Had a great visit / discussion with reps from the local chapter of Atheists United last night.

[pinto]

They have a booth every Thursday at our downtown Farmers' Market. I hadn't been to the market for a long time - it's extremely crowded, wall to wall people. Last night was relatively slow though so I took the opportunity to wander, sample local produce, buy some stuff, etc.

Anyway, it was a good wide ranging discussion among four of us. A couple self identified as atheist, a gentleman as agnostic and I as a cultural Catholic, not very active in the Church and basically agnostic. Not much talk about those definitions but a lot about separation of church/state issues at play today and the relevance allegory plays in society overall.

We shared strong support for the separation issues, with some debate about how to best go about promoting them in today's context. We differed a lot on the role allegory plays in modern terms. I tended to see religious and secular allegory, in all media in a similar light. They, not so much and they made some good points about the "baggage" that accompanies faith based allegories.

In all, an engaging time. We agreed to agree and disagree, so to speak. May go by an open pot-luck they have every month here in town. Plan on inviting my friend, who is clear, up front about her atheism and likes to talk about stuff related to the whole range of positions out there.

And she loves pot-lucks. A vegan, the dish she brings is her insurance that she will have a plate at the table. There are more choices nowadays, but she still makes sure.

[cbayer]

1. That sounds great and I hope you will have more opportunities to talk with them

Nothing like a good pot luck to bring people together. How can you hate them when you love their potato salad, lol!

[Warren Stupidity]

2. The vegan at the pot luck dinner!

I can relate to that experience.

[pinto]

3. She has a routine down for get togethers. Either a vegan casserole type dish, that she does well,

or a bunch of sides to set out with the main plates. In a pinch, she carries individual serving size containers of stuff that fits her fare.

We go way back. Have gotten together for Catholic midnight mass in the past. She liked the pageantry, sees it as theater. As do I in many ways. Can be blunt at times. LOL, she's often turned to me in a group setting and said, "pinto, I'm going there". Or, "pinto would you go get a couple of glasses of wine for us?" Something we chuckle about later.

An odd couple of friends in a way. At one point when my sister mentioned that she and pinto are coming for dinner, which is very common - a Boston relative went, "I thought he was gay?" My sister laughed, "Well, yeah. They do a lot of stuff together and she's become part of the family."

Diversity lives.