Atheism « Uniform Velocity

Archive for the 'Atheism' Category

Mar

Nominal Christian, Thou Profess Too Much

By BGH 3 Comments

Categories: Atheism, Critical Thinking, Reason and Religion
Tags: Christianity, Faith, hypocrisy, Nominal Chrsitian

Just as with any other sub-category of the human race, those who call themselves ‘Christian’ come in a wide spectrum of variation.

I have the fortune and misfortune (depending on the day) of working with a disperse group of coworkers who fall all along this spectrum. Most peculiar of the species are those who never indicate one ounce of religiosity… until it is ultimately convenient for them to use the statement ‘I am a Christian’ in order to demean or criticize others. They are ‘nominal Christians’. These characters are ‘Christian’ in name only, and it appears, solely because it is the particular prevailing faith in the country of their birth (the United States).

Such individuals possess entirely non-religious tendencies until the very moment they would like to argue why ‘gays shouldn’t marry’, ‘atheism is stupid’ or any plethora of discussions where they might use declarations such as “the bible says”, “what if you’re wrong” or “I just have faith we didn’t come from monkeys”. The coworkers I speak of are partying, cheating, cussing, and scamming scoundrels until it behooves them to state, “I am a believer”. At that very moment, a transformation takes place in which they turn into completely devout, adherent members of the faith. This theological flip-flopping hypocrisy is surely worth the punishment of any hell they believe exists. Denying their ‘lord’ until it is a benefit to claim belief must certainly be an offense of great magnitude to a vengeful deity.

Within the persons I speak of, there apparently exists a bigotry that must be coated with a thick layer of a ‘Christian’ label in order to have justification. But to me, they will always just be… assholes!

May

Christians Balk At The Abscence Of Federal Prelation

By BGH 12 Comments

Categories: Atheism, Civil Liberties, Politics, Reason and Religion
Tags: Focus On The Family, National Day Of Prayer

In the United States a day of ‘observance’ called “The National Day Of Prayer”, which was signed into law by President Harry S. Truman, has been extravagantly celebrated by numerous administrations since that time. It is in essence a day filled with idle wishes, hands clasped and upturned noses, looking to the heavens for a plethora of gifts and grants. Some of which may come to pass, many of which will not, but none can be directly attributed to sitting idle with folded hands.

This year, Presidential ‘celebration’ of this national observance has been scaled back in comparison to previous years. Especially in regards to a standing, open invitation to the White House many evangelical leaders enjoyed, and they are subsequently awash in confusion, anger and disparaging remarks for the current administration.

As an atheist and stringent secularist myself, the pullback of the federal government’s celebration is surely welcome. While not a complete abolition of the government endorsed religious celebration which I would greatly appreciate, hopefully it is a sign of further progression towards more reasoned and constitutional adherent policies from this White House regarding First Amendment violations.

There exists no necessity for a government endorsed day of prayer. The claims regarding the effectiveness of prayer bear no veracity and prayerful individuals have their houses of worship to pray as a group or their homes to pray in private.

The National Day Of Prayer was a mistake and unconstitutional when initiated and while the majority of citizens in this nation may exercise their freedom to pray, it is not the role of government to encourage any religious activities. It has been said, “what’s the harm?” regarding the observance of this non-holiday as an argument in favor of continuing the practice, but the more insightful question is, “what’s the need?”

This nation and many others would experience much greater benfit with hands at work, than with hands partaking in a superstitious ritual. Move on nation, grow up and get to work.

Apr

Amazing Grace… Secular Nation

By BGH 9 Comments

Categories: Atheism, Civil Liberties, Politics, Reason and Religion
Tags: Founders, Secularization, The Constitution

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me…..”

One of my theist colleagues is making another attempt at being witty. This morning I arrived at work and a particular coworker was already in full swing, while I had just barely finished my morning coffee. Before I even entered the lab I could hear the gospel toned barrage of “Amazing Grace” being belted out from someone around the corner. Immediately I knew who it was as this particular ‘friend’, is continually singing or humming hymnals. His version of “Amazing Grace” was replete with a signature style of over emphasizing the ‘god’ parts.

