“The problem is you’re sober.” – The Lives of Cowboys, Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keiller
Venus and the Sisters - Photo by Fred Espenak (Bifrost Astronomical Observatory)
“I don’t consider Andrew Sullivan to be a religious authority, okay?” – Rick Warren, ABC “This Week”
I love the boys, but I’m tired of hearing them preach.
Why do we care what Rick Warren thinks? Not to pick on him, because it applies to all of organized religion’s men pontificating Sunday across the globe. I’d say the same about women, but there are no equals to consider.
WARREN: And when you ignore these things, then we’re going to get deeper and deeper into debt, and then we can’t blame God for that… The biggest problem for all of our economic problems is our inability to delay gratification. I want it and I want it now, and I’m going to buy it even if I can’t afford it. And not only have people done that, the government’s done it…
I hold the people who got themselves in debt. I hold the government that got themselves in debt. I hold multiple administrations. It’s not the fault of any one person. There’s plenty enough blame to be passed around.
Religious institutions and leaders have become like diets, with the same success rates to match.
Religious, agnostic or atheist, it only matters in your own life and how it helps you connect to what’s larger than religion, beyond Christ, Buddha, or Muhammed. Because there is something larger than us all and it exists with or without your organized faith of choice and even the lack of that faith.
But you may choose to still call it God.
On Easter, I get a kick out of the atheists, who tend to work hardest on holy days. They always amuse me, especially those who are planet-caring, like Bill Maher. He and his athiest allies miss the irony of their surety about there being nothing more, while positing our energies and actions impact the planet, which is nothing less than an affirmation of a galaxy of interconnection and reaction.
This happens on the force of something, but what?
Life is dependent on waves of energy colliding, the biggest bang theory honed to smaller, mini bangs that impact our lives and is irrefutable.
It is not ordained by one gender over another, one religion or another, though human civilization has decided men are allowed the ear of a god, but women are not, without a male conduit.
Jesus crafted as the human form of God, with religious disciples of this story forced to ignore the theory of energy exploding, as man in the form of a god makes him secure in his superiority in a universe of supplication to cosmic combustion.
The very notion of the universe foils the religious, with feminine and male equal to access energy, which knows no bigotry or misogyny and needs no faith, because of its constancy.
“Meet the Press” actually broke with the all-male Tim Russert religious legacy this Sunday, distinguishing itself by having evangelist Billy Graham’s daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, on for Easter. It’s a media miracle, the association to her faith giant father her entry.
Rick Warren dispensed his version of faith on “This Week,” something Jake Tapper and I got into it over on Twitter yesterday. I saw a “This Week” promo basically asking “are Mormons Christian?” I called them on it. Tapper obviously saw my tweet with the #thisweek hashtag and tweeted me: why should you care about a theological discussion with a major American religious leader? Nice framing, that. Tapper, who’s as good as media offers, missing or ignoring the religious gender bias women are fed every holy day. My reply: Why talk to same male “major Amer. religious leader(s)” excluding women’s voices? Why ask if Mormons Christian? Bigoted question. It went on from there, but Tapper had no answer for why no female religious leader was invited on. Nobody ever does.
Easter Sunday continues to be about listening to men.
Tapper and “This Week” felt it was more important to discuss Andrew Sullivan’s writings and the Newsweek cover.
The Mormon and Catholic churches do not allow women to hold the priesthood, however differently they define it; while Southern Baptists genuflect to sexist traditions, as fundamentalist faiths, including Muslim, favor misogyny.
Never before have we needed a modern religious reformation more, a conversation about women breaking out of the laity and into the priesthood.
Andrew Sullivan is dispensing his two cents about Jesus Christ, getting attention from the media and conservatives for it, because it’s seen as controversial. This from a man who fails continually upward and has never been held accountable for defaming Sarah Palin through his concoction of lies about one of her children not really being her own. Not exactly Christian, honest or ethical on any count, but it matters not. He’s a man of faith, so bring him forth, showing media tolerance because he’s gay, never mind what he spews forth.
