Just A Graphic To Share With My Fellow Free Thinkers.

As most of the free thinkers I am linked with are through my blog and not my facebook I am sharing this image here.  Hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

I Really Hate Labels; I Am A Unique Being, Not A Soup Can

In constructing this post I was going through the categories I have used before and, humorously enough considering the post title, had a hard time trying to decide where to put it, so I just punted for the most part.  When I say I hate labels, I mean that in terms of trying to describe people, whether it is their religious or political beliefs or even their sexuality;  I, of course, heartily approve of labels on my food, really don’t want to be craving Chicken Noodle soup and open a can of Spam instead.

I have met a wide variety of people in my life, both in real life and through the internet.  Now, I know some will argue that you can never really meet someone through the internet, honestly, they really need to zip it because I do have some good friends that I only know through the internet and we get along just fine.  I know people from all over the spectrum when it comes to religious and political thoughts as well as people of different sexualities.  While the most of them are comfortable enough to be able to label their own beliefs, and hence themselves, I have always found that I have issues when it comes down to applying specific labels to my own thought processes.

I do not comfortable fit into any of the predetermined labels that society has already created and insists upon identifying me as:  liberal, atheist, bisexual, male, smart…  Yes?  I can see that “deer in the headlights” look you are giving me now.  I figured I would stump most everyone when I listed my gender in there, however let’s stop and think about this for just a minute.  What is it that determines our “gender label” in this society?  Well, for the most part it is our outward appearance, our sexual organs, and as we are given that label when we are born that brings it down to a very small difference.  Do I deny that I have a penis?  No, absolutely not, however, the label I refuse to accept is that I am a “man”, simply for the fact that the connotations associated with that term are not appealing to me.  Everyone has it in their mind that a man is strong, the bread winner, the dominant one, can change a car tire, keep the engine running and kill a spider for his woman all before sitting down to a cold beer and steak dinner.  I am merely the being that I am most comfortable being, simultaneously masculine and feminine with a hint of childishness thrown in just to keep things lively.

What brought this post about today was that I was looking up the words “atheist” and “agnostic”, how better to understand and relate to a concept than to first to know what the words themselves mean.  However, the basic dictionary was not all that much help as the definitions seemed to be implying something that I could not quite grasp, the same applies to the term “deism”.  So, what to do know?  How am I supposed to *gasp* label, my religious, or non-religious, beliefs?  That is the thought that has haunted me for a very long time, let me assure you.  So as I have done with my sexuality and political leanings in other posts, let me lay out my thought process here for you when it comes to “religion”, “higher beings”, “deity”, et al.

• I adamantly do not believe in the Christian religion at all – this includes any parallel religious belief systems such as Judaism and Muslim.
• I do not think we are the only intelligent life in the galaxy/universe/(whatever is above the universe level), nor are we the height of intelligent life.
• There is not a supreme being, a “God” if you will, that passes judgement over us, awaits our prayers or makes bets with some supreme evil for our souls.
• The Bible, and all “religious” texts are fine pieces of fiction that anyone who wants to debate against organized religion should have an understanding of before attempting to disprove it.
• While I deny the existence of a “God” figure, I consistently have an inner debate with myself about the concept of an architect/office manager/school principal type of figure that runs things.  I do not think this is some metaphysical being, just a more advanced species than we are and we can imagine at current.  As an analogy think of humans as ants and the President of the United States as this “architect”, hope you can understand what I am trying to say there.  Perhaps the best way to explain it is how Robert Heinlein did in his novel Job: A Comedy of Justice.

So, there we have it.  My little rant on labels.  I haven’t resolved my issue from this morning yet, nor did I really expect to, but I wanted to get these words out before I lost them.  I think the important thing to consider here is that we are all individuals, as unique in our thoughts as we are in our physical appearances.  That is what makes labels and labeling so hard, once someone starts analyzing that label they fairly soon realize that they do not fit into 100% and that can cause inner conflict to them as they begin to doubt just what it is they believe in.  The sad part is labels are an essential part of our normal interactions as they make it easier for us to determine the types of people we are interacting with and make the choices of who we want to interact with.

