April 6th, 2009
I just got an email from work with the subject line “JEANS DAY!” which I initially read as “JESUS DAY!” – funny in a bizarre sort of way but also an indication of the amount of brainpower I have been spending on religion (specificially my lack of it) lately. You know, atheism is just not a big part of my life. The only time I think about it is when I am presented with some sort of religious stimulus (“God hates figs!” and the like). But otherwise, I just putter along living my life in what is probably a pretty boring manner to most of you. Unless you find hunching over the laptop reading blogs and flipping idly through a book exciting. Certainly I do but I imagine you have higher standards.
So, this blog is not a representative sample of what goes through my head on any given day. But since it’s all some of you get (others being people I know in real life), I got to wondering what sort of person you think I am based on these writings. Note I stopped doing really foolish things when I met Husband so I am not asking for your answer (I like being crushed as much as the next person but it’s hardly fair of me to hog all the bad press at once, wouldn’t you say?). I’m just doing what I always do, thinking aloud here.
This probably makes me sound pretty thoughtful, hey? Ha.
Anyway, I’m not religious in the slightest and I get bristly when religious folk try to get the rest of us to do things their way (teaching “intelligent design” comes to mind, or perhaps hosting JESUS DAY at work) but other than that, it’s just not a big deal. Live and let live, I say. People should be nice to each other and to animals and certainly to children, and it helps if you put on your turn signal before getting to the light, and… and that about covers it.
And now I am somehow back on the topic of religion which I always dread because I just know I’m going to get comments (you know what I mean… comments) and I am of a delicate constitution, but here is an interesting idea I came across the other day when I was reading: Say you are trying to find out how many people believe in God, perhaps as a percentage of the population. There is no way to tell the difference between true believers and people who merely believe in the belief in God (ie, think it’s a good idea even if they don’t personally believe or have a lot of doubts, or who think they should say they do even if they don’t, etc.)1 . Isn’t that interesting? Wouldn’t it be fascinating if, say, 90% of all the people who say they believe in God in those government polls are really only believers in belief? The part that is so juicy here is, how could you ever find out the truth? I don’t think you ever could! I had never considered this before, being basically a trusting person who assumes that when people say they believe in God, they believe in God. But not all of them do!
I wonder what would happen if the believers in belief had their fears put to rest (fear of whatever it is that prompts them to endorse a belief they do not actually have). In other words, why is atheism such a big deal? (At last I get back to the point!) Other than my little hobby of writing about it here, atheism is a tiny thing in my life. Like the bus ad said, There probably is no God. Now go enjoy your life. I don’t lie awake nights tortured over being an atheist – I just do my thing. And I hope you will pardon a little horn blowing, but I think I am a pretty good example of how religion is not required to lead a moral life. I’m so concerned about others that I won’t even eat the unfertilized egg of a free range chicken. I care about animals and I also care about people: I am preparing for a career that will be spent trying to help people become happier and more emotionally whole. I attend family dinners. I don’t cheat on my husband or on my taxes. I offer my seat on the bus to elderly, pregnant, and disabled folks. I buy carbon offsets for my environmental abuses and I donate to charity. And all without God. Just because I believe it is the right thing to do.
And it’s just not a big deal!
- Dennett, Daniel C. (2006). Breaking the spell: Religion as a natural phenomenon. USA: Penguin. [↩]