Lay Theism

Well done introduction to thinking about god, belief, and religion in general.

Atheism, Religion, Science, Video

The Naked Pastor posted these random thoughts the other day…

1. People don’t change their minds. Only rarely. Transformation is not a desirable option to our brains. It seems to require trauma, the threat of imminent death, to provoke real change of mind and bring about true transformation. Is it possible to enter death and be transformed while we are alive?

2. The greatest enemy of community is fantasy… visionary and wishful thinking. The lack of gratitude for what is, the unwillingness to appreciate what is, or the disdain for what is, erodes the fabric of community. Can we love unconditionally without coercion?

3. Our gross naiveté about the principalities and powers and their persistent desire and ability to enslave groups and individuals perpetuates the abuses institutions, including the church, are notorious for. Can all people be free?

4. Avoid naysayers as well as yes-men. You can always find complainers to agree with you. You can always find encouragers to agree with you. Can we find the courage to form our own minds independently, wisely, and compassionately?

I thought, hey… I like him.  He’s is talking about deconversion in #1, because that’s what it was like for me to step away from faith.  Constant bombardment with strange teachings in the Baptist church forced me to reevaluate the world we live in.

THEN, in #2 he nails it with typical religious thinking about the fantasy of a higher power vs. just appreciating this temporal gift of life on Earth, not just mine, but the whole human experience.  We just got here (relatively speaking), and the Earth will be here long after we have faded to extinction. I already love unconditionally without coercion and don’t know how else you could.

#3… tell me about it.

And, regarding #4, don’t “seek approval” for your point of view.  Establish it intellectually, with reason, and knowledge of the world and your fellow man. You don’t need other people to tell you what you should believe.

Holy crap, this dude’s batting 1000 in my book so far… but then came #5:

5. Listen to what the atheists are saying about the unprovability of God; discern the Christ-Principle in all things; have compassion for all beings. Is it possible to see all things as being reconciled?

Wha?! I rarely discuss the “unprovability of god”, but since you brought it up, what exactly is the evidence for God?  If you look at the sum total of the things the Christian God gets credit for in the Bible, why would you WANT to believe in him?  He wasn’t a good or just god. Jesus tried to correct all that, but please… look at the “miracles” he performed.  His teachings were in line with to Mohammad, Confucius, Buddha, Plato, etc. (borrowed, ex post facto, by reasonable men writing down “history” many years later). Other than these writings, what evidence is there for god?  For everyone good work, “divine” occurrence, or saved soul you can conjure, I can cite a dozen horrific, sad, disgusting things about the world that a good and just god would not allow… even a passive creator (with any “heart”) would not have created such a chaotic place.

Also, how would I find the “Christ-Principles in all things”?” As I understand it, the Principles of Christ are roughly, first, Faith in the Jesus Christ; second, Repentance… it really doesn’t matter after that because I get hung up on the FIRST one. I have faith that the human race has been duped for several millenia, for sure.  With regard to “sin”, seriously, Catholics (et al), get a grip and just be good people… forget about all the EXTRA rules and regulations that the church has piled on. It’s not a “sin” to eat meat… ever. Weird.

How about we all just skip ahead to “have compassion for all beings”? I can get on board with that… why make it sound like I need belief as a crutch.  See “The Golden Rule“.

The last sentence is stupid… no, we can’t reconcile all things, particularly mystical belief with intellectual reason.  They are incompatible.  Even less likely, reconcile your Christian mythology with a Islamic stranger an ocean away. Good luck.

However, abandon your fantastical beliefs, and then living with your fellow man, particularly the ones not like you, becomes much easier.  I guess his thoughts were pretty random after all.

History, Love, Religion, Science Baptist, belief, bible, Catholic, Christian, church, death, doubt, faith, god, inspiration, jesus

Taisha Jones, M.S., a 5th year clinical psychology graduate student at Saint Louis University, is inviting you to participate in this research study that is being conducted online, under the direction of Dr. Honore Hughes, Research Chairperson/Advisor at Saint Louis University.

The title of this study is Coping Strategies and Adjustment. The purpose of this study is to examine various ways in which people use individual coping strategies, including non-religious and religious ways, to facilitate overall life satisfaction and adjustment.

