[I just sent an E-mail to a fellow regarding a Congressional Delegation to Iraq in January of 2001. Right off the top, I presented myself as "a Jew, a Christian and an atheist." I wanted Pacifist Nation to be considered a "faith-based organization" and I figured that, after that intro, I'd better explain myself. In so doing, I wrote something I've been threatening to myself to write for a long time. I usually don't post, without reflection and revision, stuff I write at two in the ayem. Hey, I may look at it later (after some serious Zzzzs and a cup of Peet's) and go, "Gaaaaawwwd, did I really put that out on the clothesline?]
Well, fool that I am, I'm putting it up. Not to say I may re-write it later (except, where I refer to "guy" I'll just make it gender neutral.) But even at 2:55 am I think it says what I want to say. Here 'tis. Peace.
I believe that as long as we have one foot mired in the Old Testament, believing in God is a dangerous thing; "God" has told us to do some pretty nasty things in "His" name. Who hears these voices, anyway?
I was baptized in Unity Church in Vista, California. I was taught, "God is Love." I still think that's pretty cool. I'll take that God over the wrathful, petty, vindictive god of the Hebrews any day.
Ever wonder where all those other gods of the Old Testament went? What made this one so special? He beat the snot out of all the others, that's what.
Along comes this new guy who has the chutzpah to re-define Judaism, which we now call Christianity. Compare the two Gods. They're supposed to be the same one, but they're like night and day. So, who gave God the personality transplant?
Did God change? Or did our idea of God change?
And if it's the latter, was there ever a God in the first place? Is that Being as ephemeral as the gods Jesus had deleted from the Universe's hard-drive?
So what's the big whup? The Hindus, Buddhists and everyone else besides the followers of/believers in the One, True, Western God seem to get along fine without One.
I'm a Unitarian Universalist. Universalists are supposed to believe in universal salvation. That means that everyone has a crack at the big "S", be they Jew, Moslem, Christian, infidel or heathen. As they say, Gandhi wasn't a Christian and sorry, folks, I'm with him.
Okay, so he believed in Rama. Maybe I won't go quite that far.
My point is, if I need God to tell me what to do, how to act, who to worship (Him, of course, which immediately makes me suspicious; do I want a God who's that insecure of his Divinehood?), I'm on shaky ground.
What if I die and discover that God really doesn't exist, that I'm coming back as a human again, only this time I will Know that I'm truly On My Own, that I'm going to have to figure out how to be a good Christian without Christ, or a good Jew without J*H*V*H. Yikes!!
So I'm hedging my bets. I used to say that I'm a cantor in a Catholic church partly on the off-chance that God's Catholic, even though we really know she's Jewish.
This is the New Me. I pulled my leg out of the Old Testament and I'm sticking my other one on the Other Side of the New, into the Great Void of Ultimate Responsibility. Keeping the first still in the New Testament, as I do find comfort in Christianity (and Judaism) as reference points, and from which to draw wisdom and inspiration.
But no more pussyfooting around it. I am an atheist.
It was when I finally acknowledged that that I found myself confronting the question, if I don't believe in a Supreme Being (like I told my draft board when I applied (successfully) for C.O. status), on what do I base my pacifism?
Whew!!
Well, it turned out to be pretty simple, really.WHAT IS THE GENISIS of ethics?
We've learned that a baby is naturally empathetic. That's nice to know. It sees another baby crying, it gives that baby its blanket since it brings itself comfort, it'll do the same for the other.
Then we learn, if we're smart enough to figure it out, that being nice to others is simply in our best interest. For one thing, we're much likelier to get things from our mom and dad we want, instead of being whacked upside the head for being ornery.
Next, we learn there are rules. If we're good, we obey the rules. If we turn into responsible adults, we obey the laws. Especially if, instead of just sitting in a corner for being bad, we sit in a jail cell.
Somewhere along the way, if one is as lucky as I was to have really cool parents, we learn to emulate those ethics we respect. From them we learn that some rules and laws are unjust; those we oppose, like the Jim Crow laws my parents were marching against in 1943 when they first met.
All that is well and good. We're good, responsible adults. We follow the laws of the land, but, above that, we follow God's Word, even if that means blocking munitions trains and getting busted, like my Old Man did dozens of times, nearly until he sloughed off his mortal coil at the age of ninety-six (you see where (and what) I'm coming from.)
But why do I need God to tell me how to be a good person? If so, I don't really own it. I'm still doing something because someone's telling me to. Lucky I believe in a kind and compassionate God, and not the one who instructs me to climb a bell tower and start picking off passers-by with a rifle, eh?!
See my point? There have been too many Soldiers of Christ with heaven-bent ears for me to trust a God any farther than I can throw Him.
Naw. I'm going to keep is simple. I'm a pacifist because it's the Right Thing to be.
That, of course, as any honest ethcist will tell you, is the ultimate in ethics – to do the right thing simply because it's right.
And if we're so screwed up as to believe that executing a seventeen-year-old for something he did when he was ten is right, then we're probably screwed up enough to believe in the God of Geo. Dubaya and Krishna help us because God sure won't.
Again, you see my point? Moses went beyond the gods of other tribes. Jesus went beyond the God of the Hebrews. Not to be so presumptuous as to claim to be the next Prophet because, guy, we all have to do this by ourselves, I feel compelled to go beyond the God of Jesus, to a place where the most vicious schoolyard taunt (to borrow shamelessly from the old Quaker joke) is, "My dad's more creative than your dad!"Cue John Lennon's ‘Imagine’ and you'll get the effect.
Peace,
Daniel ben Avram ap Jean
