THERE'S AN ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

I want to make clear up front that I do not intend by the following remarks to promote or defend any particular position in the context of the current pandemic crisis.  Instead, I just wanted to point out an important factor that underlies the debate over what our proper course of action should be but that seems to be stated only indirectly or not stated at all.

The expression “Elephant in the room” refers to the idea that there is a major problem or controversial issue that is obviously present but that is avoided as a subject for discussion because it is more comfortable to do so.

THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL

Consider the following story line:  The mother of a couple of curious children announces to her kids that she has to run an errand and is leaving the house for a bit.  Before leaving she places a box of matches on the coffee table in the living room, points to matches, and says, “You can play with your toys but do not play with the matches.  If you light the matches you could start a fire and burn the house down.”

Right after she leaves, Lucy, a neighbor friend, stops over, spies the matches, and says, “Hey, wow, matches.  Let’s start a fire.”

SCIENTISM AS A DIRTY WORD

I have been accused of being a member of the "church" of “scientism.”  Considering the context in which the epithet was used, I understood it to be a pejorative.  But I had to look the word up to be sure.  Informally, the term refers to the idea that devotees of scientism treat science as a religion in which they place their faith, just as Christians place their faith in their religion.  At its most extreme scientism has come to mean the belief that knowledge is only attainable through science or that only scientific claims are valid ones.  In both cases I believe that the term is unfair.

NOTE ON THE HUMAN CONDITION

Recently, I stumbled across a book [David Benatar, The Human Predicament] that begins with the following: “We are born, we live, we suffer along the way, and then we die—obliterated for the rest of eternity.”  In answer to the question of the purpose of human life, the author responds that there is no overarching purpose.  In other words, “Life’s a bitch, and then you die.”  Ouch.  Not exactly uplifting.  But does this ultimate in philosophical pessimism properly characterize the human condition?  I think not.

HEAVEN BOUND

I’m not going to heaven.  But I’m OK with that because I don’t believe that heaven exists.  Christians, on the other hand, do believe in heaven.  After all, isn’t that the point of the salvation story: A reversal of the finality of death and an opportunity for eternal happiness, regardless of the challenges, pain, and disappointments of this life?

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC?

Do you believe in magic?

As children we all start out believing in magic.  This is because we haven’t yet learned the rules by which the world operates.  We begin to lose our belief in magic as we gain experience with the regularity of nature and as we discover that reality may be different from what our senses are telling us.  It is through this process that most of us eventually learn that what is portrayed as magic is really an illusion, a deception, simply a trick.  

But not everyone.  Some continue to believe in magic, to believe that certain individuals are able to override the otherwise universal laws of nature, either because they possess a special power or because they are able to channel a power possessed by a supernatural agency, and if the supernatural agency is for good, they call it a miracle.  Otherwise they simply call it magic.

DO COMPUTERS HAVE FREE WILL?

While the great majority of people believe that humans have free will, virtually no one thinks that computers do.   But consider the following thought experiment:  Assume that technology advanced to the point that a functioning computer could be built in a lab that consisted not of silicon-based semiconductor chips but of billions of flesh-and-blood neurons, molecule for molecule and cell for cell identical to a human brain. Would such a computer have free will?

FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS: A COMPARISON

One conclusion I have come to after years of discussions with Christians is that much of our disagreement is ultimately grounded not in the differences in our beliefs or even in the differences in the logic that we rely upon but in the fundamental working assumptions that underlie our understanding of the nature of the world.

DECEMBER SNOW

Here's a brief poem, in the voice of an older gentleman, about the importance in the course of our quotidian lives to reflect upon and appreciate the simple joys.

OATMEAL

I was 10 years old, and I hated oatmeal.

DOES GOD HAVE FREE WILL?

Does God have free will?  What?!  For most Christians, the question may seem almost absurd, the answer obvious:  Of course, God has free will.  After all, he’s, well, God.  And the question may seem even sillier coming from someone who believes neither in God nor in free will.  But for those who believe in a personal, theistic God to whom they ascribe certain qualities and a certain character, I don’t believe the answer to the question is obvious.  So, in all seriousness, for those who believe in a personal God as well as for those who don’t, I offer the question as a way of reviewing the character of God and exploring the meaning of free will.

EXPERIENCING DOUBT

A surprising number of friends who were raised as Christians have confided to me or have stated publicly that they have experienced a period of doubt and soul-searching, if you will, regarding their belief in God.  In some cases the friend has overcome her doubts and gained a renewed faith in God.  In others she has come to the conclusion that she no longer believes in God.

A CLOUD THE SIZE OF A MAN’S HAND

By the fifth grade I knew that the end of the world was coming and that it could happen at any time.  The pastor of our Seventh-day Adventist church, my Sabbath school teachers, and the teachers of the Adventist school that I had attended since first grade all had done their best to explain how we were in the End Times before Christ’s Second Coming.  They explained that there were myriad signs that we were hurtling toward the end.  The world was in chaos, there were “wars and rumors of war,” and there were more and worse earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters than ever before that presaged the end.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

When it comes to answering pointed questions about philosophical or religious beliefs, Christians have it relatively easy, knowing that most fellow Americans also identify themselves as Christian. They can just say, “Oh, I’m a Christian,” or “I’m Catholic” or “Methodist” or “Lutheran” or whatever, and most everyone can relate and relax.  

