Just like Canadians and ninjas. Just ask my brother on those last two.
Anyway, the American Religious Identification Survey from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut was released today, and it had some really interesting information in it. But what I liked was that "other" religions, which no longer included Buddhism, or any eastern religions and so sounds mostly likey made up of the pagan community, has risen over the last three surveys. From .8% in 1990, to .9% in 2001, to 1.2% in 2008.
Woo hoo!
There is a bunch more interesting data in there, including how the number of people identifying themselves as Christian is falling, atheists are rising (woo hoo for them too, those sneaky buggers). The Religious Right is freaking out about the atheism thing. Sorry guys. We would have taken the flack for that one, but apparently atheists are more teh evil than pagans right now. Dude, that sucks.
It also shows a trend toward more independant thinking in this country. Go us!! Let's not let ourselves get brainwashed by the Religious Right anymore! Yay!
Monday, March 9, 2009
My part for Mother Nature
Each year the kid and I start a garden. It has a couple of purposes, first it's fun for the kid, she likes to play in the dirt. It's a way of saving money, since we plant stuff we will use. It's a way of reducing our carbon footprint since we don't have to drive anywhere for fresh veggies.
We started seeds for lettuce, spearmint, basil, and some cutting flowers this weekend. Within the next few weeks we will start tomatoes and probably some beans too. Last year we had fantastic luck with container tomatoes until some swallowtail caterpillars came and ate them. So I'm hoping for the same this year, without the swallowtails. That's the hazard of growing without pesticides, you get bugs. Of course you can also eat stuff you pick yourself. I can not advocate gardening enough. Even container gardening, which is what I do most of the time due to our insane HOA laws.
In other random gardening news, my orchid is about to bloom. So how about that? I can grow orchids. Cool!
We started seeds for lettuce, spearmint, basil, and some cutting flowers this weekend. Within the next few weeks we will start tomatoes and probably some beans too. Last year we had fantastic luck with container tomatoes until some swallowtail caterpillars came and ate them. So I'm hoping for the same this year, without the swallowtails. That's the hazard of growing without pesticides, you get bugs. Of course you can also eat stuff you pick yourself. I can not advocate gardening enough. Even container gardening, which is what I do most of the time due to our insane HOA laws.
In other random gardening news, my orchid is about to bloom. So how about that? I can grow orchids. Cool!
Friday, March 6, 2009
Asking those tough questions part 2
This time I wanted to talk about doubt, and I've been thinking about it trying to come up with a way of saying things that didn't make me sound like a moron or a lunatic.
There aren't too many ways of going about that. Aside from looking at how Ray Comfort writes and striving for the opposite of that. I'll do what I can though.
One of the problems with faith is that sometimes religion leaves no room for doubting your faith. You can have faith in all kinds of things, faith in the kindness of strangers, in gods, in dieting, etc. Heck, I know people who have faith in the Flying Spagetti Monster. Hee! Faith and religion can be, and probably should be, separate things.
However, not every religion allows that separation, and so they are faced with this problem of how to address doubt. Just like everyone has faith in something, everyone doubts too. We're all human here, it happens.
When the kid was born I had grave doubts about pretty much everything. I had an emergency c-section, and when I was in recovery they came in and told me that she had collapsed both lungs and needed to be taken to a NICU in a different hospital. I was staying where I was to recover. I was exhausted and they were taking my baby far away from me. The next day, before my mother came to visit me, and before my grandmother had called to kick me in the ass and stop me from feeling sorry for myself, I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself and my kid. I was all by myself, and this guy comes into my room. He was the hospital's pastor and the first thing he asked was where my baby was. I was stunned, and told him my baby was in another hospital's NICU. I then said I guessed he wasn't there to talk to me about that. Apparently this guy's job was to visit the new mothers and offer whatever services a church would offer to new mothers (forgive me, I'm sketchy on this. I haven't been to church for a while and the guy never actually told me why he showed up). Now, he is presented with a new mother, all by herself, her baby is in a NICU and she can't get to the baby because she is recovering from surgery. Quick! Say something comforting!
This man then tells me that they never tell him about things like this, offers some kind of "I'm sorry" and leaves.
I was floored.
