Tag Archive for perspective

guest writer | October 20, 2011
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A Question Posed by an Increasingly Concerned Christian

Given the angry rants of “Brother Jed”, the extremist Christian who dropped in on GVSU campus for a friendly reminder that we all deserve hell, a silent protest seemed like a great idea. What better way to counteract a vicious hate-speech than showing up with positive messages; a simple reminder that there was an alternative on campus? I showed up to the protest hoping to support my friends and classmates, and I admit, poke fun the crazy guy with the weird staff. But the day didn’t go like I planned. After significantly less than an hour, I was so overwhelmed by the fascistic ramblings of this man and his cronies, that I excused myself and went home. I retreated to my nice, comfortable house, sat on my nice, comfortable couch, had a nice, comfortable afternoon, but I felt horrible. More than horrible. I was ashamed of myself.

Anyone who knows me can tell you I frequently and proudly declare that I’m not a religious extremist. They could also tell you that if asked what I am I get a lot more vague. In my entire life I have done next to nothing to provide any constructive contribution to a discussion of faith and its practice in the world we live in. What’s worse, I don’t think I’m the only one. I’ve begun to notice a disturbing trend among many of my peers in the religious world.

People practically trip over themselves to dissociate from thinkers like Rob Bell for broaching the idea that the traditionally accepted idea of Hell might not be as sound as previously thought. But we seem alarmingly nonchalant about extremists being our loudest voices. Why do we preach toleration towards angry fascists while rejecting anyone who challenges us to examine ourselves? Why are we content to let ignorance represent the church? What do we think will happen to the church if we sit on our hands and pretend nothing is wrong? What (if you pardon the expression) in hell is going on here?

__________

Jaime Wise is a devoted member of Center for Inquiry on Campus at Grand Valley State University where she is studying Writing and English and continues to be a model of rationality and tolerance from within the Christian faith. She has recently defined herself as a Christian Humanist and has started a theology sub-committee of CFI GVSU to discuss these matters among others.

 

Category: Activism, Religion | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Daniel Sprockett | September 11, 2011
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9/11 Changed the Face of Atheism

It has become almost cliché to say that the attacks on September 11, 2001 were the Pearl Harbor or Kennedy assassination of our generation.  Ten years later, nearly all of us remember what we were doing the moment we heard the news.  The day is seared into our collective memory not simply due to the emotional impact of the moment, but because of the startling realization that our lives would never again be the same.

The events of that day profoundly affected our way of life. Not just foreign policy or airline safety standards, but also our sense of security and our relationship to fellow human beings. For many people, it even changed their relationship with their god and religion.

The American Humanist Association’s most recent newsletter features one woman’s story of how 9/11 influenced her journey from Catholicism to Atheism. Diqui LaPenta, a biology professor in northern California, tells of losing her boyfriend, Rich Guadagno, on Flight 93, the flight that crashed in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania.

…My parents arrived two days later, having driven all the way from San Antonio, Texas, and we flew to New Jersey for a memorial service for Rich. Some very religious relatives planned to meet us in New Jersey. I asked my parents to ensure that those relatives refrain from religious platitudes. I didn’t want to hear that Rich was in a better place or with God or that it was all part of some plan that God had for us. From the moment I heard that Rich and thousands of others had been killed, I knew that the all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God of childhood stories absolutely could not exist. Rich was not in a better place. There was no place he would rather be than with his dog Raven, me, his family, and his friends. I would never see Rich again, as there is no afterlife. Pretending that I would see him again would make it impossible to heal.

Before 9/11, I’d never considered myself an atheist. After that day I was, and I let people know it. When asked what church I attend, I reply that I don’t. If prompted to explain why, I say that I’m an atheist. Some people say, “But you have to believe in something!” I do. I believe in the power of rational thought and critical thinking. I believe that we should live thoughtful, peaceful, moral lives because it’s the right thing to do and not because we’re afraid of punishment or hopeful for a reward beyond the grave. We have this one life, and we should make the best of it for the short time we are here.

Diqui isn’t the only one that felt compelled to be more forthright about her atheism after 9/11. As the CNN Belief Blog points out, the religious nature of the attacks provided the impetus for many atheists to come out of the closet and openly criticize previously unassailable religious beliefs.

Atheists were driven to become more vocal because of the 9/11 attacks and America’s reaction, says David Silverman, president of American Atheists. He says many atheists were disgusted when President George W. Bush and leaders in the religious right reacted to the attack by invoking “God is on our side” rhetoric while launching a “war on terror.”

They adopted one form of religious extremism while condemning another, he says.

