Hey, you all must know Possummomma (aka, Atheist in a mini van) — she’s got a great blog, she’s an outspoken, positive atheist, and she’s one of those excellent representatives of atheist family values. She’s not doing well right now, and is struggling with lupus. Berlzebub is organizing donations to help her out, so if you’ve got a little bit to spare, please do contribute to a member of our godless community.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
This (actual link via PZ’s entry on it) is what I most remember.
I’ve been a fan of Possummomma since I came across that “a kid couldn’t have written this” story. I will help in the ways I can and I encourage others to do so as well. She’s one of the best and a great example of a happy godless family.
P’momma is a cherished part of my daily reading list. I am a single (and proudly godless) father of three, and it’s always refreshing to read what’s on her mind.
I’ll echo Bacopa: a great example indeed.
Thanks for the heads up, PZ. Always like to help my fellow humans when I can, and I have learned a lot through your blog and the many intelligent regular commentors you have. Not sure
what I think about the whole God thing anymore, but I enjoy the hearty debate, and appreciate the atheists who have expanded my knowledge on a whole range of topics.
I’d love to help, although in all fairness, I’m not entirely comfortable making a deposit in a Paypal account.
Is there a way to send Possummomma a check directly?
I sent PossumMomma a donation thru Paypal. I’ve used PP before, with no problems. If you check through Berlzebub’s posts on the topic, I think there’s an email link where you can get info for where to send PMomma a check, if you prefer.
I’ll be donating once PayPal and I have finished our normal wrestling match. It usually takes a couple of hours spread over a couple of days to convince it I exist, but I’m sure that if I send a check in Canadian dollars, someone, somewhere will clip as much as they can off in service charges.
I know what it’s like to be in pain and overwhelmed, although I didn’t have money problems on top of that (Thanks, Dad, wherever you are), and my problems are orders of magnitude less difficult to manage. Also, being Canadian, I don’t have large medical bills to worry about.
So, if a little money will improve her quality of life and remove some of the stress, I’m happy to do it. Us atheists have to stick together.
Besides, it makes me feel like I’m giving the finger to the ‘Christian’ whose help consisted of telling her that finding god would solve all her problems. She’s the kind of Christian that gives the other 2% a bad name!
For atheist students who may be in need, American Atheists offer a small grant for community activism.
http://www.atheists.org/family/html/scholarship.html
So it’s not just my account to which it does that then! It can take a similar amount of trouble and time to convince it the destination exists too though. :-/
Luckily Paypal doesn’t give me any trouble!
FOR ALL THOSE NOT IN THE USA:
You can donate through Paypal in USD no matter what your currency is. Very useful, especially as the GBP is strong at the moment!
Not generally having a community of support for this sort of thing is one of the aspects of Christianity that I have missed most since becoming an atheist (the other one is music). In retrospect, I’m thinking I became a Christian in the first place in large part because I was attracted by their sense of community (at least as displayed by the bunch of highschoolers I encountered). So it’s good to have the opportunity to do more than just lament the situation and put my money where my mouth is.
Or more accurately, I put my money where my mouse is, and donated through PayPal. (As a Canadian with lots of US relatives (including a son at university) I have found out the hard way that many, if not most US banks don’t deal well with “foreign” cheques/checks. If they don’t refuse outright, they often charge ridiculous service fees (>$10), as well as putting a hold on the funds for several weeks.)
the doc gave me the long face a yr ago
iam dope sick help me help me
i got liver cancer. thats what killed my wife
also full blown diabetes my feet and toes are black
also my back has colapsed discs my rent is 870 my ssi check
871 so before you start callin me bi-polar ass wipe
you better no the score.
Dungeon for TL (#12), please? It’s been by turns randomly insulting and irrelevant for awhile now.
it is all true a egghead hacked my computer
knows my mame were i live think iam lyin i aint being
tl now
14 iam really sick with diabetes also liver cancer doc said
mabe 6-months ask egghead run a background check
point iam tryin to make is iam an atheist who needs help
iget an ssi check of 871 my rent is 870
also i HAVE collapsed disc plus arthritus in my back
its alltrue egghead just mad because i made fun of his
ward cleaver referrence also my WIFE did DIE FROM LIVER CANCER
FROM HEP C NOW DO YOU THINK I SHOULD BE BANNED?
Thanks for the linking, PZ. It’s been a big help in getting enough to help her out.
Also, I’d like to thank all of your readers who came over and contributed. I’ll be posting this evening about how big of a difference they’ve made.
