Forget the Bible - Read These Two Books To Everyone!

One of the things that organized religion attempts to do is provide a salve for the unknown by reaching out and attempting to calm the fears we all share. The most universal of these fears is death and dying.  The second thing most faiths impart are stories of unconditional love and devotion. Of course the unconditional love usually is from the deity and the devotion comes from and is tested through the believer.

There are no equal partners in faith. There is the god and his ways and laws and then there is everyone and everything else.

Faced with the idea of dying and the reality that little or nothing we do remains permanent except to our own brief and intermittent self-memory, and the actions we take for those we love and who love us, the certainty of death and loss of love can seem an impossible challenge to our ego against the backdrop of infinity.

But offering answers about love and death through theology provides no comfort for the skeptic.  While it does offer everything for those who do not question and who accept faith and supernatural causation.

These differences are not only a rift in our collective human perspective but it also remains a distinction between a rationalist comforted by perhaps inner-peace through a clear secular identity, and the religious child-like perspective of those looking for salvation and comfort from an eternal parent. All religions attempt to make docile children out of their adherents in some way or another, so it should come as no surprise that the obedience and reverence of the faithful leads to unquestioning acceptance, and even wars and violence to protect the philosophical and cultural construct of faith.

If you wish to teach your children, or family and friends, or colleagues and even strangers not to fear death and to understand the beauty of unconditional love, one does not need to quote any bible or believe any particular form of theology. If fact, though some very emotionally satisfying and deceptively simple (but easily undervalued) books provide a philosophical backdrop for the secular acceptance of both love and death and dying.

The first book which comes to mind is one of my favorites and was written by the late Leo Buscaglia. It is called The Fall of Freddie the Leaf. In this warm story about life and death, Freddy is a leaf on a huge tree with a good set of friends who in one year face all the seasons which bring the tree into life and to loss, and into the continuing cycle of rebirth. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

 

About life's purpose:

"What is a purpose?" Freddie had asked. It is a reason for being Daniel (Freddy's best leaf friend) answered. To make things more pleasant for others. To make shade...to provide a cool place...to fan our leaves...these are reasons for being."

About individuality and as we change as we age:

(Upon the approach of fall and getting older) "Why did we turn different colors, Freddie asked, when we are on the same tree." Daniel responds, "Each of us is different. We have had different experiences. We have faced the sun differently. We have cast shade differently."

On death and dying:

(With the approach of winter and cold wind). "What is happening? the leaves asked each other in whispers..."It's what happens in the fall. It is the time for leaves to change their home. Some people call it to die." Everything dies. No matter how big or small, how weak or strong. We do our job. We experience the sun and the moon, the wind and the rain. We learn to dance and to laugh. The we die."

"We all fear what we don't understand. It's natural. But you were not afraid when spring became summer. You were not afraid when summer became fall. They were natural changes. Why should you be afraid of the season of death?"

"Does the tree die? Freddy asks Daniel. "Someday. But there is something stronger than the tree. It is life. It lasts forever and we are all part of life."We may not return in the spring but life will."

Finally, about the acceptance and the joy of life:

 "Daniel answered in his matter-of-fact "It's been about the sun and the moon. Its been about happy times together. Its been about the shade and the old people and the children. Its been about colors in fall. Its been about the seasons."

 

The second book is perhaps a bit more popular and perhaps you have read it to your own children although the book should be given as a gift to every adult. That's Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree. Here is a book again about the cycle of life but the focus is squarely on what it means to be for others and to share unconditional love.

In the story, the "Boy" character as a child plays on the tree but as he matures he becomes materialistic and seeks to grow up to have money, and a family and a house and a boat and to finally run away from his life and troubles. All this because he believes those are the things that will make him happy. But in the process, the tree gives up her apples, then her branches then her whole trunk, leaving her alone and a stump, all to make the boy happy.

When the boy returns as an old man and the tree says it has nothing left to give, the Boy essentially says that the life he had chosen only made him old and tired. All he now needs is a place to sit and rest, for which the tree offers her stump. And the boy sits down and then again, the tree is happy.

 

The final conversation between the tree and the boy:

 "My apples are gone," said the tree. "My teeth are too weak to eat apples, said the Boy. My branches are gone, you cannot swing on them," The Boy replies that he is too old to swing. "My trunk is gone, you cannot climb," said the tree.  "I'm to tired to climb", replies the Boy. "I wish I could give you something. I have nothing left. I am just an old stump. I am sorry." "I don't need very much now...just a quiet place to sit and rest. I am very tired." "Well, said the tree straightening herself up, well an old stump is a good place for sitting and resting. Come, Boy, sit down. Sit down and rest.

 

"...And the Boy did...And the tree was happy."

 

In both books the power and imagery of the tree as giving both life and love to individuals and whole communities (even the universe) is very clear. Perhaps this is an old literary device as the tree symbolizes rebirth and knowledge. Of course we see this in biblical imagery as well with its ties to sin and going against god. We see the use of the tree as punishment and abandonment and a participant in human guilt, suffering and pain.

But to a secular humanist in these two stories, we find the trees and their leaves and fruit, and all those taking part of the business of the tree, as being ultimately being given kindness. We are clean and brilliant and humanistically free because we are loved and we are accepted even in death. We are not born in sin but beauty; neither should we presume our end will be nothing more than a return to the open cosmos from which we came.

And for me, this is what makes the two stories so special and why they remain a counter-balance to the concepts of death and love related to religion and faith. I urge you to buy these books and read them to the people who you love. I recently did just that and the process of reading both books served to bring us deeply closer.

Reason as a Weapon of Mass Construction

Both reason and critical thinking are entwined in ways which bring human knowledge and culture to levels of consciousness that provide for an elastic and growing understanding of the nature of human existence and humanity's place in the universe.
 

The use of reason helps us define and choose ideas and elements of the physical world to change or improve our knowledge. By this I mean our ideas and actions which manipulate our surroundings to enhance our quality of life. Critical thinking is the human construct where we interpret based on evidence and which supports whether our reason is true or false; right or wrong, fair or unfair, and practical or impractical.

However, we can see shortfalls related to the lack of critical reasoning skills all around us. There are those who have an anti-science and anti-intellectual nature who care to re-imagine intellectual discovery as a political choice and subjective attitude.  Rather, I would propose that it is cosmically spiritual, scientific and very beautiful way to empirically move through life. Reason is a way of clarity and certainty which frequency uplifts secular values, and supports the constructive nature of both physical presence and memory.

Indeed, reason helps construct new pathways of existence which both plant our feet firmly on the ground while the process of discovery helps to set our site outwards to the stars to continue the human journey of intellectual growth and exploration.

Thought without reason combines acts of ignorance, illiteracy and inhumanity which appear daily to inculcate and divide humanity. No truer fact of this inculcation comes from the core belief that we individually or human kind as a species require a personal or supernatural deity to define life's meaning or serve as the base cause for us to choose positive pathways in our lives or in how we might help others.

Sociologically, the lack of credulity begins in our homes where parents teach children that love, morality and goodness comes through an almighty but unseen third party of supernatural origin. Or, perhaps it comes through a particular set of religious philosophies and rituals which hold magical thinking in higher esteem than reason for the sake of solidarity with the past and connection to ethnic and tribal groups in the present and future.

These superstition-based values which occur in our families and communities and continue as a resource for either intellectual detachment or cognitive dissonance when we offer them to children and adults are unhealthy alternatives to truth as we move further into the 21st Century.  When we teach theology as not just a philosophical pursuit but as a proven and real set of ancient miracle stories or undocumented legends based on little or no evidence as fact, we have substituted and forsaken truth for faith and reality for dogma.

How can we imagine an adult coming through this form of indoctrination and enculturation without some form of intellectual corruption, in small and big ways, related to the thinking process?

If we expect to be able to think critically, then the detachment from reality caused by religious faith is more than a stumbling block to reason, it is the antithesis of it.  Religion is, by its very nature, the absence of reason and critical thinking since it is founded on faith. Once one accepts theology based on just a few books, or no books and just faith or even more extreme, just only from authority, such surrender of imagination immediately tosses reason out the window even if what you have religiously learned makes you feel safe, happy or satisfied emotionally.

One must critically ask what is the difference between the myths of Zeus, Ra, Krishna and Jesus as compared to the mythology of acknowledged fictional characters such as superman or Luke Skywalker? With the exception of course that no one (at least in my research) has ever harmed others in the name of those superheroes. After all, those retired gods or our current secular images serve to tell stories of good versus evil, and show  beings who have mystical powers who are sworn to keep humanity safe and act justly while serving as role models.

More critically, faith belies and supports the audacious concept of a divine influence on our evolution or that of the planet and universe must have a first cause which is theological in nature. Each argument, no matter how emotionally heartfelt is without merit or evidence. But then there are those who wholly deny the evolutionary process in favor of the literal interpretation of the biblical form of creation, which pushes us further down the rabbit hole of intractable and offensive superstition as a replacement for scientific evidence and truth. 

Hence, if we expect to remain a rational species which thinks critically, the time is ripe to reject nonviolently but firmly religious faith and to see theology as part embarrassment and a fully antiquated way to view and be in the world. Rationality done right is a progression which can be viewed as old as humanity itself. There is as much evidence for the respect of freedom of thought, free inquiry, skepticism and logical thinking as there has been a history of violence and ignorance perpetrated by those directly; or on behalf of others who use faith to harm or impose their values on others.

