Friday randomness

A couple of things, first off, Happy Good Friday to all you Christians. Nice of you to catch up, I will never understand why your rebirth ceremony has to be so far away from the equinox. But whatever. In order to atone for their sins, Filipinos are nailing themselves to crosses today. Yeah, I kind of wish I was making that up, but frankly if I'm not going to criticize the Sun Dance, I won't criticize people nailing themselves to crosses.
Anna Paquin is Bisexual. While reading the comments for an article on this, I came across some guy saying that this proves that being gay is a choice, because she has chosen to be Bi. Yeah. Sorry dude, being Bi is something you are born with, just like being gay. However, I do wish that people would stop saying they are Bi as a stepping stone to being gay. There is a difference, when you are bi you are actually attracted to people of both sexes. It kind of cheapens the fact that it is a real thing, and makes people think that if you are Bi you are actually gay. However, good for her. I'm proud for any star who says they are gay or Bi. It's not easy to come out.
And lastly, I love the number 7, so I liked this story about how the lottery paid out $77.7 million after the number 7-7-7-7 hit.
Have a Happy Easter all...

In which anonymous people teach me a lesson

When I opened posting here to anyone I expected anonymous posters. What I didn't expect was two anonymous people commenting on one post, both telling me I'm wrong. In truth, I had to go back and read what I wrote because I had no idea what they were referring to, it was an old post. In fact it was the post when I mentioned Michelle Duggar was expecting baby 19, which has since been born via C-section much too early due to complications with the pregnancy.
In that post I pointed out that the Duggars are part of the Quiverfull movement, which is noted for male dominance of their woman, mostly by forcing the women into multiple pregnancies and isolating them from society. Much the same way the Fundamentalist sect of the Mormon Church does, but that's neither here nor there.
My commenters apparently didn't understand that I was criticizing the Quiverfull movement not Christianity at large (I do that in other posts, why bother there?) I was told I was pitiful for criticizing them, and honestly, whatever. I do not agree with what they are doing and I know from experience that even the most abused woman can look happy. After all, not all abuse if hitting people. And I wasn't exactly putting them down, after all it is their choice to do this insane thing, no matter how much I disagree with it. I am, however, expressing extreme dislike and sympathy for Michelle's body at this point. It obviously can't keep doing this. The fact they want to try for 20 worries me greatly. At this point she has a very real possibility of dying during the pregnancy and taking the baby with her.
I was also told that I was told lies and Christian women are not "supressed". First off, no they are not. They would be Oppressed. There is a difference. Also, no, not all Christian women are oppressed. Quiverfull women are. And I really haven't been told "lies" about Christianity as a whole. I was American Baptist once (the same denomination as Fred Clarke, FYI. Not crazy person Baptist). I decided not to be Christian anymore because it wasn't a fit for me. I was called elsewhere. It happens.
I really hope these people tell commenting. Especially the one who claimed she was in the military and couldn't spell for shit. That one was fun!
I'm really glad I opened comments.

Hahahah!!!

Brit Hume says...

"And my sense about Tiger is that he needs something that Christianity, especially provides and gives and offers. And that is redemption and forgiveness."

Hahahah! Yes, I'm sure. Buddhism has no concept of forgiveness. Please. I'm not an expert in it, but I have studied it for a few years now and even I know it has a concept of forgivness.

" mentioned the Buddhism only because his mother is a Buddhist and he has apparently said that he is a Buddhist. I'm not sure how seriously he practices that.
But I think – I think that the – Jesus Christ offers Tiger Woods something that Tiger Woods badly needs."

You know, I heard someone mention on TV last night that Hume makes Christianity sound like a religion that caters to people who cheat on their wives (which, given the amount of very public figures who are Christian and get caught cheating, it very may well be). Like it's the easy way out. Cheat on your wife? Get forgiven by Christ! It's just that easy!!
Tiger Woods doesn't need Christ. Speaking as a person who cheated on her husband when she was married, I assure it isn't religion or the lack thereof that causes people to cheat. It's boredom and a lack of respect for the other spouse.
Mr Hume, shut up dude. Stop trying to convert people.

