Profesco

Oh, sorry if I got a little out of hand there! I didn't mean to make you feel like I was getting mad at you for not exactly agreeing. Not at all. Also, aww shucks. Likewise.

My story about my path to rejecting deities isn't actually very interest-grabbing. I was having doubts on my old God for longer than I could remember. My friends at church told me it was natural for Christians to sometimes feel that way, but the thing is, I always felt that way. Even when we'd go on mission trips to help the poor (which I still love doing with my old church!), I'd come back feeling happy, but not anymore of a believer than I was when I came back while all I'd hear about for a week afterwards was how everyone felt like God had really spoken through them. I have never, ever had something I could call an experience with the trinity.
One day, I just decided after all of this, I owe it to myself to end this once and for all, and to not feel bad about it. I casually went to Wikipedia, read on the origins of Christianity and how much it borrowed from religions past. That was all I needed. I was done.

There's only one thing I regret from all this. My parents recently found out I was an atheist because my dad, being disrespectful as he is, read my research paper intro when I accidentally left my folder of homework on the couch this week. I was hiding it from them because they're the most stereotypical Conservative Republican Christian nutjobs you could find and I'd rather not crush their hearts, even if they've crushed mine many times. (Growing up in a house with parents the complete opposite of you, as well as being just downright mean went as well as you'd expect...) Luckily, they don't seem to worry about my "soul" as much as I thought they would. Instead, my dad just uses it as a bargaining chip in why I'm a horrible person and none of my opinions should be respected.

How about you? Why did you become an atheist, or rather, stay one? Tell me your relationship with religion!

I hope you get what I'm trying to say, even if I know I came off as maybe a little rude in some parts. It's not intended. This is just something that's very hard for me to talk about without getting a little fired up, I guess! That's what your own suffering does to you.

(Part two!)

I just don't understand, I suppose. I will never do anything to hurt these people, but I'm secretly thinking to myself "How does it get this bad?".
Coming from someone who experienced this, I totally get how you can become obese in childhood. Negligent parents, a lack of nutritional education, unhealthy foods being far less scarce than the opposition and the typical instant-gratification attitudes of kids sets the stage right up. I just simply cannot fathom how people still choose to be this way once they reach adulthood. There's no excuse not to be educated in the age of the internet.
I get it. Overeating becomes engrained in you, psychologically, socially and within your routine. I just cannot fathom why people don't find the strength in knowing what the risks are and how much better they can feel by powering through these temptations with sheer will.

The other side of the story is, perhaps I'm a hypocrite. I smoke hookah here and there. Not as bad for you as cigarettes, but it's still tobacco and I'm still taking a risk every time I smoke. I'm not ignorant to this, yet I'm in no particular rush to quit. Hookah sessions with my friends is one of the greatest times I have when I go out for the night. It's social. Seeing the smoke rings shoot from my mouth makes me feel like I'm shooting my troubles away. It's psychological. It's tarring up my lungs. It's harmful.

Humans all have demons to face, in reality. I suppose I just have a much harder time justifying overeating in my head because hookah is something I do once every week or two. Overeating is something you choose to do every single day.

In the end, my opinion is condensed as this. Neither smoking nor overeating should be glorified or encouraged. This is how I see the FAM. I think this movement should be modified to be something akin to Alcoholics Anonymous. Help for these people in need in a non-shaming manner. Not just telling them they're fine as they are.

Bleh. The router in my house died and we won't get a new one until tomorrow, so looks like I'm spending all day in Starbucks because I have a lot to do online today. ...I have no complaints.

Anyway! That was the delay in my response to you. Getting right into answering your question, it is a choice that's completely up to the individual to make and prioritize. If somebody values being able to maximize their comfort levels at all time and thinks exercising is too tedious, there's still a lot of weight to be lost by simply changing your diet, but if they don't even want to do that...They don't want to lose weight enough to actually do it. I don't dislike these people. I just can't really be incredibly proud of their dedication to the easiest of joys in life and not the greater things you have to reach for.
It's really hard to put into words without sounding like a *****. I respect these people as people. I just find it a little harder to respect them as individuals, I suppose? I'm talking about obese people. I have many overweight friends who I see no different, but I just can't fathom the amount of self-respect you have to not have for yourself to weigh 250 lbs without being a football player or something.

Sure! Just let me know when's a good time.

Huh! Thing is, my take on it doesn't even really differ from yours much at all. Apart from my critique on the movements because they seem to be encouraging that psychological and social relationships. From my experience with it and the attitudes of the people who sing its praises, they push fat people to not only thin-shame, but continue eating until they do get to that dangerous point. It's just sort of like PETA, but wider.
I suppose my priority is also on pointing out unless you have an extremely rare medical condition, you can lose weight if you want to. Yes, my key word is -want- as well. Perhaps my appearence in the debate thread on taking the side of pushing all overweight people to lose weight is simply because Ellie's making excuses on why they -can't- (???) lose weight. It's like group polarization.
Anyway, I don't blame you.

