Believing is Not Logical or Scientific

In my childhood home there was a great adult conspiracy to nurture the belief in Santa Claus.  We talked about him, read stories and poems about him, wrote letters to him, saw cookie crumbs, half-empty glasses of milk and gnawed carrots on December 25^th at the crack of dawn.  I believed.  I was young, I was told to believe, the culture supported my belief and the evidence at my disposal supported my belief.  I do not know at what age it occurred to me that it was really impossible for a fat guy in sleigh pulled by flying reindeer to deliver gifts all over the world.  Scarier to me was that he knew whether I was naughty or nice.  Such surveillance is truly creepy.  Once I began asking questions, the jig was up and as he oldest kid I was conscripted to perpetrate the myth.  That did not mean that I stopped loving Christmas or my parents.  I just knew better than to believe in Santa.

I have had many doubts about many beliefs since my childhood.  I was told by our leaders when I was a young man that communism was a monolith and if one country fell under its dark shadow others would surely fall as dominoes.  We know that is not true now, but I believed it then.  I believed America was the very best place to live in all the world.  I believed that as a nation we did not do evil things, we did not renege on treaties, we did not plunder other nations for profit, we did not begin wars.  I know now those were false beliefs as the historical evidence is clear.  That did not mean I stopped loving the United States or its government.  I just knew better than to believe political mythology that was self-serving and seek the larger view.

We know humans once believed the earth to be flat.  They once believed the earth was the center of the universe and solar system.  They once believed the earth was only 6,000 years old.  On and on until some began to ask questions and gather data.  Now we know the earth is round, the sun is the center of our solar system, and the earth is about 4.5 billions of years old. 

And even as I say all the above I know there are adults somewhere who still believe in Santa, the domino theory, the greatest country in the world theory and the earth is flat, the center and young theory.  I look at them all the same way.  It is a pity they do not know.  Worse, they do not want to know.

But belief only stands until we challenge it with evidence, fact, science and/or logic.  We can believe in cookie crumbs and gnawed carrots until the reality of the belief sinks in.  At which point we know it to be myth.  We have some quasi beliefs and quasi evidence around ghosts, UFOs, Big Foot and the like.  Surely one day we will have concrete evidence, but until such a day I will remain a skeptic having learned via Santa that true fans and converts should not the source of a reality check.  Those who believe what skeptics scoff will seek and/or create evidence where there is none, or will allow to pass as evidence that which is not.

I could spring from this juncture to politics, economics, history, etc.  My intent from the beginning was to spring to the topic of religion.  And so I shall, after a brief aside.

I believe I am loved.  I know people who claim to love me and by their actions demonstrate that they do.  I also know people who claimed to love me and at some point stopped.  Ouch.  I know people who are mad at me, and people who are offended by me, people who are afraid of me, and people who are amused by me, etc.  But yes, I believe in human emotions as I can see them and observe them.  Feelings can be measured and observed and are not the subject of this epistle, so no sidetracking or rabbit chasing.

Religion for me is the organized beliefs currently not grounded in logic, reasoning or science mutually shared by a group of people.  Beliefs are taught, not discovered.  Such beliefs typically include reasons for being, moral codes, supernatural beings, explanations of both beginnings and endings of the universe, etc.  Such beliefs are typically recorded in some perceived sacred text.  Such beliefs are not rational (beliefs were not discovered via telescope, microscope, etc.) and that a believer has a difficult time perceiving non-belief, therefore evangelical or missionary work on the part of the believers is common.  Just as a 4 year old will scream, cry and/or lash out in anger at the suggestion that Santa is not real, a religious believer will threaten eternal torture and display similar behaviors aimed at non-believers.  Believers not only absolutely believe their belief is true, they believe everyone should believe as they believe.

Those who ardently hold religious beliefs are some of the most challenging humans of all as logic does not drive them, belief does.  By my definition, religion is not logical.

If the Chinese, for example, found a way to treat all our drinking water with a chemical inducing total amnesia and were able while we were all asleep to confiscate all Bibles written and digitized what might happen?  Would we awake and “discover” God again?  Would God make an appearance?  Would we re-write the Bible?  Of course not.  That belief would disappear, and other folks would write new sacred books answering the questions they long to have answered and are too impatient to wait for science to discover.  If we forgot all we knew about electricity, we would discover that again.  The same is true for all our scientific knowledge.  Our religious beliefs, once forgotten, are gone forever.  There were generations and generations, thousands and thousands who believed in and worshiped an entire pantheon of Greek gods, then Roman gods and before all of them Egyptian gods.  Not so any more.  Most everyone is an atheist when it comes to Zeus.  We do not believe he is real or that he ever existed or that he merits our love, devotion, prayers or money.  He is now officially a myth.  Students learn about him in school under the rubric “mythology.”  However, suggest to a believer of a current religion that their belief is a myth and one will likely be confronted one way or another.

