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Conversations with an Episcopal priest

I was all like,

"The doctrine of sin is immoral for the same reason that racism is immoral: you assume you know another person's deeds and faults before you even meet them."

And he was like,

"I do assume that all people are sinners but I would be delighted to meet one who is not... I don't assume people are sinners because my church says so, it's because I've yet to meet someone who isn't."

To which I wanted to be like,

"I would be delighted to meet a black person that wasn't lazy, but I've yet to meet one."

but I wasn't like that.

#atheism #theism #Christianity #racism #sin

“You can either be honest that you don’t believe … or you can pretend that you do. Which is what so many people are doing and that is called faith."

Jerry DeWitt, former Pentecostal minister

#Christianity #Clergy Project #Atheism

Aphorism #1

Only those who are already rational can be persuaded rationally. If we want to convince the un-rational, our only recourse is to be heard, to be heard as often as they think about their superstitions. Becoming rational must begin with non-rational appeals, but end in a rational conclusion; climbing the fence over to the rational camp must begin with a few steps that aren't rational. So what that means for us is reminding them of the skeptical thought process as often as is possible: politely when possible, loudly when necessary, but most importantly, often.

Reactions to Jessica Ahlquist: More Good Than Bad

Everybody is talking about 16-year-old Jessica Ahlquist and the ACLU's win for the Constitution. Ahlquist's school district in Rhode Island refused to remove a decades old mural with religious connotations that was displayed on school property, and subsequently Alhquist and the ACLU sued. A district court recently ruled in Alhquist's favor, ordering the removal of the religious display. But a large topic of discussion on this issue is how people opposed to the ruling are responding. People are talking about the vitriol and hatred that some people are spouting. If the chatter is not about the veiled Christian threat of hellfire, it is about outright insults or threats of violence. I went troll hunting for these people on Twitter, but I found something interesting. Nobody that I could find is defaming Jessica Ahlquist. It is all gratitude and congratulations, at least from what I could see. Tweet after tweet were in honor of Ahlquist's resolve in the face of scorn from peers, school officials, and Christians. Now I'm sure that those idiotic Christians exist, but the prevailing wind is much different. The truth is, we are winning. Let's not dwell on those loud voices who are crying for attention. As Dawkins and the others like to say, "we've got them on the run." They are losing, and they know it. Secular humanism isn't only on the rise, it is on the tip of every tongue, even those who oppose it in deepest prejudice. Jessica Ahlquist and the ACLU won a great victory. Fuck those who say otherwise, because they don't deserve any attention.

#Jessica Ahlquist #ACLU #Christianity #Rhode Island

On Compline

I sit in the back of the chapel on the floor, with everyone else. Everyone is facing forward and looking at the stage. One hundred people all focused on the Officiant. These children all grope at fulfilling the order as best they can. Those who do not have a Book of Common Prayer shift this way and that to look on with their neighbors. Some finally resolve to recite from memory, even if they don’t know the Order for Compline. The Confession is initiated immediately. “Let us confess our sins to God,” the lay person signals to those prepared. Voices stagger and fumble. The voices collide, then dither with the recitation of each line. One hundred voices speak with varying degrees of familiarity with the material, but with equally minimal enthusiasm. Shoulders tense, faces stoop and lean and contort to read while miming the gestures of mutual guilt. “…And in what we have left undone,” breathes wane. An air conditioner begins to blow in response. The dim lighting films over the windows with reflections of the numerous participants, reflections that block out all knowledge of the living night outside. Almost all of the eye is consumed by the hundred foot tall wooden paneling that stretches to the top of the room. “Amen.” No one moves. The space between collects and hymns causes everyone to pause in body language as well as speech. The intermittent stagnation has a palpable substance. The silence ways heavily on your breathe, like humidity on a hot day. It petrifies. The thoughts of everyone in the room revolve around differing images of God. Some images are metaphors, conveying an essence. Some images oscillate between genders, as though the average of the two were somehow less anthropomorphic. Some pray hoping for an answer. Some pray hoping for intimacy. Some think of their failure, others of their triumph. But everyone thinks of these things insofar as they relate to God. All weigh their thoughts in relation to God, save those who do not believe in God. “…Bless us and keep us.” “Amen.” Movement recommences, and normalcy returns. People talk to those nearest them. They smile and laugh. Everyone perishes the imaginings that filled their minds moments ago.

Little bits of former lives, covered in dust

I have been packing up a lot of stuff that had belonged to a now deceased grandparent. Both grandfather and grandmother have passed now, so I am helping to sift through the remains of their lives. I'm not in a position to make any decisions, so I'm just helping move things and pack them for sorting and storage. Many little things lay before me, things that were sentimental to people now gone, but which aren't important to me. There are little Bibles given as gifts at christenings and baptisms, but gifts for whom both the gift-giver and recipient are now gone. There are crosses, and framed inspirational quotes. I am carefully wrapping these objects so that they may be "sorted later." Do these things have value? In some cases, it is clear that if I do not value them, they may just go into that box without ever being considered again. Some day I will die. If I am lucky enough, a person may sift through my stuff and give that same moment of pause. They will pause, and then they will throw my last left shoe away, and that will be that.

