genessa's Profile

May I know your delightful responses on this: The cosmos can be created spontaneously out of nothing...

genessa comments on Dec 5, 2018:

god isn't nothing. people may disagree about what god is, but nobody who believes in a god or gods says he, she, it or they are nothing. people attribute characteristics to their god(s). no one describes god as emptiness. so these imaginary entities cannot have something coming from them on the basis that something comes from nothing because they may be imaginary but they're not nothing (nothing is not a synonym for nonexistent), and they cannot have something coming from them BECAUSE they're imaginary. in addition, one can answer that question without even letting the second half be spoken: "the cosmos can be created spontaneously, out of nothing right?" and you interrupt with "wrong!" then you point out that the person asking probably has once asked "if we evolved from monkeys, how come there are still monkeys?" and had to be corrected on the first half of that question too. g

Looks like DeGrasse Tyson is guilty.

genessa comments on Dec 5, 2018:

in what way do you figure tyson's guilt is probable? i am not saying one way or the other, although his explanations sounded reasonable to me, but in the end i do not know and there has been no investigation yet, so no one knows except tyson and the accusers (and re one of the accusers, maybe she knows and maybe she doesn't!)( on what basis is he probably guilty? i'm not being pugnacious. i'm really asking. meanwhile, to answer your question, unfortunately reality stars that grab pussy have the support of a whole lot of criminals in power who are owned (as is the pussygrabber) by russia, and the judge that really likes beer has their support by extension. it sucks, as your question implies. it sucks bigtime. we must work to change that. g

LETS DISCUSS GENDER IDENTITY - In the beginning, Nature created MALE and FEMALE and it was ...

genessa comments on Dec 5, 2018:

in the beginning there were two genders? i'm sorry, but which beginning, and how do you figure this is true? because no one talked about it? well, except many native american tribes, whose members have acknowledged more than two genders for longer than the united states has been a country. as for "other" on this site, i believe that is a polite way to say "none of anyone's business." if one is dating, one probably wants to share that information, but for the community, there is no earthly reason why it is necessary to say what gender one is, and a LOT of reasons to withhold that information. it does not necessarily reflect a new gender of which we have not previously heard. g

Thing you can't live without

genessa comments on Dec 4, 2018:

cats. g

Not to be a points slut but how often are they reviewed?

genessa comments on Dec 4, 2018:

also if you want to let admin know about this, you could post in site & customer service (i don't think admin hangs out in general & hellos!) g

Age difference, is it much of a difference to love?

genessa comments on Dec 4, 2018:

it's moot for me because i am with my guy, but if i were free, i would not let a guy's youth deter me if my age didn't deter him. that being said, compatibility might depend to an extent on cultural compatibility and that could depend on the decades one has experienced, not how many but which ones. g

Not to be a points slut but how often are they reviewed?

genessa comments on Dec 4, 2018:

points are awarded immediately. levels are reviewed. so if you earned points they should show up right away. g

Is there a blocking epidemic?

genessa comments on Dec 4, 2018:

there is an epidemic of rude people i have blocked. obviously i have not blocked you or you would not be seeing this lol. i have been blocked a couple times, sometimes by people i was about to block. but those are always people with whom i HAVE interacted. g

This guy needs more education... Dear Atheist: 10 Things You Should Stop Saying [youtu.be]

genessa comments on Dec 4, 2018:

burden of proof: arguing with someone's unproven claim, for which that person has the burden of proof, does not place the burden of proof on the person pointing out that the claim is unproven. example: me: i can fly! you: you cannot fly. me: prove i cannot fly! nope, sorry, the burden of proof is on ME, for claiming i can fly. your challenging me does not shift the burden onto you. blind faith: a book written by someone who never met the subject of the book and did not even live in the lifetime of the book (we're ignoring the fact that the book later turned out to be forged anyway) is not "evidence." i may as well cite the hobbit as evidence (feel free to make up something that the hobbit is evidence OF). nor are, for examples he cites, the concept of love or the conscience evidence of the existence of a god, much less of the christian god. this guy is obviously not a lawyer (and doesn't watch tv unless john hagee is on) since he has no clue what circumstantial evidence is. if you're caught standing over the body with the knife in your hand, dripping the victim's blood, and you were heard an hour ago saying "i'm gonna KILL that guy," that's circumstantial evidence. deciding not to murder anyone in your whole lifetime is not circumstantial evidence that there is a good, because people who never heard of the christian god also usually go their whole lives without murdering anyone. when did an atheist say s/he didn't have a world view? and what is this asshole talking about with "sacredness?" ah okay here it is: "evil disproves god." some atheists, especially recently enlightened ones, grumble something about that, but that is not the basis for atheism. what is the new atheist movement? and when did it say science disproves god? nothing disproves god (except common logic). no one is trying to disprove god. everyone is too busy trying to disprove the tooth fairy! and when did we argue that religion doesn't promote scientific advancement? we have lots of arguments against religion. we can even say that religious PEOPLE (not necessarily religion itself, as religion is not all the same -- although this guy seems to think that christianity is the only religion around) sometimes stand in the way of science. but most of our beef with religion is twofold: it's ridiculous because it centers around a nonexistent being and it's invasive and intrusive because for the most part its main interest is self-perpetuation. as for "who created god?" -- answer the question, lad! don't just go saying christianity has the most logical answer. it most certainly does not. we should stop saying stupid, brainwashed or indoctrinated people turn out to be theists. sorry, i've seen some atheists claim theists are stupid but i've also...

I think the bigest problem in our society is our want to make everything apear black and white.

genessa comments on Dec 4, 2018:

you are wise for your years. that is at least one of the biggest problems; there are so many biggies it is hard to point out one, and sometimes the problem is the combination (greater than the sum of its parts, and all that). but seeing things as either/or is so dangerous, yes? now that doesn't mean that every point of view has truth and value. i admit my bias: i am terribly biased against nazis, for example, or at least against naziism. there is no value or truth in that, and that's just an example. people are not ideas, though. there are bad ideas and there are bad people, but not everyone with a bad idea is a bad person, and we tend to make an awful lot of false assumptions about one another. g

Can anyone imagine nonexistence?

genessa comments on Dec 4, 2018:

i doubt it. not for oneself, anyway. do we need to? g

Many atheists find it unpleasant and sometimes don't want to openly and proudly categorize ...

genessa comments on Dec 3, 2018:

spir·it·u·al·ist /ˈspiriCH(o͞o)ələst/ noun 1. a person who believes that the spirits of the dead can communicate with living people. "he became an ardent spiritualist, attending seances and insisting on their authenticity" 2. PHILOSOPHY an advocate of the doctrine that the spirit exists as distinct from matter, or that spirit is the only reality. "a nondenominational spiritualist" adjective 1. relating to the belief that the spirits of the dead can communicate with living people. "spiritualist mediums who claim to be able to contact the dead" g

Many atheists find it unpleasant and sometimes don't want to openly and proudly categorize ...

genessa comments on Dec 3, 2018:

no one uses the word spiritualist in lieu of atheist. the two words are nowhere near one another in definition. as for what an atheist prefers to be called, it depends on the the particular atheist. some don't care to be called anything at all. if someone wants to refer to my lack of theism, i prefer atheist. i am one person. some may feel as i do and others may not. there is no one preferred terminology. but i guarantee you that even if there was one, it would not be spiritualist. g

A man who say many words about his love for you, will prove you soon that there are just words, ...

genessa comments on Dec 3, 2018:

neither true nor false. some men love you for real but don't say it. some men love you for real and do say it. some men say it but don't really love you. how can you say there is one answer, as if all men are the same? g

The word spirituality is so connected to religion faith myth and superstition.

genessa comments on Dec 3, 2018:

i would prefer not to go around redefining things, just as "spiritual" people may redefine god as nature. these words already have meanings. let's not bend them. g

Neil "grab da ass" Tyson..

genessa comments on Dec 3, 2018:

you're not the only one but you're wrong. he is calling for an investigation; innocent people don't do that. there has to be a balance. we can no longer ignore what women say, or deny that rape is a real thing, or even deny that sexual harassment is a real thing, but there ARE women who get paid to lie (leanne tweeden springs to mind) and evidence IS a thing (contemporaneous notes and confidences count as evidence, by the way). most women, most PEOPLE, are truthful, i think, especially about the big stuff. however, i have read what neil has said and no, he's not an ass-grabber and he's not a sexual predator. calling him names before hearing his side of the story shows a little bias, doesn't it? i mean, it's okay if you don't like him, but does that make him guilty and does that make it okay to say he is when you don't actually KNOW? https://www.facebook.com/notes/bruce-bacon/americas-conservative-road-to-destruction-our-last-chance/10154091982593017/ g