It seems as rational to me to think that no being can hear the prayers of close to 8 billion people as it is to think that no Christmas fat guy can keep a list of all the children in the world and their behavior.  Though believers believe that to be true and that both beings, Santa and God, act on their lists.  I find that almost humorous.  It seems rational to me that a God capable of creating the universe could develop a plan to save folks from sin other than killing his own son.  It seems rational to me that if there was life after death we would have evidence of that by now.  It seems rational to me that if there is a heaven or a hell we should be able to discover the coordinates, or at least some parallel universe if that is where everyone who has ever lived now resides.  It seems rational to me that if we somehow exist forever it is either with no memory of this life, therefore it does not matter, or we would spend all our time attempting to get in touch with those we loved and still live.  If I am conscious after death I will not forget my children.  How could I?  I assume the same is true for my father and mother, now deceased.  And yet, I have not heard a word.

The above is just logical to me. 

Worse, is to unwrap the psychology of these gods in whom folks believe.  Seems there is a god credited with creating earth and creating men and women in his image.  That is still a mystery.  Was this god transgender?  If he created humans for this planet why didn’t he give us gills as 75% of the planet is covered in water?  In fact, he placed us on a planet where only about 25% of the planet is capable of supporting human life.  Why would he do that?  Why would he apparently punish his first man and woman by cursing all other future humans?  How mean is that?  How forgiving is that?  Why would he get mad again and destroy all life on the planet except those in a boat?  That is exceptionally cruel and intolerant.  Why would he send his offspring here to save us, then kill his offspring?  Especially if his plan was to reanimate his son, why die in the first place?  I can think of a jillion other things he could have done that would in fact be much more impressive.  Why just catching fire and levitating off the cross would have created a stir.  Why did he send his son before we all walked around with cameras?  Why did he send his son to an illiterate area of the world instead of China or India who were much more literate and advanced?  Why would his sacred texts take hundreds of years to codify?  Why would he allow humans to write it at all?  Why not just carve it in stone and hide it under the ark?  Why would he allow so many historical atrocities to be committed in his name?  Why would he want us to remember him using a cannibalistic type service?  If he knows all and sees all why didn’t he have his son come right out and address the coming worldwide issues of race, slavery, sexual identity and nationalism?  What is wrong with this guy?  And if he wants us to think of him as our father, then does that mean we are his sons and daughters and are as much at risk as his own son?  Scary.

We know the account of his creation of earth and life are wrong in terms of sequence and time line.  So can we trust anything?  And why did he create cancer?  Why did he create greed?  Why did he create fear?  Why did he create lust?  And on and on.  Seems if I were going to put a life form together I would eliminate the attributes that are most destructive to that life form.  I guess this god just wants us to suffer.

Where is he?  We can measure sunshine on a cloudy day, we can measure oceans currents well below the surface, but we have no clue where god is.  I know where he is not.  He was not with those who have lost their lives on any crash of an airliner where the passengers knew they would crash.  He was not with those who died in storms, and tsunamis and earthquakes.  He is not in the hospitals where everyone prays for healing.  He is not with those who love him and set out on the highway never to return.

Or, he was with all those people and did nothing.  In our law, that is called negligent homicide.  If he could save people from death and did not, he is guilty. 

Or, if death is desirable why such a fight from the most religious when it comes to suicide, abortion, etc.  Why not have a big garage sale and all of us head to never-never-land.  Seems one cannot have it both ways:  dream of a life everlasting in heaven but fear and avoid death, god will not help you avoid death, but will damn you forever if you get there on your own.

Looks to me like religious belief will go the way of flat earth.  We will learn what many have already figured out.  You get one life.  It is short.  It is unpredictable.  Live it the best you can serving others not yourself.  You will die like all living things die and return to the stardust from which we are all made.  Heaven, hell, eternity, etc., are all myths.  Now be a good person because you choose to be and not because some supreme deity has you under constant surveillance.  And, save your money.  We have enough temples and churches to last until our sun goes nova and we all die.