“It really showed atheists why religion should not be in power. Religion is dangerous, even our own religion,” Silverman says.

Atheists are still the most disparaged group in America, but there’s less stigma attached to being one, he says.

“The more noise that we make, the easier it us to accept us,” Silverman says. “Most people know atheists now. They knew them before, but didn’t know they were atheists.”

In fact, atheists have gained so much public acceptance that David Silverman gave a public address this morning on the main steps of the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg, in an event hosted by the PA Nonbelievers.

While some atheists began speaking out, others began writing. As Newsweek reports, Sam Harris began writing his bestselling The End of Faith on September 12th, 2001 – directly in response to the attacks.  Harris’s recent blog post on the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks succinctly summarizes his perspective on the distance we have left to travel:

Ten years have now passed since many of us first felt the jolt of history—when the second plane crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. We knew from that moment that things can go terribly wrong in our world—not because life is unfair, or moral progress impossible, but because we have failed, generation after generation, to abolish the delusions of our ignorant ancestors. The worst of these ideas continue to thrive—and are still imparted, in their purest form, to children.

On the other hand, while some atheists began speaking out in public and openly critiquing religious ideas, others saw the attacks as a call for greater unity and love.  Chris Stedman, a Fellow for the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy, will be honoring those lost by spending today packaging 9,110 meals to be distributed to hungry children in Massachusetts.  As he stated recently in Washingtion Post’s On Faith:

9/11 will live on forever in our nation’s memory. We suffered an incomprehensible loss at the hands of extremists who believed that religious diversity must end in violence. But as people of diverse religious and secular identities, we can counter them with our unity. By building bridges of understanding, we can act on our shared values and learn-from and with one another-how to be our best selves.

No matter the reaction, the attacks on September 11th caused the public face of atheism to drastically change.  The 10 years since that day has seen many changes in way the world community approaches religion, but no one can say that religious beliefs are as protected from criticism as they were a decade ago.

Many non-believers have very strong opinions about the best way to prevent similar attacks in the future. Despite the ongoing debates, it seems clear to me that the courage to work with religious community groups in areas where our interests overlap, paired with the freedom to directly and openly criticize bad ideas wherever they occur in the public sphere, will be the tools that we must use to build a safer, healthier, and happier future.

Category: Activism, Current Events, Ethics, History, News, Religion, Religious Recovery | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Daniel Sprockett | September 2, 2011
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The Path to Non-Belief

The freethought community is full of extremely diverse opinions on a wide range of subjects. Some members of my local student group are socialists, feminists, anarchists, libertarians, and yes, even a few conservatives. Collectively, this diversity is one of our major strengths.

Having such widely varied opinions, we tend to find common ground most readily in our skepticism of religious claims.  In fact, my student group emphasizes that while the Kent State Freethinkers is not expressly an “atheist group,” it is a group that contains many atheists, agnostics, religious skeptics and secularists. Simply put, we don’t exempt religious claims from our bologna detection kit.

But being in a group of skeptics, it is easy to forget that many of us come to our non-belief from very different backgrounds. Some of us have never been religious, while some of us consciously decided to leave religion. While non-theists of all stripes are of course welcome at meetings, it is important to remember that we all took very different paths to get there…and sometimes picked up very different types of emotional and philosophical baggage along the way.

For example, many atheists who have never been religious tend to view religious ideas with the same sense of anthropological bewilderment usually applied to the exotic customs of foreign tribes. It is sometimes difficult for them to comprehend how otherwise intelligent adults can so fervently believe such blatant hogwash. These never-believers tend to have trouble debating religious people because some religious concepts are so cloaked in a veil of transcendental mumbo-jumbo that it requires real effort to even begin talking. Starting conversations with the devout sometimes requires a suspension of critical faculties that these non-believers have never experienced. Their thought process might look something like, “Okay, so Jesus died for our sins, but then rose from the dead? So basically, he is alive. How exactly is this a sacrifice again?”

Conversely, non-theists who have made the difficult decision to leave the comfort and familiarity of their religion are usually better able to put themselves in the shoes of believers. People leave religion for many different reasons, but I’ve found that the circumstances of their departure can have a huge impact on how they continue to view religion, especially their former faith.

