Samuel P. Putnam in his old classic 400 Years of Freethought wrote the following in his introduction:
Freethought is a spirit, a method, and a result.
The eternal spirit of Freethought is the spirit of doubt. Freethought never ceases to inquire, to question, and to deny. It utterly abhors faith. It makes no terms with a submissive mind.
Doubt, says Aristotle, is the beginning of wisdom. It is, indeed. Doubt is the first step to knowledge. It is only through Doubt that we can analyze, judge, and select. Unless we deny, we cannot search. Belief is ignorance. Unbelief is attainment. Doubt is sanity—faith is insanity. The supreme virtue of orthodoxy is credulity. The supreme virtue of Freethought is skepticism.
This has been the eternal battle—Faith on one side, Doubt against it, and Doubt has won and gemmed the earth with civilization.
Freethought doubts; but Freethought builds. Truth is its object; but there is only one way to reach truth— through facts.
The scientific method is the one universal method. There is no a priori royal road to truth. There is only the common road, the toilsome common-sense path of observation and induction. In experience alone are the beginnings of knowledge. He who starts with ideas, and labors to accommodate facts to ideas, is no Freethinker, for he is bound to come to a certain conclusion, not by the force of truth, but the fiat of an assumption.
The truth for authority, and not authority for truth, is the axiom of Freethought; and by truth is meant not an image of the mind, but a fact of the universe.
The early part of my life was ruled by faith - enslaving, oppressive faith in God's alleged revealed will for humans. This I was taught from my earliest days.
Doubt was the biggest sin of all. It was the sin that would seal our doom for all eternity. Instilled in me was the Apostle Paul's fiery declaration: "Let God be true, but every man a liar."
That meant the Bible is true and the scientists are Satan-deluded liars. Secular historians also are pawns in Satan master deception, distorters of biblical truth. All the worldly philosophers were dead wrong (in the spiritual sense) because they started out wrong - that is, without faith. These things being so, to listen to any of their profane babblings would undermine the faith that means eternal life.
I wasn't one of those church-school children - we couldn't afford it. My education came via public schools. I was just a very poor student, especially in the sciences. Too many things I took with an eyeroll because they didn't square with my faith. The Big Bang, Dinosaurs and cavemen, for instance.
There was something else, too. I didn't believe I would live to adulthood, and didn't see the importance of a good education, because the world was coming to an end very soon. Armageddon theology cast a black pall over my formative years. I didn't want the world to end. I wanted to grow up, to live, to enjoy the pleasures I had had such a short time to enjoy. This led me even from my youth to the living of a double life. Of doing "naughty" things I wasn't supposed to do and then fearfully repenting later. I remember the prayer I formed as a child and spoke incessantly and every night before going to sleep: "God, forgive me of all my sins and keep me ready to go with you."
I worried about that, and every time my parents were late getting home from work I began to get that cold-water-in-the-veins feeling that maybe the Rapture had taken place and I had been left behind.
Even doing things that I just couldn't convince myself were really wrong, just against my "raising," was a source of mental anguish. God was always watching, and his Recording Angel was always there, taking down every misdeed in order to add to my book of works for review on Judgment Day.
Oddly enough, the first real crack in that cosmic egg occurred when I purchased from my local Bible bookshop a reprint of a very old book about "alleged discrepancies" of the Bible. Reading through it, I actually found myself more troubled by the weak defenses of "Bible truth" than by the embarrassing contradictions and illogic being defended against.
That crack grew wider the more I dug into the matter. Eventually I was forced to admit to myself that at best the Bible had quite a bit of good old-fashioned human error mixed in.
By my late teens my testicles finally reached a size that allowed me to check out from our city's public library that evil book I had heard about all my life. That old infidel manual The Age Of Reason, by filthy little atheist "Tom Paine."
It was like opening the windows on the first warm day of spring. The fresh air of reason blew into my mind and has not stilled since. Thomas Paine was not an atheist. He believed in God. He didn't, however, believe in any Bible other than nature. Hey, that resolved several of my problems right there.
I took my Bible off its pedestal for the last time when the truth of Paine's words sank in:
It is a contradiction in terms and ideas, to call anything a revelation that comes to us at second-hand, either verbally or in writing. Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication — after this, it is only an account of something which that person says was a revelation made to him; and though he may find himself obliged to believe it, it cannot be incumbent on me to believe it in the same manner; for it was not a revelation made to me, and I have only his word for it that it was made to him.
I was finally free. Free to examine the universe around me and search it alone for the truth. Free to ignore the rantings of the faithful who "know" and who don't walk by sight.
And my life is many times better now. If I have given up hope for eternal life, it is because I accept my fate as being the same as that of every other living thing in the universe. For this universe is my home, now and forever.
