American Heathen®

(This is a transcript of Al Stefanelli’s “Voice Of Reason” segment on my American Heathen® Internet Radio Show)

“With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” – Steven Weinberg

If something is good simply because a god has commanded it, then anything that a god commands could be considered good. Of course, this means that the very nature of the diverse interpretations of holy books and the resultant actions that are perpetrated on our society gives no way to predict what god might desire next. Ergo, bashing babies on rocks, flying airplanes into buildings and murdering physicians would just as likely be as good as loving your enemy, giving to the poor and taking care of widows and orphans.

On the other hand, if god given commandments are based on the inherent goodness of an act, then we have a standard of goodness independent of god. Thus, a god cannot be the source of morality and we must seek it though the world in which we have evolved. And we have found it. 

Enlightened Self Interest…

Enlightened Self Interest is behavior that maximizes the intensity and duration of personal gratification while cooperating with others in a selfless, altruistic manner. But, cooperation is a two-way street. By default, it demands reciprocity. This is where justice comes in. Justice determines fairness, allowing cooperation to operate at peak efficiency.

Enlightened self-interest is both moral and ethical because it encompasses desire for personal happiness, the happiness of others, justice and cooperation. This is not selfishness, because from a secular point of view, selfishness is both immoral and unethical. It promotes behavior that often results in harm coming to others, which makes them unhappy, and in turn, makes us unhappy. Thus, in the words of Abraham Lincoln,

“When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion.”

The task of moral education is to help people to predict the consequences of actions they are considering. What will the long-term, short-term and immediate rewards be, and what will be the drawbacks? This is the basis for morality and ethics. No holy book, fear of punishment or reward by a mythical and non-existent deity is needed because evolution and natural selection have already solved the problem for us.

Religion, The Bad Apple In The Bushel…

Religion and it’s accompanying unnatural degradations, bigotry and intolerance are the result of vain attempts by ignorant men of long ago to accommodate human needs by basing moral and ethical behavior on the perceived commands and desires of mythical deities with bad attitudes. Religious morality is counter-productive to the survival of our species.

If we do not plant our ethics in the improvable and adaptable soil of science, then natural selection and our own willful ignorance will insure our demise in short order.

When mystical elements are introduced into morality, the whole system ends up being corrupted. A supernaturally based morality is removed from the natural human realm, where it is needed, and placed in an imaginary one. This removes human responsibility and allows horrific acts of violence to be passed off as morally acceptable if only for the sole reason that someone believes a god told them to do it. If you do not agree, then consider how religion can justify as morally acceptable actions such as genital mutilation, honor killings and flying airplanes into buildings. These are only a minuscule example of what happens when non-empirical and competing ideologies are flooded into a multi-cultural society. Serious doctrinal disputes often result in war and terrorism.

The basis of any religious moral code centers around the superstitious and imaginary dream world of those who have devised the code. This dream world cannot be verified by facts or observation, but must be accepted on faith alone. The basis of a secular moral code is human need. The understanding that what is good supports basic human rights and anything that threatens it is bad. We do not need a supernatural deity or an ancient holy book to determine this.

If we stay the course of what religion interprets as morality then the mysticism of the cult-du-jour will completely prevail over logic and reason and we will retrogress into barbarism where the death penalty is the required punishment for adulterers, homosexuals, disobedient children and countless other people. There are sitting US politicians that already believe these characteristics should be punishable by death.

Reason, Not Delusion, Continues To Advance Our Societies…

In spite of our societies being steeped in religion, every advancement we have made toward a tolerant society has come about through our use of reason. Reason is what defines humanity and insisting upon using faith to acquire knowledge flies in the face of everything that we have achieved as a race because doing so requires us to accept the imaginary as tangible, which is nothing more than an escape from reality.

This is known as delusion, and it is, for lack of a better definition, mental illness. It should come as no surprise when a religious person draws a completely different conclusion about reality than someone who uses logic and reason as their tools. The indoctrinated bases their world view on the arbitrary and the subjective, and encompasses their perceptions based on what they understand to be the desire and will of their deity. This process is almost completely emotional. Reliance is not based on objectivity, but unquestionable intuition that is not to be examined on a deeper level unless it does not veer from their scripture.

