Kiss - YouTube

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

why is this even an issue for anyone except the people involved? g

If you support shutting down a site because it's members are allowed to promote anti-semitic views ...

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

in addition, antisemitism depends on lies. being against religion depends on logic. in what way is saying there is no god and pointing out the illogic of believing in one (or more) equivalent to saying jews own the world, jews are eating christian babies, jews have horns and a tail, jews are causing all the problems in the world, jews are paying for honduran refugees to "invade" our southern border? g

If you support shutting down a site because it's members are allowed to promote anti-semitic views ...

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

antisemitism isn't about being against judaism. it's about being against jews. being against religion is one thing. being against a group of people is another. you can't kill or maim a religion. you can argue against it, you can try to keep it out of your government, but it's not a person. a jew is a person. killing, maiming, keeping him/her out of your government for being jewish is NOT the same as being against the religion. it's bigotry. i should think this would be rather obvious! g

Ballotpedia

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

i use ballotpedia a lot but i also recommend http://www.congress.gov because it is a record of the disposition of every bill, i don't know going how far back but pretty far: who sponsored it, where it is (committee, lost, voted on, passed, unpassed), who voted how on it, plus not only a summary but the complete text. g

The first step of Freedom is the realization that everything is open to question. Do you agree?

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

my freedom to swing my arm ends at your nose. freedom does not need to be, nor should it be, completely unrestricted, unless only one person in the universe counts and the rest don't matter. so before we talk about what the first step to freedom is, we need to know what freedom is. g

I was listening to an NPR podcast where a transman, who is a elementary or kindergarten school ...

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

i think men who can relate to babies make better daddies than men who can't. g

You can never be sure what a mixed marriage baby will look like

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

typical of the racist jokes made by folks who objected to black/white marriages. why resurrect such stuff now? g

Trump Supporter: 'Just Start Shootin At The Border' FACEBOOK WATCH 192,303 Views The Young ...

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

i do not see the options on the yes and no. what would i be voting on? g

Should We Boycott Fox News Advertisers?

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

i don't think i can boycott any of them since i already do not patronize them. it's like all the ads about quitting smoking: i can't quit! i already don't smoke! g

Are there novels that changed the way you think?

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

for me stranger in a strange land too, yes, although the door into summer was influential in its own way, and conversations and whatever all else i read by castaneda too (it's been half a century now). cancer ward by solzhenitsyn, whom, by the way, i met. davita's harp, by chaim potok, and yes i was already an atheist when i read that. so many others. even the two by john lennon! g

[aish.com] 20 Jewish Quotes-Do We Want This Kind of Stuff On this Sight?

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

there is only one in there about god. surely that can be overlooked! there are truths in these sayings. g

The cats abandoned me.

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

have you tried bathing in catnip? g

Is there anyone here that values the teachings of the bible, but rejects it's supernatural elements?

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

i do not find mostly good teachings in the bible (and of course you have not said which bible; i have not read the christian one, but everything i've heard about it seems awfully confused). the bible with which i am familiar has a story in it that teaches one to welcome strangers -- but these days everyone interprets that story as teaching one to be homophobic. the same bible teaches one that it's okay to murder one's innocent son as long as one hears voices. come to think of it, it's also okay to get one's father drunk and rape him. i like the story of david and tamar, but onan is confusing. i don't think of the bible as a book of teachings. i think of it as a sometimes interesting, sometimes less so book of fantabulous stories, most of them with anti-morals. so "values" is the wrong word here, for me at least. you can probably find better teachings in a stephen king novel (i can't swear to that, as i don't enjoy the horror genre, but king seems like a nice, smart man, and i don't know a lot about the guys who wrote the bible). g

Don't Be a Racist.

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

racist and therefore NOT funny. g

We begin burying our dead tomorrow.

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

he is a funeral-crasher. he is also this funeral-causer. g

So infuriating.

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

oh... pour corn starch on your dog. get his hand prints! g

So infuriating.

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

instead of letting her out, take her out, on a leash, and bring the cell phone, and keep it turned to video rather than stllls. if he hits her, or you, you are in a position to press charges. is there any way you could get away with dumping refuse on him from an upper window? g

Personal beliefs

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

i know the difference between beliefs and facts. g

Even though I am Agnostic, I still feel the emotion of the Jewish community in light of this ...

