Alright, alright! Everybody has a bitch! Tell me - what have you done to further the age of understanding & enlightenment? (No Buddhists, Theosophists or Necromancers, please).
I have been open about being an atheist( not an easy thing here in the bible belt of Florida) and been willing to discuss in an even tempered manner with religious people about their beliefs and mine. That helps me sort out the people who really believe from the ones who believe their own self serving version of their religion. I have found that asking some good questions and their answers help me sort them out. If their answer is I don't know I need to read that section of the bible more, than I know that they are truly seeking answers to the unknown and probably someday come to the conclusion thats its all bullshit in their own time after enough study. If on the other hand they respond with a question of their own without answering the one I posed than It becomes evident that they are just using religion as a nice warm blanket to wrap themselves in to confirm their own desires and wants by claiming their invisible friend in the sky wants things to be their way. This second group will never disavow their religion because they use it to justify every thing they want weather its evil or not as long as its self serving.
Thank you for continuing with this, I understand this work can be frustrating but is of great importance where you are.
You have a good approach & attitude. Look up at the mountain!
I encouraged both husbands to have vascetomies thus doing my fair share to slow the population explosion.
I helped many young women get better jobs by rewriting their resumes. I have gathered petition signature for every progressive imitative petition that has been proposed in Oklahoma for the last 40 years.
I always get my pets from shelters. I recycle and helped to get my town to start curbside recycling.
I have shown remarkable restraint when it comes to Trumpsters therefore i have never killed or assaulted one.
Population as we were taught is inaccurate, not what the actual data shows.
@JesseThompson That is why I think the ended the draft after the Nam, now it is a distinct minority who serve, less than 1%.
This makes us vulnerable both on the battlefield and off, on because most of us do not have combat training or experience, off the field because it detaches the majority from the bloody costs of warfare.
During Nam every third house had a direct efffect from that war, and after a few years the whole population was "WTF, enough!"
Without that direct connection to the real bloody costs of war the average person sees it as a sad thing, over there, not directly affecting them. This allows for endless excuses for wars and endless wars.
@Davesnothere I forgot to mention i have demonstrated against every war since 1980.
The decreases in population increases would not have happened without everyday people realizing that smaller families meant a better life for everyone involved.
@ davenothere
Great presentation, makes you feel more optimistic about the world. More and more we know America would be great, taking away their wars and for the rest of the world.
You go girl!
@Davesnothere Simple biology. Any biological system is a closed system. Once that system expands & exploits the environment beyond the capacity of the ecosytem to sustain it, then extinction becomes a possibilty. Technofix is the new god.
Any time I see church pamphlets in the restroom, I throw them away & replace them with a pamphlets on a vasectomy.
Might not sound like much but I do my part.
Saving the ocean one starfish at a time!
Am I the only one confused about the exclamation "Everybody has a bitch?"
No, you are not. It set my teeth on edge.
Hence, my response was in kind.
Since 2006 as a volunteer college mentor, I have been helping low income, first generation students write essays for college and scholarship applications. One of my best success stories is Brenda, who won $269,445 in scholarships in 2016. Brenda is becoming a medical doctor and pathologist. She wants to cure diseases.
These kids have big dreams. The first girl I mentored, Yulia (Russian immigrant), is now an engineer at Puget Sound Shipyards. Other girls are becoming medical doctors, physical therapists, teachers and accountants. Tammy, a Vietnamese immigrant, is studying to be a neurosurgeon at the University of Washington.
It thrills me to send these kids to college.
Photos:
I'm a rockstar! happy dance 2018
In June 2018, I took three young women I previously mentored on a hike in Icicle Gorge.
From left: Tammy (neurosurgery student), me, Elisabet (medical doctor/pediatrician student) and Teresa (accountant and community leader.)
Pointed out that most atheists are bigots of some description!
I.e. no Buddhists, Theosophists or Necromancers allowed.
I was merely asking those of this persuadion to exercise some self restraint when engaging in this topic.