I had spent a good amount of time up until this point bargaining with every single God I could think of. I offered to devote my life to any of them that made my kid better. Rash bargains, to be sure, made by a exhausted and upset woman. I thought for a moment maybe this pastor was a sign. If he was, he was a pretty crappy one.
Then I wondered, what if this was all for nothing, what if my kid would just die. What if, what if. It was not the best time. I got visitors, the most important was my kids god parents, who gave me a framed picture of my child. I will always find it amusing that they actually met her before I did, I had seen her for less than 5 minutes total since she had been born. My mother drifted in and out, my grandmother called me, which was what actually motivated me to talk my way out of the hospital just to see my kid. I had done enough sitting around, time to get going. Two days had gone by. That was enough.
Eventually, after I had seen the kid and I was sure she wasn't going to die right at the moment or anything, and then got her home and realized I wasn't going to kill her by accident, I started to regain some faith. In me, in my gods, in everything in general. It wasn't a loss of faith, but it sure was a time where that faith was under a lot of strain. And I can see where that strain could lead to that loss, eventually. What kept it from being lost was probably that I never stopped actually believe in my gods, or people being good, even while I lost my faith in them and felt a bit abandoned.
There is an arguement used by people who seem to particularly hate atheists (Hi Ray!) called the "No True Scotsman" arguement. It boils down to if you really know Christ you can never stop believing in him, so a Christian can never lose faith and become atheist. Leaving aside for retarted that sounds, how can that be true? Of course you can lose faith, no matter who you believe in. It can start with a doubt, like mine and probably thousands of others. Sometimes, like mine, it goes back to the beginning, you regain faith. Sometimes you lose it completely. It happens. And there is nothing wrong with that, it doesn't hurt anyone. People get all up in arms about losing your faith, like you lost an arm. I imagine it has to do with their ideas of the afterlife, the religions with a more casual, less Hell-like, afterlife tend to not give a crap is you don't believe in what they believe in. It's all good. They also tend to give you room if you doubt, because it happens.
So, doubting happens with any faith, it really does. You doubt? Good, you're human. However, to all those big old religions out there, maybe you want to take a step back when a follower starts to doubt in you god. Be comforting, not like that idiot I got stuck with after my kid was born. But not too clingy, or put too much pressure on the person, because that's not going to help at all. Think about why you are doing that, and then remember that whole free will thing. You can do it! And most of all remember, ultimately it is their choice, getting angry at someone who choses to not believe in your god isn't going to help anyone. And it certainly won't get them back.
There aren't too many ways of going about that. Aside from looking at how Ray Comfort writes and striving for the opposite of that. I'll do what I can though.
One of the problems with faith is that sometimes religion leaves no room for doubting your faith. You can have faith in all kinds of things, faith in the kindness of strangers, in gods, in dieting, etc. Heck, I know people who have faith in the Flying Spagetti Monster. Hee! Faith and religion can be, and probably should be, separate things.
However, not every religion allows that separation, and so they are faced with this problem of how to address doubt. Just like everyone has faith in something, everyone doubts too. We're all human here, it happens.
When the kid was born I had grave doubts about pretty much everything. I had an emergency c-section, and when I was in recovery they came in and told me that she had collapsed both lungs and needed to be taken to a NICU in a different hospital. I was staying where I was to recover. I was exhausted and they were taking my baby far away from me. The next day, before my mother came to visit me, and before my grandmother had called to kick me in the ass and stop me from feeling sorry for myself, I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself and my kid. I was all by myself, and this guy comes into my room. He was the hospital's pastor and the first thing he asked was where my baby was. I was stunned, and told him my baby was in another hospital's NICU. I then said I guessed he wasn't there to talk to me about that. Apparently this guy's job was to visit the new mothers and offer whatever services a church would offer to new mothers (forgive me, I'm sketchy on this. I haven't been to church for a while and the guy never actually told me why he showed up). Now, he is presented with a new mother, all by herself, her baby is in a NICU and she can't get to the baby because she is recovering from surgery. Quick! Say something comforting!
This man then tells me that they never tell him about things like this, offers some kind of "I'm sorry" and leaves.
I was floored.
I had spent a good amount of time up until this point bargaining with every single God I could think of. I offered to devote my life to any of them that made my kid better. Rash bargains, to be sure, made by a exhausted and upset woman. I thought for a moment maybe this pastor was a sign. If he was, he was a pretty crappy one.
