Dang Martin

The change occurred for me, with the culmination of a few things:

1. Caught her holding a knife while watching me sleep.

2. When she threatened to dial 911 because I wouldn’t bend to her will, and I reminded her that we’d BOTH go to jail and our son would go to foster care if she did, due to probation, she said, “I don’t give a fuck.”

3. I…[Read more]

Belle Rose wrote:
The truth is – in every DV relationship there is dysfunction on both sides. … My point is – no one is 100% victim. I had to learn to stop playing the victim. Being a “victim” feeds the abuser and keeps the cycle going.

That is true, and I had to learn my role in the situation. As a Codependent, driven by abuse that I suffere…[Read more]

JadeBlackOlive wrote:
A fun sex life should not have to result in babies every 10 months!

Most religious organizations like to promote the idea that sex is for procreation only. However, it helps to bring a couple closer together, it aides in the relief of stress, it leads to greater physical health, and so on. The physical, psychological, and…[Read more]

Oh, I have an awareness about DV.

I remember in the 90s, when my now ex-wife was beating me. There were 19 DV shelters in the area, and none of them accepted men. There were loads of free legal services out there, but none of them would help me because of my gender.

I remember when I finally got sick of her beating me and dialed 911. Guess who…[Read more]

One of my cousins married a man who had this religious belief that drove their constant breeding. I think he was Mormon, but I’m not really sure. I was too young to remember that detail.

What I do remember is that they moved to Germany, after having written off our family for protesting his practice of keeping my cousin perpetually pregnant. They…[Read more]

They’re going to need to pray harder about it. Ironically, it is science that appears to be keeping them alive.

I hate to sound cold about it. However, there is no convincing people like this. They have their beliefs and folklore about what is causing this. I think the most humane thing to do is to let them die out.

It’s most tragic, and I do…[Read more]

PS: That quote feature didn’t work out well for me [Windows 10 / Chrome]. Only the top line is a quote. Sorry about that.

Early in my first year of college, I started dating this girl. All I knew about her was that she was the granddaughter of one of my grade school teachers. I knew very few people, so in a way I was latching on to someone with whom I had a  slight connection.

We became sexually active rather quickly. I’ll never forget that she had a diaphragm. To…[Read more]

Michelle Varni wrote:
I think that I’m just still working through the whole idea that there is no Heaven, and there’s no Hell, but particularly, no Heaven.

It sounds like you might need to grieve the loss of your religious beliefs. There’s a great audio book by Julia Sweeney called “Letting Go of God.”

I have never been a believer, ever, and did…

[Read more]

Every day, I kneel to the six-string altar of the guitar. As I play it, the tones, chords, and melodies are soothing and uplifting. Over a short amount of time, I feel better.

It works great for me.

Of course, if I were to tell everyone that they HAD to learn guitar, that they HAD to do it every day, and that this way was the ONLY way, then I’d…[Read more]

This morning, I plugged in my blender. It’s a machine that was created using a combination of artistry, engineering, and science. Beyond the machine, was the electricity that is generated and delivered using scientific principles.

When I tried to use the blender, it did not work.

My initial thought was that maybe the motor was burned out, or…[Read more]

@Belle Rose Certainly, he’s not the friend that he once was. As @notSimple says, and it’s true, life is dynamic. I’m not the same person I was back then, either, and I definitely was not an asshole to him.

We went our own ways in the mid-80s, and then started getting in touch in the mid-90s. I’ll save the story, but things didn’t go all that well…[Read more]

I agree, Robert. Lesson learned, the hard way.

I don’t see it as a religious belief or a world view. I’ve even had religious people try to twist it into a belief by asking, “Why do you BELIEVE there is no god?”

That’s not how it works.

In order to understand my perception, it is probably important to understand that I never left a faith or religion, because I was never a part of a religion.…[Read more]

@Belle Rose: You say that you’ve seen more than enough evidence to believe in god. What I don’t get is how you KNOW that it’s evidence of THE specific god in which you believe.

Here’s a best-case scenario for the evidence of a god.

Suppose there’s an event where a being appears before everyone on the planet, and it has the ability to communicate…[Read more]

Is there proof that scientists “believe” in science, with belief meaning the same for them as it does with religion?

I suspect that the question is flawed.

Scientific theory is not belief.

Someone once asked me if I “believed in Evolution.” No, I do not, for it is scientific theory, it does not require belief, and it remains scientifically…[Read more]