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Greetings believers and non-believers. I had planned to spare everyone my annual denouncement and atheist apologetic pertaining to my disdain about Easter.
In years past, on these blessed forums, I ,and others, have shown solid evidence as to how the basis of Easter, the Resurrection myth did not happen. We have shown how the Biblical narratives of the great Jesus' crucifixion could not have possibly happened. We have pointed out repeatedly how archaic and even asinine is the concept of "original sin" and resolution.
But we have never ever told anyone that they can or cannot believe what anyone says based on the opinions of us or others. Each individual has the right to choose for himself or herself.
That being said, almost everyone on here who knows me knows that I have never liked or cared for the day of Easter.
In my theistic/Christian days, I witnessed throngs of hypocrites who came out at Easter, bragging and boasting about their salvation and my lack thereof, I met and heard Pastors berate congregations who showed up at Easter but no other time, I heard the lessons over ad over from Sunday school teachers who, despite their hands on a bible, could not answer "WHY?"
I encountered, a very negative day of worship and religion which made me relieved at bedtime that it was over, yet also dreading the thought that it would, like the flu season, come back again.
SO moving on, as an adult, I spent a few years not attending any service. On a whim, one year, I went to an Easter service brought by the late Donald Curtis, yes, the B Movie actor, who gave a most positive inspiring Easter message of hope, rebirth, and the value of love and peace. Something I had never heard at any church before.
Even the music was good.
But along the way, lets see. A friend of mine, back in the 80s committed suicide on Good Friday And NO, he did not resurrect on Sunday either.
My Grandfather, in a fit of dementia, drove away and got lost in another state, eventually wrecking nhis car, and spending the rest of his life in ICU. He died weeks later, the week before Easter.
About 12 years ago, A client of mine decided to celebrate Easter by blowing his brains out with a handgun, after having difficulty dealing with a medical diagnosis.
Not a year can go by that I cannot say "Wow they died around this time of year.
Now, Palm Sunday, this year, a few days ago, my dear sweet mom, the one I have written about here, lost her battle with cancer. Palm Sunday in my life will always be the day that I lost my mom.
So add her to the people in life who have departed this world around Easter.
Which is why to me, Easter S*cks now as much as it did when I was a kid. But for different reasons.
I do not believe, and do not want to believe, and have no reason to believe, that some Deity somehow redeemed me from being a human by having some Jewish teacher killed by Rome.
That is preposterous, to me. What I do see is that this Sunday, to me, will be just another day. Normally I work, but I took the week off to help my father out
I will say that leaders such as Matt Dillahunty said some things that finally allowed me to forgive and release anger and such towards my mom. we had lot of positive talks while she was in hospice. I am thankful for the Atheist community for doing for me what no religious community ever could.
As for her death, well, she suffered long with cancer and bravely held her faith. She remained accepting and peaceful throughout. We did all we could and made sure that there was no anger no regrets just love and forgiveness.
Something that, BTW I never found a church growing up
SO for those of you who celebrate Easter, Enjoy. Do your thing.
For me, I will be working in the garden, cleaning the house, maybe take some time to do a few fun things as well. but no church.
Greetings believers and non-believers. I had planned to spare everyone my annual denouncement and atheist apologetic pertaining to my disdain about Easter.
In years past, on these blessed forums, I ,and others, have shown solid evidence as to how the basis of Easter, the Resurrection myth did not happen. We have shown how the Biblical narratives of the great Jesus' crucifixion could not have possibly happened. We have pointed out repeatedly how archaic and even asinine is the concept of "original sin" and resolution.
But we have never ever told anyone that they can or cannot believe what anyone says based on the opinions of us or others. Each individual has the right to choose for himself or herself.
That being said, almost everyone on here who knows me knows that I have never liked or cared for the day of Easter.
In my theistic/Christian days, I witnessed throngs of hypocrites who came out at Easter, bragging and boasting about their salvation and my lack thereof, I met and heard Pastors berate congregations who showed up at Easter but no other time, I heard the lessons over ad over from Sunday school teachers who, despite their hands on a bible, could not answer "WHY?"
I encountered, a very negative day of worship and religion which made me relieved at bedtime that it was over, yet also dreading the thought that it would, like the flu season, come back again.
SO moving on, as an adult, I spent a few years not attending any service. On a whim, one year, I went to an Easter service brought by the late Donald Curtis, yes, the B Movie actor, who gave a most positive inspiring Easter message of hope, rebirth, and the value of love and peace. Something I had never heard at any church before.