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

i am a jewish atheist but no matter what i believed or didn't and no matter what my background, i would feel this tragedy. it's unconscionable. g

What makes a human being valuable?

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

valuable to whom? g

Here's another one I like to point out to theists.

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

not all theists are christian lol g

Have we substituted religious activities and believes to political polarization?

genessa comments on Oct 30, 2018:

i never had religious activities and beliefs and i have always been political. why assume polarization? g

So many of us have said David Tennant was our favorite.

genessa comments on Oct 29, 2018:

tennant is amazing. before him, tom baker was my fave, and there is still a soft spot in my heart for him, but tennant took it over the top without jumping the shark, so to speak. in 30 years, new whovians will be aspiring to be like him, and one or more of them may even become the doctor for a while. g

Who, how, what?

genessa comments on Oct 29, 2018:

i was 15. i had been told by my folks that long-haired boys were dirty and rebellious. my personal experience contradicted this. i decided to examine everything i believed to see what else i was just taking my folks' word for. although they hadn't pushed religion -- i was raised a secular jew -- i examined that too, everything large and small. god went out the window right fast. it was relatively painless. g

Childhood photo challenge: Post a favorite childhood photo.

genessa comments on Oct 29, 2018:

well, there's my profile photo... and on my page i have other childhood photos. from among those i have to say i am very fond of the dress i am wearing in this one. i'd wear it now! by the way, your photo is very cute :-)) g

Is sex possible

genessa comments on Oct 29, 2018:

penetrative intercourse is not the only way to have sex. enjoyment, of course, is up to the individual. g

Are You Having A Typical Monday?

genessa comments on Oct 29, 2018:

i am having exactly the monday i expected to have: i'm still sick, my leg is still injured and various other things are going wrong on schedule. g

Life is much easier to living without hell or a god

genessa comments on Oct 29, 2018:

i was never worried about hell because i was raised as a secular jew, and hell isn't even a part of judaism; it's a christian concept. as for god, he was just sort of an invisible friend, so i was a little sad (not traumatized, just sad) when i realized that he wasn't real, but life hadn't been harder with him, as i wasn't, for example, living my life trying to please him or anything. i imagine for an ex-christian, life would be a LOT easier once the realization came that there are no gods and there is no hell! g

Did popularity ever matter to you throughout High School Years?

genessa comments on Oct 29, 2018:

i never had any popularity so i guess it didn't matter! g

I stumbled off and got caught reading through some threads.

genessa comments on Oct 29, 2018:

telling people that they're chest-pounding, especially when most of us, almost all of us, are NOT, is not a good way to have your ideas taken seriously. calling yourself an astrologer when astrology is not an under- or undeveloped human capability but a bunch of bunk also does not lend itself to having your ideas taken seriously. the sad thing is, there ARE human capabilities that are under- or undeveloped, and you've named some of them. mixing that all up with astrology, a claim that you can't be said to be right or wrong because nothing can be proven (which is neither true nor cool) and an unsolicited insult against the people here is not exactly productive. g

Has anyone here watched the TV show on CBS "God Friended Me"?

genessa comments on Oct 29, 2018:

i am afraid i cannot bring myself to watch stuff like what i suspect this is. the only such show i've ever been able to watch is joan of arcadia, which was clever, well written and well acted, and did not presume to tell is whether joan's incarnatons of her personal god were real to anyone but joan. this doesn't sound like that. i'd be curious to know what people think, but i do not have a strong enough stomach to check it out for myself. i am just afraid it's going to be like molested by an angel. g

Do you think generally speaking that Atheists have/developed thicker skin?

genessa comments on Oct 29, 2018:

i wouldn't want to generalize. while it would seem useful for us atheists to be able to let criticism of our unpopular ideas roll right off our backs, the truth is, people of all kinds of character can realize there are no gods, and the need to develop a thicker skin has not always results in such development. it's like my having grown up painfully shy but eager to express myself. that was pretty inconvenient for me lol. g

