Everything In Moderation: What I've learned about Religion and Atheism in My Own Life (A Blog Short)

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. 

Proverbs 22:6

Train up a heavily religious indoctrinated child and he/she will either stay in "the religious bubble" or become an advocate for Anti-theism (or at the very least an agnostic or atheist). Not always true of course, there are exceptions, but moderation seems to be the key. I looked for verses to fit the moderation theme I wanted to do for this blog, but none would fit with what I was talking about, so unlike most Evangelical pastors or I will not just snatch a Bible verse and make it fit to the point I'm trying to make. Indoctrinate a child (as in the documentary "Jesus Camp"- style) and you will either see a "Jesus freak" or "devout Muslim" or "Elder in the Church of Jesus Christ" or (name your religious zealot)... OR a God Delusion reading, Christopher Hitchens citing Anti-theist. It's not nurture vs. nature. It's a little of both actually. Read Stephen Pinker's "The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature". It's the power of cultural evolution and neural conditioning working together.

The majority of my friends that were brought up with moderate or mild religious dogma mixed with a  healthy dose of science, philosophy, and history in the public school system usually don't think much of these things. I would consider them Apatheists:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatheism

One of my friends was raised in that environment and is an atheist but considers this question long settled in philosophy years ago. Which it was. Christian apologists just refuse to accept it. I mean what is religion if it isn't constantly moving the goal post to make the evidence "fit" to your faith? The New Christians (I have a few friends in this group) who are more culturally literate, fashionably creative, graphic design savvy, and open to liberal ideas such as gay marriage. Well, some are. Some of my New Christian friends just ignore the question. Usually anything difficult gets ignored in conversations. Denying homosexual the same rights as heterosexuals is uncomfortable to talk about for those that seem so progressive in their faiths otherwise.

But we are needy creatures, emotional beings that appeal to emotion, and religion (at least Christianity) is probably 90% emotion (as most of it's followers are ignorant of the Bible, and most use pleas to emotion to convert people to their faith *See move "God's Not Dead") and the rest theology, history, etc. We are pattern seeking mammals, that find "doing science" or I should say thinking scientifically about the most things difficult to say the least. Just ask a person on the street to name the first 6 elements on the periodic table or what a day or a year actually is. Doing science is hard, thinking scientifically is not easy. It's not directly obvious to us in our everyday life. We take gravity for granted. We come up with conspiracy theories with no evidence to support them. We always pick the easiest routes. Most prefer stories. Most prefer Father figures behind the curtain of this cosmos. One that watches and cares for you. (Ignore Somalia - You see, that can be explained because Satan owns this particular planet now and the risen Jesus will come again after waiting for his cue in heaven on the Mt. of Olives followed by a lake of blood of his opponents... anyways, it gets complicated. All true tho!)

I always say that the academic discipline of complex Biblical apologetics can be summed up by just a few simple concepts: All the bad/evil in the world can be attributed to sin due to "the Fall" of humans. This apparently goes for 99% of all species that have ever lived going extinct. - Man's sin. We are assholes, clearly! Our single species allowed all other species (that's right, 99% of all the species that have ever lived on planet Earth) to go extinct. Oops. Also, slavery wasn't REALLY slavery in the Bible. So ya know... The All-Knowing Perfect Moral Lawgiver letting us know it is OK (and even mandated in some verses) for human beings to own other human beings. But don't mix fabrics! Gross!

But that's off topic.

I had a recent face to face with the reality of the religiosity of my family. My father was hospitalized a few months ago. He stunned me over the phone as I'm still trying to deal with the severity of the situation. He had to get blood transfusion, he was bleeding internally and was in need of surgery to attain a diagnosis. As he's telling me all of this I'm in the break room at my job, still frozen in shock as he gets off the phone my dad says "please pray for me, son!" It didn't even register what was happening as I'm saying "Um, sure.. Ok dad. Please take care and call me as soon as you know anything. I'll come home ASAP." Did I pray for my dad to a God I don't think exists. Of course not. But as usual ... it prayer is useless and doesn't matter. You'll see why...

My aunt came to take care of her brother while he was still unsure what was wrong with him. She stayed with him overnight at the hospital. My dad has always been close to my aunt. She is his youngest sister of the two. She is also extremely Christian. She is very devout in her faith. I have mentioned her and my uncle before in previous blogs entries of my trips back home. She is vocal about her Christianity. They were very excited to see "God's Not Dead" movie together and she was pushing John Hagee's bullshit bestseller "Four Blood Moons". I always roll my eyes when I say that or even type that title. It's just a natural reaction to these "non-fiction" books on Biblical prophecy being fulfilled. How can this be believed by a thinking person in 2014?! I mean seriously?! Do people not have a single ounce of skepticism in their body these days?!

