Not cynical at all, Suzi.

Just today we were watching a French comedy and I felt like crying, for it depicted the absurd extremes people (specially women) go to in order to have what they deem an acceptable image.

The women in the film went through extreme "one-food-at-a-time-only" diets, spent days in bed drinking only soup for better drainage results, were laughed at or sneered at when asking for their size in some fashion boutiques...The list of humiliation, pain and insults endured was endless and left them feeling dejected, forever hungry, faint and depressed, even to the point of trying to commit suicide.

How anyone could turn all these very real problems into a comedy is beyond me: I found it absolutely tasteless and tactless.  

My point being, this is the result of mass media brain washing, and killing people every year, getting worse and worse, making people into monsters by going in for needless operations. I could cry with frustration every time I think of it, because we are powerless to stop it  

Why, Looking Glass, where have you read a denigration of God anywhere in these posts? I am only saying there is no way I can make it a real concept for me no matter how hard I try: it has never been a part of me and it would be artificial to adopt it now.

Looking Glass we would need to disagree there, It would only denigrade god if you believed in him.  As not all the population believes in god its only denigration to those who believe in god.  In todays era we have a wider scope of what to believe and not believe its not like previous era's where I would be disgraced in public for being an unbeliever and shunned in society.  The difference also is that some people who believe in god still feel compelled to pursue those who do not believe in god and show them the error of their ways and there is no laws against this.  This is like aversion therapy and puts many people off the idea of ever contemplating that there might be a god.

I could not have put it better myself, Zisco! I feel like believers are continually in need of defending their point even if it means telling us others that we are wrong, oh, so wrong. It seems to me like my not believing is seen as an insult by believers because, how can someone even contemplate not believing?

Well, if believers ask for our respect, and I agree they deserve as much respect as any other human being, then I feel entitled to expect as much respect from them. Are they ready to grant it, Looking Glass, or will they keep pointing their finger to those of us hated pagans and atheists? Well, not necessarily one or the other. Agnostics do not attack the idea of God: we just do not care about it one way or the other. Is that so hard to understand? What I am very much against is powerful people using religion to intimidate the poor and the uneducated so they will be forever under their power.

I may not have written my words as I wanted to convey them. I mean to say that I believe it is a mistake to use the negative attributes that religion can bring as an argument against the idea of a god existing. Btw, I have no problems with anyone not believing in god. After all, it is everyone's choice. I just think that using the crimes of some religions or some people is a lame excuse that some use. It is true that there are atrocities, but let us look at each person and their choices.

Btw, caring and believing are two very different things. ;)