A Short Reading on the Divine at the UU

As folks know I deconverted but I am not a militant atheist and do explore other religions and visions of the divine. I am OKAY with atheist and freethought writings because the normative view of God is so far from what I believe now, that I definitely have many areas of overlap in their thinking. 

One question I did ask as I did deconvert, is still, "Is there anything out there" even if it does not resemble the almost cartoonish vision of the divine or of God I had been handed in evangelical Christianity? I don't like classic Yahweh. One friend of mine says that most of the evangelical world is now worshiping Satan [Republican Jesus et. al.] so if there is a loving God he's going to be far more disgusted with them [hmm I even remember all those Revelation warnings about the Beast] then with someone like me.

Traditional Christianity definitely does not work for me anymore. One thing I returned to was exploring other visions of the divine in world religions, and had the thought, "Do other humans pursue a loving God?" and what does that look like?

Every world religion has  positives and human faults, but in my readings on different world religions, I found the Sikhs very interesting. They seemed to have a lot in common with theistic Unitarian Universalists, so this was a short reading I did at UU church. While doing some of these readings, I did learn the Unitarian Universalist Association does have an ongoing relationship with the Sikh religion in shared values and outreach. "Why do you go to the forest in search of the Divine? God lives in all and abides with you, too. As fragrance dwells in a flower or reflection in a mirror, so the Divine dwells inside everything; seek therefore in your own heart" Tegh Bahadur
Contemplating the sacred, one, looks at the view of God or possibilities of a higher power, or a Source running this entire show? How many Americans picture God as an old man in a long white beard living up in heaven? Like a Zeus wearing a long white robe in a Justice League "hall of justice, where the sacred is limited to these cartoon images?

 There's many other views of God or the sacred out there, and I have explored the views of the divine or sacred in other religions such as the Sikh religion. Years ago I saw a TV show that was talking about Sikhs and their religion reminded me a little bit of the Bahais, their vision of God was formed around love. Sikhs describe God as "oneness that permeates creation". The Bahais also call their god as the "source of existence".

I saw one Sikh describe the divine as

"We are the fish, God is the ocean."


For religions who see God as the "source of all", every raindrop forms the rain. This would apply to UUs who see God or divinity as the Source or Center of All. Even those who are agnostic like myself are interested in exploring these visions of God and the divine.

This is a vision of the Center of All or God that loves complexity and diversity. Would something that created millions of species on one planet, expect sameness in human beings? Would it mandate division between people into extreme tribalism, between saved and unsaved? |

One positive attribute of the Sikh religion is that they do teach the universal brotherhood of man and pray for the well-being of mankind without distinction of caste, color and creed. Sikhs believe the entire universe to be sacred as well. Nature is considered the sacred expression of the divine will.

"It's All Contaminated"

I was cracking a joke while ranting and raving the other day with my husband as America turns into a petri dish. I said "Yeah, it's all contaminated". My husband got the Breaking Bad reference and laughed. America certainly is in 2020, due to the endless corruption.

My medical care is getting wiped away. I still have medicine and two doctors calling me by video and phone, but a kidney scan was cancelled and other doctor appointments. I am too afraid to go to the out patient clinic to get my rheumatology blood tests. If they are too afraid to give me a kidney scan in one place, how am I supposed to waltz in for a blood test? By the way they are laying off medical personnel all over, because people like me, aren't able to get normal medical care.

  I am spending the months I am usually outside, indoors with a few visits to parks outside to walk around. Walking is kind of limited for me, but have to do what I can. My husband still has to go to grocery stores and the pharmacy, so that adds to the fear.

We ran out of disposable latex gloves--and we have no masks. Normal people see this as a brief interruption, thinking life will return to normal. Isn't this a clue yet, that we live in a society that is crumbling apart? However being a natural pessimist, the powers that be in this world never let a good crisis go to waste. I don't know if this will mean Bill Gates will chip us as conspiracy people claim or if they have now mandated a new anti-social way of life for us all, and we will crawl out of our homes to a new society that is shut down and locked down and far under control. It is creepy that Gates held a pandemic conference right before this broke called Event 201.

Do these type of idiots ever do anything except hold meetings? What do they accomplish? Probably not much except for Dr. Evil stuff. No one thought of the needed latex gloves and PPE then?

Could there be no more eating out, or congregating anywhere? All the small businesses could be blown out of the water. We would have to order everything on Amazon like it or not. Protests will become a thing of the past. Maybe even paper money will be taken away since they could claim germs are too dangerous on it. Even if this blows over and some normalcy returns, the fear now will always be there, and the possibilities of the virus coming back in the back of everyone's mind.