Doctor Who Jodie Whittaker Leaving With Chris Chibnall? [youtube.com]

genessa comments on Dec 3, 2018:

i have heard this rumor too. i have no inside info as to whether it's true or not. i sure hope not but it could be. g

How is this wrong?

genessa comments on Dec 3, 2018:

if you like it, do it. i'm jewish. i have no christmas tradition and in fact want to hide for a couple months out of the year. last night i lit the menorah and served a lovely meal, and told the story of chanukah (teeny tiny miracle part invented after the fact by rabbis, but mostly an historical war story, and that's exactly how i presented it, too). tv ignored me and concentrated on the holiday that is almost a month away. anyway if i can light candles, you can decorate a tree. the difference is you will be supported by society from hallowe'en to mid-january and most of the world will pretend i don't exist :-)) g

Has anyone else started on their Christmas movie watch list??

genessa comments on Dec 3, 2018:

since i hate christmas, um, no. by the way, despite being an atheist, i celebrated the first night of chanukah last night. i wish i could make a chanukah movie watch list but i can't think of anything i would put on one. watching tv, i was inundated by christmas, still nearly a month away, with nary a mention of the holiday actually in progress. g

"Oh my god!", "go to hell!", "Jesus Christ!", "soulmate" and other phrases featuring religious ...

genessa comments on Dec 3, 2018:

if you bang your knee and yell "oh shit" do witnesses think you're asking someone to defecate? do they think "oh fuck" is a request for sex? if not, then there is no reason for anyone to take your exclamations of "omg," "jesus christ" or "go to hell" literally either! (and when someone sneezes and i bless them, it is MY blessing i am bestowing, not that of some deity. i often warn the recipient that since it is my own blessing, i limit each recipient to two.) g

Why isn't the turkey ready yet?

genessa comments on Dec 2, 2018:

it popped! it popped! it's resting. we'll eat soon! g

[myjewishlearning.] Why Do We Eat Latkes on Hanukkah? Very Interesting History.

genessa comments on Dec 2, 2018:

yes but do y'all know why we eat cheese on chanukah? it's because of judith and how she slew holofernes! she walked boldly into his camp with a bottle of wine and a hunk of salty cheese and walked right into the enemy leader's tent, offering him the wine, the cheese and, by implicaton, herself. but the cheese was salty by design: it made him thirsty, he drank too much wine and he dozed off without molesting judith. she took his sword (or maybe it was her own? i forget!) and beheaded him. she carried his head out with her, and everyone in the camp was so shocked they just let her walk right out! and that is why we eat cheese and other dairy products on chanukah. g

I'm noticing a change in how stores are forcing us to buy things.

genessa comments on Dec 2, 2018:

no one forces me to buy anything. store may prevent me from buying things but they can't force me to buy anything. g

Why is there always this social misconception that atheists are liberals by nature?

genessa comments on Dec 2, 2018:

i have not seen anyone but right-wingers assume that atheists are all left-wingers. i myself AM a left-wing liberal social free enterprisist (like a socialist for some things and not for others) but not because i am an atheist. the one has nothing to do with the other. that's just me. i have had many incorrect assumptions made about me but not yet that because i am an atheist (which i am) i am a liberal (which i am; it's the "because" that's incorrect. g

Seeing a lot of posts by white males (naturally) about how feminism hurts their feelings, and so ...

genessa comments on Dec 2, 2018:

amen! g

The sun has set here, which means it's now 25 Kislev - so, chag urim sameach everyone!

genessa comments on Dec 2, 2018:

happy chanukah! it's not quite chanukah yet here in the american midwest. since i am making a nontraditional chanukah meal (a whole turkey! we didn't have one for thanksgiving!) i am glad i have some hours, for it's thawing lol i will fry something to make it trad. now i have to get richard to clean the table so we can light the menorah without starting a three-alarm fire. g

Would you date a man without a steady paycheck?

genessa comments on Dec 2, 2018:

you want brutal honesty? okay. i am not sure why you are excluding men when there are certainly men who date men, and considering that at any rate a man might have the same considerations about a woman. i am not sure why you consider being between jobs, often a euphemism for being unemployed, as having a steady paycheck. i am not sure why if it's just dating one needs to worry about such things at all; dating isn't marriage. furthermore, if a woman is attracted (your term) to a man with money, then she is attracted to the money. what's that got to do with the man? g

