Are we Hypocrite's?

[malfunction]

Being brought up as an atheist I still have warm fuzzy feelings about xmas and as I get older the one enduring thing I really like about it is the fact that most people really do get nicer, slow down for a bit and start thinking about other people. As my father in law was a vicar (minister in actual fact) until he recently retired my experience all round is that most of the traditional aspects of xmas do not really have anything to do with the religious aspects of it. It's a family time of year, a time to take stock and enjoy yourself and a great break in the middle of winter.

I vote we have Diwali, Eid, Passover and all the others off as we are a multicultural country - and a national, "I don't believe in a religion, I just like staying in bed" day for all those people like me.

The one good thing that could come out of the severe political correctness this country suffers from

[MadduckUK]

until he recently retired my experience all round is that most of the traditional aspects of xmas do not really have anything to do with the religious aspects of it. It's a family time of year, a time to take stock and enjoy yourself and a great break in the middle of winter.

well i can see some people arguing that this was the intention all along. unless the almighty invented the 9-5 shift that's obviously balls.

that IS what is Christmas is about nowadays, and what it SHOULD be about. \n excuse to go see family, have a few long lie ins in a row and generally take stock of life

[God]

Are you... god?

'sup dude?

[Whalefish]

I am neither a pagan or a christian so I do not celebrate xmas. If I want to buy someone a present I will do it when I feel like it not because someone else says I should. Three months of constant pimping for the consumptionfest just makes me more and more glad I don't celebrate it.

[burtie]

I don`t know what i am lol or what i believe but i do believe in xmas if only for my girls(kids that is)

[MadduckUK]

'sup dude?

god you have to talk in ALL CAPITALS, ALL THE TIME

[Dareos]

don't be silly Madduck, thats Death that speaks in Caps, God is the one that works in mysterious ways, which means he can speak in wingdings if he bloody well feels like it.



Well, contrary to Tiggerai, i do believe in the divine as such. I do not however, believe in organised religion at all. Who the hell (pardon the pun) do people think they are telling me or you who the son of God is, or what God expects from you, sorry, but it just don't wash.

I think there may well be a reckoning, an afterlife and so on, but i am quite content to live and let live, help out where i can and pretty much enjoy myself and do nothing to stop others enjoying themselves etc etc.

theres one life, theres lots of things to do in it, we can't do it all, but we might as well bloody well try, as long as we don't stop anyone else from trying too


kinda thing

ummm, screw this, Bill and Ted Said it best, BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER


i gotta stop drinking

[santa claus]

At the end of the day (literally), it is your own choice how you live your life. Your own sense of values separates the right from the wrong, and you are free to live by those morals or not.

At the risk of being accused of stating the apocalyptic, what you sow, so shall you reap.

Incidentally, supposing your child or your mum or your dad were seriously ill - would you pray for their life? An atheist will of course say no. Won't they?

[Stewart]

I think there may well be a reckoning, an afterlife

(They still burn witches in Scotland as well)

[santa claus]

(They still burn witches in Scotland as well)

Never let a serious discussion get in the way of a good mickey take *groan*.

[Stewart]

u swearded. im tellin.

[Lee H]

Incidentally, supposing your child or your mum or your dad were seriously ill - would you pray for their life? An atheist will of course say no. Won't they?

I can vouch for do this actually.

Usually I don't even think of speaking to the omnipresent being to whom I joking refer to as "him upstairs" but when my dad was critically ill back in Feb/March with multiple organ damage to most his internal bits and a virilent infection which the hospital thought he wasn't going to be able to fight.

We got a call at 2 am from Tracy, the nurse who was allocated to my dads care during the night saying that he was having severe breathing difficulties and they were having a hard time stabilising him and that he might not make it past the next 24 hours.

I found myself in the relatives room in a shaken state after seeing him in an induced coma, Tracheotomy applied and he was swollen like a red glowing balloon due to the antibiotics they given him asking him upstairs why my dad and asking what had we done to deserve this upon us?

Thankfully he recovered with no adverse side effects really

[Stewart]

Incidentally, supposing your child or your mum or your dad were seriously ill - would you pray for their life?

Yes, I would.

No athiests in fox holes, or in this case, in hospital.

[santa claus]

The atheists will tell you that science saved your dad Lee. The religious will tell you that your faith saved you.

Either way, great news. Like you, if I need help, I wouldn't mind trying every possible source - but what do the atheists say?

[malfunction]

The atheists will tell you that science saved your dad Lee. The religious will tell you that your faith saved you.

Either way, great news. Like you, if I need help, I wouldn't mind trying every possible source - but what do the atheists say?

Desperation is more than a good enough reason why you'd do something you wouldn't normally do. It's not a great analogy but people that play the lottery do not believe they are going to win the jackpot but they play anyway. Risk and reward and all that. I believe that being an atheist is no easier than keeping faith in something when presented with a difficult situation in life.

[godsdog]

Extreme life and death stress experiences will do that to any human when made to confront things in a way meaningful to them. And the atheist will tell you you have accessed the god part of the brain - which is profound any way you look at it.

And speaking as someone who has recently been through the experience (of accessing the god part of the brain) which is akin to profound "religious revelation" - wholly life changing experience on every level of your being - the something shining a spotlight into every crevice of your consciousness and humbling you to the floor type of experience....you get the idea.

I can safely say that the human mind is a truly wondrous thing, capable of profound change and adaptation when you get the right neural pathways firing up. I can also say, I developed a very healthy respect for the varying buddhist traditions and the wisdom imparted, not only through central practises of metta bhavana, but just the general stripped down simplicity of it and how really simple and joyful life can be. ...which in turn led me to reassess "religions" in general, in a new and constructive way, which is still on going.

Rosaline came out with good words that struck multiple chords in another post. Science is a crucial tool in understanding "what it's all about" and your relation to not just the people and world around you, but the whole universe and your place in it.

make any sense? does to me cause I've experienced it....and therein lies the key.