The closeted religious

As a pagan, I usually spend a lot of my time in the religious closet. It's like the gay closet, but not as fabulous. And one thing that has always bothered me is people claiming to be in that closet when they aren't. Think the crazed right wing evangelicals who scream about how they can't be Christian anymore. Please, talk to me about not being able to practice your religion. I mean it. Then tell me about how you can't even keep your religious tools/books out in the open in your own house in case you have company because if this kid's mom knows what religion you are your kids won't be able to play together anymore.
However, there is a very small sect of Christians who actually are residing in the closet. Ada Calhoun wrote a wonderful piece for Salon about it. The secretly religious when your friends are atheist. I can honestly say I never thought about what that might be like. But it sounds amazingly like the experience all the rest of us have. And in a way those right wing crazies make it bad for them too. They reinforce the concept of Christianity or any other faith being evil making it harder to just say, "Dude, I go to church every Sunday, can you lay off the snide comments about how stupid people who go to church are?"*
I find it sad whenever people can't practice their faith in the open, or feel so uncomfortable about doing so they chose not to. Faith can be a comfort, it can provide answers, and it can create a sense of peace for people. Not all people, but some of us. I also find it sad that one group of marginalized people, like atheists, can in fact create a space where they hold a whole other group of people in the same disregard they are held in.*
I dearly hope that one day this might stop. People point their fingers at religion being the source of so many ills, and man terrible things are done in it's name. But at the same time we also find that the real source of this is the people within the religion. We need to address the people, not the religion. I think sometimes we all lose sight of that in the mass of anger and accusations.

*Obviously, not all atheists are like this. There is a small sect of Dawkins like atheists who to tend toward this, which is why I avoid like the plague anyone who is really really into Dawkins. I get tired of being called stupid. I am hoping that as people become more accepting of atheism that rage will cool. I wonder sometimes if there isn't a source of constant anger that causes a lot of the bitter name-calling over on his end of the spectrum. I know it tends to be the reason why a lot of name calling goes on over here in the pagan community.

Oh hai!!

I believe that no one can read the LOLcat Bible too often, as it does spread the word of Ceiling Cat.
It looks like the whole Bible is done now, so go have a read. If nothing else it will make you giggle. And remember, this translation may be more accurate that Conservapedia's translation, since this one does just chop out large chunks that don't suit it.

:edit:
The funniest read? Would be the Song of Solomon. Biblical porn in LOLcat.

Neato!!

So, while I was away celebrating the kiddo's birthday, some really neat stuff happened...

Nasa decided to bomb the moon. I freely admit I'm a geek, and I watched this live on TV. It was disappointing to watch, but Nasa declared it a success, which is enough for me. I like it when Nasa does cool stuff like this. Hopefully they will get more funding out of it.

Hawaii got a Saint. Saint Damien is the first saint from Hawaii, and they are quite proud of him. Good for them, he sounds like he did a lot of good work.

And the wingnuts, already freaking out about the Olympics, proceeded to lose their shit over the fact that our president won the bloody Nobel Peace Prize. Dear GOP far right talking heads, peace is a good thing. It's a good thing to be awarded the prize, and he was nominated for his plans to bring diplomacy to the world. Also a good thing. How on earth can anyone listen to them now and not realize these people would see our country burn to the ground rather than see Obama succeed. It's disgusting.

Liberal Bias strikes again

Apparently there is a movement out there to re-translate the Bible called the "Conservative Bible Project". Brought to us by the lovely and batshit crazy Phyllis Schlafly, this project is supposed to eliminate Liberal Bias out of the Bible.
Yeah.
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, my Uncle works for a very big publisher in NYC. His job, for many years, was to supervise the "updating" of the Bible. This was careful editing of the Bible to make the language more mainstream. It was a painstaking process, and he did this well before you could walk into a Christian bookstore and find roughly ten million different kinds of Bibles.
For most mainstream versions, the editing process is still pretty much the same as it was when my Uncle did it. However there are now smaller publishers who translate and update Bibles pretty much on a whim (see: LOLCat Bible. Thanks to the intertubes we can now get all kinds of translations for the Bible).
If you click on the link and read the guidelines for this new translation I'm sure you'll be just as tickled as I am. These goofs are proposing translating the KJV into modern English, and during the translation process they will edit out quite a bit of what is actually in the Bible to match their own Conservative agenda. My favorite bullet-point, after the one about not dumbing down the Bible (ha! Why don't you just read the KJV then?) is the one where they say they will:

"preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word "Lord" rather than "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" or "Lord God."

