Yeah, I know it’s satire. I’m an atheist, and I hate stupid, narrow-minded fundies as much as anyone. But honestly, this joke has run its course. People’s lives can actually get ripped apart by Pastafarianism, though I know you don’t really believe it. Not as many as by organized religion, but organized religion can’t really be stopped except by massive revolution, whereas Pastafarianism can be. It was funny for a while, but you don’t seem to realize (actually, some of you probably do) that no one cares anymore, that all the hate mail is faked. Stop laughing at the rest of the world, and realize that you’re not better than the people who post your hatemail; it’s a /joke/. And your religion has lost its humor. So shut up when talking to people you think are stupid. That was the /real /meaning of the “atheists are so arrogant” post. He was pointing out that /you/ were so arrogant in believing that there were really that many stupid people in the world. Some of you, I am now sure, know that all this hatemail is faked. Tell the others, and get everyone to stop acting such a fool.
RAmen,
bbctol
@ bill - You are so right - for most of my life I have let others dictate who/what I should be. About a year and a half ago I took an online class called “the Labyrinth” which was the best thing I ever did for myself. My husband convinced me to take it (at the time I didn’t believe I was worth spending the money on), and during the 5 weeks of the course we spent hours each day discussing what I’d discovered about who I was and what I thought. The Labyrinth is about self-discovery; it’s based on Cognitive Behavior Therapy which I went on to do at home with great results. I am picking it back up this week after finding a bunch more stuff I need to unwind out of my head. I haven’t quit since finishing the Labyrinth, and my life gets better all the time. My husband is not the only support I’ve had - I am lucky to have the group of friends I have who believe in me and see the best of me.
@ Thumpie - Howdy from Rowdy! I missed the whole pursuit of god discussion - much to my detriment.
And now I will sign off for the night…we have an early morning tomorrow. I hope to be able to play again tomorrow night…
@Rowdy
Hello…sorry to throw my “is God packin’” post in the middle of a deep discussion with Bill…it’s never too late to pursue God and his cronies…join in anytime…
@Rowdy Wench
I really believe in the cognitive approach, not for people with serious disturbances but for ordinary people trying to make sense of things and their feelings in the world. It’s not for everyone. I asked a friend once, what he thought of a very sad letter. How does it make you feel? I don’t remember the response but it was something like ‘turtle’.
Some people have no access to how they feel and so for those, I don’t see “cognitive’ as the way to go. But emotions are a way of giving us ordinary people feedback on what we experience and a chance to reflect, and any chance to think about things differently is an opportunity to develop.
I babble. But some look at negative emotions as all pain and no benefit. However, I wanted to put in my 2¢ about some of the benefits.
@ Thumpie - No problem on the “is God packin” post - I thought it was funny!
@ bill - Not much time to write (it’s past time for bed and I was going to be done for the night but wanted to see what you had to say! :) ) It’s a hard thing for me to understand that negative emotions have benefits, because for most of my life that’s all I felt. BUT (!!) as I get more healthy I can see that fear, anger, and guilt (healthy guilt, not the crap that we all know as guilt) among others are not all bad. They can and should be part of a healthy human experience.
Gotta be done for real this time. Taking hubby to a doctor’s appointment in the morning. They are going to give him good drugs and scope his esophagus. Fun times for all…hopefully be back late tomorrow night.
Is mom3x one of us?
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I’m still deciding whether or not to abuse her.
@Beastly Rich
I don’t know! I couldn’t decide either… If you go to the new members forum though, you might see a few names that could prove to be of interest… There’s ….. (I’m assuming Hymen for short), and another one I won’t mention because I think she wants to be subtle.
@St. Jimmy
Come on, “Kansas” isn’t stupid. I live in Kansas and I moved here from Texas, of all places! You may argue the point, but I don’t think I’m stupid either. What’s stupid is people who don’t take action to prevent far right or far left crowds from getting the rest of us into these embarrassing messes in the first place. Until the system gets changed and ordinary citizens are no longer allowed to vote, go register and vote as I did this past election and help finish off Mr. Henderson’s original list of hijacked governmental organizations. Neither religion nor government ever fare well when mixed. OK, go ahead, blast away.
Since when is Kansas a better place to live than Texas?
Just curious….
RAmen
@Abathos
I don’t recall your forum name, so if you are indeed new to FSM then welcome.
