The Gospel of Inclusion

Author note: From what I've gathered, a lot of people think of Atheists as criminals or people with no morals. I don't believe in God. But I'm just a regular guy, and I feel it is my responsibility to be vocal that I am an Atheist so that people can see that we aren't all murderers and rapists. We are scientists, accountants, graphic designers, that dude you see on the subway a few times a week. I write about Atheism not in an attempt to convince everyone there is no God, and not to say that you are stupid if you believe in something I don't (because I totally understand why over 90% of the people on the planet believe in some form of God), but to express an average guy's Atheist point of view.

In the 1990s, Bishop Carlton Pearson had a church named Higher Dimensions. He was a rising star of the Christian Church in America. His church was one of those feel good Gospel churches, where they are singing and clapping all of time and talking about God's love. At it's height, the weekly attendance was over 5,000 strong. He had a successful television show. He was an acclaimed Gospel Music Artist. Then he changed his mind about Hell.

Now, I'm not an expert on Christianity, but I do know that many Christian churches believe that all non-Christians, regardless of how they live their lives, are going to Hell. After Carlton Pearson saw a television program on Rwanda, and realized that all of victims there were, according to his own church, going to Hell, he began to reconsider his personal position on what Hell is. His personal belief in Hell, as stated on his website, is:

"A person who spends every day getting drunk, will ruin their health, marriage, family and career; they will make their lives a living Hell. But that still falls far short of the chronic alcoholic being condemned by a just God to literally burn in Hell forever and ever.

For others it may very well be that the punishment merited by their sins is greater than what they receive in this life. For those people perhaps there will be some kind of punishment after death, but we believe that it will be remedial and corrective rather than just punishment for punishment's sake. Exactly what that will be and how long it will last we don't know. Will Hell for some people last 10 minutes or 10 million years... we don't know. But this we do know; Hell will not last for eternity; it will not be endless... Don't sin. Be reunited with God now, rather than after you have put yourself (and those you love) through Hell."

Sounds pretty reasonable, doesn't it? It is called the Gospel of Inclusion, and it basically says that bad people go to Hell, but not necessarily good people that aren't Christians, and not necessarily to a pit of fire for all of eternity. Well it was controversial enough that in 2004, Joint College of African-American Pentecostal Bishops declared Carlton Pearson a heretic. Really! A heretic! Seems a little harsh. Soon afterward, attendance at his church dropped 80% and he lost his building to foreclosure (I guess they figured there was no point in going to the church of a heretic when the whole point is to get in good with God). All because he thinks that good people that aren't Christians might not be going to Hell.

This leads to one of many big problems I have with organized religion. The Bible was essentially written as an explanation of the world and as a guide for how we are suppose to live our lives. They didn't really have any scientific knowledge back then, so when things didn't make sense, they just said that God did it. Then, when it was finished, that was it. We know a lot more about the world now then we did then, and I'm guessing that if the Bible didn't exist and we were to start writing one, it would be a lot different. However, we are all still expected to live by the rules that were made thousands of years ago.

Now, just remember that it was legal to own a slave in the United States just 160 years ago. Things have changed a lot in 160 years, and a lot more has changed in 2000 years. Because 'the good word' is set in stone, people get very upset when you try to change something. If Carlton Pearson says that Hell is different from the previous definition and the church doesn't correct him, the next thing you know, you'll have someone saying that God is okay with gay marriage.

Compare that to the attitude of science. A scientists goals are to constantly challenge and refine their own truths and to continue to expand our understanding of the universe, whether it is the search for origin of life or the search for a cure for cancer. Imagine if scientists decided 2000 years ago that scientists wrote a Bible and it stated that the world was flat, and everyone decided that anyone who disagreed was a heretic. Where would that leave us?

Of course, this actually happened to Galileo when he stated that the Earth revolved around the Sun instead of the other way around. Guess who got mad about it at the time... The Catholic Church. Because it was contrary to the literal meaning of scripture. Galileo spent the last years of his life under house arrest because of these views. Absurd. Imagine what the world would be like if all scientists declared him a heretic and threatened to do the same to anyone else that claimed the Earth revolved around the Sun. Its easy to see what the debate must have been like because it is happening again in America today over the concept of evolution, but I'll save the battle between evolution and creationism for another time.

