Quote: “There’s a lot of talk about tolerance: We need to be accepting and embracing and tolerant. But there’s not a whole lot of tolerance or embracing or accepting of Christian values and the families that want their children raised with Christian values.”

So now we must tolerate prejudice and bigotry? We need to embrace “values” that shame other human beings for their most precious and core traits? Maybe I’m unable to tolerate their “values” as valid ideas because I see them as fundamentally unacceptable and harmful to others.

via wtfschmuck.tumblr.com

Any deity that refuses evidence honors the intellectually dishonest, the ignorant, and the gullible.

… Or this deity is totally hands-off and doesn’t give a shit, which basically means we don’t need to give a shit either.

… Or this deity doesn’t exist.

Choices, choices.

Director Roger Nygard interviewed over 100 people of different nationalities and beliefs. I heard the views of scientists in the same minute as Jainists, Native Americans, and New Age gurus.

Everyone answered the same 85 questions. Much of the insight I’ve heard or read before,  but the most striking part of this documentary was the cacophony of thought and theory made up by all of these radically diverse groups. At first, It just felt like a  mess of  totally unrelated beliefs.  I laughed quite a bit–both at the absurdly delusional and the fabulously comedic. Not until the very end when I had a time to reflect did I see the larger point.

It may seem simplistic, but I came away from The Nature of Existence with a renewed compassion for spiritual and religious people. My curiosity about world religions and the individuals that follow them has ballooned once again. Becoming an atheist may have brought a new realization that religion is based on delusion and  unnecessary, but hearing people of all different philosophies ponder why we exist and what it means to live a good life just makes me want to be kinder and more open to those who are on the same journey as I am. The difference between us is which path we choose to get there.

There may be a larger truth, but no one religion has it. Even science doesn’t fully understand yet. We search for meaning because it’s part of our natures. Let’s just be kind to one another  along the way, ok?

P.S. Go see the movie! Support independent film makers!

I swear I didn’t know! It was 2009! I didn’t even use them! If I had realized what the label claimed, I wouldn’t have bought the silly things.

Dear science, please forgive me for purchasing homeopathic “medicine.”

The label says “No risk of side effects. No expiration date.” Of course there are no side effects and no expiration date. There’s nothing in them to cause a reaction! The main ingredient is bullshit.

photo by marcia furman

USA Today published a short piece on how the days of overcrowded youth groups and church trips are over.

Only about one in four teens now participate in church youth groups, considered the hallmark of involvement; numbers have been flat since 1999. Other measures of religiosity — prayer, Bible reading and going to church — lag as well, according to Barna Group, a Ventura, Calif., evangelical research company. This all has churches canceling their summer teen camps and youth pastors looking worriedly toward the fall, when school-year youth groups kick in.

A few individuals guess why kids are ditching:

“Talking to God may be losing out to Facebook,” says Barna president David Kinnaman.

“I blame the parents,”who didn’t grow up in a church culture, says Jeremy Johnston, executive pastor at First Family Church in Overland Park, Kan. … “Remember, 80% of kids don’t have cars. Their parents could be lazy or the opposite — overstressed and overcommitted. If parents don’t go to church, kids don’t, either.”

Don’t forget the overcommitted teens themselves, the recession and growing competition from summer mission trips, says Rick Gage of Go-Tell Youth Camps, based in Duluth, Ga.

But then this quote sneaks in at the very end without any explanation or curiosity from the authors:

“I started to question if it was something I always wanted to do or if I just went because my friends did,” says Atkeson, now 18. “It just wasn’t really something I wanted to continue to do. My beliefs changed. I wouldn’t consider myself a Christian anymore.”

This is where I think the article would get interesting! Why did they stop there? This may be the most important issue—beyond lazy parents and facebook.

There must be more to kids leaving Christianity other than “I’m not attending church” or “I’m not going to camps with my youth group.” Many Christians often say things like, “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a mechanic.” If Christianity and faith is so much more than just attending services, then what’s causing this shift in teen commitments?

My “Youthgroupie” Days

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not anti-youth group. A lot of fun and character-building can happen in that kind of setting. I was a very active member of church youth groups from the ages of 10-18. My best friends came out of those groups, and I got the chance to do a bit of traveling (mission trips), go to a lot of fun events, concerts, and camps, and have a good time in a safe, parent-free environment. I lucked out, to be honest; I’ve heard some horror stories, but I thankfully survived just fine and had a good time in the process. Besides the religious training and evangelism that I could have done without, I consider it a great point in my development.

