Back from Camp Quest and finally clean! For the first time in a week I took a shower and didn’t immediately douse myself in bug spray afterwards. Tonight, I sleep in a bed that’s actually big enough for me.In the end, the bugs weren’t bad at all, and the kids were great. We had a great time with the horses, the climbing wall, the waterfront, and yes, even a little education. My daughter had a great time, and I loved watching her and her new friends bond.THANK YOU to peter for filling in in my absense, and to all the annointed members for deleting some of our favorite trolls. Now, a question: How many of you are members of organizations like American Atheists, FFRF, AHA, SSA, etc? Are you members of one, several, or none, and why?
sorry, I’m being rude… please excuse me
Spanders, as far as I’m concerned you’re always welcome here. You have a brain and use it!
DuKnit,
Losing faith seems to be pretty different for everyone. Some of us have an epiphany and realize something we’ve always known. Others dabble in various faiths and belief systems until they abandon them all for lack of legitimacy.
For me, I came to the realization rather suddenly. The world seemed to just stop for me when I heard the most ignorant comment I had ever heard uttered aloud by a person. It was referring to the Greeks: “How could they believe in all those gods and godesses? We all know there is only one god.” That kind of snapped me out of a coma where I simply never really thought about religion and I realized how ridiculous the whole thing is.
Perhaps your husband is the other type. Maybe you should encourage him to study other world religions. Maybe he’ll find one that strikes him better? Most likely he’ll end up a deist or an atheist after that, it’s easy to see hooey in one’s own religion when one studies all the others.
I’m not a member of any organizations, though I’d like to be. It’s hard for me to support organizations usually, because unless I support every single thing they do, I feel odd.
I don’t know, I’m weird.
Jerret, no need to support everything.
So long as there is nothing you object to strenuously, it may be worth supporting.
The three groups I mention above are all officially secular, though two of them do contain members that like to use “god given rights” every other sentence when speaking.
I certainly do not support every single aspect of every platform of the LP, but I still join, when I remember to anyway.
I have joined groups like the Nature Conservancy and other conservationist groups in the past, and may again, depending on my interests. It does not mean I agree with everything they do.
Heck, there are 300 million people in this country, and not two of them agree of everything. Waiting for a group that you agree with 100% is a long wait.
I only recently discovered Lakoff’s writing. It gave me a much clearer insight into the conservative mind.
I especially liked how he parsed Bush’s second inaugural speech (chapter 12).
Thanks to mxracer652, I learned about and joined CFI Pittsburgh. I attended their picnic last Sunday. It was wonderful to converse with like-minded people since I have to put up a front at work most of the time. Ahhh–to let my hair down!
I not involved in any Atheist groups but I am proud to be a volunteer at my local G.L.B.T. center.
Oh wait I am A fully fleged pirate lass.
Ramen all of my sisters and brother.
Member of AA and FFRF.
I subscribe to, so I guess I belong to, Skeptic Magazine. I highly recommend it. Fascinating bimonthly magazine covering all topics including religion (naturally), “intelligent design”, ESP, UFOs, etc. There is even an awesome “Junior Skeptic” section in each magazine geared toward kids.
Thanks, Atomic. It will be interesting to see where my husband ends up…with regard to his beliefs.
DuKnit, I don’t want to harp on it, but I just got done with Lakoff’s “Whose Freedom?” (book). These were fairly new ideas for me and helped me understand how people think (as he is a cognative scientist and linguist). I didn’t make me go from theist to atheist, but it did give me a better understanding of how both liberals (progressives) and conservatives think and why, which helps me diffuse some of my anger. Perhaps that type of insight might be helpful.
WOw… so many members. So many comments. GREAT! CQ-ers, please send me a private email. I LOVED Camp Quest!
N.Z.A.R.H
New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists.
Some great articles in the monthly mag too.
HeatheNZ, I live in GA, and I’ve been considereing joining the Atlanta Freethought group. How large is the group and how often do they meet? I live in Southeast GA, but it would be worth the trip up to Atlanta to meet more like-minded people. What do you think of the group?
Oh cone on Dave the beds were’nt that small. MAybe you’re a little taller than me. But the Yurts were positivly luxurious (Yurts are kinda like wigwam tents in a way. I hope you guys had fun during the rest of the week after I left. I’m hoping to get to come back next year, maybe for the whole week, depending on how things work outGive Rianne(sp??) a secret handshake for me.
As for other groups, I’m in Michigan Atheists with Arlene and George and go to the Flint affiliated and Detroit meetup groups from time to time depending on how work, etc is going. I went to the Mid-Michigan group for a while but NOT ANYMORE after some political bull. I used to get FFRF but let my subcription lapse. I thought it was strange that they wouldn’t put Madalyn on their famous freethinkers birthday list. But I do like the Black Collar Crime list. Wonder if I’ll see anybody from my old (catholic) schooldays. They already have one convict-priest that I remember. So now I say there were two good things about goin g to catholic school. It made me an Atheist and I never was an altar boy.
I’ve been in a local Humanist org. here in Middle America for about 4 years now. This is Bible Belt country so you don’t wanna advertise your lack of belief in Xianity if you know what’s good for you. I’d intended to join AA but didn’t get around to that.
Someone above (maybe atomic- – -) commented on a weird situation that ultimately convinced him the religions are simply nonsense. I was driving home from work during the Gulf War. On the radio I heard some gal griping what a nasty fellow that Mr. Saddam H. was. After delivering her opinion in support of Desert Storm war and hatred for Saddam – she added a final remark which she actually *shrieked*. She said that Saddam “does not even worship the same God that we do”! As I’ve said – she shrieked this final remark. Apparently THAT bit of information was what (supposedly) should ‘prove’ to everyone that Saddam was a totally screwed-up & nasty individual. Naturally – my thought on this was “How does she KNOW that her Xian religion is the correct one?” Quite clearly, she did NOT know ‘diddley’ about the matter. But nevertheless (as is customary with religious folks) she was SURE that *her* religion MUST be the ONE true belief.
I am not really sure where to post this, so maybe some of you can help. I am the mother of 9 and 7 year old girls. The thing is, I’d like to find same age athiest family, pen pals for them, as it would seem that there aren’t any like minded friends for them at school and sometimes they get discouraged by that.Anyone know where I can look to help them find atheist friends? We live in a smallish city (at least by nationwide standards), and I don’t know of any atheist organizations here. Thank-you.