Another REAL gem of a find...

Still keepin' it Real...

Here's another great entry from an inspirer over at the Unreasonable Faith blog. I just thought I would share it here, too.

To read the entire posting and view all comments, go here:

http://unreasonablefaith.com/2009/09/11/atheist-cat-finds-your-prayer-futile/

Always keep it Real.

A MUST SEE...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-594683847743189197

The afforelinked movie is two hours of some of the most contraversial subject matter in the history of mankind, talked about in the MOST contraversial of ways.  It's a bit too lop-sided actually, to be Realististic, but educational nonetheless.

Enjoy!

The Birth of a Movement (non-religious)

As a child growing up in the Bible Belt, Southeastern United States, I found religion to be a monstrous, guilt-instilling, money-grubbing, brain-washing scare tactic put in place to make people feel like they had no choice but to give up their hard earned money for the promise that one day (albeit after they're dead) they would finally have the perfect life.

Now, when you look at it that way, it seems like about the craziest idea anyone could ever imagine (unless you own a church), yet, I was almost completely alone in that outlook as a child. In fact, in grade school, I used to have to pretend that I bought into the whole religion thing in order to avoid several undesirable scenarios which would have inevitably occurred on a regular basis had I not done so.

The first, and absolutely most utterly annoying scenario would have been getting “preached” to by the “worthy” religious followers who took it upon themselves to a.) “recruit” new members for their church, and b.) spread “enlightenment” to those whom they deemed to be “ignorant” for not already “seeing the truth.” I never figured out who told them they should be the ones to do such things with absolutely no experience or training (or skill) of any kind in speaking to people about incredibly intimate, personal matters, but I’m sure that if I actually asked them outright, they’d have responded with something like, “God spoke to me and He laid this path out for me, and how could I possibly refuse it or falter from it…” To which I would’ve had to respond with some smart ass comment like, “Well, can you please tell God to get a better recruiting program going, because you really suck at what you do, and surely, He, being omnipotent and everything, should have seen that coming?” You can see now why I found it best to just keep my mouth shut and pretend to be one of them.

Ridicule, followed by outcasting would have been the other undesirable scenario which would have played out had I not become so good at blending in with the "religious-folk." Time and time again I watched a literal “battle” of religions, as minority followers of one religion (whom were already having a hard enough time just being of a minority in the school population) were humiliated, ridiculed, and driven almost to tears by the outnumbering forces of the “Bible Beaters.” They were literally told, “No, you’re wrong, and you are going to hell because of it. Why would you even take the chance on not believing what I say if you know those are the consequences?” Yeah, so once I saw that happen to those poor bastards enough times, I decided to keep my opinions to myself, and just go along with whatever they wanted me to believe.

A very good friend of mine, who is homosexual, explained to me that this situation is very similar to the constant struggle and internal conflict he faced as a “closet” homosexual. It was as if I was “in the closet” about my religious beliefs my entire childhood, he said. Hearing that comparison gave me a much better understanding of what minorities of all kinds have been dealing with for centuries now, and I completely agreed with him.

The idea that everyone is supposed to be exactly the same in every way is very Hitleresque to me. So the way I see it, the “religulous” bible beaters of the Southeast who want everyone to believe in all the same things that they do, and have sex with the same type of people they do, and so on, are carrying out, in many ways, the same ideals as the Demagogues who have risen to power throughout modern history.

Now, if you haven’t already navigated away from this page to try and figure out who I am so that you can have me killed, I’ll get to my next point. You can understand now why it was so refreshing for me to finally find someone else who shared my same outlook on religion. It didn’t happen until I was about 16, but I’ll never forget that day as long as I live.

If you’ve never seen the movie “What Dreams May Come” with Robin Williams, you must go do so at this time. That was the movie that made me realize, it was okay to believe whatever I wanted to, and in fact, everyone should. It may sound sad to some of you who aren’t huge movie buffs that a movie would have that much of an impact on someone’s life, but you gotta think about it for a second. I had literally no one, EVER, to share my true self with up to that point. I tried telling my family and they just wrote it off as, “Oh, you’re still just too young, you’ll figure it out though, one day.” So for me to see an entire movie dedicated to proving that it’s okay to forge your own path in life, and death, and that no matter what you believe in, you’re only going to take with you what you truly want when you die, made it okay for me to be “different.” And I never looked back.

Of course, my beliefs have morphed and changed since that time. I have sort of an ever evolving belief system set up for myself (that I’ll never officially call a “religion”), and I never really had the most appropriate name for it until recently. This is where the title of this blog starts to make sense. I used to consider myself a member of the group “ism”. After that, I started considering it “open-mindedness.” After that, “free-thinking.” All of them seemed appropriate in description, but either not original enough, or just not all encompassing enough to be the name of an actual “belief system.”

A few weeks ago, a great friend (and like-minded thinker) of mine told me a word that best sums up exactly what it is we believe. “Realistism,” he said. Not “realism,” but “Realistism,” and the word pretty much explains itself.

As soon as you hear it, we decided, you know whether it describes you or not, and in putting that theory to the test over the last few weeks, we have confirmed that is, in fact, the case. It is surprisingly non-offensive to most followers of religions (which is absolutely in line with the way we think), and everyone we’ve said it to so far has either confirmed instantly that they fit the description, or totally rejected it instantaneously. That very fact is what makes it so appropriate for our belief system because it completely eliminates the need for preaching of any kind, EVER. You’re either in, or your out, and you know where you stand the instant you hear the word.

In case you are having a hard time fully understanding it based solely on the word itself, I’ll give a very brief description of what the word means to me. In a nutshell, Realistism is the belief in whatever seems real to you, as an individual. That means, basically, if Christianity seems real to you, then that’s what you follow. On the contrary, if you believe in Devil Worship, the same rule applies. It goes way beyond just your religious beliefs though. For example, if you believe that you should not eat meat because it is cruel to animals, then don't eat animals. If you believe that golf is a sin because they have to cut down so many acres of trees to clear out the land to make the course, don't play golf. I don't care. As long as you’re constantly living by what you deem to be “real,” you are a “Realistist” (say that 10 times real fast). No matter what that belief may be. Make sense?

The best part about it is that’s just the way I interpret the word. It may mean something completely different to you, more exclusionary perhaps, and that’s okay, too. It wouldn’t be “real” if we didn’t agree to disagree.

So where do you fit in? Maybe not at all, but maybe, if you’ve read this far, this little blogging has at least peaked your interest in a new line of thought. We like to call it “Realistism,” but we wouldn’t be Realistists if we weren’t okay with you calling it something different if you want to. And it goes on, and on, and on like that….you’ll see.