Universal Life of Alan Ministry

I’ve been thinking “what is a religion?”, especially in the context of someone who doesn’t believe in supernatural beings.

The role religion plays in life is that of moral, ethical and spiritual guidance, where “spiritual” is basically “emotional well being”. None of that depends on some supernatural “parent” being to tell you what’s right or to love you even when you do bad things – the former can be worked out easily enough and the latter you can get from a dog (as long as you don’t mistreat the dog, in which case you wouldn’t deserve to be loved anyhow).

Another way of looking at it is: Science is about how and what we know, Religion is about how and what we feel.

Although Secular Humanism is kind of the anti-religion group, I think it’s more on the Science side, in that it’s promoting a rational, scientific, approach to dealing with the world – and they’re right as far as that goes.

Those who want some spiritual camaraderie or even guidance without having to rely on a mystical non-existent supernatural “something” (be it God or Gaia) still need someplace to turn. I call that Spiritual Humanism: a rational, realistic, approach to emotional and moral well being.

I’ve already posted a number of things that exemplify what I mean, but in time I’ll work out some key principles to define it.

Yesterday, I saw a car on the freeway that had a big message plastered across the back window: “Fear God” and in smaller print under that: “and give him glory”.

Fear? Someone who is feared deserves loathing and condemnation, not worship and glory. You fear entities that you think will hurt you in some way – that is not something to love and worship. You love things that have qualities you admire – no one should admire or look up to anything that causes fear.

I suspect that the message they’re trying to convey is “be good or you’ll be punished”, but in this context, that message is probably in the vein of “everyone’s a sinner”. The fact of the matter is though, most people’s “sins” are pretty minor and not worthy of being afraid of being sent to hell for minor lapses. It’s neither healthy nor desirable to live in a constant fear of some infraction having severe consequences.

Live right because it’s the right thing to do: it’s good for everyone, including yourself. We don’t steal from or hurt other people because if everyone did that, we’d all be living in fear. Teaching others helps us learn ourselves. Helping others means there will be more people who will be in a position to help us when we’re in need. Smiles are much more pleasant to be around that snarls, and each is likely to be returned in kind.

It’s not a perfect world, and we do need to be wary, both of others who make antisocial choices, and our own inclination to unfortunate choices, but a life lived in fear is a life half lived: live life to the fullest, not in fear.

I’ve just been made aware of a group of “Christians” promoting genocide to elementary school children: How Christian fundamentalists plan to teach genocide to schoolchildren

They’re teaching morals and ethics alright: a really *evil* set of them. Although from my reading, it’s genocide as revenge rather than just because they were non-believers (as, apparently the “Good News” Club would have you believe), it’s still evil. Worse, teaching kids to follow blindly because they were told to makes them puppets to manipulated into all kinds of evil, because whether or not God was an active participant back in the day, he’s not now. There are nearly daily examples of people abusing religion for their own ends, from child abuse to the Vatican power struggles to the “Islamic” terrorists. And, it sounds like, the Good News Club falls into that category.

And frankly, is a God who ordered a genocide *really* a God you want to worship? That speaks volumes alone about one’s moral values…

Tis the season to be jolly…unless you’re City Hall, and then some rabble rouser decides to take offense at the Christmas decorations.

The principle of separation of church and state is about making sure that the government does not give preference to one sect over another, creating an implicit “official” religion. That means that, yes, if you put up decorations for one religious holiday, you have to put up those for the others (I think you can be reasonable here: there are a pretty standard set, and if someone else in the community wants theirs celebrated, they should be accomodated comparably).

That does not however mean other religions (or anti-religions) have the right to use the space for denigration. If they want to have a holiday to celebrate rational thinking, or some event in their history, fine. Attacking others, whether it be against religion in general or one religion taking aim at another, belongs in a different venue.

Like it or not, Christmas is a huge part of our culture, and only a small part of it has anything whatsoever to do with religion. Like many things, whatever it originated as, it’s taken on a life of it’s own, and the secular spirit of Christmas giving is worthy of everyone’s attention, no matter where it came from.

I couldn’t say it any better, so won’t even try. Just go read what is probably the most serious thing The Onion has ever done, and as usual, they nail it: God Clarifies “Don’t Kill” Rule.

Given the grief organized religion has caused world wide over the millenia, my first inclination is to say “we don’t”. People are quite capable of figuring out right and wrong on their own, though it might be a painful process for both them and those around them if they don’t have a good environment for learning it as they grow up. And in fact, religion or not, the environment kids have growing up is where they learn right and wrong.

Organized religion, for a lot of people, provides a primary venue for social interaction outside the family. Modern society has so many activities for people to do, and transportation (high gas prices or not) is so easy, that I think this is less of a factor than it used to be, but still, in many respects, it’s “one more activity of common interest”.

