Tag Archives: Religion

What’s good for the goose…

In the many years (and miles) of travel I’ve engaged in in this life, I’ve read, studied, and analyzed.  I’ve tried to put myself in others’ shoes and sought to follow the “do unto others” philosophy to the best of my ability.

I’m no saint, mind you, and I would never claim to be.

I also found, quite early in my life, that religion wasn’t for me and that I was, at heart, an atheist.  Having said that, I don’t begrudge anyone having strong feelings for their religion.  If it makes your day that much brighter to follow your particular faith, then more power to you.  I can respect your faith, can you respect my lack of it?

You see, this goes to one of the things that irks me -to the point of making my blood boil- most about religions: The seeming need to thrust your idea of religion on others.

See, though I have no religion, I don’t go around demanding others follow my ideas.

Yet there are those who do this, often with gusto, in the public arena.  One prominent example is the issue of abortion.  A thorny issue, I grant you, but one where the religious have tried to foist their ideals on others.

Enter the Satanic Temple.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: Satanic Temple?!  They’re evil, right?

Actually, not really.  This Wikipedia article on them offers a great summation of their philosophy and goals, all of which I’m all in favor of.

From the article, their stated mission is “to encourage benevolence and empathy among all people” …The Satanic Temple has utilized satire, theatrical ploys, humor and direct legal action in their public campaigns to generate attention and prompt people to reevaluate fears and perceptions, and to highlight religious hypocrisy and encroachment on religious freedom.)

In the case of Missouri’s restrictive anti-abortion laws, which are very skewed toward pushing religious ideals, they appear to be about to win in court using the very same tools the religious have used to argue their point.

From jezebel.com and written by Aimee Lutkin…

Satanic Temple suit may crush restrictive anti-abortion laws in Missouri

From the article (sorry for spoiling things):

The case states that in 2015, Mary Doe was forced to wait 72 hours, listen to a fetal heartbeat, and accept a brochure that states life begins at conception before she was allowed to have an abortion. These are all acts, the suit argues, that go against Doe’s religious beliefs as a member of the Satanic Temple. Those beliefs include a conviction that a “nonviable fetus is not a separate human being but is part of her body and that abortion of a nonviable fetus does not terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being,” according to NBC News, which she told her doctors in St. Louis.

Furthermore, the plaintiff says that the rules imposed on abortion seekers by the state of Missouri “does not advance a compelling governmental interest or is unduly restrictive of Doe’s exercise of religion.”

Using religious “rights”, in the plaintiff’s case with the Satanic Temple, is, IMHO, ingenious and, as I wrote in the headline, the very definition of the old cliche of “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander”.

And you know what?  Wonderful.

According to the article, the state has already pulled back on some of their ideas and, it would appear (again based on the article), the Satanic Temple is on the verge of scoring a win here.

I strongly believe that those who are very religious should be able to follow their paths.

But we cannot allow those paths to block others from theirs.

9 Things You Think You Know About Jesus…

…Which Are Probably Wrong, according to Valarie Tarico for Salon.com:

http://www.salon.com/2015/02/27/9-things-you-think-you-know-about-jesus-that-are-probably-wrong-partner/

I’ve mentioned before that I’m an atheist.  I’m not a militant one, however, and feel that if religion is a big part of your life and gets you through the day, then good for you.  Anything that makes you happy, as long as it doesn’t hurt others, is fine to me.  Obviously there are those in the past and present who use(d) their beliefs to harm others and that is where I draw the line.

Having said this, I find religion fascinating.  I like reading up on it and getting an understanding of where the various religious ideas have come from.  Of particular interest to me, as I was raised that way, is Catholicism.  So the above article, which sifts though the potential “reality” of Jesus versus the myth, is doubly interesting.

From all that I’ve read, I believe there is a very legitimate question as to whether the Jesus people worship was a real person or a mythical fiction built up over many years.  Regardless of your stance, the above link provides a fascinating look at some of the ideas/concepts associated with Jesus and whether they may be the case or not.

Some of the items are, as the author herself admits, trivial (was he short or tall, did he have long hair or short, etc.).  What I found the most fascinating, and what deserves the most scrutiny, is just how many of his philosophical sayings/teaching are his or were probably taken from other philosophies and/or added over time.  As the author states:

Which words are actually from Jesus? This question has been debated fiercely by everyone from third-century Catholic Councils to the 20th-century Jesus Seminar…The New Testament Gospels were written long after Jesus would have died, and no technology existed with which to record his teachings in real time, unless he wrote them down himself, which he didn’t.

We can be confident that at least some of the wise and timeless words and catchy proverbs attributed to Jesus are actually from earlier or later thinkers. For example, the Golden Rule was articulated before the time of Christ by the Rabbi Hillel the Elder, who similarly said it was the “whole Torah.” By contrast, the much-loved story of the woman caught in adultery doesn’t appear in manuscripts until the fourth century. Attributing words (or whole texts) to a famous person was common in the Ancient Near East, because it gave those words extra weight. Small wonder then that so many genuinely valuable insights ended up, in one way or another, paired with the name of Jesus.

This, in a nutshell, explains why I’m so intrigued by religion and yet am an atheist.  It is the mystery of it, the history of how these works came to be, that fascinates me.  I love reading about the search for the philosophical roots of Biblical teachings, of the alternate texts or deleted ideas.  As mentioned, “the New Testament Gospels were written long after Jesus would have died”.  If he existed, he left no actual contemporaneous record and therefore one has to wonder how many of his ideas are indeed his versus those added to him over time.

Again, fascinating, fascinating stuff.