What if I hadn’t attended church or belonged to a youth group? Then I hopefully would have found another group of kids to hang out with and had other fun things to do.

Other Activities

So what are these straggling kids spending their time doing? My cynical mind assumes they’re just being silly, social butterflies who have sex too early, are glued to their phones, and try out every illegal substance they can get their hands on. But then again, I don’t expect much from most teenagers. Just call me ageist.

I hope there are enough attractive alternatives to churches out there for teens. I can think of some awesome things I wish I had been doing outside of school: community theater, another choir or orchestra, volunteering, a sports team, gaming, taking more fun classes like photography or language, etc. But I’m an adult now, and those things may not have seemed so fun to me at the time.

The constructive fun can come in many forms—not just from churches. Let’s just hope kids  find a great secular way of keeping out of trouble

About the film:

I wrote the toughest 85 questions I could think of, about our purpose and the nature of existence, and then asked hundreds of people all over the globe, such as: Indian holy man Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (The Art of Living), evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), 24th generation Chinese Taoist Master Zhang Chengda, Stanford physicist Leonard Susskind (co-discoverer of string theory), wrestler Rob Adonis (founder of Ultimate Christian Wrestling), confrontational evangelist Brother Jed Smock, novelist Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game), director Irvin Kershner (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back), Stonehenge Druids Rollo Maughfling & King Arthur Pendragon and many more… How would YOU answer?

I decided to take a look at these 85 questions, and I think we should all try them on for size. Here’s a taste:

• Why do we exist?
• What is the best thing about existing?
• What is our purpose?
• Should religions be challenged?
• Is skepticism a good thing?
• Which religion is right?
• Do we have a need to believe in something?
• What is spirituality?
• Is there a God?
• What does God need from us?
• Who is/are the Messiah(s)?
• How do we determine truth?
• Where does morality, or our “conscience,” comes from?
• Does God want to test us? Why?
• What determines sexual orientation?
• Why is God interested in our sexual behavior?
• Do we have free will?
• Is everything predetermined?
• What is best path to happiness?
• Does meditation work?
• Why do we need an afterlife?
• When does life begin?
• What is the greatest danger facing man’s existence?

I love them all, and I think I’d like to take some time to write out my own answers in the future. What do you think of The Nature of Existence? If there’s a screening near you, will you see it?

How would you answer the questions?

From PEP #192, April 1966

The evangelical magazine Christianity Today (which I’ve mentioned quite a bit) published an article titled “Woman As Folly” about the many curious Bible passages about women as possessions, being below or weaker than men turning women away from Christianity and god:

… “I think men are more aware than women of their tendency to sin,” one of the men suggested. “Maybe they can use this wisdom to help guide their wives.”

I couldn’t believe this was being discussed as a legitimate idea.

“Don’t they understand?” I said [to my husband]. “These sort of misconceptions—the idea that Christianity subjugates women—drive people away from the church.”

I wondered what he thought was so clear—that women bear a greater burden for the fall of man? “If I wasn’t a Christian,” I said, “these comments about women would turn me away from God.”

I wanted to deconstruct the ideas that were chipping away at my confidence in the Creator, but I felt outmatched. Among the men in our group, conversations often felt like a Scripture-quoting duel. Each time a new passage was referenced, I had the same question: What’s the context? Their response was nearly always a puzzled look. It was as if I’d just suggested we tear out pages from our Bibles and fold them into paper airplanes. Scripture, they reminded me, is inerrant.

This woman is starting to see sense. You can almost feel the warmth of the light bulb glowing brightly above her head.

Could this be the birth of a feminist? A liberated woman who realizes her entire religion has been anti-woman for 2000+ years? Maybe she could actually re-consider her belief in a god who would use authors with misogynistic values to be its voice?

But no. She can’t doubt god or the Bible. She has to pound the square peg into the round hole any way she can. So she goes looking for a comforting justification for the sexist teachings in her holy book.

Just Rationalize It!

