Lovely things that feel magical in the natural world

Hope

Love

Joy 

Wonder

Delight

Contentment

Resilience

Fulfillment

Aspirations

Optimism

Promise

Goodness

None of those things are supernatural. None are magic, though they can feel like something magical. They are all natural, all real, a part of our world, and, therefore, all are possible to experience. That means you can experience them without a belief in a god or gods. And atheists do, just as often, maybe even more often, than people that believe in the supernatural. 

I love experiencing all of these wonderful things. I don’t experience them every second of every day, but I experience these wonderful things far, far more often, and in greater abundance, since I stopped trying to believe in a magical, invisible super friend. 

Believers love to say you can't be happy without a god or gods. I wonder how they explain me?

Happy New Year!

Also see:    

• The power & the glory of hope, WITHOUT a god
• Love is logical. Love makes sense.
• The Atheist Response to Tragedy

Justifying murder

So many people are claiming that the murder of two New York police officers this week was because of the words of protesters regarding the killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and others.

Let's be clear: the guy responsible for the murders of these two officers, a man who shot his girlfriend and then murdered those officers, could be tied to those protesting killings by police as much as the wacko in Australia that took people hostage in the candy shop could be tied to the "Islamic State": In both cases, very sick men used a movement with which they had no connection to justify murder. In both cases, these men wanted to tie their desire to murder to some sort of bigger, more lofty cause. In both cases, people are dead that didn't deserve to be. And none of it changes the fact that it's dangerous to be a black man in the USA.

The only difference in them is one used a movement I find abhorrent (the "Islamic State") and one of them used a movement I support (#blacklivesmatter).

As a person put it in a comment to a friend's Facebook status update: "It's terrible what happened to those police officers. It's terrible what happened to the man who died from the chokehold."

I'm disgusted by any excuse for murder - including religious justifications like those promoted by the "Islamic State" movement, or those by Christian groups in the USA regarding health care workers that perform abortions. If someone used the persecution of women, atheists, children, or any other cause I believe in to justify murder, I would be just as disgusted.

The rhetoric I'm reading on social media is not changing any minds, and it's not making things safer for anyone.

Peace. Please.

No, really, I'm NOT a Christian; Yes, really, I LOVE being an Atheist

I talk a lot about human rights, equality, social justice, volunteering and being kind and helpful to others. Maybe too much, especially on Facebook. I enjoy the affirmative comments I get, but among them, very often, are comments like, “You sure sound like a Christian to me!”

Those comments are meant as a compliment. But it ticks me off. Every time.

I'm good WITHOUT GOD.

No religion has a monopoly on goodness. Or evil, for that matter. And it most certainly IS possible to be good without a “god.” Yet my Christian friends just can’t believe that I don’t believe. How can I encourage people to volunteer and be kind to their neighbors if I don’t believe in a magical, invisible Super Friend? How can I feel so passionately about the beauty of natural resources and not believe some supernatural force created it?

Quite easily.

The natural forces that have made our world are amazing. They aren’t conscious, they aren’t caring, there’s no deliberation behind their actions or results, but they are none-the-less awe-inspiring. Observational astronomy, particle physics, evolutionary biology, plate tectonics - they’re amazing! They don’t need to have consciousness, self-awareness, souls, feelings or personalities to be amazing. And it doesn’t bother me that natural forces aren’t alive and aren’t capable of feelings or deliberation - in fact, I take comfort in knowing things like hurricanes and meteor strikes and super novas are NOT acts of a conscious being and that these have NOTHING to do with human morality. They just are. I remember feeling such despair when I was trying to be a Christian - despair over God killing children through natural disasters, despair over going through horrors in my life and never, ever feeling the comfort of a magical, invisible buddy to get me through it. That deep despair melted away when I embraced my atheism. I still get sad, maybe even overwhelmed, but I don't struggle with the "Why?!" anymore.

Our household reveled in watching “Cosmos” earlier this year. I cried at the end of a few of the episodes. I cried over how gorgeous the universe is. How vast it is. How it is full of so many possibilities, more than I can even imagine. Yes, I felt small - but I didn’t feel insignificant. I felt - and feel - a part of it all. I am star dust - and what makes me me will always be a part of this universe. That’s a rather cool thought.

