tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34840142424632932082024-03-07T13:42:04.832-08:00Your Atheist MuseYourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.comBlogger180125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-2254607171894889252024-03-07T13:41:00.000-08:002024-03-07T13:41:12.409-08:00Why Did God Create Atheists? - from Tales of the Hasidim<p><i>Why Did God Create Atheists?</i></p>
<p><i>There is a famous story told in Chassidic literature that addresses this very question. The Master
teaches the student that God created everything in the world to be appreciated, since everything
is here to teach us a lesson.</i></p>
<p><i>
One clever student asks “What lesson can we learn from atheists? Why did God create them?”
The Master responds “God created atheists to teach us the most important lesson of them all —
the lesson of true compassion. You see, when an atheist performs an act of charity, visits
someone who is sick, helps someone in need, and cares for the world, he is not doing so because
of some religious teaching. He does not believe that God commanded him to perform this act. In
fact, he does not believe in God at all, so his acts are based on an inner sense of morality. And
look at the kindness he can bestow upon others simply because he feels it to be right.”</i></p>
<p><i>“This means,” the Master continued “that when someone reaches out to you for help, you should
never say ‘I pray that God will help you.’ Instead for the moment, you should become an atheist,
imagine that there is no God who can help, and say ‘I will help you.’”</i></p>
<p> Martin Buber. Tales of the Hasidim. Schocken Books. (1964)</p>YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-87769017567465592122023-10-23T11:55:00.001-07:002023-10-23T11:55:36.074-07:00Trying to stay human while watching the Israeli - Palestinian conflict<p>Watching the most recent violence in the Israeli - Palestinian conflict is gut-wrenching. </p><p>Nations that identify with a particular religion make me uncomfortable - the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan... as much as I understand the desire for a Jewish homeland, given the centuries of persecution people of the Jewish faith have experienced, let alone the Shoah itself, there is a part of me that isn't comfortable with a Jewish state, just as I am not comfortable with all those Islamic Republics. </p><p>Still, I get it: various people, communities and civilizations have tried to murder all Jews for centuries. I see why there is a desire for a country that is dedicated to the preservation of all who identify as Jewish, which is more than a religion for many people - it's an ancient diverse culture and people who identify with it may not be religious at all.</p><p>But even if I agree that the Jewish state of Israel has a right to exist, I am absolutely opposed to the settlements in the West Bank. I am appalled at the continuing land grab and the violence regularly perpetuated by Jewish settlers against Palestinian Muslims and Christians who have been on that land for generations, who have every right to be on that land. The expulsions of Palestinians from land Israel claims is abhorrent. </p><p>And with that said, I am beyond disgusted, outraged, appalled and horrified at this latest Hamas act of terror and murder: the attack on attendees at the Supernova music festival. This violence is INEXCUSABLE. If you believe that Hamas and Israel are at war, then you must also acknowledge that this attack was a war crime. It most definitely was a crime against humanity. </p><p>And with all THAT said, Israel's murderous response isn't going to make any Israeli safer. It is an act of vengeance, not a war strategy. </p><p>I hear both sides talking about the eradication of the other. I hear both sides saying their dead children matter and the other side's dead children aren't their fault. I hear both sides characterizing the other as animals, as sub human. </p><p>This sums up how I'm feeling:</p><p><i>To the people celebrating the mass murder of Israeli civilians, you have lost your humanity. To the people enthusiastically calling for Israel to decimate Gaza, densely populated with 2 million Palestinian civilians, you have lost your humanity. Israelis and Palestinians are real people, just like you and me.</i></p><p>- <a href="https://twitter.com/DovWaxman/status/1711246682682540084" target="_blank">Dov Waxman</a>, Professor @ UCLA; Gilbert Foundation Chair of Israel Studies, & Director of Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies.</p><p>I don't know what the answer is. But I'm going to do all I can to stay human and hope that there are people in Israel and Palestine who don't hate each other, who believe it's possible to co-exist, and who are ready to call out the crimes of their own people. </p>YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-81999172720126704622023-09-10T11:39:00.002-07:002023-09-10T11:39:00.148-07:00Wildly impractical moments<p>There's a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/08/27/cancer-diagnosis-life-dying-ettinger/">good essay in the Washington Post</a>, published in August of this year by a woman who is dying from a rare and aggressive cancer. It sounds like that she both found out she had the disease <i>and</i> that it is advanced, incurable and that she has just a few months to live all at the same time. </p><p>She notes, "My prognosis has left me shocked, sad, angry and confused. I wake up some mornings raging at the universe, feeling betrayed by my own body, counting the years and the milestones I expected to enjoy with my family... I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my life, and in addition to the horror, a surprising feeling has taken hold: I am dying at age 49 without any regrets about the way I’ve lived my life."</p>
<p>I don't expect people who have disabilities or who are terminally ill should ever expect to be an inspiration for the rest of us. Not all of them have this person's perspective nor experience. But I find her outlook on her life's choices really inspiring. </p><p>After noting her very happy marriage and a particularly successful career pursuit, she says,</p>
<p><i>I’ve always tried to say yes to the voice that tells me I should go out and do something now, even when that decision seems wildly impractical. A few years ago, with very little planning, my family and I got in a car and drove 600 miles to a goat farm in central Oregon, where we camped out for four days to watch a solar eclipse. I once jetted off to Germany on two days’ notice, spending a week exploring Dresden and hiking through the Black Forest...</i></p>
<p><i>The end of my life is coming much too soon, and my diagnosis can at times feel too difficult to bear. But I’ve learned that life is all about a series of moments, and I plan to spend as much remaining time as I can savoring each one, surrounded by the beauty of nature and my family and friends. Thankfully, this is the way I’ve always tried to live my life.</i></p>
<p>Of course not all of us can do what she's done, like live in one of the most unaffordable parts of the USA, or even run off to Germany, for that matter. Not caring about money isn't just a choice - it's a luxury not everyone can afford. She could buy that airline ticket, she could pay for that gas to drive up to Oregon and back - so many cannot. </p><p>But I'm focusing on the idea that, indeed, sometimes, doing something that is wildly impractical is just what you need. It doesn't have to come with a big bill either. </p><p>I have a friend that has always wanted to learn Italian. She loves all things Italian. When I said, "Why don't you sign up on Duolingo and learn Italian?" she replied, "I really should learn something useful, like Spanish. They only speak Italian in Italy." If you feel inspired to learn Italian, LEARN ITALIAN! Just do it for the sake of doing it! </p><p>Take class on baking. Or wood working. Or smithing. </p><p>Go see that band you have ALWAYS wanted to but keep thinking, oh, it's so much trouble and I can't afford it - cancel all your streaming subscriptions for a couple of months and DO IT. </p><p>Always wanted to learn to play piano? Whether you are 20 or 50 or 70 - do it! Free pianos are easy to find - so many people want to get rid of pianos. All you have to pay is the movers to get such to your house. Buy some how to books and get going! </p><p>And say "yes" to more invitations. Say yes to going to dinner, say yes to going to the movies, say yes to going for a walk, say yes to going somewhere for a cookout. There are a limited number of beautiful days. There are a limited number of days you will be able to walk. There are a limited number of days you will have with family and friends. I know it's fashionable to celebrate being an introvert, and certainly you should avoid toxic people, but the people I know who always say no to everything are <i>miserable</i>. I love cocooning at home too, more often than I should, but I have been so thankful when I've gone out, whether for a walk around a lake or to go see <i>Barbie</i>. </p><p>I know that I have lived more than half of the life I will live. I can't say I don't have any regrets. But I can say that I've experienced many wonderful things. Some of those pursuits have gotten mocked: I'll never forget the sibling who dressed me down for traveling so much ("An absolute waste of money!"). He's wrong, of course. I love looking at photos from my life. I love reading journal entries I've written over the years. And I'm looking forward to more wildly impractical moments<i>. </i></p>YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-46545619344292333312023-08-27T11:39:00.000-07:002023-08-27T11:39:09.203-07:00Some recommended readings from two other atheists<p>Some recommended readings from two other atheists:</p><p>Bruce Gerencser is <a href="https://brucegerencser.net/">a blogger</a>, a humanist and an atheist. He pastored evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a He's 62, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 41 years. He and his wife have six grown children and twelve grandchildren. </p><p>Here's one of his blogs from 2019 I just discovered and I really love: <a href="https://brucegerencser.net/2019/08/christian-explanations-for-why-bad-things-happen/">Christian Explanations for Why Bad Things Happen</a>. If you grow up in a Bible-believing society, as I did, you get all the reasoning he lists thrown at you whenever something bad happens in your life. The mental and spiritual gymnastics of believers is astonishing - and so profoundly hurtful when you are going through a crisis. </p><p>And in the Richard Dawkins is still a dick department, we have this blog from <a href="https://www.friendlyatheist.com/">the Friendly Atheist</a> noting that <a href="https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/richard-dawkins-used-his-new-podcast">Richard Dawkins used his new podcast to promote more transphobic lies</a>. </p><p>I remain flabbergasted by that man's refusal to believe in science. He's a freakin' scientist! He's supposed to be a biologist - and he ignores biology! Regardless of how you <i>feel</i> about people identifying as transgender - and for the record, I have some feelings about it, feelings that I know would hurt the feelings of some of my more activist friends - no one can say with any grain of truth that transgender doesn't exist in humans and other species. Even if you think some people who say they are transgender aren't really transgender, you cannot honestly deny that transgender does not exist in other species! Because IT DOES EXIST. Regardless of your feelings, that FACT is undeniable. If you are transgender, especially if you are a young person, please hear me clearly: not all atheists are assholes like Richard Dawkins. You exist, you are real, you are transgender, being transgender is not imaginary or a fad, I will use whatever pronouns you want me to, and I hope you are pursuing living your best life. </p>YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-90442112663909685592023-08-20T11:51:00.003-07:002023-08-20T11:51:39.067-07:00Humanism from the Holocaust<p><i>I think that the absence of God can be really beautiful. It means it's our responsibility to take care of each other on this earth. And everything courageous and beautiful that we do is on us. And so I see my atheism very much as an act of optimism, that it is our job to make this world as good of a place as possible for as many people as possible.</i></p>
