[ExI] apple mothership

[Amon Zero]

2011/9/14 spike <spike66 at att.net>

> **
>
> I am against this problem a lot.  I am in a motorcycle internet group.
> Sunday one of our best guys had a pickup truck turn left in front of him,
> hit the grill at about 60 mph.  So far he’s lost a leg, a kidney, a spleen,
> broken both arms, plenty of other internal injuries including bleeding
> inside his brain, but he is still breathing.  His daughter set up a website,
> in which scores of people have posted well-wishes.  Of course most of them
> say they are praying for him.  This I flatly refuse to do.  I am fairly good
> with language, and I am very fluent in the language and thought patterns of
> the believers, but there just isn’t a very good way to write around the
> central issue of prayer.  In those circumstances, any atheist-generated note
> of encouragement is conspicuous.  ****
>
> ** **
>
> Someone somewhere must have solved this problem, for it must be common.
>


I'm very sorry to hear about your friend, Spike.

Although I agree with Dave that there should be no shame in being an
atheist, of course we're all aware of the social awkwardness it can cause (I
would imagine this to be particularly true in the US?). Actually, I imagine
that people would be less concerned if they knew you to worship some exotic
deity but still offered prayers, than if you're an atheist and can only
offer heartfelt condolences.

A few years back my wife & I were looking around for a good school for our
daughter. One of the best (academically speaking) in our area was a
religious school, which gave me deep cause for concern. I needn't have
worried, since it turned out they'd give preference to families of any
religion - no matter how disparate - over atheists. A transhumanists
religion-equivalent-meme might have come in very handy, then!   ;-)

- A
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