Lay Theism

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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Well, that about sums it up for me too:

Anonymity: Shield of the Atheist Blogger

What a shame that we can’t live openly as non-believers without it negatively affecting our livelihood in some way.

Last week we had a coworker emerge from surgery with favorable results.  One of the senior leaders in the company couldn’t resist but to publicly thank “the Lord” for the positive outcome via e-mail to a large distribution.  This was followed by a large number of Reply All e-mails with things such as “Amen”.  I wanted to reply, “Yes, we are very fortunate to live in the 21st century — medical technology has done wonders by allowing us to extend our lifespans and quality of life significantly.  We should all get together and thank the surgeon…”

Instead, I quietly rolled my eyes and got back to work.  I think I’ll be discrete for just a little longer.

Atheism, Religion blog, medicine, prayer

I noticed this book on my recommended list on Amazon:

• The Book Your Church* Doesn’t Want You to Read
  (* Or Synagogue, Temple, Mosque…)

It reminded me that Christianity was created by our ancestors around 100 generations ago from some of the favorite stories and yarns of that time.  Religious authors took their cues from popular culture and wrote down various versions of the stories being passed and certainly added their own flair.  This is partly why the Bible is contradicatory and inconsistent… it’s not the divine word of God magically transcribed by prophets.  It’s just oral traditional written down by different authors. 

It’s worth reading the first few pages regardless of your point of view.  If you are religious, take a look at the excerpt (scroll to page 28 for the best reading).  After all, you weren’t born a believer, so you may not always be one.  You owe it to yourself to think for yourself.  For instance, I was typically childlike in my thinking up to about age 11 – a good Sunday school kid that sang “Jesus Loves Me” and believed what I was taught (including Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, etc.).  By the time I was 12, I was baptized and a believer because it seemed like that’s what good Christian boys did.  By 15, I was proselytizing regularly.  By 17, I was acting as a typical hypocritical Christian teenager.  By my early 20s, I started to examine life and the world more critically.  Now in my 40s, I realize that these are all tales told by men, abused by many, and something we would be better off without. 

And what of all the other children in the world born at the same time as I, but to Muslim families, or Hindu, or Buddhist, or Navajo, or Nuer???  Are they all doomed to an afterlife in hell just because they were not fortunate enough to be born to Christian parents?  I don’t think so.  This was organized religion’s undoing for me.  This premise made no sense and caused me to question faith in religion or god.  Why would one (or any) be the right one? 

Easy answer?  They are all wrong.

Start living this life.  It’s the only one you have.

Oh, and if you need guidance for how to live your life, start with The Golden Rule — you’ll be impressed how far that can take you.

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As interesting as the book Atheists: A Groundbreaking Study of America’s Nonbelievers is, I think I take issue with its groundbreakingness. 

It suffers from what appears to be very common when studying atheists – the study considers only absolute non-believers (°Faith=zero).  This seems to compromise their study in a number of ways relating to sample size and reasonable cross-section of the population (bias).  I give them credit for trying, but I wonder if it’s possible to do even better… via the Internet.   Their study was entire on paper, mailed to atheist organizations.  Now that fact alone seems to seriously narrow the sample.  My lack of belief is at a place where I would be perfectly happy and enjoy myself in a room full of atheists, but the likelihood of me joining a club that meets face-to-face to chat about is pretty much nil.  (By the way, why do the ffrf and other organizations have to come off so weird? Where are the mainstream non-believers?)

So, the question that floats through my head is, How many people kinda like me are out there?  I wouldn’t presume to be a silent majority, but I think the numbers are probably much higher than estimated even in the US. 

Life without Faith points out a more encouraging result from the UK Times Online.  Has anyone seen a really strong survey or methodology for finding out the true faith makeup of the US population?  Every study I have seen is seriously flawed in some way.

Atheism, Polling, Religion, Statistics book, study

This is just to absurd to leave alone.  What is wrong with this picture painted by the Wall Street Journal?  That may be a “subscriber only” link, but here’s a pretty good synopsis:

…Pastor Jason Burrick grabbed his cellphone and dialed 911… Half an hour later, 71-year-old Karolyn Caskey, a church member for nearly 50 years who had taught Sunday school and regularly donated 10% of her pension, was led out by a state trooper and a county sheriff’s officer… The pastor, Mr. Burrick, told congregants the three were guilty of gossip, slander and idolatry and should be shunned, [Ed. emphasis added] according to several former church members. [...]

Shortly after the church hired Mr. Burrick in 2005 to help revive the congregation, which had dwindled to 12 members, Mrs. Caskey asked him to appoint a board of deacons to help govern the church, a tradition outlined in the church’s charter. Mr. Burrick said the congregation was too small to warrant deacons. Mrs. Caskey pressed the issue at the church’s quarterly business meetings and began complaining that Mr. Burrick was not following the church’s bylaws. [...] 

In April 2006, Mrs. Caskey received a stern letter from Mr. Burrick. “This church will not tolerate this spirit of cancer and discord that you would like to spread,” it said. Mrs. Caskey… continued to insist that the pastor follow the church’s constitution. In August, she received a letter from Mr. Burrick that said her failure to repent [Ed.] had led to her removal. It also said he would not write her a transfer letter enabling her to join another church. [Oh no!]

Mr. Burrick repeatedly declined to comment on Mrs. Caskey’s case, calling it a “private ecclesiastical matter.” He did say that while the church does not “blacklist” anyone, a strict reading of the Bible requires pastors to punish disobedient members. “

OK, seriously???  A strict reading of the Bible?  Who is he kidding?  A strict reading of the Bible condones slavery, says the world was created in six days (and the “heavens” too!), that the best Jesus could do was to cure individual sick people (not entire diseases, or all birth defects, or mental illness, etc.), and that we all decend from Noah and company.

I really don’t have anything more to add to this.  It’s exactly this type of thing that drove me nuts when I was a Christian, and now that I am not, just puzzles and amazes me how far away so many people are from reality.  That’s all I have the energy for today…

Hey, I know, go watch this: The Atheist Delusion.

Atheism, Religion bible, insanity