Perhaps a clarion call has been answered within the last decade or so with the rise of activists, authors, and even whole nations coming out and proud regarding their lack of religious faith and support of secular humanism. Why even in Romania, a place I am told where the ubiquity of non-faith is rare, there was a recent international humanist conference. So this is indeed the best time to impart rationality and reason as a way of life on so many ready to listen and think, while also rejecting the conventional wisdom of so many failed faith-based tyrannies.

If the time for reason has come, and I conclude that it has, then we will all be better off. Both now and as we live for others, and as still others learn from us and expand our human story well into the future.

The Secular Watchword: Inspire

It is rare to find a person who doesn't understand or at least acknowledge that there is a level of truth in the saying, "an eye for an eye will only makes us all blind." With the ongoing evangelical assault on secular society through the political removal of Constitutional freedoms; the April attack in Boston and this May's humiliating hit-and-run and subsequent broad daylight mutilation of a British solider, we have to ask ourselves how can people be so inspired to hate and create acts of unspeakable terror even as they preach and truly believe that their theology is just, moral, and good.

One of the striking similarities of evangelical movements, regardless of their faith, is the belief that through specific action, those who accept the theology will in some way reach a personal paradise, or will bring about end times and usher in a world predicated on one's god returning to Earth and allowing a chosen few into the kingdom of heaven. The fact that such ideas are found in both the theology and mythology in most faiths is striking. And the inspiration for violence can be easily accepted by potential adherents when few if any alternatives are offered or where poverty, tribalism and lack of education fester like an unscratched itch.

The interest in and capacity to seek violent retribution to acts of religious violence are historical, current and numerous. In fact, the partial motivation of these acts are to draw others into retribution to justify even further acts of religious-based violence. Perhaps this urge to seek vengeance is instinctual while at the same time there is an emotional and quite visceral reaction which calls many to defend secular and democratic culture through collective repudiation of hateful acts. And it appears as these acts multiply or at least get coverage in the media and through non-theist, atheist and secular outlets for news that we may never reach an end to the cycle of violence.

But lets rethink what it means to be human and to work for secular justice which celebrates and ensures that the human and civil rights of others remain the ultimate goals to our movement.  It is this gift and its deeply profound meaning that can be our legacy.  We can and should give this meaningful present to others within our time and for future times beyond our own existence.

I conclude with 1.3 billion non-believers on the planet, a number growing as religious violence spreads, that the ultimate victory in philosophy and meaning will be a world much closer to how we envision a secular, peaceful and just planet. And while human spirituality may be ancient and constant, it can be redirected to the awe of science and how the universe naturally operates. I write this as there is proof of change all around us. In 200 years since the creation of secular democracy, there are now more than  a billion adherents to non-faith, a phenomenal trend and one which cannot be stopped. Which is why the religious violence we see now is so desperate and downright evil.

Perhaps we should view this violence as the final act of desperate people who are fighting against a growing secular paradigm which is becoming a way of life for more of us on the planet. Not that we excuse the violence but we should place it into the context of how human civilization with our knowledge and technology is bringing us to imagine a peaceful secure world, dominated by a constant acknowledgement of human rights and human dignity not based on clan, nationality or any faith.

And perhaps this is what we need to bring forward not only in our philosophy, talks and action with each other but peacefully in our philosophy, talks, and actions with those who may think differently. Bringing joy and love to others through the knowledge that our human existence IS the commonality of our connected lives on this fragile planet, while using the tools of science, remembering history, enjoying literature and the arts and enacting laws which bring secular justice, must be our legacy to ensure the secular  trends we see growing worldwide remain in constant and consistent.

Those who fear these tends are our contemporaries and adversaries. However, to win the next several generations, we must use our talents of persuasion to clearly show a demarcation between democratic secular humanism and the prosperity, social peace and justice it provides versus the ancient ways of seeing the world which separate us and can no longer be rationally justified through relativism or the defense of violence in the name of any personal magical deity. 

Before we can get those who reject secularism to see its value, before we can convince those who would act violently to act with a new purpose, we must think, speak and act by showing that technology and human justice are co-equal secular experiences that can be enjoyed by everyone.

So in a very real sense, the "fault" doesn't lie with those who would fight us on these points but within ourselves and our own secular community. By not advocating with acceptance and love or as strongly and aptly as we could if we were better organized and acted with a single vision or targeted purpose, the end-game will only take longer to accomplish. This doesn't mean we won't achieve our worthy goals, it just means we won't hasten the opportunities and human intellect that could expand our acceptance of each other and the understanding of the natural and only world and universe which we inhabit.

So this is a call to arms for all those who see secularism as a worthy goal. But not one to be achieved through violence. It is through memory, community, acceptance and standing firm with reason and science which places secular human dignity above all other spirituality, theology and religious faith. I conclude that this is the best way to be and the way it will be in the future if we build towards this real and actualized vision. 

Right, my monkey?