Absence Might Be Stronger

I've never been particularly religious, but until about three or four years ago I had never really dove very deep into it to explore what I really thought and felt. Much of the dust of that inner search had settled long before I started this blog, which is why aside from brief mentions here and there I haven't written much yet about religion. Having settled into a sort of secular humanist approach to atheism (most likely strongly related to my core philosophy), I expect that trend of relative silence here on religion to mostly continue.

However, it isn't just that my immediate interest and search has ended. A lot of my silence also has to do, I think, with a certain passive approach I've noticed in myself. Having just written a piece on my core philosophy, I noticed the stark absence of anything remotely religious in there. This was not a conscious attempt, though it is perhaps less surprising I suppose since I generally don't have any religion in my life. But I almost think this is more profound in the long term.

Knowing Enough To Know I Know Nothing

It takes every fiber of my being to resist arguing with folks on the usual suspects: religion and politics. And it's not for the reason you might think. Sure, I hold very controversial positions (read: atheist libertarian) on each subject, so I'm bound to disagree with just about anyone I talk to. But that's not why I resist the urge, generally speaking.

I read a lot. I try to keep up with the basics in news, particularly politics, science, and other geeky things related to my career in software. It takes a lot of my time. I imagine many folks choose other things instead. Or choose to read different topics than I do. That's fine, of course.

But if all of this absorption of knowledge so far in my short life has taught me anything it is that things are always more complicated than they seem.

Implicit Stance

Last month I sent in a short essay that basically introduced my idea of implicit stances to The Bible Geek. It was read on the April 18th podcast. (This wasn’t my first question/commentary sent in and responded to, though.) I plan to elaborate more on implicit stances in the future, as it is sort of one of my pet ideas I’ve been mulling over on the side for some time now.

What follows is my email to him copied mostly verbatim.

The Post Apocalypse Post

By now you’ve probably heard that the Christians are still here.

I enjoy The Thinking Atheist’s videos. They’re always impeccably produced, with an air of quality and refinement far above what you usually get on the Tube of You.

That said, I always get slightly unnerved watching them. They always feel as though the writers are barely holding back jumping for joy when they get to slam Christianity on something (in this case, the false prediction of Harold Camping). That often-thinly-veiled jubilation at making digs at religious folks always irks me, but admittedly never enough to turn me off from watching them.

I guess it is because even if I agree with them on the whole there not being any gods thing, I don’t find any joy in making cheap shots at “the other team”…

You gotta admit: with as much trashing as Christianity gets every day, there are next to no violent acts performed in response. Unlike certain other religions, Christians seem to be pretty good sports at taking it and respecting free speech. I’m not saying heated debates don’t rage on YouTube every time any religious video is posted, but that’s a far cry from shootings or, worse, beheadings.

Of course, if you ask me, I think that Good Natured Sport quality stems more from the kind of people that tend to be Christians rather than anything inherent to Christianity itself (or said unnamed religion). Christians tend to come from well-to-do, relatively-free countries like the US and UK, which I think explains most of the tolerance displayed. It is inherent to the culture rather than the religion, really, since I don't think most people take their faith that seriously.

The guild consensus

Like most people, I take my car to a mechanic when it’s time for an oil change. Despite claims otherwise, I happen to be a fairly capable human being. Sometimes I even use my brain. I’m fully confident in my ability to learn and apply basic car maintenance skills. I don’t for two reasons:

• I’m lazy
• I’m lazy I’d rather leave it to an expert

Specialization, as I’ve mentioned before, is a wonderful thing for humanity. It is what has given us such a wealth of choices and what allows us to master so many different things as a people. It can be daunting at times, but without it we’re merely collectively scratching the surface.

All because of that annoying thing called time. We only get so much of it.

Timidity in fear of reprisal

I haven’t written much on here thus far about the big G, mostly because I went through my big non-theistic binge some two or three years ago. Had I been writing then I surely would have been overflowing with thoughts on the matter, but as it has since become more-or-less “settled” for me I don’t often find topics to discuss. I’m also not too keen personally on ranting about how there is no god.

As a libertarian (something I have mentioned a few times on here now), I’m much more of a “live and let live” kind of guy, and as such I don’t really desire to trample on other people’s faith. If you ask me about it, I’ll tell you honestly: I don’t buy it and I think it’s horseshit. But then, nobody asks me. Maybe that’s for the best, as I’d rather like to avoid the inevitable consequences that would cause.

But that’s what brings me to the table today: atheist cowardice.