Things are not so simple for nonbelievers.

GHOSTBUSTERS

A while back I came across a notice for a presentation at my local library by a group calling themselves the Paranormal Investigators of Milwaukee (PIM).  The notice indicated that the group would be discussing their investigations of places that were suspected of being haunted.  The presentation was open to the public, and I decided that, as a skeptic, I needed to check it out.

SCIENCE AND RELIGION: OVERLAPPING DOMAINS

Twenty years ago, the late paleontologist and science historian Stephen Jay Gould argued that science and religion pursue separate and legitimate realms of inquiry and that they can coexist, so long as they each keep to their own realm. “Science,” he said, “tries to document the factual character of the natural world, and to develop theories that coordinate and explain these facts. Religion, on the other hand, operates in the equally important, but utterly different, realm of human purposes, meanings, and values—subjects that the factual domain of science might illuminate, but can never resolve.”

FORBIDDEN FRUIT

Virtually everyone in Christendom is familiar with the Garden of Eden morality play.  On the surface God stars as the benevolent creator who lays down a single simple rule.  Satan plays the heavy as the crafty, evil serpent, enticing humans to disobey God’s rule.  And a naive Eve and a love-smitten Adam play pawns in this battle between God and Satan.

DOING THE RIGHT THING

I’m sure this has happened to you:  You are in a store and purchase something with cash.  When the clerk makes change, you realize that he has made a mistake and is giving you back more than the correct amount.  Maybe it’s a dollar; maybe it’s ten dollars.  What do you do?  You could pocket the extra cash and walk out.  No one would know.  But, of course, that’s not what you do.  Instead, you point out the error and return the extra money.

WHY DID GOD CREATE THE UNIVERSE?

Why did God create the universe?  

When I was growing up in the Seventh-day Adventist church we were told the answer to this question without ever having to ask:  God created the universe FOR US.  God set the whole thing up so that we humans could enjoy eternal lives filled with peace and joy and worship of him.  Things didn’t work out that way, of course.  As the story goes, we proved to be feckless sinners.  In short, we humans were, well, human.

THINKING LIKE A SKEPTIC

Do atheists think differently than do those who believe in God?  I’m not talking about what the different groups believe but how they decide what they believe.

DO-IT-YOURSELF CREATION

Here’s a thought experiment:  Assume that you are a god and that you have decided to create a world. Assume further (a) that you are all-powerful so you can design the world in any conceivable manner, (b) that you are all-loving so you want to avoid the existence of any pain and suffering, and (c) that you are all-knowing so that you understand what will happen with any sort of design that you might implement.  What would your world look like?

RESPONSES TO CHRISTIAN COMMENTS REGARDING MY ATHEISM

As an atheist I have had little success in changing Christians’ religious beliefs, despite what I thought were . . . ahem . . . impeccable rational arguments.  Now I realize that my goals have been too ambitious.  Rather than trying to convert Christians to secular beliefs, perhaps I should focus on dispelling what I consider to be misconceptions regarding the secular community.  Here are some comments I have received from Christians upon learning that I do not believe in God, along with my interpretations of what those reactions might imply and my responses to them:

HOW I THINK ABOUT DEATH

I have reached an age when I am hearing more frequently of the deaths of people I have known.  I’m not talking about those in the public eye.  Rather, I am talking about individuals whom I have known personally—former colleagues and clients as well as friends and acquaintances.  If this keeps up, everyone I know will be gone . . . including myself.

RUNNING TO EPICURUS

I only recall one comment that my teacher, Mrs. Skipper, included on my kindergarten “report card.”  She said that I was a good runner and won most of the foot races.  This was not a great accomplishment.  After all, my competition were kindergarteners.  But I did have a natural running gait and remember thinking of myself as fast.  A year later, in the first grade, I confided to my parents that what I wanted above everything else was a baseball cap that was equipped with goggles that I could flip down to keep the wind out of my eyes when I ran.  I’m guessing my parents had a good laugh over that one.  Needless to say, I did not get the hat and goggles.

ANIMAL COMMUNICATORS AND THE NATURE OF SKEPTICISM

Recently I had a puzzling conversation with an individual who stated that he had consulted with an animal communicator regarding his pet dog.  Here’s the story:

SCIENCE AS A VERB

Growing up, I was taught science as a NOUN—as a body of established knowledge.  I memorized the bones of the body, learned that water molecules consist of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen, that gravity is one of four basic forces of nature, and on and on.  Essentially, we were taught science much like we were taught history (unfortunately)—as sets of rules and facts to be memorized.  I think my experience was not very different from that of most of my cohorts.

THE “MIRACLE” OF THE THAI CAVE RESCUE

I think we all experienced something of an emotional rollercoaster during the 18-day drama of the rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach from a cave in a remote part of northern Thailand.  We despaired of the boys’ rescue when we first learned that they had been trapped for several days by flash flooding of the cave.  Then on the tenth day we learned that, amazingly, rescuers had found all of the boys and their coach alive and in relatively good health.  But it became clear that their extrication from the cave would be extremely dangerous and could be delayed for weeks if not months because the only way out of the cave would remain flooded.  When rescuers ultimately managed to bring all of the boys and their coach out of the cave over a three-day period, the word “miracle” was tripping off the lips of millions who had been praying for their safe rescue.

