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Today is Good Friday, and i agree!  Here are some things that are good about this particular Friday:

• Fewer people at work today. (I think someone important died, and they’re all at the funeral.  Or something like that.  Wink.)  Which means i got a Good parking spot, and a Good place in my not-too-crowded aerobics class right under a fan.
• Lots of Good candy available in the stores right now.
• Spring is in the air - or summer, as the case may be - we topped 90 degrees in Raleigh.  Good grief!
• Pollen started falling and coating the cars today.  This is not Good for many people, but it reminds me how lucky i am not to have allergies, so in that sense it is Good for me.
• Any Friday is Good compared to the other days of the week.

Have a Good weekend, everyone!

There was recently a fascinating story from NPR about how researchers sent magnetic signals to people’s brains while they were judging the morality of behavior in some hypothetical examples.

People in the study read stories designed to produce moral judgments. One such story begins with a woman named Grace putting powder in her friend’s coffee. After that, the story can go in several different directions.

In one version, Grace believes she’s putting sugar in her friend’s coffee. But it turns out to be poison and her friend dies. In another version, Grace believes she’s putting poison in the coffee but it turns out to be sugar and her friend is fine.

They found that when the brain was influenced by the magnet, the way people judge morality reverts back to how we view things when you were 3 or 4 years old.

“If no harm was done, then subjects would judge [Grace's behavior] as OK,” she says, even if the story made it clear Grace was trying to poison her friend. That’s the sort of moral judgment you often see in kids who are 3 or 4 years old, Young says.

Studies show that at this age, children will usually say a child who breaks five teacups accidentally is naughtier than a child who breaks one teacup on purpose, she says. That’s probably because their brains are still developing the ability to understand the intentions of other people.

It’s interesting because of the implications it has on the notion of a soul.  If moral judgment is shown to be “just another brain process” then it reduces the possibility that we are more than just the sum of our parts.

Richard Beck, a research psychologist who also happens to be a Christian (and whom i have linked to before), has written a series of posts about what this means to him from a Christian perspective.  I’m fascinated by this topic, since if you follow it, it goes all sorts of other places, too (such as discussions about free will).  Beck’s approach is intriguing.  He sees a future where science has proved that there is no such thing as a “soul” and yet he still finds a “universalist” approach to Christianity that is satisfying to him.

Fascinating stuff.

Allow me to formally introduce my brother, Nathan.  He is younger than me by four and a half years.  He did his undergraduate degree in music at UNC, so we had a few years of friendly rivalry since i went to NC State.  He is currently working as a chaplain in a hospital near Arden, NC.  He has two beautiful dogs, Lola and Dakota, who romp and play with Nugent whenever they get together.  Nathan and his wife, Heather, are two of my favorite people.

Nathan has had a blog of his own, called Nate’s Davar, for nearly two years.  He writes about a lot of things, and often looks at them through a lens of faith.  Lately, many of his entries have been about some of the experiences he has had as a chaplain and how his work has affected him.  I really love those posts - more than a few of them have made me cry.

A few months ago, Nathan discovered my blog.  I was completely giddy to hear that he devoured it.  He found my letters from Grandma and was dismayed by the idea that she and i had been having a theological conversation that ended so abruptly.  He wrote to me, in an email that was titled “1st Letter From Nathan” and invited me to discuss my beliefs with him.  It has so far been an immensely enjoyable conversation, and i hope it continues throughout, well, our lives.

I am an atheist/agnostic/freethinker/humanist/whatever.  I do not believe in a higher power.  My parents believe that is a failure on their part.  Nathan, a product of the same environment, has chosen a different life path and set of beliefs.  In fact, in May he graduated from seminary.  Our beliefs are very different, and yet…  It turns out that an atheist and a divinity school graduate can agree on quite a few things.  This has sometimes surprised me.

