Lay Theism

To help you celebrate Easter next year, here is a wonderful batch of Easter greetings for your loved ones… 

A friend of mine sent me a couple of these irreverent e-cards that definitely got a chuckle out of me.  These folks don’t seem to sit firmly in the non-belief camp, but whomever wrote these cards doesn’t take religion too seriously:

Let’s just relax tonight and watch The Passion of the Christ

 

There are few former carpenters I admire more than Jesus Christ and Harrison Ford

 

I hope the abundant Easter symbols of fertility and rebirth will remind us to fuck like bunnies

 

Sorry the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise means I’m saved and you’re not

 

Adorable candy will help distract us from the astounding horror of a man being nailed to a cross

 

The Easter Bunny still scares the living shit out of me

 

I’d love to decorate Easter eggs with you or a slightly better artist

 

Happy Easter from one lapsed Catholic to another

 

Please join us for Easter dinner unless you’ve already committed to Satan

 

Let’s resume everything we gave up for Lent without any newfound spiritual insights

 

Easter may be the wrong time to tell my parents you’re a Jew

 

Drag a pagan to church this Easter

 

After Jesus, you’re my second-favorite Jew

 

I wish the resurrection of our lord and savior was deemed important enough for a day off work

And the only one that actually made me laugh out loud (not Easter themed):

Have a happy Hanukkah, Hannukkah, Chanukkah, or however the fuck you spell it 

Thanks someecards.com — keep up the good work.

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I wanted to blog on this real quick before it gets stale.  To honor my parents, I went to church today… it was utterly painful.  My parents live in another state, so it has been fairly easy to avoid church on major holidays for several years. To be in an Easter service for the first time since I am a confirmed* atheist was fascinating.  We attended one of the small-sized Methodist churches in my area, as I have several times, but this was the first time in this church.  They had removed most of the decorations from the sanctuary to symbolize the day Jesus died as well as covering the cross with a black sheet.  Then after some singing and Bible scripture recitation, with the organ music swelling, they brought everything back in and pulled the cloth from the cross on the wall… RESURRECTION!

Then the pastor proceeded to weave this tale about how the women that went to the tomb looking for Jesus were looking in the wrong place.  He tried to create these clever ideas to indicate that they should have never expected him there.  Duh!  He’s the son of God…  why would his broken body be lying in a tomb?  But then again, why didn’t he rise where everyone would see vs. in cover of night??  Wouldn’t that have solidified the event once and for all? But it was odd because he painted the picture of how implausible all this was as if to say, “… and because it’s so completely implausible makes it that much more miraculous!”  He confirmed for me that it’s all simple-minded mythology created by early man with virtually no understanding of the natural world.  That makes SO much more sense.  Think about it.

Anyway, I won’t belabor this as it was tiresome enough sitting through it…

The one bright spot is that as we are riding in the car, out of the blue my wife says, “I can’t believe people believe that crap.”  To which I said, “I know… it’s all very weird.”  Then we proceeded to have a light conversation about how wasteful and counterproductive it is to believe that god has a plan, and that everything happens for a reason, and all the silly shit that religious people believe.  We never really talked a lot about religion before we married, but we have come along to our current state of non-belief at about the same pace.  It’s really interesting, because we rarely talk about it, but when it comes up, we always seem to be in the same place.  I love her very much and having put religion (mostly) behind us has freed us up to concentrate on much more productive, earthly pursuits.  If we only have to attend church every few years while our parents are still with us, then so be it.  Worst case, it’s a nice refresher on why we don’t attend church.

Good luck to you on your quest for meaning and happiness.  You might try this as a starting point.

*If you haven’t been keeping up, I finally woke up within the past year and realized that I don’t believe one shred of the supernatural mumbo-jumbo that has been spoon fed to me since I was born. As far as my confirmation, after doubting for years and then studying non-belief by reading many of the excellent sources available, I became convinced… and that pretty much confirmed it.

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I wrote a while back about the inadequacy of the study by Bruce Hunsberger and Altemeyer of non-believers entitled Atheists.  In fact, the subtitle of their book is at best misleading because of the focus on the atheists in only three samples. Their surveys were very well written, but their samples were terrible. But that was another day (more here).

Today, I want to point out an impressive study with a strong methodology, large sample (35,000), and fascinating conclusions.  The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has just completed a tremendous survey of religion in the United States and has revealed exactly what I suspected (emphasis mine):

More than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion – or no religion at all. If change in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another is included, 44% of adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether.

The survey finds that the number of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (16.1%) is more than double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children.

My guess is that religion is NOT supplying the answers that people seek.  How can it?  It’s mythology. All religions were completely, 100% dreamt up my men… typically primitive men desperate for explanations regarding tragedy and natural phenomena. 