WHY CREATIONISM IS LOSING THE WAR

Over the years I have had all manner of conversations with fundamentalist Christians regarding the theory of evolution.  In all those discussions I have not changed a single person’s mind regarding the reality of evolutionary processes.  Zero.  It seems that people either have already accepted the fact of evolution or they find reasons to deny it.

“GOD IS LOVE”?

“God is love.”  What does that mean, exactly?

WHAT IF GOD WAS ONE OF US?

What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin' to make his way home?

IS IGNORANCE BLISS?

Imagine for a moment that God does not exist.  Would you nevertheless want to perpetuate belief in God on the basis that some take comfort in the false belief that there is a God who protects them, provides them guidance, and promises them an eternal life filled with joy?

COMMENT ON SCIENCE ADVOCACY

I have been accused of being an evangelist for science.  I’ve decided that that’s probably a bit strong, as the term evangelism is generally reserved for efforts to convert others to belief in the Christian gospel.  Let’s just say that I am a strong advocate for the advancement of science.  And briefly here is why.

THEODICY: THE PROBLEM OF PAIN AND SUFFERING

Q: Theodicy is the Christian apologetic defense of the seeming contradiction between the belief that God is omnibenevolent, and yet he created a world with a surfeit of pain and suffering.  This seeming contradiction has been one of the primary reasons why individuals turn away from belief in a theistic god.

A: In my case my apostasy was the result of an irreconcilable conflict between the evidence of science, on the one hand, and the fundamentalism of the Seventh-day Adventist church in which I was raised, on the other.  It was only later that I came to think about and to understand the logic problems inherent in theodicy.

THOUGHTS ON THE FUTURE OF NONBELIEF

A recent Scientific American article points out that the number of Americans who state that they are “not religious at all,” has continued to rise.  In the most recent Harris poll, conducted in 2013, that percentage had risen to 23%, up from 16% in 2007.

UNDERSTANDING THE CRUCIFIXION NARRATIVE

For Christians, Christ’s sacrifice is fundamental to the salvation narrative.  Christ’s death was a necessary condition, a requirement for God’s forgiveness of human sinfulness and for humans’ salvation.  Simply put, salvation would not be possible without Christ’s crucifixion.  When I was taught this narrative as a child, no one provided any rationale for it.  The logic of the narrative was just assumed to be self-evident.  But it isn’t self-evident; it isn’t even rational.

When as a teenager I lost my belief in God, I rejected the salvation narrative as being part and parcel of a set of false beliefs: Because there is no God, there is no Christ, no sacrifice, and no salvation.  It was only years later that I thought to analyze the rationale underlying the salvation narrative, such as it was, and found it to be, well, wanting.  For me, it raises a host of questions.

LETTING GO

More than 50 years after I took a creative writing class in college, I've decided to try my hand at writing poetry. This one is about mortality but hopefully not morbidity.

CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND THE NATURE OF SKEPTICISM

Q: Let’s talk about the meaning of skepticism.

A: One way to do that might be by looking at conspiracy theories.  

A while back I stumbled across an article posted on social media that claimed that the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001 was not caused by commercial passenger jets crashing into the towers.  This was a relatively recent article, by the way.  The article was followed by numerous comments from individuals who had embraced the belief, also voiced in the article, that there was some sort of coverup by the government or the media or both.  Frankly, I was shocked and dismayed and at the same time fascinated.

THE GRIEVING PROCESS

At the risk of sounding naive, I struggle with understanding the nature of the grieving process that individuals go through at the death of a loved one.  And I am looking for help to better grasp the nature of those experiences and, in particular, the basis for the grieving of those who have a firm belief in the afterlife.

ABORTION, THE BIBLE, AND THE MORAL ORDER

Does the Bible condemn abortion?  I realize I may be over my head when it comes to the interpretation of scripture.  But I have been troubled by comments that I heard recently regarding what the Bible has to say about the morality of abortion, so I felt compelled to write something.

What started this was that the staunchly anti-abortion Republican candidate in the recent Alabama senate race had been accused of sexual abuse of teenage girls when he was in his 30s.  Predictably, the Democratic candidate had stated that he was pro-choice.  One of the voters interviewed before the election stated that he would vote for an accused of pedophile over a man that he knew would approve the murder of millions of unborn children.  He added that he was a Christian and that the prohibition against abortion was “biblical.” Biblical?

VANITY OF VANITIES

Hands down, Ecclesiastes has become my favorite book of the Bible.  Of course, I don’t believe it has a great deal of competition.  It’s not perfect, but In my view it has the most to say about the fundamental human condition.  In addition, it provides some practical advice for dealing with our existential circumstance.  In that sense it is the most modern of scriptural texts.  But I didn’t always feel the way about Ecclesiastes as I now do.

THE BIBLE AS A BASIS FOR MORAL GUIDANCE

Recently I had a conversation with the pastor of a local mainstream Protestant church.  At one point in our discussion he asked me if I considered the Bible to be a sufficient source for moral guidance.  His question caught me off guard, and I think I mumbled something about there being sources other than the Bible that can provide moral and ethical guidance.

