The title of this study is Coping Strategies and Adjustment. The purpose of this study is to examine various ways in which people use individual coping strategies, including non-religious and religious ways, to facilitate overall life satisfaction and adjustment.

Your participation in this study is confidential and will involve completing a series of brief questionnaires to assess coping and problem-solving strategies. Participation will entail completing brief surveys and a demographic questionnaire that are available online at http:www.surveymonkey.com. There are no right or wrong answers in the surveys, so please be as honest as possible in responding to the individual items. Please be sure to respond to all survey items. Your participation will require at least 10 minutes of your time, but likely no longer than 30 minutes. In appreciation of your time, a monetary donation of $5 will be donated to a charity that you will specify at the end of the study as your preference to receive the donation.

The results of this study may be published in scientific research journals or presented at professional conferences. However, your name and identity will not be revealed and your record will remain anonymous. To protect your anonymity, no identifying information will be collected.

Participation in this study does not have a direct benefit to participants. While it is hopeful that you may gain insight from participation, it is not a guarantee. Participants may increase their knowledge of individual coping skills and problem-solving strategies. This might allow participants to become aware of various coping strategies and gain a better understanding of what strategies might be available. However, participation may benefit others as a small monetary donation will be made to a charitable/service organization that group members may select (e.g., Habitat for Humanity).

The risks to you as a participant are minimal. These risks may include mild boredom and/or discomfort with responding to sensitive items that probe for religiousness and/or lack of religiousness, as well as psychological adjustment.

They requested that I post this:

Hello to all,

I am writing to request your participation in my dissertation study “Coping and Adjustment.” In exchange for your participation, I will be donating $5 to a charitable organization of your choice. The choices are included at the end of the study. The study examines various ways in which people cope with stressors (including religious and non-religious ways) and how these relate to one’s happiness and life satisfaction. Additional information including final results can be obtained after the study. Thus far, participation has included individuals with religious/faith-based beliefs and those without such beliefs. My goal is to obtain representation from several individuals and groups that include varying ages, gender, religious affliations, social abilities, intellectual abilities, and so forth. Please consider participating in the study and please forward this to everyone that you think may wish to contribute by participating. Please remember, your participation is voluntary and that the study completion time is not expected to exceed 30min. Study completion time has been around 10-30 minutes.

You can access the study at the following link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=wp5LFvjXAooMReVkqxwaaw_3d_3d.

For any additional questions or information, please see webpage or contact the researcher at copingandadjustment@gmail.com or copingandadjustment@yahoo.com.

The way to identify the beast is by counting. In ancient times, letters of the alphabet served as numbers. The first nine letters stood for the numbers one through nine, and the next nine for the numbers ten through ninety, and so on. In Greek, the current alphabet did not have enough letters, so certain obsolete letters and signs supplemented the system. Every name yielded a number.

However, the identity of the person represented by the number 666 should not be a subject of speculation until that person arrives on the earthly scene. The person to whom 666 applies must have been future to apostle John’s time, because John clearly meant the number to be recognizable to someone. If it was not discernible to his generation, the generation to whom it will be discernible must have lain in the future. If 666 is the number of a future individual, attempts to identify past entities through the number are futile.

This is just sad. There is an entire Bible Prophecy class if you are so inclined.  How about judging the Bible in its historical context versus establishing basic human rights for all:

Often Bible verses that seem unfair or discriminatory to us need to be viewed within their historical or cultural context. For instance the Bible does not condemn slavery and in fact the Bible actually codifies the rules for keeping slaves. Today we find slavery abhorrent and for some of us the idea that the Bible codifies how slaves are to be treated is very upsetting. But in its historic and cultural context that codification of how slaves are to be treated was in fact a hard thing for people of that time to live up to. In other words, that codification made the life for the slave in Israel better than the slaves life would be someplace else.

Jesus H. Christ in a hand basket… slavery has always been abhorrent.  You think that GOD – the creator of the universe, good, evil, etc. would have clued humanity in a couple of millenia ago if it slavery was bad, right? This alone should invalidate the Bible for any right-minded person.  And then there is Gordon Atkinson who successfully made it out of the muck, but then slid back:

I looked in the restroom mirror and said, “I do not believe in God.” I knew this was the truth and felt the need to say it out loud. I was on the other side now. I was an unbeliever. It was like waking up in Tokyo and noticing to your great surprise that you’ve become Japanese. You weren’t raised in Japan, and you have no idea how to use chopsticks. What the hell are you gonna do with yourself? [Huh?]

It wasn’t the experience with Jenny [a woman that died of breast cancer that could not be saved with prayer] that caused my break with God. It was the kids in Mexico, my difficulty in believing parts of the bible, the phony Christians I met along the way, and the hundreds of prayers that seemed unanswered. Jenny was just the last ping of a hammer that had been working on my foundation for a long time.

It breaks my heart.  Here is a man that “works his ass off” [his words] helping people and doing good works, and then he gives the credit to God.  What the hell?!  Dude… there are plenty of people doing good in the world that are not beholden to mythology.  I wish you would reconvert to your birth state (non-believer, pre-brainwashing) and join us without the distraction of God looking over your shoulder.  I think meditation (aka prayer) is wonderful, but don’t pretend someone is listening.

This is so good, I can’t stand it.

God loves you… but he needs your money!

There is no Humpty Dumpty and there is no god.

Anonymity: Shield of the Atheist Blogger

What a shame that we can’t live openly as non-believers without it negatively affecting our livelihood in some way.

Last week we had a coworker emerge from surgery with favorable results.  One of the senior leaders in the company couldn’t resist but to publicly thank “the Lord” for the positive outcome via e-mail to a large distribution.  This was followed by a large number of Reply All e-mails with things such as “Amen”.  I wanted to reply, “Yes, we are very fortunate to live in the 21st century — medical technology has done wonders by allowing us to extend our lifespans and quality of life significantly.  We should all get together and thank the surgeon…”

Instead, I quietly rolled my eyes and got back to work.  I think I’ll be discrete for just a little longer.