Your participation in this study is confidential and will involve completing a series of brief questionnaires to assess coping and problem-solving strategies. Participation will entail completing brief surveys and a demographic questionnaire that are available online at http:www.surveymonkey.com. There are no right or wrong answers in the surveys, so please be as honest as possible in responding to the individual items. Please be sure to respond to all survey items. Your participation will require at least 10 minutes of your time, but likely no longer than 30 minutes. In appreciation of your time, a monetary donation of $5 will be donated to a charity that you will specify at the end of the study as your preference to receive the donation.

The results of this study may be published in scientific research journals or presented at professional conferences. However, your name and identity will not be revealed and your record will remain anonymous. To protect your anonymity, no identifying information will be collected.

Participation in this study does not have a direct benefit to participants. While it is hopeful that you may gain insight from participation, it is not a guarantee. Participants may increase their knowledge of individual coping skills and problem-solving strategies. This might allow participants to become aware of various coping strategies and gain a better understanding of what strategies might be available. However, participation may benefit others as a small monetary donation will be made to a charitable/service organization that group members may select (e.g., Habitat for Humanity).

The risks to you as a participant are minimal. These risks may include mild boredom and/or discomfort with responding to sensitive items that probe for religiousness and/or lack of religiousness, as well as psychological adjustment.

They requested that I post this:

Hello to all,

I am writing to request your participation in my dissertation study “Coping and Adjustment.” In exchange for your participation, I will be donating $5 to a charitable organization of your choice. The choices are included at the end of the study. The study examines various ways in which people cope with stressors (including religious and non-religious ways) and how these relate to one’s happiness and life satisfaction. Additional information including final results can be obtained after the study. Thus far, participation has included individuals with religious/faith-based beliefs and those without such beliefs. My goal is to obtain representation from several individuals and groups that include varying ages, gender, religious affliations, social abilities, intellectual abilities, and so forth. Please consider participating in the study and please forward this to everyone that you think may wish to contribute by participating. Please remember, your participation is voluntary and that the study completion time is not expected to exceed 30min. Study completion time has been around 10-30 minutes.

You can access the study at the following link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=wp5LFvjXAooMReVkqxwaaw_3d_3d.

For any additional questions or information, please see webpage or contact the researcher at copingandadjustment@gmail.com or copingandadjustment@yahoo.com.

Polling, Religion, Science, Statistics data, prayer, reason, research

How can one possibly see a video like this and believe that it was a Creator’s plan to create humans via a 4 billion year “designed” process?  Listen to it several times if you must.  Looking back from the vantage point we have now, it seems obvious that primitive men with a limited understanding of the world would invent God.

What we have learned in the past several thousand years is that we were not created at all, but evolved along a convoluted, haphazard, unpredictable line.  We understand more about our origin now than ever, we shape our living environments, we control the atom, we are driving the earth to it’s next global crisis (and that only took a couple of hundred years).  If we WERE created (say 6,000ish years ago), then why were we created in a fairly primitive state only to be allowed the recent advances to enhance our lives and destroy ourselves over the long haul?  If that were the idea of our genesis, then god naturally knew the outcome, so then… why the hell would he do that?  It makes no sense.

If you want to start to understand the world you live it, watch this video: Carl Sagan – Evolution Explained in Six Minutes.  Then, move on to Carl Sagan – Pale Blue Dot and other mind-expanding ideas — you’ll see how tiny and insignificant we are in the universe… and how fragile.

Science, Video, evolution astronomy, evolution, inspiration, reason, Science

Someday I hope that this point of view dawns on us all…  Seen on Verbal Razors:

I regard monotheism as the greatest disaster ever to befall the human race. I see no good in Judaism, Christianity, or Islam — good people, yes, but any religion based on a single, well, frenzied and virulent god, is not as useful to the human race as, say, Confucianism, which is not a religion but an ethical and educational system.

— Gore Vidal

Wow… color me stunned and awed.  Clearly I need to brush up on my Gore Vidal.  I think I’ll start with Creation: A Novel.

Agnostic, Atheism, History, Religion, Science, Video belief, Christian, clever, doubt, faith, skeptic