Blasphemy and Other Fun Stuff

I'm feeling better and better about our forthcoming move to Lexington. Yesterday was our first day of classes at a secular homeschooling co-op and it was AWESOME! The kids had fun, learned a lot, and got to hang around lots of other kids without any focus on religious beliefs. They are counting down the days until returning next week. We'll enjoy it even more when it's a short drive from our new home instead of the hour plus we have to drive each way now.

And speaking of new home, were getting closer to our actual move, as we now have both a buyer for our current house and a contract to purchase a home in Lexington. Now we just work through the processes to get both sales closed within the next couple of months.

Our family is excited to be more active in the growing humanist/freethinker community after we move. We're particularly looking forward to next month's first annual Kentucky Freethought Convention. Check out this list of amazing speakers lined up to speak! I still kind of can't believe an event like this is coming to Kentucky, and I can't wait to be in a whole building full of freethinkers and skeptics.

Though Lexington itself is far from nonreligious, it offers our family a network of other secular families and individuals who recognize that religious faith is not necessary for morality, who place value on critical thought, education, and reason rather than on faith (i.e. belief without proof), and who know that rights and respect belong to human beings, not to ideas and beliefs. 

This concept of rights belonging to human beings rather than to ideas and beliefs is very relevant in the aftermath of the US Embassy killings and continuing unrest in the Middle East in protest to a blasphemous movie. Let's reword that a little bit. People are being killed because other people's religious faith is being offended. Human beings are dying because someone offended an idea. A myth. A story. And anyone who thinks Islam holds some kind of monopoly on this kind of behavior needs to read a history book or two.

Long live blasphemy. The Onion does a wonderful job of it here. (Image not safe for work. Or kids.)

Life Lately

Summer seems to be flying by. Though we intended to have "school" throughout the break, reality kept us so busy that we have hardly done any school work. We're tiptoeing back in now, trying to find the happy medium between the unschooling I am drawn to and the structure that both Kelly and the kids need.

My biggest challenge is math for Bonnie. Saxon is definitely too rigid for our family, but we need something a bit more organized than what I was doing at the end of the school year, which was basically rushing through a few Saxon lessons and working on word problems with her each week. We're looking at Teaching Textbooks, which may just satisfy both Kelly's desire for structure and Bonnie's desire to be more independent. (She likes math, but doesn't like being told what to do. No idea where she gets that.) She's taken their placement tests and falls somewhere between level 7 and pre-algebra, so we are probably going to start with the level 7 and see how it goes. Trying as always to find that balance of challenging without frustrating!


Speaking of balance, I have quit my part time job that I'd had since last fall. I brought the kids with me, but the novelty wore off for them, and trying to get my work done with them in tow was becoming increasingly difficult. Next time I work outside of the home, it will be without my children, or risk losing my own sanity.


And speaking of sanity, I've been consumed with sibling stresses once more, as my sister relapsed and we had to have her hospitalized against her will a couple of weeks ago. In case anyone was wondering, the mental health care system in this country is completely and totally messed up. 


Has anyone seen Mr. Deity? Though this video does not particularly address the awfulness that is schizophrenia, it shows the absurdity in thinking that an all-powerful deity could allow so many evils in this world and also be good. Watch it and enjoy!

A Tuesday Anti-Religious Rant

I'm self-admittedly anti-theist now, and the more isolated I feel within the surrounding religious community, the more frustrated and angry I seem to be becoming. It's summertime, which means nearly everyone I know is sharing stories and pictures from their kids' experiences at religious indoctrination camp, sorry, I mean vacation bible school. Sigh.

Why does the concept of bible school bother me so much? I suppose it's the word school. You see, there is no education going on at these "schools," only one-sided indoctrination, where the methodical stamping out of critical thought is a necessary stepping stone to making kids accept faith. They must stop asking "why" and accept "just because," and they must learn to accept interpretations from a 2000 year old Bronze Age text as superior to answers given by modern science. Rational thought and questioning, demanding proof for all assertions, must be rejected to at least some degree in order for any religious worldview to be accepted. It's really that simple. And Christian parents know this, otherwise they would not send their little kids to Sunday school and these religious summer camps. Get them while they are young, before the age of reason. Make sure they know that "because I said so" is a valid reason to keep from taking a bite of that apple. Nevermind that the apple is fucking delicious.

