Hello everybody.

BebekCucuk
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Hello everybody.

 

Greetings to all. I just joined and must say that I’m damned glad to be here and to have the opportunity to commune with like-minded others. A real quick snapshot bio:47-year old, divorced, ex-Army, life-long atheist.* No kids, but a cat.* I am currently back in school, attending Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, CO, for the purpose of obtaining a computer science degree and a new career.* My ex-wife is from Ankara, Turkey; we were married for a bit over 5 years, and are still close, good friends. The divorce was an unfortunate outcome of what we consider to be the unmitigated disaster known as the Bush presidency and the accompanying 8 years. I elaborate thusly…Fatma and I married in early 2001, neither one of us having received the memo on what was coming down the pike later that year. I had just taken a job as the caretaker of the Denver Scottish Rite Masonic Building, which came with a nice apartment on the premises. Fatma and I promptly took up residence, believing the future to be relatively secure. I tell myself and anybody that will listen that I thought that to be a realistic assumption due to the fact that I HAD been a member of the Masonic fraternity or some 11 years at that point, and was fairly advanced in standing and renown in several states.* So, shite happened, and thanks to the Bush-era BS societal malfunction better known as runaway Islamophobia, in 2003 I found myself out of a job, suddenly without friends and struggling to support a wife who took it all, on balance, better than I did. Nonetheless, subsequent to all this and more*, I suffered a breakdown and subsequently, our divorce. There followed a brief period where things were kinda touch-and-go for me, and now here I am in the present, halfway through an associate’s, aiming to continue on to a bachelor’s, and rinse-spin-repeat as long as the economy dictates it necessary. So, that out of the way, I look forward to getting to know as many of you as time and circumstances permit!* “Life-long” means since the age of sentience, for me being about 12.* Fatma (aka Fatosh) and I consider our cat, Mithras, our baby. * I have a couple MS Office certs, and am studying computer networking. Learning is fun! ; )* I am cursed with a seeming near-eidetic memory, and travelled a lot in Freemasonry thanks to my uncanny ability to deliver pages-long speeches by memory. Not forgetting = not fun. : (* Further details can/might be provided upon request.

 


Ken G.
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Hi.

   Hi ! That was quite a introduction. A Masonic fraternity,what was that like ? Are there rituals,sacrifice's.I live in Philly and there 's a huge Masonic Temple in center city.I once took a tour of it,and man,the wood carving's are very impressive.

Signature ? How ?


Jeffrick
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From Canada---Toronto area

 

    Welcome on board, I'm  sure you'll enjoy the forums.   I had some minor problems after 9/11 with my wife, nothing as serious as yours though.  She is from a Hindu family in south America.  I have been asked meny times if she is of Muslim background,  that is something  that was never asked in the 12 years we were together before 9/11.

"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."

VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"

If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?


BebekCucuk
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Hey, thanks for the welcome.

Ken- Well, let's see, I got to 32nd degree and in a couple of invite-only organizations and never saw any sacrifices- until my own, that is. ; ) But seriously, until my misfortunes I thought Freemasonry was a lot of fun, overall. There were a lot of rituals, but all on the up and up. Any more, though, my policy is to avoid anything and everything in any remote way of a cultural, social nature here in the US. Maybe an over-reaction, but...

 

Jeffrick- I am sorry that you had to experience anything at all like that. Please excuse the guess, but your wife is from Guyana? 


butterbattle
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Welcome!  

Welcome!

 

 

Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare


BebekCucuk
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HI!

Hi butterbattle. : )


Wonderist
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Hi BebekCucuk! I also had a

Hi BebekCucuk! I also had a 'breakdown' of my own, related to work/life a couple years back. On the other side of it, I'm glad I did, since I can now start living my life more in synch with my personal well-being.

By the way, I thought the Masons required members to believe in a god. Did they know you were atheist? Did you hide it? Am I wrong on that detail?

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BebekCucuk
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Your understanding is accurate.

Hi natural!

Yes, there is a time-honored Masonic tradition to require a stated belief in a god upon joining. However- and this is a rather big "but"- because membership has been declining for so long, that is not an issue that really comes to the fore much beyond the ormality of so stating during the entry period. The day-to-day operation of any lodge or other masonic body requires so much work that what happens is that there will be cliques where god is more or less important to each different group. In other words, there are what we called "god squads", and then there's everybody else running the show or just having fun.

And I can understand what you mean about living life after a period of intense hardship. Nice to meet you.


Vastet
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Welcome to the site! Enjoy

Welcome to the site! Enjoy yourself!

 

But not too much. Evil

Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.


BebekCucuk
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Vastet wrote:Welcome to the

Vastet wrote:

Welcome to the site! Enjoy yourself!

 

But not too much. Evil

Thanks! I will, and I won't. At least I'll do my best on the "won't" part!


Luminon
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Welcome! I wonder, what (if

Welcome! I wonder, what (if anything) does your nickname mean in the Turkish language?



Ken G. wrote:

   Hi ! That was quite a introduction. A Masonic fraternity,what was that like ? Are there rituals,sacrifice's.I live in Philly and there 's a huge Masonic Temple in center city.I once took a tour of it,and man,the wood carving's are very impressive.

I am curious too. According to my information, Freemasonry contains some elements of the self-developing process known as Initiation, which I personally pursue also. I just don't know how much it got distorted or forgotten since the old times. For example, Christianity got this symbolically acted out in the Gospel story, so there's it still recognizably preserved.


 

Beings who deserve worship don't demand it. Beings who demand worship don't deserve it.


BebekCucuk
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Hello Luminon.

I was wondering when/if someone would ask about that.

BebekCucuk comes from bebek meaning 'baby' and kucuk meaning 'smallest'. In my nick, I misspelled kucuk as cucuk- that was because I was tired. It's a reference to one of my wife's favorite stuffed animals.

Note- Kucuk is pronounced ku-chuk.

As to your query on Freemasonry- your information is also correct concerning Initiation and self-development. Honestly, I don't know how much has been distorted from long ago either. All I can say is that, as I suppose with any other large, far-flung organisation, Freemasonry is viewed and used today by and in varying degrees (no pun intended) of seriousness, even by some Freemasons. Try to keep that in mind when reading and or talking to people about it.

Cheers.