Merry Christmas Eve!
Okay, we'll get to the awesome horsiness of the weekend in another post today. First, I want to delve into some things I've been thinking about and be a little introspective. It's the holidays. That's allowed.
The Moral Atheist Club
I think it's a result of the shooting, honestly. I read so much about so many things and one of the things that I kept reading was about how if God were allowed back in schools, this shooting never would have happened. I have so many issue with that. So. Many. Issues. But it goes back to a theological stance and the bottom line is that if you believe in God, you probably believe that statement. I'm not ever going to try to change a person's religious belief. I may make jokes and I might giggle and I might have a huge occasional air of disrespect, but I'm not going to try to change people. I'm not. I can't. I won't.
But it made me think of the idea people have that having a religion equates to having morals and, obv, if you don't have religion you can't have a moral compass.
Which is crap, too.
And I thought about all the good works of the people I know that don't know god. And I thought about how much I try to do and how I try to live my life and how it's a pure representation of me and not of my religion or lack thereof. And I started thinking that if we could present a unified front, the other atheists and I, maybe people would reconsider the idea that morals = religion. Because a lack of god didn't cause that shooting; mental illness and lax gun control in one person's house did.
But, the premise: you do good works and random acts of kindness and you let it be known that you're a moral atheist.
Examples:
- Icon on my rescue website of "the Moral Atheist Club." So people know that I'm an atheist volunteering my time and skills to a non-profit.
- When a person of my persuasion volunteers somewhere - soup kitchen or dog wash or non-profit thrift store - and the questionnaire you know you have to fill out asks for company, club or affiliation you put "the Moral Atheist Club."
- You give someone a donation, you know, all those fundraisers, and you put "the Moral Atheist Club" in the "in honor of" or on the affiliation spot.
- When you give the random Starbucks gift card to the random stranger, you put "the Moral Atheist Club" in the "from" box.
These are just thoughts. I don't know how to build this. I know some people will disagree with me, on a theological stance or a moral stance or whatever. That's fine. But now that this idea is out there, maybe people will consider that I, and others, can be "good without god."
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4 comments
Ahh Jordan and I have this convo all the time too about Morals vs Ethics and about how Morals exist outside of Religion. I really like your idea and I will go ahead and do those things when I donate money/time every month to charity. :)
ReplyDeleteI like your idea! It's hard to get people to believe that you're a moral human being who enjoys helping others AND an atheist, but maybe all of us together can change it! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm unfollowing you now.
ReplyDeleteHa.
Todd and I discussed the theory that the Sandy Hook shooting happened because God isn't in schools anymore the other day. We both think it's horseshit.
That said, I don't really identify myself as any type of religion or non-religion. My family is Catholic. I'm baptised Catholic. However the only people in my family who are actually religious are my maternal grandparents. And power to them, because they enjoy going to church and they take solace in their beliefs and they don't shove it down anyone's throat (though my grandmother does ask me occasionally if I've been praying, but she's allowed because she's my grandmother).
On the flip side, I visited a friend's hometown a few years back, and we stayed with her grandparents. We were out one morning and came back during their at home mass. They were listening to some sermon on DVD, and we happened to come in at a time where the pastor/preacher/whatever the hell he was was saying that any person who did not believe in their specific religion (they're Irish, so we'll say Catholic? I don't really know though) was a sinner and will go to hell if they do not see the error of their ways and repent.
...Say what?!
Anyway. Tangent.
I see what you're trying to accomplish, and I support that wholeheartedly. It's not something I would do, however, as I don't necessarily associate with "atheism" to the point where I would call myself an atheist. But hell, anyone with any religious or non-religious or non-giving-a-fuck-about-religion backgrounds and associations can have morals.
I was raised right. I have morals. Religion doesn't factor in.
Another video I found interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzSMC5rWvos
By his definition, I suppose I would be more agnostic. (Ps, not saying you're an in-your-face atheist, just think the video is interesting as I'm more of the "not really caring" camp at this point in my life.)
Solo approves.
ReplyDeleteThanks!