{"id":45535,"date":"2014-09-28T22:52:30","date_gmt":"2014-09-29T04:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/28\/atheists-are-humans-too.html"},"modified":"2014-09-29T09:17:32","modified_gmt":"2014-09-29T15:17:32","slug":"atheists-are-humans-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/28\/atheists-are-humans-too.html","title":{"rendered":"Atheists are humans, too"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking as a theist, there's a lot that atheism has to teach the faithful: skepticism about accepted teaching, dealing with the conflict between dogma and human knowledge, contention against authority, and understanding where many of the threads of modern faith come from (hint to modern Christians: a lot of it ain't the Bible).<\/p>\n

But a deeper lesson that it has to teach us — both theists and atheists — is that humans and human institutions sometimes suck, and aligning with the truth in one area doesn't mean total enlightenment and shedding of human foibles, flaws, and asshattery.<\/p>\n

Too many people think that simply claiming Jesus as one's personal savior will sanctify and reform all of one's attitudes and beliefs. Too many other people think that simply shedding superstition and religion will clarify and reform all of one's attitudes and beliefs.<\/p>\n

In reality, people … well, I hate to say we tend to be jerks, but we are conservative and complicated as all get-out, and flipping a switch in a single part of one's ideological framework is no guarantee of a sudden cascading change in every part of that framework. It's not a matter of a single profession of faith (or unfaith), but a continuous examination of all<\/i> of one's behavior and beliefs, some of them far more painful in examination than the question of the existence (or non-existence) of God. It's damned hard work, work that takes a lifetime, and assuming you've dealt with it all is a great signal that you very much haven't.<\/p>\n

Or, put another way, if sainthood (religious or secular) were easy, everyone would do it.<\/i><\/p>\n

We are all pilgrims, claiming to seek truth, but reluctant to leave behind each bit of parochial, selfish, self-aggrandizing, status-quo-loving falsehood. It doesn't matter so much (in my opinion) what path we're taking in that seeking, so much as we are willing to follow that path wherever it may lead us, no matter how painful it may be, and to leave no internal corner of our thinking unturned.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the true challenge is not to best other people in their unenlightened state, but to best ourselves.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nThe Atheist Disillusionment<\/a><\/span>
\nI’ve been writing about atheism for about 10 years now. What has driven me is a combination of awe at the amazing insights produced by science, so much deeper and more substantial than any collecti…\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaking as a theist, there's a lot that atheism has to teach the faithful: skepticism about accepted teaching, dealing with the conflict between dogma and human knowledge, contention against authority, and understanding where many of the threads of modern faith come from (hint to modern Christians: a lot of it ain't the Bible). But a … Continue reading “Atheists are humans, too”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,27,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-religion","category-religion-me"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14955,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/06\/04\/the-capacity-for-violence.html","url_meta":{"origin":45535,"position":0},"title":"The capacity for violence","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Jun-09 1:33pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Alonzo Fyfe writes: When I was young, I was active in the Libertarian Party. I ended up spending months travelling across the state of Montana visiting with a fair number of people who called themselves Libertarians. Because of the writings of Ayn Rand, many Libertarians were also atheists. And some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47933,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/questions-for-atheists-answered-by-someone-whos-not.html","url_meta":{"origin":45535,"position":1},"title":"Questions for Atheists (answered by someone who's not)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 11-Nov-14 12:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not an Atheist (but I've been accused of being one on the Internet).3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/atheist1%5B1%5D.gifimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/atheist1%5B1%5D.gifimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/atheist1%5B1%5D.gifimgmax%3D660.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":24650,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/18\/can-you-be-a-faithful-muslim-and-a-loyal-american.html","url_meta":{"origin":45535,"position":2},"title":"Can you be a faithful Muslim and a loyal American?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 18-Dec-11 6:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, can you be a faithful Christian and a loyal American? How about a faithful Jew, or Buddhist, or Hindu, or Wiccan, or ...?For anyone with a particular religious faith -- or any sort of personal moral code -- there may come a time when that interferes with one's relationship\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132426,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/23\/religious-freedom-for-atheists-too.html","url_meta":{"origin":45535,"position":3},"title":"Religious Freedom for Atheists, Too","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 23-Dec-16 11:10am","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm glad to see this 1998 US religious freedom law noted to include atheists and agnostics as well. '\"The freedom of thought, conscience, and religion is understood to protect theistic and non-theistic beliefs and the right not to profess or practice any religion.\"'Some folk like to play semantics and suggest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21232,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/11\/victoria-jackson-is-a-dolt-sing-song-atheist-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":45535,"position":4},"title":"Victoria Jackson is a Dolt (Sing-Song Atheist Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 11-Jun-11 2:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Sensuous Curmudgeon wrote about this zany WorldNetDaily article, and then Les commented that it could use a good fisking, but it would be hard to do justice to it ... ... well, who can resist? It's a sweet little opinion piece titled \"Atheists don't have no songs,\" by famed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Dolts"","block_context":{"text":"Dolts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/dolts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/tin-foil-hat2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19368,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/12\/01\/discarding-reason-for-the-season.html","url_meta":{"origin":45535,"position":5},"title":"Discarding Reason for the Season","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 1-Dec-10 10:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So after discussing the Evils of Atheistic Billboards yesterday (or, more properly, the hypocrisy of Christians condemning Atheists for proselytization efforts), a few more items bobbed up on the subject. \u00a0Like this billboard: It came up at this page at Pharyngula in conjunction with PZ Myers objecting to an atheist\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Holidays"","block_context":{"text":"Holidays","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/holidays"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/tongues-sticking-out.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/tongues-sticking-out.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/tongues-sticking-out.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45536,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45535\/revisions\/45536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}