10 comments:
Despite growing up in a similar religious environment, I was very curious about science as a child. I read books about space, volcanoes, the oceans, whatever I could get my hands on. Any time our church "banned" a book, like Harry Potter or anything else they decided was "evil", I'd make sure to read it.
This got me in trouble at church more than a few times. I remember asking questions about the age of the Earth and if "cavemen" (what I would now call Neanderthals) lived before, after, or at the same time as Adam and Eve. Of course, these questions did not go over well. I would be reminded about the evils of doubting God and warned not to read books which contradicted His Word (i.e. the Bible).
For awhile, it was like I had two systems in my head. The literal story of Genesis was on one side, with the scientific story of dinosaurs and primitive humans on the other. I thought about the first in church and the second in school.
Surprisingly, that was easy to do. My young mind did not realize I was simultaneously believing in two contradictory theories. Of course, it couldn't last forever. It started to fall apart when I was 12. In my 7th grade biology class, I heard about evolution for the first time.
By that time, I was already beginning to question many of my beliefs once I realized how cruel the god I believed in was, and how we preached love but practiced hate. It wasn't long until my faith collapsed.
Right afterwards, I did not feel free. I felt a jumble of fear, guilt and confusion. It took about a year and a half before I felt comfortable as an agnostic, before I felt free from Southern Baptist Christianity. Of course, then I had to deal with the scorn of much of my family and some of my friends.
Despite the pain that caused, at the time, I thought it was all worth it. I still do. I learned a lot about myself and was able to build my own sense of right and wrong and a system of morality away from organized religion.
Still trying to get the sight of your testicles out of my mind, there--done. Last evening at dinner I sat with a man who out of theblur says, "HOMOSEXUALITY IS THE ONLY SIN THAT CAN NEVER BE FORGIVEN!" (He and I were sitting alone at a table, in my retirement home filled with 40 other diners, avg. age 85) He has been so sweet to me ever since I moved here with my partner of 31 years. He calls us his "pure angels" and as he does with EVERYONE always has something nice to say. There was an event(read about it on my blog some day) and upsetting many people, I changed my table to us. He always sat alone, others spoke bad about him behind his back, laughed at him, he is 6'8" (Can't believe I'm not sure, he says it every day...) car hit him, he lost half his brain and God saved him. Anyway, I'm sitting there ready to put a bite of Mahi Mahi in my mouth when he blurts this out. Here I sit. What to do? Ugh. Why me? Warp speed, Why NOT me? So, that launched into his next words as I firmly laid down my fork, "You have the faith, don't you?" (Said less like a question, more like fact.) LSS(long story short), thus began my stand against (quotes are HIS words) "The King James Version" and I told him hypocrisy was more likely to keep a person from Heaven and MY church was the church of inclusion and who are you to judge and then he says, "I know something no one else does." I counter, 2012? "Noooo. 2034. 2,000 years after Jesus Christ died." I countered that it was said 1,000 now it is 2,000, so Jewish people won't go to heaven? "I NEVER SAID THAT! They will have a chance at the end." So, if a Jewish person says at the end--I was wrong and I am no longer a Jew, he can go to Heaven? "yes." What about Muslims and Buddhists, same thing? Catholics too? "Everyone gets a chance." Or they go to Hell. "Yes." Except homosexuals. "Yes. Every word in the Bible is 100% true." Now you can hear a pin drop in the dining room. I am the president of the resident council. There is NO mgmnt present. I have some power. I told the man with half a brain that he and I would have to agree to disagree and I finished eating while he began discussing his looping stories about his Navy days. "I am the youngest man here." I say, without looking up--that's a lie. You just lied. Don't be a liar, Jesus doesn't like that. "I AM the youngest man here!" No, you're not. We went back and forth with that about 10 times, me calmly saying no you're not, him shouting louder and louder "Yes I am." I said, you want to bet? "Yes!" (Gotcha) I looked up at him and loudly said, you are a hypocrite too! You are a betting man and God hates those! Then he broke and said, "WHO is younger than me?!" I said, Ray. "WHO?" "I don't know him, he is new." No, he has lived here for years. "I've never seen him." (Bazinga again) That doesn't mean he doesn't exist. Matter of fact he lives on your floor, a few doors down. That ended our heated debate. I finished eating, he walked me back to my floor, holding open heavy doors I can't go through on my own, and said our usual nice good-bye. UGH. What do I do next? Once we are free thinkers, knowing little and searching for facts, how do we stop wasting time on those who live and will die by faith, the KJV kind? Thy are all around and now one has been dropped in my lap. To ignore seems so short-testicled. Lacking of ovaries, which I have none, they being surgically removed, are you never teased to speak with your facts to your mother? Paine wrote a book. His words freed a man. Should I not attempt to free a man? Or are free thinkers supposed to just give up on KJVs and speak to like minds? This universe is my home and Mr. KJV is in it.
