Quest for Immortality

Immortality: Unending existence

On Being Immortal

I think the thought of this possibility, is one of reasons that keeps religion(s) alive. Everyone wants to live forever! That sounds awesome! Whether it is in heaven, or with 72 virgins, or reincarnation; people want to live on forever…

There are even people like this whack job who claim to have a product that will help you not only live forever, but also stay young. I guess if you start it when you’re old, you’re screwed *shrug*

So religion promises people that they can live forever.

Rom. 2:7 – “those who seek for glory, honor and immortality, (will get) eternal life”

I Tim. 1:17 – “believe in Him (Jesus) for eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God…”

II Tim. 1:10 – “our Savior, Christ Jesus, abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel”

Of course this is attractive to most. Who doesn’t want to live forever?

But of course, it’s all lies! They entice people by lying to them. Once they have them hooked, then they throw in all the sinning stuff and damnation. But some are willing to live that life and believe those lies, without question and so blindly.

It’s sad that so many people have given up thinking for this fake immortality. They have surrendered their minds over to a church, a belief system, without as much as a mere blink.

I too grew up in the church, so right when my little mind was so vulnerable and simple, I was fed these lies. I knew nothing of immortality. But as I grew older it was important, it was scary to think of death, so knowing you would live forever was a comfort. What false sense of hope.

As I became an atheist in my teens, I remember thinking of death and not being afraid anymore. I loved the thought of just dying… lights out, you’re done.  Death is tough for those left behind, anyone who has ever lost someone close to them can tell you how sad THEY feel, and the dead… feel nothing.

So to all my atheist friends out there, don’t stress about death. It’s a light switch and then you’re done. I only wish to not die in pain, I think this is a logical request. I am hoping for lots of drugs, if I happen to die of something painful. LOTS of drugs! Enough to perhaps speed up the process of my death.

So people ask me, what’s the purpose of life, if all there is after death is nothing. That’s easy,  LIFE itself. I seem to enjoy my life so much more because I know this is it! Look at all the wonderful things to see, read, learn. I want to learn all I can (even tho I suck at retaining things). I wanna be choosy about people I call friends, cuz I have no time for assholes in my life. I wanna see my kids succeed, because that gives me the most joy.

Be happy with the small things in life and stop and look and notice. Take in as much as you can and share those things with the awesome people in your life, cuz that’s what life is about. Leave a little of you behind. With me its journals and little hand made things, usually done with my kids in mind. I write my kids letters in my journals, I write my thoughts and hopes and dreams. I explain my atheist views, because I want people to remember me as an atheist. An atheist who was kind to others, funny, loving and caring.

Make this life count.

Thank you for listening!

\/ peace&love  <3

My Ex-Husband

My ex-husband died today. 4pm, pacific time.  Heart failure they said. He had had a quadruple bypass nearly ten years ago and it seems that one of the stints was rejecting his heart.

He was at the library, where he spent a lot of his time and one of the girls noticed he was having chest pains and called for an ambulance. He died before he reached the hospital. My 23 year old daughter got the call, and my youngest son just happened to be visiting from California this week. It was very hard to tell him his daddy had died. He was 52.

He was a good man and a good father. A lover of music and life!

He will be dearly missed by his family and his friends.

We love you Billy! We will miss you  very much!

Good Egg Days in Stuart, Iowa!

It’s celebration time in small town Iowa. Father’s weekend every year, Stuart celebrates Good Egg Days. This week there are also school reunions. Last year I went to my husband’s 25th high school reunion. Interesting.

At this celebration there are games, rides, parades, tournaments and food. The biggest part of the celebration comes on Saturday night at 9pm when the street dance starts. One street block, where both bars happen to be, are blocked off with a tall fence and a large stage is erected. They start with karaoke for a few hours and then the local band hits the stage! The band is called Stone Thro and they perform for hours. They are not too bad, but their web site is down.  (The lead singer’s daughter is a waitress at my restaurant). People drink and dance and fight and have a bunch of fun. It’s all supposed to be over at midnight, but they always go over by a couple of hours. I am a block away, so I can hear the music very well from my house.

I went last year because of the reunion. But this year I am working.  That’s ok with me. I still feel funny about the small town feel and it seems weird to run into your drunk employees, especially the minor ones :]

Another awesome thing to do on this festive night if you prefer something more mellow and intimate, which I do, is to visit our local vineyard, Dale Valley Vineyard. It’s a beautiful setting out in the country right next to the vineyards and they have small bands that play and entertain while people sit around and talk with a nice bottle of wine and some cheese and crackers.  On July 18th, they host Winestock, which is a full day of wine and music and friends. THAT I definately plan to go to, it’s the only time of year I drink! White Schoolhouse is my favorite!

I’m curious about other people’s annual summer festivities in their small towns.

peace&love ♥ Thanks for listening!

My First Atheist Bashing

Well, it finally happened. I thought it would probably and eventually happen, especially here. Small town, religious zealots, all around “god is in my heart”, kinda people. So, it happened.

I work at a local restaurant where we, (husband and I), made the decision to not let an employee return after bouts of insubordination and not showing up for work. Sounds cut and dry. You don’t perform the job I pay you for, you don’t work here anymore.
Nope. Not in this case.

Few days later I get ex-employee, mom and grandma all in my restaurant wanting apologies and explanations and demanding that they get them right now!
So, the husband and I, trying to do the right thing, try talking to them and explain to them why their precious little 22 year old daughter does not work for us anymore…

Then started the insults a’flyin’.

I was called a “black hearted evil bitch”. These god fearing, god loving, love your neighbor kinda people were sitting in my place of business shouting insults at us. Telling us we were going to hell. Telling us we were liars and that we had no morals because we didn’t believe in god, yadda yadda… I’m sure other atheists who have gone through this know the insults we hear. Just like we know all the ways that religious people TRY to rationalize with us why they believe and why they are right and we are wrong.

