Sunday, September 13, 2015

Star Trek actor, John de Lancie, discusses being openly secular.

I really enjoyed this because it so closely reflects my own experience as a very young child dealing with my own doubts about religion and my realization that I was going to see forever the world differently than many of my peers.

Part of my goal on this blog is to dispel the notion that Atheists, Agnostics, and those living a secular lifestyle are amoral psychopaths who hate the gods and want to engage in drunken orgies everyday. 

(Okay well maybe there is a hint of truth to that last part.)

Hopefully by presenting evidence of reasonable, critically thinking individuals, who are living a life free of superstition and a religiously constructed prison of fear and shame, that I am helping to do that.

20 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:31 AM

    If I had to characterize myself, I'd go with heathen, i.e. irreligious, not atheist. I don't believe in "God" but I do believe in ghosts! Which means afterlife. Anyway, I think that religious belief or nonbelief is pretty much irrelevant to the kind of person you are beneath the veneer. Total assholes come in all persuasions.

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    1. Anonymous8:19 AM

      Don't mean to speak for you but you don't sound like you fit the characterization of a heathen.

      "Heathen:
      Oft times used as an insult by Christians against people who don’t worship their god. They tend to confuse Atheism, Paganism and Heathenism. Atheism is of course a lack of belief in any gods. Paganism is an umbrella term for many polytheistic non-Abrahamic religions. Whereas a heathen is one who practices the pre-Christian religion of the ancient Germanic people. They worship the Germanic and Norse gods and goddess’.

      Heathens are hard polytheists, meaning they believe each god and goddess is a real and distinct individual not an aspect or archetype of a greater being. Besides the major gods spoken of in the lore, there are also local gods, ancestral spirits, and various sorts of wights. To a heathen reading and understanding one’s heritage is very important, this is why there is such a heavy emphasis placed on reading the sagas. Heathens take their religion very seriously.

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    2. Anonymous9:57 AM

      Oh, please. Don't make this so ridiculously complicated. "Heathen" is also simply a synonym for "irreligious."

      6:31

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    3. Anonymous12:03 PM

      Heathens are religious. Think 'heathen Indians' as was coined back in the days of settlement. It was because the xtian early settlers were aghast that the natives worshiped nature.

      I used to refer to my kids as wild 'heathen indians', not realizing that was a spiritual compliment haha..

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    4. Anonymous5:51 PM

      To repeat -- heathen is also a synonym for irreligious. I'm a heathen. PERIOD. I have no religion. Heathens don't have to have religion.

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  2. Anonymous6:56 AM

    For me, it all change when I realized that I would much rather go through life in awe of questions than to spend my time here worshiping someone else's answers.

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  3. Anonymous6:58 AM

    Whatever we've come from, we've always come from it. Where ever we go to, is where we have always gone to. Our lives are to be lived by being present in them at each moment. Death needs neither our attention nor our energy as it is sufficient in itself, whatever it is that it is.

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    1. Anonymous8:21 AM

      Another great comment. Beautifully said.

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  4. Anonymous7:08 AM

    I too doubted christianity as a young child. I still vividly remember when I asked my Sunday school teacher if children who didn't go to church and didn't know about God would go to hell. She said yes. I knew then that it was a load of crap.

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  5. Anonymous7:11 AM

    Great video for a quiet Sunday morning. I am Emily and I am proudly, openly, secular. Love it!

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  6. Anonymous7:27 AM

    As a child raised in a religious family in a religious community, I thought there was something seriously wrong with me that I didn't -- couldn't -- believe as others did, no matter how hard I tried.

    Imagine my relief when I learned there were other nonbelievers like me, and they were perfectly happy to be atheists.

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  7. Anonymous7:33 AM

    "I would like the people who are religious to fight for me to be secular."

    Well said and I think this is the take-home message. We'll have turned the corner once the point is reached that American fundamentalists really understand that it is their obligation as citizens to respect an individual's right to practice any religion or no religion at all -- such respect requires protecting said right and even defending it. Such respect is already practiced everywhere else in the Western world. Inevitably, this will happen in the US too, I think. The source of current disrespect seems to come mainly from the older generation of fundamentalist Americans, who are generally spectators rather than participants in today's global society. They're scared. Once the current older generation of fundamentalists has passed, I don't see a new one taking its place -- or at least it will be at a significantly lower ratio than 1:1.

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  8. Anonymous7:36 AM

    Lovely little video speech. I already love John de Lancie. He is the Q entity, the capricious god, the wonderful character that is an example of how I feel about God's power. The church's God is equally fictitious. Let there be Q.
    I was raised in the church environment, loved it, and then found that it was not believable; that church-goers set the rules according to their individual beliefs. Like John deL, I studied religion anyway, and with delight, to know more about my fellow man. But I, too, am a public secular atheist, call it what you will.
    I will go on loving John de L for all that he has shown us, and the wonderful enlightenment his performances and truths have offered.

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  9. Anonymous8:53 AM

    Interesting, Stephen Colbert opens up about his faith.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/09/stephen-colbert-opens-up-about-his-devout-christian-faith-islam-pope-francis-and-more.html

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  10. Anonymous9:08 AM

    All religious fundamentalists (christians in US) have a vested interest in keeping the public uneducated. Knowledge is their worst enemy and will ultimately be their undoing. I hate to generalize but almost every fundie I know is an ignorant, unsophisticated halfwit.

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  11. I was a four year old Catholic pre-schooler minding my own innocent beeswax when one morning a classmate earnestly informed me that if I didn't love God, I was going to burn in hell when I died. I had no idea that God hated me so much, or why. I spent the next six years alternating between reading the bible and vomiting each day out of fear. When I changed schools in sixth grade (still Catholic!) I noticed a cardboard heart decorating the door that read, in glitter, "GOD IS LOVE." I thought it was the most ludicrous thing I'd ever seen.

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  12. Anonymous11:21 AM

    O/T but related.

    Andrew O'Hehrir published a long thoughtful piece about the rise of Trumpism, at Salon.
    http://www.salon.com/2015/09/12/trump_sanders_and_tribalism_why_the_donalds_dark_allure_goes_deeper_than_racism_and_xenophobia/

    Someone at Breiibart reposted it there, without comment.
    http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2015/09/12/salon-donald-trumps-call-of-the-wild-beyond-racism-nativism-plays-to-embattled-tribal-identity-of-white-america/

    We are thus given the opportunity observe the reactions of two factions of our fellow citizens...although the whole exercise may feel tl;dr, it is highly instructive.

    If someone were to be a teacher of high school civics, for instance...or a night school class, it would make wonderful material for a discussion.

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  13. What I find totally amusing is that DeLancie played GOD on Start Trek. At least he called himself one.

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