These thoughts were inspired by BLOB_CASTLE's recent farewell to religion. Please someone tag this atheism.
Who's "your team" so to speak? I'm a pretty big Twins fan. I try to catch most of the games, and at a minimum keep up with the stats and proceedings. Too many games for me to watch them all, but I do love me some baseball... though admittedly I don't watch it as much until hockey season is over. ;)
I usually warmly thank anyone who blesses me and wish them the same. I'm agnostic, but I don't think that counting ones blessings or wishing well for others (even if they are hoping for divine wellness) is a bad or obnoxious thing. I used to preach over obnoxious street preachers, but now if they are really bothering me I listen for a minute and try to strike up a conversation. That generally goes not so well. I have read enough theology to bother them, they know enough bible to fall back on oneliners and avoid honest communication. If I heard the bus lady I would probably ask her why she is trying to scare everyone away from the god she believes in.
You seem like the kind of person who is willing to open-heartedly engage with someone (like a street preacher) and see where it goes. Your question is an interesting one - although it might be a little defence-provoking. By the way, what does your cgod name mean to you? Is there a story about choosing that name?
haha, I didn't even think about the godliness of my name until after I made my first hubski comment, it's a mix of my first and last. Honestly it's a good question to ask people who are working that hard for god, it is frightening to see and hear crazy people shout stuff that makes no sense.
I just had a thought: when you walk through the downtown of most US cities, you see and hear a lot of "street preachers," and as far as I know even Christians find them pretty annoying (especially when they link their sermons to legalizing marijuana, as I have noticed is often the case). The other thing you tend to see is enterprising musicians with a hat in front of them. Just about everyone loves the latter, most extremely dislike the former. Extrapolating to your situation on the bus -- what would you have done if some traveling musician had gotten up with a guitar and just started playing? Is it about the "being taught at" aspect, or the "disturbance" aspect? There are different levels of presumption involved. EDIT: damn, I can't tab+enter to submit comments anymore on you guys' mirrored posts :p
That's a good point flag. Would I complain? It depends on the music I guess, or if I was napping. Music may not bother me. A lecture at the front of the bus on the wonders of the Ontario countryside might not bother me but it might bother someone else. The 80 people on the bus were a captive audience. If anyone complains, the driver has to fulfil the company's promise to the passengers: a ride without disturbances. The annoying thing is that she did not respect the bus driver's request and kept talking when he asked her to stop. If someone complained about the music and the musician kept playing, I imagine he'd get turfed too.
Most of my family is pretty religious. I'm not religious at all, but I also don't call myself an atheist, or even a spiritual person. My grandmother knows this and she took some time to talk to me about it a few years ago. She said to me that it doesn't matter to her if I believe in God or the teachings of the Bible, but that it was important to her that I had respect and wonder for the world around me and to be able to feel the energy that flows through everything. I would go as far as saying I do have respect, wonder and often awe for the world as well as the people around me. I do have a problem with people invading my space and disrespecting others, which the woman preaching on the bus was doing from my point of view. It's not your fault that the bus driver decided to take the woman to the police station, but when someone can be blamed for something, they usually end up getting blamed. I wonder if you've read this article about atheism that I posted here.
The worst is when you just want your carpets cleaned and the carpet cleaner wants to bless them.
I'm glad I've been inspiring so much of your posts. Everyone is always blessed. Now whether or not we open our awareness to it is another thing. There's always going to be that instance or situation where a person thinks their life is miserable (myself included). When when the eyes of perception are opened, it's pretty obvious the blessed life we live even just living in this country.