Hate speech

genessa comments on Dec 2, 2018:

no. it may be a hateful thing to do but it is not hate speech. g

A guy blocked me

genessa comments on Dec 2, 2018:

some folks are just weird. i block people but not out of nowhere. g

Have yall seen the episode with the young jennifer aniston? Gawd shes hot

genessa comments on Dec 2, 2018:

which episode was that???? g

What's your belief?

genessa comments on Dec 1, 2018:

i have no beliefs about how the universe came to be except that it most certainly had no creator. i have heard explanations about possible ways, and most of them sound reasonable, but if scientists can't agree on the exact details, what difference would MY "beliefs" make? they're working on it. they're doing a good job. it's interesting. it really has nothing to do with beliefs (or creation). g

What is the difference between a blog, a forum or a group?

genessa comments on Dec 1, 2018:

a blog is one person's rant, although it may be pictures of that person's knitting projects or pets. a forum is (online) a place for members of the forum to express themselves and interact. a group can mean many things depending on where you find it; in a forum, a group is a specialized subforum where people have a common interest or characteristic besides the one, if any, that applies to the forum. humanist.coin/agnostic.com is a forum for atheists, agnostics, etc. call them ags. there are groups here for ags who like cats, ags who are into classical music, ags who hate celery... okay not that yet but i could make one. there are groups for republican ags and democratic ags and probably for apolitical ags to get together and talk about how apolitical they are. blogs are not a thing here. some people have them and they might link to them here, but the site doesn't offer blogging as a feature. g

Religion fills the vacuum when politics fails.

genessa comments on Dec 1, 2018:

not were politics fails. where independent thinking fails. politics is something else again. yes religion does then gain political advantage but that is due to lack of critical thinking, not the failure of politics. politics is what we make of it. thinking helps. g

Got precisely zero sleep, but got my 2x caffeine Keurig pods yesterday and am only now starting to ...

genessa comments on Dec 1, 2018:

philly. 'sigh i want a skybar and a tastycake lemon pie right NOW. g

I went to many social events that were for singles, but no one has been serious.

genessa comments on Dec 1, 2018:

try social events that have a purpose other than meeting people at the events. i go to political events sometimes (not rallies but, for example, a town hall type thing, a labor day bbq, that sort of thing). there are all kinds of events out there where people have a common interest or purpose, and not all of them are single, and they may not be looking for anyone, or know they're looking for anyone, but attending such things you'd have fun, do something you enjoyed or believed in, make friends, and then, wow, real life is funny, maybe become more than friends with a friend, especially if you didn't try too hard to make that happen. g

Hey there; trying this out to see whether or not it has any value.

genessa comments on Dec 1, 2018:

it has no value at all if you just sit back and invite people to reach out. it has great value, even as a dating site, if you actually participate in the community and get to know people. g

How not to do it.

genessa comments on Dec 1, 2018:

oh an addendum to my previous comment: it's not impossible, actually. read ragtime by doctorow. there is erotica in there that isn't porn. then read sophie's choice by styron. some of those chapters are intended to be erotica. they're not. they're porn. they're also irrelevant to the story. styron did his otherwise really fine novel a disservice. the movie wisely left those chapters out. g

How not to do it.

genessa comments on Dec 1, 2018:

when i glommed onto the tv series quantum leap, i had also just glommed onto the internet and found i was not alone in liking the show. i discovered then that there was such a thing as fan fiction, and was not especially surprised to discover it almost without exception sucked. what surprised me was how much of it was "erotica," except it was actually outright porn. i hope you will not be offended that i do not acknowledge erotica as a thing, not as a thing that actually involves sex, anyway. (i saw a car commercial once that had no living beings in it, but the way they photographed the car was erotic.) everything people call erotica is soft porn. and you hit the nail on the head, at least one of its heads, as to why: the repetition of the vocabulary (not to mention the mechanics). the other head is pacing: one paragraph of hello how are you, six pages of heavy breathing and increasingly ridiculous names for body parts, half a paragraph of well that was fun, thanks and bye -- that's bad pacing and bad reading as you say. i redefined print porn at that time: anything that isn't about koreans or bells and uses the word "dong" outside of quotation marks is porn. solution? well they're twofold. 1. write actual erotica, and don't put any actual intercourse in it. 2. give up and write porn. g

