More lunacy

I can understand how people don't want to believe that when you die, that's the end. Everyone would like to be with everyone that is important to them and they care about forever. I see no evidence of this happening and choose to believe that we only have one life and you had best make the most of it while you're here on earth. Once a person is gone, they are gone and you are left with the memories. Once you are gone, those that you leave behind are left with nothing but memories. No amount of gnashing of teeth and hoping for this and that will change that. You live, you die. That's all there is. There is no deeper meaning it in. I don't have the heart of a philosopher and I don't care to. I am at peace with this. I do not fear death, because it's inevitable. No matter how one desperately tries, they will not live forever. They will not go on to some eternal reward for the bonds of forced slavery to an all seeing and all knowing Sky Daddy that lashes you with a whip from the great beyond. That's never been an option in my mind. I'd like to thank my parents for not forcing such thoughts on me and letting us form our own opinions, whether they are correct or not.

That is not to say that I am not upset when someone that is important to me dies. Of course I'm upset. It is not pleasant to lose someone and know that you won't ever see them again. All you can do is remember them and relish the time you had together. I don't want to tarnish the memories I have of people by ruining them with fantasies and guilt trips for not following some mystical path to enlightenment or salvation. The born again thing always pissed me off. Why the fuck would I want to be born again? I was born okay the first time. I was alive and while my life hasn't been all sunshine and flowers, there's very little I would change, and I would never change my non-belief in fairy tales. 

Why am I bringing up death? Did someone die? No. No one has recently died that was close to me. Just the usual parades of idiocy on Facebook. And Monday was what we hope was RelUnrelated's last chemotherapy treatment. We'll know more after his scan next Monday and the results come back from the scan. It's pretty cool learning about the scan though. He's got to stay away from people after it because he'll be emitting gamma rays. Heh. Don't want to spread that around. 

What idiocy did they spawn this time? Well, for starters there was this. And I'm not going to say that they had no right to share the information. They overreacted and made it into something it wasn't. It turns out everything was routine and not some massive life threatening episode. Someone with a chronic, non-life threatening illness. Please people, calm the fuck down. 

 

The person who posted this tends to be quick on the draw for praying for everything. Honestly, if there was some Sky Daddy, do you really think he would have time to sit around and follow every petty whim that spilled from people's lips? About sports? About the weather? Come on now. Be realistic. Don't believe me? This isn't the only thing they've put up that's pretty silly.

 

Yeah. No explanation what the prayers were needed for or what. Just "Needing prayers". Yeah. And this happens alot. These two were on the same day. Also, completely unrelated. They mainly post 2 things. Prayers and country music videos. I'm not going to say that those two things go hand in hand but... I can't stand either. And one more, from last night. 

If you want to support someone going through a tough time, ask them if there is anything you can do for them. Any kind of help like errands, assistance around the house or just a shoulder to lean on for a few moments of peace. Supporting a person is not mumbling to a sky fairy. Never was and never will be. Sorry. The powerful thing about prayer is that so many people waste so much time on such a worthless thing. There are better ways to spend your time. Then again, maybe I could make a dramatic post about RelUnrelated going for his scan. Throw in something about the nice purple pants he had on and then end the day with pictures of the Incredible Hulk and say that he was changed by the radiation of the scan and went on a rampage smashing everything in sight. Nah, I'm just not into perpetuating stupidity like that. Although my story would be much cooler.

A curiousity

I find it curious that people try to attribute things to deities. I am baffled that in some far removed world from our own, where these supernatural beings dwell, they decide, seemingly at random to shit on some people and rain down good things on another, in a completely arbitrary fashion. Even if said person getting dumped on is the most fervent and devoted follower ever, doing everything that the deity demands. I don't understand that. Perhaps this belief absolves people from taking responsibility for bad choices, having bad genetic make up, or just random chance. I don't know. I've never saw the value in such things.

I just witnessed some of this reasoning. There is a resident here with a history of mental illness. She has schizophrenia. She is bi-polar. She also has a history of seizures. Serious grand mal seizures. She has a cycle that she always repeats. She'll be on her meds and be completely fine. She decides that she doesn't need her medicine to be fine. She quits taking the medicine and becomes ill again. She does this at least 2 times a year. She usually hurts herself, though not intentionally, and ends up hospitalized. She gets back on her meds and eventually gets better. She's on her cycle right now where she's gotten out of the hospital after having a serious fall in the early morning about a week ago. She hadn't been taking her medicine for over a month. She had a seizure. She hit her head badly and they kept her. She doesn't remember falling. She never does when she has a seizure. And it's sad and frustrating. There's nothing you can do for these people to change their mind. They will repeat this cycle over and over unless it's broken in some way, usually by the medical profession.

I am not in the medical profession. I don't claim to be. I know this person's habits after dealing with them for so many years. She becomes paranoid, hateful and mean. She's not violent. She's never hit anyone and when she's off her meds, she's not hurting anyone but herself. But she is convinced that her family is against her and wishes her harm. This was a fact she made clear today by voicing those exact words to her guest. Who was her guest? The pastor from her church. He doesn't help when he tells her that all of her problems are a part of 'god's plan'. Actually most of her problems stem from her mental illness and have nothing to do with sky fairies. She has schizophrenia. She has had it for most of her life. It makes her paranoid. She becomes fearful that everyone is 'out to get her' and for her, it is real. Nothing will change that in her mind because it is true. Right now, she's afraid that her family is against her. Did the pastor try to reassure her? No. It was all a part of 'god's plan'. The (his exact words) 'emotional issues' that she has are a part of this plan. She needed to pray.

This makes me angry. This makes me very, very angry. You cannot pray away anything. You cannot make an illness go away by praying at it. This is nonsense. There is enough stigma attached to mental illness that saying things like that, that she will believe because the pastor told her does not help bring her back to reality. It never has and it never will. It disgusts me that people are taken advantage of in this fashion. If that pastor actually believes such a thing, I don't know who is sicker.

Twits

So it's Monday again. Not been a terribly bad day, nothing outstanding or exciting, which is fine by me. I have 2 more hours to go in my 12 hour shift and everything has been fine. I've noticed that I've been picking up some fundies on the old Twitter, which is fine. I don't mind the fundies as long as they don't shove it in my face. I don't understand why they feel the need to follow someone who describes their self as an atheist in hopes of being able to change their mind about what they believe in. Most people that are atheists have taken quite a long time to decide that all the mythologies in the world are bullshit and there are far better explanations for life. They probably wouldn't mind if atheists followed them and sought to convince them, they'd see it as working to change the minds of non-believers.

I won't follow them back. I don't care to. I see no point in it. If they want to interact with me however that's fine, but when you start pressing the bullshit on me, don't expect me to be nice. I'm not. I can be ugly and hateful and infuriating. Like with all things, there is no such thing as a fair fight and if you're going to try and corner me into believing you brainwashed Middle Eastern goatherder fantasies you're in for a rude awakening. I'm cruel and hateful and can push buttons that people don't want pushed. If you're civil that's fine, but don't shovel the shit on me, I get annoyed. This new batch has nothing on some of the old ones. There was one that was following me because she was convinced that she could change peoples minds. I did not follow her. I saw no need to. She took offense to some of my bible quotes and said that I had threatened to rape her. Funny that, I never saw a single one of her Tweets and I didn't care to. Hard to threaten to rape someone when 1) I don't have a dick. 2) I could give a shit less what she thinks, nor did I take my precious 30 seconds to find out. Apparently she does this kind of thing often. There are lots of crazy fundies on the old Twitter. There are even more drama whores, but that is neither here nor there. We'll see what this new batch of fundies are like. It might be lulz.