Honest question. Is this site a religious site?

[follderol]

It seems to me there's a large amount of Christian posts. I've also noticed a fair amount of disapproval for other religions.

I am an atheist. I don't really want to be part of a christian site posing as a parenting site.

So is this actually a Christian place?

hmm interesting Iorek. [btw my dad is reading that very book at present, will ask him to pass it on to me]

Ah, we have a case of Mutual Suspicion, then, Justa?

And who are you calling 'otherwise normal'? I'm not normal at all.

I'm exceptional

does that mean though, that someone who is tone deaf wouldn't be if brought up listening to Bach?

Hello, justa! V well put.

hello ruty. lol at fig roll.

I think that genuine tone deafness is extremely rare.

God botherer, bible basher, religious nut, fundy, I don't care, I've been called much, much worse. I call myself a Christian, but that's rather a loose label nowadays. If Godbotherer works for people, I don't mind, and it's probably accurate, I do pester Him rather a lot these days.

I'd be quite happy to be labelled a "God-botherer", wouldn't feel the slightest bit insulted. Most of us worry that we are bothering God, so it feels like a fair enough name.

well i had an ex who would only listen To Frank Sinatra [vom] and would change key every four notes and genuinely could not tell the difference between that and the song played in one key only - is that tone deafness or no?

change key when he sang i mean. And he sang a lot.

I don't know about tone deafness, but I have a friend who feels the need, in every sappy ballad to stop, point and say 'key change' before the big crescendo of the song. Drives me insane.

that is tedious, agree.

That's very well put Iorek. Though in terms of the questions respectively asked, I would say that Atheists ask similar questions, but their questions place humanity at the centre.

So my questions is more likely to be something along the lines of 'How do I know that you and I exist?' or even more practically 'what informs my decision that you and I exist?'

If anything, atheists are more constitutionally at ease with the concepts of unanswerability, uncertainty, and chaos.

In some respects (and this is very personal to me: many atheists would disagree I think) atheism could be perceived as the attempt to live comfortably with those things.

I'd agree with that OBM. One of the things I find attractive about atheism is the simple acceptance of the reality of chaos and meaninglessness. It's very zen in some ways.

ah no i'd disagree with that onebat. I think agnostics are more comfortable with unanswerability [is that a real noun?] and uncertainty. We positively embrace it, I myself spend rather too long in the dark chasm between 'Yes God loves me' and 'There is no God so fuck it'

love the way that open minded aetheist does not want to be around people with different views

I had an ex who did something very similar, ruty. Think it's quite common for people who don't have a particularly good ear to switch key automatically whenever the song goes to low or too high so that it always stays in the part of the voice that feels most comfortable. They could probably be trained out of it though - the fact that they can hold at least part of the tune means they are not really tone deaf. But anyway, yes, I reckon someone brought up on a lot of Bach is less likely to suffer from this.

But if it's a choice between being like this and being like Kay's friend I'd go for the tuneless one every time.

but that's a very specific uncertainty Ruty. I would say that that hinterland is where anxious Christians exist ,which is a rather different animal, no?

nope he couldn't be trained believe me. And he had been brought up with music, not Bach, but music being played. [starts to worry that she has more in common with Kay's friend than she'd like]

onebat, yes I take your point about putting humanity at the centre of it - I'm sure that is right. On your last point, I would be inclined to say the same of agnostics.

arf at 'anxious Christian.' Christian Agnostic sounds a little less, er, full of neurosis, so I think I'll stick with that.

'meaninglessness' is a rather different animal to 'uncertainty' , I'd say.

You might be right, ruty. Although I had a singing pupil a while ago whose wife had bought him a batch of lessons for a Christmas present. He had always believed himself to be tone deaf, having been asked to leave the school choir at the age of 8, and indeed it took him a long time to be able to match a note sung to him or played on the piano, but he did get it eventually and a rather lovely voice started to emerge. Maybe it's just like mathematical ability or anything else - part innate but very much affected by early exposure and training.

ruty, re your worry about Kay's friend - did you shout "KEY CHANGE" at inappropriate moments during your relationship?

God I'm sure I've pointed out the key change in a power ballad before, to fully acknowledge the enjoyableness of the formula

But now I realize how selfish i was