Certificate of Atheism

Coincidence or Lawn Mower Magic?

I generally enjoy mowing the lawn. I prefer to use only a push mower. I can make it look better that way, and it’s good for a bit of exercise. But it’s also a time when I exercise my brain. It’s rare that I think much about what I am doing. I’m usually thinking about some idea, trying to make sense of something I’ve recently learned, or questioning things I take for granted. Sometimes I have songs in my head too. Lennon’s Imagine often plays in my thoughts when I mow. It’s odd because I don’t think about the song much any other time.

Some thoughts come to me that seem random or insignificant. The last two times cutting the lawn, I’ve had a few of these that made little or no sense to me at the time, but became more interesting later.

Jainism

A week ago on Tuesday, out of nowhere, a word popped into my head: Jainism. This was a word that I knew practically nothing about, never ever used, and hadn’t heard in a long time. I was reasonably sure it was a religion, but that’s all. Why I thought of it was a mystery to me. I said it a few times (in my head) and thought no more about it.

The following Saturday, I went to download that week’s episode of the Point of Inquiry podcast. I was interested to see it was an interview with Hemant Mehta who had just written a book called “I Sold My Soul on Ebay.” He had been in the recent news, and I was interested to learn about him and his experience. After a few minutes into the show, he shared his religious background. “My religion that I was brought up with, it’s called Jainism,” he said. I immediately remembered having that word come to mind earlier in the week!

Becoming

On Tuesday of this week, it was time to mow again. It was past time actually, but due to some recent rain, I was behind. The chorus of a song I knew and liked was repeating in my head, “I’m born again with snake’s eyes – Becoming god size.” It was a song called Becoming by Pantera. Over and over, it repeated in my head. I made a mental note to listen to the track later.

Earlier this evening, I stopped in at the Rational Responder’s website to check on feedback about last’s night debate on Nightline. They posted a thread about the debate, which included a video of highlights. The video began with them in a van on their way to the debate. Playing loudly in the background was Becoming! The video started exactly at the chorus of the song – the part that had been stuck in my head!

Explanations

I decided to share these experiences for two reasons. The first is because it’s pretty damned cool. The second is because these are the type of things that lead some people to believe that supernatural powers, even gods, exist. Surely these things can’t have happened without some special intervention, right? Something greater than myself is surely at work. Maybe I have magical powers. Maybe it’s the mower. Maybe a magical entity is sharing its magical powers with me.

I can’t pretend to fully understand and explain what happened to me. All I have is my experience and reason. So far, there is no evidence for any supernatural power, either around or within me. I simply don’t know how those things happened, and I must leave it at that if I am to remain intellectually honest.

Until some sort of evidence is found, the best explanation is coincidence. Many aren’t able to accept this because of a common mistake confusing improbability with impossibility. It is improbable to roll six dice and get all sixes. The odds are one in 46,656… but it is still possible. Someone wins the lottery too, and those odds are even greater. It was possible for both of my experiences, though improbable, to occur according to natural laws.

I realize that some might read this and see clear signs of “god.” I welcome all interpretations. Post them in the comments section and I will respond accordingly.

(mis)Representative Virginia Foxx

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx represents the district in which I live. I learned of her co-sponsorship for the Public Prayer Protection Act in an article on the front page of my local newspaper. It was included in an article on the national day of prayer. I then visited her website and read this article to get her position on it. I’ve already made clear my position on prayer in the previous post, so I won’t mention that again. It’s enough to say that she does not represent me.

The Public Prayer Protection Act is presented to protect the rights of elected officials so that they may pray freely. But they already have freedom of religion and the right to pray like all citizens. The only purpose this act is serving is to insert religion into the government. And by the way, does it seem like any of them refrain from praying? President George W. Bush has ridden religion to the top, praying and quoting the bible all the way. The citizens are who need protection. How about a Public Protection from Prayer Act?

Praying while representing a group of diverse citizens all of whom are guaranteed freedom of religion is clearly contradictory. How can I be free in my religious position if my representative is making decisions on my behalf based on the doctrine of a religion with which I disagree? More to the point, why should I trust such a person who claims to be guided by a magical entity that no one has ever seen? This is not what I consider a trustworthy public servant.

