My story, in brief, is here. http://seniorsonly.club/threads/i-came-out-of-the-closet-when-i-retired.3446/page-5#post-65230 I too had the Catholic experience but it came after 7+ years with Mennonites so it was the different beliefs that started me down the path.
I will check out Lon's comments, thanks. I definitely don't push an agenda, or expect others to share my views about atheism. I'm certainly agreeable to having a respectful discussion about religion or the lack of it, but I do get testy when theists spread misconceptions and falsehoods about atheists. I've seen some of that happening here. I've decided to ignore it for the time being.
To quote you, Thomas: "Much like Darwin, who I was reading at the time, it occurred to me if I had been born in India for example, I would almost certainly be a Hindu. So, then I decided to see which religion was true. Hopeless. They all had their holy books and all had their stories to tell. The evidence for one was no better than the evidence for others." Exactly. This is one of the many points I raise when debating religion. I would think you're familiar with Richard Dawkins? He has said this numerous times in his lectures.
You might get a kick out of this short little video with Dawkins. The situation was this. Tuomas Holopainen, the composer, lyricist and originator of my favorite band ever, read one of Dawkins’ books, “The Ancestor’sTale”. Tuomas reads books or experiences something and hears music in his head. He writes directly from what he hears, no jamming, etc. Reading that book resulted in two studio albums, “Endless Forms Most Beautiful” and “Human II Nature” that dealt with the universe, evolution and man’s place in it. When they started touring for the first album, they had two nights scheduled for the first time at “Wembley Arena” in London. Since that was about as close to Oxford as they were going to get, Tuomas asked Dawkins if he would be interested in joining them at this concert to speak some of the spoken lines on stage. He agreed, somewhat to Tuomas’ surprise. The first little video shows his kind of humorous reaction to being included. The second link goes to a Facebook video of Tuomas talking about the experience with Dawkins with some reflections on the band. Hope you enjoy. https://www.facebook.com/metalhamme...-playing-wembley-arena-and/10153836793159764/
Good morning, Jaspurr. I thought Hal Roach was very funny but that was years ago in Ireland in the early 1970s. Yesterday, I found one of his youtubes and was disappointed. Maybe I need a few stiff drinks before I try watching him again. Hal Roach did his routines in one of Dublin's nightclubs which I frequented. Anyway, I am withdrawing my recommendation if you watch any of his routines. Yes, I think the philosophy forum is the best fit for a new thread. I am working on it. Take care.
I have read this post several times and laugh hard every time. The first paragraph where you curse gravity and talk about everything is migrating south is side-splitting funny. Bravo! And please, don't you dare think of leaving. We need you and love you! This is a very large group of intelligent and thoughtful people. There are many models of the world here, so there are bound to be some different opinions and some you may not like. But overall, there does seem to be a good balance here that is worth staying with. Please stay.
Actually, if you had been born in India, you might really love it. Why? Because the Buddha was an atheist. In other words, Buddhism is an atheistic religion. Calling it a religion is a bit of a stretch. If I understand Buddhism correctly, it is not a religion at all. It's more of a philosophy on how to live.
I have visited the Atheist forum and found it to be quite receptive and open to atheistic ideas. I did not find any harsh attacks on atheism. On the contrary, all the posts I saw were tolerant and showed respect. Some posts had thought-provoking ideas. I liked it.
I'm glad you appreciate my sense of humour, John. I'm all about making people smile as often as I can. Thanks for your kind words. I'll stick around here for a while. I'm not liking some of past posts I've seen having to do with LGBTQ+ rights, women's rights (specifically abortion), and race issues. I stand for what is right and just, and it's hard for me to not comment. Just the way I roll...
Yes, Buddhism makes much more sense to me than most other religions and philosophies. So do Paganism and Wiccan, actually.
There are some here who are deeply religious and I believe it flows from that. I read it and move on, people believe all kinds of things. If I see an error, I try to correct it but that doesn’t always work either. I think the rock solid foundations of belief offer more comfort to many than the shifting but fertile soils of knowledge.
Jaspurr, this is what I like about you. You walk the talk. You have looked for answers in different places. You speak from the heart. Your deep feeling about what is right shows up in your support for LGBTQ+ rights, women's rights (specifically abortion), and race issues. Liberal positions. Sounds good to me. I am for anything that makes the world a better place. Incidentally, I think my five daughters turned out well because I raised them with the idea that every difficult problem has more than one right answer. And that the strategy to live by is to choose the answer that works best in a given situation. Especially important, I told each daughter that her choices were self-definitions. This whole game we are playing to find out who and what we really are. I think the Buddha said something like that.
The Buddha was the greatest atheist that ever lived. His 8-fold path has made the world a much better place. I memorized the 8-fold path and do my best to live by it. The Buddha is one of my sources of truth along with many others I have found over the years. The search for truth reminds me of a Sufi story about looking in dark places for hidden truths. You mentioned paganism and Wiccan which sound like dark places. I know a little about paganism since it was the source of many religions, but Wiccan is new to me. I would really enjoy hearing more about both of these. These are exactly the kind of topics I want to explore. It reminds me of the five blind men touching an elephant. I want to touch the different parts of the elephant and come to my own conclusions about truth.
Well, you are so sweet, John. Thank you again for your kind words. Yes, I am unabashedly liberal. I have been called "woke" many times by right-wingers, and my reply is always, "thanks for the compliment." To me, being "woke" is about having empathy and compassion for others, and realizing that we're all in this world together, so why not try to make it a better place. Let's knock off the racism, hate speech and bigotry, "holier-than-thou" attitudes, and telling women what to do with their bodies. I do sometimes get in trouble...even kicked out of groups...for expressing my strong views on these issues, but yes...I do speak from the heart and I have only the best interests of my fellow humans at heart. Some people have great difficulty when challenged with honest and direct comments; they can't handle the truth. That's on them and not me. Sounds like you did a great job raising your daughters. I love to hear this! I also love when you said "this whole game we are playing to find out who and what we really are." Actually, I think that is a life-long process. We evolve with age. Our attitudes and what matters most to us change. In my case, I've never been as vocal and concerned about social issues as I am today, in my senior years. I attribute that to constant learning and being more introspective about myself and the world around me.