This is the beginning of what i hope will be a series of posts discussing some of the topics Nathan and i have covered in our emails so far.  So far, there have been five Letters from Nathan, with responses from me.  The topics we have covered include:

• Each other - how we view each other, especially in the context of the rest of our family
• Family dynamics - how we grew up, how we were influenced by our family, judgment we sometimes feel, how much we have revealed to them about our beliefs
• Evangelism
• Faith and the nature of belief - how faith is a choice, how questions play into this.
• Audrey’s transition to atheism, how i “came out” to my family and the effect it has had
• Creation and Genesis
• The Bible as the Literal Word of God - flaws that may exist in the Bible, the Bible as a historical work
• Morality and where it comes from., hinking for yourself versus being told what to believe.
• God’s Plan - the idea that God has a plan for each person, whether God is personal
• Homosexuality
• Cultural influences regarding religion
• Christianity as the One True Religion, and how other religions fit into this idea
• Islam in particular
• Religion as an institution - religious warfare and religious killing
• Free Will
• Theodicy - the dilemma created when people say God created all things, so what is the purpose of suffering in the world?  Nathan’s work as a chaplain, and how this has affected him.
• Heaven - life after death.
• Hell/Satan - punishment and its purpose
• Egotism of Christianity - being thankful for Plenty
• Narrative Theology - as opposed to Proposition Theology which is the more standard way of thinking about things

The list is longer than i realized.  We’ve covered (or are in the process of covering) a lot of things, and we have a 30-page (single-spaced!) series of essays on the topic, which only promises to get longer.

Nathan, i want to say to you that this has been a really amazing experience for me.  I am getting to know you in a whole new way, and also getting to know myself better as you challenge me to think about what i do and don’t believe and why.  Thank you so much for engaging in this dialog with me, and for being willing to explore all these topics openly and honestly.  I feel that you are genuinely interested in the discussion, and you listen to what i say and have respect for it, and the feeling is mutual.  I hope this conversation continues, and that you’ll comment on this series of posts as we go along, and possibly write about it on your own blog.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Christmas music has been playing in stores and on the radio for weeks, and if you haven’t already, you’ll soon be bombarded with Christmas advertising.  It is how things work - big companies try to appeal to their consumers in order to get them to make purchases.

However, some people think that one company went too far in its latest ad - Best Buy ran an ad wishing people a Happy Thanksgiving and Eid Al Adha, which is a Muslim celebration that is also taking place this week.  I’m not sure what is offensive about acknowledging the existence of other religions in our great country (which was, by the way, founded on the idea of freedom of religion), but one commenter has a big problem with it:

Among my major purchases from BB over the years were a plasma big screen, a fridge and a laptop. No more. In 2006 you discontinued the use of ‘ Merry Christmas’ in your “holiday” messages.

Yet one of your ad inserts wishes your customers a happy “Eid Al Aldha” ( a Muslim goat throat slitting festivity) . Clearly the liberal/ PC culture in your corporate offices is biased against Christians and traditional American values. So, in 2009 I discontinue Best Buy. Good riddance.

Hello A m a z o n

- A proud patriotic Christian American.

Honestly, the amount of knowledge i possess about Eid Al Adha is very little.  The animal sacrifice sounds awful, if that’s true.  But is it any worse than the Christian traditions celebrating the birth of a human sacrifice, symbolically eating human flesh and drinking human blood?

Just sayin’.

I first heard about this movie from my brother Nathan in our ongoing dialog.  I immediately put it at the top of my Netflix queue.  I’ll say up front that Nathan described it as “interesting” but he also said he didn’t think Ben Stein was completely fair.

The movie starts with a conspiracy theory.  The thing i hate about conspiracy theories is that if you say “that’s bogus” then you can easily be dismissed as just another person who doesn’t know what’s “really” going on.  Or worse, as someone who is helping perpetuate the conspiracy.  In this conspiracy, scientists are getting fired from jobs for coming out in favor of intelligent design.  Ben Stein seeks to be the hero who uncovers this vast conspiracy in the scientific world.

The concept of Irreducible Complexity is the core of Intelligent Design (ID) theory.  This is the idea that there are things that exist in nature that could not have evolved from a lesser life form.  If this can be proved, or failed to be disproved, ID proponents conclude that these life forms must have been designed by someone or something.  However, be aware that many peer-reviewed articles have debunked the theory of irreducible complexity.  Peer review is not given any face time in the movie, yet peer review is the backbone of the scientific community.  No articles supporting ID have been published in any peer-reviewed scientific journal.  Is it really a surprise that scientists are questioned when they come to conclusions that are not scientific?