You disagree? Consider how you would feel if the president’s speech included quotes from the Qur’an, the book of Mormon, or the Vedas. Would you want the leader of this country blessing you in the name of Allah or Krishna? What about Satan? Think of a religion which you trust the least, or consider the most dangerous… even ridiculous. Now think how you would feel if your government officials were basing decisions about your life and the lives of all citizens upon it. I realize that religious beliefs will be present regardless of the ability to pray while on the job. But this act will not just allow, but encourage religiosity by our elected officials. The dangerous potential outcome of this is further movement toward the combination of church and state- theocracy.

Instead of ranting further, I will conclude with the message I sent to Rep. Foxx through her website.

Congresswoman Foxx,

On the front page of my local paper, the Statesville Record & Landmark, I read about the National Day of Prayer. I also learned that you are co-sponsoring the Public Prayer Protection Act. I am greatly disappointed that you are working to violate the establishment clause of the US Constitution. Why does prayer need protection? All citizens are completely free to pray in their private lives. If you haven’t noticed, the United States is comprised mostly of religious people. Elected officials should not be free to express religious beliefs while serving the public. Like the rest of the citizens, they can pray in private. All people should be served equally fairly. An elected official praying on the job alienates part of the group she represents. That might be over religious differences for those in other religions, or in my case, by an official being religious at all. Appealing to a god shows me that a person is superstitious and unreasonable in at least part of her thinking. It’s a silly, useless waste of time. If our elected officials aren’t capable of fulfilling their duties without appealing to unproven supernatural powers, they should resign and make way for those of us who are able to deal with reality. Human problems require human solutions.

Sincerely atheistic,
J.S.Brown

National Day of Religious Superstition

The first Thursday in May has come and gone, and many of the citizens of the U.S. have wasted time performing a superstitious ritual. This time each year marks the national day of prayer designated by Congress. This is a clear violation of the first amendment, and yet it continues.

The founders of this country were well aware of the problems with combining the church and state. That was one of the primary reasons for coming here and starting anew. They wanted freedom from oppression including that from religion. This is exactly why our Constitution is void of supernatural references. The authors had the opportunity to compose a religiously centered document to govern us, but chose not to.

Thomas Jefferson was adamant about protecting citizens from the tyranny of religion, backed by the power of the government. One of our founding fathers, he was opposed to the state supporting prayer. He knew that individual religious organizations were free to practice religion as they chose, including prayer, but that government did not have the right to decide such things for its citizens.

Surely this annual day of prayer must be helping somehow, somewhere. Millions of people appealing to (who knows how many?) different gods are sincerely trying to affect this world. Does the world seem much different since Thursday? No, not to me either. The local, national, and world news is not reporting that humanity’s major problems have been corrected. Apparently nothing has changed.

The ineffectiveness of petitionary prayer has been studied quite a number of times. Each time the power of prayer is put to the test, it fails. Despite the easily demonstrated failures, religious people are still praying. Why? Because prayer gives those who feel helpless something to do that assures them they can still help in some way. Handing off problems to someone that has the power to handle them is relieving. And if that someone is an omnipotent problem-solver, the relief is that much greater. So prayer does have some function, but it’s not one that I recognize as beneficial in the long-term.

The problem with encouraging prayer for comfort is that it discourages action. There are actually a lot of things that we humans can do to solve our problems. Kneeling and praying for an issue allows people to pass the responsibility on to someone else, a god that doesn’t seem to exist. So instead of taking action that might help, they do nothing at all, but call it prayer.

“The hands that do are holier than the hands that pray.” I’ve heard this in various forms over the years. I don’t know the source, but I wholly agree with it. Prayer never seems to fix anything that might not have been fixed anyway. And often times, humans are thanks as being manifestations of the power of a god to answer the prayers. The evidence that any of it trickles down from supernatural goodness is nowhere to be found. There is a blindness that religious people have that cheapens the humanity and our abilities as a species. It’s unfortunate that so many are willing to ignore their talents to improve the human condition and instead give credit to absent divinity. I haven’t yet seen any god that deserves credit.

Like the existence of a god, if there was good evidence to support the power of prayer, I wouldn’t mind a day for it encouraged by the government. It wouldn’t violate anyone’s faith or religious beliefs. It would be a scientifically supported fact like gravity and germ theory that clearly benefited us all. But this is not the case, and it’s easily demonstrated. Prayer is a waste of time, and one encouraged by the U.S. Government. Forget prayer and the national day of prayer. Be reasonable, do something rather than nothing, and recognize the national day of reason.