And of course all the Sunday school classes, vacation bible school sessions, and other children's church activities lead to announcements by people that their children have "chosen Jesus" and that they are so "proud." What exactly are you proud of? Successful indoctrination? Did you think there was a chance your eight year old was going to stand up in the middle of group prayer and announce his life-long dedication to Allah? Or Krishna? Are you surprised that he chose the only faith you've exposed him to?

I love Richard Dawkins. His words in The God Delusion helped me realize I have to be vocal about my atheism in order to show my kids the importance of leading an authentic life and questioning everything. This particular clip shows Dawkin's answer to the "most simplest question" during one of his book tours, when an audience member asks, "What if you're wrong?"

I get a kick out of how oblivious American Christians are to the fact that they would most likely be worshiping another god if they had been born in a different world location. But you can't accept both that only Christians will be saved by god AND that geography is the main reason you are a Christian, can you? Certainly not if you also want said god to be both all-powerful and merciful. Really, what's merciful about a little Muslim baby being burned in hell for having the bad luck of being born to Muslim parents? And if you accept that all people, regardless of belief in Jesus, are worthy of being saved by god, then that kind of makes Jesus rather unnecessary, so that's no good either. See? It's all very confusing when you try to apply things like reason and logic, so I can understand why Christians need to put some of these questions into a box labeled "faith," and make sure their kids know at a very young age that those kinds of questions are not acceptable, or that they can be explained away by a simple non-answer such as, "God's ways are mysterious." And what better way to get kids to stop asking the complicated questions than through fun group activities like Bible camp and Sunday school?

Summer Booklist

Life's been a bit chaotic around here, with the wrap-up of soccer season being one of the many things eating up our days. I'm struggling with this thing called balance and how to find it while homeschooling three young kids, working part time, being a soccer mom, and having all these visions of self-sustainability. For example, it's nearing the end of May and I haven't planted so much as a tomato plant. Sigh.

As the local schools are all finishing up for the summer, we've decided that our little unschooling adventures don't really call for a long break. A box from Amazon arrived last week, and look at the goodies it contained:

 

Included in our new stash of books is Joy Hakim's The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way. I've been trying to find something to get Bonnie excited about science, and this series looks like it might be it! The first chapters open with lessons on distinguishing between mythology and science. The author uses examples from Genesis, sacred Hindu texts, ancient Chinese works, and others to show the difference between creation stories rooted in oral traditions and scientific theories on the formation of the universe that are firmly rooted in facts. She talks about how myths are unchanging and non-evidence based, while science is constantly evolving as we learn more about the world around us. I love it! We also ordered a little Student's Quest Guide, but the verdict is still out on that one. I like it, but Bonnie is kind of adverse to anything that involves, well, writing.

I also picked up the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Fossils, so that Jack and I can identify the trilobites and other fossils we find together.

We're not quite finished with The Story of the World: Volume 3 , but will continue a chapter per week during the summer and start with Volume 4 as soon as we've finished. The authors really try to make the books non-Western centric, and though they don't always succeed, Bonnie loves the narratives and I find them a great starting off point for moving through history chronologically.

To help counterbalance some of the history according to Dead White Men, we picked up Howard Zinn's A Young People's History of the United States, which shares the too-often untold stories of women, slaves, immigrants, Native Americans, and workers. It came highly recommended by Jennifer at Home for Good, and we look forward to reading it. She also suggested The Book of Perfectly Perilous Math: 24 Death-Defying Challenges for Young Mathematicians, and I'm excited to work through that right away.

Bonnie just finished reading Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor, a photo journal depicting child laborers in the early nineteen hundreds. She flew through it, and it's hard to described how moved she was seeing pictures of those children, some of them even younger than Fred (who is only four.) This book should be required reading in every middle school. I want my children to know that we don't have to wonder what will happen if workers' rights and labor laws continue to be attacked.

The last book in the box isn't for the kids: Sex & God: How Religion Distorts Sexuality. Though we rarely attended church when I was growing up, my parents were raised as staunch Catholics, and I received a hefty dose of trickle-down guilt. This should be a fun read.

What's everyone else reading this summer?

Three Good Books

I try to surround Bonnie with lots of good books and let her choose what interests her. Sometimes her choices are right up my alley too, such as is the case with the following three.

Lynne Kelly's  Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal does a great job of debunking popular superstitions and mysteries, including psychic readings, Nostradamus, telepathy, alien abductions, crop circles, astrology, and more. I like that the book gives practical advice to the reader on ways to think through and debunk the superstition for herself. One of my favorite chapters is the one on ESP, in which the author discusses the dangers of using anecdotes as evidence for anything. My kids will be faced with all sorts of anecdotal "proof" from religious folk trying to persuade them into believing in a supernatural god. It's good for them to realize that they need to find their own evidence in these cases.

Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos, does a wonderful job of helping us understand the vast and brutal history of the sugar cane industry, with a focus on the institution of slavery. It talks about how the farmers who grew sugar cane and planned on making sugar faced special challenges that caused the growth of a new form of farming: the plantation.

The only way to make a lot of sugar is to engineer a system in which an army of workers swarms through the fields, cuts the cane, and hauls the pile to be crushed into a syrup that flows into the boiling room. There, laboring around the clock, workers cook and clean the bubbling liquid so that the sweetest syrup turns into the sweetest sugar. This is not farming the way men and women had done is for thousands of years in the Age of Honey. It is much more like a factory, where masses of people must do every step right, on time, together, or the whole system collapses. (Sugar Changed the World 27.)

I want my kids to fully understand our nation's special history with slavery. Most of our founding fathers owned other human beings. What does that say about everything it means to be an American? I'm not sure how to get past all the questions that are raised through in-depth research into our history. But I know we have to ask them.

Finally, Bonnie loved Susan Campbell Bartoletti's Growing Up in Coal Country, the story of children growing up in the coal country of Pennsylvania in the early nineteen hundreds. The author was able to offer glimpses of hope and happiness while conveying the incredibly difficult, dangerous lives these children and their families lived. I love that Bartoletti discusses the banding together of miners to form unions. This book, perhaps more than any discussion I've ever had with Bonnie, has shown her exactly why we have unions today and why we must continue fighting for them. Though set in Pennsylvania, this is Kentucky's coal history too.

Bailing on Screen-Free Week Before It Even Starts

So, Screen-Free Week is fast approaching, and I have come to realize that I just can't do it this year. I can't. This is the first time in my life that I have been connected with other Freethinkers, almost all via the internet, and I can't let go of it, even for a week.

Just today one of my dear relatives posted a comment on one of my Facebook links (one that was incidentally not about atheism, but simply about teaching children to question what they read. OK, so maybe that is about atheism after all.)  She ended with the statement that she wants to save me from a "miserable future and an everlasting punishment." That's right. I posted about teaching children to question everything, and she said she's worried I'm going to hell. And you know what? She is being a good Christian in saying that, isn't she? Because if you genuinely believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and our savior on earth, then you must also believe I am in some serious need of saving.

Here's the horribly offensive photo that incurred such venom, by the way. (In the spirit of full disclosure, I had also posted a horribly offensive picture of our President with a quote in support of women's rights the day before.)

Even my most supportive, liberal, and kind Christian friends and family (who I am incredibly thankful for) dodge the questions of why priests and ministers don't talk about how it's possible to be both a good person and an atheist. And as much as I love those friends and family of mine, I also wonder how they address atheism with their own children. I've said it before, and I will say it again, and I'll also probably say it even another time in the future: "Jesus is the only route to salvation" and "You can be an atheist and be a good person" can't really both be true. (Unless I am missing something.) So you're probably not going to hear a lot of Christians, even kind, liberal ones, loudly stating and teaching their children that it's okay to be an atheist. And certainly no church that survives on tithing is going to make such a statement either, is it?

I read once about a survey that revealed that people trust atheists LESS than known rapists. And while I really hope that isn't true, it wouldn't surprise me if it were. I've seen people seeking childcare that put the sole qualifier "has to be Christian" on the ad. Really? You think I'm going to eat your kid because I don't believe a fairy tale that was written two thousand years ago? THAT is what makes someone a good person?

In case it's not abundantly clear into paragraph six here that I'm a little frustrated about the whole atheist stigma thing, well, I'm a little frustrated with the whole atheist stigma thing. I feel some comfort knowing that various friends and family members have approached me in private confiding their atheism to me. My big mouth did that! Woo hoo! And I am going to keep on being loud as long as there are people who face fear and shame in admitting their atheism.

Oh, and back to the Screen-Free Week thing, since I started with it. We'll still do something to honor the spirit of the week, like maybe adding some more screen-free chunks of time, including a few screen-free days. I just can't lose this connection with the online atheist community.

One last thing.

Funny Stuff, Followed by Sad Stuff

I've got sibling troubles on my brain, so rather than a (hopefully) well-thought out piece of writing, I'm going to share more funny nonreligious stuff I've seen lately. Laughing at someone else's expense makes me feel better. I'm mean like that.

Ok. This one is the bomb, and it really shows the absurdity of the entire creationist worldview. Click the picture to see it full-sized, and be sure to read all the comments on the bottom.

