Permanency

I am often caught off guard by how I take for granted things around me. I assume that, because they've always been a certain way, they always will be that way.
I do this, even in the face of the growth of something I've planted or the death of a tree.
I sometimes think that our sense of permanency comes from how short and narrow our perspectives are.
However, if we take the longer view, that we are only here for a short time, in the scheme of things, maybe it would help us to take more advantage of the time we have right now.
I often lament the ideologies that make us focus on the afterlife. But I also lament the ideology that makes us forget or helps us ignore the fact that we are someday not going to be here.
Every day is a gift. But nothing is permanent.

Contamination

I was watching a video, a few days ago that showed babies exploring and being curious, while Neil DeGrasse Tyson was speaking about how that natural instinct of ours to learn and explore; to be curious is quite often squelched by parents and adults at large.
It is called "The Most Human Activity". Watch it here.
This got me thinking.
Parents aren't purposely squelching this natural desire to explore. They are, at least in some cases, I believe, trying to keep the children safe.
However,there is a level of parental participation that falls down a terrible rabbit hole. Indoctrination.
It seems to me that basically forcing the children in our lives to believe things that we believe is falling short of what it means to be a parent. Still millions of parents across the world are purposely forcing their own beliefs on their kids.
Now, some of you will say that I'm overreacting. You will say that it is the prerogative for a parent to decide what to teach their kids. I agree. What I'm saying is it's fine to introduce your beliefs to your kids. What I'm not saying is it's not fine to make your kids feel as though they have no choice to decide for themselves if what you believe is right for them.
The downfall of the Christian Dogma is its mandatory participation. Of course, initially, it's singing Christian songs about Jesus and so on. But very slowly, as the child grows, it becomes inevitable that they make the connection that if they don't believe, or can't, they are sinners and won't go to heaven.
Imagine that!
For years, I strongly doubted and disbelieved. I was terrified to tell my mother, or my church family. I would have alienated myself and caused huge amounts of pain for everyone. All of this, because of indoctrination.
Now, many Christians will say that a child cannot get a good dose of morality without the Christian upbringing. Christians routinely exclude other moralities. None of them are good enough. They adhere to the "train up your child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it" mentality.
And this is not a bad mentality -- it's logical, albeit, not very religious. It can be applied to any child, anywhere.
But this is meant as an internal and not external statement. It refers to spiritual growth, not mental or behavioral growth.
Oddly enough, however, it really makes no difference, either way.
For example, my brother's son was baptised and we were made his godparents. Meaning, that if anything ever happens to my brother, we take over the role of parent. All of this happened in the church that they do not regularly (or ever) attend, and while we were getting ready, my other nephew had to wear this fancy outfit that had a sort of bib on it with the cross in white satin.
He asked his mother why there was a "plus sign" on the bib.
We laughed but this has always served as an example to me. Here was a kid, who, unlike his father or myself, had not been indoctrinated with all of the nonsense they pour into kids. No guilt, no sin, nothing.
He just is a kid. It's wonderful.
On the other hand, children who cannot escape the gravity of the beliefs of their parents, often wind up being so forcefully indoctrinated, that they cannot even begin to think outside of the faith.
The point here is, that it's fine to discuss your faith with your kids and even to extol its virtues. But it isn't something that should be thrust upon them at any cost. Let them decide.
I promise that it will be better for them in the long run, when they call up something they struggle with, and you don't force them at the gunpoint of hell to follow it.
We need to stop contaminating our kids.

Complicity

I remember a morality experiment from an ethics class that went something like this: you witness two muggers attacking a man in an alley. You are physically fit, know several martial arts and can handle yourself. What do you do?
Some of the class waded right in to the rescue of man.
Some were inclined to wait until the muggers departed.
Some just kept on and did nothing.
I always found the last two to be amazing. Given some time to think about this (which one wouldn't have, presumably, in real time) some people would just keep going.
When the professor asked these classmates for their reasoning, their answers varied slightly but all basically claimed they did not have enough information.
They felt as though the man maybe deserved it; it wasn't a mugging but two fathers beating up a perv, and so on.
The other group, those who waited for the attackers to depart had interesting reasons too.
What if they were hurt, how much help would they be? Is it just to use force against men who are doing the same, and so on.
This group believed they would make the situation worse by wading right in, so they opted to wait until the man was alone, before getting help.
Finally, there were those who waded right in; those who believed that no matter the reason for the attack, or the consequences of helping, it was better to do something decisive than to wait.
The professor then added a new aspect to the thought experiment. What if by not acting to save the man being attacked made you morally complicit in his attack? What if, by not helping him, for whatever reason, you became as bad as his attackers? He redid the votes, and far more came out for wading in to help immediately.
This always fascinated me, because by adding this one caveat -- complicity -- people saw themselves as being in the wrong even for inaction. Where once it seemed morally justifiable to wait and do nothing, faced with their own guilt, they would wade into fight for the man.
We spent the whole class changing up various aspects of the scenario and recording responses. Only two people maintained that they would wade right in to the victim's defense, no questions asked.
The point here is not to illustrate that people are motivated differently by different situations. The point is to call to mind the question of complicity.
There are many people who do not condone violence in the name of religion, even if they are adherents to said religion. They believe to their core that the violences, verbal or physical, perpetuated against others by members of their own faiths are the worst possible thing.
But what do they do to stop it?
I posted a video yesterday that showed a pastor advocating for a literal reading of the Levitical laws regarding homosexuals. (Scroll down to find it.)
I asked, what if there were people in that congregation who had a secret that they were terrified to share, because they felt trapped into being in that man's congregation?
What I failed to ask was how everyday common run-of-the-mill believers would feel if I told them that by not standing against this evil dogma within their own faith, that they were just as bad as this pastor.
What I failed to make absolutely clear was to point out that, even if you disagree with his doctrine or ideology, if you don't stand against him and his type, you become just as morally complicit as if you were up there yourself touting his sermon.
Christians and Muslims today are not all of this caliber of evil. But, again, by failing to root extremism of any sort out of their faiths, they are not only allowing monstrous evils to continue against innocent people, they are also morally complicit in those evils.
It's not enough to claim you don't follow that dogma. You have to actually do something about it.