Since that discussion I have had time to think further about the pastor’s question.  My conclusion is that the Bible is an extremely poor source for moral guidance.

THE GOLDEN TICKET

When I was growing up in the 1950s in the fold of the Seventh-day Adventist church, salvation was a really big deal.  We were taught that our current lives represented merely a testing ground for whether we would qualify for the golden ticket of salvation.  This was portrayed as essentially a binary choice.  There was no middle ground, no purgatory where we might have a second chance or perform a penance to gain entry into heaven.  Either we would be saved and go to heaven or we would be damned.

COUNTY FAIR

My parents were failed entrepreneurs, not by choice but by default.  My father simply was incapable of working for someone else.  Instead, my parents owned an appliance business that never succeeded beyond providing our family a day-to-day existence.  The insecurity resulting from their constant agonizing over how to make ends meet, which they shared with my sisters and me as passive participants, was a signature influence in the evolution of my attitudes toward career choices.

GETTING LOST IN THE MOMENT

Recently I posted an essay in which I encouraged the reader to take fuller advantage of and to better appreciate the one life that we have.  But I have been criticized by both family and friends for failing to follow my own admonition.  Specifically, I have been accused of spending too much time fretting over the past or worrying about the future, rather than experiencing my life in the present.  I confess: Guilty as charged.

PASCAL’S WAGER

Blaise Pascal was a 17th century philosopher and mathematician who first posed the argument that one should believe in God because doing so carries a higher probability of a positive payoff than does rejecting belief in God.

ON CEMETERIES, "OUR TOWN," AND A CRESCENT MOON

When the day comes, I want to be cremated and not buried. It’s more efficient and less expensive, and it sidesteps the myth of some sort of resurrection that drives the motivation of many of those who prefer burial.  Having said that, burials have one distinct advantage.  Cemeteries serve to remind us of our own mortality and, more to the point, of the opportunities we need to take advantage of during our one brief sojourn.

THE VOICE OF GOD

Here is a question for my Christian friends:  Does God ever speak to you personally?

When I was a child, I often talked to God, usually when saying my prayers but sometimes when I really wanted something, like a new toy that I coveted, and I thought God might intervene to make it happen.  When I abandoned my faith in my teens, I stopped talking to God because I believed God was imaginary and I saw no reason to speak to an imaginary being.  But during the time when I believed in God, not once do I recall God speaking personally to me.

CHOOSING TO BELIEVE

Can you change what you believe just by deciding to?

When I was in my early 20s I thought I had fallen in love.  (True story.)  But there was a problem:  She was a devout Christian, and I had become a steadfast atheist.  She let me know that she felt it was vital to our relationship that we both be Christians.  Given that ultimatum, I told her that I would see what I could do.

OCKHAM'S RAZOR AND THE GENESIS FLOOD

Anyone who has spent much time studying science or the philosophy of science is at least superficially familiar with Ockham’s Razor.  But what is it?  Well, you can read all about it in Wikipedia here, but the entry is 21 pages long, and it might test your patience.  It did mine, so I thought I would offer my own abbreviated version.

ON THE ORDERLINESS OF NATURE

Here is a question for my fellow atheists:  Why is the world so orderly?

21ST CENTURY CULT

If the Seventh-day Adventist church had been founded in the 21st century, it would have been a cult.

GOD'S CHARACTER

If God existed, would he necessarily be good, or could he be evil?

THE WORD OF GOD?

Almost every morning I drive to a nearby Starbucks to get my morning venti dark roast.  Each Wednesday morning I run into a group of four or five men who meet at the Starbucks for Bible study.  Their discussions are generally serious ones, as each pores over his own copy of the Bible.  I am most curious about what passages they are studying, and I confess to eavesdropping sometimes while I am doctoring my coffee.  I have sometimes thought I should ask to join their group and explain, in a respectful way, my secular views on the Bible and on religion in general.  My guess is that they would not be particularly interested, and I wouldn’t want them to feel that I was hijacking their discussion.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS AS A CHRISTIAN SYMBOL

What’s with the continuing Christian obsession with the Ten Commandments, anyway?  The most recent was a report that a granite monument engraved with the Ten Commandments had been erected on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol.  The monument lasted less than 24 hours.  Early the next morning an individual destroyed it by ramming it with his car.  He stated that, while he was a born-again Christian, he also respected the First Amendment to the Constitution.   The man was taken into custody, suspected of having mental illness issues.

THE LIFESAVER RELAY

On a Saturday night in the fall of my freshman year my parents dropped me off at a party in the gymnasium of the small parochial high school that I attended.  All the students had been invited to the party, but most of the upperclassmen either had gone to these events before and knew to avoid it or had taken off in the cars that they now had licenses to drive.  As a result, nearly all of the kids remaining were freshmen or sophomores.  A few of the teachers had come to chaperone, but most of the party’s organizers were parents.

REFLECTIONS ON THE VARIETIES OF ATHEIST EXPERIENCE

I have the sense that persons of faith commonly lump atheists into a single class of nonbelievers, as if all of them have a similar attitude toward religion and the existence of God.  That is not the case.  To borrow a phrase from the philosopher William James, just as there are varieties of religious experience, so there are varieties of atheist experience.  And I thought it might be helpful to describe some of the differences among those varieties of nonbelief.