And here's one from an article about the dependence of religion on dysfunctional societies. This is only one of the graphs, but all of them are funny and not exactly surprising. (Seriously, look at all of them.)

Sorry. My heart's just not in it.

This morning my aunt watched the boys so that I could run errands that included going to the bank, checking the mail, picking up a gallon of milk, and dropping by the jail to schedule a visitation with my little brother. I was planning on visiting him today, but apparently it has to be scheduled in advance. I love learning new things!

My kids are all concerned about their uncle. I can't believe some of the questions Jack has come up with, though of course they escape my mind as I type this. He and Fred have been "playing jail," locking their stuffed animals up behind pretend bars for imagined crimes.

Me, I just want my little brother back. The one who doesn't tell lie after lie and break laws to support a horrible drug addiction. I see Fred and Jack playing together everyday, the same way my brother and I did (I don't mean playing "jail", just playing in general), and it breaks my heart. Where is that sweet, intelligent, caring, sensitive little kid? Maybe, hopefully, he will turn up in that cell.

Least Favorite Bible Quote

For we live by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7

I've seen the above Bible verse shared several times by Christian friends and family on Facebook, apparently posted because they believe it's a good thing. Well, I think I'd be hard pressed to find another verse that so completely captures my beef with religion. Elevating faith as a virtue is dangerous. Teaching our children to believe things that cannot be proven, while ignoring the physical evidence in front of them, is dangerous.

Funny Stuff

When I first came out as an atheist, I kind of went crazy posting anti-religious stuff on Facebook. I suppose I'd kept certain opinions to myself for too long, and it felt really good to be open about my religious views. I pissed some people off, and even had some people unfriend me. After the novelty wore off, I kind of realized I don't want to be only posting anti-religious stuff on there, but would rather just go back to posting things about my kids and homeschooling and just, you know, life. And maybe, just maybe, sharing that very normal stuff while having "atheism" clearly listed under my religious views would do more to open people's eyes that we atheists aren't evil.

But I still run across hilarious atheist posts and pictures on the internet, and sometimes it kills me not to share, so here's some of the stuff I have found particularly funny lately. Enjoy!

I keep laughing every time I look at this one. I know it's bad, but it does a great job of pointing out some of the inherent hypocrisy in the Christianity I see every day. You cannot claim a blessing by a god without necessarily making a statement about this wheelchair-bound kid, little starving children in Africa, and people with cancer. If he gets credit for the good stuff, he gets credit for the bad stuff. Otherwise, all-powerful probably isn't the adjective you're looking for to describe him. The whole article on the Onion is funny,  but I really just love the picture.

Anyone else wonder why a god doesn't give a clear, undeniable sign of his existence that is not dependent on completely subjective interpretations of ancient texts and faith? Don't think tsunami, think gravity disappearing for like two seconds. Or instead of a tornado, how about some modern-day walking on water or raising of the dead? Eddie Izzard's quote here is fantastic and so insightful.

This one really captures the current complaints that the religious right has about Christianity being oppressed in this country. Because when you think "fair" is your belief system having special treatment, then concepts like "Separation of Church and State" have to be targeted as religious attacks. But this is what it looks like to the rest of us:

Anyone else get a headache when you hear some try to explain the concept of free will or the Fall? Or when someone talks about how undeserving they are of god's love? If a parent behaved toward his or her children the way god behaved toward humankind throughout the Bible, we'd reasonably demand the parent be placed in prison. I love the bottom quote by Gene Roddenberry here.

Lest anyone think I unfairly pick on Christianity, believe me it's only because I am surrounded by it. I assure you my lack of respect extends equally to Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and all the other world religions! (Except ancient Greek mythology. I love that stuff.) And while I would never claim to be blessed to live in the U.S., I am incredibly lucky to live here and to be able to actively mock the suggestion that beliefs and ideas should ever be above reproach and satire, or somehow "sacred." Long live blasphemy!

Anyone else have some funny gems to share?

Here Comes Peter Cottontail

As I scour blogs looking for spring time and Easter activities to do with the kids, I am reminded what this season is about for me personally, and no, it's not some fantastical story of a man rising from the dead two thousand years ago. But it is very much about rebirth.

We spend a lot of time in the woods, especially this time of year when the temperature is pleasant and the thorns and brush are not so grown up that they make walking through difficult. There we spot toads freshly emerged from the cool ground, ready to find other toads and get their hop on, their skin dark and wet and their movement still slow. We step over fallen trees, whose fall made room for the abundance of saplings striving to be the one to crowd out its neighbors (siblings?) first. Evolution is on display everywhere. Undeniable.

