Lay Theism

Now that I am not consuming a constant stream of right-leaning rhetoric via radio, TV, church, or otherwise, I don’t have the same knee-jerk reaction to “liberal” thinking as I used to.  I now seek a very wide variety of news and information sources (including the occasional conservative rant).  After reading for a while the other night, I ran across this passage by Robert B. Reich on his web site:

Liberalism is the opposite of fanaticism. We cherish tolerance. We value deliberation. We respect rational argument. We oppose all forms of tyranny. We have faith — and it is nothing but faith — that, in the end, they won’t be able to drown us out, because common sense and common decency are on our side.

What I find interesting about this quote is that it should apply to all people… this is not an extremist viewpoint owned by the left.  It’s a humanist point-of-view.  It’s the way it should be.

The older I get, and the more I study the human condition, the more tolerant I am… the more thoughtful. However, he is not quite right – replace Liberalism above with Humanism (or even Atheism) and then we are getting somewhere.  I think there are opportunists and idiots on both extremes of the left and right. I find that the folks in The Great Middle are the ones that respect human rights and liberty regardless of personal beliefs, ethnic background, or lifestyle.  The people that I know that strongly identify with either conservatives or liberals tend to be judgmental, closed-minded, dogmatic goofballs.

And, switching gears, I’ll go out on a limb and say that “The Great Middle” is the slice of our US population that is going to elect Senator John McCain as the next President of the United States.  Why a Mormon and an Evangelical Christian thought they were electable illustrates what a bubble they live in.  And on the left, Barack Obama is just too far to the left… and we won’t even talk about Hillary Clinton.  That leaves the most “moderate” candidate standing at the end of the day.

Congratulations extremists on both sides!  You’ve chosen our next Commander in Chief.

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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 thought I would try something here…

A Belief-o-meter!  Let me know if you think I have it close.  I’m afraid I may have the labels all wrong.  And where do Televangelists go?  What about that Catholic girl you knew in high school that smoked weed and screwed everything in sight, but confessed weekly?

So, basically, Atheist = Absolute Zero and the real nutballs that would kill or die strictly for their religious dogma (vs. say dying for freedom or liberty) would be, for example, Islamic Jihadists = 100.  Then you have all the zombies in between… the folks that go through life never really questioning the odd traditions that they were brought up with.  The Sunday/Wednesday Christians (very popular with the Southern Baptists), the Cussin’ Christians (it’s OK to say ‘Fuck’… WHAT!?  It’s just a word.  It’s not like I said goddammit), the don’t-want-to-go-to-hell Easter Only Christians, and all the rest.

Degrees of Belief

Comments?  Suggestions?

Or, maybe this was just a weird idea and I should scrap the whole thing.

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