CHOOSING TO FORGIVE

Years ago, I participated in a book club discussion regarding The Sunflower, a slim volume of essays that addressed the question of whether it would have been appropriate for a Jewish prisoner in the Holocaust to forgive a dying Nazi guard who was seeking forgiveness for his role in the Nazi atrocities. I was new to the book club and didn’t say much during the discussion, but now I wish I had, because the question addressed by the book struck me as a very odd one.

A CASE STUDY IN FAKE NEWS

A friend forwarded to me without comment a 2017 YouTube video concerning the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster that resulted from a tsunami that hit the Japanese coast in March of 2011.  Here is a cite to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1ECWtWk85k.  I would invite you to watch it.  It’s about five minutes long.

WHY IS THE UNIVERSE SO YOUNG?

In an earlier post I pointed out that one of the original rationales underpinning belief in a god was the notion that we occupied a special place in the universe, that the earth was in fact the center of the universe, and that we were the reason that the universe existed at all.  Science has shown that that just isn’t true.  The earth is just one of a number of planets circling a mediocre star out on one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy that includes some 200 billion other stars, billions of which have planets that are favorably situated to harbor life, including intelligent life.  Moreover, the Milky Way is just one of perhaps a trillion such galaxies.  In short, there is nothing to support the notion that we are special in any way.

RHETORICAL QUESTIONS

At the time that the Bible was written, roughly during the millennium running from 800 BCE to 200 CE, we understood that the earth was flat and, importantly, that it was at the center of the universe.  That was understandable since we considered ourselves the most important beings in the universe, the very reason God created the universe in the first place.  We observed that, in addition to the sun and moon, there were stars in the night sky and we surely had observed that some of them (the planets) moved against the otherwise fixed background of stars.  Of course, all of the objects in the sky revolved around the earth, because we could see that they rose and set each day.  We had no idea how large the universe was, since our ability to travel through it was so limited.  But the sky appeared to be a dome that fit over the earth, so that defined the extent of the universe.  Beyond that was God’s realm.  In terms of age, we understood the universe to be old—as we understood that term—as old as all the generations of humans that we could recall or invent stories about.  We believed that the universe, since it was God’s creation, was perfect, but we didn’t know the rules under which it operated, and so we assumed that God continued to “operate” the universe much as a human might operate a mechanical device that he had made.  From time to time there were unexpected celestial events, such as meteors, comets, and eclipses, but we assumed those were orchestrated by God for purposes about which we could speculate.

HOLY ROLLERS TO CHARISMATICS

In June of 1970 I found myself sitting in the second row under a big top tent in an open field, sweating in the heat and humidity of an early summer evening.  But this was no circus.  Instead, I watched as dozens of animated and agitated people lined up in front of a low stage, waiting eagerly to be struck on the forehead by a man in a business suit.   But this story really began more than 15 years earlier.

RUNNING FOR GOD

From early childhood most of us have been taught that there is one God.  Not only did he create everything, but he has always been in charge.  He sets the rules and commands both loyalty and obedience.  Anyone who challenges his authority (e.g., Lucifer and his band of dissidents) is subject to being exiled, and humans who fail to believe in him and to worship him may be destined for perdition.  In essence, we are taught, God runs a classic dictatorship.

But what if creation were not a dictatorship but a democracy?  What if we got to elect our deity and God was up for reelection?   Would you vote for him?  Or would you support a different candidate on the basis that someone else could do a better job, that it’s time for a fresh administration?  Or would you throw your own hat in the ring?

FAITH HEALING AND THE RESURRECTION: EVALUATING THE EVIDENCE

The other day I stumbled onto a video clip that featured a “faith healer” who was working to heal a subject who appeared to have one arm shorter than the other.  The subject was standing with his arms stretched out in front of him, his palms facing each other and touching.  But the subject’s palms did not match up.  Instead, it appeared that his left arm (on the side toward the camera) was about two inches shorter than the right.  The healer was frantically waving his arms over the subject’s hands, and as he did, the subject’s left hand slowly started to move to line up with the right.  When eventually the subject’s two hands coincided, the crowd, as they say, went wild.

A SECULAR DEATH

In early December of last year we lost my wife’s father.  By nearly every measure, Frank had had a extraordinarily long and interesting life, and we viewed his passing as cause for the celebration of a life rather than the mourning of a death.  I’m sure he would feel the same way.  I thought I would share here a few of my personal thoughts regarding our relationship and his passing.

FRANKENSTEIN SOAP AND THE BIBLE

I don’t know about you, but when a bar of soap gets down to a sliver, I don’t throw it away.  Instead, I press it on to a new bar so that I can use up the rest of it in the course of using the next bar.  But that’s not what my mother did when I was growing up.  She didn’t throw the slivers away either; that would have been wasteful and expensive.  Instead, she would save up a bunch of the slivers for months.  And when she had a big enough pile, perhaps 10 or 15, she would put them into hot water to make them pliable and press all of them together into one massive, misshapen lump—Frankenstein soap.