<p>-- Vanessa Zoltan, in an interview with NPR. Zoltan is a humanist chaplain who describes herself as an atheist chaplain. She is the chaplain at UnityPoint Health – Meriter, a hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. Martin says that the religion she was raised in, the theology she was raised in, was the Holocaust. All four of her grandparents were Auschwitz survivors and her parents were born right after World War II.</p>
<p>"..every law I was taught, as to how to walk through the world, was through the orientation of the Holocaust." She calls it the "theology of the Holocaust." She says in the interview that, because of this theology, taught through her family's experience, that her family had certain core values they lived by: that you always get involved if you see anything going on with your neighbors. That you question bureaucracy before you follow it. And you look at friends and neighbors and wonder whether or not they would hide you if you ever needed to be hidden.</p><p>I LOVE her statement about the absence of God being beautiful. Because it is. I wrote back in 2015 <a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2015/03/why-i-love-being-atheist.html">why I love being an atheist</a>, so I won't repeat myself but, yeah, I still love being an atheist, and I'm not using the word <i>love</i> lightly.</p><p>Her statement about the Holocaust being her theology really struck me. I am not Jewish. I have no Jewish ancestry. I would never assume anything about my experience is anything like hers or her families. But there's no denying that learning about Holocaust when I was a teenager played a MASSIVE role in my finally embracing not just my atheism, but my humanism. It was not Christianity that taught me of the utterly vital importance of believing in the equal and inherent dignity of all humans. It was not Christianity that emphasized the vital importance, the essential nature, of a concern for all humans and a belief that we must look out for our neighbors. It was the Holocaust. </p><p>I grew up in rural Kentucky, in an overwhelmingly evangelical Christian area. I grew up being told repeatedly that Jesus was a Jew, but I wasn't entire sure what that was. My first Jewish experience was probably when I read the play <i>The Diary of Anne Frank</i> in junior high school - and it hit me like a ton of bricks: I was immediately horrified and terrified. I could not understand why I had never heard of the Holocaust. I thought not only what I would do in hiding but how I would or could hide someone. I understood, for the first time, that your own country and neighbors could turn on you. I have no idea how many times I read that play outside of school hours and then, in high school, it was not only again something we read in an English class, it was not only the play we did my junior year of high school (I was Miep), but it was the prelude to an entire semester where we studied the Holocaust in my Kentucky pubic high school. </p><p>Yes, the only high school in a county in Kentucky, in the early 1980s, made every student, no matter what academic track they were on, study the Holocaust. The films we watched were tied to our English classes instead of history classes, because not every student had a history class, but every student had an English class. We watched at least two documentaries, including one I saw again, decades later, when I visited Dachau. We watched <i>Playing for Time</i> in class. <i>Sophie's Choice</i> came on one of the movie channels my parents subscribed to and I watched it, alone. At university, still in Kentucky, I attended a talk by Alfons Heck, who at one time was the highest ranking Hitler youth, at the end of World War II, and and Jewish Holocaust survivor Helen Waterford. They visited more than 150 universities over nine years, urging us to avoid Hitler-type brainwashing. I took the message to deeply to heart. It's dominated my thinking ever since. (I highly recommend you read Heck's book, <i>A Child of Hitler: Germany in the Days When God Wore a Swastika</i>). </p><p>I've never stopped thinking about the Shoah. And its framed my outlook on the world ever since. I've never stopped thinking about how I would flee nor how I would help someone hide and flee. I have taken to heart what I read once: "Do you wonder what you would have done in Germany in the 1930s? You're doing it now."</p><p>The Holocaust, and all genocides that I've studied, have changed how I view the enslavement and oppression black Americans - and in understanding what the underground railroad really did, what that work really entailed, and the risk the participants were really taking. What would you have done in the 1850s and 1860s in the USA? You're doing it now. </p><p>My studies of the Holocaust has made me go down many a rabbit hole in trying to learn what happened to neighbors and communities that lead to the purges in Cambodia and the genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia. I am appalled at the murders of the Rohingya in Burma and the denial of it by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, someone once celebrated as a champion of human rights - how does that happen? The Holocaust makes me see the demonization of immigrants world wide, not just the USA, the rise in nationalism in so many countries, not only the USA, requiring people to not question nor criticize their governments, the celebration and election of people who are Nazi-adjacent and Nazi-friendly in my own country as well as in others, and the massive rise in anti-Semitism globally, including in my own country, and it has me horrified and terrified. </p><p>But I also come back to my humanity. My humanism. In all those horrors, I do read hope, like the Muslims who hid Christian Tutsis from death squads and murderous mobs. Or I see it for myself, when I went to a local mosque in the county where I live, for a meeting to show support for Muslims in the face of comments and actions by the then President of the USA, and there were members of a Jewish congregation there, and one of them standing up to say, "We will encircle this mosque if we have to. They will have to get through us to ever get to you." </p><p>What would I have done in Germany in the 1930s? I like to think I'm doing it now. But I know I come up short. I could do more. I should do more. I write my elected officials and I show up at their pubic town halls. I use my privilege to ask tough questions of the police in public forums. I don't push my views on everyone - but I also don't hide them, and it's cost me friends, friendly relations with some neighbors and regular visits with much of my family. And those are real costs, costs I sometimes mourn. But not worth betraying my humanism. </p>
<p><a href="https://vanessazoltan.com/">More about Vanessa Zoltan</a>.</p><p>Also see:</p><p><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2019/01/i-have-hope-but-not-faith.html">I have hope but not faith</a>.</p><p><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2018/01/magic-kindness-and-hope.html">Magic, Kindness and Hope</a>.</p><p><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-power-glory-of-hope-without-god.html">The power & the glory of hope, WITHOUT a God</a>.</p>YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-54882389999613853532023-08-02T15:02:00.000-07:002023-08-02T15:02:27.232-07:00The atheist response to a national crisis<p>I've read it many times: participation in a religious community - a church, a temple, a mosque - generally correlates with <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/10/28/religion-church-attendance-mortality-column/92676964/">better health outcomes and longer life</a>, with <a href="https://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/magazine/less-god-less-giving/">higher financial generosity</a>, and with <a href="https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/03/20935/">more stable families</a>. And I get why that's probably true because of what I experienced growing up and what I've seen so often in communities where most residents are religious. </p><p>Most of my church experiences weren't negative - most were, in fact, quite good: I loved the sense of community, the sense of welcome, the sense of quiet comfort and the food at potlucks. And that background in attending not just church but church-related gatherings has helped me easily navigate a variety of cultures, ceremonies and gatherings, often much better than my colleagues who don't come from a religious background. </p><p>We are a nation with rising rates of loneliness, mental illness and alcohol and drug dependency, as well as incredible divisiveness. I'm do NOT think the answer is more religion, however. </p><p>In addition to all the dogma and intolerance for non-religion members, religion comes with a commitment: to attend services, usually once a week, and to join in social activities, like choir practice and performance, software ball games, potluck suppers, camps and volunteering. The people that go to events and activities aren't usually running to them in anticipation because they are just so incredibly wonderful and fun - part of the reason they go is that sense of obligation to their community. As a result, over time, religious practitioners get the benefits of feeling that sense of communal belonging, and the benefits of regularly engaging with other people. That's not at all a bad thing. But is religion <i>really</i> the only way to get that sense of community?</p><p>As religious practice wanes, people could still keep that commitment to engaging with other people and creating community, and I think it would be worth it for both individuals, personally, and for communities collectively. How can we do that, especially in a world traumatized by a pandemic that killed millions, scarred others with life-long disabilities and created so much mistrust of each other?</p><p>I think it's still possible, but it would require us each, individually, to make a commitment. </p><p>Are you willing to make a commitment to community activities not for a God, but in the faith that it's good for your mental health and your community? </p><p>Are you willing to reserve at least six hours a month engaged in a formal volunteering practice - helping at a blood donation drive for the Red Cross, helping at events at your children's school, helping at a Habitat for Humanity home build or home repair, etc.? </p><p>Are you willing to go to one community event at least every quarter of a year: to a community theater production, to a high school sports event, to a game night in a bar, to a concert, etc.? </p><p>You could even be more ambitious and formally join something: a book club, a Rotary Club, a community sports league, the organizing committee of the local branch of a political party, etc. </p><p>Don't expect to go one time and have an immediate wonderful time and be bursting with enthusiasm to go again. That's not how community engagement works. It's a cultivation process, a slow process. You will have some uncomfortable times, maybe even some negative experiences. But ultimately, over time, it's absolutely worth it for you personally. And imagine if a significant portion of us did this - imagine what it might do collectively for our communities and society. </p><p>I'm already doing all of the above, in fact. It's not easy: there are times when I just do NOT want to go to something I've committed to or planned. Often, I'm dreading having to wear outside-of-my-house clothes, finding a parking place, and not being home in comfy clothes on my couch. But I know that making a commitment to do these activities and fulfilling that commitment has an effect on my mental health over time: I don't feel nearly as hopeless or lonely as I do when I don't make time for these activities. I'm not nearly as cranky or pessimistic as I am when I disengage over long periods. And I think I'm much more pleasant to be around in-person and online as a result. </p><p>Give it a go. Have some faith... in community investment. </p>YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-16705014929427563892023-07-23T11:04:00.004-07:002023-07-23T11:04:00.451-07:00Curious<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgqkxf5GROV-UJh56ATkGH7e9oTDw0atXyF4FoVGddgZ19v-d_6XG5lyYEpbtxRpkjgVWh4irq-hn_o3dx8uv-b49as1lL34QWEGSqufbhGOfNJLYqDVk-uKqXzshUQq4sNZeTNqJ0hF07NcQjpCGpkE1ZKNzPplzLP8zA94HzUhcXd73_4zouK_LBN8245" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="705" data-original-width="1038" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgqkxf5GROV-UJh56ATkGH7e9oTDw0atXyF4FoVGddgZ19v-d_6XG5lyYEpbtxRpkjgVWh4irq-hn_o3dx8uv-b49as1lL34QWEGSqufbhGOfNJLYqDVk-uKqXzshUQq4sNZeTNqJ0hF07NcQjpCGpkE1ZKNzPplzLP8zA94HzUhcXd73_4zouK_LBN8245=w465-h315" width="465" /></a></div><br />If you haven't seen the television series <i>Ted Lasso</i>, stop reading now - because the following is a spoiler. And I wouldn't spoil that show for the world. If you have no desire to watch Ted Lasso, please also stop reading, because the following will mean nothing to you. <p></p><p>For those of you who did watch it, or watched at least the first season: I felt like I knew who I was, for the first time in my life, when Ted Lasso played darts. </p><p><i>Guys have underestimated me my entire life and for years I never understood why – it used to really bother me. Then one day I was driving my little boy to school, and I saw a quote by Walt Whitman, it was painted on the wall there and it said, ‘Be curious, not judgmental.’ I like that. </i></p><p>(Ted throws a dart.)</p><p><i>So, I get back in my car and I’m driving to work and all of a sudden it hits me – all them fellas that used to belittle me, not a single one of them was curious. You know, they thought they had everything all figured out, so they judged everything, and they judged everyone. And I realized that their underestimating me – who I was had nothing to do with it. Because if they were curious, they would’ve asked questions. Questions like, ‘Have you played a lot of darts, Ted?’”</i></p><p>(Ted throws another dart.)</p><p><i>To which I would have answered, ‘Yes sir. Every Sunday afternoon at a sports bar with my father from age ten until I was 16 when he passed away.’ Barbecue sauce.</i> </p><p>(Ted throws a double bullseye to win the game.)</p><p>Some people love this scene because the person he beats in the game so deserved to be beaten, and got beaten by his own hubris - he made an assumption, he didn't to his homework. And that is delightful. But for me, I love the scene because I, too, have been underestimated all my life. I still am by a lot of folks, including some very dear to me. But it mostly happened when I was far younger, and so often belittled by neighborhood kids, some fellow students, even some teachers. Hearing that speech on Ted Lasso made me realize, for the first time, that none of them were curious. Not about anything, not just me. Later, when I started to do quite well at this or that, I would hear about their shock. "Her?! She did THAT?!? She worked THERE?!? She met HIM?!? She went to THERE?!?" And my favorite: "She sings?!"</p><p>Yes, me. I did that. Because I'm curious, and because I found other people just as curious as me. </p><p>And if you have known me, but didn't know I sing - then you were never curious about me. </p><p>Be kind to others. And be curious. </p>YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-53575860706188530772023-06-26T11:04:00.001-07:002023-06-26T11:17:15.837-07:00"Journalism saved me from fundamentalism"<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikmRNDyHEU0gVCMZTubofL6f1Fiw8Zb2wzD4SITfZawQanOegoIZNzLw77wxr-sNoM-BVgsGF8_wKirLp3RuCRI9ChNltchdR_WPIynLdKQTdyPlBAJRW0p4i8_a6ajns0JDWgCiZEwFGMf2IIuKGmZn5MtJngSVLu5JtGB6OB3TulvYFyTcjTeuldx59t/s1080/godfrey-kneller-old-scholar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1080" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikmRNDyHEU0gVCMZTubofL6f1Fiw8Zb2wzD4SITfZawQanOegoIZNzLw77wxr-sNoM-BVgsGF8_wKirLp3RuCRI9ChNltchdR_WPIynLdKQTdyPlBAJRW0p4i8_a6ajns0JDWgCiZEwFGMf2IIuKGmZn5MtJngSVLu5JtGB6OB3TulvYFyTcjTeuldx59t/w467-h260/godfrey-kneller-old-scholar.jpg" width="467" /></a></i></div><i><br />...truth is not a set of answers that you begin with and then retroactively fit the questions to. It's something that requires rigor and modesty and a lot of work... a lot of things that we would like to put in boxes labeled true and false defy our ability to do that. I think fundamentalism is this desire to put answers out of reach of questioning... I've come to believe that journalism saved me from fundamentalism... t's taught me that truth is not a set of answers that you begin with and then retroactively fit the questions to. It's something that requires rigor and modesty and a lot of work. And also our recognition that a lot of things that we would like to put in boxes labeled true and false defy our ability to do that. </i><p></p>
<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/06/25/1183227484/jon-ward-evangelical-religion-donald-trump-book">Jon Ward, in a interview with NPR, about walking away from evangelical, fundamentalist Christianity</a>.</p><p>Mr. Ward is still a Christian. He still defines himself as a man of faith. But he also believes in questioning and learning and growing and exploring and CHANGING HIS MIND. Questioning and pondering were things that many an exasperated Sunday School teacher, preacher and friend that is a believer most certainly did NOT want me to keep doing as I grew up, and said so when they were tired of me asking questions and making observations. And I didn't even go to fundamentalist churches!</p><p>Do read that NPR article. The part about being expected to faint and gyrate per "receiving" the Holy Spirit is something I could definitely identify with. </p><p>I'm not sure if I had been handled differently by all those people I asked questions of that I would not have turned out to be an atheist. As I've said many times, I just never felt anything in any church or religious service or during prayer that every one said I would, or was supposed to, or whatever. And I WANTED to believe - I was entirely onboard as a little girl and couldn't wait to finally feel that closeness with and comfort from God everyone said I would if I just kept praying, just kept keeping my heart open, and blah blah blah. </p><p>I am open to finding out something I wanted to be true isn't. That someone I believed in isn't who I thought they were. That how I feel about something now may not be how I feel about it in a few years. That I might be wrong. I feel sorry for people who are incapable of changing their mind as facts emerged - and I feel scared of them when they are in positions of power. </p><p>Scientific understanding changes from time to time, and that doesn't bother me at all - that's what happens as more facts become available. Why would I fear that? The facts don't change but our understanding of such does. I love that it leads to MORE questions - so exciting! Endless discovery! Wahoo!</p><p>Also see:</p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;"><a href="http://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-benefits-of-awe.html" style="color: #993300; text-decoration-line: none;">The Benefits of Awe</a></h3><div><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, serif; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 24px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;"><a href="http://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2021/04/no-doubt.html" style="color: #ff1900; text-decoration-line: none;">No doubt?</a></h3></div><p><br /></p>YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-61694088194699815232022-12-21T19:32:00.008-08:002022-12-21T19:32:57.450-08:00The reason for the season? Light. <p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px;">The reason for the season? It is, literally, the tilt of the Earth in relation to the sun. And today, in the Northern Hemisphere, it is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, when the Earth's North pole has reached its maximum tilt away from the Sun. We deck our halls with boughs of holly and bring in trees into our houses and decorate them and burn the Yule log, borrowing those traditions from earlier religions that honored the solstice. Much of the celebrations surrounding the Winter Solstice are about the hope and faith we have that the sun, the light will return. Whatever light you hope for, I have faith that it will return, in case you've been missing it.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBcBjj-NKm-oXz8sRNCnAfSWjZCsvDmEMp5QcwzenICVu6m0D86llOsIIHUBQ8ZmuAxmMWH2M8LNsbkP9IuWnCUDnQaTS7MrqW7fzokG_FDM7W_b3AzQgI3BYRsvuTktR_uogPjxI89bnhVVNL4ajAB_LDiWz6wcTbYKd06CD9A62DB5PaQgVatzEQWg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2036" data-original-width="2948" height="339" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBcBjj-NKm-oXz8sRNCnAfSWjZCsvDmEMp5QcwzenICVu6m0D86llOsIIHUBQ8ZmuAxmMWH2M8LNsbkP9IuWnCUDnQaTS7MrqW7fzokG_FDM7W_b3AzQgI3BYRsvuTktR_uogPjxI89bnhVVNL4ajAB_LDiWz6wcTbYKd06CD9A62DB5PaQgVatzEQWg=w491-h339" width="491" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-15949613559946136702022-07-22T13:04:00.000-07:002022-07-22T13:04:32.016-07:00The Glory of the James Webb Telescope<p>I hope you've been looking at all the photos from the James Webb Space Telescope. I hope you have been seeking out the photos and the commentary! The photos have already expanded our view of the universe and are already giving us further insight into the mysteries of the vast universe.</p><p>The experience of looking at the photos and reading the commentary about them is exciting, it's inspiring, it's beautiful and it's educational. It's revelations! And it gives me hope. </p><p>Have a look:</p><p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/07/21/1112356969/the-new-science-coming-from-the-james-webb-telescope-has-astronomers-giddy" target="_blank">The new science coming from the James Webb telescope has astronomers giddy</a> (NPR).</p><p><a href="https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-phantom-galaxy-image" target="_blank">James Webb Space Telescope's stunning 'Phantom Galaxy' picture looks like a wormhole</a> (NPR).</p>
<p><a href="https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/07/14/webb-images-of-jupiter-and-more-now-available-in-commissioning-data/" target="_blank">Webb Images of Jupiter and More Now Available In Commissioning Data</a> (NASA).</p>
<p>I look out at that vast universe and think of all the wonderful opportunities for learning. And all possibility. Dream it - it could be out there! </p><p>We are under no obligation to praise the universe - it has no consciousness nor ears to hear such, and no ego that needs to be catered to. But I do feel reverence for the universe - its vastness, its complexity, its glorious majesty, its potential for endless learning. I want to celebrate it, I want to indulge this feeling of rapture - and so I do! </p>
<p>We need psalms of celebration for these amazing photos and the knowledge that comes with them! </p><p>And we also need to celebrate that we have a brain and a consciousness that allows us both to celebrate it and to wonder what it means.</p>YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-33663489865773699522022-01-25T20:36:00.000-08:002022-01-25T20:36:00.124-08:00Where's My Cape?<p>Sometimes, I wish there was an outfit - a habit - or some kind of headdress or scarf that people could adopt to say:</p><ul><li>I’m an atheist.</li><li>I’m a humanist.</li><li>I’m a learner.</li><li>I’m committed to science.</li><li>I am a perpetual student.</li></ul><div>Just so we find each other... and witness for OUR values just by popping into the 7-11.</div><div><br /></div>YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-30068719909381142772022-01-06T11:02:00.003-08:002022-01-06T11:02:51.897-08:00The Benefits of Awe<p>Awe “makes us curious rather than judgmental. It makes us collaborative. It makes us humble, sharing and altruistic. It quiets the ego so that you’re not thinking about yourself as much.” </p><p>It also calms the brain’s default mode network and has been shown to reduce inflammation. In other words, don’t underestimate the power of goose bumps.</p><p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/on-parenting/children-awe-emotion/2021/11/29/0f78a4b0-4c8e-11ec-b0b0-766bbbe79347_story.html" target="_blank">This article from the Washington Post about the power of "awe" is amazing</a>. </p><p>And here is the 2018 white paper prepared for the John Templeton Foundation