Yeah, OK there kids. They also want to include the "logic of hell" which is really going to be interesting once they realize how rarely hell is mentioned in the KJV.
All of this makes me wonder if they have ever really read the version of the Bible they are planning on re-translating.
Now, I have spent a good bit of time translating old works, I read Latin and spent years an various classes translating quite a few texts. Translating is tricky business. It's why my Uncle would spend an entire year just updating language in a book. I would spend months translating a text, and can spend a week doing a poem or song.
What these people are proposing is insane, both because they have no idea of what they are translating apparently, and because they have no idea how to do it properly.
I can not wait to read this train wreck.

Your friendly neighborhood witch

I talk a lot about pagans here, and I realized I have never taken a moment to explain who I am talking about.
Pagans, like most other religions, have subdivisons. By parthenon, by practice, and sometimes by experience of the person practicing. As a rule, when dealing with pagans, if you encounter:
1) the person who knows everything about "the burning times" or whatnot, ignore them.
2) the fluffy, sweetie, teenage girl who thinks magic is all love and cupcakes (and spells is magick, which personally pisses me right the hell off), ignore her.
3) the gothy type who believes that magic (or magick) is all dark and terrible, back away slowly and then ignore them (note, these are the people who get confused with "satanists".)
If you weed out the crazies then you usually get the base of the community. Assuming you can find them, since they tend to hide. Pagans form large communities* and then smaller covens based on religions within that community. Divisons happen from time to time, and groups are not allowed to attend community events, really just normal church politics.
These pagans are your neighbors, or your co-workers. You may think they are Catholic, we blend best with Catholics if we aren't "out". They are the co-worker who works Christmas, or Easter, but wants off on the oddest days in the middle of the week. We are the neighbor who throws parties that involves people burning strange stuff in the fire pit. Nothing bad or out of hand, but just strange. We are normal people with kids and jobs, and too often others kind of lose sight of that. We get confused with those dark gothy types, or those fluffy bunny types and then people assume we are all like that.
So, when I talk about pagans, I'm talking about your average person who just happens to have a small table in there house that you can NOT touch. And a locked chest that you aren't allowed to open. Your regular old person, with regular old problems.

*Interesting thing with that, when the communities form online, which they sometimes do, they can become multi-faith communities who include Christian, Jewish, atheist, and any other point of view out there. I've talked about this before, but it never ceases to amaze me that this happens and that everyone gets along. It gives me hope for people.

There are some advantages to being pagan

Pagans have gods for all kinds of things. It's great, you know who to ask for what, and it's their specialty, so it's all good. For instance, a friend of mine is about 15 months pregnant right now (no, not really, but at the end of your term you might as well be) and keeps having contractions. So you ask the goddess who handles labor to keep an eye on her (Artemis, in this instance. Though she is a virgin goddess she handles labor because it is a fight, and a transition for a woman). Say I'm going to see a customer at work, and I need to be quite quick witted and silver tongued? Ah, ask Loki for some help (not Odin, because he gets pissed when you lie.) And so on.
Christians believe that one god handles all this stuff, and that has got to be a lot of work. OK, their guy is omnipotent and whatnot, but still. Personally I feel a bit more comfortable knowing who to ask with a problem, rather than ask one really busy guy who handles everything.
But then, I have the pagan idea of what a god is, not the Christian one. Occasionally that is really obvious.
So right now I'll be asking my goddess to watch out for my friend. And I'll trust that if she gets a chance, the goddess will.