Good post!
Great post! This made me think about my cousins' upbringing. My aunt, who was raised Catholic, became a born again Pentacostal Christian and even began speaking in tongues (she also gained 200 pounds, not sure if that is related, but she did tell me that the Holy Spirit would overcome her in church and she would fall down and just bounce back up- ha). Anyway, she definitely preached Armegeddon to her children and even though her husband made good money, she wouldn't start a college fund for her children because she said the world would end before then. Well, my one cousin is 19 now and didn't attend college and I think he didn't even finish high school even though he is naturally very smart. My youngest cousin, who is only a year younger than my son, is being home schooled and is on her way to becoming morbidly obese too. I'm told that she isn't really being educated by my aunt; they just watch tv together. My aunt probably still thinks Armegeddon is coming and education or healthy eating isn't important in this life. I feel bad for my cousin because she's super social and would really enjoy school, but my aunt is scared she will learn bad things. My cousin even believes that the kids in school will be mean to her and steal from her. It's sad that she's being brainwashed like that and can't live a normal childhood.
@ Sammy - There is, I confess, deep within my psyche a residual fear and guilt that wants to resurface at times. But these feelings are always laid to rest (at least for a while) by recalling my initial investigations concerning revelation. The wounds of my religious upbringing will probably never fully heal.
@ Diane - You have a very active imagination (sometimes too active).
The freeing of a submissive mind is a difficult thing. It doesn't happen overnight. In my case it was the journey of years and was achieved only gradually. The writings of Voltaire, Ingersoll, and especially Paine, were nails in the coffin of my childhood religious beliefs. The actual wood for the coffin was fashioned by in-depth study of the Bible. First there were questions, then there was inner turmoil, finally there was anger.
Yes, I do talk some with my mom about the things I have come to accept as true. Not much, though, because it isn't worth upsetting her. I am convinced that some folks don't have the psychological depth to overthrow long-held beliefs. She is one of those, at least at this point in her life.
Perhaps that is also true of your friend.
Oh, and tell your friend that Jesus said blaspheming the Holy Spirit is the sin that can't be forgiven (Matt. 12:31,32).
@ Don - Glad you enjoyed it!
@ Erika - Thanks. I'm glad you liked it.
Doug, I enjoyed all the comments. How some of you were raised is so far from my experience. I have only known of those who followed without question such a childhood or cry over their loss of parental acceptance. I wonder how many go through the fight you and Sammy did. Talk about lost souls, and Erika's example..so sad, I too have family for whom God life had made a pitiful life. OH! My friend mentioned that too, but he used another word, not blasphemy, God, then he changed to Holy Spirit. I asked him what he meant exactly, but I never got an answer...now I'll have to look it up...ugh. I'd rather read your take on it, I'll look through your blog. I must thank you, though, my brother, reading about God et all every morning made me quite comfortable taking a stand. For a blog that espouses "looking outside the Bible," it sure has caused me to read more from the Bible than I EVER would have for the rest of my years.
Just want to clarify because my comment about my aunt seemed kind of mean and judgmental in hindsight: when I mentioned her weight, I'm not saying everyone gains weight due to unhealthy eating, but she does eat this way and has stated that this life doesn't matter and that Armegeddon is coming in her lifetime. The brainwashing I referred to with her children had less to do with religion than making them think the world is going to end soon and that most people are bad and should be feared, which is how my young cousin feels. I feel she deprived them of a carefree or optimistic childhood.
And she really did say she bounces back up when she falls at church, so I wasn't making fun of her, but I think it's funny and she did too when she told me. Now seeing it written, it looks like I was being malicious.
@ Diane - I think people should take down their Bibles and read them more often. That book has such a history of respect and honor, many people can't fathom all the crazy things inside its covers. Preachers tend to dwell on the "good" things and the self-serving things. It's place of honor in our nation is based on tradition, not its merit.
@ Erika - Glad to have your clarification. But, it's still unfortunate. What if Armageddon doesn't come soon?
Reading Diane's comment made me realize how this blog has opened my mind to all the varying degrees of religious belief and made me recognize how many "extreme" religious followers I've known, from my best friend's Baptist preacher father who scared me into believing as a kid that my whole family (Catholic and Jewish side) was going to Hell, to my converted Orthodox Jewish sister, to my born-again aunt, to my missionary inlaws! I wish I had the same mindset that I have now and would have spoken up more when my mother-in-law insisted on a certain preacher for my wedding. I would have insisted on a secular ceremony today or just eloped - ha. As it was, we did it backwards- we flew from Las Vegas where we were living to Florida to get married. I now know I'm not into any kind of ritual or ceremony.
Doug, I hope my younger cousin gets to experience life outside of my aunt's world and hopefully, will choose another lifestyle. I definitely think my aunt has placed too much on what might be, instead of what IS.
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