by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley
September 2018: <a href="https://ggsc.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/GGSC-JTF_White_Paper-Awe_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">The Science of Awe</a>.</p>YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-40473776077875551022021-12-20T19:19:00.002-08:002021-12-20T19:19:56.076-08:00Civility is reasonable<p>There are lots of people I hate. Yes, hate: people to which I feel an intense, even passionate, aversion. Why do I hate them? Because they currently, or previously, and callously or cruelly, harmed people, or encouraged harm to people. Because their arrogance has ruined or will ruin people's lives. Because they would like to keep me and or others in subservience and hardship. Because they delight in distress and damage. Because they think it's funny to insult me. </p><p>What do I do about such people? If they are in elected office, I work to get someone else elected. If they have some kind of power and influence over others, I try to discourage people from listening to them, from following them, if I feel safe doing so. Otherwise, I just try to avoid them and not do anything that in any way contributes to their prosperity. It's not always easy - I hate people that go inside the grocery and won't wear a mask, or wear it properly, but I have to go to the grocery. </p><p>There are lots of people I find annoying. I don't hate them, but I don't like them. They're loud and disturb my peace. They ignore me when I am in need of their professional service. They act annoyed that they have to do their job, a job that, at that moment, I need. They ride my ass when I'm going to speed limit or not much over it. They hog a view. They are intellectually lazy, not learning anything at all about current events or history. They talk during movies. </p><p>What do I do about such people? Again, I just try to avoid them. Which is difficult, because I can't just get off the public transit bus any time someone is annoying. Or move to get away from an annoying neighbor. But I won't hesitate to cross the street if I see a neighbor coming that I don't like. Or to ask for a refund or a pass at the movies because there is someone who is not going to shut up, and I just don't feel like a confrontation. Or to write a bad review on Yelp. Or to tell an acquaintance that his praise of the supposed medical benefits of cannabis are largely bullshit. </p><p>What I won't do is scream, or yell insults. I'll stay civil - cold, but civil. </p><p>Since November 2016, staying civil has been a big challenge for me. I've struggled with it. And I live in an incredibly unfriendly place where it's not normal for people to say <i>good morning</i> while passing you on the sidewalk - and where it's legal to carry guns opening. The fact is, for five years now, I haven't wanted to be friendly most of the time. And as I watch extremists try to overthrow the government and spread misinformation about a deadly pandemic, as I watch people more concerned about a burned Christmas tree than dead children murdered at their school, as I watch police kill black Americans over and over, I have a strong desire to be uncivil. Destructive, even. </p><p>But I'm coming full circle. I'm looking at the incredible selfishness that has come with the global pandemic and realized we're all doomed if we don't stop thinking only about <i>me</i> and don't start thinking more about <i>we</i>. No one community, no one region, no one country, will every defeat the threats and dangers wrought on the world by COVID-19 - it has to be all of us or none of us. I have to deal with others. They have to deal with others. There's no avoiding it - or, if we do, it's to our ruin. </p><p>I'm renewing my commitment to kindness and civility. That doesn't mean that I won't call out misinformation or racism or violent rhetoric. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop finding people annoying, or even hating people. But I'm going to dig deep and try not to let any of those people change my mind that kindess and civility are rational, sensible ways to live. I may not always be warm and friendly, but I absolutely will be civil. I will not lose my humanity. I will say <i>thank you</i>. I will say <i>hello</i> or <i>good morning</i> or <i>good evening</i> or whatever to someone who is about to provide me with a service. I will open the entrance or exit for others. I will help someone carry something heavy. I will compliment the stranger wearing the fabulous hat. </p><div>But I will still cross the street when I see someone coming towards me I don't want to deal with. And that's okay. </div><p>Also see:</p><p><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2020/07/kindness-and-community-make-sense.html">Kindness and community make sense</a></p>YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-46108458074980117342021-08-26T19:45:00.003-07:002021-08-26T19:45:22.065-07:00You are not alone<p>How are you?</p><p>Hope you are vaccinated. </p><p>Have you struggled with having COVID-19 - or perhaps are even still struggling?</p><p>Are you trying to convince stubborn family members to get vaccinated?</p><p>Are you attending funerals for people who have died from COVID-19?</p><p>Are you a flight attendant, a restaurant worker, a grocery worker who is struggling with customers who aren't vaccinated and won't wear masks and seem bent on putting you at risk?</p><p>I'm not sure how to console you.</p><p>Just know that there are people all over the world who are also struggling, also trying to convince others, also fighting misinformation, also dealing with assholes. </p><p>You aren't alone. And as long as we aren't alone, all is not lost. </p><p>If you can't find others around you physically, go online and find your comrades. </p><p>Stay strong, keep learning. </p>YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-6708864784921389072021-04-14T09:01:00.004-07:002021-04-14T13:04:11.785-07:00No doubt?<p>Atheists hear this question a lot from people who believe in a "God" or "Gods":</p>
<p><i>You don't have </i><b>any</b><i> doubt about God? You don't consider the possibility that </i><b>maybe</b><i> you're wrong and there is a God?</i></p>
<p>Here's what I'm 100% sure of:</p>
<p></p>
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li>No "God" or "Gods" have <i>ever</i> comforted me. If a "God" or "Gods" do exist, he or they have most certainly harmed me through his/their inaction or "divine plan." <br />
</li>
<li>It is a huge relief not to try to justify the actions of an asshole - the God or Gods that either ignore millions of people being tortured or causes it." That torment in my mind ended when I decided to embrace my disbelief. <br />
</li>
<li>It is glorious to evaluate people by their actions and the content of their character instead of trying to decide if they follow the "right" magical invisible omnipotent friend. <br />
</li>
<li>When I stopped trying to follow a religion, when I stopped trying to "open my heart" and "let Jesus in" and all that, I went from feeling desperate and hurt and hopeless and abandoned to feeling like I was a part of something so much bigger than any religion, in a universe with far more possibilities than any religion has ever described to me. I felt like I belonged, and felt a huge burden lifted off of my heart. <br />
</li>
<li>As a child, talk of the devil being after me, being after my family, was terrifying to me. It was terrorizing. It was abusive. As I listened to stories of how I would burn alive forever in the eternal fires of hell if I didn't submit to Christ - and when I lay there is a little girl crying in bed, begging Jesus to come into my heart, and he didn't, and me thinking that I was in the End Times and I was doomed, there was no magical voice comforting me, no peace that entered my heart - it was just sheer terror. The first step in embracing a universe without a God or Gods was my realizing that there is no magical demon plotting my pain and demise. That moment of realization became a moment of relief, a moment of cleansing - the solace I needed. I have no doubt about how comforting and wonderful it's been not to live in fear like that. <br />
</li>
<li>Atheism has brought me a more hopeful feeling for right now and for the future. It's made me feel like possibilities are endless for human potential - and for my own potential. <br />
</li>
<li>I have gotten far, far more comfort from watching <i>Cosmos</i>, reading history, experiencing art in its many forms, and learning about science than any church service or sermon has ever given me. <br />
</li>
<li>Atheism vastly improved my mental health, whereas attempts to "believe" harmed me mentally and emotionally. <br />
</li><li>Religion or attempts at "belief" have never brought me the enjoyment and opportunities for hope and love anywhere near what atheism has. <br />
</li></ul>
<p>Of these realities, I have no doubt at all. </p><p>Does your belief in God bring you joy? Or does it make you unhappy because all you see are your supposed shortcomings? Does it give you comfort and strength or does it tell you there is a demon making you unhappy and trying to tempt your family with evil and you need to pray more and study the Bible more? Does it dictate your choice in friends, your choice in books, your choice in music, your choice in what you should enjoy? And do those boundaries bring you joy or give you hope? Are scientific discoveries a challenge to your faith so much so that you feel you have to refute practices that science promotes, like taking vaccines or wearing masks to protect you from an infectious disease - which actually puts you and your family in danger?</p><p>Maybe doubt about your God wouldn't be such a bad thing. </p><p>Also see:</p><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2020/01/finding-hope.html"></a><ul style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2020/01/finding-hope.html"></a><li><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2020/01/finding-hope.html"></a><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2020/01/finding-hope.html">Finding hope</a></li><li><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2018/01/magic-kindness-and-hope.html">Magic, Kindness and Hope</a></li><li><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2019/11/quotes-that-comfort.html">Quotes that comfort</a></li><li><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-power-glory-of-hope-without-god.html">The power & the glory of hope, WITHOUT a God</a></li><li><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2013/09/satanic-suffering.html">Satanic Suffering</a></li><li><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2015/05/would-satan-tempt-me-through-kindness.html">"Would Satan tempt me through the kindness of macaroni and cheese?"</a></li><li><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-atheist-response-to-tragedy.html">The Atheist Response to Tragedy</a></li><li><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2012/12/seeking-comfort-with-mr-rogers.html">Seeking comfort with Mr. Rogers</a></li><li><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2015/03/why-i-love-being-atheist.html">Why I love being an atheist</a></li></ul>YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-4276471906378188532021-02-07T03:00:00.001-08:002021-02-07T03:00:04.188-08:00Leaving a religion, losing your family/communityTurning away from your family's religion can come with a very high cost: it can leave a person without family, without friends, without members of their immediate community, perhaps even co-workers as well. Just when a person is in most need of support to handle the upheaval in how they practice their beliefs, they are abandoned by the people they love most.<br />