On theodicy, or lack thereof: an open letter

Hello theologians,

I don't see any theodicies that truly make sense. I'm open to discussion, but so far all theodicies I've encountered have proven inadequate in my understanding. But by all means, prove me wrong.

Let's go over some of the traditional theodicies, shall we?

Free will? Okay, forgetting that I see no evidence whatsoever that "free will," as you understand it, exists, natural evil is still inexplicable according to the theodicy from free will. You might want to suggest that "original sin" caused the state in which natural evil now occurs. First of all, if you're the least bit Anglican, you probably don't think that Adam and Eve are real. Do you think they really existed? If not, then what? We are suffering the effects of a metaphorical event? But even if you do believe Adam and Eve truly lived, and that they really failed in such a magical way, such that the act of two humans eating a fruit caused tornadoes and birth defects, that scenario seems more damning than anything. I mean, what is the purpose of Christ if we are still made to suffer thusly? And what's more, is it really justice to punish a person's descendants?! I mean, would our justice system be better if we not only put murders to death, but put all of their offspring to death as well? How could it possibly be justice to punish every descendant of a criminal, forever?

The greater good theodicy? Really?! So what you are telling me is that it is permissible to rape someone, so long as I pay them off adequately afterward?

And the so called "Irenean" theodicy, in which it is supposed that suffering "tests" us, such that suffering improves the quality of our souls. (I should like to point at how ridiculous this seems taken at face value; talk about "grasping at straws.") So what this implies, apart from God's inadequacy at perfecting the human soul the first go 'round, is that somehow God has some knowledge that makes torture a compassionate act. Let's consider a hypothetical that Colin McGinn has proposed: suppose I, in my great wisdom, decided I should use my wisdom to "test" some people, thereby improving their character. So I inflict a dreadful birth defect on a child so that the people around her could be strengthened in their character. Now, having done that, would you praise me as a great philanthropist? No, I should hope not! I should hope that you put me on trial for abuse and crimes against humanity. (This sort of scenario isn't far from the truth. Plenty of evangelicals and other religious types use these sorts of justifications to permit the suffering of children, if not to actively commit abuses toward children, which remains a real threat even today).

Privatio boni, or the belief that evil has no nature in itself, evil being a mere absence of good. Treating goodness (or evil) like it is some sort of substance is preposterous. What is lacking in a person that commits murder? What was missing in Rwanda, such that the bloodlust between Hutu and Tutsi culminated in that "final solution" of the '90s? The doctrine of privatio boni is nonsense; privatio boni is an exemplary case of theology painting a provocative and seemingly satisfactory picture, which in reality is completely without substance as an accurate explanation.

Satan? Okay, you got me. Polytheism may indeed be a plausible theodicy....

Finally, of course the problem of evil dissolves if you concede one of Yahweh's supposed traits: omniscience, omnibenevolence, omnipresence. And to that, I leave you with that millenia old quote from Epicurus, which I posted as a quote on my blog last week. (I intentionally chose the Epicurus figuration over Hume's for its explicit conclusion.)

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

Again, I welcome any new theodicies, but I looked for three years during my college career as a religious studies major. I never found a theodicy I liked. No, I remained a Christian by not thinking, by ignoring the errors of the worldview I maintained. I deceived myself; that seems to me to be the function of theology, to have the tools to deceive oneself. One can happen upon an explanation like privatio boni that seems satisfactory if you don't scrutinize it in detail, but it is all a shell game, at least in my evaluation. Theology waves conspicuous explanations about, which seem satisfactory, hoping that no one looks too closely. It is a con-game, only, like design that occurs without any designer, it is a con without a con-artist; the mutual desire of the theologian and the layperson to justify their worldview is enough for the deception to be (mostly) self-perpetuating.

If you have a better theodicy, I haven't heard it. So, I invite you to post any new theodicies, either as a comment or as a blog response.

