This comic from Toothpaste for Dinner really made me laugh. The thing is, I don’t talk about my Atheism here that much, but it certainly informs the way I think about everything pretty much. I really just want to live my life to the fullest and do so on my own terms. I think there’s a tremendous amount of value in just being who I am and making my choices based on what I think is right.
This is the kind of autonomy that brought me to do porn, but not only just any kind of porn… Something that I feel has personal value and greater meaning. If I followed hard rules of most religions, I wouldn’t be in as much of a position to question why things are the way they are nor be able to move past the archaic views we have of sexuality to be able to be a part of sharing a new way of integrating sex in our lives in a positive way.
I try to live a life of reason and logic balanced with emotions, but I live it all very much on my terms. I’m not scared of being judged in life and I’m not scared of being judged in death. I don’t know if it’ll be cool to be a skull like that guy up there, but I know that I’m incredibly happy living the life I lead now, regardless of what any religion might think.
How about you? Do you see what I mean? Or do you think that there are ways to reconcile something like porn with (specifically Judeo-Christian) religion?
I really like this. That is the kind of attitude that will earn you respect in life. No matter what you do… do it with pleasure and assume it. Embrace who you are and act accordingly.
And to answer your question. … Well it is hard. Judeo-Christianity changed a lot. The Bible can be interpreted to serve any purpose… even slavery to genocide. If someone wishes he could interpret it to legitimize anything. Regarding porn for example the “Song of songs” is a poem of courtship and consummation. So yes… such an approach is possible. Although I see it very unlikely. And none should even waist energy thinking about it.
Religion is a residue of our evolution and sooner or later we will shake it of. So keep creating erotic art and show people that no god will strike for who you are.
Wow, that first statement actually means a tremendous amount to me. I’m just trying to live my life and be the best version of myself I can, for myself and others.
That’s really cool about being able to justify porn through the Bible. It’s true that you can pick and choose and make just about anything seem legitimate. “No god will strike for who you are.” is an excellent thing to carry with me. Thank you.
You’re welcome. Sorry for the chaotic grammar. You are a really sweet woman. And those close to you are very lucky.
And I would really want to know more on how you became an atheist. I myself was born in a fairly religious family and an absurdly superstitious country, my path towards atheist was paved by the works of Eliade, Camus, Dostoevsky, Diderot*, Hitchens, Dawkins and others.
*I think you would have a great time reading “Le bijoux indiscret” by Diderot. I was amazed by the vivid descriptions of sex in the first half of the 18th century. It has everything: oral, anal, menage a trois… quite remarcable.
Thanks again for the valuable insight into your mind.
I came into it pretty naturally, as I’ve always been scientifically minded. I wasn’t ever religious, I just became more passionate about it the more I read about it.
Sorry K Olman,your opinion that religion is a “residue of our evolution”,begs the question,whose evolution? Maybe yours but not mankinds!If you are waiting for Christianity to peeter out,you’ll certainly look like that skeleton before it does.Religion does not always refer to organized faith.If you live by the golden rule to treat others as you would have them treat you,then you are already yielding to a higher authority which says you must respect the wishes of others.You can make a religion of whatever you want by celebrating it,by giving it power.The Pagans celebrated the earth and the stars.I dont think porn can be reconciled with Christianity because porn celebrates and puts emphasis on the flesh.It elevates the flesh first,with little regard for fidelity,commitement and family.Christianity focuses on the spiritual first and foremost.This is not to say that Christianity is anti-pleasure or against eroticism.Our current Pope for example has written about the beauty of eroticism.They insist however that people of that faith practice sex within marriage.Anyway Camille,I know you live by the Golden Rule,and believe it or not,you are religious in your own way
Well, I think that’s debatable… Religious implies something outside of myself… There’s nothing like that for me. I just am who I am and do what I personally think is important and valuable. Being Atheist doesn’t mean not caring about others.
It will certainly be quite a while before Christianity dies out. But, like all religions and faiths before it, it will eventually die.
It seems to me that since the beginning, humanity has created a deity. Humans need comfort. They need explanation. Even false explanation. They need a reason to do the things they do. They need a reason for all of this. Whether it is many gods or one gods, the entire intent is to explain our existence, explain why things happen, give humanity a direction, and to give comfort in death.
I don’t need any of the above. I am fine with the fact that sometimes things are unexplainable and happen purely by chance. I don’t really care where we came from, I just know that we are here now. I don’t need someone to tell me how to live. I know inside myself what feels right and what feels wrong. I’m not saying that I am right or wrong, I’m not saying that what I think is the right way. Obviously, as everyone who exists is swayed in some way by their social surroundings and by the vast majorities decisions on what is morally acceptable.
