Journal Entry # 242

November 4th, 2010

As I have stated before I am on a lifelong journey were I will continue to learn and grow. At no time do I ever think I am 100% right on any matter. I fully admit I can be wrong on anything. This journal is dedicated to the concept of reality specifically dealing with truth.

I have been talking about my views as an Atheist/ realist/ one who seeks truth for years but over the past 6 months since I have actively engaged in conversations on face book mostly about religion and I feel I am at a point now where I can offer a very important observation which I feel will be helpful to all of humanity.

I have understood the concept I am about to present and asked many to define terminology so that we are speaking on a level playing field in these discussions. I now realize this is very difficult for many and to be frank not really that important to many as well. What I would like to do is to demonstrate the differences in terms that I feel are the major blockage in understanding each other. You might have a different meaning to what I say but I hope you get the general idea. The problems I see are that we are talking 2 different languages. Now I am referring to the Christian faith but these can be exchanged for most faiths with a few exceptions.

When I say God I mean a deity created that is allegedly responsible for the creation of all things and worshipped by man. The Christian means the loving father, the one and true god that has given them life on this earth and salvation if they chose in eternity, the creator of our morality and the father of Jesus who sacrificed his life for us.

When I say truth I mean what is that cannot be changed. The Christian means all that god represents and all he has said through his complete and perfect word.

When I say Jesus I mean a mythical figure supposed to be the son of the Christian god. The Christian means the ever loving son of god who sacrificed his life so that we may have eternal life through him the absolute symbol of love, the truth the light the way to salvation.

When I say Christian I mean one who follows the Christian god. The Christian means the one true way to live life on this earth representing all that is good to follow in the footsteps of Jesus as much as a human can and to live by his laws.

When I say Free will I mean the concept of making choices within the laws of nature. The Christian means the Choice god has given us through Jesus to choose salvation or damnation.

When I say Religion I mean following a chosen god. The Christian means organized followers of god who have lost their way not staying true to their faith.

When I say they are brainwashed they say they are cleansed.

When I say they are blind they say I am lost.

Above all they know they have no need to prove anything as god will take care of revealing himself to me in his time and then I will either chose to accept the gift or not.

I think you get the idea. What we need to do if we are going to talk is to understand one another at the very beginning.   I do try this but I also understand why it will not seem necessary to most as they feel they have no need to do this and that it is commanded of them to spread the word and message of salvation of god. All other things are preliminaries to this goal. There is no need to prove god exists of course he does and I am just not seeing what they see.

     PEACE DESPITE    VIOLENCE

I will refer to a comment made by someone who shall remain unnamed. I believe his summation is to the point.

Einstein pointed out, Christ is too imposing a figure to be dispelled by clever argument (he used the phrase “bon mot”, but I just can’t bring myself to use it in a sentence). The… term ‘religion’ doesn’t refer to bare philosophy, but to an ambiguously delineated constellation of social institutions. Well intentioned people (environmentalists, advocates for social justice, and so forth) have been very reluctant to adopt the term “culture war”, but when two sides of a debate involve disagreement on simple matters of fact (the age of the earth, whether the constitution establishes a separation between church and state, whether black and white people have the same number of ankle bones), there is at least an important divergence of worldview.

When secular progressives argue with conservative Christians (or, probably, theists of any stripe) they are like ships passing in the night because they are using essentially different definitions for important words like “god”, “gods”, “true”, “good”, “meaning”, “real”, “evil”, “freedom”, etc. For example, to me, the word “gods” is simply the plural of the singular “god”; but to a Christian the first immediately connotes corruption and threat while the second connotes goodness, decency and meaning. Thus, when I utter the phrase “there’s no such thing as god” what they hear is “there is no goodness, meaning or hope in the world”; of course they disagree!

Essential to understanding the religious worldview is understanding the tribalism of the thing. The most fundamental dichotomy in this worldview in between those in the tribe (the “saved”, “blessed”, “chosen”, “elect” or “believers”) and those outside of it (I.e “sinners”, “infidels”, “nonbelievers”, “Gentiles”, “barbarians”, etc) therefore, to draw a comparison between those in the group to those outside is to suggest the self-evidently absurd.

The one message I hear clearly from the ones I have talked to is that god is a god of love and that ultimately he will be the judge. If this is an ideal that Christians hold to I ask this of you as a Faith.

Leave the judging to god; Spread his word but that word should be about love and salvation. We must have separation of church and state to protect us all. The world will always have diversity and I ask that we all have mutual respect for this as long as people remain within the laws we have established as a society that benefit all.

As an example; Prayer should stay out of the schools to protect us all. If you allow one Faith then you must allow all faiths. This principal applies to all of public life.

Show equality for all humans. If you disagree lead by example and do not force you views through interference in government. Let god judge when he is ready.

Hopefully we will always be diverse as humans so I believe we must learn to respect one another and work together for the common good of humanity. 

             We must work together

The time and energy spent on changing people towards your way of thinking should be applied towards solvable problems that plague humanity like poverty, preventable disease and wars. Let’s concentrate on those as well.

It is also very important that we continue to engage and challenge each other in the arena of debate but we must do it respectfully. All people should be allowed access to information to be able to choose for themselves. I believe this to be one the most important posts I have written and I hope it has the impact I feel this information deserves. I will continue to learn and grow and I hope others will as well. This advise applies to me as ell

Call me what you will an accommodationist, panderer or anything else you can think of for I consider myself a realist and the reality is that if things are to get better we need to understand and respect each other in our diversity while continuing to be strong in our individual messages.

I am all about truth and the desire for PEACE for all of humanity; I hope you are as well.

Seek the truth always

Gary David Currie