A Piece of Advice to Die-hard Atheists

1. 60

   God shetposted 10 years ago

   read the poem
   
   
   
   
   Fishing on the Susquehanna in July
   -By Billy Collins
   
   
   I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna
   or on any river for that matter
   to be perfectly honest.
   
   Not in July or any month
   have I had the pleasure—if it is a pleasure—
   of fishing on the Susquehanna.
   
   I am more likely to be found
   in a quiet room like this one—
   a painting of a woman on the wall,
   
   a bowl of tangerines on the table—
   trying to manufacture the sensation
   of fishing on the Susquehanna.
   
   There is little doubt
   that others have been fishing
   on the Susquehanna,
   
   rowing upstream in a wooden boat,
   sliding the oars under the water
   then raising them to drip in the light.
   
   But the nearest I have ever come to
   fishing on the Susquehanna
   was one afternoon in a museum in Philadelphia
   
   when I balanced a little egg of time
   in front of a painting
   in which that river curled around a bend
   
   under a blue cloud-ruffled sky,
   dense trees along the banks,
   and a fellow with a red bandanna
   
   sitting in a small, green
   flat-bottom boat
   holding the thin whip of a pole.
   
   That is something I am unlikely
   ever to do, I remember
   saying to myself and the person next to me.
   
   Then I blinked and moved on
   to other American scenes
   of haystacks, water whitening over rocks,
   
   even one of a brown hare
   who seemed so wired with alertness
   I imagined him springing right out of the frame.

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2. 60

   janesixposted 10 years ago

   Advice to you: make a clear point and maybe people will respond to it.

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   1. 74

      wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I thought he did; the inference that believers live in their dreams until they wake up and move to another was pretty clear.  While I might not agree with the validity of that inference, it WAS clear.

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      1. 60

         janesixposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Not to me.

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         1. 74

            wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Sure!  Looks at a painting (reads the bible) of an idyllic existence floating quietly and fishing (eternal happiness).  Dreams for a while, shakes head on the realization it isn't going to happen and moves on to the next painting (other dream).

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            1. 60

               janesixposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Ok. So what does any of that have to do with being an atheist?

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                  wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Explaining the workings of the believer?  How would I, of all people, know?

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         2. 68

            A Thousand Wordsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            It wasn't to me, either

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         janesixposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         My point is, we are always having to decipher his meaning. Some of us aren't good at it.

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3. 73

   Castlepalomaposted 10 years ago

   We all dream and use our imagination.
   
   What is your advice in easy to understand words?

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