The end result is the believer being devoid of objective standards and each person of faith interpreting truth and morality in their own way. Subjective morality is problematic because it requires definition solely on the prejudices of their religious organization, leaving them without a discernible ability to determine right from wrong, rendering morality meaningless. This is irony at its zenith, because most fundamentalists preach against moral relativity. The cause of society’s moral collapse is religion, itself.

When a society removes moral responsibility by belief that the acquisition of knowledge comes from an unknown and mysterious venue, it loses its ability for rational conceptualization of values because they are stripped from the reality of this life and placed in an imaginary next life, which is a recipe for disaster. As we have seen, separate and subjective moral value systems are not conducive to conflict resolution in any way other than ultimately using force. The history of religion is a history of war. Another problem with rejecting reason as the foundation for morality is that anything that is contradictory to the religionist’s world view is rejected purely by emotion. Thus, we have a very well documented anti-intellectual attitude at the core of most religions, and this is promoted in their holy books, as well. Eve’s sin of eating from the tree of knowledge is a perfect example.

Self-Esteem v. Self-Degradation…

Plainly, there is nothing mysterious about morality. All we need is healthy self-esteem, the desire to learn and compassion for each other and we have won most of the fight to becoming a moral person. Christianity promotes the belief that humanity is born into the world already depraved and compares us as filthy rags in the sight of God’s eyes. Reason or logic doesn’t even come into the picture, but they cling to the belief that only the bible, with its primitive system of rewards and punishments, can hold society together. What they fail to understand is that much of the decay of modern society is due to the unquestioning acceptance of religious dogma and doctrine.

Religious morality is harmful and benefits no one. There is nothing inherently positive about pursuing a “higher” morality. It is detrimental to the health of the individual and to society when a literal acceptance of any “holy” book is adopted. It results in a false view of reality, destroys self-esteem and causes division on many different levels.

Reality Check…

There is no god, there have never been any gods and the various saviors that are worshiped throughout the world, including the character portrayed as Jesus Christ have likely never existed. The fact that billions of people believe in gods does not reflect anything other than evidence of mass delusion. If our species is to survive, we must remove ourselves from the self-induced mental torture chamber that is religion.

(Editorial Comment from  host RJ Evans on his American Heathen® radio show – Air Date 04/28/12)

When I was 13 my parents divorced. It was 1974.  The divorce was sudden, totally unexpected, and utterly devastating to the entire family.  In retrospect, while it was the single most destructive aspect of my life at the time, it later proved to be the single most positive educational experience of my lifetime up to this point.  What that moment in time taught me I will never forget. It taught me to always question authority, ask lots of questions, demand comprehensive, meaningful answers, and as I’ve grown older, never accept the idea that growing old requires tossing rebellion and childishness away in favor of fake civility.

My nemesis in life has always been unfettered, unquestioned authority. I’ve always rebelled against authority because the basic question of “Why?” is never answered sufficiently by people who claim authority over me for whatever manufactured reason.  As a young man, I wasn’t satisfied with the simple, trite, and often times glib answers provided to me by authority figures. Everyone tried it. My parents, teachers, everyone. I didn’t buy it. Today I’m no different. And simply telling me, “Because I said so” has been, and always will be, an invitation for me to tell anyone and everyone to fuck off. The more folks gloss over, or simply ignore my question of “Why?”, the more fierce and determined I become to learn the truth.  Why?  A  child doesn’t stop asking “Why?” do they?  I kept my inner child. I  haven’t stopped asking the question “Why?”.  And my inner child will only die when I do.

Children like the question of “Why?”  The answers to the question of “Why?” are infinite. But, meaningful answers are harder to come by. I like that though. It is my inner child’s question of “Why?” that pushes me forward, my childhood curiosity, alive and well, leading the way. I want meaningful answers. So, I keep asking.

I kept the important parts of being a child.  The one’s that inspire creativity, fantasy, hopes and dreams. The one’s that ignore social dogmas of propriety, empty discretion, and fake civility. You see, I really hate plastic. But, it’s because of this that I’m often accused of being a child, a boy, a foolhardy, reckless, angry clown, by people who think they have all the answers.  I take that as a compliment.  For it is my inner child that keeps me from becoming a bitter, desperate, lonely, rotting biological fossil of aging static tradition, trapped in a padded cell of self-induced “ignorance is bliss”.

