Durango Without Dogma

Tonight at our monthly meeting, we will be talking about raising kids in secular households.  In our religiously blanketed culture, this can sometimes be a challenge. I’m curious to hear how members who are also parents address this issue.

For me, it’s more about equipping my child with critical-thinking skills. I want to teach him (to borrow a phrase) how to think, not what to think. Additionally, I hope to instill in him enough self-esteem to challenge religious ideas and thoughts without succumbing to peer pressure. Fortunately for us, we live in a very liberal area. I can’t imagine how much more difficult it would be for non-religious parents raising kids smack dab in the Bible Belt.

Luckily there are many resources for parents online. Here are a few I found:

 Books-

• Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Caring, Ethical Kids Without Religion  by Dale McGowan
  
• Raising Freethinkers-by Dale McGowan
• What Do you Believe?- by DK Publishing (an explanation of various religions and philosophies for kids).

Links/Blogs-

• Kids Without God- A website from the American Humanist Association
• Parenting Beyond Belief
• Kids Without Religion
• Atheist Mom
• Atheist Dad
• Camp Quest-
• Camp Inquiry

Lastly, I’d like to leave you with this YouTube video. I think it is a good representation of what most atheists, agnostics, humanists believe when it comes to raising our kids.

See it here.

Hope to see some of you tonight at the meeting!

I don’t normally follow what celebrities do unless they are among the ranks of people who truly deserve to be celebrated.  But here are a few celebrities that are not shy about their atheism.  Next time you get flak for your non-faith maybe you should do a little name-dropping.  It’s also worth pointing out that on the whole, the people in this list are a bit more cerebral than your average Hollywood half-wit (except maybe Hugh Hefner).  I especially like Keira Knightley’s post…

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/23/10_celebs_you_didnt_know_were_atheists_partner/

Or not.

I hate to admit it, but I get a little annoyed when I see a Prius with a COEXIST bumper sticker on it.  I appreciate the sentiment behind it, and I do indeed wish that there were more of the types of people in this world who sported this type of bumper sticker (and drove Priuses for that matter).  But the fact that the letters are spelled with symbols of the world’s various major religions implies that everyone should hold on to their religion (no matter how non-sensical) but learn to tolerate the beliefs of others.  Or to realize that all these religions worship the same god.  Or life force.  According to this view, people should (1) Come on, (2) Be brothers, (3) Play the bongos, and (4) Yeah.

This is fine, but wouldn’t you rather members of these various religions just discard their irrational beliefs altogether?  Then they would free themselves of the intellectual bondage that inhibits their minds from finding a greater morality and purpose.  I don’t want for Christian faiths to allow homosexuals to become pastors – I want them to realize that faith is an irrelevant idea to begin with.  There is no room in the modern world for both superstition and reason.

Which is why I found an article in “Get Religion” to be interesting.  Recently, a Lutheran minister was chastised for engaging in a multi-faith worship service in the aftermath of the Newtown shooting.  There has been some level of outcry that this individual was unfairly treated.  The writer of this post defends the Lutheran stance against (somewhat surprisingly) right-wingers like Bill O’Reilly.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/getreligion/2013/02/explaining-opposition-to-syncretism-in-a-syncretized-world/

If more religions were honest, then the world would more quickly see their true nature.  Any faith that does not at least to some degree claim exclusivity will crumble intellectually.  And it so happens that it is this exclusivity that is seen as being most repugnant.

So here’s a request to the religions of the world – Keep doing what you do, and the rest of us will sit back and watch while your influence fades into a vast eternal pit of irrelevance, where all of the other bad ideas of history have since gone.

And someone please make a “COEXIST” bumper sticker that doesn’t have the Star of David or crescent moon on it.

If you are at this blog site, there is a good chance that you have read the article about our group in the Durango Herald that was published on Feb 4.  We are glad you are interested in learning more about our group!

I don’t want to bore you with mission statements or anything like that, so here are just a few random ideas about our group, how we got here, and where we are going.

• Our primary goal is to create a sense of community for non-believers where one might not otherwise exist.  We don’t spend our time criticizing the beliefs of others or trying to feel smarter than everyone else.  Our main focus is on developing a more complete world-view based on science, rational thought, and empathy for others.
• Not everyone in the group calls themselves an atheist and we do appreciate that to some this is a troublesome word.  To us, it simply means “without belief”.  Many view atheists as being arrogant and angry, and we strive to change that perception.  Most atheists are thoughtful, caring individuals who want to live a life of meaning and purpose.
• We welcome secularists of all kinds, but we also have guests from time to time who are questioning their faith and want to learn more about what the “other side” has to say.  We welcome these people with open arms to come visit our group.
• One criticism that many people level at groups like ours is that we base our organization around a negative (disbelief).  We try to emphasize that we are FOR critical thinking, we are FOR secular government, and we are FOR a moral world-view that is based on logic and our ability to empathize with others.
• We have been around for a year and a half and have over 75 members.

There are a few types of activities we engage in on a monthly basis:

• Pub Chat Meetup – We meet at a pub once a month and have discussions led by individual members on pre-prepared topics.
• Member Talks – This is where we ask someone in the group who knows a lot about something to tell us more about that something.  In the future, these topics will tend to deal with the moral implications of how science and technology affect our lives.
• Movie Nights – There are some great debates and documentaries out there.  
• Hiking, snowshoeing, and whatever else – We are a close-knit bunch of people and are always looking for excuses to get together.

We hope you will think about joining us for one of our gatherings soon!  If you would like to sign up for our events and email list, the easiest way is to go to http://www.meetup.com and search for “Durango”.  There are no fees to join our group (and no obligations either).

The next event we have is a free public lecture at Fort Lewis by Dugald Owen on the topic “Living Deeply Without God”.  This will be held on Feb 18 at 7pm in Noble Hall.  

Hope to see you all very soon!

Clayton