Where do we go from here?  Honestly I do not know.  I am not a great philosopher nor a messiah, I am just a simple person coming to terms with my own identity and trying to determine, and carve out, my own place in the world.  I carry no illusions of making an impact on the world or society nor of making an overall lasting impression once I am gone.  All I really hope for is to inspire critical thinking, free thought and hopefully and end to this collective thought system we have gotten so used to.  It’s time to destroy the lemmings once and for all and evolve to the higher beings we have the potential to become.

Related articles

• I Am That I Am (freespiritsunited.com)
• Labels are for… (queerlandia.com)
• Labels (dwlonline.wordpress.com)
• Agnostics and Identity: What’s in a name? (recoveringagnostic.wordpress.com)
• Last Thought: Anti-Labelism (yeyoungeconomist.wordpress.com)
• Labels (steffystuff.wordpress.com)
• “Militant Atheism” – I don’t think that means what you think it means. (monicks.net)
• Why I am an atheist – mandrellian (freethoughtblogs.com)
• I am a secular (secularplanet.org)
• My thought behind the thought that Athiesm might be kind of a religion (thoughtbehindthethought.wordpress.com)

The Perils of Not Being a Christian

I am still rather new to this whole blogging thing and one of the blogs that I have happened to trip across is Amanda the atheist.  Her blogs has provided me with some interesting insights, links and has given me new fuel for my own personal thoughts on belief and religion.  Like any blog she discusses a wide variety of things, however it is her posts on religion/atheism that have provided me with some interesting critical thinking.

For the last few years I have been stuck on the decision as to whether I am a Deist or an Atheist.  While a quick review of their definitions can show one that they are very different in meaning and thought actually having to debate the two internally shows they have a lot of similarities.  I am 37 years old and I am still unsure of my religious leanings.  I was not raised in a religious family at all.  Weddings and what not at a church, some time at a Baptist Summer camp, but no real exploration into Christianity and when I would ask questions I was always shot down with the old stand by of, “take it on faith.”  Well, that does not fit in with my personality, I am the type that requires proof for what I am expected to accept as fact.

People do amuse me though, take for instance something that happened in my Intro. to Lit. class the other night.  We were discussing the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” and I was pointing out all the religious (Christian) connotations in the story.  I do not know how it came about, but it was soon revealed that I do not accept the Bible as fact and then came the questions:

• How can you not believe in the Bible but make all these claims about the story? (Bible can be read by anyone, hello)
• Don’t you know Jesus died for you?  (Honestly, in the current age we are in I could sue him for infringing on my right to sin.)
• You talk about the Bible as if you know it but don’t believe in it? (Well yes, how can you debate something without knowing it?)
• And many more…

I’ve read various versions of the Christian bible and of course different translations.  How is anyone supposed to base a belief system off of something that is so self-contradictory?  One of the topics I’ve researched is homosexuality, specifically the verses that are most commonly used to argue against it.  The interesting thing is, the Bible does not in fact say what people think it does about homosexuality.  Here is one of my favorite articles written about the subject, particularly considering the author himself is a reverend.

I do not understand how it is that a religion that is supposed to be built on love and forgiveness can have some of the most hateful people as followers?  People wonder why I am so against any religious involvement in government and all I need to do is reflect on the hate that is shown by “honest christian” people towards those they deem unworthy.  Why is it so hard to live and let live, to let others have their own lives?

When Christ compelled his followers to spread his message, he did not intend for you to throw us all on the ground and shove it down our throats.

Related articles

• ‘Atheists Must Believe X’ (dangeroustalk.net)
• The Difference Between Chuck Norris and God (amandatheatheist.wordpress.com)
• Dealing With Religion Lite (anythingbuttheist.blogspot.com)
• Atheism is the default position (godless.biz)
• Why I am an atheist – Xios the Fifth (freethoughtblogs.com)