Lay Theism

I was watching TV tonight and an ad for “Right from the Heart Ministries” came on…  I first met Bryant Wright back in 1991 when Johnson Ferry Baptist Church (JFBC) was just a little tyke, at least compared to the huge monster it is now.  He was always an affable fellow, and I attended his church for several years as a member.  While I attended with my family, the church started to really grow (and grow) and the monster had an ever increasing appetite for money.  Religion quickly fails without a steady stream of funds… faith may last, but organized religion is dead without cold, hard cash.

Over time, that aspect of church life among others really wore on me, intellectually and financially.  We were driving more than 20 miles one way to attend his little slice of heaven, and I was amazed at how little our attendance, time, and money was appreciated.  It was more of an expectation of a good Baptist.  Bryant frequently reminded the congregation about his business background before he was “called” to Johnson Ferry.  He was not so subtly making the point that for the church to prosper, it had to be run like a business.  Um, duh.  That’s how this stuff works.  It was an important lesson for me and one of the many curiosities that interfered with the worship time that might have kept me in the flock.  N-E-Way… I thought I would do a quick search for Pastor Wright and the second hit on Google was this nut case from Flickr.

I couldn’t help but think, “Hey, that looks just like Bryant Wright!”  What do you think?  Twins?  Separated at birth?  Long lost, pissed off brother?

Bryant Wright?

I thought it would be a fun thing to write about.  In the course of my “research”, I ran across this:

Belief in the Lordship of Jesus Christ
Baptists believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation and eternal life. We believe a personal decision must be made by each individual to repent from sin and trust Him as their Lord and Savior. We do not inherit our Christianity from our parents.

I disagree.  The vast majority of people inherit their beliefs from their parents.  Maybe he’s just pandering to the latest Pew survey that indicates many people switch faiths implying that if you find “Christianity” or “Baptistness” that you must truly have found salvation.  Sigh.  Honestly, I am shocked and saddened that it took me so long to wake up and walk away.  Seriously, read this with fresh eyes and an open mind:

Baptists believe all Christians should read and study the Bible. We are not a creedal people. Our only creed is the Bible. In 2000, the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a revised confession of faith entitled “The Baptist Faith and Message” which says this about the Bible: “The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which human conduct, creeds and religious opinions should be tried.

Come on! No error? Totally true and trustworthy? The Bible is masochistic and misogynistic garbage with a little of grandma’s tall tales and common sense mixed in written by primitive men with approximately zero scientific knowledge of the world.

Holy crap is what it is.

Additional search terms for those seeking common sense and a new church or intellectual home:

Marietta, Atlanta, Kennesaw, OTP, burbs, suburbs, transfer of letter, pain and suffering, adultery, farce, directions to Johnson Ferry, phone, contact, prayer request, fools and zealots, random thoughts, Brian Wright, Brain Wright, good people, kids, wonder, merriment, seeking truth, puppets, monkeys, firefighters, pencils, humanism, alliance, atheists, off the map, secular, mehta, hemant, friendly atheist, tragic, sold my soul, flurg, olly olly oxen free.

Good luck in your search for truth.

Agnostic, Atheism, Religion Atheism, Baptist, Christian, church, faith

It’s interesting here in the US how much freedom we have to do or say what ever we wish with regards to our speech and religion. However, I think it’s unhealthy the number of people who cloak themselves in religion to literally steal your money. Some, like Peter Popoff, don’t believe their own bullshit, and are bilking people out of millions of dollars.  Others, like our local Baptist preachers, seem to believe their rhetoric, but they are nearly as aggressive with extracting money from their congregations.  Sitting in a Baptist service as a non-believer now blows my mind.  The Emperor has no clothes, there is no wizard behind the curtain, and religion is like politics without the elections.  It’s truly appalling to listen to these preachers go on about their new sanctuary, and faith-based school, and their mission trips to convert the unwashed masses, and yet leave in a new Mercedes. Since I no longer attend church, I am able to direct my money into charities that actually do good works for people without fear of conversion.

Anyway, I started thinking about it because of the bombing in Pakistan and the recent treatment of religious groups in China.  These events and other less notable happenings occur every day, but isn’t it interesting that so many people have a warped, and certainly different interpretation of their religion? I hope I live to see the day where the majority of us look at the remaining, shrinking minority of pious people left, and say –won’t it be nice when their eyes open and they stop killing, persecuting, and condemning in the name of a myth.

Atheism, History, Politics, Religion Baptist, bible, bullshit, fakes, James Randi

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.

Atheism, Graphics, Polling, Religion, Statistics athiest, Baptist, belief, Catholic, data, Evangelical, faith, god, Hindu, Jewish, Mormon, Muslim, Orthodox, Protestant, Southern Baptist