Recently resigned from an employer that was so bad I'm reluctant to mention them (multinational IT ...

genessa comments on Oct 29, 2018:

i have had crappy jobs and i don't even remember whether i included them in my resume when i was looking for jobs; it's been ages since i've needed a resume. i don't think there is anything wrong with leaving employers off if you can more or less legitimately account for the time gap. if it was a short employment that's easy. if long... well, prospective employers WILL want to know what you were doing during that time. g

Why did they write all the outlandish stories and called them miracles in the bible?

genessa comments on Oct 29, 2018:

there is no unified "they" planning all sorts of control stuff and chuckling about illiteracy. people wrote what they perceived, what they speculated, what they thought MIGHT have happened, what they heard from people who heard from people who heard had happened. it got compiled and jumbled and much later got organized and edited, and yeah, those organizers and editors had political power on their minds, but that's not what was likely happening when the bible got written, piece by piece, by many people, over the course of time. it was part history (as it was understood at the time), part legend, part rulebook, part birth record (all those begattings are so boring, they HAVE to be based on something! no one would include them for effect!) most of this was probably purveyed orally long before anything got written down. it's a ridiculous book for modern people to take literally, and the rules and advice in it are not universally good either, but it was not likely to have been concocted with some horrible control plot in mind. g

Is This Taboo?

genessa comments on Oct 29, 2018:

to whom is it odd? it is odd to some and not odd to others. it may seem odder to people who want to sleep with you (that's the general "you" and not necessarily you personally) because they don't want to wait and anything that thwarts their wishes is odd. it isn't actually anybody else's business. you are perhaps talking about society? there is no single thing called society. there are parts of it that don't care and parts of it that condone it and parts of it i suppose that condemn waiting, but i have not run into those last. g

SPOILERS S11 E4 - Arachnids in the UK Discussion post.

genessa comments on Oct 28, 2018:

watching it now. immediately recognized chris noth. what's the big deal with that, you ask? well, my eyes are very bad and the tv always seems dark to me, so it's hard to see, but something about the way he moved his head, i knew it was he. i did look it up and in doing so i found reviews. the first one i found misspelled eccleston AND called him the TENTH doctor! so... yeah, i think i'll just go back to watching now (we're having a commercial break). i am starting to like this new doc a lot! g

Who remembers these and did you have one?

genessa comments on Oct 28, 2018:

i think my sister may have had one. they always seemed a little gross to me. g

Yesterday’s horror in Pittsburgh reminds me that, though I am an atheist, I will always be a Jew.

genessa comments on Oct 28, 2018:

i'm with you. there is judaism and there is jewishness. one is a religion and one is a cultural identity. i always self-identify as a jew, and i am fine with that. i have many reasons (lox is one of them) but if pressed i will say that as long as there is one person in the world who hates me without even knowing i individually exist, i have to be a jew. g

There was a post in health and happiness that inspired me to post this Atheism Has a Suicide ...

genessa comments on Oct 28, 2018:

well, sorry, but atheists are NOT notoriously nonjoiners, nor contrarians, though i may seem contrary right now for disagreeing with you. that is bunk. atheists have all different kinds of personalities, just like everyone else. i also have not seen any of the statistics you assure me so confidently are true about atheist suicides. i have seen some (not recently so i can't link you, sorry) lots about family annihilators; they tend to be christian. mormons, i think, tend to off themselves, don't they? atheists... nope, haven't seen a thing about that. g

How can I find more local friends with more in common?

genessa comments on Oct 28, 2018:

i have found that the worst way to make friends is to go looking for friends. just do stuff you enjoy, stuff that involves other people. you'll meet a lot of folks with nothing in common with you. you'll meet some with whom you'll hit it off, too. g

Late nights?

genessa comments on Oct 28, 2018:

it's not thinking that keeps me up. i have mind games i can play to distract myself from worries. it's my body. everything hurts. physical pain keeps me awake. g

