Every year, I intend to enter a quilt at local quilt shows. Every year, I am so busy with my classes, I miss the deadline for entering. When I cut back on classes and have more time, I will try to market my quilts.

Per other people's beliefs--I am not going to listen to claims about the moon being hollow, not even if the person is not trying to convince me it is, but just wants to talk about it. Another issue with my great age is that I don't have the time or patience to indulge idiots.

@Gwen_Wanderer LOL, well I burn those bridges. I too at 71 don't put up with crazy.

@silverotter11 fun crazy is fine--I am crazy, but not serious crazy. I have been described as eclectic, "out there in a fun way," and eccentric. I'll wear those labels happily.

I don't think you understood my post. I never said that people who believe in aliens are atheists--some are and some are not. I never made the claim that pagans are atheists; I was a pagan for many years and was not an atheist at that point. I know many pagans and they are not atheist.

The people whom I name are just deluded--atheists, pagan, and Xtians.

@Gwen_Wanderer It was this sentence, "Deluded atheists who think that the Sumerian gods were aliens". And, I never said that you said that all atheists believe in aliens, did I?

@Heraclitus this statement, "People who believe in aliens are not atheists," is confusing. Reading it literally, it states that if a person believes in aliens, he/she is not an atheist. However, a person can believe that aliens exist(ed)--and even populated Sumer--but still not believe in a deity. Where the aliens originated is moot as life

And not only am I a "pagan atheist," but I know others who are. We do not believe in a deity/deities, but there are aspects of paganism which resonate with us. Wikipedia is not an academic source, but it explains the term well: "Some modern pagans are also atheist. Described as secular paganism or humanistic paganism, this is an outlook which upholds virtues and principles associated with paganism while maintaining a secular worldview."

[en.wikipedia.org].

And I repeat: you do not appear to have understood my original post.

Yes! Every conspiracy theorist I have known and all those who read "ancient" texts with information not known to the public use their "knowledge" to make them feel special and smarter than everyone else.

And yet, many have been very critical of me due my large ego--aka "big head"--and education!

What is crystal clear to one person is muddy to another--at my advanced age, I know all about perspective, too.

Are the aliens you contemplate newcomers or have they been here before?

I used to be on a chat program called Firetalk which went down many years ago. After that, I was on Paltalk. There were several people on both programs who insisted that the gods of the Sumerians were aliens. At the head of the group was a guy who called himself "Nibiru Man"--I have mentioned him elsewhere in forums. He was a staunch atheist and hated Xtians because they were "stupid and deluded," but he firmly believed that the aliens visited earth in a regular cycle when their roaming planet, Nibiru, got close enough to earth for their spaceships to reach us (or maybe they transported--I do not remember). God was NOT real, but the aliens were. He based his knowledge on the writings of Zecharia Sitchin who wrote several books on the aliens.

Claiming what a group of people "typically" believe is largely based on personal experience and is often a logical fallacy. There are atheists on this site who buy into outlandish conspiracy theories--I tend to block them, so I cannot name them.

No normal Atheist -such as myself- will ever say the Sumerians were aliens.

You, my dear, are timeless! And honestly, I don't feel "old." I use the age card for various reasons, including things which I have done for decades, i.e. putting things away to keep them safe and then, forgetting where I put them.

@Gwen_Wanderer I too have done that ( lost stuff i "safely " stowed) my entire life!!!!

My megabuck thought was, indeed, a dream!

Now, my intent is to market my quilts, but I am under no delusion that I will get rich or even break even on the amount of time I put into making them. However, since there are 20 finished one in the spare rooms and eight waiting to quilted, I am going to have to do something with them. I will have some spare time as my classes didn't make at one school, so I need to try to market them. I took the step of opening an account on Etsy!

That's not a delusion--it's a nightmare (because you wake up). I like waking up alone in my bed--I'm a light sleeper and not being concerned about a relationship is liberating.

The number of idiots has certainly increased as I have aged@

@Gwen_Wanderer The idiots were always out there....sim[ly, you didn't see them.

@duchessa1 this could be true--or they are just speaking up more often and more loudly!

@Gwen_Wanderer The fact they are speaking more and louder than ever means they were always there....simply, they were silent.

@duchessa1 agreed.

I gave up on that delusion long ago. After living alone for several years, I realized that I like being by myself. I suppose if met MR.MS RIGHT that would change, but I no longer delude myself that he (or she) exists.

Don't worry; many men share your delusion....

@Gwen_Wanderer the closest I would Ever get is Maybe a duplex, and No internal connecting door either!

@duchessa1 from my experience, VERY many men share the delusion!

, @annewimsey500 at this point in my life, the only reasons I would want or need a man in my life would be to fix things and carry things I can't lift. However, most guys my age can't lift heavy objects and my son is a whiz at fixing things.

Also, though it sounds selfish, I do not want to take care of a man who becomes incapacitated. It would be different had we been together for decades, but I don't want to spend my own declining years being bound at home taking care of a man--or woman.

@Gwen_Wanderer Indeed.

@Gwen_Wanderer I am right there with you. My life is great without a man. I find the majority of men are ever so needy.

@Jolanta I find it ironic that for centuries, women were classified as the "needy" ones. We were only "needy" because we were refused an education and the ability to get a decent job. Studies show that men benefit more from marriage than do women. They also have a harder time coping when their wives do than vice-versa.

I have no confidence that humans will not destroy themselves in one way or another. Like you, I just hope it holds off until I am dead. I want to die with the thought that maybe my grandkids will have some chance of a decent life, but I don't hold out hope for it.