Many people leave religion after a nasty falling out, such as institutionalized abuse or conflict with religious leaders. I know of at least one student who left the Catholic Church after her grandfather was denied last rites (the last blessings before death), because he neglected to include the church in his will. Other, more serious examples abound, such as instances of rape, corruption, and violence. While most religious members are not direct victims, many leave after seeing such deplorable behavior from a group they had thought was a paragon of morality. Being so burned by faith often ignites a deep seated hatred of all things religious, and while this allows them to be extremely passionate proponents of freethought and secularist ideals, these anti-theists often become extremely emotionally entangled in arguments.  They may be prone to making hyperbolic statements about the evils of the church, which may end up hurting their credibility. Other anti-theists may still have very raw feelings about religious groups, and may prefer avoiding the discussion altogether.

In contrast, many non-believers left the church simply because religion has faded away into the realm of irrelevance, often times due to apathy or in response to a better understanding of how science explains the natural world. They find the claims and promises of religion to be lacking when examined in the harsh light of day – a light that shines from scientific literacy. They may begin calling themselves an atheist or agnostic after many years of being a non-practicing (or rarely practicing) religious member. In many ways, this type of non-believer is more similar to the never-theist than the anti-theist.

Of course, this list isn’t exhaustive, and many non-believers have had a very arduous ascent into freethought, and retain very complex emotions and opinions about religious faith. Many people that attend meetings may still be making that climb toward enlightenment. They may still be overcoming obstacles to unbelief that most of us have already cleared, or they may be dealing with obstacles that many of us have never had to clear. Then again, there are some atheists are so anti-religious that they see freethought groups as an underhanded attempt to create a secular church.

My point is, as current and future freethought leaders, it is important to recognize and appreciate the various perspectives, talents, and biases that your members bring to the discussion table. If a diplomat and a firebrand are arguing over the tone of your group’s advertisements, or debating which speaker you want to bring to campus, it is often helpful to recognize that those differences stem not just from the side of the table they are sitting on, but also the path they took to get there.  I’ve found that some of the most helpful and enjoyable meetings have been where we take turns describing where we stand philosophically in relation to religion, and talk about the often convoluted paths that led us there. I highly recommend dedicating some time to this discussion at one of your early meetings this upcoming semester. It will definitely help you understand the perspective of someone that you may disagree with.

Category: Managing Your Campus Group, Religious Recovery | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Elizabeth Knapp | August 22, 2011
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Death: Perspective (Part 2)

In Part 1 I explained the perspective of death as it relates to loss. In Part 2 and 3 I will explain the perspective of death as it relates to us personally, as individuals. At some point in our lives we realized that we were not immortal–that soon it will be our turn to disappear forever, as we have witnessed a loved one or pet. The fears and apprehension associated with this realization are what give religion so much leverage (especially what has kept Pascal’s Wager alive and well, despite its obvious logical flaws).

All of us at some point may have imagined how we would like to die; also, how we would not like to die. We also wonder if we will be missed, if anyone will cry, and how many people will attend our funeral. However, at least in my experience, the most crucial questions are, “Have I been the best that I could be?” and “Will I be remembered?” No one desires to go to their death bed with regrets of things that were not done, opportunities that were not taken, or a purpose that was not fulfilled.

And of course religion will tell you it has the answers to these questions! And of course the answers are exactly what we want to hear. The reason why the Bible and other religious texts are excellent at catering to human fears, apprehensions and questions so well is because they were written by beings that understand mankind’s deepest desires (and yep, you guessed it—that being is none other than man).

Will you be missed? Will anyone cry? Not for long, because everyone will meet again in heaven.*
“Have I been the best that I could be?” If you follow god and his commandments, your death will be reassured with the words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:23) Even in Islam there are verses that tell of deeds that will be recognized by Allah (Al-Jumu’ah 62:8) and compensated for (Ale-‘Imraan 3:185).
“Will I be remembered?” Not only will you be remembered—god will write a book about you (Psalms 139:16—in Islam, Al-Jaathiyah 45:28-29 ) and your name will be written in the book of life (Luke 10:20—as far as I know, not a part of Islam).
From these examples we can see why this afterlife would be so appealing, and why wishful thinking would take affect. Not to mention the rewards of anything else we want (Fussilat 41:31-32) or singing and dancing for all eternity… if you are into that kind of stuff. Hey, to each his/her own.

Naturally, all of these religious claims beg the question. Most skeptics and free thinkers have come to terms with the difference between evidence and faith. So what do we nonbelieving infidels have to look forward to? Definitely not anything these religious books have to say about us—that is for certain.
Is it possible for us to die in peaceful bliss, with something more concrete and reassuring than the myth of heaven? Well, there are a few things. They will be discussed in the conclusion, Part 3.