I believe Trump should be put in prison already for ignoring the warnings of intelligence. Every Republican senator is responsible for refusing to impeach Trump. Trump is the worse president ever. All the deluded and brainwashed people unleashed this hell upon us all.

I am wondering about outfitting my husband in trash bags just to go to the store. We have been using bandanas when out and about but scientifically don't think their effectiveness is that great. In my opinion, these shortages were planned. No one at "Planning for Pandemics" headquarters planned ahead for a few mask stockpiles? Trump probably fired them anyway. By the way, why hasn't that creep run away to his bunker yet? Boris Johnson supposedly got it and is in ICU, why not him? He's seems to be enough of a narcissist to for him to put his own hide first. He could run away. Biden is already useless, let Bernie provide some defacto leadership which he has already done.

We are all supposed to appear like we have it together. I'm noticing the "self improvement" crap being pushed, where we are all supposed to have perfectly clean houses, and endless art work done at the end of this. The Cartoon bear meme is more realistic. I have thoughts of just sleeping for days, but the medical demands make me leave my bed to stay alive. My serious addiction to old movies to escape reality has grown worse. They better keep the cable and internet up or riots will erupt too. Some people talk about "homeschooling" and that's been a Republican dream for years to close all the schools.

 I drew this goth woman in medieval gear, and plan to call it Lady Corona in my art journal. School was cancelled for the rest of the year for kids in my state. I find myself avoiding the "positivity" thinkers as the would be Grim Reaper stalks us all. Can someone tell them to piss off already? I  feel like slapping them. Their garbage got us in this fix in the first place, unprepared.  If the virus is a bioweapon, or used for negative agendas like 9-11 was, their Pollyanna crap is even more nauseating. In the plagues of the middle ages, I doubt anyone was told, "The is the perfect time to focus on self improvement."

All the holes in our weak jerry-built economy have been displayed. People in America can't survive missing one paycheck.  Everything is held together by the thinnest veneer. We will see soon probably what depending on an overseas nation for most of our products is now going to do to us.  Bernie probably would have more chance of getting voted in now then Biden if the votes weren't rigged. It's pathetic that a man with no answers but sticking to the status quo is still being pushed. I have kind of lost belief in the political process. Change from within-in has grown more impossible unless the virus wipes out a lot of bad politicians. Call me a conspiracy theorist, or not, but my belief that votes are rigged, has only grown, Word Salad Joe, was never a chosen candidate of anyone I knew. My votes now are a symbolic gesture to the ways things should be, but this country has become a totalitarian oligarchy.

10 million people are laid off, the unemployment websites are crashing in many states. The unemployment rate may hit 30 percent, that's far higher then the Great Depression. Gig employees were told they may be able to apply in my state, but the system hasn't been updated as yesterday.  At least being on Social Security, I can keep the rent paid. Some friends and others have stepped up, in showing goodness, helping with groceries and one friend sent me a big box of canned chicken. These acts of kindness are something to hold on to during these horrible times.

I fear weight gain being stuck inside. This would be easier if it was during months I am housebound anyway, but seeing sunny skies and nice cool temperature weather that is going wasted is rough. I'm going outside to a few parks. I don't know how extroverts are taking this, maybe they are cheating on the social distancing rules a bit with local friends to visit. Even my introverted often housebound self finds the isolation to be growing oppressive. In my case, I have my husband by me, and I never get bored and there's always stuff to do, so maybe that is an asset for me.  I do worry about people with mental health problems dealing with this. As I wrote in my other article, my PTSD/CPTSD and anxiety disorders haven't responded too well. Maybe this is to be expected. This meme probably details all the stuff happening to people now.

It makes sense. One thing I am dealing with is lots of anger, for the stupid, spoiled, deluded geriactric fools at the top who made this all transgress. Magical thinking from evangelicals who refused science and voted for the most evil politicians in history worsened all of this. I do fear what is coming, how can the economy survive this if it goes on long enough? What about people's medicine? What about the states if this virus is real, that are refusing to do lock downs? What new crazy laws will they come up with now? Their inactions on the part of Trump or planned destruction- now has directly impacted all our lives and created endless threats to our society and to everyone in America personally. As this meme says.....

 

America got TRUMPED.

Shelter in Place Coping Levels Measured in Cartoon Bears

Coronavirus Blues

Germphobes are now living their worse nightmare. So now they are telling us to wash our hands, well some of us washed their hands all the time.

Weird questions have come to my mind.... Does this mean society is going to collapse like all my old bible prophecy books told me? Is the asteroid next?

