Frivology

…and cool hair! This is pretty cool, actually. Come to America, Susi! School our school kids.

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.

When I first started to learn about natural selection in middle school, no one had to convince me that it existed.  I’d already heard some about evolution and had made the decision, based upon what I saw in the world around me, to believe that it was true.  In fact, at the time I still believed in God (as much as I ever have), and I still didn’t find that belief in God and belief in natural selection (so much as a scientific theory can be “believed”) were at odds.  I believed that Genesis was not literal and “7 days” could well have been 7 billion years or 70 billion years, or however long it would take to evolve humans. 

Evolution and natural selection seemed so obvious and clear that I had a hard time believing that anyone else would find them not obvious and clear, or even find them at odds with religion.  It became more difficult for me to understand this the older a got.  Thus, when my best friend (who isn’t even a Christian) told me that she couldn’t believe that we evolved from monkeys, I was shocked.  I was in my 20s, then, she in her 30s.  We spent a few nights with me trying to convince her and her just not listening to me, and then I dropped the subject.  That was ten years ago, and even though she and I have remained incredibly close friends who lean on each other for all kinds of support, evolution still remains a topic that’s forbidden. 

She went with me through a large chunk of my religious exploration.  Wicca, run-of-the-mill Paganism, Pantheism, then something sort of close to Pantheism, but more like Humanism in the form of watered-down Pantheism.  But, when I heard Julia Sweeney’s “Letting Go of God” and felt like Julia was very nearly describing my own journey with her experiences, and I completely let go of any form of “mystical being”, the journey together ceased.  I don’t remember how we got on the subject, as it was one I’d been avoiding, but she told me that she felt sad that I’d chosen this route.  It immediately raised my shackles - I don’t want to be pitied.  It was that sort of pity that had me stumbling in the dark for so many years, afraid to call myself an atheist for sure.  When I finally took the leap and embraced the fact that I don’t believe in God or Goddess or “The Great All” or any of that junk, I was sure I’d feel some sort of sense of being alone, of being orphaned… but, I didn’t.  Rather, I felt an extreme sense of relief.  I could suddenly be myself.  Yet here I was, sitting in my car, and my best friend, the one to whom I felt I could tell anything, was telling me that she felt “sad” for me because I no longer believed at all that anything would happen to me when I died other than just … dying. 

I tried to explain it to her, to tell her just that.  I don’t feel sad, so she shouldn’t feel sad, either.  I don’t feel lonely, orphaned, abandoned or left behind.  I don’t feel like my lack of belief has suddenly made my life less meaningful.  In fact, I explained, I feel the opposite.  I have one chance in my life to do the things I want to do.  One chance before it’s all over and I cease to exist… so damn it, I’m going to make that chance matter.  She got defensive within a few moments, then started to tune me out.  It was the same thing as happened when we talked about evolution.  I knew, then, that this would be a topic I just don’t bring up.  That conversation was partially why I decided I really needed to make Frivology.  I wanted somewhere that I could talk about these things without getting that questioning, raised-eyebrow look that made me feel as if I’d done or said something wrong. 

I bring all of this up because something happened with her yesterday that really put me on edge.  It isn’t something that just she did - lots of people do it - but it’s something that I think really does a disservice to all of humanity. 

(continue reading…)