Over the last 20 years I’ve become very eccentric. I’m an odd collection of childlike behaviors and adult memes with a deep primal commitment and passion for vital humanistic ideals.  I’m quite strange by American societal standards. I look like I could rip your head off, act like I’m 10-15 years old at times, have a sense of humor than runs the gambit from stupidly silly to disgustingly gross. I’m really a pussy cat though.  But, don’t let that get out.  It could ruin my reputation and piss off my publicist. I’m married to a wonderful woman. My marriage really isn’t supposed to be working because we are from two different worlds. Sherry, my wife… a girl from the country, family oriented, college educated, career driven… Me, a bad boy from the big city and the wrong side of the tracks, a broken family, former wandering juvenile delinquent, a biker, an entertainer, an instigator, a high school dropout who got his GED at 33, and then did one year of college.  30 years ago everyone said the marriage would never last. Why?  Good question huh?  But, then, there are a lot of things that many people have told me would never work.

I’m strange. There’s no doubt about it. I proudly admit it. I’m ridiculously open. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I’m sexually deviant in a normal sort of way. For example… I’m strangely attracted to women in latex.  I have a shoe fetish.  OK.  I have a LOT of fetishes.  I don’t care who knows. But, you know what? I’m not outside the norm really.  The only difference between me and most others is that I just choose to reveal my truths as opposed to hiding them.  And, I must admit to enjoying the reactions of folks to my openness.  I measure individual character by how they react to me.  I hate hiding.  Never liked it as a kid, don’t like it now.  Remember, I hate plastic. And people who hide behind plastic live in fear, and if they are afraid, then how can I trust them to watch my back?

But, anyway… Look, I don’t pose a danger to the public. Really!  Yeah, I’m eccentric. I watch TV Land, am hooked on the Science Channel, talk to my dogs, my bird, myself… even my balls and my dick from time to time. I amuse myself.  Yeah, I’m a bit of a recluse too.  I have always had trust issues, and even though I’m outgoing and enjoy entertaining, I hate crowds and don’t like to be around people I don’t know. Yeah, I’m pretty strange. Here’s how I would describe myself in a sentence… I’m a 10 to 15 year old, biker, musician, broadcasting, entertainer, comedian, bad ass geek with a penchant for anything and everything out of the ordinary, as long as it doesn’t hurt someone else or infringe upon their human rights. WOW!  And really, that’s the short version!  Yeah.  I’m a child.

The truth is that children are eccentric.  What makes them eccentric is the fact that they haven’t been taught to be otherwise.  There are no filters.  Adult indoctrination really doesn’t kick in until somewhere in the 20th year when the social morality police kidnap the unsuspecting and force them into the appropriate attire, disembowel their curiosity, and throw them to the wolves of ignorance. Then they become sheeple, beaten into submission by the utterance of the word “adult”.

So, what’s this diatribe all about?  Consider this…

The greatest choice we make in our lives is whether or not we want to grow old gracefully or burn out after a hard and fast re-entry.  I associate the word “gracefully” with slow, methodical, unrelenting, painful, decay. Burning out after a hard and fast re-entry, on the other hand… that’s a more youthful, reckless (within reason), humorous, and fun approach to growing old. I’ve made the choice to flame out on re-entry. I will not go peacefully into that goodnight.  Indeed, I will do everything possible to relinquish that idea to the trash heap of pitiful Geritol surrenders. No regrets.

If you asked me today if I would change anything about my life… If you asked me today if I have any regrets for what I have ever done, good or bad… My answer to both questions would be a flat “NO!”.  Who I am today is a direct result of having lived almost everything yesterday.  And, no matter what I have done, good or bad, I wouldn’t be who I am today if I hadn’t lived it.  My rebellion, my childishness, my eccentricity… they are me.  It is who I am and what I am.  I refuse to let time crush the valuable qualities that have brought me this far, that continue to teach me lessons and inspire my creativity, my hopes, my dreams, my vision of a future that betters all of us.  Yeah… Go ahead and call me a rebel, a child, an eccentric.  But, before you condemn those qualities to the scrap heap of plastic adult platitudes… take a good long look into any child’s eyes.  Then try and remember how excited you were when, through your young eyes, the world looked and felt so much better than it actually was. The only limit back then was how far you were willing to let your childish imagination run free.  Now, combine that with a sharp mind, years of experience, and many lessons learned.  Ah yes… I was born a child, I will die a child. A child who lived.