Religiosity in America is thriving, while choking us, because what it actually means to be a person of faith in our country is anyone’s guess. We’re so far gone from the golden rule that we’ve lost all sense of grace.
Upon Trayvon Martin’s murder, racism got noticed yesterday. The National Review’s Rich Lowry, after receiving a large ration of grief, canned John Derbyshire.
His latest provocation, in a webzine, lurches from the politically incorrect to the nasty and indefensible. We never would have published it, but the main reason that people noticed it is that it is by a National Review writer. Derb is effectively using our name to get more oxygen for views with which we’d never associate ourselves otherwise. So there has to be a parting of the ways. Derb has long danced around the line on these issues, but this column is so outlandish it constitutes a kind of letter of resignation.
This comes after Patrick J. Buchanan got fired from MSNBC for his book Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?, which caused a ruckus over the racial theory espoused in its pages. The “Morning Joe” hosts lamented the loss of their friend, as did some of their audience, which tells you all you need to know about the state of race in America.
All of this coming from so-called “Christians.”
Organized religion may be a gateway, but rapture as a goal is a ghastly way to promote enlightenment, though the surety of it is a blockbuster. If you get stuck in church and never go beyond, you’re basically in as rotten a place as atheists who rarely challenge themselves to answer the quandary of connection, which happens beyond religion and is more holy.
To get to the power where connecting to whatever energy that exists as the force that once got it all started, which offers the channel to move it with your mind, you’ve got to find the magnetic stream in whatever atom ignites into an idea in your unlimited imagination and ascertain the path that leads to tapping into the exploding universe to which we are all part, connected and second.
You are the energy that makes the world turn.
Focusing on whether “Mormons are Christian” is idiocy, as atheists will tell you. However, their own myopia revealed is the firmness to which they cling to nothingness, which is belied by the universe, science, and medicine.
Connectivity is the power to seek, the journey never ending. Finding the energy where you get outside your mind, beyond the Bible, galaxies away from rapture, there is simply The Source to tap, to mold on the way to manifestation.
The intent to access it can move your life. That can change your present. It manifests uniquely your future.
It’s beyond belief. Energy is.
It requires no organized religion, though it can be a gateway when a mind is laid open. It requires no holy book, though the enlightened can be welcomed guides. It certainly depends on no man or Pope.
We need no conduit. Energy is ours to mold in our own mind at will. Organized religion and its male promoters won’t teach you how.
Try Quakerism.
I’m old enough to remember Richard M. Nixon!
I’m really impressed that you know Nixon was a peaceful Quaker. When I tell people that they never believe it.
” In the beginning there was nothing. God said, ‘ Let there be light! ‘ And there was light. There was still nothing, but you could see it a whole lot better. ” – Ellen DeGeneres
Ah, taking a break from giggling at “weak” teen-agers who commit suicide to poke fun at the religious now, huh? My what a busy weekend we’re having!
Weak and spoiled, and self indulgent, and jealous, and believing ( thanks to their parents ) that their special and they can do anything they put their minds too and not to let anyone put them down. Their parents probably never stopped telling them how loved they were and how they could stay at home for as long as they needed to and they were always welcome to come back. Let’s not forget self esteem, don’t let any bad person diss their self esteem, or insult them, or my favorite; disrespect them. It’s really not their fault though, their parents grew up in the sixties and popped them out in the seventies. You remember the seventies, mirrors were very popular. Hey! I just wanted to say that every time you insult me it really makes me hard.
Guess I have been away from this board over the last few months to understand this dialogue…anyone care to enlighten me? Do not have the time to read old posts…
Believe me, it’s not important.
Check out fangio’s comments on “Bully.” What he considers “not important” (a child’s way of attempting to peevishly avoid apologizing for being a revoltingly unfunny moron) is his chuckling at the thought of “weak” teenagers committing suicide because they “feel bad.”