Couple trying to get married forced to prove New Mexico is a state

genessa comments on Nov 30, 2018:

now msn has picked it up. http://a.msn.com/01/en-us/BBQj5os?ocid=sf=IwAR2GBq13PY7Y9jwp3nWtjL31rfzrHHap-l0-6AbQTQaEhi2hU5ZOiFLhP5w g

Well, you know what they say: the eyes are the sphincters to the soul.

genessa comments on Nov 30, 2018:

i think of the sphincter as the body's very own cigar-cutter. g

I was looking for something else and came upon this, LOL.

genessa comments on Nov 30, 2018:

even if as an over-50 you're waiting for an imperfect man who's loving and not a creep, who says waiting is ALL you're doing? we sit around on a bench and do nothing but wait? seriously? the guy who sent you that is... what's the technical term? oh yeah: a moron. g

Do we value female life more than male life?

genessa comments on Nov 30, 2018:

no, those headlines are not indicative of our valuing female life over male. they indicate the opposite, pointing out that wow, even a female was in battle, for example. anyone who pays the least bit of attention to real daily life knows that males are still valued more highly than females in the western world if not worldwide. g

Has anyone ever considered that what some call god is beings from other planets?

genessa comments on Nov 30, 2018:

yes whole bunches of people over the years have considered this. not me. i am an all-inclusive atheist. g

I am not in the habit of taking a lot of selfies, but i recently posted one of myself in my new ...

genessa comments on Nov 30, 2018:

i showed my guy the new pictures and he asked me if i was naked in both of them. i am not naked in either of them! not even close! i am wearing a nice gray tank top and my skin isn't gray so that should be evident! geez, if my guy can't even tell whether or not i am naked is there hope for us? g

How do you all deal with the fact that most of the bad people are gonna get away with the horrible ...

genessa comments on Nov 30, 2018:

that is an opinion, not a fact. it is likely but not a given. meanwhile, isn't the point to try not to be one of those bad people? g

Is there an afterlife? of any sort

genessa comments on Nov 30, 2018:

there is no evidence of an afterlife. there is no anecdotal data concerning an afterlife, despite bright tunnel white light so-called experiences of some surely sincere folks who had weird dreams while being technically (and extremely briefly) "dead." there is a lot of evidence for there being no possibility whatsoever of an afterlife (such as our consciousness being the result of electrical and chemical activity in the brain; if the brain is dead, there's nobody left to experience an afterlife). no one has yet undergone a soulectomy or a spiritotomy, or even an incarnationoscopy. people who believe in an afterlife usually offer the reasoning that "there must be" or "i want there to be." if wishes were fishes, no one would be hungry (except possibly fish). g

Fuck are we here 4

genessa comments on Nov 30, 2018:

big if. if we were created you'd have to ask the creator that. fortunately we were not created. it is also not necessarily true that we have no purpose. g

So how do all of you handle those annoying scam calls?

genessa comments on Nov 29, 2018:

most of them are just recordings but if i am lucky enough to get a live person, usually trying to buy my time share or insure my car, i mess with them. i pretend i think they're going to give me a time share or a car. (as it happens i own neither item.) sometimes it's someone pretending to be from windows, and i ask them what kind of computer i have. sometimes they give up and sometimes they persist. g

We want to let you know that we have received a number of complaints about your posts or ...

genessa comments on Nov 29, 2018:

1. you're in the wrong category. if you don't want to make this private between you and admin, still, to get a timely answer from admin i think you need site and customer service. we fellow members can't guess why admin sent you that notification. 2. you keep responding to your own post with what looks like bits of the same post, over and over. that is not only not helpful, it's offputting and counterproductive. 3. just by the way, unitarian is not as close to agnostic as one can get. agnostic is as close to agnostic as one can get. 4. also by the way, a particular political bent does not make someone agnostic or not. 5. as has been mentioned elsewhere, a long post with no paragraphs is awfully difficult to read. g

I think the peace symbol is offensive.

genessa comments on Nov 29, 2018:

the peace symbol doesn't acknowledge that humans exist. why single out trans? if this is a joke, you should be aware that jokes are supposed to be funny... g

The way I define trolls is that they are folks on the internet that cause mischief.

