Anyone non-religious here? Please be nice!

[EweSheep]

SunnyDawn, I gotta love your statements you made earlier....makes me think and say yep, she knows what she is talking about!

As for the BYCer staying up, burning the midnight candles, why not???? However there are people that work second and third shift so they can have some quiet time on here to pass the time. Nothing is boring on here!!!

 

[OrpingtonManor]

Good morning! Now that I have had a little sleep (emphasis on little) I want to thank you all for being such good sports last night. I really was too tired to be posting, and wasn't even sure I was speaking in complete thoughts. Now that I go back and read the posts, I'm sure I wasn't. Sorry!

thaiturkey, I really do question everything, including science. One of my sons is a scientist, so I hear what happens when science isn't scrutinized. No matter how disappointing, if something ain't true, it ain't true! Conversely, when one researcher comes up with results that don't fit the paradigm, that doesn't mean we're back to square one, just that we need to hit it with a bunch of new research to find out where the error lies.

SunnyDawn, lol, I certainly wasn't trying to go from one extreme to the other, although it came out that way. It wasn't other threads where I hadn't been posting my thoughts. It was this one. In order to tell you why, I'll have to PM you. The frustration I was feeling put me in a foul (fowl?

) mood.

As I open my eyes to this day, I can say this, I still am agnostic, I still want to try to take care of this lovely ball we live on, and I still think the impact of cows is of our making, and termites are not.

Now, I've got a chicken tractor in progress.....

 

[CityChicker]

It is funny how many people are always on BYC in the middle of the night, LOL... My husband and I can be awake any time of the day or night. He just graduated in December and is now in his residency, so he can be at work literally any time of the day or night, so I am frequently up at all hours. I hate to say it, but because of our work load with school, work, the animals, our families, we sometimes don't even go to bed. I know it is horrible for us to not get sleep. Right now, it is 12:45 in the afternoon and I think I should probably go back to bed, LOL. I am always wondering though what other people do that they are up sometimes in the middle of the night too.

Anyway, back to the thread.... This thread has been awesome. I still a lot of times identify more as "religious" than as "atheist", although like a lot of people, I am definitely more Agnostic than anything. I just cannot with integrity say that I am Atheist (although I used to) when I still pray when faced with something really difficult (and I don't even believe in prayer!! got to love that conservative Christian upbringing coming back to me). LOL.

As someone that still identifies on some level as a Christian, I don't feel comfortable at all discussing Christianity with other Christians. That is unbelievably sad.

 

[QuinnP]

**post removed. Please keep it suitable for all ages**

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

The concept that people join religions for the social aspect has been documented fairly well. It even extends to such things the KKK and BYC! People join for one reason, stay because of the social interactions, and become more and more in line with whatever is the primary belief system of the group.

My MIL goes through this every year. At heart her beliefs are very Native American and during the spring summer months she is perfectly happy with her outdoor time. When autumn and winter come along she goes back to her methodist church and preaching her methodist ways.... I wouldn't care if she were at the very least not acting so preachy for half the year!

My turn from organized religion came from reading the bible. When I questions what I was being taught I was told to read the bible, so I did. I did not even get through genesis before I was finished with the whole idea!

 

[SunnyDawn]

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No I meant that we didn't mean to come off as sounding extreme. You didn't sound extreme at all and I always enjoy your PMs so feel free.

Quote:

I went back and read my posts from last night and don't even remember writing half of it! We should all get together when it's late one night and play cards together via the internet. I've had some hilarious card games late at night when everyone is so tired they get punchy.

CityChicker I heartily agree! This is an awesome thread! The fact that you feel more comfortable talking about your beliefs with us instead of other christians tells me that you are a free and intelligent thinker. Keep the faith that works for you and continue to ignore those that make no sense and you will go far.

I have WHAT in my yard? yes you are right. For many this is a habit or a desperate need for acceptance but for some it is a healthy social network. Some people, however, just go way overboard with accepting someone else's ideas instead of thinking for themselves. I have to say I went through this myself and it's kind of nice to be relieved of the burden of thinking for yourself. I can understand the motivation. I do feel though that the easy way out means death for our spirit. We were meant to keep learning and stretching our mental muscles and to do anything else means stagnation for one's spirit. This is why I always encourage folks to continue searching for what works best for them. The searching and questioning itself is spiritual growth.

Quote:

Sometimes, late at night I get very philosophical. Sometimes I feel dumb as a post.

Most times I'm somewhere in between but I gotta love all the parts of me. My DH says at the very least he's never bored living with me.

 

[redux]

Quote:
Thanks, Ann. I did NOT want this to be an anti-Christian or Christian-bashing thread. I respect all beliefs.

I am a huge fan of any belief system (or lack thereof) that brings comfort and peace to the one who subscribes to it. There is no need to talk trash about the ideas we DON'T subscribe to.

 

[OrpingtonManor]

For those of us who came from a Christian background, and couldn't subscribe to those tenets, it is integral to our belief system to explain why Christianity didn't work for us. We aren't try to bash Christians, per se.

I'm not sure I'm understanding what we can post about if we can't post about our own belief systems.

 

[redux]

Quote:
Yeah, I hear what you are saying. It's just a very fine line between talking about what you believe and why you believe it and implying that others are wrong for believing it. That is just where I did not want to stay.

Talking about why Christianity doesn't work for you is perfectly acceptable; talking about why you don't like Christians is not.

I am not saying that anyone did that; I just think Ann was worried that this thread might stray that way.

 

[deb1]

Quote:
Yeah, I hear what you are saying. It's just a very fine line between talking about what you believe and why you believe it and implying that others are wrong for believing it. That is just where I did not want to stay.

Talking about why Christianity doesn't work for you is perfectly acceptable; talking about why you don't like Christians is not.

I am not saying that anyone did that; I just think Ann was worried that this thread might stray that way.

I can understand that. The moderators have to make certain not to alienate or offend other members. There have been posts that I have written and then had to rethink what I was going to say.

By the way, I think that this thread has produced some of the most interesting conversations on BYC.

For the Christians who are reading this thread, go ahead and ask questions. I think that would be an interesting change of ideas as long as no one is trying to proselytize.