If I believed this would be believable

genessa comments on Oct 28, 2018:

the dog says, "my human rubs my tummy, feeds me, takes me for walks, bathes me, clips my nails, buys me toys, scratches me behind the ears, picks up my poop, takes me to the vet, shows me all love and consideration -- he must be a god!" the cat says: "my human rubs my tummy, feeds me, gives me a cat tree, kisses me, clips my nails, buys me toys, scratches me behind the ears, cleans up my poop box, takes me to the vet, shows me all love and consideration -- i must be a god! g

Do you think crying is a sign of weakness or strength?

genessa comments on Oct 28, 2018:

crying is a sign of neither strength nor weakness. crying is not even always a sign of the same thing. it can be a sign of pain, fear, relief, a wish to manipulate, a proximity to sliced onions, sentimentality, frustration, joy, and a bunch of stuff that i can't think of at three-thirty in the morning. by the way, it is perfectly fine, or not in the case of manipulation, for men, women, children and other primates to cry. g

Who remembers the song Little Boxes?

genessa comments on Oct 28, 2018:

i heard pete seeger sing it in concert when i was a small child. it was written by malvina reynolds. g

Now that Trump, Fox and the R's have blood on their hands, will anything change?

genessa comments on Oct 28, 2018:

they've had blood on their hands for a while now. g

I'm taking care of my 92 yr old father with prostate cancer and Alzheimer's disease.

genessa comments on Oct 28, 2018:

i am trying to take care of my guy who has alzheimer's, albeit not cancer. he is only 70 but he is getting worse. i am sick and have no help. i don't know what to do so i don't know how to advise you. i wish i knew. g

After we die

genessa comments on Oct 28, 2018:

nothing. there is no more us after we die. have you ever seen anything or anyone die? they decompose. animals, plants, we decompose. there is nothing left to produce consciousness, or a personality, or a person. ashes to ashes, dust to dust. g

The amount of evil and suffering in the world only means either god is evil,impotent or non existent...

genessa comments on Oct 28, 2018:

tired old argument. his nonexistence has nothing to do with the suffering in the world. there just is no such thing as a god. if we were all deliriously happy and comfortable there would still be no god. g

If you knew you only had a year to live, how would you live your life differently than you are now?

genessa comments on Oct 28, 2018:

this might be true for me. i don't know whether i will find out on november 8 with my hysteroscopy or not because i am so sick i may not be able to have that procedure that soon, but whenever i do, then i will find out whether, as is suspected, i have uterine cancer. then i would love to finish my novel and do a bunch of other finishing-ups, but the truth is i will probably be too sick to do any of it. g

What the best Disney movie and why?

genessa comments on Oct 28, 2018:

fantasia. needs no explanation! g

When I was a little punk, I made bad comments about the adults and old people.

genessa comments on Oct 28, 2018:

i never did that. about my parents, or stupid teachers, yes, but not for being old. i never bought into that "don't trust anyone over 30" stuff -- i knew and respected too many good people over 30 (and i knew some creeps my own age, too). now i am old and i feel unfairly dissed by the young, not by anyone who knows me (real live in-my-face young people have been kind to me, actually), but in general, as a class. i didn't vote for trump or any republican; i've never voted for a republican and i am more liberal now than when i was marching in protest of the kent state killings in 1970 (and i was pretty damned liberal then). i don't diss young people. i have high hopes for young people, if only we could get them all to vote. i am computer literate. i don't use consumer cellular or have a flip phone. today a cab driver told me i looked as if i were 47 years old (i am 66 and a half). i don't believe him for an instant; i feel about 100. but emotionally... well, look at my profile picture. i still identify with that person. in many ways i am still that person. g

What your problem with the Me Too movement?

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

there is nothing wrong with the me too movement itself. like anything else it's misunderstood by many, and interpreted variously to mean that all men are rapists (nope), that no women EVER lie (nope, and dangerous to say that because the dominant attitude has always been that most women lie, and the me too movement is trying to change that), or that you don't have to use logic or pay attention to what's being said, done, etc. just as people think pc is trying to control what we say (it's just trying to teach idiots who are rude not to be rude; the rest of us actually don't say bad things to each other because we don't THINK of black folks as the n-word or jews as the k-word, not because some rulebook said "hush dear, that's not nice.") anyone with a brain and a heart can see that blasey-ford was telling the truth and kavanaugh is a sexual assailant. anyone with a brain, eyes and a heart can see that al franken was set up by tweeden thanks to fox nudes. it's not about believing women over men or men over women. it's about understanding that the problem of patriarchy extends to, depends on, sexual domination as well, and that it's a real thing that must be addressed. g

So how do we all feel about "sacred" music?