genessa comments on Nov 28, 2018:

that isn't my definition. i don't think it's anyone else's definition, either. it isn't why they're called trolls, either. the original term is trawlers, yes, just like the net-fishermen. they drag the seas and see what they can come up with. trawlers on the net throw out the net of an inflammatory post or comment and see what kind of response they can catch. it got shortened to trolls because it's easy to imagine little guys who hide under bridges and accost unwary travelers, and you might well think some of those are merry pranksters, but thought-provoking debate is NOT what a troll wants. people who engage in those things are called conversationalists. they're not trolls. g

I was born in Detroit, Michigan, moved to Los Angeles, near LAX (under the flight pattern) when I ...

genessa comments on Nov 28, 2018:

lol i distinguish between judaism (a religion) and jewishness (an ethnicity). funny that part of your family's brand was that jews are better than everyone else because that's not part of judaism! but be that as it may, it is always interesting to hear how others have been raised. i will tell you a smidge about how it was for me. i was raised quite secularly and there was no hypocrisy involved; we just never talked about god. i never knew if my folks believed or not until many years after i'd left home, and i only asked them because someone asked ME and i didn't know what my folks believed! g

Is this a common occurance?

genessa comments on Nov 28, 2018:

your facebook account was not hacked. someone made a facebook account and used your picture and everything to make it look like you; they're not IN your account. report them. ask your friends for the url of the fb page from which the invitation came. you'll see it's different from your page's url. report that page. meanwhile, it is standard scam practice to ask you to communicate on a different format. there is no reason for it; this is a perfectly nice format. you got scammed. i am sorry i can't answer the why question. people do weird things, usually for money but not always. by the way, for some reason one cannot right-mouse-click on people's pictures here and search google for the same image, which is one way to check for scammers, but you CAN copy up a sentence or two of that nice profile and search for it and see it 10 other people are using it on various dating sites. g

Well I have been experiencing a bit of lower abdomen pain and today it was almost unbearable.

genessa comments on Nov 28, 2018:

ouch cyst. i hope they take care of it as painlessly as possible (for you, i mean, not them lol). i have to have a hysteroscopy with d&c soon (been delaying it) to look for possible uterine cancer. i would rather they found a cyst but that's not likely as, oddly enough, whatever i have there doesn't hurt. anyway i wish you the very best of luck and least of pain! (i'll add that i am in a blue state and medicaid will take care of my medical bill.) g

I paid for tickets to Universal Studios, Orlando.

genessa comments on Nov 28, 2018:

wrong entity to call. you call the bank, the bank calls universal. universal may not even be allowed to tell youj who bought them, but they can tell bank investigators, and meantime you need to get those charges paid back to you and your card canceled, maybe your account, depending on how the payment was made. your bank should be on top of this, but since they're not, you PUT them on top of this! a few months ago, our bank called us and said there had been suspicious activity. someone out in california (we're in mn) had tried to buy a car with my guy's debit card! the bank denied it, and some other big stuff. they let some small stuff through but i caught it, since they put me on the scent, and they reversed those charges too. g

WTF is with all the "O"s in bios?

genessa comments on Nov 28, 2018:

i think it's not a matter of making up one's mind (although there are people who feel "other" and they HAVE made up their minds; you just don't happen to like what they decided). i think it's a matter of their feeling that their gender is none of your business. if someone is here for the community that someone might not care to reveal his/her gender. why should s/he? whose business is it unless they're looking for a date? g

Is it a sin to have clinical depression and not seek treatment, according to Christianity?

genessa comments on Nov 28, 2018:

i have never been a christian but i know enough to know that various sects of christianity have different ideas about such things. there is no one great big umbrella christianity when it comes to many issues, and this is one of them. i mean, to some christian sects, dancing is a sin. to the jw, voting is a sin. i think there are more christian sects that think that seeking treatment is a sin than that NOT seeking it is a sin, but... why would you care? so while the question is too general, it's also a little odd to be asking here since no one here would be inclined to care what was considered a sin by any religion, right? g

How do you celebrate Christmas?

genessa comments on Nov 28, 2018:

i have never been a christian. i don't celebrate christmas. i have been to christmas parties because they were given by friends and parties are nice, and these were secular parties (tree yes, jesus no) but i have never celebrated christmas itself, or what it purportedly means. christmas to me at best is an annoyance and it's not always at its best. g

Watching my absolute fave episode. "Lee Harvey Oswald"

genessa comments on Nov 27, 2018:

i am envious. i just don't get the network that shows it. i have every episode on videotape and no way now to watch videotape. g

