Frivology

I popped a quick post up earlier form Google Reader linking to PZ’s account of a woman in Washington trying to get an anti-atheist initiative on the state ballot.  I didn’t realize, at the time, that the woman was actually from the area I grew up in - Whatcom County.  In particular, she lives in Blaine, goes to some church events in Bellingham and works in Lynden.  After discovering this, I figured it was no wonder she’s crazy.  This is a crazy part of the country, and, as will eventually come out in my ‘Losing My Religion’ series, that area is part of why I’m an atheist today. 

First, some crazy: 

“I think probably at least that more creation science is overlooked as not belonging in the public school system because of the religion (aspect),” she said.

Citing the state Constitution, the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the initiative states it “is about requiring our government to do its job, to protect our liberty, a liberty which has been endowed by our Creator, the one responsible for Blessing us, the Supreme Ruler of the Universe.”

via: Blaine woman trying to get anti-evolution initiative on state ballot

Next, some insight into the crazy that is this part of the country.  Whatcom County is situated in the far Northwest corner of the United States.  Blaine is practically Canada.  I grew up in Bellingham, which was considered “the big city” compared to the other parts of the area - Lynden, Ferndale, Blaine and surrounding itty bitty towns, almost all of which are crazy religious.  Lynden is the worst, which has several Blue Laws on the books, including laws prohibiting liquor to be sold on Sundays, prohibiting establishments that allow dancing and drinking in the same place and prohibiting certain activities to be performed on Sundays.  It’s a real ‘Stepford’ kind of place, with perfectly mowed lawns and perfect little blocks with perfect little churches on every corner.  If you don’t mow your lawn in a timely fashion, the city will mow it for you and then send you the bill.  I used to get chills whenever we’d drive through the place.  That kind of crazy. 

The surrounding other cities weren’t much better.  Rumors persisted year after year that teen pregnancy and alcohol and substance abuse were much higher than in the city where we lived, and I even had a friend who told me she wasn’t allowed to have a prom.  Remember Footloose?  Yeah.  That.  Funny story… the relatively progressive church that we attended slowly got overrun by the Stepford wives.  My mom - a Sunday School teacher, Calvinette volunteer (it’s girl scouts for presbyterians) and choir member hated these women to a last one.  So, during one of our youth lock-in sleepovers, when it was our job to rent the movies she was sure to pick up … you guessed it … Footloose.  She just loved making those women squirm. 

Anyhow, Washington is a fairly progressive state, and it’s considered ‘blue’, but this particular bit of nutso comes from a rather nutso part of the state.  Yes, it’s really that bad and really that stupid.  I highly doubt it’ll actually turn into anything, but once you understand the people in the ara, you can understand how it could happen.

via: Atheist Media Blog

At the very end of this, you get this gem:  “…and which suggests that the universe is essentially purposeless and undirected, and one where people have perfect moral freedom to do exactly what they want because there’s no higher purpose to which they’re accountable.”

Every time I hear this argument I bristle.  Again, it is a denunciation of the power of mankind.  By announcing that we MUST absolutely have a higher authority to respond to otherwise we’ll go bonkers and do all sorts of crazy things, we’re saying that we have little to no faith in ourselves.  Mature humans are smart enough and reasonable enough to understand that actions have reactions associated with them.  You can’t just run about and murder everyone you don’t like, or someone you don’t like is going to murder you.  You can’t go around stealing everyone’s money because eventually someone will steal your money.  Then, there’s empathy with others, a trait, again, shared by mature humans.  If you hurt someone in some less tangible way, say by cheating on them in a relationship, you empathize with their pain and naturally think ‘what if I were in her shoes’?

I think, personally, that religion short-circuits our natural ability to form natural morals by giving people an easy out.  That’s why you see people running into crowds and blowing themselves up in the name of god, but you don’t see atheists doing the same thing.  If you’re religiously motivated to something it’s right, even if the rest of your nature-given intelligence tells you otherwise.

Then there’s purpose.  Purpose is something given to you, either by yourself or by another human being.  If your ‘purpose’ is to earn enough brownie points with god to get into heaven, that’s not something divinely attached to you.  It’s given to you through your church which is run by humans, not deities.  Those of us without belief in god still believe in purpose just as that definition – it’s just that we give ourselves our own purpose rather than waiting for someone else to come along and give it to us for us.  Again, in this case, religion short-circuits nature.

So today is Darwin Day, and I’ve been mulling over in my head for the past couple of weeks just what I wanted to say in this post.  I’m not a scientist by any means, and my understanding of Darwin goes as far back as high school, wich is around 15 years ago.  I’m reading ‘Why Evolution is True‘, but I don’t have a whole lot of time to read these days, being busy with work and a few other hobbies.  So, I stumbled along with idea after idea until something finally dawned on me… it’s something I’m sort of working slowly up to in my Losing My Religion series here at Frivology.  The series is about all of the different religions I hopped in and out of before I finally found peace in no religion and no belief, but the underlying theme to it is a personal bit of anecdotal evidence that there are certain people in this world who are hard-wired to be atheists.  Natural born atheists, so to speak… and I have to wonder, are human beings evolving into disbelief? 

About a year ago, I listened to Julia Sweeney’s ‘Letting Go of God’.  It moved me because Julia described all of the different beliefs she went through before she allowed herself to stop believing.  I did much the same thing.  Also like her, I wanted desperately to be a part of the moving ritual and beauty that religion can offer the world.  I, however, was cognitive enough of my own disbelief that I spent a great deal of time lying about what I felt.  I lied and said that I was wounded and needed Christianity to heal me.  I lied and said that I felt the warmth of God.  I lied and said that I felt the love of the Goddess… so on and so forth.  Some part of me knew I was lying, yet I craved the companionship, warmth and peace that so many “believers” seemed to have.  For me, though, I didn’t get that peace until I finally completely let go and admitted that I didn’t believe.  From the beginning, I never believed - couldn’t believe.  I was always meant to be an atheist.  It dawned on me, then, that I probably wasn’t alone.  Whatever made other people believe just wasn’t part of me. 

(continue reading…)

I decided this morning to participate in Blog for Darwin.  Granted, I have no idea exactly what I’m going to blog, considering there are quite a few way smarter people on the list, but I thought it was worth giving it a shot. 

Right now, I’m toying around with the idea of talking about how Darwin affected me, both when I learned first about him in Middle School, and then through the years how his ideas have shaped my beliefs (or unbeliefs) about the world around us and our part in it.  That should be a rather epic journey since I can scarcely remember a time when the theory of evolution didn’t have an impact of my life.  Or, maybe, I’ll start surfing Wikipedia for some sort of inspiration.  I just figured, since I’m not doing anything else to celebrate the day, I could at least do this!