In fact when I entered college I was planning to be a Pastor.
This? Never not funny. Although I think that you would have been an excellent one had you chosen that path. You would have been the pastor that all of the kids loved, that the conservative parents looked at skeptically, and would have had the strongest church in town.
Instead I just do theatre.
Instead I just do theatre.
still loved by the kids, still looked at skeptically by conservative parents, and strongest productions in town ;)
Oooo, I might be getting a trip to Stockholm for a couple of days at the beginning of February.
Nobel prize in sound design?
Bwah! Somehow I think not. It's looking like I get to teach a class out there.
I'm uncomfortable with the notion that you have to earn the right to disbelief, or to discussing that disbelief and having it taken seriously.
I am uncomfortable with the assumption that this is what Hil (or those agreeing with Hil) means, especially when she doesn't seem to be here right now to clarify.
I have a great amount of respect for people's religious or non-religious beliefs, no matter how they got there. And I don't (usually...I can't remember situations where I may have, but I'm not going to say they don't exist or haven't existed in the past) get into discussions with people about my religious beliefs unless they initiate the discussion. And, if someone says they just don't believe in a higher power, I don't try to convince them otherwise, no matter their reasoning. And usually things just drop there.
This is a really touchy subject, clearly for a lot of people, but I feel like we're going to reach kerfuffle status very quickly if we try to continue to make distinctions about this topic.
Walking away now.
WindSparrow, that behavior is really bizarre!
I know! I can't figure out if she was offended that I noticed there was a glitch but not a serious one, or if she totally mis-read what I had written. That, of course, is a possibility because I had often in the past wondered if she was bothering to read the notebook at all. So if she is reading but her reading comprehension is lacking, I suppose that would explain a few things. But she must be going through life assuming that whatever she does not understand is unpleasant. Or she so truly believes that anything we bother to write must be unpleasant that she doesn't bother to really understand it. Her attitude is definitely ringing warning bells - it seems very similar to the kind of paranoia sometimes seen in addicts, even when they are not presently high.
I am uncomfortable with the assumption that this is what Hil (or those agreeing with Hil) means, especially when she doesn't seem to be here right now to clarify.
VW, I don't think anyone here is piling on Hil. But the article that is spurring this discussion absolutely was saying things like that, among other things, and in far more judgmental terms.
(There was an article about theology and atheism. Thus, the "I don't need to know anything at all about religion to know that it's all nonsense" people are out in force. My thought -- English needs an equivalent word to the Hebrew "apikoros." It means someone who's studied the law and rejected it, as opposed to someone who isn't religious just because they've never learned what it means. Having only the word "atheist" to describe both of those people makes for circular discussions.)
That said, I do think there's a notion in here that some people can justify their atheism and others can't. I do not think Hil, or anyone else here, was throwing stones - but I do think the implication is there, and it bothers me.
VW, I don't think anyone here is piling on Hil. But the article that is spurring this discussion absolutely was saying things like that, and in far more judgmental terms.
Ok. Thank you for clarifying that. I didn't read the article. I suppose I should have.
That said, I do think there's a notion in here that some people can justify their atheism and others can't. I do not think Hil, or anyone else here, was throwing stones - but I do think the implication is there, and it bothers me.
I hope you haven't gotten that impression from me. If so, I'm very sorry, because it is not at all how I feel. I do have a certain, different kind of respect for people who learn everything then walk away...probably partially because I can't seem to do it. But that doesn't mean I don't respect those who came to their own conclusions in different ways.