Exactly who, and what can you trust? I was a senior in high school in Issaquah, Wa in 1980. My teacher had us take a test to decide if we were liberal or conservative, democratic or republican. 
He told us to be very observant of his behavior during the semester, and at the end we would take a short survey. At the end of term, he asked us each to write what we thought his political views were. We each cast our votes and Mr Johnson revealed that he was a lifelong democrat and was politically active. Here’s where it got interesting. Every student in the class thought he was the same party as them and their family. Virtually split down the middle. Students of republican families thought he was a conservative, while the others thought he was a democrat. We have to be very careful to see life without strict confirmation bias. While nearly impossible to separate yourself from your upbringing, self awareness and acceptance of other viewpoints, and seeing past stereotypes is a good start to finding balance. Only then can we maybe see the world as it really is, or how it could be.
Seeing the good in religion is easy when you been raised in it and told your whole life what a blessing it all is. Identifying the harm it does requires you to step outside of yourself and consider other views are possibly more valid than your own indoctrinations. Facts can be uncomfortable, but the facts of religion are disastrous and incompetent. It would be nice to move past the superstitions and wasted, time consuming debate over “which god” and how great he is, and move on to solving some teal problems. Religions have promised a multitude of blessings, but in the end you make your own way in the world anyway. There’s nobody there. Religion only makes you think someone is watching. Differing religious views are two sides of the same coin. Heads I win, tails you lose is a very old trick. Trust your own observations of real evidence. Faith is a cop-out of reality and it takes no discipline or achievement to obtain it. And that’s the way they want it.
TheCommonAtheist 
It’s funny. I’ve been thinking about writing a post about politics and about why I chose the party I was in. You beat me to it, even though it’s different than the one I’ve been thinking about writing. You touch on some points I hadn’t thought of. It is interesting how we have preconceived notions about politics and think one party is like this and the other is like that. Same with religion too. Bias is a dangerous thing. Nice post Jim.
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It’s interesting the stereotypes that have us assume that a hunter that attends church is a republican. He wasn’t. We are not all that different in the end. I really think the divisions are very narrow, although that’s not what any news station would have you believe. If you go out and visit with people it’s really a pretty good life.
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Where is that “agreed” button? I find I actually have more in common with people than I realized back when I was a Christian. I didn’t know it because I was taught to avoid some of these people and to not “yoke” myself with unbelievers. Close mindedness made enemies of would-be friends.
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I know. I just love everyone now that I’m allowed to.
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Good example. Everyone needs a Mr Johnson (or many Mr Johnsons) in their life.
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Could you pull this off if you were a high school PS teacher? I think it might be more difficult today seeing division seems to be such a focus.
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It is truly amazing the lengths the religious will go to, to defend their belief in what comes down to “magic”. I made some comments yesterday on a blog. The guy’s a lawyer; you’d think he would run up against others who don’t think the same way he does once in awhile. The thrust of the discussion was that Jesus actually believed women ought to be given the same respect as men. I pointed out that IF Jesus was actually an historic character, he would have been a man of his time; there’d be no way he actually thought that women were equal. Not true, replied the lawyer – not only would he have been a man, but he would have had god-like properties, thus elevating him to someone who acted outside of his time period. (You know, ‘magic’) I was then reminded of the rules for commenting (I was apparently disrespecting others’ beliefs) and the comment was scrubbed from the site. (That wasn’t the only one, mind you) Sigh. . . Honestly, I find it so frustrating when obviously smart people cannot – or just will not – recognize logic. Or in other words (yours) — seeing the world as it is. 🙂
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They are super protective of something that took no effort to obtain, and no effort to maintain. Yet that act like they’ve been gutshot if you question it.
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Exactly. I reminded several of them that THEY were the ones insisting there was something where there was nothing — needless to say, that comment got scrubbed. 🙂 They hate having the obvious pointed out to them.
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Your so abrasive telling the truth. How dare you! When I would throw the ball for my dog, sometimes I would try to fake him out. He learned to keep his eye on it before he’d run off. Christians still buy the fake and never learn what even a dog can learn, then they throw the fake to others like playing invisible catch. Sharing their ideas of invisible magic with the world.
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Shame on you, Carmen! Disrespecting others’ beliefs! Don’t you know you’re supposed to be a robot and just accept whatever is input into your system? Sheesh!
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I know Nan . .. .my bad. . . 😉
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Hold up. Are you saying LBJ faked his death, moved to Washington State and became a HS teacher? Incredible.
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Uh, uh yeah. That’s it
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He also hid behind the mask of baseball coach and drivers ed teacher. Mágicos
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Excellent exercise Mr. Johnson! Great advice and post Jim. Now, if we can just somehow apply these suggestions over on those “other” opposing blog-posts. 😉
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It may be that a softer or different approach would prove effective, but some people always need hang on to their Harvey
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Many personality types among Homo sapiens, no doubt. Some thrive in change and challenges, others hate it and want their “unchanging” environs. 😛
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It is easy to pigeonhole people incorrectly sometimes, although I believe there are patterns of education, occupation, family background, hobbies, personality types that can swing one either way…but is not always predictable.
For me, the question ,whether it’s politics or religion, is why I’m inclined one way and others the exact opposite? I keep going back to there has to be some evolutionary or neurological basis to this. And it’s much more so in religion because politics in this country is pretty well split down the middle, but religion overwhelmingly swings towards belief in something otherworldly.
Logic and critical thinking won you over, Jim, and many others here too, but not the majority overall. So what is different about your brain and the others here, that made this possible? And why, for that matter, was I never religious? It seems like evolution, for whatever reason (or maybe just random), erred on the side of a built in need to explain the reason for existence and this being something you can’t see or hear that becomes necessarily make believe.
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Inherently most people want easy answers. The default of religion is the easy and quick answer which is readily available and requires no work to have it. That’s my take on part of it.
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Great post, Jim! Especially like this: While nearly impossible to separate yourself from your upbringing, self awareness and acceptance of other viewpoints, and seeing past stereotypes is a good start to finding balance.
If more would take this to heart, we might all be able to understand each other a bit better.
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Tolerance and love is preached by the churches, and practiced by the atheists and humanists. Thanks Nan
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I’m told some first century dude once mentioned something about separating the sheep from the goats.
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Divisive to its core and still is. And he also said we must hate our mother and father for his sake. “Come follow me” to where? Misery?
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Maybe he was bipolar. {groan}
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A truer statement was never said!
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It’s truly ridiculous out there mate. In my country, the level of religion in politics and in the state itself is so high that secularism is considered an insult rather than a goal. People don’t want to hear things they don’t like and rather than facing this head on they would rather just ignore, cover their ears and keep going LA-LA-LA-LA-LA
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Where are you btw, and thanks. It’s funny when you look at scientific and social advancement, religion has fought it every step of the way. Man’s morals have continued to challenge gods moral at every turn. For the better! You see what happens to individuals rights when religion runs the show? Iran!
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I’m in India and it’s filled with constant whataboutery and hate spewing leaders. This isn’t helped by the fact that all the leaders not in power would rather appease to minorities than make religion neutral laws
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I have another friend in India. Right on. He and you have similar grumblings about affairs there. Pretty consistent. Here it is just as nuts. Only different varieties.
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Even worse is the fact people who speak up are often called traitors and hence there is hardly any voices from the people against this.
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We need more than a “like” button here on WP. A “that sucks” button was mentally pushed.
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