Surveillance and Thought Police

I really enjoyed the TV series, “Person of Interest.”  Great fun.  The premise, if you are not a fan, is that everyone is monitored all the time everywhere and a super computer informs the good guys when bad things are going to happen.  Rescue ensues.  It is a little creepy to think about being monitored all the time, but the premise is not new.  Orwell’s 1984 may have spawned movies like “Enemy of the State”, “Minority Report”, “Colossus:  The Forbin Project,” “Eagle Eye,” “The Net,” and others that follow the same theme.  Big Brother is watching all the time.  Spooky.  Close the drapes.

And yet we rely on surveillance footage to stop crime.  Even cops wear cameras to monitor the bad guys and the cops.  One cannot go to a convenience store or an ATM without being recorded.  Even couples engaging in a little PDA at athletic events may find themselves on the big screen.  Our phones and our cars can be located by GPS.  (I am so grateful I was not tracked or monitored to that extent while I was dating in high school and college.) 

That is our issue, privacy versus security.  Clearly, if everyone were monitored all the time we could dramatically reduce crime.  On the other hand, do we really want to live in a nation where everyone is always on candid camera?  I do not wish to live in such a state.  We even set up cameras in the woods to track game, zombies, Big Foot and other creatures.  Amazing.  Is my computer spying on me?  Should I turn off my web cam so if I have to scratch I can do it in private?  Or should I simply acquiesce to universal voyeurism?

I have serious concerns about these issues, and I suspect you do too.  It is not enough to say only bad guys and folks with evil intent should fear monitoring or searches or whatever practice invades privacy.  One is not known to be a bad guy until the monitoring.  So we are all suspects until proven innocent.  And how many of us could literally be monitored our entire life and not have a police record?  I stole bubble gum from a convenience store when I was in 3^rd grade.  Thank goodness the statute of limitations has expired, though such a confession may make me a candidate for future surveillance. 

For now, our only surveillance is of behaviors and speech.  I can be monitored in many ways, but my thinking, my beliefs, my feelings, my fantasies and my nightmares are not subject to scrutiny unless I make such thoughts public.  A world where not only are all my behaviors recorded but my inner most thoughts and processes are also monitored is a truly frightening place.  Worse, I might be held accountable for a thought that never became action.  Is that not scary?

Welcome to the concept of God.  Jesus made it pretty clear that if you think a sin you have committed a sin.  Wow.  Check out Matthew 5: 27-28, Matthew 15: 17-20, Mark 7: 20-23.  Yep.  If you think it you have sinned.  God is the thought police.  I have a real problem with that sort of totalitarian scrutiny.  I would never support such scrutiny of humans by humans.  How could I possibly support such scrutiny by a deity?  Worse, it is not just the scrutiny, but if one does not seek forgiveness for a thought one may be burned in hell for all eternity for his or her thought sins.  That’s a considerably worse sentence than 5 to 10 in the state pen.  Such punishment, such risk, such surveillance does not sound like the behavior a loving deity to me.  It is the ultimate fascism.

And I have a hard time loving or even believing in a supernatural being who would practice such atrocities.  Why give me free will if I am to be damned for eternity just thinking about what I might do with that free will?  God bless Jimmy Carter who confessed he had sinned because he had lust in his heart for another woman.  Holy cow.  Why wire humans to be sexually attracted to each other then send us to hell if we simply think, “what if?”

Sounds to me like such a deity is mean spirited, controlling and totalitarian.  I do not see the love in this, I see fear mongering.  If God knows all my thoughts why should I even bother to pray?  He knows.  So why doesn’t he answer?  Oh yeah, he has a mysterious plan for each of us that we seek to stumble on because he won’t just come out and tell us.

Really?  Worship such a being?  Pray to such a being when I am damned before I start?  OK, the fervent among you will argue that once forgiven by God we are eternally forgiven.  But that makes no sense.  Is that a license to lust forever?  I thought the commandment was you are forgiven, now go and sin no more.  So sin, seek forgiveness, sin seek forgiveness is an eternal loop we cannot escape instituted by a being who is determined to be worshipped using fear and punishment as the motivator.  And if one wants to argue he loves all of us, then why did he allow his own son to die a horrible death?  If he is willing to allow that, what chance do I have?

Nope, such a being is more like a child’s nightmare, a fairy book fable designed to scare us all into being good all the time.  I choose to be good out of love, out of respect, out of integrity, not fear.  I will screw up.  Perhaps caught on a camera when I do.  But I refuse to believe that there is a supernatural being who is monitoring all my thoughts. 

Jesus, give me some privacy, will you?  Or, if you are monitoring, how about granting some of those wishes for a change.

