Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We go to church twice a year, Easter and Christmas. I think that comes close to being atheist/agnostic, but neither my husband and I is over 65, so I guess it doesn't count.
The older I get, the less attractive I find religions of any type. It seems to me they are mostly for people who prefer to be told what to think rather than live with uncertainty. Also, they cause a lot of problems in the world as people insist on mixing religious dogma with government.
My mother, who is now nearing 90, was raised by Eastern European Roman Catholic immigrants and was married for more than 50 years to my father who was a very religious Irish Catholic. She now says she doesn't believe very many things she was taught her whole life and she rarely wants to go to church. She gets very angry over her church's treatment of women as well as their inability to address the recent uncovering of child abuse. I tell her that these problems have existed throughout the history of the church and the causes are systemic, therefore unlikely to go away without a protracted battle.
Both of us think the new Pope Francis is a breath of fresh air, but not enough to pull us back into the folds of the church as he still embraces several ideas we strongly don't believe.
I think that other religions will find in time that the sex abuse found among priest is not at all limited to the Catholic Church. Now that it has become more acceptable for "nice people" to be more open about sex abuse, it is coming out that all religions have these kinds of problems. It seems to me that any time there are organizations (not merely church-related) in which power is consolidated among a few, those few tend to abuse their situation. Add to that the fact that the repression of sexuality often comes out in ways that are very dangerous and you often have religious elders (or governmental leaders for another example) run amok.
All in all, I think it is quite possible for people to live good and productive lives without being directed by religious faith. The Golden Rule is a concept that exists in every religion I know about and seems to be good common sense. Why not just cut to the chase and let Do Unto Others guide our daily behavior and relationships with others? As for needing assurance about an after-life, I'm willing to live with not knowing. I'll just act as if I'm being judged and that will take care of that. I just flat-out don't believe I'm getting positive points for doing things like going to church on Sunday that will even out the bad I do. I just try not to do bad.
OMG, I never heard the full version..that was great...
"God Loves You -- and He Wants More Money" -that part always cracked me up. Pure genius Mr. Carlin. Saw a list online of the net wroth of the top TV Preachers -- millionaires and more among them.
When the JW's came to my house I told them I worshipped Satan and proceeded to bring out my black candles and black robe.
Good idea. I just give them my agnostic spiel and tell them I don't need no "sky daddy." . They no longer ring the doorbell but I do get a copy of the Watchtower shoved in my door. Kind of a good read - if just for laughs and the pictures are kind of a hoot.
I have met very few people at that age who are agnostic or atheist. I am personally an agnostic and don't believe in any religion.
Is your belief in God and religion stronger now that you are older? Any Atheists or agnostics here?
I'm more or less an atheist. I say it this way because I'm not one of these hard-arsed types that goes around proclaiming my disdain for people who believe. I'm just too much of an intellectual with too much of a scientific bent to believe, but if you want to believe, that's okay with me, as long as you don't try to force your views on me.
I've thought about joining a church for social reasons because I think that many churches do a lot of good for a lot of people and for their communities, but joining without believing sort of seems dishonest to me ... so I remain a nominal Catholic who shows up in church on occasion. I might be more inclined to try to become a better Catholic, because I don't object to Catholic doctrine even if I don't believe it, if the autocratic males running the Church didn't continually demonstrate how little they value women except as broodmares.
We go to church twice a year, Easter and Christmas. I think that comes close to being atheist/agnostic, but neither my husband and I is over 65, so I guess it doesn't count.
Atheist don't believe in God so you would not go to church on either of these holidays. Atheists don't believe in Christ either, so Easter is not acknowledged.
The older I get, the less attractive I find religions of any type. It seems to me they are mostly for people who prefer to be told what to think rather than live with uncertainty. Also, they cause a lot of problems in the world as people insist on mixing religious dogma with government.
My mother, who is now nearing 90, was raised by Eastern European Roman Catholic immigrants and was married for more than 50 years to my father who was a very religious Irish Catholic. She now says she doesn't believe very many things she was taught her whole life and she rarely wants to go to church. She gets very angry over her church's treatment of women as well as their inability to address the recent uncovering of child abuse. I tell her that these problems have existed throughout the history of the church and the causes are systemic, therefore unlikely to go away without a protracted battle.
Both of us think the new Pope Francis is a breath of fresh air, but not enough to pull us back into the folds of the church as he still embraces several ideas we strongly don't believe.
I think that other religions will find in time that the sex abuse found among priest is not at all limited to the Catholic Church. Now that it has become more acceptable for "nice people" to be more open about sex abuse, it is coming out that all religions have these kinds of problems. It seems to me that any time there are organizations (not merely church-related) in which power is consolidated among a few, those few tend to abuse their situation. Add to that the fact that the repression of sexuality often comes out in ways that are very dangerous and you often have religious elders (or governmental leaders for another example) run amok.
All in all, I think it is quite possible for people to live good and productive lives without being directed by religious faith. The Golden Rule is a concept that exists in every religion I know about and seems to be good common sense. Why not just cut to the chase and let Do Unto Others guide our daily behavior and relationships with others? As for needing assurance about an after-life, I'm willing to live with not knowing. I'll just act as if I'm being judged and that will take care of that. I just flat-out don't believe I'm getting positive points for doing things like going to church on Sunday that will even out the bad I do. I just try not to do bad.
I don't know about this new Pope. I think they just kicked out the other one because he just wasn't the right "face" for the scandal. Pope Francis is more pleasant to look at and appears friendly. To me it was all PR. I was raised Catholic and the Pope is usually there until death. Look at JP2 - could barely drag himself around and he was still at it, but then he was very peaceful looking.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
