Leaving the Fold
Note:
I’ve been trying to hold off on writing this piece, but with the recent openening of the “Creation Museum” in Petersburg, Kentucky, I feel inspired to announce my position with regard to religion, and present a few factoids to possibly help others see a more rational, and logical, view of life and the world.
Chapter One
My Mom’s going to kill me. She is perhaps the most Christian person in my immediate family. As I was growing up we attended church quite regularly. We were Lutheran, not the most strict of denomenations, thankfully. I would have had a tougher time crawling from beneath the shadow of a more catholic upbringing. Luckily for me Lutherans are a more relaxed bunch.
I seemed to wonder, even at a fairly young age, what we were doing worshipping someone, or something we couldn’t see, who had never talked with us, never showed himself, and never answered our prayers, unless of course you belive that a purely chance coincidence or turn of events is a special sign from an almighty, omniscient and omnipresent god.
Why believe in something that we have no evidence for?
I’ve always had my doubts. The usual, obvious questions occurred to me. If there is a god why are there people starving in the world? Innocent women and children being raped and killed in Darfur and surrounding areas of Sudan?
Certainly he would want to tend to their needs rather than leave them at the mercy of the rest of his creations, who are more busy trying to cope with their own struggles and sending up prayers on a regular basis, “answered” or not. Mostly not, I’d bet.
If there is a god, why would he (why “HE” anyway?) say he loves us all and yet admonish us, or worse yet condemn us to a mythological place like hell, if we don’t believe? I didn’t know a supreme being could be so insecure.
Why doesn’t he just show himself to all of us and just put an end to the question once and for all? Why allow so many interpretations? Why permit so many to blaspheme by practicing other religions? Wouldn’t the “one true god” want to stand up and say, “Hey, it’s true, here I am, now cut out all the nonsense and get on with it!”?
How many lives could be saved? How many wars could be stopped or prevented? How much suffering would end, and how much better would the world be if he just finally said, “Here! Here I am! Let’s all live harmoniously!”
No, we are to believe that god works in mysterious ways. We are told that he works through other people, doesn’t answer prayers because sometimes the best prayers are the unanswered ones, and doesn’t show his face to us because the spectacle would be too much for our mere mortal minds to conprehend.
So, are we a big experiment for this god? He creates the earth and plops mankind down here to teach us how to live with each other? Seems hardly a worthwhile endeavor for a deity to undertake. Who does he have to compare notes with? Is there another god out there somewhere with his own planet of living things running around trying to figure out the whole joke?
Paleontologists uncover bones that date back millions of years. They know the bones are this old because of the sedimentary layers of earth that have settled over periods of time. They found dinosaurs, ancient hominids and many other creatures.
Hominids, mind you, are not of the same time period as the dinosaurs. We know, based on scientific evidence, that they came along much later. But creationists, especially those associated with the new Creation Museum, will tell you that dinosaurs and people lived at the same time. Experienced, knowledgeable paleontologists have yet to find bones of these people, or other human ancestors, alongside dinosaurs. Could be science is right.
Scientists are trying to figure out where we came from. I want to know, don’t you? The bible gives us one fantastic answer, “Creation.” A rather simplistic idea that squeezes the origin of all things, including the development of all life forms, into just seven days. Six, rather, because god rested on the seventh day.
I didn’t realize a deity who could create the unverse and all things therein would need to rest. In all this time no evidence for creation has ever surfaced. It is all conjecture, and we are simply to believe it. In reality, the only evidence for our origin found to date points toward evolution.
A living organism requires no assistance from some supernatural power in order to exist. Earth, sunlight and water are not of supernatural origin. They are real things existing in a real world, with real explanations.
A crack in the side of a canyon wall collects debris blown in by the wind. Dirt begins to pack the deeper recesses. A seed blown on the wind also settles here, and over the course of a few days, or weeks, after some moisture seeps in, the seed yields life. A hearty shoot protrudes from the crack, collecting sunlight, and occasional rainwater. A sign of natural life, no miracle necessary.
In human reproduction the mother’s egg is fertilized and a baby develops — growing and changing through many stages — living quite efficiently on the sustaining nutrients provided by the mother’s body. The baby develops, naturally, in the womb. Science understands this process.
I recall hearing a Christian radio personality proclaim that god lovingly shapes each part of the baby with his own hand, virtually sculpting life as it forms. Tell the mother of a deformed, handicapped, or otherwise challenged child, why god happened to screw up on her project. Was he angry? Did she blaspheme? Was she a bad person? Must be one of those because a god wouldn’t just screw up right?
Some believers will say god is testing her. A test! At the expense of a child’s development, life and future? That hardly seems like the actions of a compassionate god. Seems rather more sadistic I think.
In no way do I trivialize the plight of any mother of challenged, or otherwise disadvantaged children, and certainly not of the children themselves. Many strong women face the challenges head on, day by day, month by month, and year by year. And they raise the most beautiful children in the process. But I believe their own resolve and determination is at the heart of it, and a god is not required at all.
There are sound, scientific reasons for many of the variety of disorders, diseases and ailments which we humans suffer, and what science doesn’t understand it is busilly trying to understand and get a handle on. Effective medicines and therapies that treat our problems are developed because of science. But of course anyone with strong faith in a god will accredit all scientific and medical “miracles” to him, and blame any of our ill conditions to either the pitfalls of science or the “will” of their creator.
I strive to educate myself about our world, learn all I can about this place, humankind, and experience the wonder of life, and the universe as it unfolds around me. But I do this through the lens of science, not religion.
Experiencing the real world so much more rewarding than a fairytale story about streets paved with gold, and an eternity of happiness. If I believe in anything it is life and living, and this life, indeed every life, is made more precious because of it’s inevitable end.
I have never felt more liberated, more enlightened, or more free, since deciding to think for myself, and put religious beliefs behind me. I refuse to let my life, mental wellbeing, and happiness be governed by belief in a god. A god I must try to please; a god watching my every move and passing judgement. That’s not for me.
So, I hope my Mom will understand. As long as she remembers that I love her (Dad too), regardless of what I believe in, or not.
Coming up next… The scientific facts responsible for my recent revelation.