While I don't believe in God, I understand that organized religion is, like science, partly an attempt to understand the world around us. If Carlton Pearson has a different idea about what happens after we die, then so what? The Pope changes church policy and belief all of the time. It wasn't until relatively recently that the Vatican decided to change the rule so that unbaptized babies go to heaven when they die instead of purgatory. I won't even get into how absurd the idea of an unbaptized baby going to hell is, but if they can just change that rule, I don't understand why Carlton Pearson's change of heart is any different. In fact, it is based on the same concept as the Vatican ruling in that it basically grants access innocent people who haven't accepted whoever as their lord and savior access to their exclusive club in the sky. It's just that the Pope is allegedly the man who speaks to God, despite the fact that he is elected by a bunch of dudes.

If you accept that the word of God was interpreted by man in the Bible, why can't someone have a new interpretation? Pearson even said he received a message from God. Do religious people think that God is finished talking to people? Do they think Pearson is a liar? Or do they just think they've been following the same path so long that it just seems too complicated to change anything?

In some ways I have respect for those that follow the Bible absolutely. To me, it seems like the whole point of Religion for a lot of people is to follow the rules so that they are guaranteed access to Heaven, which is supposed to be pretty awesome, from what I hear. If you don't follow every rule, then what is the point? Do people just think God will be okay if they follow most of the rules? However, as I've already stated, the idea of living your life by a bunch of rules that were decided upon 2000 years ago seems flawed. I think the root of a lot of people's belief in God is need for there to be something more than we see every day. When someone dies young, people are comforted by the idea that they are in some sort of better place over the idea that their body is in the ground and that is it for them. So is believing that everyone that didn't follow your rules exactly (and Carlton Pearson wasn't talking about murderers, he was just talking about good people that didn't get around to converting to Christianity before being slaughtered) will be burning in Hell forever comforting?

Our Lady of the Underpass

The latest version of iPhoto includes a feature that automatically scans your photo library and recognizes faces in your photographs. If you tag a friend in multiple photographs, the next time you load a picture in with that friend in it, iPhoto will recognize that face and will tag it for you (which is helpful for all of those who like to export photos straight from iPhoto to facebook). But it also will recognize faces even if they aren't friend that you've already tagged, it will just pop up as 'unknown face'. Today, a story appeared on Gizmodo about a photo of cookie dough that was loaded into iPhoto and had a face recognized in the chocolate chips.

It isn't hard to see why iPhoto recognized a face. While the two chocolate chips on top make it look kind of like a teddy bear, it just goes to show that all you really need is 4 dots in order to make a face. If you look at almost any abstract collection of values—a crumpled piece of paper, the individual piece of yarn in a rug, potholes on a street—you can find a face somewhere in there. I remember when I was a little kid I used to get scared at night looking down at my covers because I became convinced that there were faces looking back at me. All of this is perfectly normal. Faces are a major part of our everyday lives. We look at peoples faces all day long and rely on their intricacies to understand the feelings and attitudes of the people we interact with. Where it becomes abnormal is when people start seeing a face and become convinced it is either Jesus or the Virgin Mary.

In 2005, some locals discovered something that would eventually be called "Our Lady of the Underpass". It is basically a water stain on a concrete highway underpass that forms a vague image of a human (click on the picture to see a larger version). If you look closely (like, really closely, you can kind of see how it could look like a person, but pretty much any person. Lets just say that I have a feeling that if I loaded this photo into iPhoto, I wouldn't even get an 'Unknown Face' tag. The idea that this looks like a specific human being, especially a human being whose image has been handed down through paintings and whose image is probably more determined by the models posing for those paintings than the actual historical human being, is laughable. It was the latest ludicrous religious pareidolia, second only to the virgin mary grilled cheese in absurdity. And as you can see in the picture (taken by yours truly), people actually flock to this water stain, leaving flowers and statues as though this concrete flaw is somehow going to get them closer to God. It is sad. It seems to me to be perfect microcosm of religion itself: a search for a sign from a higher power so desperate that people are willing to ignore the futility of praying to something that just isn't there (but then, I guess that is what 'faith' is all about). And for all of those who think Atheists live a sad and empty life...lets just say that the next time I see a face in my cookie dough, I'll skip the prayer service.

