It Takes More Faith to be an Atheist

Here's another one of those claims made by believers and supposed to be Christian wisdom, but do you know what? I'm not at all sure what is meant by the claim it takes more faith to be an atheist. It's been said to me a few times, most recently by my mom, but I'm not at all sure what it means.

Perhaps a person who makes a statement such as this might be saying, that since one can not prove that a god does not exist, then believing that there are no gods requires faith. A freaky double negative might sound slick and unclear or mysterious to a person who counts on their religion having all of the answers.

Kronos

But, in that case I also have faith that there are no singing dandelions on Jupiter, I have faith that there are no chocolate-covered pecans on my rooftop, I have faith that there is no Ceucy or Artemis or Nuwa, and I have faith that monkeys will never write Shakespeare. These things mean nothing.

So?

Is it being suggested that, since so many people believe in a god... or twelve, it takes more faith to disagree with the beliefs of the local popular religion? In that case I have no more faith in my disbelief than Christians do in not believing that humans came up from the middle of the earth in the form of ants. I have no more faith in my disbelief than any other non-Hindi in not believing that an elephant's head makes a wonderful replacement for the head of a decapitated baby. 

I have no more faith than a Muslim might doubt the claim that the earth rests on the top of a sea turtle. I have no more faith than a Mormon might doubt the claim that humans were created during the Dreamtime. Or the fact that most Americans don't believe in the Chinese claim that the powder made of elephant tusks are a cure-all for what ails you. Or that we no longer believe in Anubis, Hera, or Odin.

That is nothing more than being afraid to be outside of the crowd.

Cernunnos ~
Wild God of the Forest

Assuming my argument is going in the right direction, I can't prove that a god doesn't exist. I can use logic to prove that all things that make a deity logically impossible, but I can't prove a universal negative. No one can. I can't prove that Amanda Bynes is the best movie star on the planet OX⏬s&💏↻ap㉿ and I can't prove the existence of fluff on the navel of a unicorn. Nor can I disprove these things. This is nothing more than being out of the habit of thinking critically.

...Upon some reflection, I think that a person who says it takes more faith to be an atheist is saying that belief is more rational than disbelief. Or perhaps it is more like things are so complicated and I don't understand them that I prefer to believe that a creator god made everything and has everything under control. If we don't know something then a miracle had to happen. If we don't have enough evidence or understanding for something then it's much easier to assume a supernatural being gets it because the idea that this is not true scares the hell out of me. And I don't want to go to H E Double hockey sticks.

That is nothing more than being afraid to acknowledge one's own limitations and the basic abhorrence of our own human mortality.

Mother Moon and Father Sun

Maybe the statement is from the standpoint of viewing the entirety of the universe and thinking WOW, it is beyond comprehension, therefore, god. Or perhaps the statement is on the lips of a person who has no faith in their own ability to understand the change and evolution that a few million years can bring about on this planet. 
That's nothing more than a fear of the smallness of a single person and of one's place in the grand scheme of things.

Perhaps it is even more basic than that. If I do not believe in the miracle of Jesus, then I don't know what else there is. My religion does not offer much hope for those who cannot accept their stories, so I can't even begin to think outside of the box in which I live.  

And that is nothing more than the fear of the unknown.

South American
deity of labor

Furthermore, when some believers are faced with evidence or with problems and discrepancies with their holy book, religions require that the person in this quandary simply have faith and ignore the nagging doubts that the world clearly brings about. The idea of being a heretic, worldly, or godless is the scariest thing they can imagine. 

That is nothing more than being afraid to stand alone with integrity against a crowd.

We truly don't have all of the answers, but we have some of them and we are working on it. Also, I think that our ability to know some things is very limited. That doesn't mean I advocate substituting knowledge for stories.
I can handle the not knowing.

Adam and Eve

So for some, their faith keeps them feeling safe, it keeps them comfortably numb, it keeps them from facing a world in which all questions aren't easily answered by miracle, god, and afterlife, it keeps them in a nice community, it keeps them from feeling insignificant. It doesn't require the struggle of rational thought, and it prevents them from the existential angst of essential humanness.

Now I see.

It's fear.

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One of the problems that seems to confuse the good believers of the world is that religion has claimed, co-opted some very good and useful words:  blessing, faith, belief, etc, and has caused mass confusion by claiming a single meaning for these words, religious meaning, slanted meaning.

But words cannot be owned. Meaning of these co-opted words can be as beautiful and as varied as the people that use the words. Words are not tiny, hard, immovable things.

Therefore, I reclaim any and all words that any group in the world claims to own.