<br />
In this respect, I am so lucky <i><b>not</b></i> be from a close-knit family. They all practice a Christian faith - one brother is Catholic, my sister is an evangelical Christian, my Mom goes to a Methodist Church most Sundays, etc. I rarely hear from them. I've gone years without seeing them and more than a year without getting even a phone call from some of them, not because they are angry, but because that's just not my family. And when I decided to admit that I did not believe in God, or Gods, or anything supernatural, I was living on my own and I was financially independent. It didn't come at any family cost to finally admit it to family members when the need arose.<br />
<br />
But not everyone has that luxury: they see their families every week, if not every day. The family prays together, talks about what they see is evil - certain kinds of music, certain kinds of food, ways that women might dress, women pursuing careers, certain romantic pairings, women wearing masks, women not wearing masks, etc. - and that talk can make a family member who is doubting the religion, or never believed in it but has never said so, to feel sad, lonely, even desperate. A person may love their family deeply, so much that they keep their mouth shut rather than disappoint or ostracize their family. But that stress weighs heavy on the heart and mind.<br />
<br />
In 2020, two young women <a href="https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2020/01/25/two-young-jewish-women-choose-death-over-disappointing-their-religious-family/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook&fbclid=IwAR26YpFdowji9lXuiEMlLH1C2d2zcsphVw1VrAh7cQl6aWvhvpge466De3I" target="_blank">jumped to their deaths in West Jerusalem</a>, leaving behind a note explaining their choice and noting how their struggles with faith and religion played a role. In short, they preferred death to disappointing their families.<div><br /></div><div>It broke my heart beyond anything I can put into words. I think of all these people out there, either having to live a lie in order to be a part of their families, even their society, to get a job, etc., or "coming out" about their lack of belief in a magical invisible vengeful sometimes, merciful other times super being who ignores the pleas of tortured, dying people but cares deeply in who wins the Super Bowl - and facing ostracism from their families... or worse. What a horrible choice. </div><div><br /></div><div>Look around online for an online group for atheists. You might want to join it under a different name than your real name, if you are at all afraid of your family or community finding out. It's a good way to get emotional support and relevant advice for your particular situatuion. </div><div><br /></div><div>Read up on the religion of your family. Dig deep into the theology and the history - the real history, not just what your religious book says. Becoming an amateur scholar about the religion of your dominant culture is a great way to both affirm your atheism and to hide your atheism - people will think very highly of your scholarship. I know - it's what I did in the Bible Belt of the USA as a teen. </div><div><br /></div><div>If you are feeling desperate about the pressure to conform to the point of considering the ending of your life, please look for a national suicide prevention hotline in your country. In the USA, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. In Canada, call Crisis Services Canada at 1-833-456-4566.<br />
<br />There are specific groups to help people leave specific religious faiths - a group called Footsteps can help those trying to leave the ultra-Orthodox community. There are groups that can help people that want to leave an Amish order. There are groups that help people, particularly young women, leave Mormon communities. There are groups that help people leave Scientology. There are groups that help people leave the Jehovah's Witnesses. Use Google or <a href="https://duckduckgo.com/">Duck Duck Go</a> to find those groups and to find their online resources. There are groups for ex-members of all these and many other religious groups - and finding them is relatively easy on <br />
<br />
If safety might be an issue, or you want to make absolutely sure no one in your household can find out what you are reading online, put a password on your computer and your smart phone. You might want to clear the cache after each computer use as well. </div><div><br /></div><div>There are far, far more atheists out there than you probably imagine. We're in every community. Sometimes, we're sitting right there are kneeling right there beside you in a church, temple or mosque, going through the motions because it's easier than admitting our truth. I hope knowing that we're everywhere can give you strength on your journey to being able to live your life out in the open, without apology. </div>YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-11714396946062976352021-01-06T18:46:00.004-08:002021-01-06T18:46:39.820-08:00Online secular mindfulness meditation<p>Join others for an online secular mindfulness meditation led by Rick Heller, followed by a discussion.</p>
<p>To join the meeting, just visit this URL:<br />
<a href="https://zoom.us/j/7527417634">https://zoom.us/j/7527417634</a><br /></p>
<p>No experience is necessary. All welcome!</p>
<p>These meditations have been collected into a book published by New World Library: <a href="http://www.newworldlibrary.com/BooksProducts/ProductDetails/tabid/64/SKU/83697/Default.aspx"><b><i>Secular Meditation: Practices for Cultivating Inner Peace, Compassion, and Joy</i></b></a>.</p>
<p>There is an <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/207307035531/">associated Facebook page</a>.</p><p>I'm not affiliated with this, FYI. </p>
YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-61330871437533833562021-01-02T08:51:00.003-08:002021-01-02T08:51:41.829-08:00Meaningful ways to fill your hours during a pandemic<p>How are you? I hope someone in your life is asking you that, sincerely. If not - tell me. </p><p>Things are rough for so many people. People haven't paid rent in months because they don't have work. Small businesses are going out of business. Nonprofit art groups are folding. So many, many are struggling. </p><p>Little Miss Privilege here has a home and someone paying her way, since she's under-employed. </p><p>I wish I could help you financially. I can help you if you are feeling useless and bored:</p><p><b>I hope you have made it a point to amplify science-based info, and if you haven't, I hope you will do so. Your voice online is important! </b>You have a role to play right now: countering misinformation online. </p><p>I regularly repost things from my county's health department. I comment positively on those posts as well, to counter all of the negative comments they get - and am pleased that my comments get far more likes than the conspiracy theorists trying to convince people that masks are oppressive and un-American. I also retweet <a href="https://twitter.com/nursekelsey">@nursekelsey</a> a lot: she's a trauma ICU nurse and provides regularly updates both about her work experences with COVID-19 patients and how she handles her home life - it's inspirational and the reality check I need. </p><p>I also have been looking up services in my local community that help people with rent, with food or with mental health services, and sharing them on social media. Has it helped anyone? I don't know. But I know that info is needed - and I notice it gets reshared every time I do it. </p><p>I also spend my days writing postcards and emails to elected officials, telling them to GIVE PEOPLE MONEY. And amplifying information about how to volunteer with food banks and Meals on Wheels, nonprofits that are desperate for volunteers. And trying not to get the 'Rona myself. </p><p>I hope you got to see Jupiter and Saturn in one telescope shot, something we've never been able to do before and, if you are my age, won't be able to do again in our lifetime. If you didn't, look around for some other upcoming thing-to-see-in-the-skies. I live in a town where street lights abound and, yet, I still get some pretty good views of astronomical events, if it's not raining. Just throw something down on the ground, lay down and look up at the night sky for a while. Even just 30 minutes. It's amazing what you'll see. </p><p>If you want to take a break from doom scrolling, I highly recommend transcribing some historical documents so you make them more searchable and accessible to everyone, particularly researchers. Some examples of efforts you can join: </p><p style="background-color: white;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.climatecardinals.org/" target="_blank">Climate Cardinals</a>. An international nonprofit working to translate climate change research and information, making the climate movement more accessible to those who don’t speak English. <a href="https://www.climatecardinals.org/volunteer" target="_blank">Here's the description of what volunteers do</a>. <br /> </li><li><a href="http://coloredconventions.org/" target="_blank">Colored Conventions</a>, hosted at the University of Delaware. From 1830 until the 1890s, already free and once enslaved Black Americans came together in state and national political meetings in the USA called "Colored Conventions." Before the Civil War, they strategized about how to achieve educational, labor and legal justice at a moment when Black rights were constricting nationally and locally. After the Civil War, their numbers swelled as they continued to mobilize to ensure that Black citizenship rights and safety, Black labor rights and land, Black education and institutions would be protected under the law. Online volunteers transcribe newspaper accounts of these meetings, to allow this historical records to be more easily accessible and searchable for students and scholars across disciplines and for community researchers interested in the history of activist church, civil rights, educational and entrepreneurial engagement. <br /> </li><li><a href="http://diyhistory.lib.uiowa.edu/" target="_top">DIY History</a> is an online volunteering project from the University of Iowa’s Digital Library. Online volunteers transcribe digitized artifacts related to Iowa history so that they become searchable, allowing researchers to quickly seek out specific information, and general users to browse and enjoy the materials more easily. Scanned documents that need to be transcribed and tagged include diaries, letters and newspaper articles from war time and manuscripts related to early Iowa lives, social justice, fanzines, recipes and cookbooks. <br /> </li><li><a href="https://www.familysearch.org/indexing/" target="_blank">FamilySearch</a>. Transcribe scanned family records (census records, property deeds, marriage records, etc.). Tags: history, historical. <br /> </li><li><a href="http://www.oldweather.org/">Old Weather</a> project: online volunteers transcribe hand-written weather observations made by Royal Navy ships around the time of World War I; using old weather observations can help predict our climate's future. Tags: history, historical, climate, science. <br /> </li><li><a href="https://transcription.si.edu/">Smithsonian Digital Volunteer program</a>. The Smithsonian seeks to engage the public in making its collections more accessible. "We're working hand-in-hand with digital volunteers to transcribe historic documents and collection records to facilitate research and excite the learning in everyone." Transcription turns handwritten and typed documents into searchable and machine-readable resources, creating an incredibly valuable asset for art, history, literary and scientific researchers across the globe. From high school to graduate studies, transcription allows students to engage with primary source materials – a key part of the learning experience. Transcription preserves these historic documents for future