Lay Theism

I found this very moving and worthwhile.  I hope to find a local event to attend on May 10, 2008.  I am a huge TED fan, and knew that Jehane Noujaim would go on to do very important work.  Raising the consciousness of people around the world in this way is important work and will go a long way towards creating a future that we can all look forward to rather than fear.  Incidentally, Pangea refers to a time millions of years ago when the land mass on earth was contiguous.

What is Pangea Day?

Pangea Day is a global event bringing the world together through film. On May 10, 2008, live events in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked by satellite to produce a program of powerful films, live music and visionary speakers. The program will be broadcast live to millions of people worldwide through the internet, television, and mobile phones.

Who started Pangea Day?

Pangea Day was created by award-winning documentary filmmaker Jehane Noujaim in collaboration with the TED Conference after she won the prestigious TED Prize, which granted her a wish to change the world. Together, Jehane, TED, and the Pangea Day team — led by Executive Director Delia Cohen — have created Pangea Day to harness the power of film to enhance empathy, compassion, and peace.

And if you aren’t familiar with TED, check it out.  I watch and listen to the free podcasts all the time.

What is TED?

TED stands for “Technology, Entertainment, Design.” It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from those worlds. Since then, its scope has become even broader. This annual conference brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers and challenges them to give the talk of their lives. Talks from the conference are now made available online, for free, and have been watched more than 35 million times worldwide.

What is the TED prize?

The TED Prize was created as a way of taking the inspiration, ideas, and resources that are generated at TED and using them to make a difference in the world. The prize was introduced in 2005 and recognizes three individuals annually with the talent to change the world. It’s unlike any other award, and here’s why: Although the winners receive $100,000 — that’s the least of what they get — the real prize is that they are granted a wish. A wish to change the world. The TED Community then comes together to make that wish come true.

How amazing is that?

To get an idea of how moving and clever this will be, take a look at the world through someone else’s eyes for a minute… Tank Driver:

Very well done.  We should all take time to reflect on our common human experience.  We are all in this together.

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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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Nicely done Atheist Revolution and Hopeful Spirit for collaborating on the Christian Blog Carnival.  Atheist Revolution quotes Hopeful Spirit as quoting Atheist Revolution as follows:

Kudos to Christian blogger, Hopeful Spirit of On the Horizon for including my post, “Doubting Your Faith?” in The Seventh Day blog carnival. Hopeful’s rationale for including the post?

Why is a post from an atheist included in a blog carnival hosted at a Christian site? Because the philosophy here at On the Horizon is and always will be “radical inclusivity.” Christians are called to love everyone, including — and many would say especially — our atheist and agnostic brothers and sisters. The author included this description when submitting his article to the carnival:

This post asks Christians who are doubting their faith to consider a possibility that may be new to them – the possibility that their doubt is a healthy reflection of their rational mind trying to break free from superstition to experience genuine meaning.

Here’s an opportunity for Christian and nonbelieving readers to engage in a meaningful dialogue!

If you are interested in this sort of dialogue, check out the carnival and let them know you were there.

I couldn’t resist.

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I think people are much more moderate than we would be led to believe by the media and other typical sources of information.  As pointed out frequently by Atheist Revolution, it’s unsettling that we seem to have made a hard shift towards theocracy in the U.S lately particularly on the “right”.  But even on the “left” there seems to be more than just a nod towards religion, as if neglecting that support would spell doom.  I used to call myself a Republican (and a Baptist), but now I find that these types of labels are not only misleading, but are woefully indequate in describing my values and beliefs. Just because I was “born that way” doesn’t mean that it’s the way things really are.

Atheists are frequently characterized as having ZERO belief in a ”higher” power… by definition. I guess if I had to rate my degree of belief on a scale from 0 to 100 (0 = atheist, 100 = completely devout), I am currently around a 1.  I reserve that last tick of uncertainty for the general wonder of the universe and the mechanism that brought it into existence (wow, huh?).  What I reject completely is the notion of an active, personal deity that observes, responds, directs or cares about us mammals.  So, does that make me more of an agnostic?  That just seems to be a cop out… but am I “allowed” to be an atheist even though I can’t explain the origin of the universe?  There is quite a bit to explore on this topic, and it may be that this blog is more for me than the rest of the world, but maybe it will be my catharsis.

As I sit writing this, listening to Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major shuffle in after Sara Bareilles “Love Song” on iTunes, enjoying my iced tea, thinking about where we are in human history, it makes me a little melancholy.  Of the six billion of us wandering the planet now, the majority of us spend time paying homage to myths and superstition, and yet there are so many worthy pursuits outside of organized religion.  Use your money to feed the hungry, not build garish mega-churches.  Use your energy to do something for the people you love that makes them happy and builds stronger relationships.  Use your time enriching your mind and body, not learning ancient, contradictory, bizarre stories about early man and his paranoias and primitive explanations of the world. 

Get outside yourself and learn about the people that are around you, not just in your backyard or your place of worship…  we have more in common than you think, and it’s not your “God”.  Please don’t spend time trying to convince me that you know “the way”.  I am not one to try to change anyone’s mind, but if you find that your mind is changing, then I’m glad you paused for a minute to a least consider the possibilities.

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