I wonder sometimes whether anyone on the Left has considered the notion that Obama was ‘picked’ by the Corporate Boys as a President who cannot be criticized in the inflammatory way Bush was simply because he’s President Nice.

Well, here: President Oilslick. That’s racist, you see. President Doorman (“Come on in, Corporate Boys, and raid the Treasury!”) Racist. Who says CEOs are dumb?

President Do Nothing…perhaps he should run for Governor of Vermont?

We’ve been had. Either that, or the Liberal Left is saying: “We really really really miss Bush.”

Thank you again, Charity. You should cross-post this on GMD just for fun.

Yes, that would be great if you’d still email me.

Your description of 5 years of “emotionless” faith makes me sad. Did you get negative reactions from your church when you tried to express things, or were you just trying to imitate what you were seeing as the norm?

Whatever the reason, you’re right in finding it to be warped. It’s just that this warped practice has nothing to do with my experience of Christianity.

Look forward to hearing from you.

I was just thinking about the fact that I never replied to your last e-mail. Things have been a little hectic lately, but I will have some time this weekend.

My faith was not emotion-based. In fact, just the opposite, I was taught that one of the great things about God was that he is permanent and reliable, unlike our emotions, which change based on the situation and are not reliable.

I talk about things from an emotional perspective because I spent the past 5 years denying my emotions! I pushed them down and buried them because I needed to stop being so selfish, how can I complain about my life’s trials after the sacrifice Jesus made for me, blah, blah, blah.

It’s not good to keep things in.

And it’s okay to want to feel good.

Not that I expect to always feel good, nor do I base my decisions on my emotions because they are temporary. But, they are still important to take care of.

I know that Christianity is not supposed to solve all your problems and make you happy, but there does come a time where one stops and asks, why am I doing this if it is consistently making me miserable?

I’m wondering whether part of your good feeling the other day had to do with your generous decision not to burden your husband after all with something he couldn’t respond to anyway.

Then again, maybe you felt better because there was a good song on the radio.

I’m surprised how much you have based your faith and your unfaith on feelings.

Perhaps you were fed a really thin theology [I have a feeling that you were ]

Anyway, I’d love to continue the conversation.

I’m not sure why you are so focused on the one sentence about being an atheist when I was born. That was but one piece of my life’s time line.

My point was that I never had a specific set of beliefs. To consider something a religion, it requires a specific set of beliefs. I never had that until I became a Christian.

Having rejected that set of beliefs, I have returned to my previous state of having no set of beliefs.

Yes, there are things I believe about life. I believe that the sun will not burn out. I believe that the mail will be delivered, except for Sundays and holidays. I believe that it is worthwhile to be nice to people, even though that doesn’t guarantee that they will be nice back.

But, I do not have religious beliefs.

If you want to talk dictionary definitions, Merriam-Webster online defines religious as: relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity.

I do not have any such faithful devotion. I have no idea about the ultimate reality. I do not insist there is no deity.

I rejected the only religious beliefs I ever had, leaving me with none once again.

There are some atheists who do have a faithful devotion to their beliefs of the ultimate reality. I admit, those atheists could be considered to have a religion. But that does not make atheism itself a religion.

I do not have it all figured out. I don’t think I ever will, especially since I don’t much care to try and figure it all out.

Living is hard enough. Finding happiness and fulfillment, taking care of responsibilities, and fostering personal relationships are all enough work, without spending my time trying to figure out ultimate reality in a way that I am sure enough of to faithfully devote myself to it.

I personally do not believe in god, but I am not making any claims about what the ultimate reality is. I find it a stretch to call that a religion.