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?

Ruty - Threadie is a wanker.

I've been to Butlin's.

And if God is on my side, it's a miracle....

justabout - what did you think of my babyname suggestion?

Hmm. So much has gone on. I think we'll have to address the theology of Activia at some point.

Threadie, while I see and appreciate your point, I find the longer I live as an atheist I find more peace and understanding of people and art and beauty etc than I ever found as a Catholic. Now, of course, that will have something to do with getting older and wiser, and in having a very happy life. I guess I feel no need for such a locus for all these metaphysical feelings and experiences, if that's the right word. I feel more acceptance than I ever did when religious (and I was quite religious - Lourdes, youth groups, blah blah).

I had a very happy Catholic childhood, and enjoyed the ritual and the sensory element, but that isn't too great a sacrifice for me. But I'm not taken with the "silly" god names certain atheists use - it strikes me as taking a position designed to alienate and provoke conflict rather than reasoned discussion.

I don't want or need "God", I guess - I want to live a moral and valuable life, and to teach my daughter that her morality stems from herself and her relationships to others and society. I think the one thing that really bothers me about religion is the idea of "reward" in heaven - it's always made me uncomfortable, and although I know that most believers will have a more sophisticated understanding of their morality and behaviour, to me the concept undermines and real attempt at genuine altruism.

FWIW, I think Activia is a cult which, while useful for some, has outgrown its original "culture" (har de har) and has become a nonsensical uber-religion.

What's the obsession with 'evidence' anyway? We need evidence to support any empirical claim. But God isn't an empirical entity it's not a claim that there is one more thing for science to discover. We don't look for evidence that e.g. -- justice is worth seeking. We reason about morality

And we reason about religion, about God, we don't fact-hunt.

It's more about finding an interpretation of our odd spiritual position in this strange universe.

Yes, wanker. But genuinely puzzled.

Yes, all that seems good too Habb, and maybe that is how I feel too. I think it must be the devil in me that wants to find space for god'

ah yes Habbs but that whole reward thing is a red herring. No really what JC was on about. A lot of it about control and the church.
I know what you mean about the rest though.

Really, ruty, do you think you can separate it from JC? Good. I don't like afterlife/reward either.

No, I do know that, ruty, hence my disclaimer about the more sophisticated understanding, etc., but it niggled and bothered me as I was beginning the transition to atheism. My position now is that this is it - this is all we get, and we have to make the best of it. The outcome will probably be much the same, but the motivation will be slightly different. Or maybe not!

at you all not liking the idea of delayed gratification. Do you want it now?

I'm still, however, trying to understand quite why people sending cards saying they were praying for me when dd1 died enraged me quite so much - they sent me spiralling into fury. Obv. it was a grief reaction, but I had a really violent reaction (in my head) to anyone linking my daughter's life and death with any concept of God.

Habbibu, I didn't know. I'm so sorry.

Oh gosh, Threadie! Didn't mean to spring that on you - thought it was pretty widely known.

Thank you, though. She was diagnosed with anencephaly at 21 weeks gestation, poor lamb.

Habbibu - I lost a baby son. We had him buried in our local churchyard in Yorkshire. I was very grateful & touched by people's prayers, thoughts, kindness etc - even though I am not a believer.

Oh, I am sorry, Swedes. Yes, your reaction is what I felt I ought to feel - but I didn't - I was very happy to hear people were thinking of us, but prayer really made me furious, and I still don't know why. I'm not an angry atheist, I have a religious family and happy memories of a religious childhood, but the prayers really made me snap. And I was really ashamed - still am - particularly as one of the cards came from a woman who'd lost her child in Dunblane.

I didn't know that, either, Swedes. I'm thinking now of your poor liitle girl, Habbibu and your poor little boy Swedes.

Religion seems to be just game playing for me. Seems a bit pointless now.

I dunno, Threadie. The woman I mentioned remained very religious - perhaps even more so - after the terrible loss of her child. For me it confirmed my atheism. I sometimes think it's necessary for some people, and not for others, but can imagine that if I were religious, I'd find that pretty patronising.

It's just that occasional feeling of reaching out and nearly touching something. And when I have it it is like the a comforted sadness. When the comfort isn't there, neither is the sadness -- just dumb emptiness, spiritlessness.

Perhaps it is just an aesthetic thing, nothing more. Certainly I would regard anyone who experienced it without conscious religion as having essentially the same experience as those with.

Anyway, I'm off for a bath. I'd like essays on the cultural and religious similarities and differences between Yeo Valley, Rachel's Full Fat, Rachel's Fat Free and Ski yoghurts. Please.

oh Habbs and Swedes

It is probably the main reason i am agnostic - not being able to make any sense of that kind of loss. It feels sometimes that life is like walking a tightrope, it is so fragile.

My father [priest] tells me it is quite alright to be absolutely effing furious at God, and he is quite regularly. Obviously that requires some sort of belief or half belief that God exists, and I know your anger wasn't at God Habbs but at other people's prayers, but I can understand it.

Yes JC not really into the delayed gratification thing, more into creating Heave n on Earth anyway.

when i said 'my dad says it is alright to get angry with God' I meant he told me there is a long and wide tradition of being spittingly furious with God, rather than saying 'oh well my dad said this so it must be true'

Sorry to make anyone feel uncomfortable and spoil the flow of the thread. I'm not sure life would be better if it was all terribly easy and nothing bad ever happened. I honestly think the lows help us appreciate even the mundane.

How about a jaffa cake? And do they really still sell Ski yoghurts? [turns up nose]