Dear God, I Am Agnostic. Is That Ok?

05 July 2009
Editor's Note: I liked this article a lot that was the lead on Virtual Synapses blog.  Agnostics fit somewhere in between deists and atheists. Deists believe in God but aren't big on organized religion. Many of the Founding Fathers such as Jefferson, Adams and Franklin were deists.


I like Buddhism and other Eastern religions because they don't have the mysticism that permeates Western religions. You don't have to believe in angels or other divinities to be Buddhist. Most religions arose in the Bronze Age to explain the world before science existed.


The faith argument suggests you should believe in a priori values that cannot be proven. I am a man of little faith. I remember what happened when we had a man of faith in the White House for the past eight years.

I was born into a family of believers (Catholic). My parents, grandparents, wife, in-laws, brothers, cousins, aunts, and uncles are all faithful people and I have not the slightest doubt that they believe in God. Sometimes I ask myself, “Am I some sort of mutation in the gene pool?” Everyone around me goes to church, say their prayers, have faith in God, and live good lives. There’s probably something wrong with me.

Maybe I’m just a noninterventionist dumbass, but I think the only significant difference I found between me and my folks, regarding this issue, is that I asked “the question” and took it seriously. Everybody asks that question, right? What’s the question? Oh, geez, you know what I’m talking about. Here, answer this by filling in the blank:

Is there a _________?

Hint: It starts with the letter G and ends with a D.

Question: What reason do you have for being agnostic?
Answer: There are two sides of the coin. I just want to stay in between, if that's possible.

Good vs Evil

I think good and evil are created illusions. When you do something positive to other people, then that is considered good. When you do something negative, then you’re a bad ass person. But what if you don’t do anything at all? Let’s say that you go to a mountain to find a cave and spend the rest of your life just being there. There is no social interaction of whatsoever. Is that good or is that evil?

Religion vs Science

Roman Catholic, Anglican, Independent Catholic, Old Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, Baptist, Methodist, Adventist, Evangelical, Pentecostal, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian, and so on and so forth. These are just some of the denominations of the Christian religion. Wait till I enumerate the ones under Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, and the rest of the main religions on earth. Isn’t it absurd for us to tag ourselves as a “human race” when we can’t even find a unified belief system that can bring us all together?

On the other hand, some people put their faith in science. They say that as long as any phenomenon can be explained with empirical evidence, that’s good enough for them. Are you telling me that you want to put your faith in the hands of scientists who, as much as any other person in the planet, have their own biases and inadequacies in perceiving reality? How clever.

Mysticism vs Skepticism

Mysticism adds its own different shade of color to people’s thought processes. The archenemies of mystics are skeptics. The former is trying to go beyond the five senses to explain reality, while the latter wants to remain conventional. If you’re going to take sides, I suggest that you try Michael Jackson’s medicine.

Will you be interested to know about your karma? Would you like to know how many reincarnations you’ve been through? Do you want to get out of your body and possess Brad Pitt’s so you can play with Ms. Tomb Raider? The skeptics are saying, “STOP *lucid* DREAMING!!”

Materialism vs Idealism

Quantum physicists have concluded that matter is literally an empty vacuum. Experts are justified in regarding the atom as 99.9999999% empty. I nearly ruptured a vein in my head trying to answer this question, “If matter is empty and nothing really exists physically, what are quantum physicists? Are these people some sort of illusion?

An idealist walks over to a materialist and asks, “Hey, I know you’re made of atoms and all, but does it really m-m-m-matter? The materialist responds, “Ideally, yes. We don’t m-m-m-mind at all.”

Atheism vs Theism

There is no God! There is a God! There is no God! There is a God! Blah3x… Yada3x...

Jesus H. Christ! Would you self-absorbed and power-hungry mass butchers stop confusing people? There’s already enough suffering in the world. Stop playing with their minds. Stop claiming that you know that truth when you clearly have no idea at all about what it is, where it is, and how to find it. Nobody really knows the truth, damn it. I don’t even know if what I’m saying is true.


Determinism vs Indeterminism

Imagine the chain of events that happened starting from the big bang (creation of the universe) until the point when you reach the end of this sentence. Ok, STOP. Think for a moment. Do you realize how everything almost seems to cause everything? Just look at the sun. Everything that the planet earth has gone through is undoubtedly caused by this massive ball of light. The sun was formed, then the solar system, then the planets, the life on earth emerged, your parents met, and then voila! Nice to meet you.