My dad came through surgery with flying colors and I'm happy to announce the cause of the internal bleeding was nothing too serious and is manageable with medication. Of course they called and texted me with the great news, attributing this great news with God and his grace and mercy and so on. I just thought ... how sad. The poor doctor who performed the surgery. The scientists, biologists, human anatomists, medical doctors of the past that made all these great medical discoveries to be able to perform such a surgery weren't even mentioned at all. How much money and time and brain power went into the education of these smart people and how do they not get even a simple sentence in a text message saying "Thank these amazing doctors for what they do to give us this great news!"? Us humans are so disconnected with reality. The greatest accomplishments are taken for granted and attributed to the invisible Father in the sky. While at the same time rich snake oil salesman pastors get rich and respect by saying lunar eclipse are prophetic by pulling shit out of their ass. How sad. How pathetic.

It has been brought to my attention multiple times that the reason I even have this blog or vent or rant so much in emails or in conversation about religion is because I was raised so strictly in fundamental Christianity. I was sheltered from everything secular, well as much as could possibly happen. A few non-Christian rock bands or movies would find their way into my childhood/teenage years, but not many. I grew up late. I became an anti-theist in my twenties after two full years of Bible college, and as I've settled down a bit in my 30's, I still enjoy a good rant on religion from time to time... obviously.

So everything in moderation. Of course when I have kids they will more than likely be brought up atheists as I have no religion to promote to them as they grow up. I will teach them religion and how some people believe this: Christianity (most of your family) and how some people they may know believe this: Islam. And so on... My son or daughter will most definitely be shown the spectrum of the history of religion (the dead ones) as well as the lasting modern religions. They can make up their own mind in regards to believing it or not. The approach will be educational though not indoctrination like my past. That is nonnegotiable for me. I don't believe in brainwashing children with any dogma unsupported by evidence. I think everything in moderation is smart. So if you must indoctrinate your child, maybe don't do it quite like I was, don't surround your child with ONLY your religious belief. Give the kid options. Never smother. That's what being a smart parent is about in my opinion. I think some people in my own family would even agree with that now in hindsight.

Religion as a natural phenomenon is just as fascinating to me as art or music. It's history, its origin is beautifully human. It's unique (as far as we know) to our species. Doesn't mean it's all true. Of course not. They ALL can't be true, but they can all be untrue. That is simply another reason why I don't believe in God.

And now I feel that I must pull a Marc Maron here by ending this blog entry waxing poetic with a self-centered evaluation: I am guilty of living a life drastically outside the rule that "everything in moderation is for the best." Whether it be alcohol use, tobacco (in my past), obsessively collecting books and movies, blogging, or obsessing over religion or atheism. I have been told by the person that is the closest to me that I should really try to find a way to strike a balance in my religious/anti-religion obsession. She is an Apatheist if I had to label her. She is daily bombarded by my rants. I feel for her. I will never be able to shake my childhood indoctrination completely; unlike my brother, who apparently can, I may be always doomed to think on these things and think on them every single day. But this is something I should be able to control to some extent. Many have. We need an AA for to help with "religious/anti-religious ranting" addiction.

There has to be healthier ways to configure these thoughts in my mind. I often attribute it to the complexity that is deep philosophical questions and how it is really OK to constantly try to unravel the puzzle of existence of "this ALL!" Of the Cosmos. It's fascinating! It's fun! Humans have been doing it for thousands of years! There are things I need to come to grips with in my life to allow me to move on.

The fact my family is Christian and can be vocally so is one of these things. It may always be rocky and a hard road to travel in the future as we are on polar opposite sides of the spectrum of the God question. I just hope our relationship stays strong and that we continue to love each other unconditionally despite whether we're a die hard Anti-theist or a vocal Baptist Christian. I can only hope to find the formula for my life that will give me some peace and those surrounding me can be in peace too. Hopefully I can also discover something that may be able to shift the moderation problem for me. It can't come soon enough.

Science Doesn't Disprove God (Salon Aritlce Review)

Science Doesn't Disprove God: Where Richard Dawkins and New Atheist Go Wrong:

http://www.salon.com/2014/04/19/science_doesnt_disprove_god_where_richard_dawkins_and_new_atheists_go_wrong/

This is a great article. What's always fascinated me is if Neanderthals made art. Also look at this article:
http://www.nature.com/news/neanderthal-culture-old-masters-1.12974

There seems to be some evidence to support they at least buried their dead, which is ritualistic, which does point possibly to a belief in an afterlife / which could possibly mean they had a rudimentary religion of some sort. Maybe not. The art thing is still in dispute as the author of the Salon article points out.

However, when the Amir mentions how "art" seems to be the dividing point to separate us from other hominid species (and makes us officially "human") the point appears to be lost on Amir that this idea of "conceptualizing things" or "symbolizing things" (the very thing that probably separates us from other species of animals) is where A LOT of sociobiologists think the concept of "god" was created. At that very point in our history.