I am not objected to persons singing while they work or humming a nice little melody, even my coworker’s choice of song doesn’t bother me, most of my day is spent with my own iPod ear buds either listening to podcasts or my own music. What occasionally amuses me, is when my friend approaches me and attempts to make a poignant statement with the tune he is singing. This time he approached and requested I illustrate my knowledge of “Amazing Grace” by reciting the lyrics. After I finished quoting the first chorus, my friend’s eyes began to widen and I could see that he was going to comment about how “one day” I will be a “powerful force for the lord”, which is his usual statement in these situations. When I demonstrate knowledge of anything about church, the bible or gospel music, my coworker takes this as an indication of my future return to the fold. Sadly, his ever-changing prophecy of when the re-conversion of my soul will take place continues to remain unfulfilled.

When I commented that I preferred the instrumental version, he made the following comment.
“Have you noticed wherever they have taken ‘god’ out, he is slowly being slipped back in?” with a righteous tone.

Ah ha, the good old narrow minded, ‘my god deserves a rightful place in front everyone, because everyone wants him there’, argument. So I clarified with him what the precise intent of that question would be, I asked him if he viewed government endorsed, public homage to a ‘Christian God’ or ‘Jesus’ as appropriate in the United States where the citizenship is encouraged to follow whatever personal creed they choose. Then the tired canard was submitted once again, he said, “Well, we were found by *Christians*. We are a Christian nation.”

As the blood began to boil behind my retinas I calmed myself with a mantra of ‘he is not to blame, he has heard too many lies’. I compassionately explained, “the founding fathers who authored and ratified the United States Constitution did so for many reasons; freedom, fair representation and disputed taxation from a foreign king. Establishment of a Christian government was not the primary, nor secondary concern of the founding collective. Religious statements and references to specific or general gods were addressed during the drafting of the founding documents and detailed in the Federalist Papers, all of which were removed, instead choosing to make a passing reference to a generic ‘creator’; the “Christ”, “The Ten Commandments” and “Yahweh” lack citation in the Constitution and other founding documents.

Then I asked, knowing his Protestant favor, would he be as comfortable with mention and reverence for the Catholic Pope being made in the Pledge Of Allegiance or on our currency. Or, if the percentages were reversed and non-believers were the majority at the inception of our government, would he be as supportive of government endorsed statements in that favor such as, “One nation under godlessness“? He visibly grew frustrated, and instead of responding, fittingly shook his head as he walked away. Which is exactly how many of our conversations come to conclusion. While I do not mind religious discussions, he seems to only be interested in changing me and at the first sign of failure he abandons conversation.

Secularism is the only fair doctrine, affording inclusion of all and endorsement of none.

Apr

Dispassion Of The Christ

By BGH 4 Comments

Categories: Atheism, Critical Thinking, Reason and Religion
Tags: Christ, Easter, Good Friday, Jesus

Today is observed as ‘Good Friday’ by various Christian groups across the globe; a very holy day for those who believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is claimed that on a Friday nearly 2000 years ago, the ‘Christ’ was crucified and died. A human sacrifice that Yahweh sent to earth in order to redeem the sins of mankind and make available salvation in return for faith in and acceptance of the resurrected Christ god/man. This tenet is one of the key factors in my disbelief and absence of faith… my atheism.