Closer to the house, we've watched daily for the appearance of the first fence post lizards on our concrete steps. (They crawled out of the ground about a week ago.)  In a few more weeks, the first tiny babies will have hatched, and we'll watch them grow all summer. Between now and late fall, on almost any sunny day, they'll be hanging out catching ants and other little bugs just outside our south-facing windows.

A car ride anywhere right now includes us passing fields with brand-spanking new baby calves, their legs wobbly, some of them with fur still wet from birth. I hope I never stop being as excited as my kids to see them each spring.

With all of this, I have no need for some make believe heaven in the sky. Heaven is here, with my family, in this little spot on earth. It's in the red bud trees, soon indistinguishable from every other tree on the treeline, but now a gorgeous deep purple that I can never get used to, no matter how many springtimes in Kentucky I've had. I'm so incredibly lucky to be part of this beautiful, abundant natural world and the rebirth it offers over and over again. It is everything to me. And it is enough.

Chocolate bunnies and marshmallow peeps are just a bonus.

Blessed I Am Not

A terrible storm featuring deadly tornadoes raged through Kentucky and Southern Indiana today. We've been anticipating it for days. The kids and I had our little haven from the storm prepared in the basement, and they spent most of the afternoon playing down there as I kept my eyes glued to the television watching the progressing storm.

As we all waited for the front to come in, I rolled my eyes through the "sending up prayers that the storm misses us" and "God bless us during these storms" messages on Facebook, as I know the heart of these sentiments comes from wanting our own friends and families to be safe during natural disasters. But after seeing the absolutely devastating coverage of the areas around us, I cannot just roll my eyes at "thank God" and "God blessed us." Asserting that a god blessed us by not ravaging us with tornadoes, while our neighbors to the north and to the east received such destruction? I'm sorry, but every single "Thank you, God" has an implicit "...for getting them instead of us" tagged onto it. How can it not?

Is it comforting to think that natural disasters such as these tornadoes are completely random and totally unfair? No, of course it isn't comforting to think that. It sucks. But the alternative, that an invisible hand is up there guiding them, deciding whose prayers are more worthy, saving some while destroying others? That would be considerably less comforting to me.

The storm victims could use much more than prayers. Please consider donating to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief. It's so easy to text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

The Logic of a Four Year Old

On a very long car ride today, I had a discussion with my four year old about gum. He wanted a third piece (in less than 10 minutes) and I didn't think it was a good idea. He would not let it go after I listed all the reasons why he could not have another piece. His logic reminded Kelly and me of discussions with religious believers who think they are being rational when they defend their supernatural beliefs. This "discussion" continued for half hour, but I will spare you and summarize.

Fred: It's not fair that Bonnie and Jack have gum. (I believe Jesus Christ is our savior, the son of God sent to redeem us if we only believe in him. The Bible tells me this.)

Me: Actually, you've already had one more piece than they had, so that's not fair, is it? (The only "evidence" you have are bad copies of copies of Bronze Age texts. Those don't seem like valid sources for an entire belief system to me.)

Fred: It's not fair that Bonnie and Jack have gum and I don't. (I believe Jesus Christ is our savior, the son of God sent to redeem us if only we believe in him. The Bible tells me this.)

Me: But you still have the gum in your belly. It's not good to swallow so much gum. (You already said that. You dismiss much of the Bible yourself, how do you choose which parts to believe?)

Fred: I accidentally swallowed it. Both times. I promise I won't swallow it if you give me another piece. (The Bible is written by man, and only inspired by God, so of course you can't take it literally.)

Me: But that's what you said last time. (But how do you decide which parts to believe?)

Fred: It's not fair that Bonnie and Jack have gum and I don't. If you don't give me a piece of gum, I won't like you. (I believe Jesus Christ is our savior, the son of God sent to redeem us if only we believe in him. The Bible tells us this. Faith is a virtue!)

Me: Well I will still love you! (There is no logic whatsoever in anything you are saying, but I still love you.)

Fred: Give me GUM!!! (Jesus is our savior! The Bible tells us so!)

Me: I'm sorry, but you've already had your share of gum, and you can't have any more. (You've already mentioned that. Do you have any reason for your beliefs other than indoctrination?)

