faulker012

One of my favorite movies of all time is the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. I'm sure I have watched it at least a hundred times because I tend to put it on on the weekends when I am doing laundry. In fact, any scent of laundry detergent makes me think of P&P. My sister first introduced me to the movie about twenty years ago. Since then I have watched every other version of the movie and I've read nearly every book associated with it. With the exception of anything to do with zombies. The BBC version is my very favorite above all others. This blog post is entirely designed to list my top favorite quotes from this movie, not necessarily from the book: Shelves in the closet; happy thought indeed. Mr. Darcy is all politeness. Not at all; they were brightened by the exercise. You have an affectionate mother who will always make the most of it. You have no compassion for my poor nerves. They have been my companion for these twenty years. N...

All testimonial excerpts from new.exchristian.net/ This post is an updated encore of a post from several years ago. Ok, first of all I just want to preface this by saying that these are my personal observations. I am not making any claim towards what the "right" way to deconvert is nor am I laying exclusive claim to the means of deconversion. Not everyone goes through every phase and not every phase is significant to all deconverts. I am just writing what I observe, if you think I'm full of shit, feel free to say so. I've used some quotes from deconversion stories posted on some Facebook boards. Phases of Deconversion: Phase 0 - The pre-deconversion This step really isn't a step at all. This is the generalized time before deconversion. In this phase I was 101% committed to my belief, I called myself a christian, I thought of myself as a christian, I knew all the ways to answer all the questions about my faith. The idea of not being a christian is inconceivable. T...

Would you believe I've never read any of Christopher Hitchens's books? Nor have I read any Michael Shermer. Or Richard Dawking. I really just don't have to. I'm already out of the mind trap of religion. But the other day a friend mentioned Hitchens's book Letters to a Young Contrarian and I thought it sounded good, so I got it onto my ereader that very night. And I was right, it was good! In fact, it was excellent. I had no idea what an intellect Hitchens was.  Up until this week my only exposure to Christopher Hitchens was an interview or two that I listened to any small part of, interviews where I found his personality quite a turn off on the interviews and I simply didn't have any interest in listening to him talk. Until this week. I now plan on reading more. He is so intelligent, cogent, and clear.   Which of his books do you recommend and why? Addendum, Aug 27, 2017: God is Not Good it is!

I'll bet you sometimes wonder if this is all I ever think about. It's not; I promise. But this thing happened again and it came from a surprising source: my own mom. Did something happen to you?! LOL Who would know better than my own mom the things that have happened to me in my life.   GOOD FRICKING GRIEF... It all comes down to how believers simply can't accept the fact that reason beats faith...and that that is enough for me. Believers are actually told by their religious leaders that SOMETHING bad must have happened to me to make me reject such an ever-loving god... SOMETHING catastrophic must have happened to me to make me turn my back on the lord. SOMETHING must have made me reject myself  if I am rejecting god. SOMETHING must have happened to make me love sin more than I love the lord! SOMETHING happened to make me reject the light for the darkness. SOMETHING I am doing or something I have done is making me choose myself over god. NOPE.   🙂 Regardless of how many ...

So many of my friends are sending kids away to school this week. Many of the kids that Elizabeth and John have grown up with are heading out on their own journeys. Some on road trips, some to jobs, some to colleges... Many transitions all over the place going on...and I'm feeling it too. Elizabeth has been in college for about three years, off and on, and John is starting full-time college in about a week. Yes, he has been taking a class or two here and there at the community college, but we've been homeschooling too. This week starts my first official week as a non-homeschooling parent. Enter my own issue: empty nest. I'm feeling it. I feel on the verge of tears often, though I haven't mentioned it to anyone (except for the dental assistant yesterday...lol) . My last baby is growing up.  He is...growing up... The boy who wore costumes, who played superheroes, who pretended well and fully, who played and played, who left toys everywhere, who made friendship look easy, w...

I think of my dad as a very smart man. I thought he could do anything. He read and continued to learn for most of his life. When I was a kid he was the person I went to with almost all of my questions. As a kid I enjoyed reading Dad's Popular Science magazines, all of his magazines, really, and all of his books.  So when I wanted to understand a thing, Dad was my go to guy. He nearly always knew the answers or he knew where to go for answers. And that included questions about God and religion. Dad was raised a Catholic and considered himself a Catholic all of his life. And I find that curious, you know? When I would ask Dad about religious quandaries he would have answers. From my questions as a small child to my questions as I got older, Dad  had answers. ANSWERS to questions like, How could God ask Abraham to kill his beloved son. What about the people who lived before the Savior was born? What is Limbo? What is the difference between a religion and a cult? Why can't women...

My Newest Meme:  😉

It seems like such an innocuous request, they will say. How petty are you? Why can't Grandma just take your baby to church and and let her friends see her grandchild? It's nothing! But it's not nothing. And it's not simple. It's the mind of your child we're talking about here... and you know how great the church is at indoctrination and brainwashing. That is the fact that makes a church the most frightening place on the planet for our children's minds. The insidiousness aimed at the sweet, sweet hearts of our children. Nothing I or anyone can write can address every possible scenario so I'll have to speak in generalities. But I stand by these words regardless of age, race, religion, etc...any characteristic. Does Grandma have any rights here? Of course not, though we love our family members and we want to preserve our relationships as much as possible. The problem is that when religion is added to the mix religion causes our family members to lose persp...

Are you wondering how my talk went at Gateway to Reason , the atheist convention we held here in St. Louis about two weeks ago? It went GREAT.  😌 The convention itself was super-exhausting because, as a part of the organization team I had a number of roles that kept me busy.  Good busy. For several weeks.  And I'm glad it's over. But it was GREAT.  😊 It started out with me giving a talk about being a first-generation atheist parent. I was happy with my talk and several people kindly stopped me later to tell me that they enjoyed it. Then I had two other parents and my two kids for a panel discussion. We did some general discussions with the people on the panel then we opened it up to questions from the audience. We were inundated with questions! And very well-received. Overall I was on stage for an hour and a half and someone told me that they'd wished we'd have had more time! It was fun up there. The audience was very involved and it was fun to manage the panel an...