I'm addicted to it because it's already taught me so much. It's in mixture of a newspaper and a civilized 4chan. I get all my news from Reddit simply because if it's false, unlike on sensationalist news channels, someone knowledgeable in the subject will always chime in. There's a LOT of people in a LOT of professions on Reddit. We even regularly get ask threads with celebrities! It's my favorite time waster, I'll tell ya' what. I like learning while goofing off.

Sure, I certainly wouldn't mind hearing your full take on it, if you're sure you wouldn't mind.
(I just hope you don't pin me as a bully-sympathizer!)

Mostly the influence it has on our government and the people's politics. It affects so many aspects of our lifestyle in this nation, everyone of any religion should know their fair share of it. It's merely a bonus to be able to quote Christians their own scripture.

Are you ensnared as well?

Heh. People will be sensitive. Just out of interest, because I ~do~ take interest in your points, what side of the Fat Acceptance debate to you fall on? You don't have to give me an argument or anything. I just want to know, simple as.

I would just view all your posts in the thread, but I'm working on my research paper for my English class right now. This is the one near the end of the semester that you have complete control over. I made my topic Christianity in the United States. I'm an atheist and I'm always interested in learning more about what I'm not, as well as exactly how much pull it has in this country. You'd assume a lot, since "In God We Trust" is still on our money. You'd be correct.

I'm enjoying myself very much, thank you! Just resisting the call of Reddit. Hush, now.

Thanks! I'm pleased to see someone who's extremely sensible in the debate forum. I notice you don't feel like you have to be as verbose as I feel I need to be to get your point across and I do enjoy those points. It was nice to be reminded I should be careful with how I put things by someone who didn't feel like he was condescending me as well.

Respect begets respect. Philosophy begets...A new friendship?!

How are you this evening, anyway?

I've been trying to find time to think about what you said, but I'll admit that I've been too busy. Although I will say that a lot of your more serious posts outside of the debate forum (not just toward me) come across as rather judgmental. Not trying to take a stab at you, just being bluntly honest. (But judging by the current biography on your profile, I'll assume you already know that.) I've been trying to come up with a way to word why we butt heads so often, and I think maybe I'm just kind of... too much of a jerk for you sometimes? I don't always play nice. I've been there and done that, and it didn't work for me. I have respect for your intelligence and your philosophical mind is not necessarily a bad thing, but I also don't feel that my behaviors need to be corrected by and/or explained to you. I'm not much interested in taking a philosophical stance in places such as the GCT. I don't have any desire or reason to. And maybe I am still a little wary of you after the whole JDC thing.

I now have access to a Ditto Safari :O

I'm usually on at night. I keep hoping you'll be on, but I think we have different schedules. When is best for you?

I work all day so I'm usually on at the end of the day. What is your time zone? Probably Tuesday we'll be able to be online at the same time. What is your ign and FC?

It must be indeed! :V (Speaking of which, I have a delphox theme going on in my sig over on PC, haha.)

I do not have a Wii U either, but I've tried it a bunch of times (including significantly before release!). I would have it now in fact if not for a busy year, and too many games on the 3DS. And it's continuing to have new games come out besides Pokemon whyyyy

You just seem kind of... I dunno, on edge lately? Like you take any opportunity to jump on my case about things, especially after the whole JDavidC debacle.

Okay My FC is 3866-8099-9870, name:Nuno. I have Helioptile ready so just add me and we can trade.

Yes I am interested. It will take some hours to breed one but I'll message you once it's ready. What nature is your Eevee?

tbh it was more a conversation on irc where the supposed "enlightenment" came from. I just wanted to announce that I'm doing something productive for the community

Oh my.

Haha, oh yes, that makes us look quite dated, but I never really saw much of it when it was around, so this is kinda my first time really SEEING it, y'know? I'm also stacking up other recommendations, one of which is called Freaks and Geeks. Have you heard of that one?

Very cool ^^ I was super absorbed when it first came out... I literally spent the better part of two days playing it. I'm somewhat disappointed by the aftergame, though. Gen 4 and 5 knocked it out of the park... Oh, yes please! I like prowling the Friend Safari and whatnot ^^ Mine's 0361-7287-9899 Did you get X or Y?

It's possible. I mean, as much as I didn't like trade evolutions back when my brother and I only had Yellow and taking your Game Boy to school probably earned you the kind of punishment that you have to commit war crimes to net in the real world, they're kind of an important part of the game, especially on handheld.

Magnemite got something new in second and fourth gen at least, so those are pretty reasonable. Zubat... I think, after a while, it just became kind of a cornerstone of the series.