Day: May 24, 2024

MLMM Friday Faithfuls — Integrating New Beliefs

Fandango10 Comments

For this week’s Mindlovemysery’s Menagerie Friday Faithfuls challenge, Jim Adams asks us to respond to this challenge by writing if we think that religious doctrines should evolve as man gets smarter, or why religions don’t seem to be receptive to change even when there seems to be a flaw in their beliefs, or write anything about the sunk cost fallacy, or write about whatever else that we think might fit.

I’ve been debating with myself all day about whether or not to respond to this prompt. Here is why. Believing in the existence of a supernatural deity (or deities) is foundational to almost all organized religions. But I’m an atheist and not believing in the existence of such a deity (or deities) is foundational to being an atheist.

Most people I know in the real world are not atheists and believe there is something — God — out there that is larger than themselves. And I am equally sure that most of the bloggers I interact with here in the blogosphere also believe in God. So even though I personally don’t participate in any organized — or even unorganized or disorganized — religion, I’m not about to throw everyone under the bus who does believe in God and who does practice their religion by denigrating their religion or their belief in God.

So I’ll just say that being an atheist suits me. And if believing in an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent supernatural being and following the dogma, tenets, and rituals that were created thousands of years ago suits you, well, whatever floats your boat.

Fibbing Friday — PCGuy Stand-In

Fandango12 Comments

Di (aka Pensitivity101), who is our regular host for Fibbing Friday, is taking a short break, and Frank, aka PCGuy IV, is standing in for her today. Fibbing Friday is a silly little exercise where we are to write a post with our answers to the ten questions below. But as the title suggests, truth is not an option. The idea is to fib a little, a lot, tell whoppers, and be inventive, silly, or even outrageous, in our responses. For this week’s Fibbing Friday, Frank wants to know…

  1. Why is he called “Dr. Who”? Because “Dr. What” makes it sound like he’s hard of hearing.
  2. What happened after the final episode of M*A*S*H was aired that made it newsworthy? Everyone in the cast perished when a stray bomb from North Korea hit the set.
  3. What do The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show all have in common? Each show was canceled after just one season on the air.
  4. What 1990s’ sitcom is about a group of six acquaintances living in Manhattan? It was called The Trumps.
  5. What is the TV show, NCIS, about? It’s about insurance salesmen who are not paid commissions: Non-Commissioned Insurance Salesmen.
  6. What does CSI stand for? Car Service Intervals.
  7. The TV show, Bull, though dealing with court cases, isn’t about a law firm. What kind business or organization does the show center around? It’s about a urologist who performs vascectomies.
  8. What planet were they searching for in the original Battlestar Galactica? Krypton.
  9. What was the inspiration for the animated show, The Flintstones? The TV show, All in the Family.
  10. In the original Star Trek, what exactly was the 5-year mission of the USS Enterprise? To find Krypton before Battlestar Galactica did.

Fandango’s Flashback Friday — May 24th

Fandango8 Comments

Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of your earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.

How about it? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Flashback Friday post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.

If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on any day this past year and link to that post in a comment.

This was originally posted on May 24, 2018.

#writephoto — The Monastery

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Janet was cold and miserable, her feet torn, bleeding, and wet from running through the rough brush as fast as she could. She could see the clouds of her breath plume into the wintry air as she paused to look back at the old monastery where she’d been imprisoned for more years than she could count.

After her parents died in the war, Janet was taken in by her mother’s brother, an orthodox monk. She felt blessed that, at her young age, she was not left to fen for herself in the war-torn city streets. She was warm, well fed, and had the run of the huge monastery.

Taken under the wing of the abbot, Janet learned much about the monks of this sect, including their vows of chastity, poverty, obedience, and stability. She felt comfortable and secure in her new life.

But as the years passed and she transitioned from a young girl into a young woman, Janet noticed that the attention she was receiving from the abbot was changing. He took a keen interest in her developing body and it soon became apparent to her that his vow of chastity was less important to him than his demand for her obedience.

She told her mother’s brother about what the abbot was doing to her, but instead of coming to her aid, as she had expected, he went to the abbot and told him of her disobedience, which only made matters worse.

The abbot beat her, restricted her movements around the monastery, and continued to have his way with her. At one point he began to allow other monks to abuse her. The life she once thought to have been blessed had become cursed.

After weeks of searching for a way out, Janet managed to sneak out of a basement window and to run for all that she was worth, hoping to escape her hellish nightmare.

Taking one last look back, Janet turned around and continued to run down the the large hill until she reached the village below. She ran up to the first person she saw, a kindly looking woman, and asked for help. The woman agreed to take her a place where she could get help and seek refuge.

She escorted Janet to the back door of the Catholic church in the center of town. When she saw the priest, Janet gasped. He looked down at her and said, “Hello, Janet. I’ve been expecting you. I received word from the monastery where my twin brother is the abbot. He said that you were unhappy there, but you are welcome to sanctuary in our church.”

Janet turned to run away, but the priest grabbed her, pulled her close, and whispered, “Don’t worry, Janet. I’ll take very good care of you.”

Written for today’s Thursday Photo Prompt from Sue Vincent.

FOWC with Fandango — Captivated

Fandango12 Comments
FOWC

Welcome to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).

Today’s word is “captivated.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, ÿplease manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. Show them some love.