The enemy of my enemy

Pagans and atheists tend to have a pretty good, if not a bit weird, working relationship. After all, we have a lot in common, since we are both enemies of the Right. The Right will change tactics sometimes and after years of going after one will switch to the other. Sometimes they bring in a third party (Islam!) and surprise everyone, but as a rule pagans and atheists are always on the chopping block.
So, we tend to get along. And as long as the extreme elements of each side don't get involved everything works out great. Each side has it's nutters. We have the really vocal element which is made up of newbies, the martyr complex people, and the older people who have been doing this so long they don't care. The latter people are actually pretty cool, and frankly I wish they would speak up more but they tend to get drowned out by the first two. As a rule pagans are passive people, and the more aggressive elements tend toward the martyr complex side.
Atheists have a group that do want to try to phase out religion, not as bad as the Right seem to want us to think, you know no thugs or anything, seems like a long term, wouldn't it be nice, kind of thing. And good for them, who knows what will happen in the future? They also have the "religious people are stupid" group (their answer to martyr complex people). They are hard to deal with, just like our guys are, so we just avoid them. Honestly, most pagans do just ignore what those people say because they want to fight.
So both sides, like any group of people, have crazies, and yet as a rule we get along. I have yet to be part of a large pagan group online that doesn't have at least 1 atheist in a place of moderation. So how can we get along, other than the fact that one side of this relationship is really passive? Because we have to. When you get routinely attacked for any period of time you take all the help you can get. You do what you have to.
You may have noticed that the Right isn't too keep on taking support for other, more liberal, elements within the faith. This is their own faith and they don't help. When you can go it alone you probably aren't under any kind of serious attack. If you guys were honestly afraid that us pagans and atheists are going to come after you and take away Christmas or Jesus or Easter or whatever you probably would be joining forces with someone. Anyone. Safety in numbers.
One more reason why I don't buy the whole idea that Christians (Religious Right Christians, that is) are being oppressed in any way.
Spare me, people.

Feeling God

Back when I was pregnant I asked people, "How do you know if you're in labor?" Every first timer asks that question. And I was told, "You'll just know." Then they looked me in the face and lied to me when they said, "But don't worry, you won't remember what it was like after it's done."
Bull. Shit.
I can tell you now, almost 5 years later exactly what my labor was like. It was like someone decided to rip my internal organs out of my body through my vagina with a very very hot pair of pliers. It was, by far, the worst and most intense pain I have ever been in. *
Right, now that I have freaked out all the women who haven't had kids yet, what does that have to do with God?
Well, ask someone who is religious how they know God is out there and they tell you, "You'll just know." Stock response from 95% of the people out there. The ones who try to answer the question are probably madmen.
I'm an Irish poet, which in English means "madman" so off we go...
So what does God feel like? Well, like labor, God is different for everyone. It can be the peace of a dream, the calm of a parent holding you close. It can be cold, the knowledge that someone is standing up to a battle with you, though they do not care for you, you are there to fight, same as them. It can be the feeling of strength, knowing that whatever happens you can make it through.
It is, in short, everything that people feel anyway. Religious people hate to admit this. Everyone has something they draw strength from, and it is exactly the same. Religious experiences, the true, seeing angels kind, are so rare, and usually the result of a medical condition or insanity.
So, how do you know God is there? And how does that shape your life?
That's where that thing called faith comes in. You can say on faith, "This is probably something bigger than me. I don't know what, but I don't think it is just me" or you can say, "This is something that is coming from me, it isn't something outside of me." If you're afraid that you're not special you may go onto, "This is something special, this is something only for me, from something bigger than me." Faith can distort so many things. It can take a Simple Partial Seizure and make it into a visit from an angel (or alien, they are usually the same visions with a different central character depending on the person's experiences). There is a point where you have to say, "I don't think this is God" or "I think this is God" and go from there. The decisions you make from there can change your life. You can base your entire life on the idea that you are special and chosen by God (Hi Fundies!), you can question everything, study your ass off, and try to figure out if there is something bigger out there. You can let it all go and see where it falls and go on with your life.
God is personal, every god is. But the experiences that religious people talk about are the same, no matter what the religion. We are all the same, and sometimes, no matter who you are, you feel something special. When you are down, when you are lost, when you get found, that is something special. Call it God, call it anything it doesn't matter. What matters is it is there, always there. That's where our faith comes from, no matter what our religion. People distort it, mask it with other things, but it is still there waiting. Always waiting.