generations. <br /> </li><li>The <a href="https://freedomonthemove.org/">Freedom on the Move (FOTM)</a> public database project at Cornell University is a major digital database effort to make the search of North American fugitive slave advertisements in newspapers from regional, state, and other collections from the 1700s and 1800s easy to search and the data easy to evaluate. Online volunteers add data tags to the screened entries and transcribe the ads. Here is <a href="https://hyperallergic.com/435183/freedom-on-the-move/">an excellent article on about the database</a>, from which Dr. Mitchell's quote is taken. <br /> </li><li><a href="https://fromthepage.com/indianaarchives/indiana-wwi-service-record-cards">Indiana World War I Service Record Cards</a> is a project by the Indiana Archives that engages online volunteers in transcribing service record cards that detail the military service of Indiana men and women who served in the armed forces at the time of World War I. It also goes by the name of Indiana Archives and Records Administration Virtual Volunteer Program. <br /> </li><li><a href="https://crowd.loc.gov/" target="_blank">Library of Congress By the People</a> (<a href="https://crowd.loc.gov/" target="_blank">crowd.loc.gov</a>). Launched in the autumn of 2018 at the LOC's very first transcribe-a-thon and on the 155th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Online volunteers can transcribe, review and tag digitized images of manuscripts and typed materials from the Library’s collections. These transcriptions improve search, readability and access to handwritten and typed documents for those who are not fully sighted or cannot read the handwriting of the original documents. The site also offers a free guide (PDF) on <a href="https://crowd-media.loc.gov/cm-uploads/resources/BTP_TranscribeathonHowTo.pdf">How to host a transcribe-a-thon (PDF)</a>. Note: I wrote the LOC folks on Twitter about all you students wanting letters to confirm you are doing this service. They responded: <i>That's awesome! We have a few spots on our "About" page explaining <a href="http://go.usa.gov/xGzck" target="_blank">how to obtain service documentation</a>. e-mailing us at crowd@loc.gov is the best way to get specifics. We provide verification for students all the time!</i> <br /> </li><li><a href="http://menus.nypl.org/">New York Public Library's collection of historic restaurant menus</a>. If menus have been transcribed by other volunteers, then online volunteers can review transcriptions for errors, or can geotag the location of restaurants on a global map. <br /> </li><li><a href="http://www.1947partitionarchive.org/">1947 Partition Archive</a> is "a grassroots, non-political, 100% volunteer run effort to document and preserve eye witness accounts from the partition of British India into present day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1947." Online volunteers can help with transcription of interviews (many interviews are in English), translation of interviews and other materials from/into Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Urdu, Sindhi, and English, video editing, online outreach or legal advice. Tags: history, historic. <br /> </li><li><a href="http://buildinginspector.nypl.org/" target="_blank">New York Public Library building inspector transcriptions</a>. Online volunteers are helping to annotate digitized insurance atlases that map the history of the city's buildings and streets. Online volunteers can help to draw and check borders of property lines and buildings, enter addresses written on the maps, classify colors, and find place names. "Imagine if maps had a magic switch that let you explore the geography of the past. The Library wants to do this for New York City, turning historical atlases into time machines. To do it we need to harvest all the fantastic detail from the original maps: building footprints, addresses, place names, construction materials etc. — clues that will help unlock a million stories. With this information organized and searchable, you can ask new kinds of questions about history. Peel back the layers of the city and replay its growth. 'Check in' to vanished establishments and meet their ghostly proprietors. Or discover related historical documents (newspapers, photographs, business directories…) linked by place and time." Tags: history, historic. <br /> </li><li><a href="http://transcribe.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/" target="_blank">Royal British Columbia Museum Transcribe project</a><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">(Canada). Online volunteers transcribe various collections from the museum, including diaries, government papers, and more. "The transcriptions you create will become searchable data, facilitating learning and research around the world. Whether you choose to transcribe one page, one hundred pages, or just browse our collections, you’re helping us share the stories that matter." </span></li></ul><p></p><p>If you are looking for something inspiring: watch <i>Cosmos</i>. If you have never seen the Cosmos reboot, you should. The second season is showing on Fox now, but if you've missed it, look online for the DVDs of the first season for sale. There are some affordable used ones out there, if money is an issue. I've cried watching almost every episode - it just gives me a feeling of hope and a feeling of being a part of EVERYTHING, in a good way. I hope you find it comforting as well. </p><p>Take care of yourself. You can do this. All the best in 2021. </p>YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-42366800561922098972020-07-19T16:17:00.000-07:002020-07-19T16:17:06.250-07:00Stars<div style="text-align: center;">
💫</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>nearly all of the elements that make us up are born from dead stars, </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>churned up in their stellar cores and then injected into </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>the interstellar medium upon explosion.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>we never *really* die. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>we are recycled within the cosmos, </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>forming new bright lights, </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>star dust eternal.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
- Sarafina Nance @starstrickenSF, Astrophysics PhD student at UC Berkeley and NSF fellow<a href="https://twitter.com/starstrickenSF/status/1282058562525511681" target="_blank">on Twitter</a> (but the phrase breaks are mine)<br />
<br />
<span style="text-align: start;">✨</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>We are a way for the universe to know itself. </i><br />
<i>Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. </i><br />
<i>We long to return. </i><br />
<i>And we can, because the cosmos is also within us. </i><br />
<i>We're made of star-stuff.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
- Carl Sagan, Cosmos.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: start;">☀️</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Every ingredient in the human body is made from elements forged by stars. So are all of the building blocks of your food, your bike and your electronics. Similarly, every rock, plant, animal, scoop of seawater and breath of air owes its existence to distant suns.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
from <a href="https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/we-are-stardust" target="_blank">Science News for Students</a>, published by Society for Science & the Public<br />
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
👩🏻🦲</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>I have no idea why these statements comfort me.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>But they do.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
- Your Atheist Muse</div>
<br />
<br />YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-49224420139368153152020-07-11T15:36:00.003-07:002020-07-11T15:47:09.091-07:00Kindness and community make senseAtheists have their genesis in different places: some atheists are brought up in a family that is entirely secular, with no religious belief at all, and that lack of belief in a magical invisible friend, or group of friends, sticks for life. Others are brought up within a religious family, either marginally or deeply religious, and either reject that religious belief at some point or it just never takes hold.<br />
<br />
Either way, whatever their origins, many atheists contemplate and create - and continually re-visit - a moral structure through which they can ponder life’s ethical and philosophical questions and human behavior. It's not true of all atheists, but many of us are on a continual journey of questions and exploration and considerations.<br />
<br />
As I've said in many blogs, one of the things that lead me away from the religion I was brought up in, Christianity, was the lack of emphasis on good works being fundamental to the practice of Christianity, and the lack of emphasis on being happy in this life here on Earth.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Ephesians 2:8-9</div>
<br />
According to the Bible, to be close to God - which is the only thing we should be focused on - and to gain happiness after death - as gaining in this life is not important - is possible only through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, rather than by human effort or good works. Baptism, church membership or church attendance, sacraments, or even being kind - I was taught, as a Baptist, that none of these were fundamentally important - they are nice, but not at all, ultimately, necessary. And your soul, your salvation, is more important than feeding the hungry, helping the sick, or being a positive force in your community.<div><br /></div><div>What always got downplayed in the church sermons and Sunday school and Vacation Bible School classes I attended was</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. </i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Matthew 22:37-39</i><br />
<br /><div style="text-align: left;">It just never felt right to me to downplay the importance of kindness to others as a fundamental part of a righteous life. By contrast, empathy and compassion has always felt right to me. The story that stood out to me most in the Bible as a child and teen, that always resonated with me, was the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And make no mistake: while compassion and kindness and justice all feel so right to me as moral guides, they are not always easy. In fact, most of the time, they don't feel easy. I don't always benefit when I show empathy and compassion or when I engage in acts that I believe are a part of pursuing a just society. In fact, I've been burned quite a few times as a result of being kind or considerate or pursuing justice, by putting myself out there to help someone or a cause, and as I grow older, I hesitate more and more before I decide my help is needed. Yet, I keep doing it, because I just cannot get away from an overwhelming compulsion to do so.</div><div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2015/10/atheist-morality.html" target="_blank">As I said in an earlier blog</a>, I believe morality comes from our human capacity for empathy and from reality. My morality is rooted in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/opinion/sunday/the-science-of-compassion.html" target="_blank">a sense of compassion that most humans are born with</a> (the exception being sociopaths). It's also rooted in my logic: kindness makes sense. Justice makes sense. Equity makes sense. The benefits of kindness, justice and equity, in the long run, are worth the work. I get a personal benefit from a healthy community that I contribute to which, in a way, makes thinking communally a selfish interest. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And all this is my very long-winded way of saying: wear a fucking mask. 😷</div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And #BlackLivesMatter.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Also see:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2016/05/god-hates-your-feelings-and-your-reason.html">God hates your feelings. And your reason.</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://youratheistmuse.blogspot.com/2015/10/atheist-morality.html">Atheist Morality</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div></div>YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-28353961876484460372020-04-07T08:45:00.001-07:002020-04-07T08:45:27.182-07:00Trying not to throw things at the TV when Franklin Graham comes onI loathe Franklin Graham. He's president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and of a nonprofit Samaritan's Purse. He sews hate. Some of the hateful statements he's made:<br />
