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* Changed my LJ format style - was having problems reading the last one.

* LJ Question of the day:
Do you consider yourself a religious person? If so, which religion do you affiliate with? If not, why not? Do you consider being "religious" different from believing in a higher power?

I had to look up the definition of Religious. The difficulty with categorization labels such as religious, horror, science-fiction, racist, sociopath, empath, narcissist, fantasy, romance, historical...is people have different definitions of the word - so you can end up having a circular argument regarding semantics. (I find these arguments irritating. I had one regarding the word "try". Another one on the word "believe". Yes, believe. My boss made it clear I was not to use this word - I had to use "think". (eyeroll) And apparently using word "try" is a cop out, it should be "do". (eyeroll).)

Anyhow, just so everyone's on the same page? Religious has various definitions depending on the context. You can be religious about sports. Say you are a fan of the New York Mets, and religiously watch all their ball games. Or you are a fan of the television series Doctor Who or Buffy the Vampire Slayer (or fill the blank) and religiously watch all the episodes, at least three times, go to conventions, dress up as your favorite characters, and know all the dialogue by heart.

Full Definition of RELIGIOUS
1
: relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity
2
: of, relating to, or devoted to religious beliefs or observances

3
a : scrupulously and conscientiously faithful
b : fervent, zealous
— re·li·gious·ly adverb
— re·li·gious·ness noun

So, yes, you can be a religious person and be an atheist, it is not an oxymoron, despite what you may think. I happen to know quite a few religious atheists - actually they are far more religious than I've ever been. Many of them go to my church, and quite a few are on live journal.

Belief in a higher power, force, entity, god or gods is not a requirement for being religious.

Religious is not a synonymous with fanatic or fanaticism. You can be a fanatic and not be religious.
You can also be religious and be a fanatic.

So with that in mind? While I believe in a higher power, I'm not sure I'm religious per se. Never really been fervent or zealous about anything. I question things a lot. To be religious, I'm guessing less questioning is in order? Also I struggle with whole concept of worship. I go to the Unitarian Universalist Church, but not every week, and I'm not devoted...exactly. Committed, yes, to a degree.
But not completely. I hold back a bit. The whole worship thing - devotion...makes me uneasy. That was my difficulty with fandom - the worshipping of writers, actors, etc...made me uneasy. A lot of it was without question or critique...and eh, I can't do that. It's not how I think.

In short, I find I'm uncomfortable labeling myself as religious at least as defined above.

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1. Muslims Rally Against Extremism.

My aunt said they should speak louder and more often. I disagreed. Because I think they do. Not their fault we don't listen. And why should they have to? Shouldn't we take a little responsibility here?
I don't see atheists stating that they aren't like Hitler or Stalin or Mao, just because Hitler, Stalin and Mao saw themselves as atheists. OR Christians stating they aren't like the KKK just because many of the Klan state that they are Christians and doing it in the name of Christianity.

I think we should take responsibility for how we see others. And question what we see. Educate ourselves and not fall into scapegoating. I live in a community that is Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, Protestant and Atheist...all these folks get along. There is no violence in my community. People are kind to each other. I'm smart enough to know that the terrorists are crazy people. Not associated with any religion or faith regardless of what they say. I don't believe their lies.

2. Once Upon a Time

Birth

Well, didn't see that twist coming. Sort of blown away by it. Also, please writers, either make Selena a bit less Wicked or kill her already. That character is beyond annoying. And look, a cliff-hanger.

( spoilers )

The Bear King

Why did they choose to follow up the episode Birth with this episode? I gave up mid-way through. I'll watch it tomorrow night. Did not have the patience tonight. Honestly, way to break up the momentum writers.

( spoilers )

3. Watched Flesh and Bone -- on Starz. It's created and written by one of the Breaking Bad writers - the writer who wrote Ozymandias. And it's unfortunately as dark as Breaking Bad was, but not quite as funny. The writer lacks Vince Gillian's sense of humor - which saved Breaking Bad.

Without the humor, the story is just grim. Flesh and Bone is grim and borders on cliche in places. There's no hope, no light, no joy in this piece. And we see relatively little dancing. Mostly the focus is on how horribly abused the female dancers are, and how horribly they abuse themselves for their dream.

I don't know if I can stick with it. The protagonist, Clair, is running from her sex-obsessed brother, who has returned from Afghanistan with a hard-on for her. She's clearly been raped or molested in the past, because every time someone comes on to her - she reacts like someone suffering from PTSD. And this is not helped by the fact that every man she encounters, including her boss, the choreographer, who happens to be homosexual, is objectifying her or using her as a sexual object for their own ends. The other dancers hate her - because she's insanely talented. And the one dancer she befriends, moonlights as a pole dancer at a strip club.

Like I said grim and distasteful in the subject matter. Starz is getting reputation for featuring content with a lot of sexual violence and sexual exploitation.

4. Star Wars -- I love Star Wars. But I think Disney is over promoting it. It's not suppose to come out until December and the media has gone wild with the promotions. You'd have to be living under a rock not to know about the new film. And, I'm not sure this is necessary - the pre-order tickets for the new film's opening are already sold out. Enough already, Disney. We know it's coming out. Less is more.

5. Doctor Who -- I think I've given up on it? I haven't felt a desire to watch it since...well a month ago. Have four episodes saved...and I'm considering just deleting. Can't remember the episodes I watched last year. I think it's a combination of things...but mainly the new Doctor, 12 or is it 13, has never captivated me. I don't care about him -- and the actor isn't grabbing me. Nor for that matter is Clara, not that she ever quite did. It may also be the writing, which feels a bit stale to me. I think we need a change in writers or something. Or maybe it's just me? Probably just me. No one else seems to have lost interest. And, I was admittedly not a die-hard Who fan to begin with. There were only a handful of episodes that truly captivated me, most of them featured Doctor Song, although quite a few featured Martha Jones and Donna.