Gospel, bible, prophet, catechism, teacher, alter, preach, church, heathen, word, father, doubt, zealotry, confession, marriage, redeem, acolyte, communion, covenant, atone, mission, heretic, god, baptize, belief, religious, absolution, glory, disciple, ...wafer, and many more words.

I reclaim all words!

From this moment forward words have accurate meaning, secular meaning without reference whomever chooses to limit the use of words for their own purposes.

When a believer uses the word faith, for example, they are referring to faith over all, including doubt. Likely there are people who are religious who use this word their own way. But when I use the word faith in this post and at all times, I am referring to the propensity to trust in that which has happened again and again.

• I have absolute faith that my husband will fill the gas tank before bringing the car home.
• I have faith that John will tell the absolute truth.
• I have faith that my friends love and support me.
• I have faith that the car will start when I turn the key.
• I have faith that the fan will keep me cool.
• I have faith that the tide will continue to respond to the gravitational pull of the moon.
• I have faith that Elizabeth will absolutely come alive at the beach or near bodies of water.
• I have faith that when I drop a thing it will fall in the direction of down.
  

I do not claim faith because I ignore facts and nature. Nor because I fervently wish for these things to be true and I am willing to overlook all evidence to the contrary.

No, I claim faith because these things that I have faith in have acted in dependable ways again and again over time. It is upon these reliable ways that I can count on again and again. 

In this sense, YES, I have complete faith in the scientific method, in reason, in secularism.

And don't even get me started on the incorrect use of the word THEORY...

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Just a Tearful Rant that I Will Delete Later

I'm blogging tonight for one reason.
I'm upset.

I know more than one family going through hideous divorces. I want nothing more than to help the kids from these families get through this thing more than just INTACT. I would love to see the kids get through this empowered and healthy.

I don't think that is going to happen.

I can't and won't go into detail, but I am sad today. It is a particular problem in my estimation, when a parent involves the kids in the adult stuff, when a parent shares information with the kids that is simply not for them, it is a problem when the adults don't protect the kids from the ugliness but, rather, invite them in, and it is a problem for me when kids are encouraged to choose sides or to reject one of their parents.

I am angry and upset when one parent enlists the children, when a parent forms alliances with the kids against the other parent, when any parent sets up a situation where the children are encouraged to reject the other parent, or when, in any way, a parent encourages a kid to take on a parental or adult role in the proceedings.

I am discouraged as to the powerlessness I feel as an outsider to see it happening and to have no way to prevent the stuff from happening.

Is one parent lying?
Are both parents lying?
Is one parent to blame?
Are both parents to blame?

Do you know what? I don't care what any parent did! 
What I do care about is children ever EVER hearing the words he/she is abandoning you! Your mother did (this); your father did (that). He/she doesn't even want you! He/she is leaving you! He/she loves someone more than you! He/she just wants ...XYZ... instead of you!

I am finding it painful to know that children that I care about are so embroiled in such a scenario when I feel like I would do anything to help prevent such heartache! I could never work for DCFS or Child Protection knowing that children are being emotionally hurt every single day by their parents!

My involvement in the situation is very limited and ancillary. My contact with the kids is very minimal. But that contact proves that these things are happening.

Why can parents not simply accept the end of the marriage and move forward without leaving a crater behind?

Do What Needs Doing

There is no god Secular homeschool am I am atheist I don’t believe in God doubting god and religion Atheist parenting secular parenting freethinking parenting homeschool s

What Needs Doing?

• Illnesses need healing
• People need justice
• We need global peace
• Humans need connection. 
• And compassion...
• People need clean water
• Travel needs to be cleaner and safer
• Families need to have basic resources
• Advanced education needs to be available to all
• Families need access to good health care
• Politics needs to be honest, efficient, and robust
• People's hearts need to be compassionate
• All people need adequate housing and shelter
• Alternative energy sources need to be discovered and perfected
• Global Climate Change needs to be halted and reversed
• Massive global overpopulation needs to be controlled and reduced
• Enormous economic inequity needs to be managed
• Community infrastructures need to be bolstered and safe
• Communities need to be safe
• We need a better understanding of our earth
• We need to understand Earth's inter connectivity with our solar system
• Information needs to be available to all
• All people need to be treated equally and fairly
• Our environment needs to be clean
• Plants and animals need to stop being weighed and sacrificed for human perceived needs or consumption
• Each human on earth needs to have the same rights
• People need strong familial support systems
• All people around the globe need an appreciation for the complex connections between all natural systems
• We need to accept, respect, and celebrate all of the differences in our species
• We need peaceful efforts to end generational conflicts
• We need to give the next generations of our species roots and wings
• We need to make sure that this earth is cared for
• We need to acknowledge that our global resources are not infinite and, therefore, require thoughtful preservation, use, distribution, maintenance, and adequate time for renewal
• All sources of human power and authority needs to be transparent, trustworthy, and untainted by human folly
• We need to support research aimed at medical and scientific advancement
• We need to prepare our children to do better than we have done
• And there is more!

