Merry Christmas to All

Every year at this time numerous conflicts arise regarding religion and society. Many people seem to believe that the law of the land is the separation of church and state and that this means that religion is barred from the public arena. There are at least two major problems with this view. The first is that the Constitution states that "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion nor preventing the free exercise thereof." The "separation of church and state" idea is from private correspondence written years later.

But perhaps the better argument is from Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was signed by the US.

"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."

Now, lawyers can probably shred this into meaningless garbage but I read it as allowing the public practice, worship and observance of religion. Religion was not meant to be practiced only in the privacy of one's own home.

Religion: Why I am right and you are wrong

I am an apathetic agnostic. I don't know if there is a god and I don't really care either way. I also consider myself a Unitarian although I certainly do not believe in the true theological basis, something opposed to the Trinity, and I find the current social aspects of Unitarian churches sadly misguided. Unitarians are supposed to value the free interchange of ideas but normally Unitarians have strong "liberal" values and dislike opinions that disagree with those liberal values. Rather sad what has happened to Unitarian churches as they have become hotbeds of hatred against Christians, Republicans, and others.

Anyway, all of you who are not apathetic agnostics are wrong and irrational. (Yes, I get the irony between paragraphs 1 and 2-this blog is sarcastic)

Monotheistic Protestants, Catholics, Jews, and Muslims are just goofy with your belief in a god that is not provable. Polytheists like Shintos, Hindus, etc, are likewise irrational to supports gods without any scientific evidence. In this group I would also place the Native American superstitions and talk about "the earth is our mother." No, it is not.

I would not have a problem with Deists if that means that they believe in a god as "the supreme or ultimate reality". Einstein was a Deist and apparently for him god was some sort of scientific shorthand for the stuff beyond our grasp. This makes sense to me and I use that definition of god myself. However, if Deism involves a belief in the afterlife and a "soul" than you have lost me. I am an agnostic regarding the possibility of a soul or afterlife.

Atheists really bother me since they seem to "know" that there is no god. This belief is as irrational as a belief in god. And they compound the problem with their proselytizing and politicizing.

Humanists is a wacko religion. Yes, you are a religion-defined as "a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith" because you believe that somehow Humans have some elevated status among other life forms. How narcissistic that?

And then there are Utopians. They seem rather common today. In the US, they are for universal health care, minimum wages, equality in income, abolishment of poverty, and life, liberty, and happiness for all. Sadly, we are almost all for that stuff. The problem is that you can not just legislate this stuff. Having all of this defies science. Until the behavior sciences eliminate the need for self-responsibility and initiative, these progressive ideas are just unrealistic.