Nice christian family my ass!

I would have NEVER done this! I too have a 23 year old daughter, as well as two grown sons. I taught my kids that there were consequences for their actions. I would have never gone into a public place like that and have caused a scene and use profanity, (not that I don’t, I do, all the time, just know when to control myself). What lesson is this that you teach your child. Shame on them! Hypochristians!

Perhaps it was my fault for being so open about my atheism. But so be it! I am not staying quiet about how I feel, and I will continue to mock religion and their silly believes. Why should I hide my thoughts when they are constantly bombarding me with literature and bible knowledge and just plain down nonsense!

I am just really sick of this way of thinking. It’s so archaic and backwards and just plain cruel.
What a wonderful thing to be in control of ones own thoughts and have control of our lives.
It’s liberating and, dare I say, almost spiritual

Peace&love. Thanks for listening.

To be or not to be…. a militant atheist

I don’t like the term “militant atheist”. To me it’s equivalent to “fanatical Christians”.
Now I don’t like a lot of Christians, but of course there are some that are nice and live a quiet and decent life, they believe in nonsense, but that just makes them nice plus ignorant.

A militant atheist to me conjures images of some person going around burning churches.
I don’t think that is an image I want to portray as an atheist.

I think most atheists are peaceful and loving and enjoy life to it’s fullest.

I started to think about militant atheists because of a local church here in my pathetic little town. It so happens to be the catholic church where my husband grew up and his parents and 2 of his siblings still attend. They had to rebuild another church because some atheist loony burned it down in 1995.

See, now that to me has “militant atheist” written all over it. That just makes the rest of us peaceful atheists seem like hateful, church burning crazies. I hate that!

I have on many occasion refered to myself as a “hard core atheist”, implying that I am SURE! There are no questions in my mind about the existence of god(s) or devils, angels, ghosts, etc… You get the picture. I would never use the term militant atheist to describe myself.

I think as atheists we should behave accordingly. We are intelligent, rational, logical people who can reason with words, not violence. Debate is usually a welcome forum for both sides, since both sides want to be heard. Violence just gives them ammo to say “See, they are hateful violent, no morals people!” And really, aren’t we trying to get away from that?

Peace&Love ~
Thank you for listening!

Christians Are Waiting & Hoping for Armageddon

I think most atheists can agree, and if you

haven’t thought about it, then here’s your chance.

Christians are waiting for the end of days. They will stop at nothing to make that bible prophesy, that has been grilled into their heads since they were little, come true.  Their god awaits them (fools).

It’s already started. It’s becoming stronger. One of the reasons. I think, is because of atheists are finally coming out. It’s just something you didn’t really dare do a few years ago. And especially depending on what area of the world you lived. There is becoming ostracized by your family. This is still true today. People afraid to come out to family and friends in fear of becoming outcasts or disowned.

But I am so happy that I have been able to come out as an atheists, and besides the occasional incomprehensible backlash I might receive now and then, It’s not so hard. I thought that living in Iowa would just be torturous as far as being an atheist. Luckily enough, I have actually ran into quite a few people in my small town on 1700 who too are also atheists. I do admit that most of are young atheists, either teenagers or 20’s. But I do have am an older cook that works for me and she 56 and atheist. So I think we might REALLY be starting to grow in numbers! HUZZAH!

However, that whole Armageddon thing has always bothered me. These assholes are going out of their way to try and make it so. Unfortunately there are “celebrities” who have these views, and people are such sheep that if someone famous says it, well it must be so!

I hope America can turn around and make religion just a pase’ thing. A subject that is guffawed at in intellectual circles. The emphasis put on religion in America, a progressive country, is most of the times embarrassing. I know some of our progressive European friends are not laughing at us anymore but cheering for the people who are coming out and making a difference.

Thanks to our Awesome atheist groups both well known and not (too many to mention). Thanks to those on twitter who spread words of logic and reason and who make me proud once again to be an Cuban/American.

Let’s keep up the progress. Let’s let the people who are spreading myth and lies that we are not willing to taking it anymore. We demand reason and logic and evolution in schools without debating on creationism, what a waste of time and energy!

Shout on non-believers! Our numbers are growing! I would love to see us become the secular country we were intended to be by our secular founding fathers!

Peace&love. Thank you for listening.

Peace for Iran~ Hope their voices are heard!

Little Town

This is the town I moved to from California in September 2007. I’m still not crazy about it. I have discovered quite a few crazies amongst me. I’m not saying I am super normal, I’m just saying there’s a lot of stories here. New and old.I would like to share some of the things that I hear and see and maybe someone might be interested in reading this silliness.

I was born in Cuba and left there when I was 2 and had been in California all my life until 2007. Then I came here. My partner and I decided it would be nice to get away from the crowded city and come live in a small town. Turns out it wasn’t the greatest idea we have ever had.

My partner grew up in a nearby town which is even smaller.  Their population is 375, which is 75 more than it was when he was a kid. There was no way I was gonna live there… WAY too small,  so I thought…”1700 is a bigger number”, turns out it isn’t big enough. So we plan on eventually moving to Des Moines, which is minuscule in comparison to L.A., but much bigger than this place.

Our dream is to open restaurant in West Des Moines. This is a growing area at the time and would be a perfect place to start. We would also be the ONLY Cuban restaurant in Iowa. They don’t know what they’re missing! I’ve already got a menu and a name, now I just need to find the right place for the right price. Keeping fingers crossed cuz that works about as much as praying. But that’s another post.

For now, I work at the local restaurant where I manage the nights and my partner, Kreg, manages the days. Not the ideal situation, for we would like to be able to run our own place together. For now, this is what we do.

~teeh