Once again, I gave into temptation and had a Popeye’s chicken sandwich for dinner instead of cooking. It’s right by the supermarket, I intended on cooking what I bought. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. They are really good and inexpensive. Tonight, I’m cooking.
I’m listening to my possible best albums of 2019 list on shuffle to help me decide on which to choose. I know my number 1, that’s easy, but the rest of the list isn’t. I’m not going to reveal the number 1 till I finish my list. Some of you should know what it is, or at least be able to put it on a short list. It’s not like I’m reticent about my taste. This is not the best soundtrack to write to. I get distracted.
I wrote that 20 minutes ago, I got distracted.
Sometimes topics tell me that they want me to write about them, today it’s religion. I’ve written about it many times but not for a long time and I’m sure my readership has changed.
I’m an atheist, not an agnostic, not a none. Does that mean I think that there’s no chance that there is a god? No, it means that it isn’t likely enough to be worth considering. If god existed, she could easily convince me of her existence. I’m not sure that believers can be convinced by evidence that god didn’t exist. There already is plenty of evidence that there isn’t the benevolent god most believers believe in; just open a newspaper. Bad things happen to good people. Good things happen to bad people. The only consequences of morality come from people, not the universe. There are those that think otherwise. Pat Robertson blames every natural disaster on people’s immorality. He believes in a god that doesn’t care about collateral damage. That’s not how anyone I know personally think. They don’t see AIDS as a punishment for homosexuality that somehow kills innocent babies and strikes lesbians less often than heterosexual women.
Most people I know are functional atheists. They believe in god, but one that is not observable. They don’t think the laws of physics are being defied by a deity. They don’t see everything as rewards or punishments from god. There is no experiment that can be performed that they believe would have a different result as an atheist would. The days of scientists trying to weigh the soul or using chemical analysis to determine if host and wine used at mass are transubstantiated. All those experiments had negative results and instead of giving up on the belief in god they adjusted their understanding of god to fit the facts. That drives some atheists nuts. I accept it as human quirks. And OK, sometimes it drives me nuts, but not to the extent of getting incensed at people for invoking god in their speech.
What does drive me nuts is people that equate belief in god with morality. It’s common to all someone good, “God fearing.” Only 60% of people polled said they would vote for an otherwise qualified atheist (Less Than Half in U.S. Would Vote for a Socialist for President). That is a lower percentage than every group that is not political. Only socialist, which is a political philosophy, did worse. That’s a different beast. They didn’t ask how many would vote for a fascist. I’m sure it would be lower than socialist. Muslims didn’t fare that much better as only 66% would vote for a Muslim. It bothers me that only 80% would vote for an Evangelical Christian. I’m a liberal Jewish atheist and I did vote for an Evangelical, Jimmy Carter. I’d do it again. Many Evangelicals, like the aforementioned Pat Robinson, hold positions that I abhor, but that’s not all Evangelicals. I would happily vote for Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, both of whom are Baptists.
The linking in people’s minds between religion and morality is what offends me. Why would 40% of the people not vote for an atheist? Because they think that religion is the source of all morality; that a person can’t be good without the fear of god. A friend of mine had a relative ask her, “How can you be an atheist (might have been agnostic) when you are such a good person?” That relative has the equivalence between god and morality so deeply imbedded in their mind that they can’t even see it as an assumption. Always be aware that you have hidden assumptions. We all do.
I said I call some people, perhaps most, functional atheists. If they like they can call the friend whose relative thinks is good, and myself, who I think is good, as functional believers. On matters of morals and ethics we act as if there is a god. Of course, in our case it’s a god that isn’t obsessed with sex. Sexual preference has no moral dimension. This is close to a heresy that C.S. Lewis believed that salvation does not depend on accepting Christ. There’s a great section of the The Last Battle where after the end of the world Aslan confronts a worshiper of Tash, a demon in the form of a vulture. He explains to the Tash Worshiper that every time he kept an oath he made to Tash; he was really making it to Aslan. Aslan was not a jealous god. He wasn’t in it for the adoration. If you were good, you were saved. In one of the classics of Christian literature, Mere Christianity, Lewis explains that salvation does not depend on acceptance of Jesus.
But the truth is God has not told us what His arrangements about the other people who do not accept the full Christian doctrine about Christ but who are so strongly attracted by Him that they are His in a much deeper sense than they themselves understand. There are people in other religions who are being led by God’s secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their religion which are in agreement with Christianity, and who thus belong to Christ without knowing it. For example a Buddhist of good will may be led to concentrate more and more on the Buddhist teaching about mercy and to leave in the background (though he might still say he believed) the Buddhist teaching on certain points. Many of the good Pagans long before Christ’s birth may have been in this position.
I’m an atheist, an unpopular position; it is in the self-interest of all discriminated minorities to promote the idea that people shouldn’t be judged by which side of divisions a person belongs. As an atheist I think it’s wrong to disparage believers. As a Jew I think it’s wrong to disparage Gentiles. It’s wrong to judge people by the color of their skin or the sexual preference. You should never fall into the trap of thinking that your group is not just bad but is better than the others. Its a seductive trap.
That’s enough philosophical moral lifting for one day. It’s time for something we can all agree is good, a Taylorhameggandcheese sandwich. I know that many of you don’t agree on that. Maybe most of you don’t. Probably most of you don’t. You are wrong but I won’t hold it against you. Damn, I’m salivating. I better get to cooking.
Wise Madness 