Does anybody have any strong evidence and arguments (on both sides of this issue) that organic food ...

genessa comments on Nov 27, 2018:

evidence? not sharable. like @kiramea, i use my taste buds, for one thing. then, i guess we all know that we'd rather not eat chemicals and stuff that's not food than otherwise, right? i grow my own stuff in the garden when i can and when i have a good year lol. my tomatoes taste SO much better than store-bought! g

This has not happened to me, yet; but I would bet someone here has lost, or somehow destroyed, their...

genessa comments on Nov 27, 2018:

i have had cellphones die on me. i could not retrieve the info. i do try to remember to transfer pictures and such from it to the computer at every opportunity, even though apart from what comes through the camera stuff gets transferred from the computer to the phone more often. i have the ringtones on the computer, or at least i hope i do, so i can reuse those on a new phone. samsung or google saves my contacts so i don't have to replace those from phone to phone as long as i keep using their services, which i like and thus intend to do. it's good to be mindful about not losing the phone but it's also good to be mindful about backing up your data! g

Ok fellow cat parents can anyone help me.

genessa comments on Nov 27, 2018:

there are many effective flea treatments for pet and home but not a single one of them will work if the cat goes outside. you can't stop fleas from being outside and you can't stop the cat from bringing them in. the first step toward eliminating the flea problem is keeping the cat indoors. without that step, nothing will ever work. as for calmness, my cats like when i sing to them. go figure. g

Who else feels like religion leads to wars and killing

genessa comments on Nov 27, 2018:

not me. religion isn't what leads to wars and killing. greed is. religion is one of greed's major tools, so it seems as if religion is the culprit. religion is certainly superstition and not a good thing, but it is not, itself, responsible for what greed dictates. g

When you see a new member with a sparse, generic bio and their pics are very attractive, do you ...

genessa comments on Nov 26, 2018:

i've seen them and busted them. we're not too small to worry. g

Is anyone else doing "maintain the exact same beard and mustache length November"?

genessa comments on Nov 26, 2018:

richard trimmed his beard and mustache yesterday. he has his way, and when it gets too long he is bothered. he also doesn't want to trim shorter than his way. so yeah, he is having such a november! not me. any facial hair i might have is inherited from my mother and not to be spoken of in polite society. thanks, mom! g

What shows have you been enjoying recently?

genessa comments on Nov 26, 2018:

i just got back into watching criminal minds after a break from that. it's still good! but i've been watching murphy brown, old murphy brown, new murphy brown, all murphy brown, and of course doctor who. my new show is new amsterdam, which made me cry last week. i do spend a lot of time just watching whatever is on the science channel, until they start showing mega monster big machines making lots of noise with heavy metal in the background, and then i go looking for something else to watch, or more accurately listen to. g

Anyone want to date me

genessa comments on Nov 26, 2018:

oh and by the way, is your name really micheal? because that's very unusual. there is nothing wrong with having an unusual spelling for your name but it begs the question of whether that is maybe NOT your real name, and you just don't know how to spell michael. g

Anyone want to date me

genessa comments on Nov 26, 2018:

you're lucky. @John_Tyrrell gave you good advice instead of laughing at you. i was torn, but had i been inclined to give advice it would've been the same advice. no one just wants to date you because you're here, whoop de do! why should anyone? you don't say much about yourself but quite frankly, even if you wrote war and peace, anyone can say anything about themselves, right? the beauty of this site is that we don't have to rely on that. there is an actual community here. you can get to know people and then decide whom you like, let people decide whether they like you, based on your participation here. otherwise it's like walking up to someone in a bar and saying "hey baby," which is a great big turnoff. g

When did you “come out?”

genessa comments on Nov 26, 2018:

i was never not out. i realized at 15 there were no gods, but there really wasn't anyone to tell, or not to tell for that matter. i wasn't hiding it; i just didn't have a whole lot of friends and my folks were busy. if they'd asked i'd have told them but we never talked about religion. no one ever asked. i remember discussing it with my best friend, who also knew there were no gods, but it wasn't like a secret, not for me anyway. her family was catholic; she probably told her dad just to bug him. it already bugged him that her best friend was jewish! (decades later when he and my friend's mom had moved back to france, where the mom was born, and i had a chance to visit paris, not only did they put me up, he asked me what i'd like to do, i said i'd like to visit a parisian synagogue, and he found one for me AND came with! i figure he made it up to me okay lol. i never felt as if because i didn't tell him i was an atheist i was hiding it from him; it just never occurred to me to share that with him. it just never came up.) so... not traumatic at all. just not an issue. i mention it spontaneously when i think it's appropriate, and i answer honestly when asked, and the rest of the time, what to eat is more interesting lol. lox. i like lox. g