Even the music was good.
But along the way, lets see. A friend of mine, back in the 80s committed suicide on Good Friday And NO, he did not resurrect on Sunday either.
My Grandfather, in a fit of dementia, drove away and got lost in another state, eventually wrecking nhis car, and spending the rest of his life in ICU. He died weeks later, the week before Easter.
About 12 years ago, A client of mine decided to celebrate Easter by blowing his brains out with a handgun, after having difficulty dealing with a medical diagnosis.
Not a year can go by that I cannot say "Wow they died around this time of year.
Now, Palm Sunday, this year, a few days ago, my dear sweet mom, the one I have written about here, lost her battle with cancer. Palm Sunday in my life will always be the day that I lost my mom.
So add her to the people in life who have departed this world around Easter.
Which is why to me, Easter S*cks now as much as it did when I was a kid. But for different reasons.
I do not believe, and do not want to believe, and have no reason to believe, that some Deity somehow redeemed me from being a human by having some Jewish teacher killed by Rome.
That is preposterous, to me. What I do see is that this Sunday, to me, will be just another day. Normally I work, but I took the week off to help my father out
I will say that leaders such as Matt Dillahunty said some things that finally allowed me to forgive and release anger and such towards my mom. we had lot of positive talks while she was in hospice. I am thankful for the Atheist community for doing for me what no religious community ever could.
As for her death, well, she suffered long with cancer and bravely held her faith. She remained accepting and peaceful throughout. We did all we could and made sure that there was no anger no regrets just love and forgiveness.
Something that, BTW I never found a church growing up
SO for those of you who celebrate Easter, Enjoy. Do your thing.
For me, I will be working in the garden, cleaning the house, maybe take some time to do a few fun things as well. but no church.
I sympathize with your 'rant' And I especially agree with what I bolded.
I have long seen Easter as one of two holy days -- the other being christmas -- when christians that aren't very serious about their faith get to pretend that they are for an hour. And I am reminded of another post (don't remember which thread) today that seemed to be bragging about the fact that most christians do not take even a couple of minutes a day to communicate with the god and savior they say they worship. It's mind boggling.
LargeKingCat, my condolences on the loss of your beloved mother. I just marked the second anniversary of finding my own mom dead in her bed. It does not matter what age she was. I am still missing her and always will.
My condolences about your Mother. As geriatric as this board is...most know, first hand, the pain of that loss.
I miss my Mother so much I can hardly stand it.
But, yes...we know: You all don't like Religion, especially Christianity.
Meanwhile, a third of the world is Christian and Abrahamic Religion represents over half the world.
For whatever reason...this bothers some so much that they feel compelled to let everyone know that they think the Religious have it "wrong" and that they do not share their views...some even vituperate daily, for years, about it.
It is Holy Week. Most would understand to extend consideration for what they know many consider Sacred and Holy, and not be critical of the views/beliefs of those others...but, unfortunately, not everyone is like that.
My blessings to all who celebrate from a Theological standpoint at this time of the year...Peace & Love to you.
Believers aren't going to be convinced, and non-believers aren't going to be impressed.
Seems to me that's not what his post was about at all. Rather, it is a long-time R&S poster sharing his personal pain and views, not him trying to convince anyone of anything.
Sorry for your loss, KingCat. You certainly have a track record of loss on or around Easter! Oddly enough, it does seem that such loss does tend to concentrate around holidays, or at least they are noticed more for some reason. While we do experience loss, the other side experiences joy at the new birth, IMO. I sympathize with your angst about the hypocrites. Be Well, my friend.
It is sad to have so many unpleasant memories asociated with any particular date or time of the year. The closest I experienced that wasmy one dog being diagnosed with breast cance and my MIL dying the same day and then my dog dying that same date ten years later however the date is not associated with anything else tjat I know of.
Enjoy your gardening, I cant as we just got our biggest snowfall of the last three months. But at least my lawn was already raked as we had ear!y summer weather a week ago.
Thanks for feeling like you could share with the rest of us your feelings. Take care.
Meanwhile, I'm eagerly awaiting to bump my "Another Easter...No Jesus" thread on the Atheist board.
He still has a few days to make good on his promise to return so I'm being cautious and waiting until Easter actually gets here though...Just in case.
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And I especially agree with what I bolded.