I don’t blame him for wanting people to forget it. If I had posted what he did yesterday, I’d want people to forget it, too.
Yeah, when did disrespect (or diss-respek in the local vernacular) become a verb?
Religious people should be made fun of until we can eventually get past all this imaginary hoo-ha.
Brilliant analysis, Taylor. There are many terrific statements in this piece, but this one is my favorite:
Thank you.
Appreciate it, ladywalker68.
“Focusing on whether “Mormons are Christian” is idiocy, as atheists will tell you. However, their own myopia revealed is the firmness to which they cling to nothingness, which is belied by the universe, science, and medicine.”
Ms. Marsh, you surprise me…what complete and utter nonsense. Wanting to understand how and why things are is a 180% away from “cling to nothingness”.
Throwing up ones hands and saying GAWD done er is.
I have no idea why you’re surprised.
Considering you mock people of faith regularly with no respect whatsoever, as do other atheists. So you’re taking issue with the same cavalier manner being turned against what you think?
Well, boo-fricking hoo.
The arrogance of atheists is as insulting as the hubris of religious men who think they deserve to rule over faith, with women on the outside of the priesthood looking in at the wreckage.
I am so not joining in on this one.
It has nothing to do with “respect”.
It has to do with accuracy,
You made a ridiculously inaccurate statement, so inaccurate as to be 180% away from reality.
THAT is what surprised me. I have until that one always found your comments to be well considered opinions arrived at after much contemplation of information and facts.
If someone wants to mock or make fun of my or anyone else’s nonbelief have at it. Other then a chuckle over superstition based views attempting to mock reality and data no feelings, hard or otherwise are generated.
So no boo, frickin or otherwise, hoo is necessary
Considering the horrific misery and genocide and wars fought in the name of “religion” I will take the arrogance of atheists every time. Every, frickin time.
But I still lovez ya. I hoipe ya KNOWZ I duzzzzz!
Hang on, Sec. You are about to be hit with Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot. They always go there.
No argument from me about religious carnage. I’m a woman and know all about it.
Don’t know what Pol Pot’s views were but Hitler, considering how often he invoked almighty GAWD and such wasn’t…Stalin was a failed Seminary student if I’m not mistaken but I’ll see them three dictators and raise them an inquisition.
Apparently, my development has been hampered by studying physics for so long in college. There, for some reason, we were told that energy was an abstract concept related to the ability to do work. Perhaps a better definition would be the ability to affect matter, since often times it’s not work in the sense most of us mean that’s accomplished. It has been ever since Isaac Newton and his contemporaries created the orderly world of equations we now call classical physics.
For all we know, there is no such thing as energy. It is, however, a wonderfully elegant way of describing how matter behaves around us. We can’t see energy. We see its effects. That’s true no matter what kind of energy we’re talking about.
That’s how we know what we know about the universe – by observing the universe, making hypotheses, and testing them until we find something that works. We know what we know about evolution, geology, astronomy, and a whole host of other areas of inquiry, because we observed the aftermath of those processes, and constructed mental models that explain them and, more importantly, aren’t contradicted by them. We didn’t learn any of it through introspection. That includes what we call “energy”.
Choosing to actually find out about the world, and use that knowledge to make our lives better, isn’t “nothingness”. If anything, it’s the exact opposite – it’s the thing that really matters.
Anyone who is actually interested in finding out how atheists really view the world, rather than this cartoon caricature, are welcome to check out the atheism keyword at my blog. There’s also an entire network of blogs, Free Thought Blogs that discuss various aspects of secular life.
Incidentally, Easter is also Blog Against Theocracy weekend. I haven’t found a published list of links yet, but my contribution is finally up.
Happy Zombie Jesus Day.
Stop being an arrogant atheist, Cujo.
