(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . From an Atheist, and the bottom of their heart, thank you Daily Kos. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-21 Kiwi Hi, my name is Lucky. I have, and have not been. This is the first time I have ever shared any part of my story with the interwebs. I fell through the cracks, so please forgive my formatting. But please listen to what I have to say. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here. All of you, from all walks of life and beliefs. In 38 years, I have not found a place like this where this conversation could be had with such diversity and vigor. Honestly, where else can this many people have a constructive conversation about these topics? I know the internet, and humanity is large, but this site is big enough to hold all of us. Unlike any other site that I am aware of. Sure, there are bigger ones (FB, Twitter, Reddit) but they do not hold a candlestick to the constructive discussion that is had here. And the call to action for a better future for all of us. Also, I would like to say that I have been a long time lurker from back when I got the belief in a man named Barack Hussein, Obama. I was homeschooled. However, I was not not taught. I was held captive at home after coming home from delivering the papers in a small, rural Midwest town. The towns that are as red as red can be. My parents weren’t Republicans, but they believed in God. And that was enough to do more harm than a child should know. I escaped at 15 and lived and worked on my own. I was able to go to college and got a degree in Life Science. Had two kids and a divorce. Kiwi and I are doing the best we can. But the wave of Christian Nationalism has me scared beyond words. This fear, I think, is why we are having this discussion. This is not an attack on religion. It is my hope to just say thank you. To a group of people that I feel safe speaking to. A group of people that I feel, has my back. No matter what race, religion, gender, or any other unique flavor that we are. We are human. And we aren’t MAGA, thank God! Haha I have read almost every part of the discussion that has taken place here, about belief and each flavor of it. Let me say to those that have posted, thank you! Every one of you have put thought to thumbs, on something that is arguably the deepest concepts of who we are. I also say thank you to the people that are just stopping by, and reading. It is helping pay someone’s electricity bills somewhere. All of us are better for this discussion. I know this because the hard things in life, are most of the times, the correct things. So no matter what, this has been a good thing. Even if it has only effected one person. And I am one person better off for it. To my friends that believe, keep doing you. Know that no one wants ill will upon you. If you feel things, good. We are lucky to know that we are alive and have these strong feelings. If the blood pressure is high, do the best you can to know no one is attacking you personally. Even if we call out your flavor of belief for the bad things. It should also be noted as I haven’t seen it said before, most nonbelievers have lost many friends and relatives because of not believing. I disowned my parents as the hurt caused by their beliefs have done too much toxicity to keep that bridge up. Even if you have 0.1% of belief, you can keep friends, family, and jobs. Where many of us on the other side of the coin, have not be able to do so. To the people that have no belief, or whatever it is coursing through your neurons, we know it’s hard. I would argue that to not believe in anything, is the hardest belief system there is. If you only have 0.1% belief, then that is still a stick to hold on to. To know, without a shadow of doubt, that there is nothing, is the hardest belief I have had. There is no stick to hold on to (maybe science but that is itself a belief that you don’t know everything). And it hurts even more when the stick of others, do not help prop you up, but in fact, hit you. This is the plight of the nonbelievers. This is the pain many of us feel. We might be pithy, crude, or even cruel. But like many have said, that is a human trait. One that the believer has as well. So forgive us if we stumble on our words as we point to our truths. I could talk for hours about this subject. And maybe I will with some of you. But if you have made it this far in my feeble attempt at saying thank you, please feel that all of us mean well for one another. Even if it doesn’t come off that way sometimes. We have so much work ahead of us. We barely beat back Fascism in the last election, and they are coming. They are coming for all of us. They do not want any of us to exist. But don’t lose hope, we have each other, we know we are on the right side of history, and we will fight like hell, atheist arm locked in believers arm, to beat back this wave. We have to, for humanity. With Trust, Lucky [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/21/2154168/-From-an-Atheist-and-the-bottom-of-their-heart-thank-you-Daily-Kos Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/