We are burdened with the knowledge that we must make the best of what we have in this life, both the good and the bad, as there is no "get out of death free card" awaiting us at the end.
(Source.)
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Keira Knightley gets it.
We are burdened with the knowledge that we must make the best of what we have in this life, both the good and the bad, as there is no "get out of death free card" awaiting us at the end.
(Source.)
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Every day, I revel in the freedom of never having to think about a god, a master, or a sky fairy.
ReplyDeleteAthiesm affords me the ultimate in freedom, happiness, and a life affirming philosophy, because I'm responsible for my own choices, without the oppression of a religious burden of guilt imposed on my life.
I enjoy freedom of thought, freedom of action, but that doesn't mean I don't have morality, as your lead says.
I am also SO GLAD there is no God that I must be afraid of, or please, or must constantly strive to find out what his "will" for me is. I can't tell you how liberating that is, having once lived on the inside of believing in Bronze age religion.
Being an evangelical or fundamentalist Christian is a huge burden, because you're weighed down with guilt and shame for your shortcomings, and constantly having to pray about finding a path, doing god's will, and being accountable to something that you never see and can't know.
On top of all that, there are thousands of so called pastors teachers, and prophets that claim to have the inside track, hundreds of denominations at war with each other over the same thing.
They hypocrisy and blatant quest for riches in much of Christianity is just sickening.
I''ve read the bible 6 times through from cover to cover, and have the original texts in Koine greek and hebrew.
It's laughably easy to pick out the contradictions, the errors, the mistranslations, and the mythology it has induced in our culture.
What's probably the most disturbing of all in the bible is what a huge place that the writings of Paul of Tarsus are given.
The man was a legalistic and fanatic Pharisee, and that shows itself in his terrible prejudice against women, and their place in the world.
It is a sad testimony, but every day on planet earth, there are billions of people who base their daily life on the rantings of some wild eyed tent maker or shepherd who scratched out some mandates on a goat skin.
In the USA, well over half of our elected officials base their life on this mythology, and strive to form our laws and government on this foundation.
The only bastion that can stand against this is the 1st amendment, and we can only hope that it won't get re-written some day.
Bingo!
DeleteThank you.
Too bad there's no like button on this site. Smart people on here.
DeleteTacks like disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, using 4 letter words like Fuck, Cunt, Shit, & getting arrested because you spoke or acted a differnt.
DeleteReligion should be a choice, be it to absolve or comfort or terrify, but not a birth right discription of a person. Stand Strong and defend the truth. Gia!! Claiming to be anything but humanist is not logical unless the past ancistory included beastlity. Everything is about control & shame & SEX!
Well said, thank you.
DeleteThanks for you thoughts, AJ. Well said!
DeleteThis is the exact reason, AJ, that my beloved home state of Tennessee has horrified me with an attempt by the legislators (cough) to make the bible the Official State Book.
DeleteHonestly, even the Christians in Tennessee are howling at the secularization of their play book.
Excellent comment, AJ.
DeleteA cartoon I saw many years ago had a person standing up in a pulpit and saying, "This morning I was going to preach about 'Knowing God's will' … but I wasn't sure that He wanted me to."
ReplyDeleteThe idea that all you have to do is ask God for forgiveness and you'll be absolved of all wrongdoing is, I think, mostly just a Christian thing. That's the whole "Jesus died on the cross for our sins" nonsense. I don't think that idea, re. Keira's quote, applies to other religions, of which Christianity is only one of many.
ReplyDeleteI can only be an atheist in the sense of not believing any organized religion has it all figured out. That is arrogant in my mind, but so is saying there is no god. I just don't think anyone knows.
ReplyDeleteSo to be clear saying there is no God is arrogant, but insisting there is a God based on absolutely no evidence isn't?
DeleteGiggleSnort, Thanks Gryph!
DeleteSee Greta Christina's essay, "6 (Unlikely) Developments That Could Convince This Atheist To Believe in God" http://www.alternet.org/story/147424/6_%28unlikely%29_developments_that_could_convince_this_atheist_to_believe_in_god
DeleteIf I'm such an open-minded atheist -- if I really am an atheist because I think the God hypothesis is unsupported by the evidence -- what evidence for God would I accept? What would it take to change my mind?
Atheists often ask religious believers, "What evidence would convince you that you were mistaken?" We like to point out that religious beliefs are usually unfalsifiable -- there's no possible evidence that could prove them wrong, thus rendering them utterly useless. And even if they're falsifiable in theory (as any belief in a 6,000 year old Earth ought to be), they wind up being unfalsifiable in practice, with an endless series of denialism and goalpost-moving and "God works in mysterious ways" waffling. We often point out that the very definition of religious faith is believing without evidence, even believing in spite of evidence that flatly contradicts the faith. We point out that, when asked "What would convince you that your belief was mistaken?", the answer from believers is typically, "Nothing. Nothing would convince me that my God is not real. That's what it means to have faith." (Which makes accusing atheists of arrogance more than a little absurd... but that's not important right now.)
And atheists like to point out that this isn't true for us: Atheists are open to the possibility that we might be wrong and that the reason we don't believe in God is that we haven't seen good evidence for him -- if we see better evidence, we'll change our minds.
5:26 --I am in similar circumstances. I find I identify with "atheist" because it is the term that is available to me, though what I really "don't believe in" is religion, which seems to boil down to a form of egotism--"I have found the truth and here it is."
DeleteI think the Universe is a wondrous place and I am delighted to be a part of it. I doubt that human minds can fully comprehend it. But I do think that what "immortality" that may be is something that is inherent, it comes without seeking, and it applies to every living thing.
But I don't demand that anyone else agrees with me, because that would be egotistical--and religious.
Be Agnostic, then... A seeker of truth.
DeleteThere is a big difference between being an Atheist and Agnostic.
There is a big difference between being an Atheist and Agnostic.
DeleteThere is a big difference between being an Agnostic and being an Agnostic. For example, some Agnostics say we don't know The Answer yet, while others say we cannot know The Answer. How the latter group resolves being "a seeker of truth" with the conviction that the truth cannot be known—is one of life's mysteries.
I always felt that Keira was her own person. Good to hear her words.
ReplyDeleteThe main problem I have with this quote is that it presents the choice of atheism as a dichotomy between either believing in Christianity (and just one subtype of Christianity) and Atheism--according to her quotation, if you are not an atheist you must believe in a classic Christian style god that grants blanket forgiveness for any sin just by asking, when in fact there are many belief systems (including types of Christianity) that don't adhere to that school of thought. It just makes her argument a strawman: "Theists believe you can murder a bunch of people and it's OK as long as you say 'Sorry!' afterward"
ReplyDeleteI don't get how being an atheist has any bearing on whether a person feel guilt or not.
ReplyDeleteUm. Actually, there are.
ReplyDeleteI always carry a few in my purse to hand out to special people.
http://www.getoutofhellfree.com/
Valid for all 7 + 1 deadly sins: Sloth, Pride, Wrath, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Greed and.....Stupidity.
They now have a Rainbow Pride edition.
I have the limited edition hologram card where the man jumps. I usually give out the plastic cards but I'll need to stock up as I only have two left.
Ah, yes, the "Mr Clean Magic Eraser" Boink anything on two legs, steal, cheat, lie all you want, one act of contrition and "Boom" the slate is clean again. Open up those pearly gates, Pete!
ReplyDeleteI mean this with all sincerity, but the idea of an angry God and original sin on an infant's soul is just preposterous.