Fred: But it's not fair that Bonnie and Jack have gum and I don't. If you don't give me a piece of gum, I will be mad at you. (I believe Jesus Christ is our savior, the son of God sent to redeem us if only we believe in him. The Bible tells us so. Belief is the only option if you don't want to go to Hell. God is loving.)

Me: [No comment.]

And my four year old's final "argument" for receiving a third piece of gum?

Fred: It's not fair that they have gum and I don't! If you don't give me gum, I will fart and not say 'excuse me.'

You know what? I do have faith... in my four year old eventually learning how to argue logically. For now, he's a great source of entertainment, as well as occasional exasperation, such as when we are trapped in a car with him from Toronto to Kentucky.

Homeschooling on the Rise

I'm always happy to hear of new secular homeschoolers out there. By that I don't necessarily mean parents who are atheists, but those who choose to homeschool for reasons other than religion. In other words, homeschooling families who are not ultra-conservative Christians. Today I read an article in the Daily Beast about the rise of homeschooling among urban, educated parents. Yay!

The author gives examples of several homeschooling moms who explained they decided to homeschool because of their fears of getting the "exhausted leftovers" at the end of the day if their kids were in regular school. This describes exactly what we had when Bonnie was in primary school. And not only did I miss her most alert hours, but her teachers, beginning in kindergarten, assigned regular homework that monopolized the few hours we had together as a family. As it became more apparent that she was receiving an inferior education during all those long hours at school, that assigned homework became even more of a sore point with me.

Another reason the author often heard for deciding to homeschool is "the desire to craft an education just right for each child." My kids didn't have to reach school age for me to see that they don't do many things exactly the same as each other, and the ways they learn are prime examples. Jack is five and a half and should technically be in kindergarten right now, which is all day in the schools here. There is no way that boy could sit in a classroom for six plus hours a day without something in him changing. He needs to touch the dirt, climb the trees, and run far more than he needs to learn his phonics now. (The phonics are coming, but slowly, much more slowly than with his big sister, and that's okay.) And on another spot of that spectrum is Bonnie, who sat very contentedly all day in public school, learning hardly anything, because her teachers had to spend so much time disciplining other students and trying their best to teach twenty-five students (all on different levels) the exact same thing. Fred falls somewhere in between the two, with the ability to sit and learn for long periods of time as long as he's interested in the material. But he also pees on couches, so traditional school would likely not be a good fit for him either.

As much as I enjoyed reading this article and hearing about the rise in educated parents joining in the homeschooling community, it's also a bittersweet reminder to me that this upward trend is in urban communities, a.k.a. not where I live. I don't have easy access to all those new co-ops and extracurricular activities here, and the local homeschooling community is still by and large comprised of evangelical families who are homeschooling for much different reasons than I am. The secular education I'm trying to give my kids is what they're trying to avoid by homeschooling.

For those of you who homeschool, are you in an urban area? Are you seeing the rise in co-ops and planned activities that don't involve field trips to the Creation Museum?

The One Thing They Say About Catholics Is...

I read an article this afternoon about a man in France who is fighting the Catholic church to be "un-baptized." I've never given this much thought, but I too was baptized into the Catholic church as a baby, and I suppose the church still recognizes me as Catholic as well.

It's interesting to read the comments on this article. As with most discussions involving religion, there are fairly strong opinions demonstrated. I have to admit that though I hadn't thought much about it before, I sympathize with this gentleman and his desire to be stricken from the church records as a Catholic. I never gave my consent for this so-called sacrament, and it's purely a matter of geography that I was born into a family that practiced Catholicism (at the time.) Why should the church still consider me a member all these years later, when I most certainly am NOT a Catholic?

Now, just to be clear, I don't have a bigger problem with Catholics baptizing their babies than I do with other Christians who indoctrinate their small kids with Sunday school and Bible camp and then claim their seven year old children "choose" to accept Jesus. Obviously neither scenario involves choice on the part of the kids. That said, I think it's pretty ridiculous for the Catholic church to refuse this man's request to be removed from their records, and it speaks a lot for this particular religion when a member has no right to leave said religion.

And on that note...

Misquoting Jesus

I've continued finding more time for reading, and was impressed with Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus, which is one of the ten books recommended by Sam Harris in his Letter to a Christian Nation. Kelly and I both read the book, and enjoyed discussing it over a period of days.

The book focuses on the scribes whose job it has been to pass on the texts of the New Testament for nearly two thousand years. Ehman reveals what is likely not surprising to many, that scribal error has resulted in modern Bibles being based on inferior texts that often don't represent the meaning of the original texts. You know the story about Jesus and the woman taken into adultery? Yeah, that doesn't belong in any of the original Gospels, but was added by later scribes. (Ehrman 64.)