More of my blogs about ethics, morality and philosophy as an atheist:

• If "God is good all the time", then God is really lousy 
• Thankful Satanic Suffering 
• Cowards and Christmas music 
• Why I "do good"; Why I try to be kind
• The power & the glory of hope, WITHOUT a God
• Love is logical. Love makes sense.
• The Atheist Response to Tragedy
• The Journey - becoming an Atheist

Sorry for the silence

Sorry I haven’t written since July. Life has been… well, rather spectacular: I’ve gotten a couple of jobs that resulted in my getting to travel to Ukraine, Poland and Catalunya / Spain, and in between that time, I’ve been working to rehome five cats and two dogs left behind when my neighbor died (I ended up adopting one of the cats, and I’m continuing to help care for one of the dogs, being fostered by a neighbor).

Hope to put a worthwhile blog together before the end of the year!

If "God is good all the time", then God is really lousy

A friend keeps posting on her Facebook page:

God is good all the time... all the time God is Good! 

It makes me cringe. She posts it when something good has happened to her, when something has gone her way.

So, let me get this straight: God is good all the time... even as he:

• allows fathers to molest their daughters, 
• allows priests to molest children in their care, 
• allows parents to mutilate their children's genitals in the name of culture,
• allows children to harm their own parents and grandparents
• allows people, including children, to be killed by floods, falling trees, tornados and other natural occurrences, 
• allows children to contract the most horrible, painful diseases 

And on and on and on.

Because... those are good things? Because he's good, but has no control over these horrors? Because there's some whacked out reason to allow these horrors but he's not going to tell you what - you just have to trust it?

Can you imagine how reading God is good all the time... all the time God is Good! feels to her Facebook friends who are going through hell right now, who have lost their jobs and are about to lose their homes, who are experiencing severe pain because of illness, who have been left by a spouse, who are struggling with a child, etc.? I try to be positive on this blog, more than negative, but this statement is so incredibly hurtful to so many people.

If you are struggling with difficult times, here's my advice:

• Think of everything about this situation that is under your control, and what isn't. Focus as much as possible about what IS under your control, on what choices and actions you can make regarding this situation - maybe not to solve it, but to survive it, even just minute-to-minute, day-to-day. 
• Call your local mental health department - your county's health department should be able to help. Ask how they can help you connect with a counselor and/or self-help group that can help you in your situation. Self-help / support groups are free. Many therapists will give you a discount if your health insurance doesn't cover therapy and your situation is particularly dire. 
• Talk to your doctor if you are experiencing any physical pain or severe depression. 
• Walk every day, no matter what the weather, no matter how you look and feel. Even if it's only for 10 minutes, you need to walk EVERY day. 
• Go to the library and look for books about your particular situation - nonfiction and fiction. Reading how other people have handled the situation can really help. 
• Don't give up. If you are feeling like harming yourself is a good idea, please contact the Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
• Unfollow people on Facebook that are bringing you down with their posts. They will not know that you have unfollowed them, and you can always look at their pages if you need to catch up on what's going on, but unfollowing gets their posts out of your newsfeed. 
• Follow organizations on Facebook that lift you up: national parks, state parks, nonprofits doing great work, singers, actors, other artists, etc. 
• Follow The Greater Good Science Center on Facebook, and read what they post, including books they might recommend. 
• Remember this is an ongoing process. It can take years to get through something, but people do. They don't just survive - they thrive. You can too. 

Think of the Children!

Dear Abby published an interesting letter today, from a woman who, along with her husband, is an atheist. Their families are quite religious, and the writer said that "several nieces and nephews (ages 4 to 9)... have asked us repeatedly why we don't go to church with them, since the whole family attends together. Their mother has made it clear that they do not want the children knowing there is another option besides Christianity..."

Abby gave her some potential responses, and then added, "While I respect your in-laws' desire to practice their faith, I think it is unrealistic to try to keep children in the dark because as soon as they hit school -- unless they are home-schooled or in a church-run school -- they are going to meet other kids who worship differently or not at all."

I face this issue myself. I have nieces that I absolutely adore, who are being raised in a very religious household, one where they are told that if a person hasn't accepted Christ as his or her savior, that person is going to hell. Eventually, my nieces are going to be told that Aunt Autumn is going to hell, because I won't lie to them; I will tell them I'm not a Christian if they ever ask, and because of what they are being taught, it's going to hurt them. And that breaks my heart. But I didn't create this situation, and I won't be the last person around them that turns out not to be a Christian.  

