Clay Putnam, CGCS said: The Atheist Chaplin is characterized as a professional Atheist. What makes a person a professional Atheist? Is this person the loudest most red-faced complainer of all things religion? I know most priests, pastors, and the like are required have a degree and/or masters degree. Is there an Atheist Bible of sorts? What does an Atheist study to become a professional? Do Atheists pray to anything like a periodic table? I'm serious with these questions. I have no idea and I'm curious. My experience with religious and atheist-types is that most stay on the sidelines and do their own thing without interrupting my day. But every now and then there are the fanatics that like to shout from the mountain tops. I can understand why atheists become fed-up with the religious nuts always quoting scripture and throwing fake $20 bills on the ground. But after a while the preaching and whining becomes annoying.
Just curious...
Clay,
It does seem a little silly, doesn't it? But absolutely nothing wrong with asking the question. I've always disliked those that shout from the mountain top, "My way or the highway!", religious types. I'm open......to simply listen.
I guess that came from my upbringing as a Christian Scientist. It wasn't forced down my throat, our mom simply fired up the VW bus every Sunday and we were "expected" to pile in. There were actually a few times when I wanted to join my friends at Big Surf in Tempe, AZ, and I told my Mom that. "Okay.", was all she said. That's what I mean by not being forced. Or the times I would load up my dirt bike on my trailer towed behind the VW and go riding with my Sunday School teacher after church.
Okay, that's not an atheist organization, so my apologies for slightly changing the subject, but it IS an interesting "something" to read about. If you want to learn about a different take on religion. I "dropped out" when I was around 12, if you can call it that, as they never consider someone stopping attending their services as a "drop out". In their eyes, I'm not a heathen. No judging of yours truly.
It's actually pretty cool. I think of Christian Science as the Western version of Buddhism. Accepting of every other view, and judging no one. Now that's cool. It used to drive my siblings and I crazy with the constant smiles plastered on their faces. "STOP being so happy!", we'd laugh. It takes some getting used to.......but we never had to line up for shots with all the rest of the kids in school. Yeah.....the government recognized the CS beliefs. Not sure I ever did. I will say that we were never sick. Maybe it was natural antibodies built up in our systems. Who knows?
But again, one very cool "denomination". I'm glad I was introduced to it. It taught me tolerance. If that is all it taught me, that was enough, in my mind. Can't remember which denomination it was an off-shoot of, but you can Google it. Hey, their newspaper is well respected!
My Dad hated it, but he was intolerant of a lot. His loss. If there is one person in this group that can understand the openness of CS, it's probably Ron Conard, because like me, he's enjoyed experiencing many different beliefs. No idea why CS popped into my mind.....it just did. Hey, if nothing else you can get a good laugh at their outlook, if you find it "amusing", or maybe think to yourself, "Okay.....that's pretty cool." Wow....how many times have I typed "cool"?
You know, my Mom died at 89, and she never so much as took an aspirin in her life, but she did drink coffee so strong that it would clean the stains off a concrete driveway. I always had to water it down, and she just laughed. Maybe she was in pain a lot....I'll never know. But she was always smiling. I'll never forget that. For those of you that are saying, "This has NOTHING to do with atheism!", you're probably right, and I apologize. But if you have the time, spend just a few minutes reading up on it. Interesting, to say the least.
Absolute tolerance, of everyone. That's what I took away from it. And that's good, right?
Sorry about the length......
Cheers,
Jeff