Lay Theism

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.

Atheism, Love, Religion astronomy, big bang, population, sara bareilles, wikipedia

Some interesting tidbits showed up on the Google 2007 Year-End Zeitgeist.  When searching for answers regarding “Who is… ?”, god, jesus, and satan all made the Top 10.

Who is…

1. who is god
2. who is who
3. who is lookup
4. who is jesus
5. who is it
6. who is buckethead
7. who is calling
8. who is keppler
9. who is this
10. who is satan

Now, I’m not sure I understand the expectation in asking who “who” is, or “it“, or even “this“… but, regarding “who is calling“, well, sure.  Who doesn’t want to know that?  Related to that, I completely understand the ever popular “who is lookup“.  Or, more specifically, my favorite WHOIS lookup.

It’s fascinating that “buckethead” has somehow managed to make a mark on the world such that he shows up at #6 for all of 2007.  Why didn’t I ever pick up guitar?  Now I’m stuck with getting shamed by my kids on Guitar Hero.

Amazingly, “keppler” shows up at #8 — the last name of the character that is taking the place of Grissom on CSI.  Wow.  CBS should be very proud that they have created that much buzz around a fictional character.  Although, it would appear that the entire Top 10 consists solely of concepts, pronouns, and characters.  Not a single actual person – only personas.

This snapshot looks a little different if you use Google Suggest to see what’s hot.  On the date of this post, if you start a search with “who is”, Google will helpfully offer, the stig, tila tequila, the monkey, stig (again), ip, ron paul, who, the stig on top gear (seriously?), and finally, god, and jesus… in that order.

I plan to explore the idea of “who is god?” in future writings as that is a question I have thought about a lot over the past few decades.  My journey has taken me a great distance from traditional belief.  I would go so far as to say, non-belief.  But I’ll save that for another day.

The other notable query I saw was for the “What is…” category with the winner being “what is love“.  Other than the painfully obvious Haddaway lyric, “baby don’t hurt me”, I think Love is a fascinating topic as well.  As my non-belief has grown, so has my capacity for love and my outward expression of love… for my family, my children, my wife, my friends, and my fellow man.  If I stick to this blog thing, maybe I’ll find a way to articulate some of these ideas that will resonate with you too.

Google, Religion Google, search, zeitgeist

I’m going to kick this off with some statistics… Interesting that secularism ranks third among the world’s ideologies (click the image to zoom in).

Source: Data from http://www.adherents.com; chart created by Hugh…

Christianity: 2.1 billion
Islam: 1.5 billion
Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
Hinduism: 900 million
Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
Buddhism: 376 million
primal-indigenous: 300 million
African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
Sikhism: 23 million
Juche: 19 million
Spiritism: 15 million
Judaism: 14 million
Baha'i: 7 million
Jainism: 4.2 million
Shinto: 4 million
Cao Dai: 4 million
Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million
Tenrikyo: 2 million
Neo-Paganism: 1 million
Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
Rastafarianism: 600 thousand
Scientology: 500 thousand

Graphics, Religion, Statistics