But it does have real value in its primary function: for all our strengths overall, all too often, humans are weak and forgetful. It is all too easy to bend the rules and let things start sliding down that slippery slope. Organized Religion has value in reminding us what our values are and helping us keep up our resolve to adhere to them. I think that’s why there’s so many different variations on the theme: because people choose different value sets, they need to find an organization that matches them reasonably closely, or else, in effect, they are told “you are a bad person because you don’t adhere to our way”.

One problem is that most of the time this “reminder” function is implemented in the form of an authority figure going “thall shalt”. What is mainly needed is a forum to discuss moral questions that arise periodically where people can weigh the pros and cons and come to a conclusion. Sometimes matters are a little too personal for public consumption, and you want a trusted third party to provide a view from a distance. Dare I say, this is one thing the Catholics almost got right with the confessional.

I shall have to see what I can do to help fulfill this need. While I can’t expect people to consider me a “trusted third party” (you certainly shouldn’t, unless you know me well!), I think a forum for weighing the pros and cons of day-to-day moral questions shouldn’t be too hard, combined with a wiki to capture the conclusions…

I confess, my first thought is that religion has been the cause of nearly as many wars as territorial battles. For some reason, all too often people seem to think that if you don’t agree with them, you’re evil spawn of the devil.

But that doesn’t answer the question: What is Religion?

Per dictionary.com, “1. a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.”

Basically, it boils down to “how did we get here and what should we do now that we’re here?” The first part of that is an interesting question that can’t really be answered, and it’s not really the part that is a big problem. The second part, on the other hand, is where people go off the deep end. In this context, “what should we do” is about morals: what’s “right” and what’s “wrong”. People tend to have strong feelings about such things, with the result that they have the attitude of “act this way or you’re evil spawn of the devil and you must die!” Fortunately, the last part is rare, but the rest isn’t, and all too often has a real impact on regular people just trying to live their lives in peace.

Part of that impact comes from the fact that people like to use religion as an excuse to avoid critical thinking. They go “well, it’s written here” or “I was told this by <religious leader>”, so that must be the way it is, whether what they’re told is contradictory or not (e.g. Leviticus). A corollary is that, once choosing to believe something, then “that is the One True Way”. This is another way of saying “I won’t even consider the idea that there are other ways of thinking”, and is the first step down the violent road all too many supposedly “peace loving” religions have taken (and I’m not talking just war here: the Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials are just a couple of the more well known religious persecutions that have taken place).

The fact is, you choose your morals, whether you are religious or not. You may be lazy and just accept the ones you grew up with, really avoiding any thinking, or you may actively choose a set, either by choosing a religious sect to follow, or just by deciding what you think is right and wrong (which, admittedly, to do properly is a lot more work!). Though, in point of fact, many end up doing the latter even when they choose to follow a religion, picking and choosing the parts they like and those they don’t. In this way, religion is simply a shortcut, a menu you start with: I’ll take “thou shalt not kill”, but no, I think I like fornicating thank you very much (at least that’s what a lot of people seem to start with!).

Just remember: when you choose a religion, you are making a statement about yourself for others to fit you into a box with. People who don’t know you can’t know that you have discarded the less charitable aspects of the religion (assuming you have!). Likewise, realize that religion is, in the end, very personal, and everyone trims it to fit their real beliefs. Wait until you get to know someone and who they really are before jumping to conclusions. The world will be a far better place for everyone…

I haven’t had the time to create the sermons I would like to put here, but recent events in the news compel me to comment on the followers of faith healing that take it to such extremes that they let children die painful deaths rather than get them basic modern medical care in the misguided belief that “it’s work of the devil”.

Ask yourself what sounds more like the devil’s work:

1. Tricking you into believing that sitting by and doing nothing while you watch a loved one suffer a painful death is a good thing
2. Figuring out what causes illnesses and how to cure them and save people’s lives

Is a deity who requires you to do the former someone you really feel is worthy of worship? What does that say about you as a person, given that you have so may choices in what to believe, none of which have any real claim to be “more right”?

If you believe in blind faith, you will be led around in the dark by those who choose to see, and you may not be taken where you would otherwise choose…

One of the most fundamental aspects to religion is trying to answer the questions, “How did we get here?” and “How should I live?” Most people, if they stopped and thought about it, could answer the latter question, but more on that later.

The answer to the first question is usually used as the grounds for the answers to the second one: The human mind, and, I think likely, any mind, simply cannot truly grasp the concept of infinity. We have a beginning and an end, and so must our world and our universe. We must have been created from somewhere, at some time. How could something have simply always existed? We are clearly too organized and complex to have just popped into being, ergo we were created, and if we were created, that Creator is so much more advanced than us, that it must be right.