FALSEHOODS, LIES, AND FAKE NEWS

In its purest sense, skepticism is not a philosophy about the nature of reality.  It does not presume to establish specific facts about the history or structure of the world.  Rather, it is about identifying the best method for sifting through the evidence to gain a better understanding of the nature of the world.  Most of my essays on this blog have been in the context of religious thought, because I feel that there is an especially wide gulf between the approach to understanding reality called for by religion and the approach called for by skepticism.  However, for this essay I have wandered into the morass of the media.  Heaven help me.

YOUR GOD IS TOO BIG

Growing up, I was taught that God had three overarching qualities.  He was omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent.  And for centuries theologians have been defending the belief that the Christian God possesses each of those qualities.  After all, God is . . . well, almighty God.  But I would here argue that history and the general advancement of knowledge, as well as, frankly, the descriptions of God contained in scripture, belie his possession of those three qualities.  

In the past I have argued that God could not possess all three of these qualities.  This argument is based largely on the problem of theodicy—the existence of pain and suffering in the world that God supposedly created.  As a matter of logic one of these supposed theistic qualities must not be true.  

In this essay I am taking this two steps further.  I am arguing that, based on what we know about the world, the Christian God would have none of those qualities.  He would be neither all-powerful nor all-knowing nor all-loving.

A BRIEF NOTE ON NOMENCLATURE—EVOLUTION: THEORY OR FACT

One of advantages of writing essays for my blog has been that the discipline forces me to test my points of view and, if necessary, modify or at least refine them.  This essay represents one such refinement.  In past references to evolution, I have often avoided using the term “theory” on the assumption that the principles of evolution are much too firmly established to relegate them to what might be considered “just a theory.”  Upon further reflection, I have decided that there is nothing wrong with referring to evolution as a theory.

VETTING STORIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

A Facebook friend recently sent me a link to an article entitled, “Noah’s Ark Theme Park Destroyed in a Flood.”  It was fake, of course, and we had a good laugh over it.  My guess is, though, that there were plenty of readers who believed the story was true.

A FEW PERSISTENT QUESTIONS

It’s a new year and I thought it would be appropriate to review briefly a few of the differences between my fundamental view of the world and that of my Christian friends.  I am trying to maintain an open mind, but for me these are real stumbling blocks to acceptance of the basic premises of Christian faith.  If anyone feels that he or she has persuasive responses, I would be most interested.

A NOTE ON SKEPTICISM

I want to begin this post with a little quiz.  Easy.  Consider the following propositions:

1. Vaccines can cause autism in children.
2. Acupuncture is an effective way to relieve chronic pain.
3. Humans have free will.
4. The universe was created by a deity who is omnipotent and who remains involved in human affairs.
5. Through the intercession of Jesus Christ, we have the opportunity for salvation and eternal life.

GOD APOLOGIZES!

According to Judeo-Christian tradition, no one is perfect, everyone has sinned—except for God, that is.  The Jewish tradition of the Day of Atonement was established to encourage all of us periodically to review our conduct, to acknowledge our sins, and to ask for forgiveness, not just of God but of our fellow humans.  It’s a great concept, I think.  But what if God took a careful look at his own conduct and realized that he too had made mistakes, that he also needed to apologize?  Here is some of what God might say.

THE QUALITY OF EVIDENCE AND THE END OF AGNOSTICISM

Whatever happened to Zeus?  He was a big deal to the Greeks, but for the past couple thousand years he has essentially been a no-show.  Oh, sure, we still use his name, but he has been relegated to just another mythical character.  So here’s my first question: Does it make sense to say that we are agnostic regarding the existence of Zeus?

TWEAKING MY ATHEISM

If anyone asks me if there is a god, for decades my honest answer has been, “No, I’m an atheist.”  However, having spent the last few years trying to articulate my point of view in this blog, I have come to the conclusion that I need to modify my answer—slightly.

FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO

   Jesus loves me—this I know,
   For the Bible tells me so.

“Jesus Loves Me,” is among the most familiar and most powerful songs in the Christian hymnbook and was one of the first songs that I learned as a young child.  The hymn’s power comes from the simplicity both of its language and of its melody, making it easy for young children to learn.  Like virtually everyone else who grew up in a Christian faith, I sang the song scores of times, at a point in my childhood when my mind was especially plastic and uncluttered by competing ideas.

THE NATURE OF THE SOUL

In a recent conversation a fellow skeptic commented that we don’t really know what happens to us when we die.  What? I thought.  Of course we know what happens:  Our hearts stop beating, our brains stop functioning, our bodies start to decay.  But of course that’s not what he was talking about.  What he was referring to was the idea of soul.

“IMAGINE”: A THOUGHT EXPERIMENT

What if God woke up one morning and announced that he had changed his mind, that he was calling off the whole heaven and hell thing, that this was the one and only life that we humans would have?  What then?

SATAN AS METAPHOR

Do atheists worship Satan?  Certainly not, but it’s not quite as simple as just that. For them Satan is not a real being.  Instead he is a metaphor.

GOD’S BIG PROBLEM. SATAN TO THE RESCUE.

God has a big problem.  He is both the architect and the master builder of the universe.  Everything.  God is supposed to be omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-benevolent. Yet evil exists.  And not just evil, but massive suffering from famine, disease, and natural disasters.  How could that be?  Enter Satan to the rescue as the theological heavy.

