This I Believe

Recently, a friend was asked to give a talk called “This I believe” at a Universal Unitarian Church.  He gave an excellent treatise on why he was an atheist, and how he found religion incompatible with scientist he is.

Being the good friend I am, I called him out on that.  Because, while defending atheism is something any atheist can understand, it isn’t actually a statement of belief, is it?  It’s more like explaining why you are planning to vote for one candidate instead of another, rather than what makes your political blood boil. 

Crash Davis gave an awesome speech about what he believed in during a memorable scene in Bull Durham.  All Annie could say in response was, “oh my”.  That’s what I’m talking about!  Only I don’t believe the hanging curve ball, and baseball bores me.  I just can’t sit still for 9 innings.  I can’t even make it to the 7^th inning stretch and I’m not terribly fond of hot dogs.    Obviously, I’m an UN-American, communist, atheist weirdo.

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But really, I find myself being challenged about my morality as an atheist more and more often.  How can one have any morals if one has no superior being?  From whence does one’s sense of right and wrong originate?    People want to give credit to my Christian upbringing, which seems to me as specious an argument as saying that two heterosexuals couldn’t possibly produce a homosexual.  I will gladly credit my parents for raising me well, but only in that they raised me with good human values. 

This leads me to what I do believe:  I believe that humans are more alike than we are dissimilar.  When discussing religions, this means that if you look closely at all the texts of all of the major (and probably minor, but I haven’t read those) theologies, you’ll find the same basic tenets.  Love your neighbor.  Treat people the way you would like to be treated.  Don’t murder, don’t steal, honor your commitments.   No one has a corner on these notions.  When discussing people in general, it means that we all want the same things:  a place to live, people to love, food to eat, satisfying work to do, beauty in our lives, fun.  I believe we are alike enough, that these desires are hard wired.  We don’t need a deity or an ancient text to tell us about how to interact.  We know.  We may not choose to behave rightly, but we know.

I believe in treating the earth well, for it is our home.  I believe in conserving resources, because waste is stupid, and needless.  I believe in joy.  I believe in doing the right thing, even when it’s hard.  I believe in volunteering, and in asking for help when you need it.  I believe in beauty, and art for their own sakes.  I believe in fun, and in good friends, and laughter.  I believe in good food. I believe in forgiveness. And I believe in the power of the human mind.

We have, within us, the ability to think, and to process not only what we have experienced, but what thousands who have gone before us have experienced, through books, and theater and art.  Through storytelling, we can utilize the experiences of our friends and neighbors.  By using science, we can deduce things, and set up experiments to help us figure out if this or that may be true.  We have the power to understand great things, not the least of which is each other, if only we choose to use it.  

For you see, I believe we have the power of choice.  We can be proper bastards, or we can be amazing souls.  We can also be blobs. We can help or hinder, or do nothing.  We can toddle on, fall back, charge forward, or even keep time in place.  We can learn from our mistakes, or blithely repeat them.   We can do each thing in turn, for we are not bound by yesterday’s choices.  And this is true whether you believe a deity controls your life or not.  Why else would Catholics need confession and Jews the day of Atonement?   Some people say they only choose to right because they fear Hellfire, or prison.  Perhaps, that motivation works for them.  I hope they find a place where they can choose to do right because the prospect of right is more intriguing, and has more intrinsic rewards than the opposite.  But many people don’t really do much of anything, do they?  And that’s okay too.  If you make the choice to be benign, if you find peace in being and nothingness, more power to you.  It’s still a choice, isn’t it?  

I believe in today.  As much as anything else, I believe in now.  Now is what we have; not tomorrow, not some afterlife, not even really yesterday, because memories shift and fade.  We have today.  I’m not good at waiting, and while I may save dessert until after dinner, I would never save it for next week.    Maybe it’s 30 years in a trauma center, maybe it’s that I became convinced at 13 that I would die by 35, and now at 51 am still marveling at each new day….  Whatever sent me down that path, Zen masters and wise souls have agreed with me:  Carpe Diem.  You may never get another chance.

I believe in growth, and change and yes, evolving.  I don’t have to believe in evolution, it just is.  But I do believe that it gets better, and we are a part of that process, an active part, if we will be.  Each day, each generation, each time we take a chance, we can make a step forward.  I’m not kidding myself about the waltz step process of reality, but the forward motion is there.  We can make our collective and individual ways around the dance floor. 

Because, the bottom line is: I believe in me.  I believe in you, and in my children, my friends, and the collective potential of humanity.  I do not believe that I, or anyone else needs a superior being to tap into that power, and that potential.  Do I have morality?  Yeah.  I have a credo, and standards by which I live.  I make my choices in hope and optimism, in a desire for all that is good.  I do not make them in fear of damnation, or dreams of Paradise. I make them for today, and in hope of a better tomorrow, here, right here, on this planet, in this now.