Teaching Spiritual Atheism in Schools

My Aussie Heretic ears started burning when I heard this news from Australia. Burning is not generally a comfortable sensation for a self confessed heretic, but this was good news. A Humanist Society is close to being approved for an atheistic curriculum for primary (elementary) school children. Parents will have the option to send their kids to a class where they will be taught that the evidence for the existence of God is as flimsy as the evidence for the existence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster or the Invisible Pink Unicorn. This is good news for diversity, and free thinking.

Follow this link for the brief news story-
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24797395-5006785,00.html

Mind you, I wouldn’t send my own Aussie Heretic protégés to that class. I would be very glad for them to be educated in an environment that includes such a broad range of perspectives. But I wouldn’t send them to the class. I would send them to a class that teaches the facts and spirit of many of the world religions. Then they could make their own informed decisions about what makes sense to them.

I’m comfortable telling my kids that there is no evidence for the existence of God. There really isn’t any evidence. But there is plenty of evidence that the myth around God, and God language, is purposeful. I want them to understand that as well. And they CAN understand that, at the right age.

American author, Ann Lamott, tells the story of the time her 8 year old son, Sam, said to her, "I think the reason they call God 'God' is because when you see something really, really beautiful, you go, 'God, that’s beautiful!'" As Ann said, "OK, that works for me." It works for religious education too.

At a certain age kids realize that Santa is purposeful myth. They realize that there is no evidence for the existence of Santa. At the same time, they realize that Santa language still serves their purpose of Christmas fun and gifts. Why ruin a good party?

I would like to see a curriculum on spiritual atheism in schools. After acknowledging that there is no evidence for the existence of God, we could talk to kids about the power of myth and language. We could talk to kids about what they find wonder-ful in the world, and how they would best describe this wonder.

It’s so natural to use God language to capture even a hint of the wonder of life. We describe a sunset as ‘heavenly’ or a dessert as ‘divine’. We describe best friends as ‘soul mates’. We shout the name of the almighty during our seven (sorry eight) minutes of horizontal hokey pokey and know we are neither addressing our partner nor any deity in particular. We grasp at language to hint at experiences of wonder, and draw on myth that fills ordinary moments with extraordinary meaning. The myth of incarnation is God becoming human, the ordinary becoming extraordinary, the natural becoming miraculous.

What do you think? Should schools in America include some sort of broad, non dogmatic, world religion’s class? Should schools in Australia embrace the inclusion of humanistic curriculum? Should we be offering spiritual atheism to kids who have come of age, no longer need a magical, theistic God and are looking for the power of myth to describe life?

Fix It Thinking

Who will ever forget Oscar Rogers on SNL during the early stages of the economic crisis? FIX IT. Find a problem, and FIX IT. Find another problem and FIX IT. Three steps

1. Fix
2. It
3. FIIIIIIIX IT

He said the light at the end of the tunnel had broken, and “somebody needs to crawl down to the end of that tunnel and FIX IT!”

It was a beautiful satire on what many of us were doing; pointing fingers, ascribing blame and waiting for someone to FIX IT. If this crisis has taught us anything, it surely must be that no one person and no one thing will fix this situation. It will require a lot of people working together over a long period of time to fix it.

There is so much unrealistic expectation on Barack Obama, as if the day after his inauguration America will be flowing with milk and honey, the Dow will climb through the heavens and jobs will be created out of thin air.

It seems to be human nature to expect someone to FIX IT.

Whole theologies have been built on it. As if the planet is a frail experiment, with a supernatural God fixing and meddling, manipulating and “guilting”, repairing and adjusting. As if prayer is seeking an external God to crawl down to the light at the end of the tunnel of our frail existences and FIX IT. As if the church has some divine authority over our spiritual destiny, to FIX IT.

The need for someone to rescue humanity is itself a problem that needs to be FIXED. It leads to inaction, and broken dreams. Of if you think that you are the fixer, it takes other people’s power away.

Live as though everything depends on you. Or, to use Dietrick Bonhoeffer's phrase, "live as if there were no God". This was his attempt to call a post war Christianity (battle hardened and worldly wise) to come of age, to get real and to take responsibility.

The counter point to self responsibility is that the world is made up of people and processes that function outside of me, but are not altogether separate from me. So how do I balance self responsibility and my intimate relationship with all else?

There is a religious maxim, “Believe as if everything depends on God, but live as if everything depends on you.” Maybe this is a reminder that I co-create reality in unison with the flow of Life itself. Or maybe it’s a reminder to balance self responsibility with a detachment from outcomes. I’m not certain what it means. But it does feel right to me to hold a balance between creating my own reality and wearing this same reality as a loose garment for it will surely change.

Susan Jeffers said, “Are you a “victim,” or are you taking responsibility for your life?” I vow to keep Oscar Roger’s voice in my head when I lapse into acting like a victim. FIX IT is a powerless plea. I am a competent, prepared and strong person who creates my own destiny. My destiny finds its expression as an integral part of a cosmic destiny that will flow with or without me. I choose to flow with Life.