While not the sole reason for an absence of god belief, the Easter story has always in my mind, been a logically disheartening and wholly unbelievable tale. No matter how much I wanted for similar ‘faith’ in the resurrection that those around me were exhibiting while I was a young child in a catholic family, the ‘Passion’ story was continually one of the most difficult portions of christian doctrine to accept as plausible. Granted, I find much of the Christian bible tough to swallow but the idea of God’s so-called sacrifice of himself to himself, but only as a temporary inconvenience until the resurrection was one of the first portions of scripture I found implausible. If my simplification of the story is offensive, I make no apology because that is how the story original represented itself in my mind. If ‘Jesus’ was god and man both equally according to trinity doctrine, who was the sacrifice to and how was it any sort of imposition knowing prior to the event he would resurrect himself? Then there is another logical leap taken by many of the faithful. If one presupposes Jesus existed and was crucified as described in biblical scripture, buried in a tomb and the body was actually witnessed to be missing less than three days later, the empty tomb does not prove the resurrection as some would claim (maybe even write a book about), it merely proves the corpse was missing. Nothing more. Any other claim is an illogical leap, dare I say a ‘leap of faith’, and thereby not proof. For faith is precisely that, belief without reasonable proof.

Additionally, with Mel Gibson’s help, the torture and death of Jesus was visualized in artistic form, yet as graphic and brutal the depiction, the ‘Passion’ certainly is not the most violent, torturous death experienced by a corporeal being. Then there are those who lose themselves in the celebration/remembrance of this holiday, some of which can be viewed here, Holy Week. Large numbers of the faithful will prostrate and flog themselves as a form of penance, which in its own way could be viewed belittling the suffering purportedly experienced by their savior.

In all, the existing logical problems for myself within the ‘passion’ story, my less than normal appreciation of chocolate (I do not care for it) and weather issues in the midwest wreaking havoc on my sinuses and allergies, Easter season is my least favorite time of year…

Apr

Being ‘Out’ As An Atheist At Work…

By BGH 263 Comments

Categories: Atheism, Critical Thinking, Reason and Religion
Tags: Annoyance, Business, The Workplace

…on occasion causes me to long for complete ostracism.

For some time now I have been open about my absence of theism and disbelief in a god at my place of employment, yet there are a few of my colleagues who just do not ‘get it’. One, who happens to be a part time preacher, seems as though he will never fully comprehend or feel secure enough in his own beliefs to accept that there are others who are not of the same worldview. He is one of the most unquestioning, blindly following and profoundly ignorant believers I have personally encountered. I say “ignorant” because as much as he professes Christianity to be true, he has not completely studied the bible (his own religious text) and apparently, is only capable of regurgitating select verses a previous pastor or fellow believer deemed important. While a full study of the bible is not a requirement in order to call oneself a Christian, as often as he uses the text to justify his beliefs one would think a little deeper investigation might be something he would want to pursue.

Being squashed by the hand of religion.

The colleagues I speak of are aware that when I was a young man I had been raised in a catholic home and felt that if I were going to believe the claims of the church and the religion I owed it to myself to study the text in whole. So I read the bible, not once, but three times in its entirety. This does not make me ‘better’ than a believer who does not choose the same level of interest in his faith, but the fact that I know your religious book better than you also is not an indication that I have an interest in coming back to the ‘fold’. It was my dissection of the bible as I read it and critical evaluation of factors such as authors, editors and the era (taking into consideration common understanding of natural phenomena at the time) in which the books were written that helped solidify my skepticism and my disbelief.

This is where the annoyances begin with the co-workers of faith. Continuous and constant, I hear one individual in particular remark about how he “sees a big change” coming for me in regards to religiosity and belief. He is convinced that I will perform a near 180° turn in the near future and profess everything to be true that I cannot in good conscience accept as valid presuppositions today. While he is entitled to his opinion, the daily mantra of reciting this idea is a bit ridiculous. I have not yet taken it upon myself to approach him, as if it were a primary concern in my life, and routinely nag him about “becoming a good Christian and reading the entire bible”.

Why haven’t I returned the favor, so to speak, and irritatingly addressed his seemingly blind faith in the unseen? Why haven’t I filed a complaint with supervisors? The answer lies in the fact that his beliefs are inconsequential to my life and my happiness. The comments could be addressed as harassment but I do not see them as such, merely as occasionally irritating. Mostly, what I see this as, is a complete and utter uncomfortable posture with others who think for themselves, refusing to fall in line and march in step.