The author then quotes what she found to be an encouraging thought:

“Many people run from any consideration of the Bible once they find such a biblical passage. I counsel them instead to slow down and try out several different perspectives on the issues that trouble them. That way they can continue to read, learn, and profit from the Bible even as they continue to wrestle with some of its concepts. One possibility I urge them to consider is that the passage that bothers them might not teach what it appears to them to be teaching. Many of the texts people find offensive can be cleared up with a decent commentary that puts the issue into historical context” (Tim Keller, The Reason for God).

Translated , this means:

“Instead of realizing the Bible is wrong on a topic like sexism against women (which we know it is, but can’t accept since we believe our god inspired it as Capital-T-Truth™), make sure you try really hard to make up a new meaning from the text that isn’t actually there. Don’t let passages bother you if you can explain them away through commentary from a totally non-Biblical human source. We’re Christians. We can rationalize anything” (Godless Girl, who knows bullshit when she reads it).

The author searches high and low for a justification for these  passages she believes her deity inspired—all so she wouldn’t have to admit that this is a very good reason to not trust or believe the Bible, the men who wrote it, and the men who want to stay in power in the Church today.

In the end, she finds a way to settle on this belief:

We are all equal in the eyes of God: equally loved, sinful, and redeemed.

And, I suppose, good for her. Equality in all things is how it should be. But since that statement contradicts the practices of the Church and the text of much of the Bible, I don’t think it does quite enough to erase or justify the words of Paul or the practices of Israel. Even though some stories in the Bible portray women as leaders or examples of honor and holiness, there remain many questionable passages that cannot be ignored.

Fundy Quote of the Day

In response to this article (which I have doused with sarcasm, but is actually not bad from an evangelical point of view), of course you’re going to get a few pompous prats who think their dicks make them better than women. Here’s my favorite!:

Come on, let’s get real. Most women simply do not have the same level of mental acuity as most men. They tend to fatuousness, hysteria, shallowness and materialism. I’m sorry, but that’s just the fact. They are the weaker vessel, destined to be led by men. Inspire us, love us, support us, but as for leading, please leave that to the men in your lives who are biologically better suited to that role.
–Andrew Preston Posted: August 04, 2010 10:31 AM

Have you ever noticed that conservative gender roles bear an uncanny resemblance to internet trolling?

Read the entire decision document here:

Prop 8 Ruling (it will pop up, and you can expand it)

This is a tremendous victory for gay rights!

Iz just kidding bout teh butt secks! lulz!

So Ted Haggard—former president of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor of a right-wing megachurch in Colorado Springs, Colorado—had a long-standing affair with a gay prostitute and smoked crystal meth. This was back in 2006. He resigned from his leadership positions and publicly apologized for his “sinful behavior.”

Now, Haggard is working on building up a new church which is, yet again, in Colorado Springs, CO. “In a July 2010 interview he gave to CNN, Haggard claims that his feelings of sexual attraction to other men have miraculously disappeared. Haggard now portrays his encounter with the prostitute as a massage that went awry (wikipedia).” That was one long-term massage, Mr. Haggard!

After changing his story, now Haggard claims he “over-apologized”:

It seems to me that Haggard may be back-peddling to make his sin sound less awful than he previously admitted it really was.  Perhaps he’s trying to justify his right to preach morality and righteousness. Perhaps he’s downgrading from “horrible sin” to “street cred”. Check out this article on his return to the pulpit where he explains how his public sin has become a great thing for his church.

Oh, what a guy.

“I Quit”

But twelve years later, the tide has turned once again. Rice recently spread this news  via her facebook page:

Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten …years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.

As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of …Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.

–Anne Rice, author 2010

You can imagine all the  atheists eating this for lunch, can’t you? Can’t you smell the delight over  someone famous  leaving Christianity? Everyone likes having a public figure on their team. Free endorsements!

However…

Not Good Enough

Good for Rice that she finally recognized the mess of this religion. I understand not wanting to identify with much of Christianity—especially the fundamentalist branches that make a business out of being anti-everyone–but that’s not good enough!

Rice is clearly not abandoning her mythology and superstitious delusions. She’s leaving conservative, fundamentalist  Christianity behind and making a political stand out of it. But what about liberal Christianity that is still based on the same myths, but is dressed up in hipster clothing and a laissez faire attitude? When Rice realizes the whole shit n’ caboodle is based on a false premise, then perhaps she might leave for good.  Perhaps.

What do you think?

(hat tip goodreasonnews)