By my Atheist I am referring to my dad. My dad I think had a problem dealing with my grandfather being a preacher and running a still. Dad was Aquarius, too like me. Oh, the contradictions that so easialy beset us. I was following in my dad's footsteps of becoming an alcoholic and my mother's former drug addiction. It is not easy having a Atheist father and Theist mother. I grew up so confused that by the time I hit treatment I was ready for a rubber room. Fortuantely for me I got help.

Great thread, Red. James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

This eventually became the changeover of becoming spiritual rather than being religious for me. The transformation started for me November 11, 1983. The first three words, "Confess your faults" I had to relearn. I had been confessing someone else's faults and begin learning how to confess my own faults. The next three words, "and pray one for another" became different because I was so selfish that I only prayed for myself before. I wasn't what you call selfless because my prayers were conditional. It was like a bargaining thing of, "I will do this for you if you will do this for me." My God was more of a Godfather rather than a God. The final part of the sentence, "that ye may be healed" was difficult for me because in my spiritual programming I had to realize I had a spiritual banctrupcy. My Atheist taught me some great principles but was as religious with them as my mother's theist religion. I had to find some spiritual principles which I do find in my spiritual meetings. I had to relearn, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" because my righteousness was selfrighteousness. Basically the logic was I was right therefore how could you be right. So when I got to rehab I just through up my hands and admitted that my way wasn't working whether it was right or wrong was beside the point. I just had to start over from scratch. Eventually I had to learn not to throw the baby out with the bath water though because some of what I had learned was functional.

H. P. Lovecraft and Albert Camus now there is a combination. Yeah, I read a little of Lovecraft's science fiction. I was really ready for rehab after reading their stuff. In Lovecraft's fictional works, humans are often subject to powerful beings and other cosmic forces, but these forces are not so much malevolent as they are indifferent toward humanity. This indifference is an important theme in cosmicism. The noted Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi points out that "Lovecraft constantly engaged in (more or less) genial debates on religion with several colleagues, notably the pious writer and teacher Maurice W. Moe. Lovecraft made no bones about being a complete atheist, and he considered religion not merely false but dangerous to social and political progress." As such, Lovecraft's cosmicism is not religious at all, but rather a version of his mechanistic materialism." Lovecraft thus embraced a philosophy of cosmic indifferentism. He believed in a purposeless, mechanical, and uncaring universe that human beings, with their limited faculties, could never fully understand. His viewpoint made no allowance for religious belief, which could not be supported scientifically. The incomprehensible, cosmic forces of his tales have as little regard for humanity as humans have for insects.

The Myth of Sisyphus is a philosophical essay by Albert Camus. It comprises about 120 pages and was published originally in 1942 in French as Le Mythe de Sisyphe; the English translation by Justin O'Brien followed in 1955.

In the essay, Camus introduces his philosophy of the absurd: man's futile search for meaning, unity and clarity in the face of an unintelligible world devoid of God and eternity. Does the realization of the absurd require suicide? Camus answers: "No. It requires revolt." He then outlines several approaches to the absurd life. The final chapter compares the absurdity of man's life with the situation of Sisyphus, a figure of Greek mythology who was condemned to repeat forever the same meaningless task of pushing a rock up a mountain, only to see it roll down again. The essay concludes, "The struggle itself is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

Absurdism is a philosophy stating that the efforts of humanity to find meaning in the universe will ultimately fail (and, hence, are absurd) because no such meaning exists, at least in relation to humanity. The word Absurd in this context does not mean "logically impossible", but rather "humanly impossible".

Absurdism is related to existentialism and nihilism, though should not be confused with either. Absurdism as a concept has its roots in the 19th century Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard.


I am not knocking it. I am just saying that one would want to have a clear head before reading some of it because it does get pretty deep.