Also a friend of mine pointed out too trying to pinpoint a point where "we became human" with all these special features our species has that others do not is like trying to pin point when beavers exactly became more precise dam builders. As in all things with evolution, it is very gradual and impossible to pin down.

However When Amir writes,

To what extent can evolutionary theory answer this question? Evolutionary science cannot indicate to us the location of the point on the continuous evolutionary scale, which Dawkins believes is there, at which human consciousness arises. Evolutionary theory is unable to tell us how life began, how eukaryotic cells evolved, how intelligence came about, or how consciousness arose in living thing

I couldn't agree more with him. Evolutionary science isn't magic. It only tells us so much about our existence. Abiogenesis is a field of science that deals with origin of life questions as he mentions, but philosophy is still alive in my opinion (where I disagree when the brilliant Stephen Hawking says "philosophy is dead") and we need to create a working theory of the rise of consciousness in our species. Cognitive science is working on this too. It's a real thing. I just bought a book about this last night on my nook called "The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory" by Chalmers

Here's the thing. I mostly agree with this article. Dawkins and some of the new atheists are not philosophers. I don't think science has disproven god necessarily. (though I think it has thoroughly disproven many historical or scientific truth claims made in the various ancient "holy" books of the big monotheistic religions alive today.) I do think that philosophy has disproven the idea of "god". Most working professional philosophers are atheists. Like most of academia, atheism is by far the norm (in all fields of study - minus theology of course. Though a great deal of Biblical scholars are nonbelievers. *See Robert M. Price). It's the "common people" the "citizenry" that are still struggling with this "is there a god or not" question still.

I personally think this question was settled years ago. There is no god. (at least not like any of the ones we've came up with over the years) There is just no evidence for him/her/it.

Amir is right. We have never seen consciousness be created by any other human being and should be very skeptical of claims that in the future this can happen with robots or whatever. He writes,

Consciousness, symbolic thinking, self-awareness, a sense of beauty, art, and music, and the ability to invent language and pursue science and mathematics—these are all qualities that transcend simple evolution: they may not be absolutely necessary for survival. These attributes of the human mind may well be described as divine: they belong to what is way above the ordinary or the compulsory for survival. The origins and purpose of consciousness and artistic and musical and literary and scientific creativity remain mysterious. Why would evolution alone bring about such developments that appear to have little to do with the survival of an individual or a species?

There is some problem here because some of these attributes can actually be connected to evolution. First, this self-awareness thing needs to not be a part of this list since other species of animals like some apes and dolphins are self aware (via mirror tests). Symbolic thinking may strictly be human. Of course art and music are interesting things that seem strictly human but like we said there could turn up to be evidence for cave paintings that are of Neanderthal origin. Not yet though. It's hard to be conclusive as you see in that Nature article I posted here. To me the invention of science and mathematics (just another form of symbolic thinking) is the greatest unique human accomplishment because it isn't "natural" for us to think scientifically because it goes against what "seems right" in our guts. Think about how most people don't know how to do science. Or math!

I wouldn't say these things are necessarily divine, just... mysterious. the one thing we don't NEED to do is attribute "mysteries" with supernatural gods, or "cosmic purposes" or whatever (we made these mistakes in the past, obviously ... just look at what used to be "god's wrath" now is just a hurricane) In science "The god hypothesis" is just completely useless and unnecessary. He's right that science can't disprove god. God is an ever-changing mystical idea. Science only uses what is useful for experiments. So to me, the God concept is just unhelpful and offers nothing to the conversation. This is what gave rise to the atheist mock god "The Flying Spaghetti Monster". We can postulate anything or anyone as "god". Religion can always move the goal post too, but makes liberal religions mold and change along side secular humanism. Why the rituals? Why the superstitious outdated silliness? I just don't see the point personally.

I still think that Amir would do well to read reports from primatologist like Francis deWaal to see just how "human" other primates are. His new book "The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates". So in this regard the gap isn't quite as drastic as some would say. I would say our intelligence . Science - the very thing this article is arguing against (well, scientism I guess, basically) is the most unique human creation. Even more than art or music (though these are wonderfully beautiful human contributions)

BUT saying that, he is dead on when he says our brain is vastly more intelligent than all other animal species. He sites great examples of classical music to Einstein's theory. Brilliance is our mantra. I love the Daniel Dennett quote. That man is a goddamn genius. I can read his writing (even when most of it goes right over my head) any day! :)

He finishes with these very powerful words that I think sum up nicely where all the sciences and humanities must converge to find an answer to:

We are faced here with one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in the history of science: At what point in hominid development and evolution does human consciousness appear? What exactly is our consciousness? What makes us different from animals? What gives us the powers to create and to think symbolically and to develop language?

However, mysteries do not equal "God". The concept of God among those that are quite literally the smartest among us apes is a concept that has been settled. God IS dead. 

Sorry Kevin Sorbo.