Left to my own devices

A couple of things happened last month that I wanted to write about, but the holidays (along with a serious bout of depression) got in the way. The first was a case that went before the United States Supreme Court, where a Christian web site designer refused to make custom web sites for same-sex weddings. The second was  news of a restaurant in Richmond, Virginia that refused to honor the reservation of a conservative Christian organization that, among other things, opposes same-sex marriage and abortion rights.

Every week, sometimes more than once a week, billions of people go to their chosen places of worship and praise their creator. The god they believe in typically follows a fairly familiar template: He (or she) is omniscient, loving, wrathful, a whiz at creating -- and destroying -- things, and almost always eternal. It has been this way as long as human kind has had the ability to develop thought regarding where it came from and why it is here. I have always struggled with understanding the aforementioned concept. At the very least, I have questions. Those questions have prohibited me from being a person of faith, though I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm a complete atheist. That would require the same level of assuredness that non-believers mock the religious for having. Still, until answers are forthcoming, I am agnostic, at best. And, for me, thinking about the questions is more fun, anyway.

No doubt the title of this post is slightly provocative. I couldn't think of a better way to phrase it, so, there you go. If it's any consolation, I don't think that atheism matters, either. Belief, or lack thereof, in a particular god or spirituality is often beside the point. This is something I've been thinking about recently, and wanted to express here, where most of my thoughts end up for better or worse. The topic of religion, and how it affects people, has been tossing about in my head of late, not least because of the Phil Robertson kerfuffle. The patriarch of the Duck Dynasty reality series was quoted saying some unfavorable things about homosexuals, but couched it in religious terms (both as his reasoning and his excuse), and so many folks have said it's ok. I tend to disagree, but to each their own.

David Allred has written a " faith column " for Oak Ridge Today , in which he takes umbrage with the late Roger Ebert's musings on death . In particular, Allred would seem to dislike the term "nothing" being ascribed to the state of what happens to us after we die. Allred appears to believe in an afterlife and, it seems, a god. Following is a passage from Ebert's essay-in-question: I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear. I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. I am grateful for the gifts of intelligence, love, wonder and laughter. You can’t say it wasn’t interesting. Adding to Allred's distress over Ebert's beliefs (or lack thereof) is the mass sharing of the late film critic's essay that has occurred since his passing earlier this month. From Allred: ...

Friends and regular readers of this blog will know that I am not religious. Not even spiritual, although I have more respect for spirituality than for organized religion. It is therefore safe to say that there is likely very little that, say, the Catholic Church -- as an institution -- could do to earn my respect.  It is with this background that I come to the selection of a new Pope . The Pope holds such a high-profile position within the world, it's difficult to ignore him, secular leanings or no. Jorge Mario Bergoglio (or, as he is now known, Pope Francis) ascended to the papacy just three days ago, yet there has already been a flurry of opinion about who he is, what he stands for, and where he might lead the church over the next few years.

I saw Ang Lee's new motion picture Life of Pi over the Thanksgiving weekend. The movie has generated some buzz, partly for its stunning visuals, but mostly because of its approach to religion & faith. It is the latter portion that I'd like to discuss. Just a friendly warning: If you haven't yet seen the film, and are thinking of going, then don't continue reading. Y'all know the drill. Life of Pi is bookended by present day scenes featuring a struggling author at the home of an adult Piscine "Pi" Patel, who is telling him a story in hopes that it can give the author something good to write about. The story is of Pi's upbringing in a zoo run by his father, of his search for God by studying and experiencing various religions, and of his survival alone at sea for several months. That's the nuts & bolts of the film (adapted from the novel by Yann Martel), but it doesn't really tell you much about it.

As regular readers of this blog will know, I am not a believer in the afterlife. It is a fairly certain disbelief, but not one carved in stone, as none of us really have proof one way or the other, so I admit to possibly being very wrong on the subject. At any rate, one of the reasons I've had an issue with the notion of an afterlife (at least, as it's been presented in most world religions) is that it seems to encompass all of eternity. That may seem lovely to some, but not to this fellow. As the First Doctor noted in the 1983 Five Doctors special, "Immortality is a curse, not a blessing." I mean, really, who wants to live forever?

It's Sunday. This is the day that many Americans attend church, praising their God in whatever denomination they've decided upon. Worship services run the gamut, from strict conservative to uber-liberal, from "primitive" to modern. There are Christians, Muslims, Wiccans and a whole host of others who worship on Sundays, and several other days of the week, and here in the U.S., it's a very small minority that does not believe in a god, or who lacks faith. I am among that minority.

I just had to respond to this commentary by Rabbi Boteach that was on Huffington Post a couple of days ago. The premise is that "godlessness" is causing Great Britain to go down the tubes (only 35% of the country's population believes in God, compared to 92% in the US). Basically, the rabbi wants to tie religiosity to success. Fair enough. In certain situations, no doubt one's religious convictions can help them to better themselves and society. But the opposite is also true. So religion is often a zero sum game in this regard. Just as importantly, so, too, is atheism. Someone who doesn't believe in a god, or a religious faith, is not necessarily better or worse than someone who does. Human beings are human beings.