PERSONAL MANIFESTO TIME CAPSULE

In this post I am recommending an exercise.  I am suggesting that the reader write out a personal philosophical manifesto, a list of fundamental beliefs, and place that list in some sort of time capsule to be opened at a later date to see if and how those beliefs may have changed.  That is what I did, and I thought it was a great experience, except that in my case the process was inadvertent.  Here’s how that happened.

OF THE PYTHAGOREAN THEOREM, THE HELIOCENTRIC SOLAR SYSTEM, AND PROOF IN THE NONEXISTENCE OF GOD

Anyone reading this essay is probably familiar with the story of the debate between a Christian and an atheist in which the Christian challenges the atheist to prove that God does not exist and then smugly leans back in her chair, knowing that the atheist has to admit that he can’t because “no one can prove a negative.”  But I don’t think this is the proper analysis.  The existence or nonexistence of God is not a question of proof; it is a matter of degree of certainty.

GRAVITY WAVES, CREATIONISM, AND THE INFALLIBILITY OF SCRIPTURE

In my discussions with creationists about evolution I have been going about things all wrong.  I have been appealing to objective evidence and rational analysis in trying to move creationists in my direction.  My efforts have been entirely unsuccessful.  To my knowledge, I have not changed the beliefs of a single creationist about the facts of evolution.  Not one.  But I think I now better understand why.

PEANUT BUTTER, ACNE, AND THE POWER OF PRAYER

This is a true story.  I have a friend who believes that eating peanut butter causes acne.  Maybe he’s right.  Throughout my adolescent years I suffered from acne, and I’m sure I ate more than my share of peanut butter.  So I’m not necessarily disagreeing with my friend about his conclusion.  Rather, I have a problem with his research methodology.

COUNTERFEIT COINS

One morning in the spring of my senior year at Andrews University, I found a note in my mail cubby at the dorm from the associate dean of students.  She wanted to see me.  Nearly 50 years later, I can no longer recall the dean’s name, but I can clearly recall our conversation.  What I learned from it can be summarized in one sentence:  The evidence and process we use to form our beliefs are as important as the beliefs that we form.

ON BEING FRUSTRATED BY CREATIONIST ARGUMENTS

Creationism is still a problem in the United States.  According to a 2014 Gallup poll, 42 percent of Americans believe that God created humans in their current form within the last 10,000 years.  Sadly, this percentage hasn’t changed much over the past three decades.  Encouraging, though, is the fact that the percentage of Americans who believe that humans have evolved through natural processes and without intervention by a theistic god has more than doubled over that time period and now stands at nearly 20 percent.  Of course, Western Europe is way ahead of us in this regard.

Evolution is an area where the conflict between science and fundamentalist Christianity is most acute.  Creationists have not been able to reinterpret their beliefs regarding the origins of life and of humans in the same way that they have regarding such matters as the age of the universe or the age of the earth.  That is because they haven’t found any way to concede generally accepted evolutionary processes and still maintain belief in the Genesis creation story.  Instead, creationist apologists have been reduced to denying the facts of evolution and to posing a number of arguments intended to refute evolutionary theory.

THE 2300-DAY PROPHECY

The 2300-Day Prophecy?  My guess is that most mainstream Christians have never heard of it.  Or if they have, they think of it as some weird passage irrelevant to their faith.  But for Seventh-day Adventists, at least when I was growing up in the church, the 2300-day prophecy was fundamental.

When I abandoned my belief in God and religion in high school, belief in the 2300-day prophecy automatically fell as well.  Recently, though, I decided to take another look.  I wanted to see how my childhood religious training compared with a more, shall we say, secular understanding of this scriptural passage.  In addition, I wanted to see how the SDA church now treats this concept that had been important to its history.

FREE WILL IN HEAVEN

Will people have free will in heaven?  Why would I ask such a silly question?  My answer is that I want to make a point, and to do that I need to back up a bit and pose a series of questions.

THE SECOND COMING

The concept of Christ’s Second Coming remains a fundamental tenet of Christian belief.  Theoretically speaking, its importance is massive in terms of its overall role in the salvation story.  But the truth is that the concept of the Second Coming doesn’t actually make logical sense.

SOFTLY AND TENDERLY

It was Saturday night in the late spring of 1958 and the world was coming to an end soon.  Very soon.

Our church was crowded with regulars as well as with interested visitors who, encouraged by extensive marketing in local media, had come to hear the final in a two-week-long series of sermons given by one of Seventh-day Adventist's most charismatic evangelists, Pastor Wilson.  I would have preferred staying home to watch Gunsmoke or Perry Mason, but as a 13 year old I didn’t have any choice but to accompany my parents and my older sisters to the service.

BAPTISM

I got baptized on a Friday night in the late spring of my 12th year.  During the vespers service a half dozen of my fifth grade classmates and I were shepherded to a warren-like area behind the church’s baptistry, where we were each handed a white cotton robe and assigned to separate cubicles to undress and put on our robe.  Then, following a series of prayers, one by one we waded into the warm, waist-deep water of the baptistry pool, where an associate pastor, also decked out in a robe, was standing waiting for us. 