Ehrman first dedicated his life's work to studying ancient manuscripts of the New Testament and their many differences when he was a young, devout evangelical Christian, as he began to question, "What good does it do to say that the words are inspired by God if most people have absolutely no access to these words, but only to more or less clumsy renderings of these words into a language, such as English, that has nothing to do with the original words?" (Ehrman 7.) As Ehrman continued his studies, he found that there are "more differences among our manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament." (Ehrman 10.)

There seem to be two basic views of the New Testament by Christians: one is that the Bible reveals the unerring words of God, and the other is that the Bible is "inspired" by God. I dismiss the first claim as completely ridiculous, as my ten year old can point out errors in the Bible. As to the second claim, Ehrman says, "even if God had inspired the original words, we don't have the original words." (Ehrman 211.) Spoiler alert: Ehrman is no longer an evangelical Christian.

I enjoyed this book, and though the errors and contradictions of various Biblical texts didn't surprise me, it was nice to see specific examples. When are we going to let this Bronze Age text remain the interesting piece of literature that it is, and stop looking to it for our morality? School boards across the country are trying to base curricula on this bunk, and politicians are campaigning with policies based on their Biblical understands of the world. I for one don't want our leaders making environmental policies, for example, based on their own interpretation of an incorrect copy of a copy of copy of the books of Revelations. (Or a correct copy, if such a thing existed.) If you think the world is going to end in our lifetime, please go hole up somewhere and enjoy your final days with your family, and feel free to laugh at me when you are right and I am wrong (which doesn't seem very Christian of you but won't happen at any rate.) Don't ruin the world for those of us who plan on having generations of descendants here!

And to my progressive Christian friends who roll their eyes along with me at the fundamentalists: read this book, and read Sam Harris's book. You are good, moral people, not because of your belief in a God, but because you are good, moral people. You are already using your own code of morality, not that described in the Bible, when you don't put your disobeying child to death, when you don't advocate for stoning adulterers, and when you read accounts of slavery with disgust.

Highlights from a Creationist "Science" Book

I ran across this amusing/sad list yesterday that highlights some interesting excerpts from a creationist science textbook. Anything published by Bob Jones University Press will be entertaining, and this book doesn't disappoint. I especially love the section on electricity, which is number ten on the list. Can you imagine giving this explanation to a school-aged child in science class? "Electricity is a mystery. No one has ever observed it or heard it or felt it ... We cannot even say where electricity comes from." 

In some ways, what I find most interesting about this list is the author's commentary at the end. He says that, while he has no problems with creationist parents teaching their kids that God made everything, he does have a problem with books like this that essentially "trick" kids into a certain belief. "It's not only disrespectful to [children], it's disrespectful to your beliefs. It's a tacit concession that you don't think your beliefs can hold up in the face of a counter-argument... or that you don't think you can properly impart your beliefs to your children in an above-board way."

I'm in agreement with him except that he seems to miss the fact that "science" books like this and other propaganda are the very foundation for teaching creationism to children. Saying something like "If you want to teach your children that everything was created by God, I also have no problem with that at all," doesn't really mean anything if the only way to teach them that is by using the type of tool you thoroughly and awesomely lambasted.

I believe that it would be difficult to read this list and not interpret it as "anti-creationist," yet the author spends much time trying to convince us that it's not. What's seemingly at play here is the silly notion so many of us have that beliefs in and of themselves deserve respect. As human rights activist Maryam Namazie often says, "Respect is for people not for religions and beliefs."

For the Bible Tells Me So

I watched an interesting documentary a couple days ago: For the Bible Tells Me So. (Available for streaming on Netflix.) The documentary follows several "normal" Christian families, one of them from Kentucky, as they recount their experiences surrounding having gay sons and daughters. We get to see the "coming out" stories, and how each family responded in turn. I want to point out that while this film is definitely not an anti-Christian work, it does shed an unfavorable light on a history of using the Bible to justify hatred, violence, and bigotry towards gays and lesbians.

Bonnie watched some of this movie with me, but she got very upset after one of the featured mothers described her lesbian daughter's suicide after coming out to and being rejected by her. I am thankful that she cannot comprehend such utter rejection by her parents. Of course I let her know that she should never be afraid to tell me if she's gay.

B: "I know. But I'm not gay. I definitely like boys."

Me:  "You're only ten, so you don't know for sure."

B: "No, I think boys are really cute."

Me: "Well that could change."

