(August 17, 2011 at 11:54 am)thesummerqueen Wrote:(August 17, 2011 at 11:01 am)Godnose Wrote: There is no equivalent to the parish priest to whom I can take my troubles.
Don't need one!
You may not. Many do.
Quote:There are many other communities you CAN join because you're free! For instance, I've been slowly putting my feet into the skeptic community...
Yes, of course. But in my example I was in a hurry, I didn't have time to look for communities to join. I needed advice - RIGHT THEN.
Quote:Also, local atheist "groups" do crop up. ... Search around your area.
I have. There are some humanists. They are a load of old fuddy-duddies. That's it.
Quote:And just for me personally, none of my "advice" givers are family, and only one of them is on this board, and a couple of them are theists. These are people I've met at various jobs I've had or other ways - no need for them to be any sort of authority figure.
You are obviously a gregarious person who finds no problem making friends etc. I'm not like that. I'm pretty insular, and it's extremely seldom that I would ask anyone for advice about anything. So I had no personal "advice network" that i had built up over time. Yet suddenly I was hurled into a really difficult moral dilemma, and when I cast around for help the ONLY person available was the local church minister.
And you know, it may turn out that when actually put to a severe test, your network of advice givers might in fact not prove to be quite as reliable as you suppose.
I suggest the fact that atheists so readily dismiss the value of the priest role in society is a terrific weakness in the viability of atheism as a socially acceptable philosophy.
