On one of my recent regular walks, I got to thinking about the topic of religion. The subject is not one that takes up much of my time in a normal day, week, month or year. One of the advantages of being an atheistic agnostic (more on that in a moment), is the amazing amount of time that is freed up. It is extremely rare, for example, for me to consider what God might think about anything.
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| My 14-year-old, questioning self. |
I was raised vaguely Christian. What I mainly mean by that, is that we celebrated Christmas and Easter. For a short time, Mom took to reading Bible stories to my brother and I, but no more often than she read from Edgar Allen Poe or other authors. She later told me she couldn't very well sell me something she didn't completely buy herself.
Several years passed, with little more religious influence other than saying a brief "grace" at the table. Even my maternal Grandmother who was allegedly religious, rarely said much about it.
When I was 14 years old I realized I was. . .what? An atheist? An agnostic? I didn't have a real clue yet, but I knew I wasn't a typical "believer" in much of anything. So, I started on a mission to find out. What I did know was, the more I read the Bible (and I think I read most of it that year), the more it didn't ring true to me. I was in confirmation classes with some friends at the local Lutheran church. But as the actual confirmation approached, I had to bail out. Even at 14, I just couldn't go through with a religious ritual that I had no faith in.
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| My pastor was very nice. That wasn't the problem. |
So I pursued atheism. I subscribed to American Atheist Magazine, and watched the local Cable Access show by the Columbus chapter. I learned a lot there too, and didn't find a lot to argue with. But the Atheists seemed just a tad too hardline to me. They were as rigid and outspoken about their beliefs as the overtly religious people I'd encountered. I might not believe in any particular religion, but I had no way of proving there was absolutely NOTHING that was supernatural . I'm way too open to various paranormal ideas: ghosts, telepathy, telekinesis, poltergeists, UFOs, Bigfoot. . . OK, I don't believe in all that, but I'm not ready to reject them all out of hand, either. I do feel like there is some mystery out there, and I don't know what it is. And neither do you. I've settled on the term atheistic agnostic. It's as good a description as any.
I am atheist as it pertains to religion. I don't give serious thought to the realness of any religion I've ever heard of. I'm agnostic toward those other things I mentioned, preferring to believe that some of those "paranormal" things could exist, but that they certainly have (currently unknown) scientific explanations.
My (non-) religious outlook has of course affected my views on politics, and life in general. While I do my best to respect others' religions, I don't get much of that respect in return. Many influential people are trying their damnedest to insert Christianity into law. To hell (literally!) with atheists, agnostics, non-Christians, the lot. The previous presidential administration has probably done more than any other to entwine religion and politics. And not just religion, but a specific, evangelical form of Christianity. The GOP candidates on deck aren't any different. They claim it was how America was founded, but it was not. This as much as anything is what has earned them my antipathy.
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| The most PhotoShop-ready photo I've ever seen. |
• The earth, sun and stars being set into the firmament, which has windows to let the rain in.
• The story of Jonah and the whale.
• The story of Noah's ark.
• The idea that the creator of the universe cares what we do with our body parts.
• The salvation story (God killing his son, who is part of himself, so that he can forgive humans. WHAT?).
• Blaming humanity for the actions of Adam and Eve.
• Just about everything about Adam and Eve, particularly punishing innocent beings for being fooled by a talking snake.
• The talking snake.
• An all knowing, all seeing, all powerful, all good (but sometimes bad) eternal, invisible, intangible being.
• The fact that this amazing superhero deity has the generic name "God."
| Michele Bachmann and her totally not gay husband, Marcus |
In my experience, the more overtly a person declares their religion, the more likely they are to be utter creeps. Televangelists (with their many scandals) are a good example of this. Which is why I get a little shudder of schadenfreude whenever one like Ted Haggard meets his fate.
But the biggest problem with being an atheistic agnostic is that we don't have a pride parade. Sure, we probably won't have an openly gay president for many, many years. But it will probably come sooner than an avowed atheist. Funny thing, though. I moved to Las Vegas almost 17 years ago. And the makeshift family that I've managed to build is majority non-religious. Most outright atheists. Unlike me, most of them come from very religious upbringings, largely Catholic, some Mormon. That is a journey that is more courageous to my way of thinking. That's a lot of baggage to dump.
So here I am, a double-minority (atheistic agnostic, gay) and a double majority (white, male). Some of my friends and family might laugh when I say I can pass for straight, but I can certainly pass for Christian, and have. This does put me in a unique position for people like myself. Whereas the homophobic bigots on FreeRepublic.com can only speculate about the motivations of gays and atheists (and boy do they get it wrong), gays and atheists and gay atheists live in a society where the default is heterosexual and religious. They don't know us unless we announce ourselves. And no matter how much they don't want us to do it, I think we need to start announcing ourselves.
Like you, I went through Lutheran confirmation classes, and I began to question established church doctrine when the pastor refused to answer my questions about Cain and the people of the land of Nod (the ones who knew not to kill him because of the mark God put on his forehead -- who were they and where did they come from?). I read the Bible and also a fair amount of scholarship about the Bible and its probable authors, and my beliefs have evolved to a more Deist and Unitarian philosophy. I think religion is meant to be a model for explaining aspects of the universe that we cannot yet understand scientifically. I'm impressed that the Biblical 6-days creation story closely parallels the order of cosmology and evolution as it is now understood. I'm equally impressed by the Hindu concept of Shiva's dance, wherein all matter is simultaneously created and destroyed. Religion should evolve as our understanding of the world evolves, and it should complement science rather than stand opposed to it. For me, God is equivalent to the force that triggered the Big Bang. Organized religion, however, tends to be more concerned with asserting authority on behalf of the people in charge of the church.
