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I'm not an atheist, but one of the scariest things I've ever heard is "Trust me. I'm a Christian". I always want to run when I hear that.

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A friend posted this to my Facebook today. I thought some here might enjoy.

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Try being an atheist while living in the Mississippi bible belt... The Baptists are relentless lol

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Luckily for me, almost everyone in college is an agnostic or atheist! :) It feels so nice to be open about it.

I too was shocked that so many bring religion into a medical procedure. Most surgeons I have met, I have met a lot trust me, are atheists. I remember some woman basing her surgeon on if he was a "good christian"! I thought that was so scary.

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I'm with you guys (and gals); banded but not sleeved-yet!

Atheist, but only occasionally militant.

As I like to say-I have a degree in philosophy so I can't be religious. I'm glad to see some non-believers here.

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And yet another non-believer checking in...

...from the Bible Belt...

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Two foundational stories:

  1. My parents exposed me to all major and most minor religions from a very young age and basically said, “So what do YOU think? What do YOU believe? What don’t YOU believe?” I have a very healthy life philosophy that evolves as I take in information, science and fact and find I don’t align myself with religion or labels.
  2. I was in a bicycle accident when I was a teen and severely damaged (shredded) my mouth, nose, lips, teeth, cheeks, eyes, etc. I went through18-months of facial and dental reconstructive surgeries. I am a bit of a, pardon the word, miracle as I healed beautifully and 99% of the public would never know that I was faceless from the ages of 13 to 15.

NOW, with that said, when I was having my first Psych eval for the Sleeve Surgery, the psychiatrist explained to me in the first three minutes that he had studied to be a priest but then became an evangelical minister. He asked if I prayed and when I explained my background, he said, “Oh! I was just wanting to see if you have a support system.” Then he asked if I’d had any previous surgeries. I said, “Yes, when I lost my face.” He jumped up with excitement as though he had hit the motherload and said, “YOU LOST YOUR FAITH! This is what you need the church for.”

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I'm a gay atheist with a sleeve...which makes me about as rare as a unicorn, I guess.

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Unmarried, over weight over 50 atheist female. So glad to meet all of you. Posting from Ohio, which is right up there in the religious or should I say non religious intolerance. Still in the pre-sleeve counseling stage and my psych also asked if I believed in a higher power because she was checking on my support system.

Glad to have found this forum. I expect it will be a year or so before my sleeving; I have some major control issues that have nothing to do with a "higher power."

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I wish some of you guys had bands instead of sleeves. The band site seems to have been taken over . We not only have religious threads in the appropriate place we have them in the general band support section too. And the worst part is that I am the only person who doesn't think it's appropriate.

Every time I read one of these so called inspirational posts I want to chuck.

Do people really think that God cares how much they weigh and that he/she/it is going to help them lose weight? If he/she/it really did exist then I am sure he would have far more important things to worry about - world peace, starvation,overpopulation , disease etc.

And if Believing in God is going to help make you successful then why was it necessary to get a band/sleeve to be able to do it.

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Somehow I missed this forum before. I saw the Christian one, and was like

"what the hell!" So yay! I'm glad not the only non-believer here. I used to have a bumper sticker on my mini-van that I used to own that said "We're all going to hell and I'm driving the bus."

I'm going to be sleeved in August, I'm married, no spawn (and never will be), bisexual.

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Religion has killed more people then any and all diseases known to man. What does that say about god.

I am happy to see others like me on this forum.

I too want to hurl when people post "its in god's hands now". Jeez

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I don't like to say I'm an atheist because I don't like to refer to myself in the negative. But no, I don't believe in god concepts. I find the whole idea illogical and rather silly.

However, since I'm surrounded by it all the time and I try to be positive, I've decided to find religion charming.

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Religion has killed more people then any and all diseases known to man. What does that say about god.

This is exactly what bothers me about religion. But I don't blame it on God, but rather on man. Religion is just another tool for a select few to control the many. They basically sell hope.

My father in law is a 78 year old fundamentalist baptist preacher. Makes for some interesting family dinners when someone asks me if I want to say grace. I start with..."Oh heavenly bunny rabbit..."

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A friend from college lost 40 pounds and kept it off through that Christian prayer diet book!

Is that a real thing? A prayer diet book? :huh:

I love when this thread turns up in my notifications again from time to time. :)

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      1. Phil Penn

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. LeighaTR

        I hope your surgery on Wednesday goes well. You will be able to do all sorts of new things as you find your new normal after surgery. I don't know this from experience yet, but I am seeing a lot of positive things from people who have had it done. Best of luck!

    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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