With Apologies to Greta Christina

 

Whenever I can, I love attending atheist conventions. The several that I have attended have been over 2-3 days and have had some really wonderful speakers, events, and vendors. The first atheist convention that my husband and I ever attended was about 2012 or so, I think, at an event called Skepticon.

My husband and I had been chomping at the bit to spend time with others of like mind. We'd watched and listened to other conventions on purchased CDs and DVDs during the naughts with excitement. So we clearly remember the first convention that we were finally able to attend. 

Atheists like myself who now enjoy being open will recognize some of the speakers: Rebecca Watson, David Fitzgerald, Richard Carrier, PZ Myers, JT Eberhardt, Joe Nickell, David Silverman. And Greta Christina. Jerry and I felt amazed! The openness, the goodness, it was like taking a drink after being in a desert. Finally, human beings who were openly discussing issues that are so often glossed over in the world.

Greta Christina is a woman who has written a couple of "atheist books" and who is a regular speaker on the atheist convention circuit. I'm delighted that I've had time to speak with she and her partner over several meals shared at the conventions. (though I seriously doubt she remembers me at all. ) Her book Why Are You Atheists So Angry?: 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless is a book that I've read several times and have, even, plagiarized the idea of here on my blog.

This morning a video of her doing the talk came across my FB feed through two friend of mine, Pam and Scott. Listening to this talk again today brought up some other reasons why I, a totally kind and nice and positive atheist, am pissed off at religion. Strap yourself in.

• Today, a cousin of mine posted THIS DRIVEL; and she means it:

This crap is religious rhetoric that is ACTIVELY keeping us all trapped in our homes for fear of continued outbreaks and infection of this hideous virus. Over THREE HUNDRED days after our general and public knowledge of it!

• Now, speaking as a therapist working with human beings who are wounded, traumatized, pained, and shamed by their varied religious upbringings:
  
  
• SHAME. Good, kind, well-meaning human beings who are, now, living with a sense of being irrevocably wrong or evil or bad, all thanks to the absolute nonsense taught to them with the expressed goal of making them unable to doubt, question, think clearly, leave their parents' religious community.
  
  
• SEXUAL ABUSE. Again, good, kind, well-meaning human beings who are, now, living with a sense of being irrevocably wrong or evil or bad from having been used and abused as children for the sexual gratification of some grotesque adult who was unable to get their sexual needs met in a healthy relationship with a consenting adult. Not to mention the protection that the church has and IS affording the offenders, while shaming, wounding, and not choosing to support the actual victims: the children.
  
  
• SELF DOUBT. Good, kind, well-meaning human beings who are, now, living with a sense of being irrevocably wrong or evil or bad, ADULTS who struggle with those long-ago messages that good exists within this tiny box of what is acceptable, necessary, worthy of love.  ⃞
  
  
• SUICIDAL. Good, kind, decent, well-meaning human beings who are, now, living with a sense of being irrevocably wrong or evil or bad, unworthy of this life because their brain's unlikely ability to break through the brainwashing is allowing for questions, reason, exploration of concepts outside of the box. And the brainwashing tells them that free thought is sinful, unworthy, and not worthy of life.
  
  
• TRAPPED. Good, kind, well-meaning human beings who are, now, living with a sense of being irrevocably wrong or evil or bad if they question or attempt to live outside of the male-dominated, white-dominated lists of what is OK.
  From domestic abuse to racial disparity and white superiority to male-dominated roles in life, these good hearts, in addition to struggling to change life-long behavior patterns, also have to deal with the negative self talk that they've inherited from their parents, their community, their culture, THEIR GOVERNMENT and their religions.

DAILY, I am working with beautiful human beings who are tortured by the brainwashing and upbringing within religions. Grown men and women who sob, cry, scream themselves into exhaustion for the struggle of the hideous, ugly, bullshit brainwashing...


Pissed off?
OH, YOU BET I AM.
Me too, Greta.

 

P.S. Greta, if you're ever here, PLEASE leave a comment!  😉

That Post with the Random Questions

 

For no reason other than to entertain myself, I have a long numbered list of questions next to me. It has over 200 questions, all numbered. I'm going to question myself for this post by randomly choosing numbers and, therefore, questions. 🤣
WHAT? It's fun!

 I'll select five numbers first, then go and look at the questions I'm asking myself:

17. How do you maintain your physical health?

Actually, I don't go great with this.
I mean, I take my meds as prescribed. I see my doctors regularly.
But I don't exercise and I don't eat particularly well. My husband and I were doing the keto diet for almost two years when this dang quarantine started. Since the quarantine, I fell off of that particular wagon completely. It bums me out, but it's incredibly difficult to get back to it.
Also, my sleep patterns suck, really suck. I get enough sleep, but most of it is during the day.

55. What do you wish others knew about you?

Really? I have this blog. What don't you know?! 🤣
OK, I'll add another question for this flip answer.  LOL

42. How does it feel to be the age you currently are?

I think I've covered this a couple of times here on my blog, but I really love it. I love being my age. Never in my life have I felt so free, so confident, so peaceful, so sure of myself, so authentic. Never have I felt so in the right place. I thank being 57 for these things.
I don't love being this close to 60, but I'm grabbing life for all it's worth. Even during this quarantine, somehow, and I have never spoken this one aloud, I feel awesome. I love my life and I'm absolutely OK with being "stuck" here in this house with my loved ones.
I don't love this country's politics right now, nor do I love the global pandemic. But my life is amazing.
I love being my age.

113. I feel happiest in my skin when...

I'm with my people.
I love my family and our time together makes me feel incredible.
My husband and I created this family as it is. We've both healed from our childhoods and we've created the type of family that we are incredibly proud of. A set of children who don't have to recover from anything.
I'm also very happy in my skin when I'm working.
For several decades I couldn't have imagined being here, now, doing this. It almost feels like I was born to be here, now.

75. What was your first job and what did you learn from it?

Other than babysitting and such, my first job was at a small department store in my small hometown, selling shoes.
I worked there for two years during high school and the year after I graduated. It was a small shoe department that catered to the older crowd of mostly males. We sold Hush Puppy shoes.  lol

What did I learn? First, I learned that my feet are difficult to shod. I have weirdly wide Fred Flinstone feet. Do you know Fred Flintstone?

I also learned that I was poor. I really didn't realize that; how could I know? I didn't have clothes to wear to my job. I didn't have decent shoes to wear...to sell shoes. I couldn't afford medical care when I was too sick to go to work. I didn't have  ride to work. It took me until I was at this job to realize that we didn't have anything.

71. What is your first memory?

I remember being 3-4 years old. I was in the downstairs basement (I think) of the house we lived in when I was teeny. It was a white-tiled bathroom with some dark green tiles mixed in. I had opened the bottom drawer of the bathroom vanity sink and I was climbing up onto the sink by stepping in the drawer.
That's it.
That's my first memory.

That's it. That was five/six random questions from the random question list. Here are  few questions for YOU, if you choose to comment:

• What memory do you cherish most?
• What is your favorite color and why?
• The words I live by are...
• What is one small act of kindness was shown to you that you will never forget?
• Does it really matter to you what others think about you?