Anyone non-religious here? Please be nice!

[NurseDr]

This is great. So what is my life about? The chicks that I hope will feed my family. The snow that allows me to ski.

The sun when we are camping? The Solstice the Equinox? The road that will lead us to warmer climates, it is snowing in Salt Lake today, 12 inches. The dissertation yet to be finished...

 

[deb1]

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Finn and Sawyer were too violent for my schools for some reason. Which was fine, I was reading Jane Eyre in 7th grade already, Twain was I think 2nd grade for me, already read it

Twain never struck me as violent but Tom Sawyer is definitely not a book that you want to give to kids if you think that children should be perfect and never get into trouble. Tom Sawyer is also not a book to read if you insist on believing that children before the twentieth century were more obedient then they are today.

 

[fowltemptress]

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Some people, I know, took issue with the N-word and got it banned in places. Other reasons, I do not know.

For some reason adults tend to overlook Twain's works as something for the school aged, which is a pity. Particularly since there's so much more you can catch as an adult that just goes over your head as a child, and there are many more stories out there than the ones school exposes you to. I know for a fact no school libraries around here will carry "Letters from the Earth." I read Jane Eyre in fourth grade, which was also the year I fell in love with Charles Dickens . . . I went crazy for the English literature. I can't say that impacted anything, though that was the year I quit believing. I do think Charles Dickens and the history of Christmas are interesting - it's hard to imagine one man being so responsible for the resurgence of a dwindling holiday.

Speaking of Christmas, that's another misconception about non-believers . . . that we're out to destroy the holiday. I love Christmas, and I even love the nativity scenes and Christian carols and all that jazz. When I was in middle school, after my family found out about my non-belief, they did tell me I would not be allowed to celebrate Christmas with them as a way to get me "back into the fold." It was a cheap, horrible trick, as far as I'm concerned, but that's in the past and neither here nor there. I do wish that I knew then what I know now, because I would have told them that was fine, that I'd celebrate all the non-christian elements of Christmas but excuse myself from the rest. For my family, that would have meant I could participate in everything except going to church, which I would have been more than fine with, to say the least. The people who do have the most issues with Christmas seem to be the Christian folk who understand that it is essentially a non-Christian holiday, so they refuse to celebrate it and try to spread the word to other Christians that they're engaging in a "heathen" holiday. Non-believers have little to do with it. In fact, it was Christians who actually made Christmas illegal in England and Massachusetts for being a non-Christian holiday in the 1600s.
Also, where on earth did people get the idea that saying "X-mas" is taking the "Christ" out of Christmas? Last I checked, "X" can be seen in Catholic churches all over the place as an abbreviation for the word "Christ." Do other denominations not use the same abbreviation?

 

[CityChicker]

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Ah...I love Salt Lake. We used to go there a lot to visit friends. I need to go back since I haven't been there in a few years. I love Tracy Aviary, so that is all the more reason to go. Anyone that loves birds should go there at least once.

 

[deb1]

fowltemptress, there is a move by some people to guilt one another out of celebrating their cultural holidays for fear of those holidays' pagan origins. None of these people get upset over the names of the days of the week which came from the Norse Gods.

This is wikipedia's entry on Friday: Old English Frigedæg (pronounced [fri.je.dæg] or [fri.je.dæj]), meaning the day of the Anglo-Saxon goddess Fríge, and is attested among the North Germanic peoples as Frigg. It is based on the Latin Dies Veneris, "Day of Venus"; compare: French Vendredi, Spanish Viernes, Romanian Vineri and Italian Venerdì. Venus was the Roman goddess of beauty, love and sex.

The uproar over Happy Holidays has always annoyed me. There are many celebrations held in December. If I was a business owner, I would want to include all the people in my seasons greetings. Why is that a bad thing? It doesn't mean that one faith is being ignored just because all are being included. Its like a man with several children who comes home and says, "Hey Kids!" Is he ignoring one just because he greets everyone at once? Of course not, he is just including them all in his greeting.

 

[EweSheep]

Oh you have said plenty fowltempress, waaaaaaaay plenty! I had a few like that for the Xmas holidays and I do not have a problem with using "Christmas" as Christmas. The schools and stores are banning the word "Christmas" simply to apease the non believers but they are forgetting something here. Christmas has been around for a very long time and I agree with the Christians not using Christmas as a holiday or simply outlawed it.

A few days ago, my father said my hubby did the worse thing for my dd to celebrate Easter by not doing it. I told him that I will teach my dd about Easter, how it came about and how much fun that is, not only for religion but the good old chocolate bunny in the basket and goodies, like another Christmas party going on LOL! After that, when my dd gets older, she can decide how she wants to celebrate Easter as a holiday for religion, or chocolate bunnies and egg hunts or both. Hubby does not believe Easter or Jesus being alive after death part....his thing is this...once you die, you just dont come back alive, period (even he has medical training).

Nor do we celebrate Good Friday which for the life of me, I forgot WHY.