Then I wondered, what if this was all for nothing, what if my kid would just die. What if, what if. It was not the best time. I got visitors, the most important was my kids god parents, who gave me a framed picture of my child. I will always find it amusing that they actually met her before I did, I had seen her for less than 5 minutes total since she had been born. My mother drifted in and out, my grandmother called me, which was what actually motivated me to talk my way out of the hospital just to see my kid. I had done enough sitting around, time to get going. Two days had gone by. That was enough.
Eventually, after I had seen the kid and I was sure she wasn't going to die right at the moment or anything, and then got her home and realized I wasn't going to kill her by accident, I started to regain some faith. In me, in my gods, in everything in general. It wasn't a loss of faith, but it sure was a time where that faith was under a lot of strain. And I can see where that strain could lead to that loss, eventually. What kept it from being lost was probably that I never stopped actually believe in my gods, or people being good, even while I lost my faith in them and felt a bit abandoned.
There is an arguement used by people who seem to particularly hate atheists (Hi Ray!) called the "No True Scotsman" arguement. It boils down to if you really know Christ you can never stop believing in him, so a Christian can never lose faith and become atheist. Leaving aside for retarted that sounds, how can that be true? Of course you can lose faith, no matter who you believe in. It can start with a doubt, like mine and probably thousands of others. Sometimes, like mine, it goes back to the beginning, you regain faith. Sometimes you lose it completely. It happens. And there is nothing wrong with that, it doesn't hurt anyone. People get all up in arms about losing your faith, like you lost an arm. I imagine it has to do with their ideas of the afterlife, the religions with a more casual, less Hell-like, afterlife tend to not give a crap is you don't believe in what they believe in. It's all good. They also tend to give you room if you doubt, because it happens.
So, doubting happens with any faith, it really does. You doubt? Good, you're human. However, to all those big old religions out there, maybe you want to take a step back when a follower starts to doubt in you god. Be comforting, not like that idiot I got stuck with after my kid was born. But not too clingy, or put too much pressure on the person, because that's not going to help at all. Think about why you are doing that, and then remember that whole free will thing. You can do it! And most of all remember, ultimately it is their choice, getting angry at someone who choses to not believe in your god isn't going to help anyone. And it certainly won't get them back.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Lost blogging
Richard is back. Huzzah! Now perhaps the show would like to exlain why he's the leader at a point when Windemore is supposed to be leading the lot of them. I did like him with Sawyer though, Richard with his cocky "whatever, I can kill you all" and Sawyer with his cocky "whatever, I can talk my way out of it".
Sawyer and Juliet make a good couple. Anyone could have seen that from teh first time they started to interact. And they actually seem to have chemistry, unlike Kate and anyone else. If Sawyer decides to dump the lovely and smart Juliet for Kate I'm going to be very upset. Just once can someone dump Kate in favor of Juliet? Please?
We've been hearing a lot about the Black Rock (I have gotten past seasons on DVD and have noticed that the ship gets mentioned pretty often). There is speculation that Richard was part of the Black Rock crew, but I'm thinking he may be an original inhabitant of the island, not just a long time one. So maybe someone could ask him what on earth is going on. Asking Ben does no good, he'd just as soon tell you the sky is green. Juliet will tell you what you want, if she knows it. Richard though, the only person who has asked Richard anything is Locke, and he asks stupid questions (what? He does.)
And maybe someone can ask him what's up with the statue.
Sawyer and Juliet make a good couple. Anyone could have seen that from teh first time they started to interact. And they actually seem to have chemistry, unlike Kate and anyone else. If Sawyer decides to dump the lovely and smart Juliet for Kate I'm going to be very upset. Just once can someone dump Kate in favor of Juliet? Please?
We've been hearing a lot about the Black Rock (I have gotten past seasons on DVD and have noticed that the ship gets mentioned pretty often). There is speculation that Richard was part of the Black Rock crew, but I'm thinking he may be an original inhabitant of the island, not just a long time one. So maybe someone could ask him what on earth is going on. Asking Ben does no good, he'd just as soon tell you the sky is green. Juliet will tell you what you want, if she knows it. Richard though, the only person who has asked Richard anything is Locke, and he asks stupid questions (what? He does.)