Atheism Q & A

Author note: From what I've gathered, a lot of people think of Atheists as criminals or people with no morals. I don't believe in God. But I'm just a regular guy, and I feel it is my responsibility to be vocal that I am an Atheist so that people can see that we aren't all murderers and rapists. We are scientists, accountants, graphic designers, that dude you see on the subway a few times a week. I write about Atheism not in an attempt to convince everyone there is no God, and not to say that you are stupid if you believe in something I don't (because I totally understand why over 90% of the people on the planet believe in some form of God), but to express an average guy's Atheist point of view.

Here are a couple of questions I tend to get once someone finds out I am an Atheist.

Q: Isn't it depressing?

A: Well, no. I think everyone thinks that if there is no God, that all of the meaning is taken out of life. Like this is all some big audition for heaven, and if you don't believe in God, that it means that this is all just a big waste of time. Well, firstly, I don't think the absence of God makes our time on Earth any less amazing. The odds that things would happen the way they did are pretty astounding. And once you stop believing in God, they become even more amazing. Once you accept that we weren't put here by a creator, the odds of human life evolving from almost nothing is totally mindblowing. We are all made of earth. We all tend to think of our bodies as some sort of special vessel, but no, we are made of the chemicals of earth. You know how you start as a baby, and then you grow? It isn't magic. All of the food you eat turns into human being. We are all composed of the same atoms that have always been here and always will be here. Another amazing thing is that there is no difference between an atom from a living being and any other atom. No part of us is made up of some special 'living material'. Atoms float around and join our bodies constantly, and other ones break off and become part of the air, and there is no difference between any of it. I could go on and on about how often my mind is blown by the basic science of life, but I won't. The point is: I think the fact that we are all here on earth is way more amazing when you take God out of the picture.

Q: But isn't it depressing not believing in heaven?

A: No. Not really. I guess it is kind of like finding out that at the end of your four years in college you found out that you weren't going to get a degree. You just got the education. It would be disappointing, but you still learned everything you were going to learn in college, you just don't have the piece of paper proving it. If you found during your freshman year of college that you weren't going to get a degree at the end, would you just want to drop out? Or would you go through with it all anyway, just for the education and experience?

I stopped believing in an afterlife a while ago, and while it can be disappointing at first, in the same way as when you finally accept that Santa Claus doesn't exist, once you accept it, knowing that there is no afterlife just forces you to appreciate the importance of your every day life. We aren't just killing time before a big party in the sky. This is it. So you'd better make sure you are satisfied with what you do here and how you spend your life. If you spend your life doing something you love and you surround yourself with people that make you happy, then it isn't depressing at all. Unfortunately, not everybody In that respect, it can be pretty heartbreaking for me to see how many poor people turn to God as their big hope. I can understand that if my life totally sucked, I would be comforted by the idea that this life sucks, but man, when I get to heaven, it's going to be kickass. But no, it really isn't. [A quick side note: When you think of those 9/11 hijackers, isn't it a good thing to believe there is no heaven? I think since we live in a country that is almost entirely Christian, everyone takes for granted that the terrorists aren't going to heaven, but pretend that Allah was the true God and that those bombings earned all of those guys 77 virgins. Wouldn't that be infuriating?] So stop praying to the image of the Virgin Mary in your grilled cheese, and start sleeping in on Sunday.

Q: If you don't believe in God, what stops you from just going out and killing everybody?

A: Okay, I have never actually been asked this, but it is a common question/attack that comes from the religious right, and I thought I would answer it myself: Are people really that cynical of human nature that they think that the threat of hell is the only thing keeping everyone from living in absolute lawlessness? Isn't that why people use the phrase "God-fearing" to reference 'good people'? Just because I'm not afraid of God doesn't mean I don't have a conscience. In fact, I think most atheists just live by the old golden rule. I don't want to negatively affect the lives of others, because again, if this is all there is, for me and for them, it would be even more cruel of me to go around caring only about myself. In fact, I think anyone who would ask this question is the one we should really be afraid of.