Reading the comments, and seeing the gigantic upswing in donation amounts, makes me proud of being a member of the “atheist community”. We work together for the benefit of a person we haven’t met. Not for thanks or rewards (although Pmomma has been very verbal about how gratified she is), but because we are people who care about others. Not because a god tells us to do it, or for recognition of ourselves or a church (read the comments on Pmomma’s blog by ‘Jennifer’ and her husband ‘Coop’, now both banned because they were obnoxious twits), simply for the pleasure of doing good and helping people.
Maybe getting atheists to work together is like herding cats, but boy, when we work together, we can accomplish a lot.
Dawn @18,
without thinking there’s anything at all wrong in what you say, it’s possible that not everybody who has donated to Berlzebub’s campaign is a member of the atheist community. (It’s also possible that any such non-atheist donors gave for precisely the same reasons the atheist donors gave.)
more true storys, at age 19 i found my father dead in a mission street bar thats IN SAN FRANCISCO OD WITH THE TIE AND SPIKE STILL IN HIS ARM GEE THAT WAS FUN THEN MY TWIN BROTHER RIGHT BEFORE ARE 30TH BIRTHDAY HUNG HIMSELF FROM
A BELT GUESS WHO FOUND HIM? THEN MY BELOVED WIFE CAROLYN
DIES FROM HEP C I GOT MORE FUN STORYS IF YOU WANT THEM?
TL —
is it your liver cancer or your diabetes that has destroyed your ability to spell and capitalise properly?
I know I really shouldn’t be feeding you, but your many misfortunes have inspired me to take pity on you and pass along a very sound piece of advice from the old usenet days: no matter what you think, not all attention is good attention.
Mrs Tilton – I stand (sit – since I’m at work) corrected, and I didn’t mean to exclude the many others, christian, nonchristian believers, nonbelievers who have all contributed. I had just read Berlzebub’s post about herding cats and had that in my mind. Mea Culpa!! Thanks for catching that.
Dawn @22,
most donors to this campaign probably are atheists, actually, as most will have heard of the campaign from Berl’s and then PZ’s websites, and I imagine both sites have a heavily atheist readership.
But there might well also be nonatheist donors. And sometimes nonatheists help out for the same reason atheists help out — not because some old book tells them to, or because they will earn brownie points from their deity, but because if you learn somebody needs help and are in a position to do so, if you’re a decent person (or aspire to be one), you help them.
It’s a human impulse, and one that we should all try to follow, and to encourage in others, whatever they might or might not believe about supernatural beings. Goodness knows there are enough human impulses, all too often given in to, that we should be ashamed of. So it’s all the nicer to see the occasional positive one come to the fore.
ha ha a xtian bit ever herd of the beat writers
mrs t iam a negative atheist iam quite healthy
thank you ijust hate ward cleaver atheists
what a maroon NINCOMPOOP!!!!!
Beat on the brat.
lobobtomy by a knock-out mr t what a xtian boob
i was hOPIN to get a ward cleaver atheist though
you guys are such nincoomp!ops HA! ha!HA! ha!
WITH A BASEBALL BAT FAR-REY FOX
FAR OUT REY-FOX I DIG YA MAN
these square eggheads give us cool beat atheists such a bad name!
#17, #18 #19 + ward cleaver= WANKERS GOT YA!
OH CANT SPELL THAT THE BEST YOU GOT? ALSO A BIG FUCK-YOU #14
my beloved carolyn oh that 1 hurt but ya how it how it flows when do- in the zonk
you gals are sooo stuiped my father is alive and spoils me rotten- johnny that tis never had a brother see i was
hatcHed man! guess i aint gonna get no hand outs from you
libruls huh? man i was cookin i got sooo much money
aND IT ALL GOES IN THAT COOKER- GET IT WARD! OH HOWS THE BEAVER
YEAH BET YOU DIDNT GET NO PUSSY TILL U WERE MARRIED RIGHT?
BAN ME NOW ASShOLE EYE JUS TORE U A BIG WON! TKO
WELL IF BEN STIEN CAN FOOL YOU! WHEN IN ROME HAHAHAA
GLOAT GLOAT GLOAT EASY MARK! GOT STUIPED STAMPED ON YO head? YUP…..GLOOOAT GLOAT………..AHHHHHHHAAAAAAAA
Teenage Lobotomyi: this has gone far enough. Stop now. Any more of these incoherent, obnoxious comments and you’re gone.
Unfortunately, the various sick-in-the-head people keep turning up over at Possummomma’s too. Eg the latest mindless tormentor: “mayyoursoulsleep”.