Angel On My Shoulder

You don't seem to understand, Eddie.
Are you really sure that you are ready?
Hell can be complicated and intricate.
Nah, I think it is just like any syndicate.
Are you different than another gangster?
Vengeance you seek puts you in danger.
You really don't see the bigger picture.
I see no need to try to give you a lecture.
You think that you have it all figured out.
Eddie, he is just trying to make you doubt.
Aren't you tired of jumping in his loops?
Wouldn't you want to hear the full scoop?
Just trust the angel on your shoulder, dear.
One will take you out of bondage and fear.

Christianity glorifies sadomasochism just as well any other religion. What troubles you with it?

You probably have heard the old cliche of, "It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks." I have an 18 year man who has taught me some. Sometimes we have like a mutual admiration society sometimes where I work. If somebody finds an easier way to do something we try to share. I try to be openminded but then I saw this sign on a church that made me think twice. It read, "Don't be so openminded that your brains fall out." It made me chuckle any ways.

Miguel, I hope you take expected advantage of your time off and put it to good use. If something good happens I hope you update us on it.

Bang The Walls

I bang the walls with religious fervor.
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.
Can't get online; Maybe its my server?
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.
Now I take it out on my poor computer.
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.
Will tell insurance folks it was a intruder.
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.

Thanks for sharing that with us and hope you can get on once in a while at the library.

Hey, that is great news, Allen. Glad to hear it. Way to go.

Bureaucracy itself I think is a form of organized religion. It has its own forms of contradictions sometimes in triplicate. It wouldn't limit my faith at all because I believe in something greater.

Because I am dually addicted I know I must practice these principles in all of my affairs because I can addict to anything. I have to remember that this too shall pass; That if I use alcohol or drugs in any form that I begin the same insanity all over again; That sometimes I am but a symptom of the disease; That drugs can be anything that I feel powerless over and once I realize that powerless then I am being honest with myself knowing that once again I don't have to do it by myself because there are fellow addicts and alcoholics who have been through something similiar which helps me to find the power of powerlessness because all I have to do is to admit the problem is greater than me but not greater than the group. Then I don't feel unique or like I have to do it all by my self and not long afterwards I am one with the group. I can then feel the power of the group.

Things I have learned while being a batchelor.
There is a lint trap on a dryer.
You can over stuff a heavy duty washer.
Some foods were meant to be cooked on low heat.
There are temperature controls in a refrigerator.
A vacuum bag will eventually fill up.

We are building a type of trust. It is a temporary condition built on the premise that if she doesn't stab me in the back then I won't stab her in the back. It is flaky at best but it has let me to let my guard down sometimes like a turtle to see if the coast is clear. Nightly I test the waters to see if the truce is still in effect. I try not to be intimidating but sometimes I still scare the **** out of her when I start talking and she isn't aware that I am there. She told me to make some noise once in a while so I did then she complained that I was too loud while talking down the hall. Her logic fascinates me. I just love contradictions. I have noticed when she is preoccupied she doesn't like to be disturbed but I think sometimes she is already disturbed. The class I took on awareness training has helped me a lot. It is interesting when I walk into some rooms and the residents wake up terrorfied. I do my best to calm them down. Sometimes I am so quiet I feel like the ghost who walks like the Phantom.

Expect a miracle; Make miracles happen.

Hey, you could put your picture on a milk carton and see if anyone could find you.

It is hard to soar with eagles when you work with turkeys. They used to drop turkeys out the air from a plane. Some complained that was cruelty to animals. So then they decided to drop frozen turkeys from planes. Some complained that was cruelty to people. I have been discussing the turkey drop problem with other coworkers. I think that if they just let the turkeys trot then it would be okay since it is Turkey Drop festival.

Would you like a plate or a trough?

Have you noticed that the sizes of plates have gotten smaller at some all you can't buffets?

LOL, Robin. I went to a Ryan's restaurant. The buffet sign read, "All you can eat." My friend was kicked out for eating too much. I guess he must have read the sign wrong. I guess if I would have complained they would of told me it was for all I could eat and not for all he could eat.