By Neece, on March 4, 2010, at 10:30 am
I received this email from a woman the other day. After careful thought I replied to it and decided it was worth sharing.
Here is the email in its entirety:
Thank you for sharing “Wild Geese”. After Joe Biden used most of this poem as his reflection upon the anniversary of 9/11, I went in search of the poem. The two of Mary Oliver’s collections I own did not include it. I was happy to find it at your site and amazed, actually. Amazed and delighted, because a poem I find so “religious” is at the same time such a balm for you. I grew up Roman Catholic; I am now an Episcopal priest. I am convinced after 20 years that what most people throw away – the cats they heave – are indeed worth heaving. Sometimes we have to go deeper, below the interpretations of [...]
By Neece, on January 4, 2010, at 8:48 am
Yesterday my local atheists group met and talked about many different topics. One question a woman asked was something I think most people who give up god and the supernatural have to face. I will paraphrase:
If there is no god, no heaven, no life after death, or no reincarnation what do you replace that with?
In other words there is a comfort that many people find in religion, that they will live after death in some fashion. But when you come to understand that there is no god, then soon after you have to give up this comfortable idea in life after death, that our consciousness survives death and lives on in some other way.
For me, I became an atheist but still believed in reincarnation and the idea that there was some part of us, our soul, that somehow lived on. I was a spiritual atheist. Over [...]
By Neece, on October 20, 2009, at 4:42 pm
Hello everyone! I hope you’re having a great day!
This is one of those catch-all posts where I have several items to share with you.
Some atheist news and education which is great, and some church news that is horrible. So the score for the day is Atheists 2, churches -100.
First, the United Coalition of Reason is getting ready to post ads on the subway in New York. These are different than the ones they posted for us here in Morgantown, WV.
The bus ads say: A million New Yorkers are good without God. Are you? That’s awesome! The NYTimes wrote a long article about it, and our Morgantown billboard even gets a mention!
Next, I saw a video on The Friendly Atheist of Neil deGrasse Tyson explaining the Argument from Ignorance. [...]
By Johnny, on September 29, 2009, at 1:39 pm
The HPV vaccine has jumped into the news again as the UK reports their first death following a vaccination.
The US (and western world in general) has already been struggling with vaccines, and this could make things more difficult in the UK. With all the claims of vaccines linked to autism, Jenny McCarthy’s wild-ass claims, and Muslims stopping the distribution of the polio vaccination — there’s a lot of pseudoscience, superstition, and urban legends up against vaccines.
Then there is the religious angle against the HPV vaccine. Because the human papillomavirus is a sexually transmitted disease, the abstinence-only proponents think giving a girl this vaccine gives her the go-ahead to be promiscuous.
It will be interesting to see what kind of media attention resurfaces from this; but I can already see the email or Facebook posts flying [...]
By Neece, on June 15, 2009, at 10:40 pm
I got an email from another christian last week! We’ll call her Beth. Like the other christians who have wanted to talk to me about god, she doesn’t want to argue.
Here’s what she said in her opening email:
Upon reading your “12 Steps to Enlightenment” I saw a comment from someone much like myself who was genuinely curious as to why you believe what you believe and how you came to such conclusions. I too would like to know, if you do not mind.
I’d like to make it clear I am not here to prove to you a deity exists or that I’m right or wrong. I just want to talk in depth with someone about it without it turning into an argument.
I am not interested in proving there is a God, but rather figuring out the absolute truth behind [...]
By Neece, on March 15, 2009, at 11:40 pm
Butch (my nearly perfect husband) and I have been having discussions lately about what the default is for people. Are we naturally atheistic or if we were raised without indoctrination would we still create a god?
Butch feels strongly that humans are atheists by default. We must be indoctrinated by authority figures to turn us into creatures bowing to invisible gods we created to have dominion over [...]
10 Reasons To Believe In god?
I wrote a post on HDC awhile ago called 10 Reasons Atheists Are Morally Superior To Religious Fundamentalists. I toned it down then cross posted it to de-conversion a month ago, and I still get comments on there. Yesterday a guy named Mark wrote the comment below. After each reason, I’ll leave a reply: