Because I have received several emails from people who are curious about what “The Editor” really believes, I decided to write a brief note about my background and beliefs. Knowing myself, however, I realize that when I get out my soapbox “brief” can seem to be a very subjective term.

In creating this website--playing God with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek--I have come to certain conclusions about how I feel about religion, god(s), belief, faith, etc. that I may not have fully realized without this experience. Sometimes it takes a bit of satire to truly see how ridiculous something is.

I was born atheist, like everyone else, but was raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, more commonly known as the “Mormon” religion. When I left the stage of childhood in which the beliefs of one’s parents are assumed to be reliable, I went on a bit of a quest to decide what I truly believed in.

I looked into many religions and philosophies both new and old, and came to realize that I appreciate the honest guesses of philosophy over the faith of religion. I asked that my membership in the Mormon church be revoked, and I now label myself as an atheist/agnostic.  Atheist meaning I don't believe in gods, agnostic meaning I don't think anyone can know such things with certainty. 

You may ask, “Why did you turn away from religion?” and I may tell you even if you didn’t ask. As previously alluded to, I came to see the humor and absurdity of it. Theology is a great way to reinforce your own opinions and is good for very little more. You get to create a god who is perfectly good and agrees with you and a devil that is utterly evil and just happens to disagree with you--and anyone who thinks that it's absurd can go to hell. If that isn’t complete nonsense then I really am the Almighty.

I tend to think that religious people would be better off if they came to realize that the validity of their opinions is not substantiated by their belief in a deity that agrees with them. Anyone can have an imaginary friend that always sees eye to eye with them, but not everyone’s opinions will stand on their own in the face of logic or evidence.

When you cast off the burden of faith you can truly allow yourself to have an open mind. Too often (in the Mormon religion and in other religious organizations) people say "open-minded" when they really mean "how easily you change your faith to agree with my own." This is not truly open mindedness. It is some warped form of socially-dynamic close mindedness that keeps cults in business and retards the growth of the intelligence of our species. An open mind is one that can honestly think and admit, “I don’t know.” I’ll take that thought far enough to say I don’t think it’s possible for anyone to really know anything with complete certainty, but I think the unending pursuit of truth is admirable and valuable.

Somewhere in all that rambling above I’ve attacked the very concept of faith, which usually makes me very unpopular. Since I’ve never worried much about popularity, I’m going to go even further with that commentary and say that two words seem to share the definition of "unwavering belief in something that cannot be proven."

These two words are faith and delusion. Faith in a life after death, for instance, can be a great comfort, but what determines whether this is faith in a truth or merely a delusion? Only chance can make that determination, like a roll of the dice or a spin of the wheel. Is hoping for luck really a sound basis for a system of beliefs, ethics, morals, and spirituality called a religion? Is it worth all that people gamble on it?

Using Mormons as an example since I have experienced being a member—I know they risk a great deal on the shot in the dark called faith. They allow their church to decimate their incomes so they can be allowed to indulge in non-public temple ceremonies that will, hopefully, secure the ultimate glory for them in heaven when they die. During these “not secret.. we just can’t talk about them or we’ll have to disembowel ourselves” ceremonies, they promise all of their belongings to their chuch and their endless devotion to dogmatic leadership—the same leadership that allows people to think the best function of women in the universe (eternal baby machines once cooking and cleaning become moot points), the “fact” that black people are cursed with the Mark of Cain for having been less valiant in heaven before this earthly exam, and various brainwashing techniques to use on their children and strangers alike so that they can spread the joy of the gospel.

As a Mormon, to deny the ghostly entity that is supposed to whisper the truth of these things to you is the ultimate sin—and will get you a one way trip to hell, minus the fire and brimstone. Lesser sins--like murder--can, of course, be washed away by having your blood spilled when you die.

I can and do respect people who use hope to justify their actions and motivations. As someone who places high value on wisdom I have difficulty respecting those who take hope to the unhealthy level of pure faith. To me this means that they have stopped looking for truth and have settled for being comfortably close-minded. A favorite philosopher of mine named Voltaire said:

“Doubt may not be a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.”

I feel that truth and wisdom must always be held in higher regard than belief and faith if we are to be respectable and dynamic as an intelligent species.

Politically I am somewhat left of far left, but unlike anyone else I know of, I believe in pouring resources into the improvement of our species through science and technology (genetics/cybernetics).  No, I'm not an evil scientist--but only because I lack the intelligence and ambition to actually create an army of Human 2.0's.

There you are—more than you ever wanted to know about what I believe. Drop me a note if you have any comments or want to make sure I know I’m going to hell.. :)

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