The very first thing I do when I get up (even before I go to the bathroom) is walk my dog.
I take my dog for a walk about 5 to 8 times a day.
Why so much? Well, because he doesn't have a choice.
Like so many dogs, people don't have a choice. They are restricted to their opportunities. Oh sure, people can speak in platitudes about "you make your own opportunities" but that just isn't the case now is it?
This is the case with religion. Most people don't have a choice. They are destined to believe the way chance has placed them. Yeah sure, later when we become older many of us (not the majority) can make our own choice about beliefs but it just isn't that easy. When for 2000 some odd years everyone in your family and your society has been and obeyed a form of religion and YOU decide that that belief just isn't for you, there is a terrific strain on your own mind to yield to the obedience that has been generationally institutionalized in you.
I struggled with actually renouncing any belief in a god. Most atheists do. I struggled with admitting that I didn't believe in any god. Again, most atheists do. I struggled with the stigma of not being a part of the crowd. Most atheists do. I struggled with accepting that even law enforcement would exert prejudice against me because I am not a christian, that businesses and groups will turn me away for not being a christian. It is not fun to stand by your convictions just because they are right when they are unpopular. But thanks to education and freedom of thought I have made that choice and despite any and all struggles I have or have had I stand by my convictions.
So I walk my dog a lot because I have a choice.
Subscription Note:
Choosing to subscribe to this topic will automatically register you for email notifications for comments and updates on this thread.
Email notifications will be sent out daily by default unless specified otherwise on your account which you can edit by going to your userpage here and clicking on the subscriptions tab.
Damn, Myk. That is pretty cool. I like that.
@Mykcob
Yep I like that ( the OP). When I was writing and performing full time plus with deadlines and pressure my little dog ( jack Russell X) kept me sane. Every so often (like on the hour) she would ensure that I had to leave my computer and either take a break with her on my lap, or go for a walk ( fall, spring and autumn only, summer daytime pavements are far too hot for doggie paws here) I miss her so much now even though Captain Puss rules me with the same kindly despotism, (without the walks) dogs are just best friends aren't they? She helped me rewrite stuff just by insisting that a re read with fresh eyes after a walk in fresh green places would make me rewrite. She was invariably correct.
I have never had a belief in a god, I was taught to read critically ( By my grandpa) from an early age and listen even more critically. I can only empathise with the loss you and anyone must feel to feel the foundations of their world crumble when they realise it has all been a lie.
My time with Zen taught me a lot about "letting things go" and coping with the ultimate zero, something that god fearing folks are just not able to comprehend, let alone argue.
@Old man shouts: jack Russell
Great little dogs. We had one for 17 years. She was a doggie genius and kleptomaniac who'd steal raw potatoes and onions out of the kitchen and hide them in strange places. And in her youth she could jump 4 feet in the air from a standing position. She knew us so well.
An interesting post. And of course it should be obvious that our autonomy to make choices is at all times governed by circumstance. This of course has some very interesting consequences for human morality. It is another argument against absolute objective morality as well.
I've been lucky in the sense that atheism has no real consequences in the UK. Ironically enough the UK has a state religion as well.
As for thinking critically it's a skill you learn and improve over a lifetime. I'm always slightly in awe of people who seem to possess this as an innate skill from a very young age. Until you learn this skill though people remain intellectual clay shaped by ideas they have been indoctrinated with.
Religions have been very good at indoctrinating children, and still are. There is currently a struggle in the UK over the power faith schools wield over the children in their care. I personally think it's morally wrong to use a child's state funded education to try and indoctrinate it into religious beliefs. If parents want this then take them to church, their education should be free from dogma and religious doctrine. All children have a right to a free education, and this should not be hijacked by anyone for the purpose of proselytizing children.
Well that isn`t the way it has gone in my life and Judean-Christian walk of faith. And I know a lot of people that chose the Judean-Christian faith not because it was forced on them but because they came to the conclusion it was the best way to live. It had nothing to do with geography etc etc. Or family or any kind of pressure but a sincere choice of the heart, after examining all the evidence .The Atheist lifestyle is one of emptiness,IT IS COMPLETELY VOID of all knowledge of a GOD You only have this life like you say you have your dog. But what do you do when your dog is no longer there? These naturalistic explanations for your fulfillment in this life are a temporary fulfillment. You as a naturalist only have things, But things never make people satisfied or happy.You have an emptiness in your heart that only God could fill.
