Reason and Belief: Thoughts on communication practices

I am notoriously agnostic. Actually I am able to identify better with the atheist movement than anything else, but I do not call myself an atheist. As fellow Deacon and co-music director of the Church of What's Happening Now, Ian has noted: we share a natural disposition to be frustrated by wishy-washy people, but when it comes to the question of God we (at least I) find it almost noble. Now I suppose that raises the point of that making us wishy-washy, but that's another question better left for another post.

But one thing I notice by the fundamentalists of the atheist and the theist camps is that there is a tendency to use reason (or science) as a term that is the opposite of belief (or religion, or God). It's natural to think this way when we are confronted by it at all turns. Pro-choice vs. Pro-Life is my favorite example. Do you think that those that identify themselves as "Pro-Life" are constantly living their lives as though life is paramount to all things? Of course they don't all believe that. I point to the tired example of pro-life proponents that are advocates for the death penalty. This is one example of people using polarizing language and thought patterns but don't think about the consequences of the language they use.

Richard Dawkins, Bill O'Reilly, Ben Stein (stay-the fuck-tuned), Sam Hitchens, all of these men use this same communication habit, and when people attempt to engage in honest dialog about religion, they fall into the same trap. This isn't to say that faith or reason aren't real things with real qualities on both sides, just that they don't seem to be antonyms in my mind.

Do reason and faith intersect? I think it's clear that there are important people in each field that are being ignored to make way for the fundamentalists. There is no reason that these two fields cannot be related, or that one can have utter faith in one over the other. But the habit of saying faith vs. reason, or science vs. God, as though these two things are mutually exclusive is pathetic and unreasonable.

Look, I'm not trying to say that I have a better answer than anyone else, but living as though science doesn't exist is ignorant and wrong. And as Trey Parker (creator of South Park) put it (through Stan Marsh) "Couldn't evolution be the answer to how and not the answer to why?" I'm not convinced, and I've read some of Dawkins' stuff
and haven't found anything that suggests the existence of God is completely out of the question. But again this is probably left for a different post.

Here's my point: these terms are not used to benefit either movement, they are just meant to tear the other one down. That is no way to construct positive communication, but that should surprise no one. Neither side seems to want to convince anyone that they are right, just that another side is wrong.

Is-Is

This guy speaks my language.

In Defense of (my) Marriage

So I found some idiocy on the interwebs today. Shocking, I know. But this also tickled my funny bone, because it is such a ridiculous proposition. I just had to share this with the Church.

The premise of this post is that feminism has it's roots in Communism - well, maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. Call me what you will, but I don't think Communism is the worst idea to ever hit this planet. Especially if it espouses ideas like this:

"Families are stronger and happier if the father knows how to fix the cereal, tie the bibs and take care of the youngsters."

This is part of the "re-education" of men that is leading to the downfall of our country. But you know, could this actually be true? I know my family is pretty strong and happy, and the Freakin' Deacon is a great dad - hands on, involved, always willing to feed or bathe our children (or anything else they need). Heck, he even threw out the idea of him being a stay-at-home dad, which is one of the best ideas he's had in a while. We definitely don't see divorce in our future, which should make the Christian Conservatives happy, what with all the eroding of marriage the gays and feminists have caused in our country. Although I'm sure they don't want any help from a group of commie bastards like us.

In Praise of Pets

I first met Puck when he was a wee little puppy, no bigger than a hand. He was the cutest little thing and so full of mischief. Even as he got older and bigger (and smellier), he was still one of the best dogs I've ever known. Puck loved beer - a taste he developed after being locked on the sun porch with only a quarter barrel of beer for company during one of our parties. We could always count on him to clean up our spills - as long as it was dark beer! (my kind of dog) He was a good guard dog, too. We all knew Michelle would be safe on her road trip out west with Puck to take care of her.

And then there's Mike. He showed up on my porch one snowy Wisconsin night and immediately crawled into my arms, and my heart. He was with me through two good years of co-op living and made the move to Portland in 2001, hating the car the whole way. He spent most of that trip under the driver's seat, meowing pitifully every now and again just to let me know he was still there and still miserable. When I brought my girls home from the hospital, he took it in stride. Whenever I was holding only one baby and had room for a kitty in the other arm, he'd hop right up and take a little nap. He put up with a lot of tail pulling and fur grabbing from our girls as they grew, but he remained his calm, sweet self throughout.

It's a hard decision to let go of a pet, but Mike & Puck are remembered fondly and missed by all who knew them.

Mysterious Ways

This whole anticipated move to Madison (4 days and counting!!!) is a series of events that have made me wonder if the universe is trying to tell me something. The Freakin' Deacon and I discussed this a couple weeks ago - all of the random events that had to occur in order to make this transition possible just happened so neatly. The first event was Mason's decision to leave UWGB and pursue his BA through UW Milwaukee's online program. Shortly after that I received an email from my school about a graduate nurse residency at UW Hospital. Those two occurrences prompted us to up our move to Madison a year. Then we found the best house ever in a great location. And while I wasn't initially offered the job at UW Hospital, I managed to find my dream job in Baraboo. (Note of interest: UW called last week to offer me a position in their psych unit - I feel better about myself) So all these things have come together so neatly. We get to move to a fantastic city, live in a beautiful house in a great location, and I get to work at a job I could never have imagined I would be offered straight out of college. Of course, had UW offered me a job right off the bat, I wouldn't have looked at Baraboo in the first place.

So is the universe trying to convince me that yes, everything does in fact happen for a reason? Or, as the Freakin' Deacon posited, is the universe rewarding us for not being sheep? I could almost believe that the FSM reached out a noodley appendage and made everything come together just perfectly. Makes as much sense as anything else....

Petition for Sainthood: Hunter S. Thompson

Submitted for the approval of the Church Elders (and anyone that wants a say) is the Petition for Sainthood for Hunter S. Thompson. I suppose this would be the place where his body of work would belong, but I'm not getting into any of that. Anyone that is at all unfamiliar with him is likely not reading this blog. HST's body of work speaks for itself and I doubt I could do any justice to what he has done. Simply put, HST deserves the spot as the first Saint for the Church of What's Happening Now because of his kick in the ass to the Free Lisl campaign. Due to HST's effort, Lisl Auman is a free woman, and for that alone I could not be more grateful to the memory of the Good Dr.

Petition for Sainthood submitted on 5/26/08

The First Church Of Reason

Welcome to our Church. We are a collection of Agnostics, Atheists, and Theists of all kinds. Our mission is simple: we want to create a new way of worship that exercises reason and praises beauty. We celebrate music, art, literature, film, culture, society, faith, history, honor, friendship, love, family and many other things of this and other worlds. This blog will be used as a place where we can openly and publicly celebrate these ideals, and show when they are being trespassed upon. Thanks for looking, and Welcome to the Church of What's Happening Now.