I See Dead People

A pre-Halloween poll done by the AP and Ipsos revealed that nearly a third of Americans believe in ghosts, 23 percent have seen a ghost, 19 percent belive in witchcraft, and 48 percent believe in ESP. Oh, and 14 percent say they have seen a UFO.

We laugh at these people for believing in this ‘crazy’ stuff, yet some 90 plus percent of Americans believe in a god. Now who is crazy? You can probably find as much evidence that a UFO crashed in Roswell, New Mexico as you can the existance of a god.

Church and Politics

Recently, a church was investigated by the IRS for what it deemed “political activity”. This stemmed from a sermon given that was critical of President Bush. In the end the church did not lose its non-profit status (which was at stake).

I don’t understand how this is any different than any church that invites a political candidate to speak to its congregation. That is a political event, no matter what it is called. Both Democratic and conservative candidates speak in churches. I guess the problem here was that the pastor of this particular church had the audacity to have an opinion. And a liberal one at that.

Now, you and I both know that this happens all the time in conservative leaning churches. If you watch a televangelist channel, sermons and politics are virtually inseparable. I guess our administration and the IRS only have a problem if you are Liberal, otherwise you are good to go.

God lawsuit update

Apparently, God responds. Twice.

Cabarrus County, North Carolina Commissioner Reverend Coy Privette reads letters calling for his resignation on September 17. Privette, a Baptist pastor and conservative activist, resigned after being charged with six counts of aiding and abetting prostitution. (Photo and caption by Greg Mills)

Just saying…

State Senator Sues God

As a protest against frivolous lawsuits Illinois State Sen. Ernie Chambers sued God. He claims God has caused:

“widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth’s inhabitants.” [And] has caused “fearsome floods … horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes.”

And if you believe that sort of thing, why not sue. I mean, if I leave on a faucet that overflows and floods my neighbors apartment, I’ll get sued for damages. God can wipe an entire village off the planet and no one says a damn thing.

Of course, this lawsuit will get thrown out. No one is going to take on the almighty, no matter how justified it may seem.

To Label Or Not To Label

I’m still working on the label to use to describe my non-belief in God. Ken Perrott of Open Parachute has suggested “non-theist”.

I don’t think non-theist works. I’m not non-theist. If a god came along and made itself known, and was worth worshiping, I just might make the move. So I’m really not a non-theist, more of a non-any-god-’round-here sort of person. Besides, non-theist sounds like I should have my own section at a restaurant.

“Will that be theist or non-theist sir?”
“Non please.”

Actually that doesn’t sound half bad. Watching people say grace has always creeped me out a little.

Atheism: My Journey (Epilogue)

I did not really give a time-line for my journey. Most of my struggle has happened in the last 12 years. A time in my life which hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. It happens. Since my ‘conversion’ I’ve tried to read more on the subject of Atheism. The readings I have completed just re-enforce the correctness of my decision.

I also wanted to say that I know that my journey hasn’t been one filed with logic. Struggling illogically is a lot easier than struggling logically, but a lot less productive. Regardless of how the journey was made, it was mine. The important part of any journey is the journey itself, or so I’ve heard. The most I hope to gain from all of this is to finally be on the correct path so I can move forward and not sideways.

Atheism: My Journey Part 4

Now I have a bunch of notions that make no sense other than to me in my desire to figure out the nature of God’s relationship to me. None of which really make much logical sense. But then again, nothing about God is logical.

Now what am I supposed to do with all this? Either God hates me or nature does. Now here is probably where you think my decision toward Atheism comes in, but no, not yet. I had to wallow in this mire for awhile. Plus a move to Atheism would mean very little at this point, other than a rejection of a God whom I think hates me anyway. There’s nothing positive about that. No, I had to think about the whole thing a while longer.

There was a lot to contemplate, the rise of evangelical Christianity, September 11th and the new terror of Islam, the movement against science, and even Man’s own inhumanity to man. When looked at religion as a whole, I began to look at God as not being too beneficial to anyone.

I considered myself a man of science when I was younger. I studied biological science in college. I was certain that evolution explained how we came to be, and I am still. I’ve always rejected Genesis’ explanation of creation. I never really paid much attention to the Bible at all. I did, however, have a fascination with Catholicism. Not enough to become Catholic, but enough to be interested in all the mysticism. Perhaps that was what really interested me, the mysticism, not the religion. I always thought well of the basic teachings of Jesus. Love thy neighbor, God is love, and all that. Of course, then you actually read some of the Bible and then you are not that inspired anymore.

