God: No magic required

[lweisenthal]

Hi Rasetsu, When I wrote that I "passed" for an atheist, what I meant was that I'd essentially become a secular agnostic, meaning that I had (and continue to have) an entirely secular marriage, raised my kids as secular humanists (I taught them that religion was a personal matter, which everyone needs to figure out for themselves, and that I didn't think it appropriate to indoctrinate kids into religious beliefs - or to indoctrinate them into non-beliefs). We didn't go to any form of church or other worship services. To the outside world, I was a totally secular, non-religious person. As I wrote in my blog, I had an early teenage "born again" experience, but this faded away to agnosticism, because I always had this little bit of what I call "background radiation" feeling of nagging religiosity. But I never told anyone about this: not my wife, kids, or outside world. To the outside world, I was a totally non-religious person. That's what I meant by "passing" as an atheist. Just as an aside, the type of theism to which I have ultimately gravitated is not of the "born again" persuasion.

I stand by my assertion that the average person who keeps his his/her own religious beliefs or non-beliefs private, as I did and as I advised my kids to do, would never have any reason to experience health-assaulting "stress." I don't know the religious beliefs or non-beliefs of the vast majority of people with whom I've worked or socialized over the course of my lifetime. Most people in a pluralistic society are sufficiently polite to respect the private religious beliefs of others and to keep their own religious views private. It's not staying in the "closet;" it's simply that it's not generally polite to proselytize, unless the person with whom you are speaking wishes to hear your views on religion, politics, or how they ought to be raising their children, whom they should be dating, etc.

Now, if one makes the voluntary decision to wear one's religion (or non-religion) on one's public sleeve, then one should be prepared for the fact that the world doesn't universally share the same belief (or non-belief), and one should expect blow back from certain segments of society. I like to have stimulating exchanges of ideas; so my main hobby over the past 20 years has been discussing/debating everything from politics to sports to nutrition to religion on Internet discussion boards. I've gotten tons of blow back in each case: I'm a liberal, so I like to debate politics with conservatives on conservative blogs. I'm into fitness and health and I've enjoyed debating various types of diets and training programs on nutrition and sports blogs with people who have different ideas. On religion blogs, I've had very vigorous debates with conservatively doctrinal theists (I trust that it's apparent that I'm not your typical dogmatic theist). And now I'm grateful for the forbearance of the editor(s) of this particular forum in allowing me to present and defend my views.

The point is that whatever "stress" I am now experiencing as a result of my exposing my own religious views to public scrutiny is entirely self-inflicted and entirely voluntary. Most people don't choose to wear their theism or atheism on their public sleeves and are therefore spared this type of "stress." (n.b. this little side debate about the alleged "stress" associated with being an atheist in American society was raised as a response to my citations of the mental and physical health/longevity advantages associated statistically with theism, in comparison with atheism).

- Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach CA

As I wrote, I "passed" for an atheist for more than 40 years. I can't think of any unusual "stress" that I felt because of this.

Resetsu quotes me, from my blog:

I don’t want this blog to be about me and my own specific beliefs. I have them (beliefs), but they aren’t of prime importance, nor would I ever claim my own particular set of beliefs to be “true,” much less “The True.” Eventually, I may get around to talking about them (my specific beliefs), but I want to consider first the Big Picture.

I’m a very long term agnostic/secular humanist who has sometimes risen to the spiritual level of Unitarian-Universalist. My intended audience would be like-minded people. If you are an already religious (or even spiritual) person or if you are a hard core atheist, then you are probably wasting your time. In my own case, I’d had a Big Bang, religious awakening as an adolescent boy, which, over time, faded away to mere background radiation. Religion made no sense to me, though I never got to the point of assertively declaring myself to be an atheist.

— Larry Weisenthal, The Physical Heretic blog (emphasis added)