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Welcome to The Secular Gospel According to Jess! In this blog you’ll find everything from cartoons that make me laugh, to quotes that inspire me, to stories of my own personal experience when it comes to dealing with religion and pretty much everything in between. The title of my blog is intended to be ironic, as one doesn’t often hear the word, “gospel”, associated with secularism, but my intent is to preach, for lack of a better word, what I think gospel should really be about: love, rationalism, fairness, equality, human rights, science and truth. Enjoy!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

There's life, and then there's LIVING...


“It seems to me that almost all our sadnesses are moments of tension, which we feel as paralysis because we no longer hear our astonished emotions living. Because we are alone with the unfamiliar presence that has entered us; because everything we trust and are used to is for a moment taken away from us; because we stand in the midst of a transition where we cannot remain standing. That is why the sadness passes: the new presence inside us, the presence that has been added, has entered our heart, has gone into its innermost chamber and is no longer even there, - is already in our bloodstream. And we don't know what it was. We could easily be made to believe that nothing happened, and yet we have changed, as a house that a guest has entered changes. We can't say who has come, perhaps we will never know, but many signs indicate that the future enters us in this way in order to be transformed in us, long before it happens. And that is why it is so important to be solitary and attentive when one is sad: because the seemingly uneventful and motionless moment when our future steps into us is so much closer to life than that other loud and accidental point of time when it happens to us as if from outside. The quieter we are, the more patient and open we are in our sadnesses, the more deeply and serenely the new presence can enter us, and the more we can make it our own, the more it becomes our fate.”
-Rainer Maria Rilke

Friday, March 30, 2012

Hate is not an option, love is the only way.


I found this somewhere and I resonated with me, so I'm sharing it:

"I feel as though I have to say something here.
Nobody should ever feel alone, but truth is, many of us will at one point or another, whether or not we show that to those around us.
There is never an excuse for bullying. Not being able to accept someone for who they are is one thing, criticizing them because they aren't you or who you think they should be is another.  
Words will forever resinate with a person, and the hurt has the ability to serve as a reminder for the rest of someone's life to not socialize, trust, or even love freely.
Take the time to get to know a person before you judge them.
It is up to an individual who they choose to love, what they aspire to be, how they want to eat, and whatever they might do with the rest of their lives. It is easy to say that your words can either make or break someone's vision of his or her dream.  

urge each and every one of you to go out and introduce yourself to someone that doesn't look like the typical person you'd socialize with.  This can be anywhere: the coffee shop, in line at the grocery, or even telling the person at the gas pump across from you "hope you have a great day".  

Realize you can be that one person to change a person's life, and maybe even save him or her from oneself."

Hate is not an option.  Love is the only way

Friday, February 17, 2012

The skeptic.

"The skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches, as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found."

-Miguel de Unamuno