BILLIE PIPER REPRISES ROSE TYLER November 26, 2018 Rose Tyler is returning for a new Doctor ...

genessa comments on Nov 26, 2018:

ohhh i wonder if that will be accessible in the usa? g

Time for a meal. What are you going to have?

genessa comments on Nov 26, 2018:

we get mom's meals, sort of like meals on wheels, which are great for breakfast but insufficient for dinner. (it's almost dinner time.) because of the season, they sent us a couple slices of turkey with some diced potatoes, some cranberry sauce and some corn. i put the turkey/potato thing, frozen, and put it into the electric skillet. i seasoned the potatoes. then i took the corn out and put it in a bowl and added butter, a colorful mini bell pepper and some chopped onion, along with my special seasoned salt, some extra paprika, a little stevia and a little ginger. i mixed it up and put that in the skillet too. i broke apart from white mushrooms and butter-sprayed and salted them in the skillet. finally, i sliced the rest of the onion half (putting the other half into the fridge) into a bowl of chopped zucchini, added butter, my seasoned salt and some herbs de provence aka italian seasoning (check it out some time -- it's the same stuff!) and put THAT into the skillet. i might make some deviled eggs to go with all that. i'll turn the skillet on in about an hour. g

How does the person you ended up with compare to who you thought you’d end up with?

genessa comments on Nov 26, 2018:

i never thought i'd find anyone, so i am glad i have anyone! but i am glad i have who i have, even though i am losing him to alzheimer's and we're broke and always anxious. we still love each other. g

Is this what religious beliefs can look like, but rarely do?

genessa comments on Nov 26, 2018:

this is not what religious beliefs can look like. this is what propagandizing people being nice to each other to turn it into pseudo-religion looks like. there is no "THE" problem. there are many problems. people who want to foist their religions on other people are one of the problems. people who want to use the religious naivety of others for their own purposes is the problem. humanity CAN pervert anything and compromise anything, but that doesn't mean there is a god, or that religion is anything but superstition plus. religion does not equal principles. we're a website of mostly atheists and agnostics and most of us have principles. we didn't need religion to get them. g

What's your favorite part of the holiday season?

genessa comments on Nov 26, 2018:

the availability of eggnog and fresh cranberries in the store. other than that, when it's over. g

Religion vs Atheism

genessa comments on Nov 26, 2018:

it depends on how religious and what the religion is. my guy has a vague belief in some kind of god, but he hasn't built his life around it. he doesn't even know much about judaism, the religion of the culture into which both of us were born, his family probably being slightly more religious than my very secular one. i know a lot more about it than he does; he's never opened a bible. he goes to shul on the high holy days and when his dead parents' names are read on their yahrzeits (death anniversaries) but on a daily basis, god just doesn't enter into the picture, nor does any other part of the religion except his not wanting to eat pork, which is certainly not a dealbreaker in a romantic relationship. we have a friend who is evangelical. she won't take a job, buy a car or make a move of any kind without consulting with jesus. a person like that and an atheist might find it hard to connect romantically; it's hard enough to connect as friends! g

Either Trump and the Republicans are ignorant dolts who do not understand the difference between ...

genessa comments on Nov 26, 2018:

the two are not mutually exclusive! g

Today, on Facebook, I got a reminder that I'd like to post here as a reminder to us all that we are ...

genessa comments on Nov 26, 2018:

repurposing is my middle name! i just finished making a salad to bring with me where i am going today. i took the red cabbage out of a bag i saved from another product, and i put the whole salad into a plastic container that richard wanted to throw away because i had already used what was in THAT but it has a lid and is perfect for carrying the salad. in japan i used the rice cooker to make chili, spaghetti or maztaball soup, and i used empty plastic containers that the japanese would have thrown away (and then paid to replace with ugly tupperware-type stuff). hoarder? not i! i am just practical! g

Democrats Finally Acknowledging Secular Voters

genessa comments on Nov 26, 2018:

i don't know what "finally" means. obama acknowledged nonbelievers. that may not be 100-year-old news but it's not new either anymore. g

It was fun.. Did you?