Sincerely, Walt Duncan

#Rwanda #freewill #greater good #original sin #privatio boni #theodicy #Epicurus

Why Do Bad things happen? : Appendix A

If religion exists for the purpose of helping people to cope with their mortality, as is sometimes claimed, we should be considering the effect of this fact. It is a tragedy when people die young. We should consider what is the effect of using a religious appeal to justify such a tragedy. Is it all part of some "plan"? Is it just God who "needed another angel in heaven"? What is the effect of these sorts of justifications? I find it attrocious to believe that such an unimaginable horror as a child dying could actually be a good thing. A teen suicide is not a good thing. Fatal childhood illnesses are not something with which we should grow comfortable. We can consider real-world good that might come from these tragedies, but let's not make light of them by making up hypothetical goods that might also exist, if only we have the "faith" to believe it. Growing comfortable with tragedy is evil. Where does it end? I can tell you where "God's plan" ends for some. It ends with crumbling sky-scrappers. It ends when a parent refuses penicillin for their child, because "God will heal him, if the boy believes hard enough." Abraham is not to be emulated or revered in the slightest for offering his son as a sacrifice. The death of an innocent child is not okay. We should not become a bedfellow to these sorts of tragedies; when Death comes for a child, we should always cast him away, and with the strongest possible reproach.

#tragedy #greater good

Why do bad things happen?

In the waning hours of my religiosity, I was absorbed in thoughts about why people suffer. Why, if God is all powerful and all good, do good people suffer? Well, late one night, resting on a pillow, I thought I had a solution. I concluded that suffering, as Jesus suffered, was good. I thought that it was heroic to take on that burden... And at that very moment I realized that it was all wrong. "This thing is poison," I thought. Lying awake in the wee hours of the night, I knew that trying to magically justify the evil in the world was wrong. Pretending that it was all part of some plan only served to make suffering seem permissible. The whole idea of worshipping a "good" God only moves us to allow suffering, to grow comfortable with it. "This belief," so I reasoned, "is evil." To be sure, I could have continued to make logical concessions so that, if you squinted, and looked at the problem in just the right way, some theodicy might look just good enough to make sense. But I couldn't squint any longer. My eyes were open, and the answer was clear. The truth is better. There is no point in our misery, no epic story being authored on some cosmic scale. If there is purpose to be found in suffering, it is only in escaping that suffering. We must struggle to ease pain, and to create goodness. The universe doesn't care about us at all; we are the only ones capable of compassion. Only in knowing this fact, that we must oppose this disinterested universe, can we escape nature's cold and mechanical embrace. Only humans can save humans, and if we don't, nothing will. This realization is not bad. Now we know that there is no point in suffering. It is not our charge to endure pain. We can live life free from dictators, from gods prescribing our fates. This life is not some mere test, or a precursor to another life; this life is all we know, and it is the only thing that deserves our attention. Our morality is the only morality that exists, so now is when our goodness matters most.... On a humid June night in 2009, at a church camp, my belief in God slipped away.

#atheism #church camp #suffering #theodicy #problem of evil

- Epicurus, 3rd Century BCE

I was coincidentally listening to this a lot when I gave up theism in 2009.

My post "What Good Fortune!" borrows a lot of sentiments from this talk given by my hero, Daniel Dennett. For what it's worth, the intended audience for this lecture is clearly those who are already atheists.

What good fortune!

I grew up in the Episcopal church in Mississippi, so I have a great many friends who are joining the priesthood these days. When I see a friend join the priesthood, I sometimes ask myself what it is that I'm thinking. What am I thinking about most? What great fortune is mine, that I "got out" while the getting was good. By all accounts, I was on a clear path to the priesthood myself. I majored in religious studies. I continued to volunteer in various church functions during much of my college career. But my enthusiasm for the church waned throughout my college years, and a mere six months after completing my undergraduate degree in December of 2008, it all clicked. I was not a Christian anymore. So When I think about all those friends following that path, I don't think very much about the danger they are in. My thoughts are purely selfish, really. I am so thankful that I avoided it, that I hadn't gotten myself stuck in a vocation that I almost certainly would have rejected in the end. How terrible that would have been! How narrowly I escaped such a fate! I mean, I may have lost a large network of friends in non-trivial ways as it is now. But what I've lost now doesn't hold a candle to the fallout that would have occurred if I had doubled down by living as a priest for 5, 10, or 20 years, only to end up letting my skepticism get the better of me late in the game. Surely there are such people, stuck in the priesthood with friends, family, and their only skill all dependent upon their religious belief. Do churches have scholarship funds for that, or funds for professional conselling, for those who bet big and lose? I hope so, but it seems unlikely. How fortunate am I! All I have is this student loan debt; all I really have lost is my undergraduate major. It may sound sarcastic at this point, but I really am thankful that I so narrowly avoided such a tragic life as that. But now, I have to ask myself something else. Am I morally obliged to try to dissuade others from joining the priesthood? Is the risk so great that it is my responsibility to help people avoid taking such a risk?

#fortunate #priesthood #doubt #Episcopal #gambling #Mississippi

On the origin of goodness

Why do good? Philosophical apologists for religion seem especially apt to ask this question of atheists. They say, "why do good if you are not told to do so, if no authority mandates what is good?"

Well, I do good for the sake of goodness. Why do good? Because it is good! How do you know what is good? Because of my feelings, and because of what my parents and culture taught me (same as you, as I will demonstrate later).