I am a progressive. I am active in several liberal groups and campaign for other progressive candidates. We believe in science, fairness and a level playing field. At one time I was a delegate to the Democratic Convention in CA. and an official in the local Central Committee, I belonged to several caucuses, ADA, LGBTQ, Hispanic. I volunteer for charity lunch kitchens, donate food and sometimes money. I give money to school lunch programs to pay off delinquent student lunch debt. I believe that by paying it forward and showing respect to those marginalized it can give them some respite from a world that hasn't been working for them.
Idealism rocks!
I have created an alphabet for an African language that previously just had an oral tradition. I published books in the language and started teaching them to read and write their own language. Previously they had to do their reading and writing in French (in Côte d’Ivoire in Africa).
I don't think we have reached the age of understanding and enlightenment. So, maybe the question would be better pushed as what are you doing to bring it about. Truth and speaking up about stupidity.
Exactly! A spark of truth that may lead to a raging inferno.
In my case, I moved to Thailand in 2010, hoping to be influenced by Buddhism and to become less aggressive.
It helped a little, I think. At any rate, my mind switched over to being open to the universe, and I stopped believing in Christianity while I was there. Meditation became a daily way of life.
But here"s the deal. Are you not exchanging one soother for another?
@Atheist3 Meditation is real, as is universal energy. Nothing happens that isn't imagined first, as quantum physics likes to remind us.
@birdingnut Quantum physics is hypothetical. The natural world happens whether it's imagined or not. Meditation is an self induced altered state of consciousness but an internal world nonetheless.
@Atheist3 “A fundamental conclusion of the new physics also acknowledges that the observer creates the reality. As observers, we are personally involved with the creation of our own reality. Physicists are being forced to admit that the universe is a 'mental' construction."
Pioneering physicist Sir James Jeans wrote: “The stream of knowledge is heading toward a non-mechanical reality; the universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine. Mind no longer appears to be an accidental intruder into the realm of matter, we ought rather hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of matter.
Get over it, and accept the inarguable conclusion. The universe is immaterial-mental and spiritual.” – R.C. Henry, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University , “The Mental Universe” ; Nature
Physics indicates that we are participating in creating our own universes/reality.
“Consciousness is fundamental, and matter is derived from consciousness." – Max Planck, theoretical physicist who originated quantum theory, 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics
Quote:“
"If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics." quoted from "The Character of Physical Law" -(2014), Richard Feynman, late Nobel Laureate in physics
@birdingnut My point being: where's the evidence?
I raised two kids to be skeptical, independent, and outspoken adults. My daughter was seven when she explained, her mom sent her after she and I separated, the biblical stories she heard at Sunday school, and I was nervous to hear her spouting that crap. When she followed up her brief bible synopsis with, "Do adults really believe that crap?" I felt a tremendous sense of relief.
Out of the mouths of babes! I luv it!
"the age of understanding & enlightenment?"
Sorry that happened a long time in the past, I was not alive.
I thought it is an ongoing process?
I was once asked to leave the Golden Corral because "all you can eat" apparently has limits and I was "making people feel uncomfortable."
I wrestled a quetzalcoatl to a draw and we bonded over a ritual meal of mescaline marinated ceviche and ham sandwiches while Noam Chomsky read from Cartesian Linguistics.
Or maybe this was a dream.
You riding with Thompson and Vonnegut with Kafka driving?
I too make my own( and very strong) edibles
Sounds like my time on the desert with Don Juan.
Happy trails!
i correct trolls even though they can't be corrected -- for the sake of lurkers. i try to keep myself informed so i can inform those who can't or won't inform themselves, and i try not to be judgmental but that's very difficult because sometimes the uninformed are also angry and mean-spirited and respond, say, to the death of a teenager in ice custory by saying he shouldn't have sneaked across the border, or saying that health care isn't a human right because it's not fair to those providing goods and services. these things make me judgmental and i try to contain myself but when these mean things are also said meanly, then i lose my struggle. but i struggle on.
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Wow! That different.