*Every labor is different, and I had a difficult one. Your labor may not be the same, hell it may not ever be hard. First timers? Don't think yours will be like mine.

One upon a time, when we all lived in the forest....

Possibly the only good part about me watching the craptacular movie Knowing last night was that the end got me thinking about trees.
Trees play a big part in old religions. The Norse and Celts both had the World Tree which was the backbone of the world they knew, Judaism and Christianity have the Trees of Knowledge and Life, many Native American beliefs featured trees similar to the World Tree, etc.
But why?
Well, in pre-Christian societies people were living in the last great ancient forests. And those forests featured massive trees. The biggest things some of these people would ever see were the trees around them. And something that big would eventually be revered. The Greeks put their gods on the top of their mountain, and other cultures put the world on the back of a tree.
However, only Christianity retained a literal view of that tree. In Norse religion their Tree is a symbol, and apparently stopped being a representation of a real tree long ago. It is the symbol of the world, and the cycles that the Norse saw in it. The modern druids use their Tree as a symbol of nature. It has gone from being the world to being the symbol of the world.
The tree is so enduring that it still shows up as a symbol of life, even in terrible movies. You see it and we know what it means. Living tree means continuation of life. Dying tree means the end of life.
The fact that everyone seems to understand this speaks to how much in common we all have.

Religion and Child Abuse

So, way back in 2006 a guy named Richard Dawkins equated religion to child abuse. The point of his article is that teaching a child about the finer points of a religion (the punishment points) equates mental abuse.
Yeah.
Two things here, I never even heard of Richard Dawkins until recently, and I didn't know he was some big atheist guy until even more recently. So when I first read it a while ago my thought was that he was kind of an ass and probably didn't have kids (my apologies about the ass part, honestly). The kids thing probably doesn't make much sense, but if you have kids you know that sometimes you say things and cringe because part of you wonders if you have just scared the kid for life.
See, from what I gather, he is arguing that the teaching of punishment of hell, if sincerely believed by a child, is equal to any other mental abuse of the child, and that even more subtle religious teachings are abusive. Now, that is a mighty fine line he is walking. I see what he is saying, but again, fine line. Because what he is saying is the religious version of what is creating all those spoiled animals you see running around.
Can religion be used as a form of mental abuse? Yes, of course. Anything can, especially to a child. You could probably use chipmunks as a form of abuse. Is all religion abusive? No. And I mean that all across the board, the same way he did. He says all religions are abusive, I say that they aren't. In the wrong hands yes, they can be. So can athiesm. Sorry Mr. Dawkins.
Dawkins reminds me of the people in the pagan movement I hate the most. The people who scream about how narrowminded and awful other religions are while being the exact same way. It's a bad habit to get into. And it leads to blanket statements like the one above.
I know that children believe all manner of things. My kiddo currently believes that the moon had an entire family of moons and that a giant space tornado came and scared them all away (don't ask me, I don't know). Obviously with some children religion will be dealt with differently than with others. The kiddo won't learn about religion of any kind for another few years, until she can process things. Some kids can handle it earlier, or almost crave it, and in that case, why not teach them? As long as it doesn't disturb them, it also probably won't hurt them. Dawkins is insinuating that religion of any kind is slavery, and again, that's an interesting thing to say. Some people need religion, some people want religion, and some people use it to reach enlightenment. Would you take that from us? I'm not saying there is a right religion, and I'm not saying everyone should be religious, but I am saying that the same way I get disturbed by people who tell me I need to worship Sky-Daddy, I am also disturbed by people who tell me I'm a slave to my belief. Sorry to disappoint, but Sky-Daddy isn't my speed, and I'm not a slave to my religion. My religion helps me process things, but it certainly doesn't hold my back from things. And if one day I grow out of it? So be it. But right now? I'm cool with it.
Frankly, I wish that everyone would stay out of my religion. It's personal. I get why everyone is fighting, I really do, because I fight that too, equality for all, etc. But Dawkins went somewhere personal on this one. I want to see what else he has written, so I can see if that ass thing is right or not, but I'm not looking forward to it if he's always this antagonistic.

I like grape jelly myself...

