My evangelical cousin is at death's door.

[TigressDem]

83. I'm often of two minds myself.

I know what I believe and why I do, but it's about making myself a better person - not forcing that on others.

I've also looked at the evolution of humanity and the part that various religions played in getting us civilized enough to find science and get morality into most laws. I don't think the 10 Commandments invented morality, but in each society we've evolved to believe that to survive together, people should not just walk up and kill each other for no reason as an example.

When I look at Christian Nationalism and America First, I see US devolving back to Klan mentality from days before we learned to work together and only trusted direct family and few others.

The contradiction of prayer is a bit simple for me. God isn't a short order cook AND we have free will that gets US into lots of troubles.

Some days what I realize is that prayer changes ME so I can be strong enough to live in this world and make a difference.

As long as my atheist friends only tease me a little about going to see "my imaginary friend" I am good.

I did stand up and walk out of a conversation when one person was getting into the "religion MUST BE RIDICULED" tirade. Because ridicule isn't really using ones logic, it's disrespectful. I don't tolerate that in my life anymore. My first husband tried to control me and even gave it a shot at killing me. So it was a necessary skill to develop. I give warnings if someone is crossing lines then leave the conversation because whatever disrespect looks like, it doesn't belong in my life.

A little teasing, I can live with. Laughing at oneself is a healthy skill to have. Some days we are all a little bit weird. But that's what makes life interesting.