FREE WILL AS TELEKINESIS

As a boy I was fascinated by claims of paranormal phenomena—mental telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, and the like.  I would spend inordinate amounts of time conducting “experiments” in which I would try to guess the suit of each of the cards in a deck to see if I could score above a chance level.  I apparently lack paranormal powers.  When I was 12 or 13 I recall watching a TV “documentary” concerning a boy about my age who supposedly could make physical objects move just with his mind.  He was accused of various mischievous acts, such as knocking objects off shelves or turning a cupboard upside down.  According to the show, even though the boy was responsible for the paranormal activity, he was doing it subconsciously rather than intentionally.  I was so frightened by the show that I had a hard time falling asleep afterward, concerned that I might inadvertently possess the same paranormal abilities.  Not to worry, as it turned out.

BODY AND SOUL, OR WHY DO WE HAVE BODIES, ANYWAY?

It seems we are natural-born dualists.  On the physical side we of course can observe our own bodies as well as those of others.  And then there’s that inner life, that internal world.  We have a powerful experience of sensations, emotions, and thoughts that together give us a compelling sense of will and of identity.  We refer to this inner world as mind or consciousness or sentience, and if we are religious we call it the soul.

SUPERMAN AND THE PERSONALITY OF GOD

I fondly recall when the original Superman series ran on TV in the 1950s, with George Reeves in the title role.  I was seven when the series began in 1952, and I loved it.  And while I realized at some level that Superman wasn’t real, I will admit to thinking early on that if I only had a cape maybe, just maybe, I too could fly.  (Yes, I was that naive.)  Thankfully, my older sisters quickly disabused me of that notion.

AN ATHEIST'S PET PEEVES

I enjoy discussions about religion with my Christian friends, even though I realize that the chances that I will change anyone’s beliefs about matters of faith are close to zero.  And the older I get, the more remote the odds become.  But in discussions regarding the basis of beliefs my goals are broader than that.  Listening to what others have to say has helped me not just to understand better what I think but to refine those views and in some cases to change them.  But while I enjoy the repartee, there are some things that my Christian counterparts do and say that I find very frustrating.  Let’s call them pet peeves.  Here are a few:

FREE WILL, CHOICE, AND RESPONSIBILITY

A couple of times previously I have attempted to support my point of view that free will does not exist, that it is simply a powerful illusion.  So far, as far as I know I have succeeded in converting no one, zilch, to my position. Nevertheless, here I am making another effort at a persuasive essay in support of my view.

A BRIEF NOTE ON ABORTION

When pro-choice individuals are asked the question of when in a pregnancy a human fetus requires recognition and protection, virtually all would agree that there needs to be a standard.  Without such a standard we could wind up on a slippery slope to euthanasia.  And I think most moral scholars agree that that would be a very dangerous position for society to assume. 

THE PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS

We’ve all heard the old joke, “Lions 21, Christians 0,” a reference to the period presumably when the Romans persecuted Christians for sport.  Now we’re hearing cries of persecution of Christians once again.  Right now and right here in America.  Here are some examples:  

• Banning of religious symbols—ten commandments, nativity scenes—on government property. 
• Banning of prayers in public schools.
• Banning of the teaching of creationism in public schools.
• Giving women the right to abortions.
• Granting same-sex couples the right to get married.

All are claimed to be instances of attacks on Christians and Christianity.  I don’t agree.

A NOTE ON CONSCIOUSNESS

Most of us are dualists.  We believe we have both bodies and minds.  We believe we peer out of our bodies by way of our minds and that the combination gives us our sense of self, our souls, if you will.  We don’t think about it much; we just accept the idea that we have an internal mental world separate from the exterior physical world.  We believe our bodies are made of the same stuff—atoms and molecules—as the rest of the material universe.  We’re not sure what our minds are made of—some sort of nonphysical stuff.  Even though we don’t know what mind is, we think that most (though not all) of our physical actions are controlled by our minds rather than the other way around.  We refer to the mind that we are aware of as consciousness.  We don’t really think about consciousness much either; it’s just there.  However, we believe we control our consciousness through our selves, and we call this “free will.”

This is what most people believe, if they think about it at all.  But it is not correct, and it is not what I believe.  There is no such thing as “mind” or “consciousness” or “self” or “soul” that is in control of our physical actions or that is independent of the physical world.  The notion of mind as separate from body is simply an illusion, albeit a powerful one.

A WORLD WITHOUT RELIGION

What would the world be like if there were no religion?  I know, at this point it’s just an atheist’s dream.  Still, I think it is useful to ask whether the world would be better or worse if no one believed in a god or gods.  How would an absence of faith affect morality, violence, cultural traditions, happiness?  Volumes have been written on this question.  Here I thought I would just touch on a few of the ways in which the world might be different.

DOGMATISM AND SCRIPTURE AS THE WORD OF GOD

I’ve said this before:  I am concerned less with what individuals believe than with how they acquired their beliefs and why they maintain them.  And in the evangelical/fundamentalist Christian community nothing illustrates this better than belief that scripture is the Word of God.  

The terms “dogma” and “dogmatism” have a serious image problem, though it wasn’t always that way, at least in a religious context.  Dogma is a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true.  Thus Christians came to be expected to accept the Nicene Creed without question.  It was just the way things were.  Nowadays using the term “dogmatic” in reference to someone or his or her ideas is clearly viewed as a negative.  But I think the term describes well the position of those who believe steadfastly in scripture as the inspired word of God.