True Commitments.

Over the last few years, close friends of mine have been working to open a brewery in our town. The idea is several years, or perhaps a decade old. But, from the Kickstarter campaign until today,  I have seen them go through the spectrum of human emotion.
They have been varying degrees of ecstatic, exhausted, frazzled, fried, frustrated, pissed off, elated, grouchy, on the brink of despair; they have experienced and lived through the depths of commitment.
Like having a child, or starting a new relationship, when the going gets tough, we cannot just walk away, or give up in disgust.
But in a very similar theme, we cannot just go blindly forth and start something without the willingness to commit to it.
It's difficult for people, I believe, to understand the kind of commitment it takes to start a new business. Imagine leaving your job, where you have a regular paycheck and some job security on a huge gamble. Imagine how you wake up at night and wonder exactly what the hell you're doing? What if you or a loved one get's sick? What if you're house is washed away in a flood? The doubts and fears that vanish in the face of all you accomplish can really gnaw at your soul in the bleak moments.
If you're weak, or if you have an unclear purpose, or if you're just impulsive, imagine how crippling that fear could be.
My friends have not, and will not give up on their way to opening their brewery, regardless of the hours of struggle and frustration that they have had to work through, they are both committed.
The lesson that we can take from this is to be thoughtful about the things we decide to do in our lives.
Measure twice, cut once, as my grandfather would say.
Weigh the options. Have plan B and C and D in the margins in case. But in more than this, we have to be cautious that we are not talked into something that could be detrimental to us in the long run.

But at the same time, while I speak words of caution, we have to admit that there was a certain amount of bravery in the face of the unknown and courage in the face of despair that carried these two and their families to this point.
We cannot forever hide ourselves from possibilities that may make us better or help us grow, or to finally be happy.
But we cannot do it rashly.
One of the biggest scams in this world is that you can say a few words, with good intentions and some magical power will cover you with goodness and riches and no want. These philosophies claim that if you simply name what you want, it is as good as having it.
The reality is quite otherwise.
If you want something in this world, you have to be willing to grab hold of it and wrestle it to the ground with all of the bruises to ego and scratches to hope and dreams.
Do not be cowed into believing you can't do what you want if you're motivated and willing to take the knocks. But also, don't be scammed into thinking you're going to be given an easy time of it.

The log in their own eye

So many "moderate" Christians don't support or acknowledge the more zealous and fundamentalist parts of their faith.
They aim to not support "Bible Thumpers".
And yet, their fundamental beliefs are based on the same thing. The Bible is the infallible Word of God.
Christians, experts at feeling persecuted, do not want to be associated with extremism in their own faith. They often claim that they have nothing to do with that mentality, while at the same time adhering to the same mentalities, in a slightly calmer manner.
That, friends, is hypocrisy.
If you're interested in seeing an example of what I mean by extremism in Christianity, look here. (Warning: this is deeply offensive. I in no way support this horrible mentality. Watch at your own risk.)
The point here is not to highlight this all too frequent hate mongering in the faith. The point here is that if Christians who claim to be run-of-the-mill don't want to be associated with these kooks, then it is their responsibility to fight against it.

Christianity --The Church -- is called the body of Christ. Well, there's a serious malignant cancer at the core of this body. Jesus said, if the right hand offends you, cut it off. How much more offensive is this?
"Regular" Christians will tell you that this man's doctrine is a thin slice of the whole body. They will tell you that it really isn't representative of the whole belief. They will say it is the atheists fault for pointing it out.
They will claim anything but responsibility for it. And, because these are fellow believers, they will not do a thing about it.
Now, if you have the stomach for it, think back or watch the video above once more. Do you hear the child crying? What if that child is a homosexual? What if that child or others in that congregation are hiding a secret? What if they feel trapped, need love and compassion, have a need to be accepted. Isn't that what Jesus called on us to do? To love one another?
This isn't strictly about being gay in the face of this kind of hate. This is about being human and knowing that there are people in this world who will try to take that from us.
This is a call to all the moderate Christians out there. Before you try to heal the rest of the "lost" you had better work to root out the David Berzins in your body.