Or, given the fact that we can actually watch significant evolution occur as we watch, not to mention paleontological examples showing it happening, we can extrapolate and understand that over millions of years, it’s amazing what continuous improvement can achieve.

Assuming there is an Almighty Creator also begs the question: how did it come about? Or was it always there? If we assume it was always there, then why do we need to assume its existence in the first place? Why not assume the universe has always been here, perhaps going through Big Bang cycles just because gravity wants to pull everything together and then Boom! Another cycle, forever. That at least has the advantage of sort of creating beginnings and endings. Though it raises the question that if it’s been doing that forever, and will continue doing it forever, sooner or later, our exact existance will replicate and every possible possibility will occur, rather like the multiple parallel universe scenarios, only sequentially rather than in parallel. And that raises the question of “does anything matter?”

I have my theory as to which is the right description of our existance, but in point of fact, it’s irrelevant.

How can the existence of a Creator be used to justify any human behavior? Its lack of attention and visibility clearly shows that we’re on our own, and even the Christian Genesis story explicitly states that since Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge, they, and we, are on our own.

Likewise, regardless of if we’ve done it before or will do it again, the fact is, we’re here now, living our lives, and these are the lives we have to live with, and decide what we want to do with them.

Which brings us back to the original point, that if people stopped and thought about what they were doing, it would be clear what is right and what is wrong. Often we don’t want to think too hard about that because it’s often inconvenient to our short term comfort, and possibly our long term comfort as well, but we do know, inside.

We don’t need to invent an all-powerful being to tell us, especially when it’s not around to tell us which of the many inconsistent “truths” various people want us to believe of it are actually its message. There are so many choices of religious paths to follow that the very act of choosing a religion is essentially making that very decision about what you believe to be right and wrong.

At most, what we need is gentle reminders from each other, “Hey, is that really a good idea?”, and in fact, that is the role that religion plays in most people’s lives.

Therein, however, lies the slippery slope: rather than keeping watch over each other, we get lazy and start letting our leaders do our thinking for us, and before we know it, we’re being led down a path that, if analyzed, is clearly not a righteous one.

What kind of person are you if you want to follow someone who believes it’s right to kill someone who disagrees with you?

What kind of person are you if you think it’s evil to love another person, because you don’t agree with their choice?

What kind of person are you if you think that anything pleasant is too much temptation to handle? Or that because you can’t handle it, no one else should be allowed to enjoy it either?

It is up to you to decide the person you want to be. You can follow blindly down paths that have been laid over the centuries by people with clear political agendas and motivations, or you can think about your values, and what you know is right and wrong.

I hope to provide some suggestions here as to what I believe is right and what is wrong, but no matter how much I know I’m right :-) not a single person should adopt them without giving them critical thought and applying them to their lives. Take a moment to reflect on recent activities and ask yourself, “Have I acted honorably? Where could I perhaps have done something differently? What have I done that I’m proud of?” The latter is important: we all have our weaknesses and make mistakes — that in itself does not make us bad people or evil.

But that’s another sermon…

A friend at work recently came in and said (essentially), “my fiance is interested in having you be the minister at our wedding because you remind her of Friar Tuck.”

OooooKkkkkk. I had to think on that one a minute as I burst out laughing. That just raises soooo many issues, but mainly how appropriate is it as a gay man and one who is pretty anti-religious in general to do something like that. And I suck at public speaking. But the romantic in me believes strongly in the idea of committing to each other, and, of course, if friends ask me to do something that important for them, I would be honored to do so.

So, online I went to see what I could turn up, and lo! The Universal Life Church popped up. Enter your name, street address and spam address and out pops an Ordination Certificate: I’m now The Reverend Alan Batie. Although I know a little about ULC from someone I know who’s a member, I checked, and their tenets are actually strongly in line with mine: A belief in freedom and doing what’s right. I can’t think of anything more important philosophically. My primary objections to most religions are that they train people to become pawns, which all too many people line up to be, and that they discourage critical thinking (not to mention that nasty tendency many religious zealots have to kill, or at the very least, oppress, those who don’t agree with them). I recognize that I don’t have the experience and/or vision to be much other than a pawn, but at least I try *not* to be one. Maybe now I’m a Bishop? I suppose Reverend will do for starters.

By leaving it up to the individual to direct their own lives within, essentially, the boundaries of “do no harm”, they almost require critical thinking, or at the very least encourage it.

As I thought about it more, I thought, “I’ve been handed a pulpit and a reason to preach: put up or shut up.” I always did talk too much, so here we are…  While I don’t think anyone is likely to make a movie about me, I hope it will give people something to think about!