Is there any other kind? I mean, really, we actually decided that gods aren’t necessary to explain the universe. Some of us even, in our utter hubris, that the idea of gods present their own contradictions. How arrogant is that?
Speaking of arrogance, there’s been not a single hit from that earlier link I left here. Guess all those humble folks already knows what atheism’s about, eh?
Their usual response is that atheism is simply another belief system, and boom — no more dialog. Atheism is the absence of belief.
Not a single hit? Better check our analytics software. I devoured your site, subscribed in my RSS reader, and followed you on Twitter. Dude!
Choosing to actually find out about the world, and use that knowledge to make our lives better, isn’t “nothingness”. If anything, it’s the exact opposite – it’s the thing that really matters… …we actually decided that gods aren’t necessary to explain the universe.
The absence of belief…
Have at it, discover and thrive on your choice of moving through life.
We all navigate differently.
Do you have Javascript disabled, Rick R? They use the “nofollow” tag here in links, but I should still have seen those hits as hits with no referring URL. Sitemeter requires Javascript to count properly, though. At least, that’s my theory.
I should probably use a different stat counter, but Google doesn’t filter out my own visits, and none of the others struck me as intrinsically better.
Taylor, you’ve gotta believe me when I tell you that there are very few atheists in this country over the age of 18 who have not been exposed to most of the predominate religious ideas.We considered them and rejected them, because they don’t make sense to us. Some don’t make sense at all, others don’t in light of what we’ve learned about the world as a species. Rejecting flawed reasoning isn’t arrogance. It’s the act of an educated person.
Happy Easter Taylor. I think, given this article, you would appreciate this!!!
http://youtu.be/rpjJ4EypmpM
I can’t speak for Taylor, but I found the video quite refreshing, thank you!
your welcome! Happy Easter
Thanks for that, dafederalist.
I thought the same thing about Sullivan. For a man to be given the opportunity to compare himself to Jefferson in a major magazine was quite something when that same man has shown himself to be given to very unchristian like flights of mean and vindictive fantasy.
I was thinking spiritual thoughts this Easter morning too. Mine are much more local and natural world driven.I don’t go out in the Universe much but within my ecosystem here at the lake ; the birds are stealing from my wreaths for their nests,the crappy have made their rock beds off my dock, the Blue Heron are back ,everything is growing like tospy and my goddaughter is in labor with her second little boy. I am a believer in Mother Earth and the power of rebirth of the natural world every spring. It is almost enough or me. I must admit that I throw furvent wishes to the universe about every half an hour that it take care of my girl while she is having her baby..
Organized religion is a male construct meant to control women and society IMHO. A very destructive force in our world.
Religions, like many organizations, often end up serving the needs of the folks who run them. It’s even worse, I think, when it’s considered offensive to question either their purpose (the religion, IOW), or their character. When those folks are men, men are the ones who will be served. In that sense, at least, I agree.
I see no reason why there can’t be a religion that can’t serve womens’ needs, instead, except that there may not be enough in power for that sort of thing to work.
That should be “a religion that can serve womens’ needs”. Simpler sentences… simpler sentences!
Well said, Lake Lady.
Happy Easter to all, from an agnostic who is confident enough in his own uncertainty not to feel the need to mock the sincerely held beliefs of others!
Your so special, maybe you should commit suicide before your contaminated.
More evidence that you are beneath contempt.
Someone told you you were clever once. They were lying. And now we are paying the price.
BRAVA, jjamele.
That’s the place of humility on this subject very few on any side of this discussion rarely finds.
I do not believe in any God… But I respect those who do… as long as they do not ignore science .. I concur with Cujo..
Thanks. The world is so amazing to me that it’s hard to see why people wouldn’t want to find out more about it. Most religious stories seem positively dull compared to what we actually understand.
(I said I wouldn’t get into this, but here goes.) How can you respect those who do believe? I don’t.