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

i love jewish music, the music of my people! i also love me some good hildegarde von bingen. music is music. g

Do you celebrate Christmas as a family social gathering without God?

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

i'm jewish. no christmas. for a couple years in my young adulthood i used to go to a christmas party thrown by a friend every year. there was no religion involved; most of the guests were japanese and also not christian. g

Never ending growth. What are your thoughts on the need for society to keep growing?

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

what do you mean by society and growth? do you mean mere population? no bad idea. do you mean grow in sophistication? yes, of course. it's not happening, though. is what caused by religion? i don't see religion as related at all to this question. of course i am not clicking the links. not going to comment on the economy, sorry. g

Is man's internal struggles with good vs evil manifested externally through religion?

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

no. man's internal struggles with good and evil are manifested externally through all manner of behavior. religion makes manifest society's struggle to control the individual and CALLS itself a regulator of good and evil, but it defines good and evil by what keeps people controlled or doesn't. i don't know what freud meant but i doubt he meant anything to do with the devil because freud was jewish and there is no devil in judaism. the devil as portrayed in popular culture is a christian construct. g

Another shooting! A Synagogue in Pittsburgh! At least twelve shot.

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

maybe it can't end as long as trump blames the people in the synagogue for being unarmed (armed officers were shot there with an ar-15). g

How many states

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

zero. g

Drugs. Man. What kinda drugs do you like?

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

i find being drunk unpleasant and now that i have diabetes i can't drink anyway, which is sad because one can drink without getting drunk, and kahlua cream tastes good. amaretto, sambuco, galliano, pretty much anything with cream tastes good! but i like weed and it has medicinal properties that would benefit me. alas i do not live in a state where it is legal, which means it is not readily available. street drugs don't tempt me one bit. g

What makes/made you happy today?

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

i am not happy today. i am having an asthma attack, i just got home from the e.r. 24 hours ago almost to the minute and i'll be damned if i go back again today, and it's too early to go to urgent care, which is not how i intended to spend my day either. but i was happy to watch a funny old episode of murphy brown last night, and i am happy that my cat, who hasn't been eating, likes the special food i have prepared for her and is eating maybe a spoonful at a time, but often, and enthusiastically. i just wish i could breathe. g

I saw a post on Facebook asking why vaccinated children would be in danger from unvaccinated ...

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

true. vaccinations vastly reduce the chance, in most people, of being infected with whatever you're being vaccinated against. the more people in a group are vaccinated, the better it works, because exposure is reduced. it is not 100 percent perfect; what is? not me! not you! not anything or anyone! oh, maybe lox. but that's another story. so if unvaccinated kids "invade" a "herd" of vaccinated kids, the risk goes up that some of the latter will indeed be infected. your point about mutations is also well taken. take note, everyone, there are epidemics of such diseases as measles, which we thought we had more or less eradicated. why is this? anti-vaxxers! g

Hilarious Examples Of Cat Logic [youtube.com]

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

we have to click through; playback is not available here. g

Why do good guys looks creepy and creepy guys behave like good lads

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

you can't ask why something is, if it isn't. good guys may or may not look creepy. creeps may or may not look good, although i have to say that creepiness is in and of itself ugly to me. handsome is as handsome does. if good guys look creepy to you and creeps look good to you, maybe you need to look more deeply. g

So you're an Atheist?

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

what truth? truth isn't a universal thing. you can't find a thing called the truth, THE truth. there are truths ABOUT stuff. it's true that i have a sore throat right now. it is not true that i can fly like a bird. but one truth, like, oh that's what the universe is all about, that's what life is all about? no. no such thing. just another magical thing, like a god, a unicorn or the tooth fairy, not one of which exists. no truth there. g

I would like to meet like minded people.