I also don’t need comfort in death. I am not afraid of what awaits me after this life, whether it be nothingness or a place of blissful eternity.
Christianity will fall, just as all other fell before it. Just like every country in power today will fall like every other power before it. The cycle is inevitable. We fall and we rebuild. Until the time that we extinct our race, which, we will end up doing eventually.
So…it’s pointless to cling to a religion. There are over 600 religions. No one truly knows. Just live life and be happy. The rest will come when it is time.
You’re absolutely right. Comfort isn’t a bad thing, just when people extrapolate and act cruelly because of it.
I’m in the same boat. I’m happy with my life and not knowing everything. It’s nice to just be. I think you have a great philosophy on things.
No, comfort isn’t a bad thing. The problem is when you hold something so highly solely because you want comfort. The thing is, you should believe in something because it evokes something inside you. Because you have chosen to believe in it based on logical reasoning and insight.
It’s annoying to see people blindly believing for many reasons. Some because they are afraid of the alternation, the “better safe than sorry” attitude. They would rather believe and be wrong than to not believe and not be accepted into heaven if there is one. But that isn’t truly believing…it’s believe because you are afraid of the consequences if you do not believe. The way I see it, if there shall be a heaven and a god (which I do highly doubt) then I will be more accepted in it then a blind believer. I feel that because I questioned, because I used my mind as the tool it is, then if there is a god he/she/it will understand that more than blind faith.
And then there are many of the followers who were just bred into their religion, that know no other way. That are believing because that’s what they think they are supposed to do. As my dad so affectionately put it when I asked him why he believed, “Because I was raised that way.” I am not cattle. I am an intelligent creature. I am capable of logical reasoning and deduction.
Which makes me wonder, is humanity the only species that creates a deity? Do other animals believe in gods or afterlives? Do they spend time pondering their existence or do they just live their life? Do they wonder where they came from and if what they do is morally favorable?
Anyways…most religious people are not all that religious. They didn’t reasonable choose their religion. They were forced into it, raised to believe it. Imagine if you were raised the same way as most people are in this part of the US (where I am from, Texas to be exact). You are told from a very young age, Jesus is real, Santa Claus is real, the Easter Bunny is real, the Tooth Fairy is real, so on and so forth. When you become of age, you generally are told that Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth fairy, etc. are not real, just made up. Now, imagine if the opposite were true. Imagine that you were told all of the same things, but instead when you became of age, they told you that Jesus wasn’t real, that he was made up. What would you believe?
Another example, let’s say I took 10 people who suffered from dwarfism from birth into a village I constructed in the middle of the woods, thousands of miles from any civilizations. Now, I raise these small people from infants, the entire time telling them that I am a god and I control everything and that is the reason I am twice their size. And each year I bring a new infant into the village. If I did this for 30 years, what do you think that the people living in my created village would believe? I promise you that most of them would believe me to be a god.
Humanity is victim to circumstance. We cling to the things that were pounded into us from birth because it is what feels most comfortable. The only thing that saves us from this is the fact that we have intelligent minds and we are social creatures. We are capable of researching so many options and weighing what seems the most appropriate. I can’t tell anyone that they are wrong, because, how the hell can I honestly know? However, I can think that some things people believe are foolish and I certainly wouldn’t believe them.
Anyhow…I think I went a bit far with that one lol. I kinda got sidetracked… Too many thoughts about this subject.
Well, your thoughts are very interesting and I certainly agree. Thanks for opening up your mind for me to read your eloquent thoughts on the subject. Your dwarfism project sounds especially interesting.
Camille,
I follow a similar path, in which autonomy overrides archaic traditions, such as religion. I also believe that you can co-exist as a follower of any religion, if you absorb the positive parables from its text. There have been a couple inspiring friends I’ve made that reconcile their religious beliefs in a modern fashion. Yes, they believe in Jesus Christ, but they aren’t homophobic and they certainly don’t mix scripture into politics. Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are wonderful examples of religious followers that simultaneously believe in secular reasoning and science.
It’s fantastic that you’ve chosen autonomy over tradition. It’s amusing how even some of my liberal friends are disgusted that I watch porn, which I find ironic.
Anyways, great post! Religion is always an interesting discussion.
Cheers,
Matt
p.s. I second a Louis C.K./Stewie sitcom!
You brought up two very good examples there.
I try to be autonomous in general, and it’s true that even very seemingly liberal-minded people can’t get over porn somehow… It’s a shame.
Atheism portrays itself as a product of applied logic:
The existence of God can not be proven therefor there is no God. From this unassailable position, atheists seek to demolish all religious beliefs with the challenge “prove it!” When no evidence is forthcoming, they brand billions of people of faith superstitious dupes.