When I encounter bright people who say they believe, I have to tell myself they don’t really mean it. How can they possibly mean it? We outgrow having imaginary playmates and believing in the Easter Bunny, Santa, and the Tooth Fairy, but so many hang on to the other stuff. I sincerely can’t get my head around that.
It might just be early conditioning. When we’re young, our minds are much different. If you grow up around people for whom religious belief is a part of their lives, I suspect your mind will develop to expect such things, even if you can, on some level, figure out later that it doesn’t make much sense.
That, plus any religion with a myth of an afterlife has built-in motivation to ignore any reality that conflicts with it.
Anyway, I am used to compartmentalizing my respect for peoples’ opinions. There are things they clearly know about, and often, there are things they clearly don’t. On any of the latter subjects, more proof is required before I’ll trust their opinions.
Great column Taylor!
Thank you!
I don’t agree with 100% of it, but I do agree with almost 100%. Religion today is more divisive and stupid in many ways than it ever has been. My own view is that it is primarily because most people professing a particular religious “brand” like fundamentalism (recently renamed evangelicalism) and other garden varieties of Christianisms is that neither their leaders nor their followers actually know much about the religion they claim to be so very faithful to. Right wing Christians are particularly ignorant of the basic tenets and precepts of the Christian faith both historically and in the present. Their leaders are not well educated generally speaking let alone well educated in terms of reputable and decent schools of theology and the like. Most of them are just fairly dumb, but gregarious guys like Ted Haggard who attend a two-bit “bible college” for a year or two and receive a sham degree thus claiming to be a minister. These poorly informed, if not completely misled and misinformed, religious leaders then go out and teach others all the misinformation they have been fed. Thus, the right wing Christians are, generally speaking, every bit as dumb as their preachers who should have been salesmen but there weren’t any sales jobs when they were looking to get hired. Many of the mainstream Chrisitans are also poorly informed but in most cases their ministers and other leaders are at least well educated and have an actual intellectual and historical understanding of their religion, their denomination, biblical scholastic thought and research and all that.
Not all of the Christian denominations oppress women and deny them positions of leadership. I am a Presbyterian and women have been ordained ministers and holding positions of leadership in the church since before I was born and I’m over 50. The denominations that are progressive in this way are far too few of course. But your point that no women are chosen to speak on Easter is an excellent one and one for which their is no excuse at all. The media could, if it chose to, easily find authoritative female leaders to discuss these issues but they are lazy and poorly informed themselves so they just don’t bother and we are all poorer for the exclusion of women’s voices on all matter religious.
The one thing I take issue with you on is the question of whether or not Mormons are Christians. If one is a Christian this is actually a fairly important question. For some it may determine whether or not they vote for a person which is, in my view, a terrible criteria for choosing an elected official, but for others it’s simply a matter of education. The reason it is an issue is because Mormons say they are Christians, yet they do not adhere to the most basic tenets of the Christian faith. Saying you believe in Jesus doesn’t make one a Christian. Never did. Never will. Nobody thinks Muslims are Christians yet there is no dispute over the fact that Muslims believe in Jesus, but they believe in Jesus in the same way Christians believe Jesus superceded Moses. For Islam, Jesus was superceded as the final and authoritative prophet by Mohammed. Mormons depart from Christian belief and are not considered Christians by any major Christian denomination because they believe that God was a man who, upon perfecting himself, becamse a God. This is fundamentally at odds with both Jewish and Christian belief across the board. That alone, determines that Mormons are not Christians. They also have beliefs about Jesus himself which are shared by no Christian denomination on earth. That is essentially why no Christian denominations accept Mormon’s as Christians though there are numerous other Mormon beliefs and practices that are at odds with fundamental and universal Christian beliefs. Thankfully, most denominations are not so heavy handed and oafish as the fundamentalists that go around trumpeting this fact. Adding insult to injury they are incredibly inartful and clumsy in how they express this view and so look like bigots when they could more diplomatically get the point across without being as offensive as they are on almost everything.