God Bless Texas

I journeyed to our County Courthouse to renew the registration sticker for my truck.  Yes, I live in Texas and yes, I drive a truck.  The clerk was ever so polite and in just a few minutes I left with a new registration sticker-enclosed envelope.  Our county Tax Assessor/Collector is a new person, replacing a wonderful lady who held the post for years and years.  Evidently our new gal wants to make an impression, so the envelope that held my sticker looked very different from the previous county-provided envelopes.  Emblazoned in large print across the left side of the envelope was the phrase, “God Bless Texas.”

And for a minute I am speechless.  Is this still America?  Do we still believe the government, any government, should not promote religion?  Do we still believe it is unconstitutional to spend tax payer money promoting religion?  Is that our America?  Or have we become a land where the rule is think like me, or you are wrong, and I can ram my thoughts down your throat using your tax own dollars?

Suppose the envelope said, “Allah Bless Texas”?  Or Ra or Zeus or Baal?  Would people who believe in God be horrified?  Yes.  Suppose the envelope said, “Atheists for Texas”?  In other words, this kind of democratic blasphemy only happens where the majority are so ensconced they cannot even picture a minority point of view.  Or worse, they can picture a minority point of view but believe the minority to be “wrong” so they proceed anyway. 

And if one believes there is a god and that he or she can bless a state, why not include the entire nation?  Does God recognize state boundary lines?  Why not request a blessing for the planet?  Why not check in with the Harvey/Irma/Nate victims and see if they feel blessed, or the children who just lost insurance, or the folks who will die today from gunshots, or all the folks now sleeping under a bridge, or the children dying in the cancer ward, or the children who will be abducted this year and sold as sex slaves, or the folks who are dirt poor while working two jobs.  They are not going to feel blessed.  If such a prayer, and it is a prayer, only works for some and not for all, should we print it?  So, if god does not answer such a requests, should we print it, or does it become some sort of false promotion? 

There are profound reasons for separating church and state.  No secular government should ever endorse one religion over another, or religion over no religion.  A person’s most intrinsic right should be the right to believe as he or she chooses.  For the state to ever indicate there is a good choice in the belief arena is to indicate all other choices are bad choices.  And the state has absolutely no right to imply that.

Our biggest beef with the Muslim community in the Mid-East is that they want Sharia law to govern the state.  We see that as blasphemy while at the same time many promote making Christian law the law of the state here in the US.  There is no difference in this sort of blasphemy, this sort of state intrusion into our precious, sacred internal belief structures.

I do not think Monica did this with mal-intent.  I think she did it out of ignorance of the fact that not all in the US or even Jackson County are God-believing people, or even believe in the same God she professes.  I think for equity we also need envelopes that say Allah bless Texas, Buddha bless Texas, Atheists bless Texas and Zeus bless Texas.  If that strikes horror in the minds of some then you know how I felt when I read the current envelope.

And then I pass the electronic sign outside our school district offices and read, “Prayers for victims of….”  And once again I am thrilled to know my tax dollars are promoting someone else’s religious beliefs.

The History of God

And the Swedes seem to have confirmed that humans have been on the planet about 350,000 years.  Way longer than the 100,000 year estimate of before.  So, on this Sunday morning that has a huge impact on my religious thinking.  So, for the first 10,000 years of humans there is no evidence of that the god of the old testament revealed himself.  Nor for the first 20,000, the first 30,000, the first 40,000, the first 50,000, and on and on until we get to about the first 346,000 years  when the real god revealed himself to a nomadic, illiterate group in the mid east.  God did not reveal himself to the Chinese.  They could read and write.  He revealed himself to a people who had to have an oral history.  He revealed himself to Bronze Age thinkers.  He revealed himself to a group that referred to their homeland as the land of milk and honey, but it is the only land in the mid east that has no oil.  India already had gods,  China already had gods, many in the mid east already had gods.  Why did this god wait so long to reveal himself and why did he choose the Israelites.  He could have chosen the Greeks who already had a wonderful pantheon of gods.  Nope.

And I wonder, if the collective memories of humanity were wiped out, if we lost all our knowledge and all our books and all our hard drives and thumb drives and servers and clouds, would we "re-discover" god?  Seems highly, highly unlikely. 

Think I will avoid church today.  I know they will not discuss these issues.  They will engage in a cannibalistic ritual ("this is my flesh, this is my blood") and ask for money since the all-powerful all-knowing miracle-working creator god always seems to need money.

And to all the Christians in Puerto Rico:  If you believe god will take care of you, that having Jesus in your life is all you will ever need, that even as he cares for the sparrow he will care for you, why the hell are you mad at Trump?