Rob Derrick

"I do not look for holy saints to guide me on my way
Or male and female devilkins to lead my feet astray.
If these are added I rejoice - if not, I shall not mind
So long as I have leave and choice to meet my fellow-kind.
For as we come and as we go (and deadly soon go we!)
The people, lord, Thy people, are good enough for me."
                          —— Rudyard Kipling

As I moved through life, there were so many different gods, that it became unconscionable to choose one over the other. As another person wrote, the hypocrisy of so many of each of those god's believers became a mote that could not be reasonably pulled from the conscious eye, and a world where knowledge of many different beliefs has the effect of making one realize that the dark side of religions is not a necessary condition to life. One can choose. Unfortunately, so many choices.

In my youth the most dramatic stories also became so repetitive. "I was sinking deep in sin", a life of debauchery (drink, drugs, sex and other dissipations) and unfulfillment and lost dreams and despair, and hopelessness, and perhaps a thematic gutter scene, but then, "I saw the light!". Started to seem that the only really powerful path to a celebrity salvation was through a sewer of sin. Unfortunately for me, without all of that, but instead a life of moral convictions, a strong sense of right and wrong, and, as in the poem excerpt from above, a basic belief that people are good, I stumbled into a life that turned out way better than I expected it would. Somehow, The One True God(tm) decided to bless me without the need of any further involvement with [it is here where I was tempted to enter a short litany of some of the worst that "the religious" have shown to me, but, I decided to refrain -- just know, it is pretty bad].

So, no church, no god, no empty life, no lack of fulfillment, no need for rescue, but a genuine surprise at how amazing it has all been.

My purpose, joy.

Success. It is done!

"But when I meet with frantic folk who sinfully declare
There is no pardon for their sin, the same I will not spare
Till I have proved that Heaven and Hell which in our hearts we have
Show nothing irredeemable on either side the grave
For as we live and as we die - if utter Death there be
The people, lord, Thy people, are good enough for me."

The first year Adam was a Beaver scout, I went to the meeting at the scout hut to see him get an award. He had talked to me about scouts and the slight differences between the UK and U.S. scouts. He was hesitant, because he wasn't sure there was a God, but had figured a way to think about his loyalty to God and Queen or however it was worded.

Addition of the official wording, in photos taken that evening! DISCLAIMER: Adam, I hope if my memory is unclear that I haven't misrepresented your beliefs too horribly, and people change anyway, and... end of disclaimer.

The next time I saw Adam, I said something about him being an atheist, and he said no, he was agnostic. There might be a God, but it didn't matter to him at this point. He would think of "good," or "the good," instead of God.

Because of our conversation, I let him know later, when I discovered a WONDERFUL word: apatheism. What a great term!! It's new. It was new to me, but it was older than Adam.

I had said "agnostic," of myself for years, but I didn't like the term, and if ever questioned, I would say "I don't mind if there is a God, but I'm going to live the way I'm living in either case," or more more briefly, that I didn't really care whether there was a God or not.

I'm interested in religions, and churches [larger term; any house of worship, current, decommissioned, temporary or archeological]. I know why people want there to be a God. I understand how religion is useful and can be beautiful. When I travel, I visit churches—I go to services if I can.

At first I couldn't remember "apatheism" when I wanted to bring it to mind, but using this image helps. Images and icons have helped with religion and with memories related to that forever, it seems.

(greeting card from KissMeKwik)

Early in online discussions of unschooling, pre-AOL even, Christian homeschoolers and unschoolers were in the same groups—all homeschoolers jumbled together. Once someone did ask me, in public (not in a mean way but in a curious way) HOW, without religion, would my kids be good?

It was a great question. They were good because it made them better people. Not to go to Heaven or to avoid hell. Not to make Jesus happy.

The more frightening secondary question is why, after someone leaves a church, would he "be good"? I think we've all seen people who volunteered for that experiment. All the things prescribed and proscribed by one's religion can by suddenly reversed by someone who thinks alcohol, sex, drugs and rock'n'roll all have to do with God, and in slipping away from religion, they slip into a big stinky mess.

With good, logical reasons to be honest and helpful and responsible, religion on top of that would not have hurt my kids. I was aware that they might for one reason or another someday become religious on their own, but I also knew that leaving that church (or whatever it might be) wouldn't be the end of virtue for them.

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Religion (and unschooling) Thoughts about doing better

How Morality Grows Judgment

Theology (almost) ← some of my own path and opinings