*note that the preachers preach that the unsaved will be condemned, but at a funeral everyone (including the preacher) assumes without a doubt that the person is heaven-bound (the exception, of course, is Westboro Baptists)

Category: Lifestyle, Religion, Religious Recovery | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Elizabeth Knapp | August 1, 2011
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Death: Perspective (Part 1)

Death is perhaps one of the top three matters of life that is responsible for a countless number of vivid and colorful products of the human imagination (the other two, of course, being world phenomena and the number 42). Perspectives on death are also very diverse: some fear it, while others welcome it; some hold the view that dying honorably is most desirable, while others prefer quantity over quality of life lived. And, naturally, everyone would like to know if death means THE END, or if it is the beginning of a new adventure.

An individual’s perspective on death is greatly influenced by the individual’s perspective on life, and vice versa. It also influences how the individual experiences loss. What I will be focusing on specifically is how death influences an individual’s perspective on religion. It is my desire to illustrate a few ways that death appeals to religion, and then offer a secular perspective on death to hopefully counter the religious appeal.

To start with, religion offers the appeal of temporary loss as opposed to permanent loss. For instance, one of my agnostic friends told me last year that she was now a Christian. This was caused by the loss of a dear friend in an accident. She told me that her conversion occurred while looking up at the stars in tears, wishing and wanting for death to not be the end. The idea of the person she loved simply vanishing in a void of nothingness horrified her, which is completely understandable. We can all sympathize with these feelings. When someone we love suddenly disappears out of our life, we want to be reassured that they are not lost forever. The cliche’ phrase, “They will live in our hearts,” is insufficient. We want to know that they are truly immortal in the sense that we will see them again, because it is not only good news for them but good news for us when it is our turn to become “lost forever.”

A couple months after this time in her life my friend became an atheist. She told me that she was not bothered by death any more. For other reasons besides this anecdote, I hypothesize that the acceptance of reality for what it is, instead of what we want it to be (or what we were misled into thinking it was), plays a quintessential role in changing beliefs. It is similar to childhood, when we were shielded from the more gruesome facts of life. While we grow up, paradigm after paradigm breaks to reveal the things that were intentionally concealed. The world we knew as children is not the world we know now, but that does not mean the world has changed. It means we realized it for what it really is–indeed, not just realized it, but chose not to hide from it, no matter how terrible. 

The counter-appeal of realism to the religious appeal of temporary loss is acceptance. Acceptance of what is most realistic provides us with a different reassurance: the reassurance that we are not fooling ourselves with wishful thinking. On this foundation positive, fresh perspectives can built, like the idea that having one life to live makes every day more prescious.

At an astronomy event last night a NASA poster brought the following to my attention. Spread your arms out at your sides so that they make a 180 degree angle. Now imagine that that line, from the fingertips of your right hand to the fingertips of your left hand, represents the 4.5 billion years history of our earth. If someone approached you with a nail file and began filing away at a nail on your left hand, that person just erased the ENTIRE history of mankind. Now compare the history of mankind to your lifespan. Isnt that amazing? Well, it can also be depressing. 

There are no cookie cutter explanations for why death should not get us down, or why loss should be less painful. No matter what explanation we choose to mollify ourselves, at least we know that we are not lying to ourselves, and that, in and of itself, can be comforting. Santa doesnt give out free stuff at Christmas, but Christmas gives me an excuse to exchange food and presents with friends. Storks don’t do the work for expectant mothers, but the birth process is still pretty awesome and babies are still cute. Death is most likely THE END, the total lack of conscioussness, but that does not subtract from the pleasure one recieves in existence.

One by one, we can come to terms with what would be nice if it were true, and what actually is true. We can find peace in acceptance.

Category: Saturday Morning Cartoons | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Ellen Lundgren | July 5, 2011
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Call to Campuses Nationwide!

If you run a campus skeptic/atheist group, let us know! Send us your website or email address and we will add you to our directory!

Please send us the following:

Group Name:
Location:
Websites: (blog, facebook, twitter, etc.)
Contact Email: (non-personal)
Logo or Photo:

 

We are working on building this directory as a resource for others to find a group near them. Our list will be sorted into High School, College, and other groups, and then sorted alphabetically into state and/or country.

Further, if you would like to provide updates on your campus group on this blog, become one of our Campus Updaters. You can send us public event information to advertise weekly for free. Let the nation know when you’re volunteering or hosting a public lecture. It’ll connect you with other campuses and provide inspiration for others. Win-win!

If you have more time to contribute and you have a knack for writing, become a current events writer or columnist! We would love more student perspective, tips on working with groups, and more. Just email ellen[at]skepticfreethought[dot]com if you’re interested.

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