And maybe someone can ask him what's up with the statue.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Asking those tough questions
I have a couple of different ideas for posts about religions rambling around in my head right now, including one compairing the heathen reclaimationists to the Christian fundamentalist, so there may be more of these posts in the future.
What I wanted to talk about now is the calling to a pagan god, and how it seems to differ from calling to Sky-daddy god (thanks tons of atheist blogs, I'm stealing that because it bugs me to call him "God" like he's the only one).
There are certain similarities to how certain pagan gods call you. Odin's followers are hounded for months by dreams, and have Odin show up over and over in quiz show answers and other random events. He's a god of warriors and kings and his approach is pretty much that of a warrior king. You will pay attention to him. There is no discussion.
Now, I belong to a subsect of paganism that believes that gods call you, you do not call them. You can try, but gods are kind of like cats, it won't always do you any good. If a god shows up on your life there is a reason, they want you to do something or your need is so great that it got their attention. So Odin shows up and shortly thereafter I do end up in a series of very trying situations that required me to be a lot stronger than I thought I could be. I needed to be a warrior, and I felt better with him at my back. That's what faith is after all.
So, here we have the idea that gods show up when you need them or when they want you to do something. You get the feeling of faith and such that religion gives you.
After you get called you learn about said God, how to worship said God, converse with them. It's a honeymoon period. Sometimes you realize that this god isn't for you, or sometimes the god just dumps you. It happens sometimes. Or you realize that it will be a short-term relationship. Some pagans god hope all over the place.
Compair this to the way sky-daddy gets followers. Fron what I keep reading these seems to be more of an ah-ha moment. One moment the person suddenly sees this god in their life. Just like that. After this very sudden discovery you go through the honeymoon period, but you are discouraged from saying "gee, you know I don't think this is the right god for me". In this case you have a whole other element you don't have in paganism, you have peer pressure. You have a whole bunch of other people who are telling you that this is the god for you, you're just not trying hard enough. Oddly enough some of these people like to compare their relationship with their god to a marriage. I'm suprisingly OK with this, I sometimes compare my relationship to Odin as a marriage (I joke that he's the only man in my life, though that is a lie even on the level of other Gods, after all, I have his old buddy Loki hanging around. But he is very close to me).
In any relatonship you have to fit together. Even with your god, because this is a relationship you will spend a long time in. In Christianity they seem to rarely leave room for the idea that not everyone is going to fit with their god. I know as a pagan not everyone is going to fit with the gods I worship. It happens. My gods know this, after all, they are gods. They willlet you go if you're just that unhappy, and more than likely wish you luck on your journey (hell, so will I, I just want you to be happy). So why won't the christian religion give you that lee-way? What if you are unhappy? What if you get called by another god? What then? You go to hell? Why? Because your god gets ticked off? OK, that's just strange. Why doesn't your god understand that sometimes people won't be happy in one of his three religions?
This god calls people suddenly and won't let them go, like a very clingy teenager. I haven't talked to their god on a personal level, so I have no idea how much of this is the followers, but man it's strange.
So, I'll leave you with that for now. Gods call people in different ways. And they sometimes ask radically different thngs of their followers, and give different things in return. So why won't some religions recognise that there are different gods and different callings?
What I wanted to talk about now is the calling to a pagan god, and how it seems to differ from calling to Sky-daddy god (thanks tons of atheist blogs, I'm stealing that because it bugs me to call him "God" like he's the only one).
There are certain similarities to how certain pagan gods call you. Odin's followers are hounded for months by dreams, and have Odin show up over and over in quiz show answers and other random events. He's a god of warriors and kings and his approach is pretty much that of a warrior king. You will pay attention to him. There is no discussion.
Now, I belong to a subsect of paganism that believes that gods call you, you do not call them. You can try, but gods are kind of like cats, it won't always do you any good. If a god shows up on your life there is a reason, they want you to do something or your need is so great that it got their attention. So Odin shows up and shortly thereafter I do end up in a series of very trying situations that required me to be a lot stronger than I thought I could be. I needed to be a warrior, and I felt better with him at my back. That's what faith is after all.
So, here we have the idea that gods show up when you need them or when they want you to do something. You get the feeling of faith and such that religion gives you.