Rebellious, Childish, Eccentric.  Yep.  That’s me.

(This is a transcript of Al Stefanelli’s “Voice Of Reason” segment on my American Heathen® Internet Radio Show)

“For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who disbelieve, no amount of proof is sufficient.” – Loyola Statement of Faith

Oregon Live reports “a Clackamas County judge stunned a courtroom packed with supporters of Dale and Shannon Hickman Monday when he sentenced the couple, members of an Oregon City faith-healing church, to prison for six years and three months.” The website further reports that the “Hickmans were convicted of second-degree manslaughter in September for failing to seek medical care for their son David, who was born two months prematurely and lived less than nine hours.”

An autopsy revealed staph pneumonia and underdeveloped lungs. According to the story, pediatric experts “testified that the baby almost certainly would have survived if he had been taken to a hospital. The Hickmans sought no medical intervention even as the baby turned gray and struggled to breathe.”

Unjustifiable Homocide…

Oregon had passed a law over ten years ago that stipulates the freedom of religious practice is not an excuse to shun medical treatment for a dangerously ill child. The state legislature did so in response to the deaths of children in the same fellowship, the Followers of Christ Church.  The church cemetery includes many rows of child graves.

An article in the Journal of Pediatrics examined the deaths of 172 children from families who relied upon faith healing from 1975 to 1995. They concluded that four out of five ill children who died under the care of faith healers would most likely have survived if they had received medical care. Eighty-one percent of the deaths were caused by conditions that had a medical survival rate of 90%. Many die from the promotion of health by faith.

This has to stop…

The frauds known as faith healers do accomplish something though. They make a lot of money.  Some of these charlatans arrive in private jets and are whisked away to the tent or their hotel in stretch limousines.  Their defense for withholding much needed medical treatment is their interpretation of the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.  But the right of religious freedom is not absolute and there comes a time when the state must step into the church’s domain.

The job of the government is to protect us from all enemies, foreign and domestic, and these purveyors of false hope are domestic enemies, as they are detrimental to the public health, safety and welfare. The First Amendment does not give parents the right to use religion to endanger their children’s health.

According to the 1944 case of Prince v. Massachusetts:

“The right to practice religion freely does not include liberty to expose the community or the child to communicable disease or the latter to ill health or death.”

Faith healing does not work…

It kills children. Innocent lives are being lost due to parents who are being duped by these ministers of malevolence all because they have been convinced that seemingly miraculous cures occur. Natural healing processes are being lauded as miraculous cures, while a simple change in emotional state can be responsible.  Divine intervention is not the cause of spontaneous recoveries, which are known to happen to all people, even atheists.  Although science does not completely understand all of these occurrences, they are decreasing and being better understood as time marches on.

The fact that many people believe that these charlatans are divine agents speaks volumes about the level of ignorance, both blind and willful, that still pervades one of the most advanced nations on the planet, in spite of all the advances we have made in the field of medical science in the last century. The rise in preventable child fatalities and the associated suffering as the result of faith healing warrant public concern.

Problems and Solutions…

It’s a problem of monumental proportions that many believers don’t see faith healing as a problem, even in light of the loss of life amongst our children. More states need to enact laws to protect children from medical neglect in the name of healing. The states that already have these laws on the books need to enforce them, and if it means sending government inspectors into our churches and social workers following up on these cases, then so be it.

How would this be paid for, you ask?  How about we remove the tax exempt status for churches? There’d be plenty of money. As well, states that allow religious exemptions from medical neglect should have those exemptions revoked and the practice of faith healing on minors should be made illegal.

Shut Them Down…

Churches that practice this sort of child abuse should be shuttered and the so-called “faith healers” who are using nothing but trickery to raise large sums of money or gain notoriety to feed their bloated egos, should be prosecuted for grand larceny, or worse. Parents who allowing their child to die a slow, painful death are guilty of manslaughter, although probably murder is a better definition.

Parents who believe in faith healing as a cure for their children are suffering from severe mental illness and are unfit parents. They should have their children taken away from them.  They do not deserve the privilege of being parents and should not be allowed anywhere near children.