RagingRev.com

Ever since I was very young I’ve felt an unexplainable drive to seek out , discover, and even defend truth, whatever that may be.  I think somehow this desire translated into a fervent religious belief through my teen years and a lengthy role in defending that belief.  That drive still exists, though my methods of determining exactly what is and is not true has changed entirely (from the view that truth was dictated by the Bible to the view that truth is dictated by the evidence is a pretty massive transition) and at this point I feel that the defense and propagation of that which is true transcends mere desire, but has moved into the realm of obligation.

For me,  it seems that the atheists, skeptics, Humanists, naturalists, rationalists,  and scientists of the world may even have a moral obligation to see that truth is not only spread (peaceably) but also defended in a world where the rational or empirical are often scoffed at – or worse.  When religious or otherwise irrational society largely dictates both social standards and the political environment there are some pretty severe consequences for virtually everyone that has to share space on this planet with them.  From homeopathy, to fundamentalists who refuse medical treatment for their children, to proponents of the Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell policy, and the denial of equal rights to homosexuals the majority largely decides what the rest of us can and cannot do, additionally these people will make victims of anyone and everyone in the name of their god.

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I found out yesterday that a local pastor used me in an illustration recently in one of his sermons. This was brought about because the pastor had seen a conversation or two that I had been in with a friend of mine that attends his church – now, the pastor did keep me personally anonymous but I wanted to hear this for myself.

When I listened to this I expected to become angry and to write a letter or  blog calling this guy out, this didn’t actually happen though. What I felt, as I heard my story story simplified and the death of my god minimized into a decision to “Just give up” a flood of memories hit me as I remembered the great pain I felt for those years as my faith slowly died. All day I sat there reliving much of that pain – as if this wound from over 4 years ago now had been reopened. Just as one might still feel the sting of losing a parent or loved one years after the fact, there are times that are increasingly rare that I remember this long struggle.

Please understand that I don’t share this in order to cause havoc in this man’s life. He meant no harm and we have emailed each other now a few times and I found him to be both gracious and very apologetic….I think he understands my point of view at this time. I would like to share with you both his sermon and my response to him because I feel that it illustrates quite well that for an ex-christian this is rarely something taken lightly and one should never assume that this is the case.

The portion of his sermon where he talks about me starts at around the 20 minute mark – the full MP3 audio can be downloaded Here.

Below is my response.

Dr. Daws,

 

Jimmy Garrett provided me with the sermon from August 8th that you gave regarding a Warrior Mentality and Persevering Till The End – in it, at around the 21 minute mark you made a mention of Jimmy’s atheist friend – that friend being me.

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I’ve ran into some internet connection issues that will keep me from updating both Twitter and this post for the rest of the week if not a little longer, be back soon.

I can be reached at revoxley501 at gmail dot com

Just a couple days ago, on July 8th 2010 a Federal Judge ruled that section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was unconstitutional. If you aren’t familiar with DOMA and Section 3 you should know that it established an official definition for the word ‘marriage’ as the legal union only between one man and one woman, furthermore it required the word `spouse’ refer only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.

Judge Tauro came to his ruling for various reasons; the atmosphere at the time of  DOMA’s passage in the senate was one where epithets and religious jargon were openly used in the chamber to describe the homosexual act leading him to believe that DOMA was intended to punish a group of people that were politically unpopular,  nor did the law do anything to protect the family as was it’s stated cause, most importantly for the purposes of the points I intend to make is that Section 3 in particular is a violation of States Rights as guaranteed by the Constitution in the Tenth Amendment.

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In an October 2000 Gallup Poll it was determined that, out of those polled, only 37% read the Bible on a daily or weekly basis. In my own personal experience, less than half of the professing Christians I know have ever read the entire Bible from cover to cover and don’t ever intend on doing so.

These statistics are not new to me though. This information bugged me deeply when I was a Christian and even more-so now. In this post I intend to show you why.

Christians, by and large, believe that the Bible is “The Word of God”…or at least most of them will make that claim. In fact it is considered by most Christian denominations to be a cardinal doctrine of their faith, that the Bible is the infallible ‘Word of God’ and is without error. It absolutely amazes me that many people that identify as Christians who have not read the full text of the Bible or even spent a large amount of time in study of it often make this same claim. Why is that a problem? Shouldn’t this news make me, as an atheist, very happy?

It doesn’t make me happy at all for a number of reasons:

For one, it tells me that Christians are believing things without even knowing what those things are. One might believe that the Bible is 100% authoritative in all things, yet may not understand that this belief entails justifications of god’s prophets sending bears to slaughter children (2 Kings 2:23–24), mass racial genocides (Joshua 6:20–21, Deuteronomy 2:32–35, Deuteronomy 3:3–7, Numbers 31:7–18, 1 Samuel15:1–9), condoning of rape (Judges 21:1–23), and child sacrifice (Judges 11:30–39). I know that the majority of Christians have never heard of most of these stories from the Bible, yet they still hold to the idea that it is perfection and breathed from god’s lips — would knowledge of these stories and supposed “Truths” change their view of the Bible?  For some it would have to.

Keep reading:

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This is the first post in a series in which I intend to explain, philosophize, argue, and even convince myself of a new approach in my own personal life regarding my lack of religious faith.

For nearly two years now I’ve been an out atheist and as a result of a very painful process of losing my faith I have to force myself to embrace a Truth regarding myself – I’ve been bitter, angry, and sometimes hurtful toward other people. Some of them deserved it while others did not and I feel the need to repair my approach to humanity.