Will I be foraging in the woods on a breaking apart walker? Is the USA economy going to collapse? Some are worried about this. Are a bunch of people going to die? This is where being a newly deconverted conspiracy theorist feels like a nightmare of it's own.

I finally get my head screwed on straight and something worse then 9-11 happens. I live in a small town but the streets are still empty and people are freaked out.  In real life, remaining silent seems best because dumping my screaming inside emotions on anyone, is just going to cause problems.

My conspiracy theory mind....[I still believe in SOME conspiracy theories, while accepting a lot of them were bullcrap] starts wondering about things. Are they doing this to issue martial law? Is this to get us all vaccinated and chipped by force? Is this to make everyone live alone in their house? Is this some kind of testing event? Is this because massive protests were breaking out in Hong Kong and other countries? Did the ultra-wealthy due to Bernie's popularity realize more people in America were fed up and ready for democratic socialism and they wanted a new way to clamp society down?

Or did someone really eat a bowl of bat soup and start the pandemic rolling?

Is it a bioweapon? Which side released it if it is? How many people died for real in China, Italy, Iran and other places?


I read all that Georgia Guidestones crap that told me the elite wanted the population decreased to 500 million for the whole world so that old popular conspiracy stuff about "depopulation" is going through my head. Other conspiracy people have claimed it is related to 5G "radiation".

I apologize for some of the conspiracy musings, due to my past, but the right wingers calling it a hoax, and still going to meet at their churches of 300 plus people against government mandates are freaking me out too. They are spreading a virus even more around. They are being damned selfish! They call everything fake news and ignore the few people we have in government who may be looking out to stop a worse tragedy. Trump let this go on far too long and didn't stop the planes soon enough! I am following the scientific mandates. Flattening the curve makes sense.

This includes all the social distancing, ironically everyone is being made to live my housebound lifestyle during cold and hot months. Sadly I am missing out on a month where I can be outside. I'm used to being indoors, normal people aren't. I can see some flipping out around the time the 2 week marker hits. Extroverts will confront the limitations of Skype. What about all the poor souls who live alone? What are they supposed to do? For some it will be like solitary confinement in prison.

I've been inside as long as 90 days straight. I'm taking a few car rides with husband and to parks separate from people. The news is awful, I am going to have to take a breather after writing this to retain my sanity and stop reading some boards like collapse and coronavirus on reddit.

One scary thing, many super-sized people or other disabled people would be first on the triaged to die list if there was 20 people and 10 ventilators to be disbursed.  This already has happened in Italy.  It was not enjoyable to watch people web wide claim with relief it really only killed off the old and chronically ill.

Sometimes I wonder if this planet is hell and if we were all sent here to suffer. This is a thought only shared with the inner circle usually. God didn't step up to stop millions dying during the black plague either.  Some of my personal friends are freaked out because during my conspiracy and bible prophecy days, I talked about the "coming collapse of America" and openly researched emigration for some time but hit the chronic health and money barriers. I had this feeling of dread too, that something "bad" was going to happen soon too.

How is someone with a history of PTSD [CPTSD] diagnosed supposed to deal with this crap? I have one friend who is dealing with stage 4 cancer, how is she supposed to deal with this too? I was in an event where society collapsed for some days from a blizzard building a fire of magazines on a motel snowy lawn, but that was short and you knew it would be over. There's no therapists to talk you through as society goes under. I find myself thinking things like, "You need to toughen up, or you never will survive." My husband seems to be coping well but I am scared for him too. He's the one going out to get things we need and we have no masks only a few latex gloves. He has told me to calm down and that the scientists are on the job.

So tell me how you feel about this? Are you ready to flip out? Scared of society and the economy collapsing? I am scared for those who have had their work erased and who face health problems. How many restaurant workers are now facing serious unemployment as well as many others? Wondering what it all means. I don't even know what to think. Where I live, absolutely everything has been shut down.

Biden is Just More of the Same

It looks like Bernie is losing, and I'm not happy. With all the cheating, gerry-mandering, propaganda, arguments about whose electable and no electable, and people like Bloomberg coming on to manipulate things, democracy is long gone. I never met one person who was gung-ho for Biden, some were for Pete or Warren, but not him. Maybe the Diebold computers were doing their thing. The disappointment is immense.

"Fat Assed Prepper Survival Tips For Coronavirus Quarantine"

"Fat Assed Prepper Survival Tips For Coronavirus Quarantine"
From Fat Lib online, a California group standing up for fat rights and disabled fat people. Some of the advice is very good. Many super-fat or other fat people do fear being triaged during this crisis.

Abstract Art

This was a recent painting, I used layering of paint in this one. Sometimes abstract paintings can be more fun to do.