Jane Eyre, I do not remember reading anything of hers but I have to look her up when I get off here. There were a few young adult books they outlawed too because it was considered too sexist or too "religious". Anyone knows of a school library carrying Bibles? My dd's old public school library does not have a Bible, let alone a pictured one. Her private Christian school she is attending DOES h ave it and plenty of it. I am glad my dd would get the best of both worlds in her school's morals and religion while at home, she would get the non religious views. Would I confuse her? I certainly hope NOT and I will have to figure out a way to let her think it is ok to think outside of the box rather than going against what she wants to be at.

If you read the old books, the provactive and the N words are so common, particuarly in the pre-Civil War times and sometimes it does not refer to black people, it meant for black color in Spanish "Negro (male) or negra (female). And they DID and still DO talk that way today particuarly the south. Enough there....off topic here.

It is a wonder why the Christians are so confused, simply because one man said, of his own interpretation that lets change it around for ME, not for others. It just reminds me of the pilgrims and their zealot ways of running the Church. I am not sure of the exact population that decided to leave the church and go on their own.

 

[deb1]

Jane Eyre is the name of the book. Charlotte Bronte' wrote it. Yes, it has a Christian undertone to it but there is plenty of what we would consider early feminism in the book.

There is a hilarious part-to me at least- where the very young Jane is being drilled by a hyprocritical preacher. Because her aunt has assurred the preacher that poor Jane is a very bad girl, the preacher starts lecturing her about hell and how much suffering is there. He then asks her, "And what must you do to avoid hell?" Jane responds very logically, "Stay healthy and not die." LOL

I read Jane Eyre at least once a year.

 

[curliet]

This thread has been so enlightening, on so many levels. the thing that impresses me most is that there are many things that have been rolling around in the back of my mind as to why I have turned away from 'religion', but I could never clarify many of them. Some of you have done that for me here. Thank you so much.

As for all the questions that Deb has asked us, I can hardly keep up with all the answers that come to mind, and don't have the time or the typing ability to present all these thoughts. I'd go on for days if I tried, LOL.

But, I have to say that there wasn't one book or event that changed my mind, but a long series of things. The first one I can think of was after my Grandpa passed away. My Dad's Dad, a typical Dutchman, conservative, strict, religious, taciturn, and followed the word of the Church ...well, religiously. I was 15, I loved him with all my heart, and tried to please him, and Grandma all the time.

Pa had colon cancer, and was sick for a long time, died a horrible death, and most of their money was spent on his care. Grandma developed pneumonia shortly after Pa died and was bedbound for a few weeks. As I was on a holiday from school, I went to stay there and "take care" of her. I think that consisted of making sure she had breakfast, lunch and dinner and tea in the afternoons, and took her meds. She was terribly ill, and grieving her husband.

After she had been sick for a few weeks, she received a visit from two of the deacons (Dominae) of her Christian Reformed Church. I was glad to see them, she had been worried about missing church for more than a few sundays and I was sure that their visit would cheer her up. I brought the dining room chairs into the bedroom and set them by the bed, made some tea and got out the windmill cookies. It was while I was serving them that I heard them say to her "Dora, we have to talk to you about your tithes. It's been several weeks since you have given, and you're very much behind. We would like to know when we can expect you to make them up and begin paying again." Grandma tried hard to not cry, but I saw a few tears escape from the corners of her eyes. She explained about Pa (and you know, every time I ever thought about this, I could never remember either of them saying to her that they were sorry about her loss) and she told them about being sick and needing medicine. One of them said "Yes Dora, but you pledged your 10% and haven't paid it" and he never got any further. I grabbed the plate of cookies away, handed him his hat and said "You get out of this house right now, and don't ever come back here again!!!" I was so angry that I could hardly stand it, but all I could hear was that these two Christian men were here to harrass Grandma for money at a time when she had none. I told them "I always thought that Jesus taught love and compassion, and was of the opinion that the Church was here for the people. Now I see that this was a lie. Get out!" Of course, Grandma had been so indoctrinated by the Church that now she was crying because she was frightened of what the Dominae would say when they went back to see the other deacons and maybe they wouldn't let her come back to church. For me that was the start.

Later, I found that my Native heritage offered me so many more reasonable and rational explanations on creation, the hereafter, the Spirits and morals in general that I wondered why we had always been the ones called "Heathen".

There's much more that i could say, but for now I just want to thank you all for giving me an open minded forum where I can see how the things that I think are validated after all.

 

[SmartyChick]

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You are very right. I am a Christian, but I don't go around whacking people with Bibles lol. Sometimes being a good friend is the best you can do...

Actions speak louder than words right??

Interesting thread.

 

[deb1]

Quote:

You are very right. I am a Christian, but I don't go around whacking people with Bibles lol. Sometimes being a good friend is the best you can do...

Actions speak louder than words right??

Interesting thread.

Good, cause that could get painful if you did, especially if your bible is hardcover.