@Faith in god... a sincere choice of the heart
Right. That's how I became an Anglican. It had nothing to do with the fact that I was born in England into an Anglican family and was taken to church for christening as a baby. I made a choice of the heart to have water poured on my head at the age of 3 months, and to go to Sunday school every week until I was 9 or 10. I also made a sincere choice of the heart to sit through endless morning services and scripture classes at school.
The Atheist lifestyle is one of emptiness
What do you know about it? What do know about emptiness in people's hearts? Try filling that emptiness between your ears with some real knowledge. Then you might start to appreciate the real wonder of this world instead of pining after eternity singing moronic hymns to Sky-daddy, Sonny-boy and the Spook.
@faith in god follower:
Life is temporary "son."
There is no afterlife. Don't waste this temporary life on worshipping other peoples crazy fantasy notes.
Ah AG (faith in a myth)
You clamor about the choice that you say you made but YOU didn't make it. You have been brainwashed so thoroughly that you think that you made that choice. Nothing could be further than the truth. If you were born in India, you'd be hindi. If in an Arab nation, muslim. In a western nation, a form of christianity.
You said:"The Atheist lifestyle is one of emptiness, IT IS COMPLETELY VOID of all knowledge of a GOD ". What a crock.
1) Atheists usually were christian first.
2) Atheists know more about christianity than almost every christian including you.
3) Atheists made a choice using reason and critical thought. They didn't come by their choice easily.
4) You and almost every christian have been generationally and institutionally indoctrinated and haven't emplored critical thought. Your choice is an unconscious one and unconscious is how you live your pathetic life.
5) I don't have emptiness in my heart. That is just a condescending and insulting statement that you made and an insulting statement that all christians make. It is stupid and not true at all. You have no idea about the people that you insult, not a clue.
You call me a naturalist. I guess that is your explanation for anyone that isn't a myth believer. Well if naturalist means believing in the REAL world, then you may FINALLY be correct on that point and only that point.
You came close to insulting my dog (that would be a grave mistake) I'm sure you wanted to because that is what you do. You're a troll and a complete and utter imbecile.
No judean-christian ever became one because they made that choice. All of them were born into it brainwashed and indoctrinated. Every believer becomes the type of believer by geography. Those never exposed to christian dogma never become christian. It is the same with every myth and religion. It's not like one is born, studies the different faiths and chooses one. That NEVER happens. Oh sure, some jump from one myth to another but basically people are born and brainwashed to believe that they need to believe in a god, live a dogmatic life complete with reinforced dogma and never break the habit. They are taught to never question, never think independently. They are told that never questioning their faith is independent thought. How ironic to think that obedience to brainwashing is independent thought. Kind of like "You'll do what I say and like it", and "Do as I say, not as I do."
AG, you have been proven to be a fool so many times on this forum alone that I have stopped counting. This is just one more time.
You have a choice and you have never exercised it. I don't expect you to. I expect you to continue to be one of the worst people I have ever dealt with, stupid, ignorant and uneducated, smug, condescending and insulting.
@Myk. Re: "You clamor about the choice that you say you......" (Response to FIG)
*clap-clap-clap-clap-clap...* BRAVO! BRAVO! (Standing-fucking-ovation) *clap-clap-clap-clap...* BRAVO!.....
"It had nothing to do with geography "
Rubbish, Hitchens's razor, besides you're from the states aren't you, if so that is a particularly stupid thing to claim.
"The Atheist lifestyle is one of emptiness"
Never more so than when reading your bilge, you're not an atheist Billy so this another moronic claim.
"IT IS COMPLETELY VOID of all knowledge of a GOD"
Also unicorns, mermaids and leprechauns, go figure.
"These naturalistic explanations for your fulfillment in this life are a temporary fulfillment. "
Fulfilment ffs, and so what, you'll be just as dead as everyone else in a few decades, and your superstitious flimflam won't change that.
"You have an emptiness in your heart that only God could fill."
You have an emptiness in your head that only knowledge can fill, the difference here is that knowledge is real.
Many theists seem to have the notion that someone can "force" themselves to believe in something.