Falling Away

A friend posted an article about a book which addresses the reason that many young Christians are falling away as having largely to do with Youth Groups making the faith about emotions, rather than dealing with hard questions.
My knee-jerk reaction was to comment, "Too little, too late."
You can read the article here.
The article speaks about  Nancy Pearcey and her book Finding Truth.
On the surface, the article seems to mull over some very important things in the development of a good Christian. That other Christians should not fear the doubts and challenging questions of other, younger developing Christians. If we teach them not to be afraid of counter ideologies, then they will not fall away.
Instead, they claim, the pastors and teachers of the young focus on the emotional high from worship or finding a new way of life, etc.
This, from a developmental standpoint is pretty good logic. If we, say, take this concept and apply it to young lovers, it would be very good that they understand that, at some point, the feelings change, but that doesn't negate the relationship, or the commitment they made.
However, if we delve into the deeper mentality, what we find is a rather more disturbing scrabbling fear.
This is not a book about reinforcing values and changing the way the faith is taught. It is a book about the realization that the religion is failing.
Young people, according to this article are, being shown too many challenging ideologies in school and those cause the child or young person to begin to doubt the meaningfulness of their faith, in the face of all the wonder of their education, which is cast as a bad thing.
My opinion is that this is rather less about not being prepared for the challenges faced in school and rather more about the reality of indoctrination.
Young people who are raised in strict Christian upbringings are indoctrinated from the outset that their faith is a way of life. They are not encouraged to ask certain questions. They are not welcome to go beyond certain boundaries. "Trust and Obey, for there's no other way."
Children are taught that, if they don't feel or think in a certain way, they are sinning. We know what sin leads to, as that, too, is drilled in from a very young age.
When a child goes to college, and is faced with the Real World of Truth and the wonderful things that exist beyond the faith, it's no wonder they begin to see the religion for what is truly is. The dogma of control disguised as hope.

This article and the book are a fundamental, although unintended admission about the reality of the faith. Beyond a certain point, many young people no longer believe, not because they haven't been indoctrinated enough, or indoctrinated incorrectly -- on the contrary, they're quite thorough with it -- but because in this world, young people want to see as much evidence as possible. They are sick of paying lip service to a dogma and ideology that doesn't value them as individuals, but as 'followers'. And this falling away threatens and frightens people like my friend and Ms. Pearcey, not because they are worried, ultimately, about the spiritual well being of young people, but because they are afraid they will be exposed for what is really happening. Young people are becoming too savvy to believe the nonsense drilled into them any longer.
And that means, that if this next generation is no longer falling for the ruse, the previous generation risk exposure for what they really are: participants in the greatest scam ever played on humanity.

The church is failing, but not in its providence of correct teaching, but because it fails to see itself as outdated, and based on bad logic. No amount of internal criticism ( or external, for that matter) will solve this epidemic. But it will not be until young people are free to express their own reasons, that the veil will fall completely away.

Whether we see that happen in our lifetime, without the necessary rise in fever pitch of the zealous faithful, I cannot say. I only hope that young people will, in the end' not fear to call BS when they see it.

Ascension of Man

Ascension, the feast that celebrates when Jesus rose to heaven, after his resurrection, in full view of his followers is one of the more epic accounts of his life, or in this case, afterlife.
Whether or not you believe this actually happened, it is a fine analogy to something far more mundane and natural within ourselves.
While we live, we often change and grow, experiencing a sort of metamorphosis.
Like the man, we are born and raised and we grow and we are taught to believe things.
Like the man, we are challenged by the world about our beliefs. Like the man, we have to face real persecution.
And like the man, we may come to the point of spiritual death: that point where the reality and truth around us prevails over the superstitious and naive beliefs we've held.
This is very tortuous; very difficult.
Some cannot bear this loss and forever seek in the dust the ghost of their blind belief.
But some rise again.
Like the man, they have the scars of their death. But unlike the man they no longer persist in insisting that what they've formerly believed has any hold on them.
Like a butterfly freshly free of their chrysalis, they are new, slightly vulnerable and wobbly.
But soon enough the sun of truth warms them and the old ways fall away and where once there was fear and helplessness and dogma and doctrine, there is now only joy, awe and freedom.
The ascension of man comes when we realize it is worthy to let the old versions of ourselves, which clinged to the thralldom of mythology as fact, die away and we can become new in freedom from bad dogma.
Ascension of Man means we let the poisonous beliefs we held fall away, and find hope in the real, every day truths we can depend on.