I remember the late 90′s, when I first gained access to the Internet. Here were my people, people who enjoy thinking, minds communicating at a bare-metal level about interesting and smart things.
It was around that time I ran across the concept of a “free-thinker” and started mulling over that label in my mind. It sounded like a compliment, something I’d like if people started calling me that. After all, I don’t think the way other people do (thanks, autism!), and I had always felt like a mind trapped in a body. But the first time I brought up being a free-thinker was in a discussion about religion with an Internet Atheist. I was promptly and patronizingly informed that I couldn’t possibly be a free-thinker because I believe in God.
Oh.
Free-thinker = atheist, apparently. A one-to-one correspondence, a synonym, and a hope for esteem from my peers crushed.
Never mind that I treat the Bible and young-Earth creationism as seriously and geekily as I treat the canons of the various Star Trek series. Never mind that I try to get past the rah-rah-our-team side of religion to follow Jesus’ commands to love each other with radical, boundary-breaking see-from-their-eyes empathy. Never mind that I’d been hurt by church hypocrisy as any former-Catholic or raised-Baptist Internet Atheist among my circle of friends.
No, this badge of uniqueness was not for me. I was too unique for it.
Yes, and still a young-Earth creationist too. On here I’d probably clarify my concept of omnipotency as “axiomatic ultra-ability”, more similar to a programmer of a simulation than a lightning-tosser in a cloud-chariot in the sky.
As a geek-for-life and dedicated devourer of SF, I compare and contrast the details of what I believe with all the god-fictions out there, from Aslan and Eru Ilúvatar to Star Trek’s Q and The Prophets, to the God and Satan of Heinlein’s Job, to the Anu/Padomay duality at the core of Elder Scrolls lore and the consequent universe literally built out of politics and necromancy. Recently, reading the SSC classic blog post “Meditations on Moloch” helped me coalesce an idea that had been bouncing around my head for twenty years about the “weakling, uncaring opposite of God, waiting with an open mouth at the bottom of the slide.”
I just wanted to find a community of experimental theologists who were as willing as I am to ask these questions and posit potentially heretical theories during the process of trying to better model God in our words and minds. Apparently I’m missing an absurdity heuristic that keeps more people from being like me.
I remember the late 90′s, when I first gained access to the Internet. Here were my people, people who enjoy thinking, minds communicating at a bare-metal level about interesting and smart things.
It was around that time I ran across the concept of a “free-thinker” and started mulling over that label in my mind. It sounded like a compliment, something I’d like if people started calling me that. After all, I don’t think the way other people do (thanks, autism!), and I had always felt like a mind trapped in a body. But the first time I brought up being a free-thinker was in a discussion about religion with an Internet Atheist. I was promptly and patronizingly informed that I couldn’t possibly be a free-thinker because I believe in God.
Oh.
Free-thinker = atheist, apparently. A one-to-one correspondence, a synonym, and a hope for esteem from my peers crushed.
Never mind that I treat the Bible and young-Earth creationism as seriously and geekily as I treat the canons of the various Star Trek series. Never mind that I try to get past the rah-rah-our-team side of religion to follow Jesus’ commands to love each other with radical, boundary-breaking see-from-their-eyes empathy. Never mind that I’d been hurt by church hypocrisy as any former-Catholic or raised-Baptist Internet Atheist among my circle of friends.
No, this badge of uniqueness was not for me. I was too unique for it.
And now? Do you still believe in an all-powerful creator? (Not that I have any problem with that)
Yes, and still a young-Earth creationist too. On here I’d probably clarify my concept of omnipotency as “axiomatic ultra-ability”, more similar to a programmer of a simulation than a lightning-tosser in a cloud-chariot in the sky.
As a geek-for-life and dedicated devourer of SF, I compare and contrast the details of what I believe with all the god-fictions out there, from Aslan and Eru Ilúvatar to Star Trek’s Q and The Prophets, to the God and Satan of Heinlein’s Job, to the Anu/Padomay duality at the core of Elder Scrolls lore and the consequent universe literally built out of politics and necromancy. Recently, reading the SSC classic blog post “Meditations on Moloch” helped me coalesce an idea that had been bouncing around my head for twenty years about the “weakling, uncaring opposite of God, waiting with an open mouth at the bottom of the slide.”
I just wanted to find a community of experimental theologists who were as willing as I am to ask these questions and posit potentially heretical theories during the process of trying to better model God in our words and minds. Apparently I’m missing an absurdity heuristic that keeps more people from being like me.