Atheist or Agnostic?

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I know, I know, you're never supposed to talk about religion or politics, right....

I'm really not trying to start a religious debate, but just get a sense of where people are at. I'm a first year student and an atheist, yet all my fellow students and the nurses I'm meeting are believers.

If and when I become an atheist nurse, am I going to find myself a fish out of water?

Specializes in ER/Trauma.
Can a Hindi nurse care for someone with Christian beliefs?
Not to be pedantic: But that would be a Hindu nurse.

Hindi is a language.

Sorry, it has always bothered me for some reason. Not slighting you at all :)

Back to your regular thread.

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do i feel like a fish out of water?

not really. we rarely - if ever - discuss religion. if it does comeup, we each participate as much we desire and leave it at that. it mostly just comes to

"so are you working christmas?"

"yeah."

"don't have family to go home to?"

"not really. i don't celebrate christmas"

"oh?"

"i'm an atheist"

"oh and i'm a catholic"

"oh good. so about that patient in 915..."

"yes, go ahead and call pharmacy"

that's about it :chuckle

he he i like that.

there are a lot of religious people where i work. ghhh... i try to keep my mouth shut when i hear them talking about it. sometime it's not easy if they expect me to share their view. i don't care what anyone believes in, as long they don't make me share it.

i watched one program on tv about brain "wiring". one part of our brain is responsible for "religion". so, it helps me to be more understanding and tolerant of my religious co-workers.

myself, i believe that there is another power that we can't explain yet and don't know exactly how it "operates" but it has nothing to do with pope.

from my observation "religious" doesn't necessarily mean honest, positive, or caring.

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Specializes in Pain Management.

I posted the clip as a joke and an extreme example of the people I have faced living in the bible belt...where I am moving back to in two months. In fact, the only two issues that are in the negative column for my move back is the religious fundamentalism and the racial bigotry (which oddly enough have the same root - ethnocentrism).

As someone else mentioned, it was from Wife Swap, a silly show on Fox that I never watch. My fiance just happened to turn the channel on when this episode was playing and we both had the deer-in-headlights expression on our faces for at least an hour.

But the episode had a happy ending: she decided to take the money left to her by the "dark" family and get a gastric bypass...

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I think the clip is interesting because some of us might consider the lady to be mentally ill while others might think she is just devout. It might or might not depend on where you are coming from religiously.

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I am agnostic but am quickly moving towards athiest. I was raised in a christian home and after seeing what is happening in our world right now, I don't think even a prayer is going to help. I do not share my beliefs with anyone at work but I have on many occasion been asked to pray with a family. I always do. I do not feel that my personal beliefs should be made apparent to my patients and their families. I do however find it disrespectful to walk away when someone wants me to pray with them. I respect others beliefs and I expect the same respect from others.

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I think the clip is interesting because some of us might consider the lady to be mentally ill while others might think she is just devout. It might or might not depend on where you are coming from religiously.

Devout - "expressing devotion, earnest, sincere".

Nothing about screaming at the top of your lungs scaring your kids to death.

She is mentally ill. Scary. Mean. Wrong. Destructive.

steph

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I am agnostic but am quickly moving towards athiest. I was raised in a christian home and after seeing what is happening in our world right now, I don't think even a prayer is going to help. I do not share my beliefs with anyone at work but I have on many occasion been asked to pray with a family. I always do. I do not feel that my personal beliefs should be made apparent to my patients and their families. I do however find it disrespectful to walk away when someone wants me to pray with them. I respect others beliefs and I expect the same respect from others.

Your attitude of respect towards others speaks volumes about you.

Thank you.

steph

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Devout - "expressing devotion, earnest, sincere".

Nothing about screaming at the top of your lungs scaring your kids to death.

She is mentally ill. Scary. Mean. Wrong. Destructive.

steph

I don't know. On a bad day I get this way about the war!

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I don't know. On a bad day I get this way about the war!

Yikes! Take another good look at that video. :eek:

Being passionate about something isn't the same as what I saw on the video.

steph

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Yikes! Take another good look at that video. :eek:

Being passionate about something isn't the same as what I saw on the video.

steph

Yeah, well, don't get me going on W...

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That woman has gone completely insane. What she did their has got nothing to do with Christianity.

It's people like her that I fear and hate the most. Extremism of any form is wrong, because it will always hurt someone else.

If you ask me, than extremist views/beliefs should be fought against in any way that is possible without compromising basic rights such as freedom of speech and religion.

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I think the clip is interesting because some of us might consider the lady to be mentally ill while others might think she is just devout. It might or might not depend on where you are coming from religiously.

remember the book/movie "cybil?" cybil's mother was also extremely devout.

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