I disagree with religion not doing well when mixed with government as is the case in the US at the moment. I’ve read figures that with things like the ‘faith based initiative’, religious organisations get over two billion of goverment money a year. Plus they get preferential treatment over other organisations when money is awarded for e. g. work in developing countries. One of the outcries was that churches have managed to take away almost all money from other organisations, partly by branding those others as ‘condom-promotors’ in places where AIDS infection rates are over a quarter of the population. Some say that money spent throught churches etc is less effective as when spent through non-religious organisations. Yet religious organisations are favoured.
So I agree that government is not benefiting (suffering a huge, unnecessary expense in fact), but how is it NOT benefitial to religious organisations to have their teeth stuck deep into government funding?
I’d like you to consider establishing a “Red Spaghetti”, a humanitarian service whose stated mission would be to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for the human being, and to prevent and alleviate human suffering, without any discrimination based on nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinions.
The Red Spagehetti is an natural ‘counter’part to the Red Cross, Red Crescent, and Magen David Adom and the proposed Red Swastika (Buddhist/Hindu). As such, thereby a petition to the International Red Cross and Crescent and Int’l Committee of the Red Cross for full recognition upon the establishment of a bona vide website to collect online donations. Millions of dollars and euros are donated each year to these institutions with the express purpose of collecting millions of dollars and euros, and the potential for helping ourselves is an important aspect of being a human being.
Sincerely
Benjamin
CEO2B, Red Spaghetti
“The power of human being”
@Benjamin
Shouldn’t it be the “Red Sauce”?
just wondering…
RAmen
@Thumper Feb 27th, 2007 at 11:20 pm “…you might have to pretend to be 10 years old to avoid getting the boot but this is bound to be fun”
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This might be difficult if they have an age limit: I didn’t check that out while registering. The venganza forum has a 13 year min. age limit, the Pursuit I don’t know, I’ll check. I’ll stick with Juan, unless I don’t see any means to develop something.
@persuitofgod pirates
If anyone has a minute, could you give me some fodder in the ‘talking to atheists’ thread on that other blog so that I can pounce on it please? I won’t spoil the ‘friendly’ act in my second post yet, I’ll build it up gradually.
@DPG
I’ll let Juan have a shot, worrying about rising atheism in once Catholic Spain.
@Rowdy Wench
“It’s a hard thing for me to understand that negative emotions have benefits”
It depends. A little discomfort is a reminder that we might want to change our behavior or attitude or expectations or make a commitment to ourselves. But if we have serious or chronic pain because of an emotion then it may be more disabling and not of the healthy variety. It sounds to me that you had an unhealthy dose of the second. It would be natural to try to avoid even a little bit of that kind of emotion for a long time.
I’m not a fan of guilt. I haven’t had much in a long time and I resist it when people try to put it on me.
But I do believe in shame. I enjoy trying to be a certain kind of person and shame lets me know how I’m doing and how I might have to change.
My favorite negative emotion is ‘wonder’. It’s a little negative, the displeasure of not knowing something profound, but it’s positive in that we may be able to anticipate coming to understand later on. There is another positive aspect to wonder that I haven’t quite put my finger on.
P.S. Can’t seem to post under my own name or email
@JB
Highly predictable cliche: are you expecting the inquisition?
hahahahaha!!!!!
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http://www.inthepursuitofgod.com/forum/showthread.php?p=52557#post52557
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I’m just thinking about how to best answer this, perhaps with some sort of link to Matthew 10:35-6 “10:35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
10:36 And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.”
@Rowdy Wench
I’m interested in what you mean by healthy guilt. Could you explain?
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I’m having trouble posting under my own name, although it does allow my email addy. If this posts, it’s my reference to my webpage that is causing the non-posting.
ahh, that must be DPG, friendly hardline atheist.
@Beastly
Yep. I’ll be very reasonable for a while and then gradually work up the contempt level. See how long they’ll accept it before they kick me out.
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JB has brought up ‘monstruos’. Lovely! Does anyone intend to mention FSM? Would be fun, especially is someone could pose as a ‘real’ Pastafarian! On the other hand, it might bring them here and spoil the game. Alchemist, this bit of fun is your glorious Creation (noodles to you for that!). Would you say the fun is worth the risk?