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

good! welcome! here is some advice: read posts. browse groups, maybe join some if you like. respond to posts that interest you. make some posts about things that interest you (other than just stating that you'd like to meet people). this way, you'll meet people you could find interesting and who could find you interesting. g

So tell me, what does it mean to be an Existentialist?

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

i just realized (which you might not realize, and thus i mention it) that this is double-posted. g

vote Millennials Vote like your lives depended on it.

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

i hate this. there is no gerontocracy. that's ageism. the idiots in congress are not evil because they're old (there are good old and young ones in there too, and evil old and young ones). they're evil because they're evil. i'm 66 and a half and have never voted republican in my life. yes millennials need to vote. so do we all. it's important to encourage millennials not because we old folks are so awful but because so many millennials will not vote without encouragement. g

Remember in highschool when your friends were determined by the music you listened to?

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

must have just been the 80s, which most certainly were not the decade of my high school days. my friends were determined by who didn't hate me for being jewish, wearing glasses, carrying a briefcase and being a nerd. g

Assuming everybody here r atheists, do we all genuinely want to see our country as an atheist nation...

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

1. incorrect assumption even by loose definitions; apart from actual trolls, there are some people here who call themselves spiritual, or even believers. but most of us are atheists and agnostics. 2. may i assume by "nation" you mean the united states? there are people here from other places. since i am american, i will proceed along those lines. we need a secular nation. that's not the same as an atheist one. i would not presume to tell people what or how to believe (or not). 3. people have tried, sometimes successfully, to rewrite history. it's not a good thing to do. as long as religion is part of history, some people will take it more seriously than others. we cannot fully understand all of secular history and society without understanding religious history. this is not the same as following a religion or believing in deities, of course. but we can't just erase it, not without turning into the cambodia of the 1970s. g

Are we all generally aware of the diff in Atheist and Agnostic?

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

diffs plural, not diff singular, because not everyone agrees 1. on what the differences are or 2. that there are major differences. i don't lose any sleep over it. g

Do you think that if God does not exist, life is ultimately absurd?

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

i don't understand what believing in a god has to do with having a purpose. if one believes in a god that actually wants something, then that would be god's purpose, right? and since believers don't all believe in the same god, god's purpose is STILL subjective. so what? i have read both sartre and camus but not enough, and not recently enough, to comment on what they believed. i will not agree or disagree with them based on second-hand argument. i can say that it is possible that absurdity is not the right concept here. anyway, i am tired of people speculating that only god could give an objective purpose when, as i have said, that would be as subjective as anything else. g

A transgender prisoner who sexually assaulted two inmates at a women's jail and had previously raped...

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

so what has the prisoner's being transgendered have to do with the prisoner's being a rapist? rape isn't about sex. it's about power. being trans doesn't make you a bad OR a good person. i don't understand why that aspect of it is important. it's the rape that's the crime, not being trans. g

Would u argue that all life, I mean the lives of ppl, r of equal value, regardless of their status ...

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

i would argue that the lives of people, even people who use text speak when not sending a text, have the same basic human rights. value is subjective and i would not try to assess it. i value some individuals in my life more than others but that doesn't mean i think one has more of a right to live, be free or pursue happiness, although freedom is not for, say, psychopathic murderers; they should not be free and at large, and it is difficult to pursue happiness in prison. i most certainly would not judge human value, if i were to do so, by societal or economic status. that would be shallow. g

Who's a person who inspires you?

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

i do not equate inspiration with hope. i can't think of any individual who gives me hope. i can only hope we don't blow ourselves up before today's children can grow up and make their OWN mistakes, maybe, if we're very lucky, fixing some of ours along the way. voting helps. meanwhile, inspiration? a hell of a long list. let's start with hypatia. g

So tell me, what does it mean to be an Existentialist?

