When a group wants to give you a large sum of money to help cure cancer what should you do? TAKE IT… help cure cancer!!! Well, if you’re atheist apparently your money isn’t wanted or needed.
Looks like they lost a donor in the likes of me. I am an atheist. I have the right to help secular research groups such as The ACS is supposed to be. OOps. Your bad.
This is a pretty good quotes video I found on YouTube. I love quotes, finding good ones always makes my day.
In today’s politics I grow increasingly wary about the continual intrusion of religion and it’s hypocritical values encroachment into the US government. Especially among the right. I know that is a “Thank you! Captain Obvious!” type of statement. When I watch something like this it worries me. There is a huge focus on the religion of the candidates because we know their religion plays a huge role in how they act publicly. (Not privately obviously if you see all the sex scandals in politics) I try not to pay too much attention to what they say they are and what they say their morals are. Obama burned everyone who voted for him and I’ve learned my lesson well. I was ashamed when I heard that Obama had downplayed his mother’s lack of organized religion and felt the need to make excuses for her. With all the flip flops and false ethics, morals and family values I find it repugnant that Atheists are still one of the most mistrusted groups in America.
Religion is the biggest fire behind the anti-gay anti-woman legislation circulating in the country and sadly my own state. Mitt Romney is a mormon. Montana is a deeply red state but with Mitt being a mormon I think it would be very difficult for republicans in my state to vote for simply because of that fact. There is a separation of church and state that every republican and most of the democrats refuse to recognize… Unless its useful for a dodge such as this. Repugnant. You cannot have it both ways and the founding fathers stated quite clearly there is a separation.
God and politics do not mix. Jesus was against politicians and rich men, but they use Jesus against the rest of the US by using his morals as a battering ram to legislate morality. So much for small government. Well watch the video and watch Mitt dodge the question like a champ but maintain that he is FOR gay rights. I have a thought about this disconnect of his. He may believe they deserve the same rights as the rest of society but his religion and his political party force him to ignore his own superior morality. He is more moral than he can let on because that doesn’t fall in behind the line the Republican conservative party line being towed they won’t support him or back him with the millions in corporate money. It’s just a thought I had. If it weren’t for religion and literal belief in the bible such malleable masses could actually have to think for them selves on such issues as gay rights and womens rights. Then they might actually have to take into account what millennium we are in as well as the socioeconomic and social pressures are actually occurring in front of them. Their god forbid that shades of gray be seen by such people.
Atheism isn’t a religion, no matter what conservative evangelical Christians think, but some atheists are religious — all that’s necessary is for them to belong to an atheistic religion. The most common of these may be Buddhism. Not all forms of Buddhism are atheistic, but some are and atheist Buddhists point out that the Buddha never regarded gods or belief in gods to be important, but I digress.
My struggle with atheism is more the struggle with my family. I know that my family is full of believers. They look at my atheism as something shady. A phase that will pass and a symptom of rabid liberalism that cannot be sustained by a normal intelligent (ie sane) person. That hurts. I respect my family, more so, I love my family and I would like them to love and respect me. I know that they don’t, especially now that I’m being more and more honest about my social, political and religious views. I see that they think I’m going crazy, or maybe that’s just my fear when I see the way they look at me while I’m talking.
To be perfectly fair I have had a large amount of ills in the past that would make them worry. I have suffered from severe depression and anxiety which either contributed or exacerbated my eating disorder. I am a bulimic that according to my last therapist has “graduated” to a simple purger. Whether that is progress has yet to be seen. I am currently taking medication to reduce my anxiety and I am continually trying to remind myself that I shouldn’t ration or horde my pills. Since I am uninsured that is an anxiety that has not been abated. I know they have cause to worry about my sanity. I worry about my sanity. In a family where bi-polar disorder runs thick in the blood I do feel lucky that I don’t have to suffer from the raging mood swings and uncertainty of effective drugs. I know how hard it was for me to muddle through the first 20yrs of my life I can’t imagine adding mood swings that would scare me more deeply than my panic attacks.
I know that a huge part of my anxiety has a lot to do with insecurities and inadequacies that were instilled in me as a young child. One part being a woman (natures effect on the psyche) the other part was definitely being fed the original sin bullshit and the last 5 – 15%? well I have to say that part is a lot of genetics. The genetics thing is something I’m working with and will continue to battle. I hope that my mother will one day see my use of anti-anxiety medication as a method to help me heal instead of a reflection of poor parenting. I hope that one day they will see my atheism as an actual valid point of view instead of a passing phase to help me “feel normal” which is ridiculous.
I cannot change how I feel about religion anymore than I can change how they feel about it, but I can still respect them. I am not trying to convert them nor do I try to rationalize them into submission to my point of view. Do I think they are wrong? Yes. I would be honest if they asked me point blank but I would never say it out right as they do or roll my eyes when they say my name in that completely exasperated tone.
I realize that my family doesn’t count me as an equal and I have accepted it but it will always sting. My struggle with my atheism is that it is seen as a handicap by those I love and I hate being mad at them for it. I hate that I feel superior to family that rolls their eyes and me and makes me feel like an infant in the exact same space they make me feel pity for them. I know that I must live and let live and I can’t control my family and I need to take care of myself, but as a social creature that loves my family I yearn for their acceptance. I am lucky that I found a significant other that does accept me for who I am and thinks I’m smart and amazing and best of all stable. With all my problems this person says “You are stronger than you realize.”
I guess it’s time I start believing.