Making friends with denny

[The Storyteller]

Does my atheism make the question invalid?

As a fellow atheist, I can say...

Yup.

[The Storyteller]

Still, my question remains valid.

And...

Nope.

[Chicken lady]

Perhaps the question should have been wether or not *I* thought it was possible that God was punishing me....

i still think it's a valid question. Just perhaps a little absurd since ultraliteangler clearly thinks he knows the answer. Like when someone asks a kid "was that nice?" When it clearly was not.

[Ultralight]

I admire and respect chicken lady's compassion.

I just think it is all her and no god.

There is only one set of footprints in the sand the whole time and they look like this:

[Chicken lady]

Thank you! I really needed a laugh this evening! (I'm "pigeon-toed" too!)

[Ultralight]

All is well that ends well.

[Rogar]

I went to see a Dalai Lama talk a number of years ago. At the end he took questions and someone asked if the world would be a better place if everyone converted to Buddhism. I probably don't have the words exactly right, but he said no, that the conversion process would cause too much conflict.

That's about as spiritual as I can get on the discussion. There are people I just don't talk politics with. It doesn't matter who is right or wrong if it makes people dislike each other. Politics are interesting to discuss, but the bottom line is that there is little most common people can or will do to affect the outcomes. I suspect Denny is not just lonely, but angry and possibly showing signs of early dementia. Somewhere inside I'm sure he has a spark of goodness that might be worth exploring, but you are already a better person than me, Chicken Lady. I tend to be poorly affected by angry and negative people and do not feel a responsibility to interact with them.

[Tenngal]

I admire you so much for this post. We are all put in these situations and most of the time I choose to not get involved.
You are doing the right thing and I have not so many times. It is easy to ignore those who believe differently. Keep us
updated.

[Chicken lady]

So, I haven't really updated this. Denny gas come over a couple more times. Once to bring me a picture from the Internet (I think maybe it would be good to keep Denny off the internet, he doesn't seem to have a good personal skepticism filter). And once to argue about publicly funded birth control (no Denny, actually I don't think you should have to pay for anyone else's birth control, but as a practical matter, what do you think we as a society should do about other people's unwanted children?). And cry about the local boy who committed suicide.

he seemed to have a hard time understanding that I find the crying to be one of the few GOOD things about him.