<ul>
<li>In March 2011, Graham said the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan "maybe" the second coming and Armageddon - talk that was meant to get more converts (and donors) to his ministry. BTW - we're still here.<br />
</li>
<li>Graham refers to homosexuality as "an abomination" and compared "conversion therapy" to Conversion to Christianity. If you don't know, conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific and horrific practice of trying to change an individual's sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual. There is no reliable evidence that sexual orientation can be changed and medical institutions warn that conversion therapy practices are ineffective and potentially harmful.<br />
</li>
<li>Graham supported North Carolina Amendment 1 prohibiting same-sex marriage and all domestic partnerships.<br />
</li>
<li>Graham defended Russian President Vladimir Putin's "gay propaganda" law and has praised his leadership for "protecting children from any homosexual agenda or propaganda.<br />
</li>
<li>He's made horrific anti-Islamic remarks, criticizing Islam for many of the same beliefs that are stated in the Bible.<br />
</li>
<li>He repeatedly tried to assert that President Barack Obama, a Christian, was, in fact, a Muslim and supported terrorism.<br />
</li>
<li>In November 2016, Graham told The Washington Post that God had played a role in Donald Trump's election as U.S. president, saying: "I could sense going across the country that God was going to do something this year. And I believe that at this election, God showed up." Since the election, Graham has "become known, above all, as the most vociferous evangelical ally" of Trump. </li>
</ul>
Now Franklin Graham is on TV a lot, via a commercial, telling people that all they have to do is invite Jesus into their lives and they won't be afraid anymore of COVID19. You see, Graham isn't allowed to hold his big money-making rallies anymore, because people would DIE of this virus as a result, so he's got to find a new way to get followers and their money. That's why he's doing these commercials, and his message doesn't stop at just the prayer he thinks you should say: he also says you should, of course, call HIS prayer line and pray with one of HIS employees. And they will, of course, get your name and address and phone number, and then you can start being asked for financial donations to sustain his "ministry."<br />
<br />
If these TV commercials weren't really all about Franklin Graham and him getting your money, he'd stop with that encouragement for you to pray - end commercial! But he wants to make certain you call that number, so he can get your info.<br />
<br />
But even if he had stopped at just the prayer, I would have written a blog of anger, because all I can think of is all those many, many people who are going to pray that prayer, yet again, and think, okay, this time, maybe THIS time, Jesus is finally going to reveal himself to me and I'm going to experience all these things these preachers and believers keep assuring me is going to happen. I've just got to have FAITH! Maybe this time, my desperation and anxiety, at the very least will be addressed - and maybe THIS time, it will mean my husband or parents or whoever will stop abusing me, or my child will not have this chronic condition that is bankrupting our finances and draining me in every way, and on and on.<br />
<br />
And they are going to pray that prayer, yet again, and it's not going to work, it's not going to help, and they are going to feel, yet again, like Jesus doesn't like them, that there's something wrong with them that they don't feel this think that Franklin Graham says he feels and you will too.<br />
<br />
I am here to tell you that <b>there is nothing wrong with you.</b> It is exhausting to keep waiting for Jesus to show up and do what Franklin Graham promises - but you can stop that exhaustion and desperation by quitting your wait for a magical, invisible, and mythical being to help you. Instead, reboot with these two thoughts:<br />
<ul>
<li>other people have survived what you are struggling with, and that means you can too.<br />
</li>
<li>no one person can fix this for you, but you will need help, and there IS help.<br />
</li>
<li>this is a marathon, not a sprint, and your problems won't be addressed in a day, or a week, or a month, or even several weeks, and not be doing one simple thing, BUT there are absolutely things you can do, there are absolutely things you can control, and exercising that control, even in little things, but on an ongoing basis, <i>will</i> make things at least more survivable, and maybe even better. </li>
</ul>
Those three points have helped me more than Jesus ever has.<br />
<br />
Identify exactly what it is you need to make things in your life at least survivable, if not tolerable, and then pursue what you need to do to get exactly what you need. It could be:<br />
<ul>
<li>Accepting that you cannot change this quickly, and accepting that you will need to change your strategies at least a few times.<br />
</li>
<li>Leaving the abusive home you are in - a domestic violence shelter can help you (but you will probably be put into a hotel).<br />
</li>
<li>Selling whatever you can to get cash.<br />
</li>
<li>Looking into whatever you can possibly do for cash that is safe and ethical: dog walking (a lot of home-bound people are desperate for this service right now, and there are ways to do it safely even in this age of COVID19), grocery shopping for someone else, simple yard work, etc.<br />
</li>
<li>Scanning and posting images/screen captures of your medical and house/apartment bills on Flickr, with your address, social security number and account number edited out, and then contacting every elected official that serves you, as well as local press, and saying, "How am I supposed to pay all this now?" Be respectful but relentless in your communications.<br />
</li>
<li>Exploring bankruptcy.<br />
</li>
<li>Finding online and print resources that relate to what you are going through - postpartum depression, abuse by a married partner, abuse by an unmarried partner, elder abuse, child abuse, bankruptcy, a chronic health condition - and read them, don't just scan them. Be careful of pseudoscience sites or any sites trying to sell you something.<br />
</li>
<li>Getting therapy - and if your insurance doesn't cover it, call your county health department and ask them where you should get it.<br />
</li>
<li>Making a list of every nonprofit in your area that might be able to help somehow and contacting them. </li>
</ul>
If you have time to watch TV or be on Facebook, then you have time to exercise. No matter how ridiculous you think it makes you look and no matter how useless it may feel, exercise every day, even if it's just walking back and forth on your block, or doing situps in your bedroom. If you have a condition that doesn't let you do situps, then work on your arms - cans of soup can be good for arm workouts. What exercise does is cause you to breathe more deeply, which helps reduce anxiety.<br />
<br />
Set a timer for being on social media and turn it OFF when your timer is up, until tomorrow. Things to do instead of social media:<br />
<ul>
<li>Watch a movie or documentary, without using your phone in any way at the same time. Watch it the way you should in a theater, with a darkened room and quiet.<br />
</li>
<li>Read a book. Any book. Take as many days or weeks you need to finish it. Then start another.<br />
</li>
<li>While you clean your living space, listen to music or an audiobook or podcast.<br />
</li>
<li>Teach yourself solitaire and play with real cards, not online cards. Play it while you listen to music or a podcast.<br />
</li>
<li> Write. It can be a journal. It can be fanfiction. It can be a business plan for the business or nonprofit you would love to start. It could be what your speech would be if you were being inaugurated as President. </li>
</ul>
The less time you spend on social media and, instead, engage in these simple activities, the better you will feel. And these activities not only help you get through dark thoughts, they also might prompt you to come up with an action plan that could help you in the long term.<br />
<br />
And keep looking for hope.YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-898936683102508532020-01-23T07:38:00.003-08:002020-01-23T07:38:59.338-08:00Finding hopeSitting in a dance hall in Austin, Texas last week, one that I went to more than a few times back in the 1990s, I contemplated hope.<br />
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I had several moments of severe hopelessness as a teen. What got me through those times were unexpected, wonderful things: friends I realized loved me fiercely, compliments on my work and character from people I respected and didn't realize I had impressed until that moment, job opportunities and what I call experience opportunities: offers to go to an amazing stage show, or concert, or an invitation to a dinner party that turned out to be full of fascinating people, or being introduced to a beautiful place.<br />
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I didn't struggle with hope nearly so much in my 30s and most of my 40s - I felt pretty good those years. My job, my friends and my life experiences all brought me consistent joy. Even in horrible moments - and there were many - I still had hope.<br />
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But not now, in my 50s. Not in the last 10 years, in fact. Those things that came my way as a teen and in my 20s that kept me going in those times of severe hopelessness, those things that all brought me consistent joy, haven't been happening much in the last 10 years. I've moved so much I've ended up in a place where none of my friends are nearby, and the state where I live is notoriously unfriendly - 10 years here, I'm still disparaged as an outside. I've struggled with unemployment. Live music performances with terrific musicians and quality sound systems are quite hard to find. Delightfully eccentric, friendly people are hard to find here.<br />
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And as I sat in that beloved dance hall in Austin, Texas, feeling oh-so-at home in a building amid a city I could never live in again (too big, too hot, too much traffic), I realized I'm going to have to cultivate hope. I'm going to have to plant seeds and take care of those little seedlings and help them grow. I'm going to have to think of hope as a muscle that needs to be exercised and built. I'm going to have to work at this.<br />
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Hope has always been, to me, the belief, the expectation, that good things <i>will</i> happen, that bad things <i>will</i> be overcome, and that joy is always a possibility. But now, I struggle with a belief that bad things will be overcome. I'm not sure anymore. The glee with which children are separated from their parents and put in cages at the border, the glee with which people applaud and cheer as the President lies, disparages people who don't support him, says racist and sexist things and mocks the Rule of Law, the dedication they all have to undo environmental protections that help ALL of us, and future generations, the dedication they have to prevent as many people as possible from voting... glee and dedication that cannot be countered with reason nor compassion... altogether, it has undone most of my hope.<br />
