One Reason Why Religion Persists...

... in my not-all-that-humble opinion:

Atheism in South Africa

Eugene Gerber – 31 Jan 2012

Dictionary definitions aside, the diversity of opinions on atheism in South Africa is second only to our menagerie of 11 official languages and the associated cultural splendor. Confusion abounds – atheism vs agnosticism; atheist vs antichrist – chaos in the minds of the masses.

Koinonia

Koinonia (κοινωνία) is a Greek word that means "communion by intimate participation." If you are or were a Christian, chances are good you've heard this word. English counterparts include "fellowship," "participation," and "communion." Koinonia implies not only fellowship, but a joint venture, teamwork for the greater good. This κοινωνία is the very thing I said I missed about being a Christian in my previous post. A few folks posted comments reminding me that I am part of a new koinonia of freethinkers here on the wild world wide Internet. Seriously, go read the comments. I am humbled and grateful to be part of a group of such insightful readers, fellow bloggers and critical thinkers.

And while this online koinonia isn't quite the same, in a lot of ways it's even better, and way more meaningful. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised by it. Consider South Africa resident Eugene Gerber. I wrote a blog entry about him not too long ago in which I pretty much threw everything at him: sarcasm, tongue-in-cheek insults, even sparkly animated gifs, and after all that, he had the strength of character to engage me in discussion and present his side of things. Our discussions went from here on the blog to one-on-one via email, and now, per my request, Eugene submitted a short write-up about atheism in South Africa, which will be posted here at Dead-Logic tomorrow.

This is the kind of koinonia I want and need, where we can challenge each other - even somewhat acrimoniously with egregious displays of glittery animated gifs (if one is so inclined) - and still come out of it with respect for each other. I'm not sure how to end this except by saying that you guys rock.

My Christian Friend

I have brief moments every once in a while when I wish I could go back into Plato's Cave, get plugged back into the Matrix, so I can wake up one day and be able to step inside a church and actually believe in all of it again. Like I said, those moments are brief, and they are few and very far between. What I really want - or I should say what I really miss - is the feeling of acceptance. I miss the feeling of family that comes with the comfortable bubble of Christian culture. Still, life is more fulfilling now, though I still long for the type of community my former religion provides. Even in those brief moments when I wish I had never taken the red pill, I know I can never go back, and deep down I would never want to go back. The images I saw there were shadows, illusions, deceptions. I was a Christian who wanted answers - real answers - and when I applied logic and reason in search of those answers, the whole thing collapsed.

Bonus Facebook Fun!

Another one of my Christian friends on Facebook (who's neither Clayton nor Mutual Respect Guy, FYI) shared this image he found on a Facebook page called "I Just Want to Praise You, Jesus":

Out of curiosity, I clicked on it and read the responses to this picture. I couldn't help myself. I trolled. Just a little...

Last Night on Facebook

A good friend of mine who is a Christian (and who's not Clayton, FYI) posted this status update on his profile:

Being a Christian with a bunch of atheist friends is a difficult thing. As an atheist, you have to believe that the Bible is a pack of lies, and people who believe it's true are fools.

As a Christian, how do you maintain a friendship with people who hate what you believe, and think your an idiot for believing it? How can there be any kind of mutual respect in a situation like that?

Compelled to respond, I posted a comment which led to an interesting discussion between my friend and me. Much of my conversation with my friend is below. I cut out comments by other people for the sake of length, and because they don't directly affect our conversation (although I chuckled a bit at my friend's mother-in-law, who, rather than actually contributing anything meaningful, trolled the thread by posting random Bible verses and lyrics to old hymns). Enjoy:

Who Am I?

I woke up Sunday morning feeling really sick and kinda melancholy. I spent most of the day in bed eating soup and watching both Boondock Saints movies. When I wasn't being a huge baby (which was most of the day), I spent some time writing this blog entry. I have to warn you: I ramble on a bit, and I reference philosophers and concepts without explaining or defining anything, and in the end I never really answer my initial question. I blame it on my illness and severe dehydration. I would understand completely if you didn't read it. For those of you who choose to skip this entry, I offer you this awesome image I created as compensation:

Amazing!

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Seems About Right...

"Only a Sith deals in absolutes." - Obi-Wan Kenobi

Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster: 25th Anniversary

"Modern science has been a voyage into the unknown, with a lesson in humility waiting at every stop. Many passengers would rather have stayed home."

- Carl Sagan

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"I touch the future. I teach." - Christa McAuliffe

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The True Meaning of Faith

I've decided that this will be my last entry in The Clayton Series. I'm doing this installment differently. I will be commenting throughout this segment of Clayton's essay rather than at the end. Clayton's words will be in blue. I'm continuing where I left off last time working through the section titled, "Controlling Definitions Means Controlling The Debate":

The Right to Teach Evolution - Eugenie Scott

[via ibiomagazine]
Taking a stand for good science! Eugenie Scott is awesome.

Please Don't Indoctrinate Me

[Photo by Lynn Fellman]

The Meaning of Religion

I have read Clayton's essay, "Why Am I A Christian?" three times all the way through. There are some things in it with which I agree, a lot of things with which I don't agree, and a few things that almost made me angry. At the very least, I felt a fire ignite inside me, and all I could think was, "he can't actually believe this." The section of Clayton's essay that raised my ire more than any other is the section titled, "Controlling Definitions Means Controlling The Debate." I'll post the first part of it here (sans the parts I left out due to length and relevance), followed by my response:

A Few More Thoughts on God and Morality

Getting back to Clayton's essay, I had a few more thoughts on the claim that god is necessary for morality. Seems to me that, if the Christians are correct about the nature of god, then we wouldn't need morality at all.

According to Christian theology, god was the only entity or thing that existed at some point. Whether "outside of time" or not, if god is the only "uncreated" entity, then there had to be a moment when it was only god. Did morality exist then? How could it? What would "being good" mean if you're the only thing that exists? Then god creates someone else. According to the Christians, god is perfect, which implies that god lacks nothing, so he must not have created other beings because he was bored or lonely, because that would imply imperfection. Whatever the reason, god creates someone else. Now how does morality work? How do any values work? The only way it can work is to set up a system of behavior that's entirely subjective. God would have to create this moral code of conduct. But if god had made people perfect like he allegedly is, then there would be no need for morality.

If everyone were perfect - i.e., not lacking in anything - then we wouldn't need morality. We wouldn't need anything by definition. Morality is necessarily subjective because it's contingent upon the needs of the people.

But the Christian account of our origins says god created a couple humans, then those humans disobeyed god's command, so god cursed those humans and every one of their descendants, thus making both them and their world flawed. But they were already flawed. "Adam and Eve" weren't created perfect, because they had desire for something they didn't have. God made them this way, then punishes them and all their children for acting in accordance with how god made them. How does this make any sense?

Dead-Logic.com

Women's Rights / Theism's Wrong

I created this animated anagram in honor of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade (January 22). It’s a small reminder that we should never take our rights for granted, and there are people out there working to turn their religious dogma into law and deny women the right to choose for themselves what happens to their own bodies:

Critical Thinking Sucks

Critical thinking is such a bother. Seriously, it's a pain in the ass. The hardest part about it is the letting go of sacred cows. Everything can be scrutinized, critiqued, and if deemed unfit, discarded. No idea, thought, belief or opinion is beyond reproach. That's not an easy lifestyle to maintain, and I think it's important that we understand that. Let's not fool ourselves: we play favorites. Even those of us who understand the value of reason wrestle with bias and our personal desires.