Attempting to educate Facebook friends when they post ridiculous stories without bothering to fact-check them. Introducing logic into posts that could benefit from it. Occasionally even introducing history to people who plainly are ignorant of it. It is shocking how many people are bereft of the tools, such as basic logic and at least some knowledge of history, that make reasoning possible. No wonder so many of our politicians are of the low quality they are - they represent well the people who vote for them. I really hope free thinkers get politically active and vote. We can't let the ignorant and loony continue to choose our leadership. We are gaining the numbers now to be a force for sanity, but it won't do any good if we don't use our numbers to support an agenda of sanity.
@EskieMom I don't know about those numbers. I still encounter an astonishing amount of ignorance. But we can't give up. We must carry on. Whatever we can do to promote education be it to teach an individual about a single event or to vote for folks who support public education, we must do it.
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@genessa I have read several polls that say the number of "nones" - people who claim no religious affiliation, are growing particularly among young people. Now granted, it's a diverse group ranging from atheists to spiritual but not religious, however most of them should not go in for the current evangelical agenda - and they are the most politically active religious folks. I've had acquaintances and family members who are evangelical. They are not the people you want choosing anything frankly. Besides being indifferent to evidence a lot of them want the world to end so they can trade their crappy lives here for a mansion in heaven, that's why they largely don't care about climate change. I really hope people have some sense will take seriously the responsibility to vote.
Well with the exception of this, in my part I try to not comment on nonsensical posts. I rather try to find a common ground, and have a fruitful conversation.
However. I have no 'Bitch', nor would set up parameters to exclude some from being able to contribute.
I find that even when another may disagree, there still can be some discourse. Barring some from that, to me, just shows a non willingness to accept anothers point of view. JMHO.
You never owned a female dog? I suspect that everyone has had a 'bitch of a day'!
On my death bed, I'll know I have lived life with integrity. I loved most of my waking hours loving what I do and not harming anyone. I was the first to work full-time at the sand and snow sculpture bussiness. Help Illegalize marijunna, and lastly turning tiny houses substantialble community and urban farming into a reality most recently.
No body like a complainer, turn everything at least towards a solution. I could die happy, but not til tomorrow.
I want yer life!
Thank you.
Hope to get a dog like yours, never own one.
Try to educate illogical atheist that I really do exist. God is not my name as many wrongfully assume, but I have eaten a taco.
Then, get everyone education on understanding that current world structure of governmental terrorism, taxation and religious oppression is not needed but rather brick homes, businesses and property(or comparable well build strudy structures)for everyone on Earth free from mortgage, free from rent, and free from taxation, built by true masons (or well trained builders of the sort) and kill anyone in true justice that opposes it.
Then, free education of all knowledge, understanding, wisdom, skills, crafts trades and college certifications of any kind be available to all human animals free from tuition, free from loans and free from any fees and kill anyone in true justice that opposes it.
Then, because everyone would have college degrees for being a doctor of every kind, medical services for anyone in need of care will be free from cost, free from fees and free from any indebtedness and kill anyone in true justice that opposes it.
Then, because everyone will be educated as an engineer we can get Noah's spaceship built and everything on Earth packed on it to be raptured to most likely Mars because we only have a few billion years before the Sun explodes or expands into a red giant star and burns up everything on Earth. Then, we would have to consider the gravitational cluster crap of the Andromeda galaxy splashing into the milky way.
So, people need to have true freedom to live good peaceful joyful lives so the can hurry up and get it over with and finally go and be with non-existent flying spaghetti monster sky God in non-existance once and for all because no one asked in the first place to exist in this pathetic crap called existence.
Non-existance for everyone, once and for all!!! Non-existent flying spaghetti monster sky God here we come to be all totally forever non-existent with you and never ever again worry about anything thing existant ever again.
That's a different perspective.
"Speak the truth quietly and clearly for those who choose to listen will listen and learn from it, never let lies and myths overshadow the truth for those will banish enlightenment when and where ever they can, be the bringer of truth to the best of your abilities." William Anthony, 2019.
Absolutely nothing.
Nor do I feel I have any obligation to do such.
That's someone else's expectation, not mine.
I don't feel like there is any "age of understanding and enlightenment"
to begin with.
Whence intelligent progress?
I speak clearly and without subterfuge.
Talk to me dirty!
@Atheist3 Always place the modifier with the verb. Your dog is adorable.
@Spinliesel Rrruff!