What is better, to do good from compassion, or from fear of punishment or hope of reward? Which of those two schemes is better? At best, the hope of reward cheapens compassion. This reward/punishment scheme is a corruptive influence upon true morality. Maybe some religious people do good with no thought of that scheme, but such is a function of their adherence to cultural norms, not religious norms.

No moral person gets their morals from holy books. We have names for people who extract their morals from holy books: terrorists, extremists, the "god hates fags" people; they are the only people who really take their respective Bibles seriously. The Christian Bible advocates slavery, in both Old Testament and New, but I am willing to bet that any religious person reading this blog still finds the idea of slavery repugnant. Why do you find slavery repugnant? Because (thankfully) your moral compass is not derived from your Bible. You get your morals elsewhere. The cultural advances in morality exist in spite of religion. If any civil rights movement included any religious people at all, it was because they ignored their tradition rather than embracing it. Rebranding the Gospel of Jesus to say that his main message was one of love and equality, that's good; Christianity has thusly changed for the better in those respects, but the invention of said morality finds its origins far from the Bible.

It would have been very easy, if God indeed authors goodness, for Jesus to have said, "oh yeah, women and people of different skin colors aren't property." And furthermore, he didn't only ignore these topics, causing untold suffering for basically everyone except white men; the morals he did expound were often obscured by his very choice of words. Why is the parable of the Prodigal Son somehow more accurate, or succinct, or comprehensible than simply stating, "your God forgives freely, maybe you should too"? Why is it necessary to be so cryptic? I mean, we wouldn't pass legislation into law whose language consisted of a parable; our Bill of Rights in the U.S. would not be better if it were written in the form of a parable. And perhaps he could have left the matter unambiguous by just saying, "anyone who kills in my name will have no place in my father's kingdom." Instead, he says "I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword." He commands his followers to give no thought for the morrow, and to abandon those family members who do not follow him. These may have been metaphorical instructions, but the horrors these "ambiguities" have wrought are undeniable.

Secular compassion is more authentic and better than religious compassion. Luckily, even most religious people maintain secular compassion these days, rather than their tradition's moral scheme. But of course, those few who do take their morals from holy books still have the power to enact huge suffering on themselves and others.

#morality #existentialism #individualism #nature vs. nurture #bible #slavery #extremism #terrorism #god hates fags #secularism #Jesus #parables #civil rights

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.

Richard Dawkins

#DNA #chance #poetry #quotes #Richard Dawkins

"Only" everything

Religious folks seem want to ask, "if you don't believe in God, what do you believe in?"

Only everything, of course. Isn't everything enough? By "everything," I mean everything that we know exists. It really is a whole lot of stuff: everything.

I believe it to be a tragedy that so many people populate their minds with beliefs that may not be true. There is so much beauty in the known world, filling the mind with imagined things seems to be quite a waste. Even art that we know to be fictitious can move us to tears, but treating fictions as though they are real doesn't seem to be a valuable preoccupation of the mind.

And what do I value? I value family, compassion, joy, art, truth, and justice. I value friends and memorable experiences. I value the awe that proceeds from pondering my smallness compared to the entirety of reality. I value those who work to save lives and increase our knowledge of the world. I value evitability, and seek in all things to spread as much of it as is worth spreading; technology and free society affords us a wealth of possibilities, and spreading that to all people is a value worth dying for, I think.

I wouldn't use the word "sacred," but the thoughts with which we fill our mind matter. The wonders of reality seem to be much more worthwhile ideas with which to populate our minds than is reverence for a god. Friends and family deserve one's love, so before one conceives of other, fantastical objects that might also deserve your love, take heed of what you know to be in front of you.

#mind-space #value #justified belief

A more harrowing sight

A belief can color the way in which you understand the world. You may have the same facts, but a belief directs your gaze in a completely different way. Particularly in the night sky, presuming that something looks back makes the vista impress upon you differently. Attaching a person to infinity cheapens your understanding, makes infinity seem approachable. In the theological equation of God with infinity, infinity is what loses face. When God is just another word for goodness, "goodness" is less meaningful.

There is something harrowing about a universe that does not care, something liberatingly hygienic. And that is good. I've heard some religious folks suppose that life has no meaning without God. My feeling is quite the opposite. For me, my family has no value if there is a god. Happiness is nothing with God. If my part to play in the universe is authored by such a figure, one who ascribes my values to me irrespective of my feelings, then there is nothing I can contribute to my world. With such an authority in place, my choices are irrelevant because the end is the same. What value could life have to me, if value is already set in motion?

Chiefest among my aims in this blog is to demonstrate why it is good that there probably is no god. I do believe that there probably is no god, but my point is to convince the reader why that is not such a bad thing.

#atheism #happiness #religion #value #infinity

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