After you get called you learn about said God, how to worship said God, converse with them. It's a honeymoon period. Sometimes you realize that this god isn't for you, or sometimes the god just dumps you. It happens sometimes. Or you realize that it will be a short-term relationship. Some pagans god hope all over the place.
Compair this to the way sky-daddy gets followers. Fron what I keep reading these seems to be more of an ah-ha moment. One moment the person suddenly sees this god in their life. Just like that. After this very sudden discovery you go through the honeymoon period, but you are discouraged from saying "gee, you know I don't think this is the right god for me". In this case you have a whole other element you don't have in paganism, you have peer pressure. You have a whole bunch of other people who are telling you that this is the god for you, you're just not trying hard enough. Oddly enough some of these people like to compare their relationship with their god to a marriage. I'm suprisingly OK with this, I sometimes compare my relationship to Odin as a marriage (I joke that he's the only man in my life, though that is a lie even on the level of other Gods, after all, I have his old buddy Loki hanging around. But he is very close to me).
In any relatonship you have to fit together. Even with your god, because this is a relationship you will spend a long time in. In Christianity they seem to rarely leave room for the idea that not everyone is going to fit with their god. I know as a pagan not everyone is going to fit with the gods I worship. It happens. My gods know this, after all, they are gods. They willlet you go if you're just that unhappy, and more than likely wish you luck on your journey (hell, so will I, I just want you to be happy). So why won't the christian religion give you that lee-way? What if you are unhappy? What if you get called by another god? What then? You go to hell? Why? Because your god gets ticked off? OK, that's just strange. Why doesn't your god understand that sometimes people won't be happy in one of his three religions?
This god calls people suddenly and won't let them go, like a very clingy teenager. I haven't talked to their god on a personal level, so I have no idea how much of this is the followers, but man it's strange.
So, I'll leave you with that for now. Gods call people in different ways. And they sometimes ask radically different thngs of their followers, and give different things in return. So why won't some religions recognise that there are different gods and different callings?
Banning Barbie
So, it seems that a Vest Virginia law-maker wants to ban Barbie, citing that she teaches girls that you have to be beautiful rather than smart.
The kid has just gotten into Barbie. She play princess with them, it's cute and she has fun. All is good. It's like when she plays with her baby dolls to play family. Cute. She also dresses up like a pirate and wages war, so she has balanced play.
Since she is old enough to start noticing societal trends, my brother and I have started to enforce more positive images. Eat healthy foods, it's more important to be smart than pretty, etc.
We would have done this regardless of what the kid is playing with, because it's what familes do. They teach their kids how to be functioning adults. Barbie? Shouldn't be what is teaching your kid self-image. And banning Barbie won't really help the problem there.
If you want to address where girls are getting this image problem look at the two places that actually influence girls, even as young as mine. Family and media. There is a reason why she is allowed to watch Playhouse Disney and PBS and very little else. Because they don't portray women as either helpless or eye candy. In one show that the kid loves the girl saves the day by using math. While I hate the show (it's geared towards pre-schoolers. Math for pre-schoolers is really slow at times, and the kids can be kind of dense.) it's neat. So is my favorite show which features a girl who saves the day using vocabulary. Hee!
Only as a special treat can the kid watch shows like Hannah Montana or the like. Shows that feature vapid girls doing vapid things. But every day a lot of girls watch those shows and aspire to only be a rock star or a model. The kid's current dream is to be an astronaut. She's very serious about this and quizzed me this morning about space travel. She's four. I fear her sometimes. Heh.
In our house the emphasis is placed on intellegence not looks. It's placed on what you do in life, and we encourage her to do good things not because she should but because she can. I'm hoping that if I beat these things into her head when she encounters these girls in school she won't decide to put her dreams on hold to fit into their mold of pretty and popular. She won't just give up and be what all these girls have seen on TV and been told by their mothers they should be. If you really want to help these girls let me assure you it isn't all what they play with, it's what they are told. Tell them they can be anything. Encourage them, answer their questions, show them that they can do anything by following your dreams too. The media could lay off too. It's hard when the kid encounters one of those "I'm pretty so I don't have to be smart" girls. In my house we make fun of them. Not the best way, but I'm hoping she associates that level of dumb cunning with humiliation.
