The best funeral I have ever been to was a Humanist ceremony I attended while I was still a christia

Man! What a week. Things have been busy here in Austin Town. First, most of us spent days early in the week doing our individual photo shoots and interviews hilton hotel london with Chris Johnson for his book project A Better Life . Some of you will remember, back in the spring, my promoting the Kickstarter fund drive for this little project. hilton hotel london Well, it worked out for him, becoming the second-highest-funded publishing project in Kickstarter history. And now Chris is in the midst of his busy nationwide tour photographing 100 atheists hilton hotel london for the enhancement of heathen coffee tables hilton hotel london everywhere. Below the jump, you can see some clips from the interviews he did with us.
Then yesterday and today, ACA played host to Teresa MacBain of American Atheists and The Clergy Project, which is designed to help ministers hilton hotel london and pastors who have figured out it s all a steaming pile with their transition to atheism. Teresa is herself a former fundamentalist Methodist hilton hotel london minister who only finally faced up to her nonbelief about a year ago. The story of her deconversion is a brave and sad one, contrasting hilton hotel london the welcoming hilton hotel london sense of fellowship (to borrow a favorite word of Christians) she s received from the godless community hilton hotel london with the utter loathing, anger, hilton hotel london and shunning she s experienced from her former friends and church members. We were proud to have her participate in a special 2-hour show today, which also featured a lovely hilton hotel london little moment of videobombing by Aron Ra.
Our annual Bat Cruise was yesterday. This is where we rent a big boat for the privilege of being pooped on by the several million bats who famously live under Austin s Congress Avenue Bridge, hilton hotel london the largest urban bat population in America. This year was one of the most fun cruises yet, and next year is already set up. So mark your calendars for September 28, 2013, and get your asses to Austin!
I find it interesting how we can delve deeply into the depths of concentrated thought and engage in discussions on religion, philosophy, and science, while at the same time almost define who we are as individuals by the simplest of things. Recalling a cherished memory or finding joy in something insignificant but personally meaningful, can awaken you from the daily grind that often manifests into a continuous stupor. We spend years cramming complicated bits of information into our heads just as preparation for even more laborious mental exercises. It s nice to know that as cerebral and unattached from humanity we may sometimes become, that who we were as children never dies. We grow older and still find awe, joy, and I hope humility.
It s silly, but one of my favorite quotes and something I live my life by is from Mr. Bilbo Baggins who says It is not bad thing to celebrate a simple life. Money, fame, success it s great, but going to bed every night with a smile on your face, fully satisfied with your life and the direction it s leading is even better.
(Do you ever get the feeling when you ve met someone a couple of times but haven t really gotten a good look at them, and you eventually get to sit down with them and look at them for a while, they look totally different than you originally though? I guess when you meet someone new you kind of try to categorize the person by some sort of personality stereotype that already exists in your memory.)
I am absolutely horrible about recognizing hilton hotel london people I ve only seen in photos or on TV. My husband and my best friend can spot a person from across a crowded room and say That s so-and-so, and they re right every time. I will look at the same person and think Oh, no way and I m always wrong. So, I m very familiar with people not appearing as I expect.
Funerals hilton hotel london are one of the things that seem really weird after you stop being religious and/or being sympathetic towards religious rhetoric. Attending the funerals of my grandfathers, both of whom were obviously very much the cornerstone of our extended family, it seemed so weird that the funeral service was led by someone who knew absolutely nothing hilton hotel london about the person that the whole event was about. Pretty much none of my relatives are religious either, so basically the only reason we were having a religious ceremony was that it s still the social norm.
My mother s father s ceremony was a bit better as the priest gave a somewhat secular and down to earth speech, and he even cracked a joke at the wake, but my father s father s funeral hilton hotel london just seemed weird as the priest kept on going about how we owe everything to God and we would be nothing without God and everyone of us trusts in God. And he also said my grandfathers name wrong as he gave the final blessing (you had one job ) which actually felt more like an ice breaker than an insult at the moment, to be honest.
I just wish there were more secular options available for occasions like weddings and funerals, so maybe they d become more popular in the near future. This is definitely something hilton hotel london that the humanist community needs to work on.