I hope that, when they ask me if I'm a Christian, or they ask me why I'm not one, I get to also tell them I believe in love, in kindness and in humanity, that I think all people are part of a great big family on Earth, and that life is wonderful when we work to learn about each other and our world, when we help each other, when we celebrate each other, and through working to keep our planet healthy. I'll never try to convince them to not be a Christian, but I will also never stop trying to help them love science and the diversity of humanity.

Who gets to decide who gets called what?

I was raised in the Bible Belt. I went to Baptist churches more than any other, and at some services and revivals, I was told by the leaders and other congregants that Catholics, Mormons and/or Methodists weren't really Christians. And my Catholic friends have told me that they were told at various times that all non-Catholics weren't really Christian.

In Egypt, I was told by a colleague, a Sunni Muslim, that Shi'ites aren't really Muslims. Bosnian friends who consider themselves Muslim were told by people visiting from Saudi that, in fact, Bosnians were real Muslims.

After a doctor that provided abortion services is shot in the USA, people will say, "Oh, he wasn't really a Christian." And after a bombing by someone claiming to be Muslim, other Muslims will exclaim, "Oh, he wasn't really a Muslim. That's not true Islam." The Taliban will kill Muslims in Afghanistan and say it was justified, because they weren't really Muslim. Malala Yousafzai is quoted as saying, "The Taliban think we are not Muslims, but we are. We believe in God more than they do..."

I've heard Buddhist debate who is really a Buddhist, Jews debate who is really a Jew, and I'm guessing every other religion has members debating this.

Who decides what is religiously authentic? Who gets to decide who gets called what?

As an Atheist, I'm frequently confused by all these I-am-this-but-that-one-is-not claims. If someone says he or she is a practitioner of this or that religion, then that's how I refer to that person - and as a result, I've had some indignant responses from people who also identify as a part of that religion, who don't think that person's version is the "real" version.

To be honest, I'm sick of it. I'm sick of the back and forth. Do people who engage in this rhetoric not realize how incredibly silly they sound? Why do YOU get to decide who gets called what, but not the person you criticize? That person believes that a/the god is on his or her side just as much as you do, and has just as much dogma and holy book/holy person quotes to back up his or her point of view as you do. In a debate, you both would end up being guilty of cherry-picking phrases and rules to back up your claim.

I wish I could side with Malala Yousafzai in saying her version of Islam is the real one, and the Taliban's isn't. I wish I could side with the United Church of Christ over, say, the Southern Baptist Convention, in terms of which version of Christian practice and teaching is the true one. But I can't. As an Atheist, I just can't. But I can most definitely say which I prefer, which I would like to have the most adherents, if said people simply MUST believe in a magical, invisible super friend.

So, yes, I do roll my eyes when someone of a faith reacts to an act of violence by someone else of faith by saying, "Well, he/she isn't really Christian / Muslim / Jewish / Hindu / Buddhist / Whatever." Because that person who committed the violence is saying the exact same thing about said speaker.

There are universal horrors we, as humans, should all be condemning, not because of a religion, but because of our humanity: murder, sex trafficking, child molestation, sexual violence, oppression, ethnic "cleansing", and on and on. And there are universal virtues and conditions we, as humans, should all be celebrating and embracing: kindness, understanding, compassion, inspiration, freedom, equality, equal access, safety, security, and on and on. I judge you based on your practices with regard to these universal virtues - and you don't need a god to have them, nor a label.

Happy Darwin Day

Happy Darwin Day!

Darwin Day is a global celebration of science and reason held on or around Feb. 12, the birthday anniversary of evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin.

The entire universe in a glass of wine

"If we look in glass of wine closely enough we see the entire universe."

Theoretical physicist Richard Feynman earned himself the moniker “the Great Explainer” and his lectures at CalTech became, in the words of Maria Popova, "a cultural classic, blending brilliant yet accessible explanations of science with poignant meditations on life’s most profound questions."

This blog by Brain Pickings about one of Feynman's most famous lectures is a treasure. It focuses on a lecture titled “The Relation of Physics to Other Sciences,” in which Feynman, "eloquent and enthralling as ever, illustrates the connectedness of everything to everything else.

Read the excerpt, or listen to it (there's a link on the page), and be inspired!