The fact is, despite my best efforts and the efforts of my peers, we are stuck here with religion and the religious – the vast majority of whom, due to the nature of faith, will hold on to their faith despite all of the good evidence you and I can provide to the contrary. Religion, as a whole, may one day disappear but not without many more years of scientific discovery and understanding so that all questions in which god can be a hypothetical answer to may be answered – if they ever are.

It’s not that I’ve suddenly forgotten all of the dangers of religion or how it has held humanity behind for ages – I haven’t. I simply can’t justify the effects that my approach have had on myself and others in the last few years. Despite being the happiest I’ve ever been, there has still been this underlying bitterness…even a persecution complex (something I often accuse Christians of) in-so-much that I may often see persecution in places that it isn’t actually occurring. Of course persecution absolutely does occur and yes I have absolutely been a victim of it – but my failure has been in giving those around me the benefit of the doubt.

Lessons of experience

Over the last few months I have found myself associated with two organizations, one of which I am a founding officer called C.O.F.F.E.R of Dodge County – a citizens organization dedicated to working with the local Board of Education to ensure that responsibility is used in the areas of education and finance. Secondarily I am now performing all of the web-admin duties and doing other volunteer work for Faithful Hearts Animal Shelter (501c3) – a local startup non-profit incorporation of individuals interested in building a permanent rescue for abandoned and abused animals in my local area (we desperately need it – but that’s a whole different story, just know that my wife and I are pretty much animal freaks.)

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Today as I type this billions of Christians all over the world are celebrating the "Holy Day" known as Easter, the celebration of the supposed resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Today, hundreds of thousands – perhaps even millions of atheists are delighting themselves in calling it Zombie Jesus Day, much like I did last year. This year, for me, the joke is old – I get it and all and of course it makes sense but I just don't find the same humor in it that I once did because I know that it offends some of my dear friends.

As a result of perhaps maturing another year I've chosen to make this day a different sort of holiday for me at least and I wonder if my atheist cohorts would decide to do the same.

A New Proposal

Rather than trolling message boards, Reddit,  and Facebook all day today calling Christians out on their worship of a man that may never have existed I intend to make this day, and any other Christian holiday a day of reason – and I'm going to do so respectfully.

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Next week will be the first official "A Week on Facebook" in which thousands of Atheists will be changing their profile picture to the well known Scarlet letter 'A'. The purpose for this is to show the world that we, as atheists, are here and regardless of what the world may believe about us, good without God.

I not only think this is a great opportunity to tell the world who we are and to renounce the myth that a deity is the provider of morality, it is also a wonderful time to come out of the closet and let your own friends and family know that you are an atheist if you have yet to do so. Of course I'd never encourage anyone to come out that may be hounded or threatened by their family, but if you are a person with a somewhat reasonable surrounding then perhaps you should consider taking advantage of this opportunity. If you aren't in a location or time at your life where it is safe to do so you have my sympathies – I've certainly been there as well.

I also want to encourage other minority groups to organize an event such as this one. I think something like this would be most beneficial to the GLBT community and I know that many atheists would be willing to show our support for GLBT rights and identity if it were done.

All the details of 'A' Week can be found at This Website or this Facebook Page.

I'll be participating and I've encouraged those on my Facebook Fan Page to do so as well, will you? Why or why not?

Saturday March, 20th 2010 at 11PM EST I will once again be a guest on ParaTrinity Radio. This episode will feature myself, an Atheist, as well as a Christian and a Wiccan and we will be discussing beliefs, god, religion, and all sorts of other things.

Last time I was on the program it was their most popularly downloaded program yet, and I’d like to break that record again with the new episode. We had lots of fun last time and since this is an unleashed debate it should be even better.

Here’s what hosts Mike and LE had to say about the upcoming show:

Saturday, March 20th, ParaTrinity Radio will have three guests, of three different religions, of three different beliefs on air to discuss god, ghosts, and more!

We will be talking to atheist – Matt Oxley (as heard on Feb. 20th), witch/wiccan – Marla Brooks (as heard in Jan. and March 13th), and lastly, Christian – Christopher Maggard (TriState Paranormal investigator) in a round table style discussion with some possible debates.

You will NOT want to miss this one! Saturday at 11pm in Studio B of www.asprn.com!

Links of Interest:

At 11PM EST on March 20th click This Link to get to the live broadcast of the program, there will be a live chat room during the show.

ParaTrinity On Facebook

ParaTrinity Unleashed (Facebook Event for RSVP purposes, invite your friends please!)

RagingRev.com Fan Page

It is often said by believers of all faiths that to be without God is to be without a thing called Hope.

Hope, defined as the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best, is far from foreign to me. I’d even go so far as to say that my life is more filled with hope now than it ever was when I believed in the god of Christianity.

When I was a believer my hope was in my salvation, something I believed to have been provided by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. I had the hope that the things of this world would soon pass away and that there would be an eternity of God’s presence to endure. I had hope in the promise of a relationship with that god and in the idea that he wanted for me to experience his love and compassion despite my own depravity (and in the idea that he desired this same thing for all mankind.). I experienced the hope of an afterlife and hope in miracles while still living.

I know the hope that the Christian speaks of, I’ve experienced it, felt it, lived it…in fact I know from personal experience all of the elements that Christians or other religious folks may claim that the godless are not privy to, yet hope is by far one of the most prevalent elements of my life now – without god.

I have hope, I have lots of it. I feel that what I have now is far more tangible than what I had prior to my fall from grace.

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