looking for a place to chat? This could be a good space for that.

Sometimes I just want to talk with people who understand the life apart.

Anyone here?

Well, I'm a straightheist atheist, but maybe some more people will show up....!

Fairly straight here too ... but, Im around for a chat.

Sorry to be ignorant, but the "GLB", I get, but what is the "T"?
Its 624am here and Im being dim

Try Transgender

Hi all you beautiful people. Thanks for responding, and thanks Invisible for giving Belushi the correct answer.

So let's see what can we talk about?

I really shouldn't start a conversation, I have so much homework to do and I'm so behind. But I was SO EXCITED to the see all the new catagories added, I JUST HAD to they it out.

OK - so let's see, we should probably begin our plan to overthrow the religious fundamentalists of the world. Well, I mean, now that we have our own community.

I that dang banana dancer, but it was a dumb emoticon that just happen to fit the dumb remark.

Hey, did you guy know there are actually organizations for antheists and agnostics. There's one here that meets (of all days) on Sunday. Yea, they are a little community (according to my friend). I havn't gone yet but I think it might be interesting. From what I gather they do a lot of public service stuff.

So what's up with all of you. Hey Lex I was up in Joliet in September, I should have let you know. Duh! I went and played pool at a place called the Pool Loft. Nice tables but not much action.

Yeah, I was still over there in September -- just moved to Indiana last week. Never been to the Pool Loft, though!

I like the new forums, too. It'll be nice to have a place where we don't get condemned to somebody's fairy-tale hell every four minutes....!

Wouldn't the meeting of Atheists/Agnostics on Sunday make it like an organized religion when techically Atheisicm is the lack of an organized religion?

I was wondering, as I am studying to be an English language teacher, would the collective noun for atheist/agnostics be a "questioning of ... "

Lex, where in Indy are you at now?

Curious, No, I don't think you could call it religious in any way. More like a group of like minded poeple who just want to get toether for some socialization. Not the bar scene or the clubs but real people with real concerns about our community. Also, believe it or not, I'm sure it's nice to banter ideas, opinions and share life stories with friends and acquaintances without judgment, or assignment of sin or place of commitment in some afterlife.

Belushi, I don't think you can place atheist in a group who are questioning the fundamental idea of a god or gods. In fact I would even hesitate to add agnostics in that group unless they are ACTIVELY seeking answers. Most agnostics claim they just don't know what they believe, and they don't much interested in finding answers. What I find is that they are interested in having a safety net, as they call on the name of God often enough. But I've lost that discussion before.

Atheists surely can't question a god they don't believe in in the first place? Wouldn't that be a bit paradox?

I'm bisexual and love chatting.

Meh, to each his own. I am agnostic and I do search, I've searched too many religions to name them all here. There are two principles I find in most of them that can be applied to anyone's life:

1 - Treat others better than you would treat yourself.
2 - Be better today than you were yesterday.

Those are my general tenants and I'm friendly with everyone, religious or not. I try not to be bitter about things. It's hard sometimes but to me it's not worth the heartache. I only get pissed when religion moves into politics.

Little place called Crown Point, tucked away in the northwest corner of the state, just to the right of the looming shadow that is Chicago itself.

Hi I am agnostic on Mondays and Tuesdays, Atheist on Wednesdays and Thursdays, Buddhist to learn compassion and peace on Fridays, and Native American Spirituality on Weekends when I visit my friends on the reservation.

I have been in "the other" religious forum but there are only a bunch of friendly witches there Then I went to the Buddhist forum but that is probably the slowest religious forum on Mingle. I think Buddhist have nothing to disagree on which I think is awesome.

Now I am on here and recognize friends that I have talked to before who dwell in this forum. I would say this could be my calling to stay in the agnostic and atheist forum.

I wish everyone a great day.

I would absolutely love a gathering of agnostics and atheists in my area, I would probably spend more time with them than anything. That is the problem I think for many folks. The believers have a church on every corner of this town, but there is nothing for anyone else, that if there is anyone else. Hmmmm

It's not organized "religion"..I would call it organized "non-religion"..lol..no but to be serious I think it is always good for people to meet like minded people, and of course without organized meetings, activism would be impossible. And with the majority in our society (US here) being off work on Sunday it just makes perfect sense to hold a meeting on a sunday. I just recently went to my first meeting of the Atlanta Freethought Society and had a great time and got the opportunity to meet many great (and well-informed) people there!

P.S. I love the irony of the meeting place..it's an old church that was no longer being used so AFS bought the building..I chuckle a little everytime I think about what the members of the original church would think if they knew who was using it now!! LOL!!

Organized yes, religion no, that requires other criteria.

Hi everyone !

It seems to me that this topic has pretty much died down but I am new here and maybe, just maybe, we can bring it back.

But anyways, I'm a bisexual atheist just looking for people to chat with.

Hey iheartyew, welcome to mingle2! Yeah, lets bring the topic back to life. Are straightheists welcome to crash this LGBT party?

We need topics ...

Recently, someone posted something which lead me to thinking of sexual repression, touch repression, and homosexuals. Someone was trying to suggest that a particular person was a child molester because he (allegedly) slept in the same bed with little boys. I think its sick that in our culture many view it as inherently sexual for an adult to sleep in the same bed with a child. That viewpoint is just sick. We are primates, we are mammals - sleeping with a human child is as natural as sleeping with a dog or a cat (maybe more so?), and I love sleeping with dogs and cats. If I had a young kid, I expect I would get emotional gratification from taking a nap with him/her. My married friends, male and female, enjoy such closeness with their children, and I see no reason why people shouldn't. Of course, affection within a family is not the same as affection with people outside a family, but the division is not absolute.

This lead me to thinking about all the ways in which people wrongly project sexualization onto touch and closeness. In some cities, the ONLY males that I saw expressing affection for other males were homosexuals. When I see gay people being publicly uninhibited like that (while having some respect for the comfort of others), I feel a small sense of happiness/hope for sanity and tolerance in our culture (regarding homosexuality). Its sad, though, that heterosexuals, myself included, choose repressive social conditioning over basic, positive, healthy tendencies to share touch. Sometimes, in certain sub-cultures, hetero-male touch gets accepted in certain rigidly defined protocols. It seems like there is always this need to make it clear that its the 'hetero' form of touch, 'lets make no mistake, this is totally unlike what those gays do'. Whatever.

we are human, we are primates, we touch, we enjoy the physical presence of others of our kind.

What a great post.

Its interesting how sensitivity to the appearance of sexual misconduct can inhibit perfectly honest and normal physical contact.

I think straight men are particularly inhibited, and since straight white men make up the majority of the authority . . . .


I will leave that thought unfinished.

Thanks, Bushido!

I later realized a bit of hypocrisy in my rant - I'm convinced that its in our cultures best interest for 'certain forms' of touch to be more accepted as non-sexual and appropriate in public, and yet I suggest homosexuals (and heterosexuals, too!) should be respectful of making others uncomfortable - but who decides where that line is drawn?

maybe my opinions about that line are just as arbitrary and prejudiced as those i'm criticizing.