B: "I don't think so. I really like boys."

Me: "Just remember you can always tell me."

B: "Okay, but I won't."

I love that kid!

I believe much of this movie should appeal to freethinkers and liberal Christians alike. As an atheist, I would have loved for this film to go one step further, to admit what is obvious, that our morality on the subject of homosexuality (as in all subjects) need not come from the Bible at all. I do not need to interpret the words of the Bible one way or the other to know in my heart that there is nothing morally wrong with two adults loving one another. It would, however, be immoral for me to raise my own children to think it's okay to commit acts of violence, hatred, and bigotry against another group of people because I don't like what they do in the privacy of their own bedrooms.

Finally, here's an awesome piece of standup by Patton Oswalt that touches on the subject of homosexuality and the Bible at the beginning. He also hilariously talks about something with which I personally struggle: respecting people without respecting beliefs. This video is not for kids. Or for people who don't like lots of cussing and/or blasphemy. Seriously, don't watch if you're not up for it.

Holiday Reading

In the midst of all the gift wrapping, cookie making, and holiday book reading with my overly-excited kids this week, I carved out the time for Sam Harris's concise book Letter to a Christian Nation. I have never read one piece of writing that so echoes my personal fears of religion.

I'm finding it hard to pull specific quotes from the book to share here, because almost every sentence he writes speaks to me. I'm sure that most non-believers will agree with what Harris has to say in his book, but I wish more of his intended audience would actually read it as well. I would love to see a genuine discourse about all the subjects he raises so well.

The choice before us is simple: we can either have a twenty-first-century conversation about morality and human well-being-- a conversation in which we avail ourselves of all the scientific insights and philosophical arguments that have accumulated in the last two thousand years of human discourse-- or we can confine ourselves to a first century conversation as it is preserved in the Bible. Why would anyone want to take the latter approach? 

Read the book.

And now I will return to remembering the "reason for the season," as so many of my Facebook friends and family members have been reminding everyone this week. I have more than one reason to celebrate: family, friends, thankfulness, and peace to fellow humankind. Oh, and books, I want to celebrate them, too.

Christopher Hitchens (April 13, 1949 – December 15, 2011)

“The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more.” 

 -Christopher Hitchens, The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Non-believer

Science vs. Religion

Noted evolutionary biologist Jerry A. Coyne recently wrote about religion reducing science literacy in America. As he says, "It’s palpably obvious that acceptance of evolution is impeded by religion." What's really interesting, and what he points out in this article, is that religion impedes ALL scientific literacy, not just the controversial topics like evolution, stem cell research, and global warming that one might expect due to their being in direct conflict with some religious teachings.

The study that Coyne cites also reveals that scientific literacy is lowered in correlation to the degree to which the Bible is literally believed. In other words, fundamentalists score the lowest in scientific literacy, other Protestants and Catholics somewhat higher, and non-believers the highest. (Go atheists!)

Coyne goes on to say:

I suggest that the willingness to believe in fables and superstition makes one more resistant to believing things that are true, especially when those things fall into a category, “science,” that can be perceived as a threat to belief systems based on superstition. Regardless, Sherkat’s data provide additional evidence, as if we needed any, that science and religion are incompatible.

I tend to agree with Coyne that science and religion are incompatible. This is not something I walk around stating, because most of the people I know are religious, and many of them very intelligent. But really, how could they possibly be compatible? Religion makes a virtue out of believing something that cannot be seen, tested, or proven: faith. Science, on the other hand, is a process for understanding what can be seen, tested, and proven. It's about gathering as much evidence as possible to construct a reasonable explanation for something. Yes, this means that our scientific understanding of things changes as our ability to gather and interpret information evolves. Science never claims to know all the answers or to be unquestionable in the light of new facts.

Why do I care about all of this, and why should everyone? If it were really as simple as "everyone believing what they want to believe," I would not have so many gripes about religion. But the historical and current impediments of science by religion disallows me to leave it alone. Michelle Bachmann, one of the candidates for Presidential nomination for the GOP, displays a glaring lack of scientific understanding with comments encouraging the teaching of Biblical creationism alongside evolution in public schools:

What I support is putting all science on the table and then letting students decide. I don't think it's a good idea for government to come down on one side of scientific issue or another, when there is reasonable doubt on both sides.

What she is condoning is not teaching two scientific theories, as any reasonable person knows. The debate about teaching creationism in school is not a "scientific issue", it's a Church-State issue, which those supporting it would realize in about five seconds if the suggestion was to teach any other religion to children as science.