Apparently Jesus has seen fit to show up on the lid of a jar of Marmite. Yummy!
Seriously? Have these people never heard of matrixing? For goodness sake people! I believe strange things, however I can tell you right now I won't ever believe that my gods are showing up in jelly jars. That's just crazy.

"What about me?"

Ben asked that of Jacob (the god-like guy) in the season finale in Lost. Jacob, god-like, answers, "What about you?" And at the time I thought, Oh if I had a dime for every time I had that question and answer session.
One of the things that bugs me about Christian's view of their god is this assumtion that they have that God watches each and every one of them personally. Over the years I've dealt with a few different gods, and quite frankly even with the nice ones that never seems to be the case. They care, in a kind of distant fashion, because they want you to do things, but they don't care like people care.
The gods show up in your life for different reasons, sometimes they want you to do work for them, sometimes something going on in your life is big enough to grab their attention. However, they rarely show up out of some deep caring for you. And if they have a job for you to do, or want you to serve them in some way, then the question above will always be answered, "What about you?" Because you aren't the biggest thing in that picture.

Can faith be a bad thing?

Two weeks ago my daughter got very sick, and ended up in the hospital.* She was so ill on the first night I honestly thought she was going to die (thank god for the nurses in the ER, who apparently deal with crying mothers all the time. Thank god I never went into hysterics, I just kind of steadily leaked. Heh.) I spent two nights with her, camped out in a pediatric unit that was nicer than some hotels I've stayed at.
It was scary. I certainly was scared. However I had a task, help my daughter get better. Sick kids don't give you a chance to think, you just do.
A few times I would sit at her bed and quickly send a prayer up to the powers that be, asking for her to get better. You know, as you do. Hell, you take what you can get sometimes.
However, there are people, and were probably people in the hospital with us, who take that little prayer a bit too far. While I will pray a quick prayer I will in no way assume that my god is going to fix my kid. Sure, there may be a god out there watching over her (the god of fools and small children perhaps) but that will not stop me from actually working to make her better. However it will stop other people from actually working to make things better.
There is a class of person who would rather "Let go and let God" which is a terrible idea to me. I would never just trust that Odin is going to make everything alright, and compared to Sky-Daddy, Odin is a freaking angel at times. I mean, these people are trusting that the god equivilant of a sociopath is going to make everything OK. How does that make sense? For goodness sake, don't just trust in gods! They are gods!! They don't care.
I think these people don't get that. We're worshiping the God. The god? Not so much caring about us on a deep personal level. Supportive? Yes. When you need it. Going to interceed for you on that job interview? Probably not. Going to heal your sick child? Yeah, no. Not unless by heal you mean "provided a specialist that will fix your kid up."
These people mystify me. There is nothing wrong with doubting, and there is nothing wrong with actually working to change something yourself. We have free will for a reason. And god helps those who help themselves, and all that jazz. Is any of this ringing a bell?

*This is what happened after the trip to the ER that inspired the letter to the hospital. That trip was on Wends, she was admitted on Friday.

Tuesday Randomness

Allergy season sucks to begin with. During a pandemic? Yeah, let's talk about how crazy people can get. Especially if you have Fibro with allergies, which means that, like me, you are achy, tired, have trouble breathing, run fevers, and in general are flu-like. Heh.
I've been watching Lost from the second season on, and something struck me about Ben. He doesn't change. As a character, he literally never changes. The others change. Ben's motives become more clear as we learn more of his back story, but he never changes. In terms of writing that was a good choice for your villian, because if he's perfect from the get-go, dear god don't mess with him. Jack, also has not changed, he's a massive tool through the whole series.
It has been irritating me recently that fundies use the "creation proves the creator" argument to try to prove God. Come on now. The world is wonderous, but it's not proof of any god. It's proof of science.

Why are atheists better at marriage?