The best funeral I have ever been to was a Humanist ceremony I attended while I was still a christian. It was all about the person, anecdotes from their life, their favourite songs, the impact they had on loved ones. Even as a religious person I felt that it was far more moving and relevant than all the Jesus talk I was used to hearing at funerals.
I m most familiar with Catholic hilton hotel london funerals which are ridiculously impersonal and (except for the presence of a coffin and the fact that seats are filled) all but indistinguishable from a regular Sunday Mass.
I really can relate to the caller who said that sometimes hilton hotel london he feels superior then theist. It is REALLY hard to not think theist are not morons and it has nothing to do with their beliefs to be honest. hilton hotel london The only time I ever start to think theist as a group are brain dead idiots is when I read or hear anything hilton hotel london that has to do with Kent Hovind, Ken Ham or Ray Comfort. I personally find Ray Comfort offensive because of this. I know for a fact that christians and theist hilton hotel london of all kinds arent idiots but Ray Comfort ..constantly tries to prove the opposite. I don t think he him self is stupid though. I think he is simply LAZY and as long as he can appeal to the lowest denominator he will continue to be lazy. He also offends me when he said that he is trying to convert the man on the street aka the layman. and because hilton hotel london of this he doesnt have to be honest about what evolution actually says. This I find VERY OFFENSIVE. I am a layman and I understand evolution! hilton hotel london By man on the street and Layman Ray Comfort means the most ignorant uneducated scientifically illiterate person he can find. If I was a christian I would be disgusted hilton hotel london with Ray Comfort and disgusted with Kent Hovind. I will say though that I do feel superior then those who have been MISLED by Ray Comfort .the mere fact that you were misled by the most laughable apologist .I am sorry but I can t respect you.
So my advice to atheist who have this feeling that christians/theist are idiots! is just stop watching Ray Comfort and Kent Hovind videos. I remember when Kirk Cameron the circumnavigate the intellect. Ray Comfort lacky actually used multiple emails they got saying you theist are idiots. in their live debate with TRRS. In an attempt to make an appeal to authority, just an excuse to name famous scientist who believed in god. That is like the most rich and selfish person you ve ever met complaining about emails about how selfish they are and then citing examples of famous rich people.
hilton hotel london I really can relate to the caller who said that sometimes hilton hotel london he feels "superior" then theist. It is REALLY hard to not think theist are not morons and it has nothing to do with their beliefs to be honest.
Especially now that the concept of being factually right has been deemed as some sort of elitist subjective viewpoint, in the current political climate. Since when did correcting someone for making a factual error in a statement become politically incorrect?
When you see a Conservative debating a Liberal on anything, it just seems like they are both engaging in live action role-playing, but they have chosen mismatched themes, and they re trying to make a believable play when one of them is a cyborg and the other a viking. Which ends up being something completely surreal and horrible to watch.
I think Ray Comfort is an ass. He comes across as a man desperate to make you believe his ideas are true because, let s face it, that s his bread and butter. The nicest thing I can say about him is he, like all t.v. preachers, reminds me of the wizard in Oz.
Thinking back on .the mere fact that you were misled by the most laughable apologist….I am sorry but I can't respect you. I need to explain. I mean this only about those who are actually educated and yet still fell for Ray Comfort s stupidity. If your just some kid, or you ve just never had the opportunity to even question, then I don t feel I am superior then you at all but if your an educated person who fell for it I can t have respect for you. I know that sounds bad, but it s the truth.
Duuuude, Alex, the I read the bible for 27 days and saw visions guy He recreated, intentionally or not, the kind of spiritual hilton hotel london retreat and ascetic experience that have been cultivated by spiritualists of all faiths hilton hotel london across the world for all of recorded history.
He went on and on about cutting himself off from the world and external stimuli (snicker, sexual temptations , snicker)EXCEPT for the freakin hilton hotel london bible! He marinated his brain in spiritual Christian imagery for weeks, and then, shocker of shocks! He has an explicit Christian vision *cough* dream *cough*.
It s just *astounding* to me, all these spiritual seekers who manage to recreate spiritual hilton hotel london experiences by obsessively focusing hilton hotel london on the mythological imagery of their religious traditions, experiences shared by millions of co-faithful, and they seem to think they ve done something amazing and unique. Anyone with even a passing understanding of neurobiology would recognize this for what it is: a kind of self-induced hilton hotel london h