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But I can believe, and do believe, that there will always be people who don't want this to happen and are going to put forth effort to counter it, even if they are in the minority. Sometimes they will win, sometimes they will lose. I have control over how I participate in that struggle. And I've asked myself over and over: would you rather be on the "winning" side or the "right" side? And my answer is always the same: I'd rather be on the "losing" side, if that side is the side of compassion and reason. And I don't know why that is, it just is.<br />
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I also believe there are still good things in life, like dance halls in Austin, Texas.<br />
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So, I'm going to work on cultivating hope. I'm going to read more books (already am, in fact). I'm going to actively look for good people doing good things. I'm going to celebrate even one person I encounter after seeing a thousand cheering fascists. I'm going to celebrate even one person dissenting or questioning. I'm going to look around at the mostly-empty audience space of other people enjoying a concert or movie I'm also enjoying and I'm going to take comfort in however many people are also there. I'm going to walk up to people tabling at street markets and thank them for being there. I'm going to leave poorly-supported, poorly-managed volunteering gigs with no guilt.<br />
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And since there aren't dance halls where I live, I'm going to fill my house with music, every day, and my house will be the dance hall I crave. No one can see me in my cowboy boots and hat, dancing with my dog, and even if they could, I don't care.YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-50851681694593963632020-01-01T02:59:00.000-08:002020-01-01T02:59:11.384-08:00Happy 2020When I started this blog, I hoped to be able to write just 52 blogs - one for every week. I thought if I ever reached that milestone, I'd just go back and read a blog a week for the rest of my life - my own weekly sermons.<br />
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Well, I now have 157 blogs, more than enough to read one every week for THREE YEARS.<br />
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If you have ever been a churchgoer, you know just how often preachers recycle sermons. Some just have one year's worth they trot out year-after-year. And here I am with three year's worth of my own atheist sermons!<br />
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The church across the street for me went up for sale last year, and I joked that I was going to buy it and open a Temple of Ethics, Reason & Humanity. Sadly, I didn't have the $1 million to buy the church, and an evangelical group that uses drums in their services bought it. Huge bummer, I know. I didn't have the money - but I had the material!<br />
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What to say as I start 2020? I start the year with being happy to not believe in the supernatural, fulfilled and content to live in a universe so much bigger and full of so many more possibilities than anything any religion teaches. I start the year knowing that I have very likely crossed the halfway point in my life, and wanting to make the most out of my very good health and stable economic situation. I start the year hoping I can find the strength to be kind when I don't feel like being kind, to be helpful to others when I really don't feel like being helpful, to work hard when I really don't feel like working hard, because doing those things are necessary to getting through this thing we call life.YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-43312561457064717042019-12-30T09:31:00.000-08:002019-12-30T09:31:08.912-08:00Reflect on your yearHow's your year been?<br />
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What's given you joy this year?<br />
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What's brought you down this year?<br />
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Those are three questions I think are good to ask when the year ends - of people you care about and of yourself.<br />
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When I ask the question about what gave me joy in a year, I go through my Google calendar, my journal, my blogs and my social media posts, and I make a list - I write it out. And it always turns out that good things happened that I had forgotten: some movie I saw that I found delightful. Some outing I had with someone I hadn't seen in a long while. Some hike. Some one-day motorcycle ride. I find myself thinking over and over again, "Oh yeah, that happened..." I <i>always</i> feel better after I do this, even if the year has been a particularly bad one.<br />
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The last question is easier to answer - no need to go looking for what brought me down, because I haven't forgotten most of it. Sometimes I list that too, sometimes not. Sometimes, I have found a list like that in a journal, read through the things, and none of them matter anymore, at all,and that is a comfort - to see that something so dire five years ago doesn't matter now. Or seeing something bad and being reminded that I survived it, that I got through it, even if it left a scar.<br />
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I know that our ideas about the start of a year are artificial, entirely man-made: yes, a year is the time the Earth goes around the Sun, that's real, that's not made up, but our starting point is artificially chosen - there's no official start and end time for a year, from a scientific perspective. Humanity could have chosen the year to start at the height of summer's heat in the Northern Hemisphere. It didn't, for logical reasons: new things start at birth, and as we see things being born and reborn all around us in nature as Winter turns to Spring, humanity's choice of when a year stops or starts makes sense.<br />
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I like metaphors. I think I especially like them now, as an atheist, far more than in my younger days because, when I was trying to be a Christian in those younger days, the religion was taught to me literally, without many metaphors, and when I realized this, I also realized just how much richer stories are when we see deeper meanings in them, when we look for wisdom, not just rules. I remember as a youth being taught the story of the loaves and fishes, a story mentioned in all four Gospels, as merely a miracle by God on Earth; I was 25 when I heard someone tell the story as an encouragement to share, because if we pool our resources, we have all we need to take care of everyone - and more - and that the acts of young people do matter, can make a difference, are needed. De-emphasizing the divine, the superpower and, instead, looking at the metaphors, the implied lessons, made the story so much more, and I felt much more connected to the storytellers who made up the story, because I think it's the metaphor that was important to them more than the divine.<br />
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So I like adhering to the common human practice of seeing the year coming to an end in winter, of thinking of life metaphorically and this marking the end of a chapter, and as it dies out, new things are born, plants are renewed, and maybe I can revitalize in some ways. <br />
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Happy Reflecting. Happy New Year.<br />
<br />YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484014242463293208.post-21864396618264798432019-12-06T09:52:00.000-08:002019-12-06T09:52:11.074-08:00calendars & holy days Christians follow a liturgical calendar based on the supposed life of Jesus Christ, celebrating events like the "Immaculate Conception" of Mary, the divine congratulations to Mary that she was pregnant with Jesus, the birth of Jesus, the Baptism of Jesus, the birth of Jesus (Christmas), etc.<br />
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The Hebrew or Jewish calendar compiles the dates for Jewish holidays, for the appropriate public reading of Torah portions and for the undertaking various ceremonies, like Purim, Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, etc.<br />
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The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar compiles the dates for Islamic holidays and associated rituals, like the Islamic New Year, the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad, and his followers, the birth of the Prophet, the start of Ramadan, the end of Ramadan, the start of Hajj, etc.<br />
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Hindus, Buddhists, B'hais, Sikhs and various other religions all have calendars they follow that tell them what ceremony or ritual they need to do when. Some follow a solar calendar and some follow a lunar calendar and some follow a mix of the two.<br />
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Do atheists follow a ceremonial calendar? Some do. Many atheists buy a tree for Christmas, both because it's a tradition they grew up with and because the roots of that ritual aren't Christian but, in fact, pagan. Some atheists fast during Ramadan, in solidarity with their family and their community.<br />
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Maybe we should also celebrate the days of the week, to demonstrate just how many religions we have abandoned and to remake them into days where we explore scientific wonders and celebrate, and question, humanity:<br />
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<li>For Monday, we could celebrate the Moon, since the day is named for the Moon. We could talk about how the moon controls the tides, what happens during lunar eclipse, why there are phases of the moon, and on and on. </li>
<li><i>Tuesday</i> is derived from Old English <i>Tiwesdæg</i> and Middle English <i class="">Tewesday</i>, meaning "Tīw's Day", the day of Tiw or Týr, the god of single combat, and law and justice in Norse mythology. Tiw is equated with Mars, hence the names for this day in other languages: <i>Martes</i> in Spanish, <i>Mardi</i> in French, etc. So, on Tuesday, we talk about the horrors of war and what <i>justice</i> really means and how to pursue it, with reason and ethics. </li>
<li><i>Wednesday </i>is derived from Old English and Middle English words that mean "day of Woden", reflecting a pre-Christian religion practiced by the Anglo-Saxon tribes of the region. In other languages, <i>miércoles</i> in Spanish or <i>mercredi</i> in French or <i>mercoledì</i> in Italian, the day's name is for Mercury, God of War. That presents a problem, since we spent Tuesday talking about war. So on Wednesday, let's talk about peace. </li>
<li>For Thursday, of course, we would celebrate Thor! And as a big fan of Marvel movies, I'm totally down with doing that! We'll all dress like Thor or any member of the Marvel universe. </li>
<li>For Friday, we would celebrate the "day of Frige", which comes from the Old English <i>Frīġedæġ</i>, or <i>Frīatag</i> in Old High German, or <i>Freitag</i> in Modern German, and <i>vrijdag</i> in Dutch - the result of combining the Old English goddess Frigg with the Roman goddess Venus. Since Venus was the goddess of love, Friday is going to be all about love. And, really, isn't it already? </li>
<li>For Saturday, we would celebrate "Saturn's Day." I say we talk about why Saturn is the most beautiful planet in the solar system. </li>
<li>And for Sunday, of course we could celebrate the Sun. We would talk about the Sun in cultural representations, sunspots, how suns are formed, what the gravitational pull of the Sun really means, and on and on. </li>
</ul>
When all is said and done, let's keep the Thor in Thursday, okay?<br />
<br />YourAtheistMusehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16510392311822507264noreply@blogger.com0