Many months ago, Personal Failure linked to a study of divorce rates in the US, divided by religion, region, etc. One of the more interesting things in it was that atheists divorce rates were lower than any other religion/philosophy.
Atheists are just better at being married.
And so I started wondering why. Does it have something to do with the fact that they are free of a lot of the various crap that goes along with a religion? They don't worry about a god, or hell, and can live each day without worrying about something eternal, lurking around the corner, waiting for you to screw up.
The atheists I know are really nice. They are happy, well adjusted, smart people. As a rule they are happier than a lot of people I know. And I honestly wonder if this generally happier outlook on life is what makes their marriages better. And I'm also interested in if other aspects of their lives are more positive. And if you find a general uptick in their lives, they are happier and more content as a whole, how much of that is from their basic personality, and how much is from their own belief in the universe as a whole?
Personally I'm fascinated by this subject. Atheists are generally welcomed into most pagan communities (one of the larger boards The Cauldron, is moderated by an atheist. We accept everyone. That could probably be the motto of paganism as a whole), so it's not like they are new an unusual. However in the context of pagans they are just that, not unusual. They share a lot of the same political and moral views, are just as happy, and that is probably why I never thought about how different they are from the "Big Three" religions. When someone is just like you, you don't think about how they are different from others.
Atheism is just amazing to me (and daunting, I tried to think about how I would explain death to the kiddo from a "and that's it" standpoint and was completely flumoxed). I think most religious people need to think a bit more about the other side, about where these people are coming from. It certainly couldn't hurt.

Keep your religion our of my faith

As a rule, I could give a crap what you believe. You believe in Sky-daddy and Zombie Jesus? Awesome. Jeebus? Fanatastic. The Flying Spaghetti Monster? Lovely. Good for you.
I don't. Obviously. If I believed in any of those things the blog name would be different.
I don't go around in my real life proclaiming what I believe. You'll find most people who have unpopular viewpoints tend not to, what with the crazy factor, you never know if the person you're talking to is a religious nut. Which will not be a good thing if they find out what you believe. However, if I were to start pointing out what I believe you'd better believe I would be accused of all manner of things, starting with harrassment and going on from there.
I will talk about my religion, if I know you, and you ask me. Directly. As a rule I don't believe that in real life religion has anything to do with anything in a social context. These days religion isn't the same things it was before. We have science to explain things now, we have a global community to replace the church community, and these have pushed religion into a more personal space. And that's good. That's where it should be.
Your conversation with your god should be private. That's where it does the most good. I wonder sometimes what on earth some Christian think the Bible is talking about when it talks about the still small voice?
Now, what if your God is insisting that you need to tell EVERYONE about him? Well, here is where you go back to that voice and listen. Is it really asking you to tell everyone? Or is that someone outside of your conversation, your private space with your god? That person outside of your private faith shouldn't be telling you what to do with your faith. And that's where we always seem to run into problems.
I've talked here about how everyone has to find their own path, their own god, or their own self and not need a god. So for one thing, trying to force your god on someone may not even do them any good. For another it is irritating, especially if someone has an established relationship with a faith (and highly irritating if you are bugging someone who already believes in your God. Just saying).
The global community has made us all closer, and has brought all our faiths to light. Everyone knows about other religions, or at least can find them in the internet easily, so there is no need to tell everyone. Now religion is being transformed into faith, and personally I love it. It creates a more personal relationship with your god, and you get to stop bugging your friends about your religion. It's a win-win.

As a footnote, most people don't really get that I feel very strongly about my faith. However, I have never felt that gives me the OK to go around and piss off other people by telling them that they should feel strongly about my faith too. That is insane, and quite insulting. I talk to my Gods on a regular basis, I would never presume that you would feel as comfortable with them as I do. That's what bugs me about Christian evangelicals, they presume that I would feel as comfortable with their god as I do with my own. And that is not right.

Self reliance gone too far?

One of the things that struck me about the Quiverfull/fundie marriage lifestyle is the constant harping on the family being self reliant. They are encouraged to isolate themselves, to not talk to people outside of the church, to be their own community.
Anyone who has ever been in an abusive relationship knows that this is one of the first steps to the escalation of abuse. If you are isolated completely, sometimes unable to even go to a store on your own, you have no one to turn to when things go wrong.
So, what part of this is a good idea?? Why do people keep glorifying this lifestyle? Is it because it was created solely to stroke a man's ego? An entire porn religion and lifestyle all wrapped up in a christian wrapping paper.
These people are sick.