Anyway, banning Barbie won't help the actual problem of self image in our girls. And it irriates me that they will ban a doll rather than address the problem. That's not the way to fix things.
The kid has just gotten into Barbie. She play princess with them, it's cute and she has fun. All is good. It's like when she plays with her baby dolls to play family. Cute. She also dresses up like a pirate and wages war, so she has balanced play.
Since she is old enough to start noticing societal trends, my brother and I have started to enforce more positive images. Eat healthy foods, it's more important to be smart than pretty, etc.
We would have done this regardless of what the kid is playing with, because it's what familes do. They teach their kids how to be functioning adults. Barbie? Shouldn't be what is teaching your kid self-image. And banning Barbie won't really help the problem there.
If you want to address where girls are getting this image problem look at the two places that actually influence girls, even as young as mine. Family and media. There is a reason why she is allowed to watch Playhouse Disney and PBS and very little else. Because they don't portray women as either helpless or eye candy. In one show that the kid loves the girl saves the day by using math. While I hate the show (it's geared towards pre-schoolers. Math for pre-schoolers is really slow at times, and the kids can be kind of dense.) it's neat. So is my favorite show which features a girl who saves the day using vocabulary. Hee!
Only as a special treat can the kid watch shows like Hannah Montana or the like. Shows that feature vapid girls doing vapid things. But every day a lot of girls watch those shows and aspire to only be a rock star or a model. The kid's current dream is to be an astronaut. She's very serious about this and quizzed me this morning about space travel. She's four. I fear her sometimes. Heh.
In our house the emphasis is placed on intellegence not looks. It's placed on what you do in life, and we encourage her to do good things not because she should but because she can. I'm hoping that if I beat these things into her head when she encounters these girls in school she won't decide to put her dreams on hold to fit into their mold of pretty and popular. She won't just give up and be what all these girls have seen on TV and been told by their mothers they should be. If you really want to help these girls let me assure you it isn't all what they play with, it's what they are told. Tell them they can be anything. Encourage them, answer their questions, show them that they can do anything by following your dreams too. The media could lay off too. It's hard when the kid encounters one of those "I'm pretty so I don't have to be smart" girls. In my house we make fun of them. Not the best way, but I'm hoping she associates that level of dumb cunning with humiliation.
Anyway, banning Barbie won't help the actual problem of self image in our girls. And it irriates me that they will ban a doll rather than address the problem. That's not the way to fix things.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Dear Mother Nature
Seriously? Are you kidding me? A nor'easter, huh?
I'm currently looking outside at 9-10 inches of snow (despite my "local" weather forcasters assuring me I only have 7. I measured, people. I know). The snow has been blowing sideways for a good long while now. Yay!
I ended up not making it into work today no matter what I tried. It was all a big fat mess. There is now so much snow outside that I can't go anywhere. And after the snow stops? Wind! Yay!
I live on the top of a ridge in a new development. There are no trees to speak of, so nothing to break the wind when it comes. My power goes out just due to wind on a regular basis. It kind of sucks (Oh and by the way PPL, thanks for getting my power on within three hours on Sunday. Nothing I like more than a lazy Sunday morning without heat. You guys driving around the neighborhood aimlessly was really awesome. You looked lost).
So yeah, Mother Nature? I like you. We get on well for the most part. But I don't know why you sometimes decide to dump a shitload of snow on us. Sometimes, you suck Mom.
I'm currently looking outside at 9-10 inches of snow (despite my "local" weather forcasters assuring me I only have 7. I measured, people. I know). The snow has been blowing sideways for a good long while now. Yay!
I ended up not making it into work today no matter what I tried. It was all a big fat mess. There is now so much snow outside that I can't go anywhere. And after the snow stops? Wind! Yay!
I live on the top of a ridge in a new development. There are no trees to speak of, so nothing to break the wind when it comes. My power goes out just due to wind on a regular basis. It kind of sucks (Oh and by the way PPL, thanks for getting my power on within three hours on Sunday. Nothing I like more than a lazy Sunday morning without heat. You guys driving around the neighborhood aimlessly was really awesome. You looked lost).
So yeah, Mother Nature? I like you. We get on well for the most part. But I don't know why you sometimes decide to dump a shitload of snow on us. Sometimes, you suck Mom.
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