Grasping the tenor of your contention and giving the gist a twist, I want to die in delusion with as much palliative injection of merriment and music as incipient geriatric decrepitude deserves.

@Polemicist as long as delusions are not harmful, there is no issue. When my sister was dying of cancer, there was no way I would have tried to dissuade her that heaven exists. On the other hand, while she still continued to believe in Jesus, she told me that she no longer believed that anything/anyone lived forever--and asked who would want to live forever anyway?

On the other hand, I have known people who chased their delusions until they were broke. The belief that if one keeps gambling that a big payoff with finally ensue is delusional.

I am a largely happy nihilist--in the end, nothing matters.

If I didn't have a bunch of work to grade for students, I would read that!

I know all about lay lines, et al, from my pagan days!

When I was young(er), I wanted to live forever or, at least, live to be 100. Now, I have no desire to do either and sliding into nothingness is the most logical conclusion. The thought of not existing is no longer horrifying. People want deity to exist because they fear the nothingness.

Do you mean living alone per the lack of human companions or the lack of a deity?

I’ve been alone 15 years. Being alone is far less scary than people for sure….

@Gwen_Wanderer
Lack of a deity. What you see is what you get (quantum mechanics aside), no ancient aliens pulling the strings, no Illuminati either, when you die your body rots, the person in between your ears that you talk to is just you and the reward for living a good life is... (cue fanfare) living a good life. Some people can not handle that amount of isolation.

@Aaron70 I've lived alone for about 15 years. Want to get married? (Evil grin.)

@273kelvin the thought of living forever is not appealing. The thought of not existing is much less scary.

@Gwen_Wanderer

@Aaron70 is that a "no"?

@Gwen_Wanderer Don’t you think maybe I’m too old for you!? 🫢

@Gwen_Wanderer

@Aaron70 Considering that my last long relationship was with a man quite a bit younger than you, I guess that you are too old. Most of the men whom I have dated were younger than I, but he was by far the youngest.

The last two were boyfriends were only 5/6 years younger. They both wanted to get married, but I could not imagine living with someone then or not. The irony is that both of them are in very bad shape physically and I am in good health.

@Gwen_Wanderer Yeah, I’m guessing you’re far healthier than I…..‍

Well, I could introduce you to many Atheists that went back....or people such as myself that are Atheists since the age of reason which is about 6 y/o.

I have known these two from my long ago pagan days! These days, I don't truly have friends as I teach from home. When I taught on campus, I used to associate outside of school with some other teachers, but when I went all online, the dynamics changed. I go to Walmart and Aldi and fabric stores and while I talk to a lot of people when I go out, none of them are people with whom I want to be friends simply because we have nothing in common.

I didn't get any classes at one of my school for next term (enrollment is down and fewer grad students are majoring in literature). I will lose a good chunk of money, but I look forward to the break. The only problem is what will I do when I have much less work to grade? I can't quilt 12 hours a day. I might get a part-time job or maybe I will seek out someplace were I can volunteer. I might, gulp, have to find some friends with whom I can hang out.

I forgot to add the pagan friend of a friend whom I added on Facebook. I met her in Aldi one day and though I didn't recognize her, she knew me. She said that aliens visited the earth via time warps. She figured this out because of the orphan trains from NYC to points west in the 19h and early 20th centuries. There were simply NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE IN NYC TO PRODUCE THE NUMBER OF KIDS BEING SHIPPED WEST. The kids were aliens.

I told her that I didn't believe this and she dropped me as a friend on FB.

@Gwen_Wanderer Having retired from teaching, I can attest to the void left when the job ends. But it will not last long. You will find other stimulating things to occupy your mind.

I encourage people who believe that technologically-advanced aliens have visited Earth to familiarize themselves with the Drake equation (and the truly vast distances involved in interstellar travel. For instance, the next nearest star beyond our sun is only about 4 light years away. If you set out today in your fastest rocket ship, if everything on the journey went perfectly, you would arrive at the other star [Alph Centauri] in about 75,000 years).

@Flyingsaucesir I'm going to write the great American novel, right? I might even go to one of the local senior centers and check it out.

Tsk--do you not know that the aliens who have visited/are on Earth are SOOOO technologically advanced that they don't even need space ships? They transmit matter via a highly advanced "beam me up, Scotty" devices. If they do not have those devices, they travel much faster than the speed of light. They also tend to live forever, so time is not important to them. These are arguments I get when I point out the issues with travelling through space.

@Gwen_Wanderer Yeah, idiots have answers for everything

@Flyingsaucesir they never say, "Gee, I don't know," or, "Gee, I never considered that."

@Gwen_Wanderer Indeed, you can wheel out all kinds of well-documented facts, and they simply emulate their cult leader by spouting unsubstantiated lies and/or wacko conspiracy theories, calling you a "deluded libtard."

@Flyingsaucesir I cannot count the number of times that I have asked people for documentation and they say they saw the info online and the government is keeping it secret. My facts are shot down as lies perpetuated by the government (or whoever) and I am told that I am naive and maybe stupid.

When I point out that I have three degrees, then I am being an uppity intellectual (though they don't use that word because they are not familiar with it) who just thinks she's "so smart."

I remember a man who told me that Bill and Hilary Clinton had thousands of people killed because they disagreed with them. I asked for facts and stats, and he said it was "online."

Uh-huh.

@Gwen_Wanderer What the gullible fools fail to appreciate is that, while apparently offering a simple explanation for a (the) state of the world, in fact the conspiracy theory raises more questions than it answers, and creates far more complexity than actually exists.

There ought to be a required series of classes starting in middle school and going right though high school.