When there is a cause, there is an effect. When there’s a beginning, there’s an end. Everything happens for a reason and I am here because I was intended to be here. And, after all of this, my end will come. So what is my end? If everything in my life is determined by “you know who” then do I really have a choice? Does choice even exist?

Wahoo! I’m glad I reached the end of this article without experiencing symptoms of cerebral hemorrhage. Anyway, agnosticism is still a belief. It’s a belief about not believing in anything. If I believe that I don’t believe in anything, then I believe I’m probably screwed for the rest of my life? Noooooooooooooo…

source: Virtual Synapses
http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/self-help-mind-control-free-life-virtual-synapses

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Steve Kangas FAQ: Did The Founders intended the U.S. to be a Christian republic?

Editor's Note:  In the last article Rightardia wrote on the separation of church and state, it was pointed that God, Christianity and Jesus are not mentioned in the Constitution or the Articles of Confederation. President John Adams also signed the Treaty of Tripoli that was ratified by the US Senate. It stated the US was not a Christian nation. There is also a legal doctrine on the separation of church and state that is based on more than 50 federal and Supreme Court cases. This article reflects the views of Steve Kangas on the Founders intents on religion.

Myth: The Founders intended the U.S. to be a Christian republic.

Fact: If the Founders had wanted a Christian republic, they would have made one.



Summary

If the Founders had intended this to be a Christian Republic, they would not have separated Church and State in the constitution. Besides, many of the founders were Deists or atheists, not Christians; it would have been impossible for them to intend a Christian Republic.



Argument

The First Amendment states:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…"

Article VI, Section 3 of the constitution also states:

"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States, and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

By now virtually everyone knows the argument that making the United States a Christian republic would violate the First Amendment rights of Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, atheists, agnostics, etc. But fewer people realize that it would also violate the First Amendment rights of Christians as well. Which of the 2,500 Christian denominations would we choose as the Christian orthodoxy upon which to base the republic? Seventh-day Adventists and Catholics are complete opposites to each other, and, in fact, are sworn enemies. Thus, a Christian Republic would certainly involve a small minority forcing its views on the majority.

Be that as it may, did the Founders actually intend for Christianity to play a greater role in our society than it has? Prior to the constitution, 11 of 13 states had religious qualifications for public office. These were limited to Christians only, and sometimes even Protestants only. However, the Constitutional Convention voted down such qualifications, creating the separation of church and state that we find in the First Amendment today. If this is not proof of the Founders intentions, then what is?

One should remember that the Founders lived in the 18th century, just as the horrors of the Inquisition were winding down. Anyone who overly opposed the Roman Catholic Church was arrested by the Inquisition as a heretic. They were tortured until they confessed their guilt, then handed over to the state for execution. The state, in full partnership with the church, would then prove its loyalty by carrying out the execution. Those Founders who were Christians were Protestants, and had they lived in Europe they would have been persecuted by the Inquisition. It was this identification with "heretics" that compelled them to build "a wall of separation between Church and State."

This famous phrase was coined by Thomas Jefferson in his letter to the Danbury Baptists:

"Believing that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their Legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State." -- Thomas Jefferson to Danbury Baptists, 1802.

Some Christians have tried to argue that this wall is "one-way," that the state may not interfere with religion, but religion may interfere with the state. However, this is an impossibility, since by definition any control that a denomination achieves over the state will automatically become state infringement on the religious rights of others.

Besides, many of the Founders were hardly Christians. There were several Deists, most prominent among them Thomas Jefferson. Deism rejected formal or organized religion, including Christianity; it taught that people should depend on human reasoning, not revealed truths, to discern what is true in the world. Deism rejected the divinity of Jesus and ascribed his miracles and resurrection to "mysticisms, fancies and falsehoods" (Jefferson's words).

Another standout is Benjamin Franklin. The body of his work strongly suggests that he was an atheist. Like most atheist politicians since, Franklin was not so impolitic as to broadcast this fact. He sometimes evoked Providence or God in his speeches, ever mindful of his Christian audiences. But anyone familiar with Franklin's writings knows of his true philosophy towards religion.

Thus, the fact that not all the Founders were Christians, and that they actually removed a widespread Christian qualification for office in the U.S. constitution, proves that the Founders did not intend this to be a Christian republic.


Source: http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-christianrepublic.htm


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_church_and_state_in_the_United_States


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