After expanding on the conspiracy theory, the movie finally gets to irreducible complexity mid-way through the movie, focusing on the cellular level.  But it seems to offer, unsurprisingly, an unscientific look.  “We think these things are irreducibly complex” which i translate as we don’t understand how things could have evolved to this point.  “Therefore a designer must be present,” meaning we’ll insert God a designer as the cause for all the things we don’t understand.

The movie takes a turn at this point, and implies a belief in evolution will lead to Naziism.  Stein visits the site of an old concentration camp, and flashes horrific images from WWII.  It is completely emotional, fear-based and not at all focused on fact.  The acts committed in the concentration camps were absolutely atrocious, no doubt about it, and i don’t want to minimize that at all.  But it is complete propaganda to insinuate that the ideas behind evolution will lead to such atrocities.

The final big moment of interest was an interview with Richard Dawkins.  The interview was absurd.  In one question Stein asked Dawkins to give a percent likelihood that ID was incorrect.  Dawkins didn’t want to, saying he had no exact number he could give, but he could only give his opinion.  Stein pressed him, and Dawkins said 99.9%, again saying that was just his opinion.  Stein immediately turned around and said “Why 99?  Why not 49% or 44%?”  Dawkins immediately clarifies “you were the one who asked for a number, i didn’t want to give one,” yet the way it was edited makes Dawkins look defensive.  In the end, Stein took this and concluded that even Richard Dawkins thought ID might be possible.

In the concluding segment, Stein equates his attempts to bring down the walls between evolution and ID with tearing down the Berlin Wall.  I mean - Really?  The Berlin Wall?

I agree with Nathan, the movie was interesting.  At least in the sense that it made me want to read more and try to understand more.  I am not a scientist; i have to lean on those who know more and are doing research and are actually working in this field.  I guess i expected more from Ben Stein - more science, less propaganda.  But, i suppose i’m just perpetuating the conspiracy.

My brother Nathan and i are engaged in an email discussion about religion and spirituality.  We have pages and pages of conversation, and i’m sure there’s a blog post or few in there somewhere.  Eventually.  But one of the things he suggested i do is read this book, Irresistible Revolution.  He promised it wasn’t an evangelical book, but was a cool example of someone doing Christianity in a different way.

It may not have been evangelical, but it was a bit preachy at times.  The author’s intended audience is people who are already Christians and are searching for more meaning in their Christianity.  If this describes you, it was a very inspiring book.  It is even inspired me, a nonbeliever, that i should be doing more for my community.

Basically, this kid grew up in what has become a traditional, white, suburban, protestant church.  He finds this kind of Christianity getting stale and wants to go out and actually help the poor himself.  And he does.  He goes to the downtown parks at night and meets the homeless folks and befriends them.  He goes to Calcutta and works alongside Mother Theresa.  He founds The Simple Way, a community-sharing organization in Philadelphia.

The way he describes his journey is very moving.  He touches on some themes i have seen explored elsewhere, about how typical Christians today are often aloof when it comes to the true challenges and suffering of the very needy.  No doubt about it, the world would be a better place if people embodied more of the principles of how Jesus lived.

It’s been awhile since i read the book, and i’m just now getting around to writing about it, but i have two criticisms that i can recall:

• Jesus is my president.  During the last presidential election, Shane wrote-in a candidate - Jesus.  He has buttons that say “Jesus is My President”.  I don’t understand this.  You may want to live more like Jesus, but we still live in a human world, a world where some form of government exists in all cultures.  Even in a tribal culture, they have clan chiefs and ways of disciplining each other and making rules for the society.  Jesus can’t be your president, and i daresay he wouldn’t want the job.
• Let’s just end the war and show everyone God’s love.  I hate the war, and i don’t know why we’re in Iraq.  I can concede, though, that it is a delicate situation.  Consider that Iran is trying to get nuclear weapons.  What happens if they get them?  Iran is an Islamic state.  There is reason to be scared that they would lob a nuclear weapon at the US.  Why might they do that?  Because we are infidels.  Anyway, we have a vested interest in preventing them from obtaining nuclear weaponry.  What scares me is that if we “just end the war and show everyone God’s love,” then NYC will be obliterated.  What scares me more is that there will be Christians who are happy about it, because it would mean the end of the world and Jesus’ return is imminent.

Those are two things that stuck with me after i finished Irresistible Revolution.  The good stories stuck with me, too, and i will be making an effort to do more in my community.  I can do (and secular organizations are already doing) a lot of good things in the world without a religious motivation.