I would argue that atheism is a fundamentalist faith-based belief system. Atheists consider their beliefs incontrovertible and reject all other beliefs as false. Like fundamentalist Christians or Muslims, atheists hold their beliefs to me an absolute, or fundamental, truth.
Atheists accept as a matter of faith that there is no God. They can no more prove that God DOES NOT existent than I, as a Christian, can prove the Resurrection of Christ. Atheists believe in something (or rather the absence of something) that they can not prove. That which we accept without proof is, by definition, a faith.
I have little patience for judgmental, self-righteous people of any faith or for anyone who attempts to impose their morality on the sexual freedoms of others.
I accept the right of atheists to believe in nothing. I believe in God. Unfortunately, on more than one occasion, atheists have attacked my beliefs with a zeal rivaling any militant Muslim or “bible-thumping” Christian. I have tolerance for a great many things, intolerance is not among them.
Camille, as your devoted admirer, please know that your are my favorite atheist.
I think that mutual respect is the greatest thing, and I try to always respect others, even if I don’t personally agree with them.
Wow, great insights. Now let’s add yet another point to the talking: While reading the Bible [many times, on and on] I did not find the term “religion” in there — this must be a modern equivalent for the classical term “Faith.”
For me, religion equals politics and goes somehow like Yahoo mail — good enough for the 12 yo. But the guilt-factor in any religion is a typical vote-machine, carrot-and-stick political instrument.
And from our times, if we go back to the days when Jesus of Nazareth [Who is God, as I believe], then we’ll notice what a great SCANDAL His actions ignited within the political powers of the day. He was out-of-the-box and that turned politicians crazy. He dined with sluts and lower class people, He saved at least an adulterous woman from the death [by stoning] penalty, and we can go on with the scandal. No wonder many high-faces wanted Him dead.
Well, and here comes the iLife [like in iMac and Apple stuff]: He showed us that dreaded death is nothing more than a sophisticated backup before a major upgrade.
According to this non-religious belief [if we don't count Jobs as some god, or even if we do], all “atheists” that don’t hate others for who they are, or for what they think or do, all those people are no less [no more] than so-called “religious” people. All you need to do is keep thinking out of the box, like Jesus did, and you won’t end up as a mere skull — there’s more to the computer than the casing, right?
Those are some really interesting viewpoints, Doris. You’re really giving me some interesting things to think about. I’ll try to think outside the box. The shiny new Apple box, of course.
Lovely to see more of us athiests “coming out”
I think it’s important to be visible as a smart, respectful and good Atheist.
I was born and raised behind the Iron Curtain, in the “socialist paradise” where going to church was considered subversive. Most of the clergymen were informants for the red regime – confessing your personal secrets to them could have consequnces. School taught us there’s no God, the university moreso. I was very good at studying Marxism, not just because it was imposed (and no one took it seriously) but because I was curious, wanting to get into the mind of the thinkers. From Marx, I reached for Hegel, then Plato. Things slowly starting to get a shape, or the shadow of a shape. Then I discovered Paul — the outstanding thinker of Judaism who took theory to Praxis. Connecting the dots, it all made more and more sense — all in an analytical way, at least this is my personal experience.
After the fall of the wall, politicians used “god” for their own interests. At least the godless terror againt those “thinking different” was a matter of the past, but the quality of the new discourse didn’t improve much.
I’m not a religious person, I look for logic and sense, for the code that’s hidden beneath the shiny social interface imposed on us. If this universe is not an accident but a virtual machine, then — I guess — there’s a Programmer who wrote it. If I’m a person inventing a god, then my God should be at least a person, as I am. “Cogito ergo sum” applies to any person, in his/her own way, according to his/her own life experience and/or other factors.
Oh, and one more thing, a very important one. Nick wrote “The way I see it, if there shall be a heaven and a god (which I do highly doubt) then I will be more accepted in it then a blind believer. I feel that because I questioned, because I used my mind as the tool it is, then if there is a god he/she/it will understand that more than blind faith.”
True! The sole fact that you evaluate the “code” is enough to give you access to the overall system. As for blind believers, they’re taken there like passengers on a train, willy nilly — this being already a visible constant of their lives.
What’s even more refreshing is that we’re talking philosophy and existentialism on Camille’s blog, debating from different places and perspectives, while enjoying beautiful erotica — because the experience of desire for beauty and sensual pleasure should never be silenced.
Thanks Camille for this extraordinary privilege!
That’s a very interesting take on things, Doris. I’m so glad you feel comfortable to share and exchange ideas here.