So, that’s my one quibble with your column. It does matter and it is an important point for many people.
I like your view of energy and how it “is” and how it binds all things, etc… There are many ways to express our perception of understanding of this greater thing we are all part of and which we can, if we allow ourselves, feel in our bones. My own belief is that words and images have hindered a more advanced understanding of the universe, it’s meaning, purpose, and our relationship to it. When one uses the word God, almost everyone instantly conjures up the almighty grandfather in the clouds sitting on his throne judging, listening to and answering prayers and that sort of thing. I think this construct was useful in the ancient world and now holds us back. I cannot tell you what God is, but if God is all powerful, responsible for creation, animates the universe and so on, then this is a being that my little brain cannot fully grasp and neither can any other human beings fully grasp. And, to my mind, it doesn’t matter if we do. What matters is to understand that this unexplainable and bewildering power that is beyond our understanding exists and that surely our existence is meaningful in the scheme of things to one degree or another. What that is, particularly, is the subject of much debate of course. For myself, I believe our purpose here, as self aware beings with enormous capability, is to love and appreciate this existence and all that is in it, particularly other living things. Our hearts tell us we should love and serve one another, that we should love and serve this magnificent, perfect, living planet that we have been so fortunate to be born on. IMHO our planet and the universe are living things too. Just because we don’t understand them doesn’t mean they aren’t living organisms. Anyway, it’s a subject that humanity will never fully understand, but like you (I think), I don’t believe we need ot understand it all. We do, however, need to understand that we are part of something larger, we have a role, and that it is our obligation to try and relate responsibily to it and to do what we can to make it a better place in which to exist.
Thanks again for a great, thought provoking and status quo challenging column!
Appreciate it, oleeb.
Thanks also to everyone for the emails on this column, by the way!
As for Mormons as Christians, they simply have an extra book by which they navigate. I have no more problem with Kolob than I do with the Pope, though Mormons are as misogynistic as any organized religion on planet earth.
But then again, I’m so far outside organized religion and their tenets today, though I remain an Episcopalian with my home church All Saint’s, because I respect the ritual.
So, I’ll let Christians argue over this one and appreciate the time you took to make the argument. But the judgment goes to the silliness of all organized faiths. It’s not anyone’s place to judge a Mormon on their level of Christianism, but people do and that’s the problem with all organised religions that keep faithful locked in a hamster wheel of religious futility.
We don’t need a conduit to tap into whatever energy that helps us move matter with our minds into our lives. Organized religion will never lead you to The Source, or the question of what that means, though it can be the gateway that inspires you to break free and have your own adventure.
Taylor, what does that last paragraph even mean?
Why not? Oh, yes, it is! Why is religion out of bounds of criticism? Indians as a lost tribe of Israel? Golden tablets? Jesus appearing in America? The whole Missouri thing? It’s all silliness. They laughed at Dennis Kucinich over the UFO thing. So should Mormons be laughed at. It’s all just as silly. As is the Catholic wine and bread thing turning literally into blood and flesh. The virgin birth. All of it. We are a mature species. It’s time to leave the silliness behind. We don’t need it anymore to explain how the world works. We mostly know how it works, and the remaining gaps are quickly getting filled in.
Easter message for the non-believer
I love Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson and that was BEAUTIFUL. I couldn’t identify with his statement of “connectivity” more.
Thanks so much for that link, Sandmann.
Sure thing, and did you know that the Fox network has ordered a 13-episode sequel to Carl Sagan’s ‘Cosmos’? Cosmos: A Personal Voyage is set to air in 2013 in primetime.
Seth MacFarlane is producing the series, and Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson will be hosting…how awesome is that!
The modern copout is to say I’m spiritual but not religious or I’m against organized religion. Phooey! That is a step on the progression to being honest with yourself that you simply don’t believe that drivel anymore. Come on along!