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

it may or may not be one of those things people interpret differently, but it has an actual definition, and this is a good place to explore it: https://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/existentialism.htm g

This is the last candid photo I took of my dad ( 10/23/18 ).

genessa comments on Oct 27, 2018:

you have my condolences. it may just be the angle or something but he looks alert, if thoughtful, in the picture. i bet he was an interesting man g

What are we doing here? (On this site, not existentially.)

genessa comments on Oct 26, 2018:

talking with my fingers. expressing myself, finding out what other people think, whether other people think, when other people think, how people feel, away from facebook, although i am not away from facebook. i can multitask! g

Why is a bra singular and panties plural?

genessa comments on Oct 26, 2018:

because bra is short for brassiere, and it's one unit, named not after boobs but after arms, which admittedly also come in pairs -- but it doesn't go down the arms. panties is a diminutive of pants, which traditionally DO go down the legs too (think bloomers) and so it's plural because of the legs. does it make sense? no! but you didn't say what sensible reason was there, only why! that is probably the real reason, whether or not it makes sense. g

Do you think the world contains more people who argue against a controversial position than for it?

genessa comments on Oct 26, 2018:

i don't think we have any way of knowing. we're just not privy to that, and i don't think studies have been made on that particular thing. but you know, one reason a study would be hard is that "controversial" isn't a fixed description. what is controversial in one place, or among some people, isn't, in other places, or among others. and which side is the for and which is the against? g

Freethinkers Anthem!

genessa comments on Oct 26, 2018:

freethinkers' anthem: isn't that an oxymoron? g

Anyone here ?

genessa comments on Oct 26, 2018:

you may wish to try a chat room for this sort of thing. most of us like to respond to posts with some substance. it doesn't have to be war and peace -- but, you know, say something? g

Does it seem like getting a one night stand would be really easy?

genessa comments on Oct 26, 2018:

um, no. no, it doesn't seem that way at all. neither is easy. g

English is not my first language so I'll try to make this as comprehensible as I can.

genessa comments on Oct 26, 2018:

1. this is NOT a sounding board for liberals or trump-haters. i wish it was, but it's not. i've been trolled by a LOT of trumpkins. you're out in force and you have your own groups galore. if you can't find them, you're not looking. i assume you can't find them and are not just lying. with trumpkins anything is possible. 2. you don't like us because we're not strictly a sounding board for trumpkins? so then why are you here? 3. we don't pray. we don't pray to gods, we don't pray to people, even liberal people lol. if you're going to be ridiculous, post in random and silly. 4. considering the tenor of your post, why should we care what you do or do not mind? 5. your english is fine. your logic... not so much. g

Can anyone say what it means to "take the name of the Lord thy God in vain"?

genessa comments on Oct 26, 2018:

well i don't have a lord or god, but yes, i know what people who believe in that stuff mean by taking his name in vain. it means saying stuff like "god damn it" when you're not actually damning someone to hell. that's just an example. g

Caught the bomber and he is a right wing nut job.

genessa comments on Oct 26, 2018:

i know. it almost makes you lose faith that a congress not in session can pass a tax cut for the middle class that they never intended to pass and have never heard of, before the election except it will be after the election except it won't happen, right? what kind of world IS this when you can't even believe that five-year-olds have the legal, mental and emotional capacity to sign away their rights? i'm going to send a nasty letter to the tooth fairy about it. g

If you could, at the wave of your hand, abolish any one religion, which would it be?

genessa comments on Oct 26, 2018:

you ask which one, when the question could easily be "would you do it at all"! g

Good bye.

genessa comments on Oct 26, 2018:

i am not the first person to mention you've not even been here a week. i would seriously reexamine your expectations. women are not a commodity, after all! it's not like you go to a store and they say "sorry, we don't have anything in your size, come back tomorrow since we're getting a shipment in then" and the next day it's "sorry, the shipment was delayed" and after a week you decide either not to buy one or to try another store! we're talking about PEOPLE here! you've made two whole posts and this goodbye one is one of them. people don't get to know each other that fast, with that little. g

Life Coaches.

genessa comments on Oct 26, 2018:

breathing, which counts me out. g

Remember these tunes? We had some wild and crazy songs when we were young.

genessa comments on Oct 26, 2018:

i have both on my altercare playlist! g

☺ asdfghjklkjhgfds ☺?? ? ? ✉ ?

genessa comments on Oct 25, 2018:

nonsense posts don't make anyone any friends. g

Just thought I’d share this.

genessa comments on Oct 25, 2018:

show her some esther williams films! g