As more information becomes available via the Internet, our 250+ channels, modern schooling, book stores, etc., people will have more and more difficulty reconciling truth and reality with ancient texts.  Another highlight of the study includes the numbers of “Unaffiliated”. 

Hey, there I am!  I like the description “Secular Unaffiliated”.  How cool is that?  The term Atheist always gives me heartburn because it seems to be used almost like a weapon… for shock and awe. It certainly cuts to the chase. Although, almost anything is better than “bright” – oh, please…

I am not sure what “Religious Unaffiliated” means, but in the future, I would rather see a category called Non-Believer or Non-Theist, and I’m happy to join the atheists there.  I know there is really no distinction between my non-belief and atheism, but note that only 1.6% were comfortable identifying as the latter. 

It’s one of those weird things… when you find that you are an atheist… because it is essentially impossible for you to believe in the claims of religion – you have no choice of succinct label.  Once you are at the point of non-belief, you are, in fact, an a-theist.  HOWEVER, many people (ahem, present company included) still have trouble identifying with that lot.  I have found when it comes right down to picking the words that come out of my mouth when asked (what I am) are “non-believer”. That quickly turns to “You’re an ATHEIST?!” (typically with significantly increased volume on the respondent’s part). To which I must reply, “Yeah, I guess I am.” Then, because I am choosy about the company I keep and allowing the conversation to steer into that area, we usually proceed to have an intelligent conversation.

I know this veered off into “me” territory, but I think this survey is strongly indicative of the unraveling of organized religion, which is exactly what happened to me.  And, unlike over the last several millenia, once the genie is out of the bottle this time, no one will be able to put him back.

As an aside, great post from Majikthise.

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I wanted to take a sec and point out something I have enjoyed…  Mr. Deity.  Very clever. I liked it so much, including the theme music, that I made it my ringtone.  What I like even more is when my phone rings and I get to have a brief moment to reflect on my beliefs wherever I am.  It’s nice to be able to have that brief, yet clearly audible rebellion when I get a call. 

The creator of the show indicates he is a Formon (former Mormon), and as far as I can tell, an atheist.  On his home page (http://www.mrdeity.com) he has a link disguised in the HTML that would certainly imply so.  He directly links http://www.skeptic.com but has it in black-on-black to conceal it ever so slightly.  I guess like many of us, he’s trying to play it cool so he can lock down a lucrative TV deal and appeal to a wider audience.  Why is it that people of completely different religions have more tolerance for each other than for those of us who have essentially no mystical beliefs?  Go figure.

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The meaning of life is simple:

You have been granted a single life. You may choose to do with your life anything that you like. You give life meaning by choosing what you want to do with it.

That’s it… You, and only you, give your life its meaning.  It’s that simple.

What I find deeply meaningful and satisfying may be of little interest to you. Similarly, the things you cherish most in life may bore me to tears. Generally speaking, however, I would say that most people, including myself, find family relationships to be among life’s most meaningful aspects. But I respect others who might disagree with what I find most meaningful. The error in searching for one common meaning of life is to assume that every human being is wired the same way and sees the world the same. Every individual is different, and has a perfect right to be different.

What should you do with your life? You should pick whatever it is that you believe in, or whatever it is that makes you happy, or whatever it is that is most important to you, or whatever it is that you most enjoy doing. Then you should work to make it happen. Choose the thing or things that you want to do with your single, unique, precious, human life, and make those things happen.

It does not matter what it is that you choose to do — do whatever is important to you:

• If it is saving the environment, then go do that
• If it is making beautiful art for yourself and other to enjoy, do that
• If it is finding a cure for cancer, go do that
• If it is making a film about something that you feel strongly, do it
• If it is entertaining people to brighten their lives, go do that
• If it is making lots of money so that you can buy more stuff, go do that

And so on…

So how do we give life meaning? It is about loving and being loved. It is about helping and being helped. It is about giving and receiving, asking and accepting. It is about working with other people and allowing them to work with you. Life is about dreaming of something better, and then making it happen. Life’s meaning is about what we do today and tomorrow with the time we have available. It comes in thinking about that time — that precious moment that is your life — and making the most of it in a way that is unique to you.

The fact is that you, and only you, give your life its own, personal meaning. You can choose to do absolutely anything you like. Each life is unique to the human being who designs it, and the way you define your life’s meaning is up to you. This is how it always has been, and how it always will be. 

You can give your life whatever meaning you want. Pick whatever it is that is important to you. Decide what you think you can do to help your fellow human beings move forward, and then go do it in whatever way that you think is appropriate. It is your life and it lasts about 30,000 days if you’re lucky — make the most of it. 

Adapted from “Why Doesn’t God Heal Amputees?“

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