Do What Needs Doing!

In all ways, if you can support these needs for our globe and all who share this globe, you must! Be it through advancing your education so that you can participate in the creation of solutions, be in in exploring your own sense of entitlement and figuring out how to discard it, be it in the distribution of accurate information, be it in training those who will perform necessary jobs, be it in sustainable and ethical leadership, be it in all forms of research and implementation of cleaner resources, be it in support of reduced population efforts, be it in support of social justice and it's efforts globally, be it through an appreciation for the finite nature of our beautiful water, be it in the peace-making fields, you must be a part of the solution.

Even Though You are Only One Person

Be it in providing the best parenting that you are capable of providing, be it in donating to and supporting all efforts to improve our neighborhoods and communities and cities and states and nations and our world, be it in supporting all peacemakers and humanitarians, be it in becoming a peacemaker and a humanitarian, be it in fighting for the rights of the disenfranchised, be it in managing the waste of your own household, be it in answering the call for assistance whenever you are able, be it in recognizing that national boundaries do not keep us from being in this together, be it in making an effort to inform yourself from reputable sources, be it in becoming a healthcare provider or a worker for social equality or a principled journalist or a transportation provider or an organic farmer or a person who cleans up creeks, be it in questioning those practices that oppose global cleanliness, you must join in and do it!

Though You Yourself are in Need!

Be it in being open with your skepticism and rejection of all institutional efforts to control the hearts and minds of people, be it in being a part of the researchers who develop clean and sustainable resources for our lives, be it in working for financial equity for all, be it in supporting all legislative efforts to make advanced education more affordable and medical care more accessible, be it in questioning your own assumptions of superiority or worthiness, be it in doubting all messages of personal powerlessness, be it in supporting all initiatives to clean water and air, be it in becoming politically active, be it in supporting efforts for safe and clean public transportation, be it in building sustainable gardens in your home and community, be it in offering support to ailing individuals or nations, be it in challenging all personal or national ideologies of anyone being more deserving or more meritorious than any other person or nation, be it in providing compassionate and quality mental health care to those who need it, you must do your part!

Happy 17th!

There is no effort that is too small.

We are it.

There is no help coming from afar.

It is up to us to save this planet and our species.

It is up to us to become beneficent and wise with regards to our interconnected lives here on this beautiful and finite planet.

Do what needs doing.

I am very concerned about the people who have lived in the luxury of seeing the world as infinite, or, conversely, in only seeing the world as the small plot of community in your view. I know people who actually think that our world is resilient enough to handle the massive chemical dumps, the tremendous overpopulation, and the threatening climate changes. I know people who live with their heads in the sand. Who don't see the devastation in their own town and so they think that the trouble is over there...

We no longer have this luxury. 

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I am still Homeschool Atheist Momma!

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I had an epiphany today.
A rather obvious epiphany, but an epiphany nonetheless.

I am a completely normal human being. I am pretty great at some things. I suck at some things. I have made some huge errors in my life, some just this week. I have made some excellent decisions. 

I have done fuckall shit. I have done great shit. I have been an absolutely horrible parent. I have been a model parent.

Truly, I have been human. My parenting has run the gamut from crap to exceptional.

Well-meaning, lazy, learning, thoughtful, loving, shaming, affectionate, sympathetic, supportive, boring, crass, intelligent, creative, introverted, extroverted, positive, negative, plucky, finicky, interested, gullible, thin-skinned, tacky, exuberant, self-absorbed, insecure, generous, gentle, charming, funny, snobby, embarrassing, impotent, peaceful, kind, genuine, forgetful, a failure, a success...

So when you look at me, when you think of me, you can see exactly who you want to see. Do you think of me as a complete bitch? There is massive evidence that that is true. Do you think of me as a gentle and loving woman? Evidence is piling up that this is the truth. Do you think that I am a fuck up? Many events point to that as the truth. Do you think that my heart is always in the right place? I can prove that this is true. Do you think that I am a person to avoid? Many parts of me prove that that is fact. Do you view me as a person to go to in time of need? This, too, is the truth.

As a wise person recently told me, it’s not what you look at, it’s what you see.   (It was my son who said that to me!)

Therefore, if you, as the person with the eyes, choose to see me in some light, you will find every evidence that you are absolutely correct. If someone else has a definition of me, that definition speaks far more about them than about me.

So, yes, I am the person that you think I am.


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The Circle Continues...