Letters to the Editor
mattwa33186
Published Letters: 403 Editor's Choice: 42
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The anti-logician
[Read the article: Opus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cool facts, Stentor. Unfortunately, not one of them proves that there is no God.
Calling Atheism a faith is not like calling bald a hair color, and saying that it is is a logical fallacy. You believe that there is no God. You have no evidence to support that belief - none. Until you can state as a matter of fact that all matter in the universe has always existed, you can't state as a matter of fact that there is no God. And you can't do that, at least not while remaining intellectually honest.
Lack of evidence is not, in and of itself, evidence. And you can't prove a fact without evidence.
Even Stephen Wolfram, a man likely much smarter than anyone who has ever written a letter to Salon, who thinks he has proven that the entire universe as we know it is a series of non-random events that can be traced back to what amounts to a single line of code can't answer the final question - who wrote that line of code?
At some point every belief system that claims a definitive position on the existence of God requires a leap of faith, because ultimately that's all an assumption really is and without facts all we can do is assume.
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@AKA Smith
[Read the article: I know my co-worker's evil secrets -- because I was his therapist!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I know, I was just being sarcastic :)
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Athiests are not non-believers
[Read the article: Opus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you are going to get up early to scream about how your belief system is being attacked by a freakin' comic strip you ought to at least know what you are defending.
Atheism is the belief that there is no God. Atheists do not say "I don't know if there is a God", or "There is not enough evidence to support the existence of God" - agnostics do that. Athiests state quite firmly and clearly that God does not exist, in the absence of any evidence to support their position. That, by defintion, is faith. Same as for those who believe God does exist.
Any belief system that takes a definitive stance on the existence of God is by definition faith based, because there is no evidence at all to support any position on the subject.
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To them, it isn't about you - at least not entirely
[Read the article: What's worse -- my breast cancer, or my relatives trying to "help" me?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]First, please accept my best wishes for your recovery. You don't mention your progress, but I hope you are doing well.
I guess my first question would be, do you need help and if so, can you afford to pay for it? I don't know how sick you are or if your condition is physically debilitating at this point (it certainly doesn't seem to have affected your mind). Do you need somebody to watch the kids all the time or cook all the meals and clean the house or whatever your household duties are? If not, just start taking your responsibilities back. If so, then can you afford to pay someone to do those chores?
All of the people you are having problems with are being opportunistic, under the worst possible circumstances. For the religious people, do they all belong to the same congregation? If so, and if they have a good priest/minister/rabbi/whathaveyou, maybe you could enlist his help to tell them that acts of charity are not a means to gain access to heathens so they can deliver their recruiting speech, but rather a way to lead by example, attract interest in joining such a nice group of people, and embody the principles of their religion. By the same token, God doesn't do these things to drive people to him. They just happen, and the spiritual status of the person involved is not a criteria so changing that status is not going to help.
Your husband's family is tougher. They are, at least in part, using this to regain the access that you (and to them, probably, only you) have denied them. Not to stereotype, but the Greek families I have met have been extremely close knit, and having their son and grandchildren distanced from them must have been hard from their perspective. They are not there to help you, at least not primarily. They are there to help their son and grandchildren by helping you, and to spend time with their family.
Your husband is your best ally here, but you have to be sensitive to his position. Your doctor can also be a big help, as others have pointed out. I'm not clear if they are staying in your house or not, and the situation is complicated by the apparent distance between your households.
If they aren't staying with you, you could limit their involvement by taking some of the things they have been doing back and having your doctor intervene with a prescription for more time alone with your family. Get him (or another professional) to talk about how its good for your kids to be involved with helping you through this (for all I know it really is, it sounds good) and that help from outside the nuclear family should be limited to what's absolutely necessary.
If they are living with you they need to leave, and that's up to your husband. But if you are able to reduce their role, then he can (hopefully) state the case that everyone needs put your needs first and you need a little more space in order to get better.
And really, getting better is the best possible solution to your quandry, one I hope you are able to implement in the very near future.
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Responses
[Read the article: Opus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Ellen - What you have posted is an excellent description of agnosticism (no belief), not Atheism (no God).
Axon - Believe it or not, it's possible to post responses to things that other people wrote while ignoring those who resort to juvenile bullshit such as mispelling other people's names.