Agnostic.com

7 0

My answer to what was the hardest to accept: the lack of having a hereafter, and when getting older and vital organs closer to failing this is becoming obsessive and depressing. I would like to have a hereafter with everlasting life in heaven and joining loved ones there, but my intelligence and logic will not allow me to believe in that and the supernatural miracles and myths. I was never brought up with any family religion which was unusual, especially in the south where we lived and I never heard of the word agnostic until later years. My mother allowed me to attend churches with my friends for social reasons but when they pressured to convert me to be saved and join the church she said no.Years later she said shes agnostic after the word had become popular. I also agree that is the most locical. No one really knows for sure so shouldn't everyone be agnostic. I keep it to myself and do not bring it up unless someone asks me and then I will answer truthfully with euphemistic wording attempting to avoid offense and criticism by most all people I know or meet because I know they disapprove. I identify myself as agnostic and secular humanist and I like the Unitarian Universalist "church" for social activities only but have not attended their services because they are on Sunday mornings and I am not a morning person. I do attend their evening secular meetings when I can but it conflicts with my schedule of a community chorus on the same night except during summer vacation and I enjoy social events there for fellowship and meeting new people but that is not often available. I do attend meetups with my local humanists twice monthly and enjoy that. There are very few members that attend, usually 5 to 10 of us meet at the library and a diner and once at a member's home. I do not like to use the word atheist because it brings to mind contempt of most everyone I know or meet. The word implies heathan and infidel, etc. And most people frown on it even up north where I live now. At my chorus most members are in church choirs. Once I mentioned Unitarian church and saw raised eyebrows. The word just means absence of theist affiliation but the connotation is distorted to refer to bad people. I believe one can be a good person without religion and that's what my mother stressed with her character training along with the golden rule. I found that this doesn't always work with everyone so I changed it to do unto others as THEY would have you do unto them. For some people if you suggest something to help them they get angry if it's not what they want. Everyone's different and that needs to be considered. I'm new to this site. I would be interested in meeting members with like interests but preferably in my area of south New Jersey. I got many reply posts but most are very far away in other states. Very few are nearby and suitable. I would appreciate any replies. Thanks

LynneAkkaya 4 Mar 25
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

7 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

0

You have to break that up into paragraphs. I’m not reading it otherwise.

0

If you hadn't been fed the life after death nonsense in the first place you would probably think otherwise.
Knowing that this life is all there is concentrates the mind on making the most of it.

0

End of life is inevitable, what happens after is unknown, So for me today is here and I'll deal with that.

1

I am an old man with no desire for life after death. The following is an metaphor I wrote some time ago describing how I feel about death and life after death:

"My old friend, the conductor to death, still waits quietly in the wings. But, as I go through my final years, I conserve with him more often. I tell him that I do not hold his role against him, as I know this to be the natural order of things. . He responds that he appreciates both my understanding and my willingness to accept reality. I tell him that I actually appreciate the fact that he will act when the time comes to relieve me of mental confusion and/or physical pain. He assures me that he will act.

I share with him my reflections that aging is a process of being forced to give up many things that add quality to life, a time of loss of dreams and aspirations s time when (with few new experiences) we are driven inward to reflect on past experiences, life chapters, successes, failures, loves, losses, memories. He tells me that such inward reflection is a healthy way for people to gain a sense of who thy are, a process that is not possible in an aspiring young person. Such is the nature of our dialog..

Both the conductor to death and I know that time comes, he will step forward and say, It is time." I will shake his hand, gesture for him to lead, and follow him into peaceful oblivion. That is as it should be. I find the image most comforting. "

1

You prefer singing everlasting praise to a damn nasty deity or simple blessed peace forever?

1

Welcome to the asylum. Enjoy your stay.

You might be happier if you stopped being afraid of so much. What other
people think is relatively meaningless.

We might be happier if you learned to use paragraphs. Would make your comments MUCH easier to read, and less likely to be dismissed.

3

Paragraph breaks are not to be feared.
Apply liberally.

i can't see where para breaks would increase a normal person's comprehension.
nitpicking comes to mind.

@callmedubious riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Sorry your education was lacking. It's a shame you never had the opportunity to take a writing course.

@SkotlandSkye ,
i suppose my education was spotty.
i just took post secondary business courses resulting in an associate's in bus admin.
sometimes i separate paras but maybe i got used to running them together b/c of limited memory in the old computers which were all hooked up to a main server.
maybe i'm not concerned about esthetics. maybe my powers of concentration are so great that i never notice the run on paras.. yes, that must be it.

@callmedubious "I" should be capitalized. Always. You're right, your education was very spotty.

@SkotlandSkye ,
very little to me is worth capitalizing. if you need to see words capitalized to understand the meaning then maybe your powers of concentration are diminished.
anyway, if it makes people like you feel superior then i'll continue without capitalizing.
but i think i was right the 1st time. you're just a nit-picker.

@callmedubious Nice try....but putting it back on me doesn't work. Your refusal to follow the norms of proper grammar diminishes your intelligence to readers, not mine.

@SkotlandSkye ,
you sound like an old school marm.
but i'm sure you're a very nice lady (i almost gave lady a capital L) despite being such a nit-picker.

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:317739
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.