Lay Theism

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.

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In my latest snail mail from Free Inquiry, I noticed this insert from Richard Dawkins. I thought it was worth republishing since I could not find it in its entirety on the web. I am not suggesting you subscribe to Free Inquiry (I don’t) although it is a quality publication that I enjoy from time to time. I just really like the way Mr. Dawkins phrases several things here. I have reproduced exactly as it appears in the insert including British spelling (I added the hyperlinks as paper-based hyperlinks are still elusive).

Enjoy.

Dear Friend,

If you live in America, the chances are good that your next door neighbours believe the following: the Inventor of the laws of physics and the Programmer of the DNA code decided to enter the uterus of a Jewish virgin, got himself born, then deliberately had himself tortured and executed because he couldn’t think of a better way to forgive the theft of an apple, committed at the instigation of a talking snake. As Creator of the majestically expanding universe, he not only understands relativistic gravity and quantum mechanics but actually designed them. Yet what he really cares about is “sin”, abortion, how often you go to church, and whether gay people should marry. Statistically, the chances are that your neighbours believe all that – and they can vote.

In other parts of the world, there is a good chance that your neighbours believe you should be beheaded if you draw a cartoon of a desert warlord who copulated with a child and flew into the sky on a winged horse. In other places, there’s a good chance that your neighbors think their wishes will be granted if they pray to a human figure with an elephant’s trunk.

Even if your neighbours don’t hold any of those mutually contradictory beliefs, they probably take it for granted that we should unquestioningly respect those who do. And a huge majority of American and British newspapers and periodicals go along with this abject kow-towing to what their educated editorial staff must know, in their heart of hearts, is nonsense.

In all this darkness we discern occasional pinpoints of light, beacons of evidence-based intelligence. There are just a few publications that serve as light-houses in a dark, foggy ocean, and of these my favourite in all the English-speaking free world is Free Inquiry. In keeping with my pessimistic opening, its circulation is not large, but it is growing. Free Inquiry’s list of regular columnists is as star-studded as any in America. Free Inquiry is committed to piercing the darkness, rolling back the fog, and restoring the Enlightenment values that inspired the founders of this great Republic.

I think it is clear that we are gaining ground, and I believe our pace is accelerating. Free Inquiry is in the vanguard of this exhilarating adventure in critical thinking. Please subscribe to, and join me in celebrating, a magazine that believes all ideas are open to rational debate and critical examination, a magazine that is not afraid to speak out in language that flashes as clear as a light-house on a dark night.

Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins is a world-renowned evolutionary biologist and the author of bestselling books including The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, and The God Delusion. His writing frequently appears in Free Inquiry.

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Sam Harris – Misconceptions About Atheism

This is so well stated, and so profound, I don’t know how a religious person could hear it and not be swayed. I have to assume they have not seen it.

See the entire video here: Clash Between Faith and Reason

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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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Nice work, xkcd:

(Translation for the blind)

Claims of supernatural powers:
Confirmed by experiment — 0
Refuted by experiment — all the rest

James Randi would be proud.

Keep up the good work.

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