I have stumbled onto a very interesting blog called Experimental Theology.  The author is a Christian who also happens to be a psychologist, and his research and essays focus on the psychology of behavior in the context of religion.  It is interesting reading.  This column caught my eye in particular.

It is about about the way some Christians differ widely in what they say and what they do.  They often talk about working on their relationship with Jesus, but in doing so, they ignore acting as Jesus would have done.

The author is Dr. Richard Beck, and his comments remind me of a post i made earlier this year that linked to another story about church folk refusing to tip.  This is not a commentary about all Christians; i’m sure there are those that tip well.  But there is no denying the very widespread perception among waitstaff across the country that the Sunday crowd, ie the church crowd, tips the worst.

Anecdotally, I admit to leaving extra money on the table a time or two when my parents treated us for dinner when they were visiting us.  Because i had seen the check and didn’t think 10% was enough for a waitress that worked her butt off.

I love this writer, though, and am subscribed to his RSS feed.  The things he analyzes are fascinating.  Nathan, if you’re reading, i think you would really resonate with his writing and his message.

Read the full article.

Ever wonder what they really mean when someone refers to the Bible Belt?

This map originally appeared on a site called Strange Maps - click through to see their full analysis.  This map is colored by which religion has the most adherents in each county.  If you can’t read the legend:

• red = baptist
• light blue = catholic
• yellow = christian
• brown = latter-day saints
• orange = lutheran
• pink = mennonite
• green = methodist
• turquoise = reformed
• gray = other

The red swath is the Bible Belt.  Southern Baptist overload.

Just before Easter, i received an unexpected card in the mail from Grandma.  I thought she had given up writing to me, but i guess that doesn’t preclude the mandatory Resurrection Day card.  (Or, as my brother calls it, Zombie Jesus Day.  Because, after all, every other creature that has risen from the dead is referred to as a zombie.  It’s a good point!)

Grandma did not make much attempt at conversation, which is consistent with her earlier letters.  It was a card that repeated the notion that even though i don’t believe, i am saved because i was saved as a child, so she hopes i will accept jesus as my savior.  Which doesn’t really make sense to me.

There were two enclosures.  One is the picture shown here.  The other was a daily bible study article about Thomas Time.

I, like everyone else, was extremely thrilled that the plane landed safely and no lives were lost.  I give full credit to the captain and crew.  It’s ridiculous to me that god would have safely landed this plane, but lets others crash, and lets other atrocities occur.  I know, i know, i can’t comprehend all of god’s purpose, and he doesn’t make bad things happen but he allows them to happen.  Might he not also allow good things to happen, without directly intervening himself?

The Thomas Time excerpt is a story about a man who, like me, was raised in a godly home, but turns away from god and is struggling with unbelief.  Someone suggests to him that he is in the Thomas Time of his life.  Thomas was an apostle who did not believe the news that jesus rose from the dead.  That is, until jesus appeared to him a few days after the event, showed Thomas the scars, and let Thomas touch him.  If jesus wants to appear to me, or if he wants to, say, heal an amputee, i’m sure i, like Thomas, will become a believer once again.  But jesus doesn’t do that stuff anymore.

I’m not going to respond to Grandma’s letter.  I already know that if she doesn’t hear what she wants to hear, she’s going to quit writing to me again anyway.  And i also already know that she doesn’t want the same things out of a correspondence that i would want.  I want a relationship.  She wants me to believe in the Tooth Fairy.

USA Today had a story a few weeks ago about how religious beliefs have changed in this country over the years.  The story contains an interactive graphic that is quite fun to play with.

You can see how things have changed between 1990 and 2008.  It’s also broken down by type of religion.  Very interesting to see.

Here are some basic conclusions i drew:

• Catholics have gained ground in about a third of the states.  Most of these states are in the South and West.
• Other Christian denominations have almost unilaterally lost ground, and often by large numbers.  Only four states show an increase.
• Other religions have gained ground in almost every state.  I think this demonstrates that the country is becoming more diverse.
• Every single state showed a significant increase in the percentage of people professing no religion, and all but one state showed an increase for people who don’t know or refuse to answer.

Go explore the data yourself.  It’s fascinating.  And fun - i like watching the bubbles change sizes.