The Skeptical Seeker

Happy National Day of Reason!

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. -Thomas Jefferson

Today I read the word “crowbar” in a book, and winced a little bit. I have a vague memory that when I was very young I used that word in front of my father, and got a quick life lesson in word connotations. He instructed me not to use that word, but rather say “pry-bar” because “crow” was a racist slur against black people and the word “crowbar” had racist connotations. Whether that is true about the word origins or not, the larger lesson is true: racism is bad.

That was not the only value I learned from my parents growing up.

Mom also had a thing with words. One I learned from her was “stick-to-it-ativeness.” Basically that is the idea that you should finish what you start–a tough lesson for a kid who would want to quit and do something else as soon as the fun had gone out of a task. It’s a lesson that has served me well up to this point.

Today is my parent’s 44th wedding anniversary. And that’s quite a lesson in “stick-to-it-ativeness” in itself.

Happy Anniversary! I love you both.

I’ve never been a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions. Most of the time they are nebulous and soon forgotten. However, I did actually manage to keep my resolutions for 2009. They were to play my flute more (I did that for the first few months), keep doing yoga (kept though most of the year), and get married (done ). If there where any resolutions that made that I failed to keep, then I can’t remember what they were.

In keeping with the tradition of making resolutions for New Year’s Day, I would like to state my intentions to accomplish a few clear goals in 2010.

I want to:

• Get my passport. Not planning any international travel just yet, but I want to be ready if the opportunity arises.
• Make some progress towards getting my Masters degree. Even if I don’t start a program this coming year, I want to take the GRE and get my letters of recommendation before the end of the year.
• Finish rest of the 10 speeches in the Toastmaster’s Competent Communicator manual. I have done 2 of them, 8 to go!

Happy New Years!

I have changed the name of the blog from “The Atheist Yogi” to “The Skeptical Seeker.” I’ve moved away from my interest in yoga, and I think that the idea of seeking for truth and reality with a skeptical mind would be a better fit for this blog.

My Grampa, my last remaining grandparent, died last Friday. He had been sick over the past week, and on Friday morning I got a call from Mom saying that they had taken him to the emergency room and found out that he had leukaemia. At about 2:30pm she called me at work to inform me that “Grampa has gone to heaven.” He was 90.

There is going to be a memorial service on Tuesday, at the church that Grampa attended–the one that I attended as a small child. This can be a tricky issue for an atheist in a mostly Christian family, but thankfully there is some degree of religious diversity in the family as well. That translates in most cases into a atmosphere of tolerance for different views, and a low likelihood that this memorial will turn into an appeal for the ‘unsaved’ to turn to God to avoid going to hell when they face death themselves. I’ve heard of such things from other people, but that is not my situation.

I cringe a bit inside when I hear someone say things like ‘Grandpa is with Grandma in heaven now’ or some such thing. Fine if that makes them feel better, and I’m definitely not going to pick fights with anyone over that sort of thing.

This will be a bit different from a usual funeral service. Grandma and Grampa both agreed — back in the 60′s I think I heard someone say — to donate their bodies to ‘medical science’ when they died. I personally think this is a great idea, since I think having one’s body pumped full of chemicals and buried in the ground in an expensive box is a bit wasteful. Please don’t take offence if you disagree.

So, there will be no body at the service and no burial. If it’s anything like Grandma’s memorial service, it will mainly be family members sharing memories about Grampa.

Just found this in Walgreens today. Got a kick out of it, thought I’d share.

Oh, and the actual chocolate bar looks like money as well, and it says (or “said” before I ate it) “In Chocolate We Trust.”

I was thinking back on times I had questioned a religious teacher, and thought up a short list of questions I asked. I asked all of these perfectly sincerely, maybe a bit naively. Anyone is welcome to try answering–most of the time I was just given “that look” as if I was just trying to disrupt the lesson, or was told that “that’s just what we believe.”

I should also point out that none of these thing stands out as “the one thing” that caused to to leave Christianity. They are just little things that got my skeptical juices flowing.

1. Why should I expect to apply a Biblical passage to my life, if it’s history, poetry, or prophecy? (Asked when a Sunday School teacher wanted the class to write down what how passage or other applies to our lives.)
2. Isn’t claiming ‘promises’ from Psalms pulling those quotes out of context?
3. How do you know your beliefs are true, when there are lots of sincere followers of other religions out there who are equally convinced that you are wrong?
4. Why do you equate skepticism with cynicism? Skepticism is not wanting to believe without proof, and cynicism is more like unthinking rejection? (Not the exact words–at the time was was not too sure what cynicism was except that it was associated with negativity.)

And here is one that I have not asked, but would be curious to know an answer for.

If you believe that a person will not be judged harshly by God for sincere and honest disbelief, or mistaken belief in the wrong thing:

• then why  have Christian missionaries? If humanitarian aid is needed in some places, why not send humanitarian aid though non-sectarian charities such as Doctors Without Borders instead?
• Does your church teach that it is not really so necessary and urgent for people to convert to Christianity in order to be accepted by God? Is that what is taught to the kids in your Sunday School?
• Why should it matter to me what your personal beliefs are if they don’t match what your church and Christian leaders are teaching?

Like I said, anyone is welcome to volunteer answers or make comments.