ReplyDeleteAn aside about your comment on the generic name "God" -- ancient cultures believed that saying a being's true name gave you power over it. That belief is echoed in the Genesis account of God giving Adam dominion over the creatures of the Earth -- Adam gave each creature its name. Priest-magicians in other ancient religions invoked their gods' names in order to perform magic -- to force the god to do the priest's will. The God of Israel was different in that he refused to reveal his name and thus remained all-powerful. When Moses asked his identity, he replied "I Am That I Am" (which sounds like a quote from Popeye but in Hebrew is rendered as YHWH). The Kabbalah is a form of medieval Jewish mysticism that is concerned with learning the true names of God in order to gain mystical abilities.
Thanks, Jill, for reading, and for your contribution. Yeah, I realize that "God" isn't really the deity's naame. But many Christians don't seem to know that, when they say that "god damn," for example, is "taking the Lord's name in vain."
ReplyDeleteAnd how weird that many Jewish people will write the word "G-d." Which is precisely as goofy to me as God's generic name!
All of that said, I still love Christmas!
The one common theme for all religions is fear.
ReplyDeleteAs we evolved we needed to figure out what caused sickness & death. What caused day, night, cold, hot, lightening, volcanoes, tidal waves, earthquakes & the like? When life was lost to these natural occurrences our fearful instincts controlled our reaction.
As scared, self-centered humans we determined that there must be an outside, unseen force acting upon us (as rightfully observed in their eyes). No other explanation could be fathomed.
Imagine a few thousand years ago if the sky opened up & a bolt of lightening shoots down & kills fifteen members of your family/tribe right in front of you... You are forced to think "What the fuck just happened??!! Why??".
We are also naturally self-loathing so we assumed that is was something we did that forced this chaos upon us. And in asking that question & determining the answer we looked to other humans & eventually were blessed with religious leaders to quantify it for us. Power.
Fear is an ingrained emotion in all animals; Which makes it a perfect vehicle for power. If a priest, pastor, father, nun, cleric, etc., can keep the fear in you alive, they will always be able to feed upon it & maintain their power.
Science has proven that many of the things we once misunderstood were natural, explainable, testable & provable. So the religious leaders are forced to prey upon new fears to keep religion alive, powerful & profitable. Emotional.
Homosexuality is a great example of a new fear.
As a young monkey I was physically tossed out of Baptist school in 3rd grade. I never understood one single thing I was told to do in that school except recess. Long story...
What did happen after all of that was that it eventually inspired me to actually read the bible. (Whose version I read I was not positive of at the time.) Since I have read the Book of Mormon, the Teachings of Buddha, studied Deist philosophy & have essentially read the Cliff's Notes version of most other large religions. I cannot claim to be scholarly or deeply educated in any religious practice or subject.
However, I do consider myself a consummate observer & listener of humans & human nature.
And genetically I believe I got lucky with a logical, questioning brain.
Thanks for weighing in, Monkey. In a pretty strong demonstration of that fear, religon sets down rules about what you can and cannot eat; how you can and cannot dress; and most importantly how, when and who you f**k. What else but fear could get people to follow those rules?
ReplyDeleteI am a Catholic and I actually believe in most of their beliefs. However, i can understand how people believe in different religions including atheists. You have to believe in something and atheists also believe in something. The beleive there is no God.
ReplyDeleteSo, i won't condem someone for their religous beliefs unless it hurts someone. That is why I despise Islam and their treatment of women, gays and Christians.
I also don't like those religions who push their religions on other people, like the Mormons.
But if you want to be an atheist, God bless you. (sorry, too tempting)but most people couldn't care less and they shouldn't.
Thanks, Dan, but you haven't quite got it. Atheism is to religion as bald is to hair color. It is the absence of a belief in a deity, not a belief system in itself.
ReplyDeleteFor me, there is no doctrine, no edicts, no commandments, no meeting place, no hymns, no events or picnics, no camp, no scripture, no figurehead. If we divided up a typical person's life into wedges, you'd have a thick slab of religion. I'd have no slab of atheism. Am I making sense?
No, but you got me hungry.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you do have a belief- not in a god but a belief there is no god or whatever.
Everyone has a belief in something. In politics you have liberal or conservative or something else.
The things you described-edicts-commandments etc are in some religions and not others. But athiests do have groups that have the same beliefs that you do. Annie Laurie Gaylor of Madison runs one group and there are other groups. So, you are not alone in your beliefs.
Further, most typical people, and of course there are exceptions, most do not have a thick slice of bacon, err religion.
But again, believe what you want, means nothing to me, though you would probably have a few Mormons and Baptists praying for you.
Dan, I'm still not getting through.
ReplyDeleteAtheism is more like quitting smoking. I used to be a Christian, and I used to be a smoker. I quit both. I don't have a new, different category of religion, I've eliminated the category. I'm not addicted to NOT smoking!
Yes, some atheists belong to organizations, and are active spreading the (non-) word. Most of us don't. Most of us barely think about the subject except in forums like this one.
Incidentally, the commenting in Google Blogger still doesn't work for me in Internet Explorer or AOL, you? I just had to retype my reply because it was eaten in IE.
ReplyDeletei haven't had any problems, but I noticed that there is a redirecting comment when I post on my blog.
ReplyDeleteNo problems with your blog and I use IE from about 10 AD. (actually, my computer is about 8 years old)