Atheist Pastor: the Future of Religion is Much Too Bright

[rug]

September 14, 2015
by Linda LaScola

Editor’s Note: UCC pastor “Andy,” while doing his part to encourage humanist ideals in in his congregation, is not optimistic that his approach will be broadly successful.

By “Andy”
“Andy,” a former Southern Baptist Minister, is currently a Pastor in the United Church of Christ. He plans to retire in the church, despite his rejection of metaphysical speculation (God, salvation, heaven, etc.). His life has been an evolution from traditional theism, to non-theism (via Tillich and Spong), to agnosticism (via linguistic philosophy), to ‘incipient atheism’ (via secular humanism). He holds a PhD in Biblical Studies from a major American university.

Unfortunately, I think religion has a bright future.

In his book, The Future of An Illusion, Sigmund Freud predicted that we (the human race) would attain adulthood and have no need for religion. We would accept its death and learn to cope with our finitude in more mature ways. However, even he was fearful that “the great majority of mortals will never be able to rise above this (religious) view of life” (Civilization and Its Discontents).

There will always be insecurity, trauma and catastrophe, and there will always be people who respond by recourse to illusory metaphysical forces, like God or Satan.

I am reminded of what happened in the aftermath of 9/11. Attendance increased a full 50% at the congregation I served, and remained that way for over a year. I see this same phenomenon at work in the sundry individual ‘catastrophes’ that happen to people who have long left the confines of the church, but who return for a while after the death of a loved one, the loss of job or career, the diagnosis of cancer or other disease, et al. It’s as if they fall back on religion as a good-luck charm. Even parents whom I esteem as fully ‘secular’ will come to me to have their infants baptized, as if to say, ‘I’m not really into religion, but just in case . . . it’s nice to have an eternal life insurance policy.’

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rationaldoubt/2015/09/2530/

Which of course raises the question: Why is he still making a living doing this? It never ceases to amaze how many self-described rational people in this country hide their rational opinions so fluidly.

[AtheistCrusader]

1. That's because religion preys on people in distress.

"I am reminded of what happened in the aftermath of 9/11. Attendance increased a full 50% at the congregation I served, and remained that way for over a year."

Still, only a one year bump? Nice. That's encouraging.

"Even parents whom I esteem as fully ‘secular’ will come to me to have their infants baptized, as if to say, ‘I’m not really into religion, but just in case . . . it’s nice to have an eternal life insurance policy.’"

I do feel bad, I pointed out to my mom that I didn't appreciate the ritualistic shit they did when we were kids, like cutting off my foreskin, and baptizing me in Montana, and she fucking broke down, really surprised me. Guess she has some associated baggage around regrets or whatever in raising us, so I had to drop it for her peace of mind.

Still stupid shit though, dunking us in a creek, what the hell good is that supposed to do? Ridiculous human traditions.

Edit: Here's what gets me. People will accept the idea of a horrific monster of a god that might hold a child's eternal soul in jeopardy for original sin if you DON'T baptize it, without recognizing that such a god IS a horrific monster that humanity should probably work on finding a way to kill it in self defense. Like, if you really believe that's a thing, do something about it. I don't mean 'have a party and dunk your kid in water to save it from the terrible death-god-torture-demon-thing', I mean find a way to fix the problem forever.

[Starboard Tack]

2. She cut off your foreskin? Wow, that's horrible.

What ritual was that? Your Jewish or Muslim baptism? Or is it a Montana thing? I wonder if mutilating an infant's genitals is a form of pedophilia and is there a statute of limitations.
I truly feel for you. My mother just gave me a basic Jesus 101. Love thy neighbor and stuff like that. I did kind of fancy my neighbor's wife at one point, but my mom never got into the coveting thing.

[AtheistCrusader]

7. Not at the same time.

AS for why, I don't know. It seems like a cultural thing that somehow merged with Christianity at some point, a little bit like two trains interacting at high speed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_male_circumcision

[rug]

4. So, why is he still preaching it?

[AtheistCrusader]

6. Can you elaborate? I don't grok the question.

[rug]

9. "Even parents whom I esteem as fully ‘secular’ will come to me to have their infants baptized."

And then he baptizes them.

[MisterP]

3. that's the problem with "stadialism": if Comte and Tylor predicted it but it didn't come true,

then it means not that the theory was wrong, but that someTHING has thwarted the great advent of technology and reason and human fulfillment

the talk of good-luck charms and of throwbacks to the last evolutionary stage and of savage, childlike primitives is firmly pre-World War I: of course like DWS they think that was eternal and unquestionable, and the century of anthropology, history, philosophy, and theology that followed has just been an epiphenomenon, some PoMo fluff

now, they've been predicting the imminent end of religiosity a decade or two away since the 1870s, but others have adapted with faithless churches and wedding ceremonies and summer camps (all derived from a very intriguing Victorian movement)

[Jim__]

5. I don't see the connection between your first link and its text.

The text states: they've been predicting the imminent end of religiosity a decade or two away since the 1870s, but the link is to your post titled: interestingly science education has this odd cyclic "crisis pattern" where regular panics - which doesn't talk about anyone predicting the end of religiosity. Am I missing something?

[MisterP]

8. double dicks! that wasn't even the right self-repost

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1016&pid=131866

I also apologize for the pompous writing since I'm not making an argument, just outlining the trajectory of science and religion in the US, sort of twining around each other and reconfiguring themselves

but the ideologues of science are blandly predicting that religion's a past stage of evolution and we're entering the next one any day now; they get thwarted but instead of reexamining their view of secularization they get nervous and think there's something that's blocking it; that all makes them periodically believe there's a "science crisis," that we'd been distracted by arts and literature in schools, by attention to social factors

[Jim__]

10. Thanks for the updated link.

I had never heard of Tylor before. It will be interesting to read up on him.

It would be fun to research how many times people have predicted the second coming and contrast that to how many times other people have predicted the end of religiosity.