After a period of time, I found I just could not reconcile any of it. The Old Testament with the New, the conflicting attitudes of Jesus, the wrath and the love, the varied and differing beliefs of different branches of Christianity, Islam, Christians, and Jews worshiping the same God, the hatred of homosexuals, the rejection of evolution, and on and on and on… None of it made a damn bit of sense. I, therefore, concluded that there was no god worshiped on this planet worth my attention. I was, for the lack of a better term, an Atheist.

I don’t, however, reject the entire idea of a god. There may be one somewhere, but I’m certain that god is not worshipped by anyone here. So, as you can see, I don’t take an absolutist stand on their being no supreme power in the universe.

My journey to Atheism has been long and arduous. Why it took so long still doesn’t make sense to me. I have been on the cusp of realization many times in my life. That it took so long and took so many strange notions for me to get to this place is almost unbelievable, and in some ways regrettable. But I have finally made it.

Atheism: My Journey Part 3

So now I have to come up with some explanation (outside of God hating me) for my misfortune. Since I knew I had made, at times, bad personal choices, though I didn’t know that at the time, I started with the premise that all fortune and misfortune started with personal actions. Or to put it another way, outcomes require actions.

Some of my ‘bad’ outcomes came directly from actions I took. I did A, I got outcome B. That is no profound statement, it happens to everyone all the time. But what if there are no discernible actions to look at? What if the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ seems to happen without any direct action from me? What if even indirect causes can’t be found?

For instance, if we accept the idea of randomness we would expect that things happen in accordance to that idea. So if bad things happen to everybody, they would happen in roughly the same number, or at the very least they should happen in the shape of a Bell curve, with most toward the center and a small number at the extreme edges. So most people would expect their luck to be in accordance with randomness, with a mixture of the good and the bad, while a few people would experience inordinately good and bad luck. So, if I’m on the extreme side of bad (God hates me), what are the reasons for this? (I’ve made the analogy of myself that I’m really statistical error.)

A random universe gives no more comfort than one ruled by a capricious God. Are there reasons why I seem (to myself) to have more misfortune than others? Perhaps there is a genetic reason. If we accept that we are a product of our genetics, we then can infer that what we do and how we do them are a product of genetics as well. Out of this comes my idea that my genetics affects everything I do, every action, and hence, every outcome. Every unnoticed and unfelt nuance of my being affects the things I do and their outcomes. Which, essentially, leads to the idea of genetic determinism. Whatever I am has made me who I am. If I am a person with bad luck, it is because of all the decisions I have made stemming from what my genetic make up has compelled me to do. I have no choice in the matter. The actions I take are the only ones I have, I can take no other.

Needless to say, this result isn’t very satisfying either. Either God hates me and punishes me or I am genetically predisposed to bad juju. Either way, I’m screwed.

Continued tomorrow…

Atheism: My Journey Part 2

After my mother’s death, I began thinking more about my beliefs. I went through a lot of hardships and just plain bad luck through my life. How did God fit into that framework? I consider myself a pretty nice guy. I try my best to live a moral and ethical life. I haven’t killed anyone, I don’t steal pension checks from old women, I don’t rape women or molest little boys. Why does it seem that God doesn’t love me? Sure, I sin here and there, but no more than anyone else. What is it about me that God seems to care little about. Maybe, I’m just not handsome enough. No, I’m not baptized, that’s it. God doesn’t see you if you’re not baptized.

I couldn’t get baptized. I think you should feel a little closer to God to take that plunge at my age, and I didn’t. My final theory of why God hated me was that I should not have been born. The doctors told my mother she could not have children. I guess they were wrong. Though my mother’s first child died not long after birth, she kept trying and eventually had me, and finally, my sister.

God didn’t want me to be born (or my sister). The doctors told her no, but she went and did it anyway. I was not supposed to be here. I was God’s unwanted child and therefore, He hated me. I was a product of His disapproval. Everything that had gone wrong in my life was because I did not have God’s favor. If I did have some fortune, God immediately set it right by sending misfortune. This is how I rationalized my life without God’s grace. And no, my new understanding didn’t make me feel any better. Quite the contrary.

Now on this theory, I contemplated quite a while. Having a God that hated me was no more helpful than not believing at all. I began looking at my situation rationally (in a manner of speaking). I thought about the nature of my ‘bad luck’. Was it really bad luck or mere statistics — the chance of something good or bad happening to me. While not scientific, by any means, my analysis seemed to lean in the direction of God hating me. It just did not seem that mere statistics could explain all the ‘bad’ things and the too few ‘good’ things that happened to me. I was the sucker that never got an even break.

Despite my conclusion, I tried to find a reasonable explanation for the statistics not being, seemingly, random. What I came up with seemed as hopeless as God hating me.

Continued tomorrow…