19 1 / 2012
On my Facebook this morning
A sweet girl, whom I’ve known since before she was born, posted something like:
Just because you can’t see God doesn’t mean he isn’t there.
I worked to indoctrinate her as much as anyone else. In my defense I believed it, having been indoctrinated from childhood myself.
What I thought, though, was, “No. I need evidence that can be measured by my senses.”
Not being able to see, or smell, or touch, or taste, or hear him is actually probably very good evidence that he isn’t there. “Sensing,” him, in the brain sense, just means, as far as I can tell, that one is thinking about him in a way that stimulates emotion. This also is not evidence for his existence.
I wish I’d told her that when she was a little girl. I wish I’d thought that when she was a little girl.
16 1 / 2012
It was a very short time between the unthinkable idea “what if I stop believing in God?”, and stopping believing.
08 1 / 2012
Proverbs something:or another
I’ve been reading about the leashes that keep people tethered to their faith, and I recently remembered one of mine: the one in Proverbs that says the man is a fool who says in his heart there is no god.
The funny, funny thing is, without looking it up, I can’t remember the actual chapter and verse. It’s not even been a year since I became an atheist, and I was a quite scripture-steeped Christian. And I’ve forgotten. This is evidence for two things, I think: 1) The bible is weird and abstract. It’s antithetical to reason, and therefore difficult to retrieve. This, I believe, is why Christians often have a “life-verse.” They can concentrate on a single weird thing and make it sensible. It may still take some intellectual acrobatics, but it can more or less be done. And 2) I’m pretty sure I had a mini-stroke last year. I really can’t seem to retrieve my memories and vocabulary with as much facility as usual.
08 1 / 2012
“Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” - Elie Wiesel
(via religiousragings)
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06 1 / 2012
We do what we’re told, told to do
I am old enough to have watched Say Anything at the theater. I am old enough to have had one heck of a crush on John Cusack.
This morning I watched yesterday’s Jon Stewart. When the Muslim lifted his boombox to woo the republicans, I thought, “why on earth don’t I have Peter Gabriel on my phone?”
So I now have Peter Gabriel on my phone.
05 1 / 2012
Oh delicious man, why you so delicious?
Reblog James MMMMMMMcAvoy forever.
(Source: tria-gryffindork, via voluptuousatheist-deactivated20)
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