It was kind of a slow burn. Every time I heard a new argument against the existence of God, I’d repeat to myself, “Just because I can’t think of the answer doesn’t mean there isn’t one.” You can only say that so many times before it starts to feel like you’re being stubborn.
Probably the most compelling argument was, to me, the contradictory nature of an all-knowing God existing in the same reality as free will.
I decided I was an atheist (logically) a long time before I started to feel like an atheist (emotionally). What pushed me over the line there was when it was pointed out to me the sheer arrogance of looking out at the massive, incomprehensible scale of the universe and saying, “the creator of that really cares about me in particular.”
So now I say I’m an atheist, somewhere between gnostic and agnostic. I can’t rule out the existence of something that could be called God by someone’s definition, but I’m confident the abrahamic god, the one I grew up with, can’t exist.
There were just too many contradictions and the more I learned about science, especially physics, astronomy, and psychology, and the way the world works, I discovered that there is always a rational explanation for things, even if sometimes the knowledge necessary to comprehend something is not something I possess personally at the moment. People who would preach in my church would confidently claim things I knew to be fallacies, misleading, or straight up incorrect, not out of malice but their own ignorance as well, and I stopped trusting the words of religious leaders as I discovered they were as human as myself- their faith didn’t protect them from error or make them better people, and eventually I just couldn’t fall back on faith or ideology to be the bedrock of my moral or philosophical compass because it just wasn’t trustworthy.
I was in 5th grade, and I had filled a notebook with questions about the bible and how passages in it contradicted modern science, as well as a bunch of passages from the bible that directly contradicted eachother. My parents took me to a bunch of different christian “scholars” and pastors and none could answer a single question in my notebook, other than “have faith.” It was then that I realized there was probably no god and the bible was a bunch of bullshit. And maybe there is a god, I am not against the idea, but I have still not to this day ever seen or heard empirical evidence that would lead me to believe there is one. Telling your kids they will burn in hell for eternity if they don’t believe in a mystical being is pretty fucked up. I had serious nightmares growing up about what would happen to me in hell. Talk about brainwashing.
My parents didn’t think I was religious enough so I was forced to go to Catholic school. Thus became even more atheist. Also, religious people are the most hateful and dishonest people on the planet based on my experience.
Who the hell thinks masturbation is bad in our mother of lords year 2000+?
And if you go down the hole and say that masturbating toomuch is bad, then:
A) Why are you not out there helping them?
B) Everything is bad if “too much”
Cheers
PS. Mine is go to the toilet, then go back to sleep. Or worst case, read the book I’m reading at the moment (touchy because of lighting, I should probably get one of those headlamps or something).
I dodnt say masturbation is unhealthy, I think its fine. Masurbating a lot can also be fine. But the intent determines if its healthy or unhealthy.
What I said was, procrasturbation is unhealthy. Just like eating because youre depressed, or drinking because youre lonely. If youre just doing it to get the endorphins, its not much different to any other substance or behaviour that can be abused. And its indicative of a coping behaviour for some underlying problem that isnt being constructively addressed.
Thrift stores out of season. Look for your winter jacket in June, you’ll get the nicer brands, and most thrift stores will do some kind of rotating discount on certain colored tags. Most ‘dry clean only’ items can indeed be machine washed on gentle.
Preserved and frozen meats and fish can be made into fantastic recipes. We do salsa chicken straight from frozen in the instant pot, and I make a killer pasta with tinned sardines and breadcrumbs. The benefit of these is that you can buy them on sale and don’t have to worry about cooking them quickly to avoid spoiling.
Drugstore makeup can be just as good as expensive stuff. Aldi moisturizers are incredible and $4 a pot. I splash out on super expensive shampoo and conditioner, so I don’t have reccs there, but my husband swears by Aldi’s black and white bottle stuff.
And this tip is a little wild, but learning to forage can be immense. There is so much free edible food around you, from flowers and leaves that make delicious tea (passiflora flowers), weeds that can substitute salad greens (lambs quarters, kudzu, and wood sorrel), to absolutely delicious fruit that you couldn’t even buy if you wanted to (pawpaws!). Use the golden rules of having three different ways to identify it (three sources, don’t just use photo ID apps, learn the description, not just the visuals) and also know the sickly lookalikes, and never forage for carrots or parsley.
You can straight up live off oyster mushrooms for like 2-3 months in a cold season. And the mighty little “potato bean” Apios americana, grows in almost every slightly moist disturbed area and is much more nutritious than potatoes. (Louisiana)
Was up at 4am and thought… oh! I can scan some of those old family photos I’ve been meaning to get to. Just ended up on my iPad reading the news and browsing Etsy and eBay for two hours instead. Every time, I remind myself I need to keep screens out of the bedroom.
Otherwise, if it’s nearly morning anyway, I find it a good time to listen to music and make playlists. If it’s too early, I’ll read a book.
Move to the couch, and read a boring book if you can’t sleep. Don’t do anything stimulating or chances are it will make it harder to eventually go back to sleep.
asklemmy
Hot
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.