A few days ago a co-worker of my wife friended me on Facebook. Usually I wouldn't bat an eyelid, but this woman and her husband are recent immigrants from Brazil, and devout Christians. From my perspective this is interesting because I don't see the devout side of things too often. Most people that I interact with on a day to day basis are either atheists, or don't outwardly discuss their religious beliefs at all.
My point-of-view vis-a-vis religion has always been one of live and let live. I get it, religion can dictate policy. But outside of this I'm usually happy to let others believe what they want to believe, if the belief system contributes to their having a more positive life.
Connecting with my wife's co-worker was interesting because after seeing her Facebook page it was pretty clear how much joy her beliefs gave her. She is obviously in love with her life, her perspective, and her family. Under those circumstances I can't even begin to imagine trying to convince her that what she believes is some kind of logical fallacy, and that she would be better off if she became an atheist. To me this makes no sense.
And then I navigated to IIDB, where we have many members who argue against religion.. almost religiously. When you look at our site from an outside perspective IIDB looks a bit like it's own religious cult. We've self identified as Infidels, we dwell on religion, much of our identity seems to revolve around our lack of religion, and we seem to be convinced that living a religious life is wrong, needing correction. Rather than an intrinsic part of human cultures.
My question is: how do you feel about the promotion of atheism, given how much joy believers get from their beliefs? What are your thoughts on trying to undo something so sacred in the lives of others? Do you give it any thought at all?
I tend to see religion as extremely interesting, actually. I am not sure that I consider it a defect, but I do ask that religious people observe a sense of boundaries. Most of them, in my experience, do. Just because I complain about the rotten apples doesn't mean I hate apples.
Apples are cool, but I also like dragonfruit, coconuts, plums, pineapples, pears, and all sorts of other fruits. I am not about to base my life on apples alone. I am not going to say that apples are the "one true fruit." I am not even sure that I will ever get around to eating an apple in my lifetime with all of the other cool fruits that are out there to sample. I've even had durian.
That's how I feel about religion. I am not an atheist because I
dislike religion, but I am an atheist because I am
absolutely fascinated with religion. It is one of my favorite subjects. I have enjoyed reading about the ancient roots of religion. I am particularly affectionate toward the goddess, Inanna, the goddess of sex and love! Later a goddess of war, but that was really more the Akkadian interpretation of their version of her, which was named Ishtar.
However, I don't stop reading just because it stops being just about religion. Eventually, ancient religions bleed over into ancient philosophy. The ancient Hindus may have accidentally taught atheism to the ancient Greeks because the Greeks learned an old form of mindfulness meditation from them, but since the Greeks did not have the spiritual context for it, they merely applied their own interpretation of it to their ideas and came out with a form of skeptical philosophy. It was an accident, but many skeptical schools of philosophy were borne out of it.
This ultimately influenced the ancient Epicureans, who were one of the ancient atomist schools of philosophy (atomism also might have come from India, but again, the Greeks only partially understood it), and they took their approach to natural philosophy right to the brink of developing something similar to early modern science! In fact, there is a school of thought that holds that
De Rerum Natura, the last of the Epicurean writings, may have been the seed of all modern scientific thought, but if it's any consolation to my Catholic friends, it was a Franciscan friar that revived it!
I honestly don't mind if you have superstitious beliefs at all, though. I have friends that literally believe they have animal spirits. They call themselves "therians." They are my friends. My problem with many Christians is that they bristle over being compared with those people, but Christians that can be at peace with being one of many fascinating spiritual beliefs can get along with me just fine.
I think that you can't help but become an atheist if you have a veritably bottomless appetite for religious and philosophical ideas. All of them at once cannot be true, but all of them at once can be extremely interesting. The easiest way to enjoy them as the beautiful ideas they are is to recognize that they are
only ideas. Religion, at its best, is like art. Just because it isn't real does not mean that it isn't beautiful or meaningful.
But Christians should not get mad just because I tell them that their angels might actually be descended from images of Inanna. Inanna was the original angel of ancient Mesopotamia. She traveled through the underworld, where people are turned into bird-like creatures and forced to live on dust unless they are symbolically given wine by pouring it on the ground in their honor (in ancient Mesopotamia, the idea was that you should be nice to people in life, or they would not give you any wine after you died). She came out partially transformed and looking a lot like the modern idea of an angel. In fact, the dove-like wings are just further proof: Inanna's most sacred animal was the dove.
In ancient Mesopotamia, though, doves did not just represent peace. THEY ALSO REPRESENTED LOVE AND SEX!
*bangs on some bongo drums*
Nah, I don't really hate religion, but I think that religious people that have really orthodox beliefs are likely to find me to be a little bit offensive simply because I know an uncomfortable amount of information about why they really believe the things that they do. I don't show a whole lot of mercy, there. I think, people can either keep up or not, but I'm flying at my pace.
Anyhow, I talk about religion because religion is actually a cool subject. Just because I don't literally believe in them as my one, true cosmology does not mean that I hate them. Many Christians that I have known actually enjoy having a secular humanist perspective on their beliefs. I am unfailingly interesting. Sometimes, this leads to Christians trying different belief-systems or philosophies, and once in a while, they make a similar journey to my own, leading them eventually to secular philosophy.
Sometimes, I run into Christians that have absolutely no sense of boundaries whatsoever, but I don't yell at them because I want to change their minds about their religion. I yell at them because they are richards.
Generally, Christians find me to be a little over-enthusiastic about religion, though, rather than antagonistic toward it.