Scott David Brown's Blog, page 11

Talking about Secularism, Religion, and Atheism

English: George Jacob Holyoake in later life. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Huffington Post had a good article a couple of months ago about the decline of religion: Religion Among Americans Hits Low Point, As More People Say They Have No Religious Affiliation: Report.

It’s important to point out, I think, that there is only a slight increase in atheism. It’s not so much that people are losing their faith, it is more that they are leaving organized religion. This is not a surprise to me based on church scandals or the change in attitude among younger generations. The old “fire and brimstone” teachings are less effective than they were during the Puritan Era. Yet spirituality is still important to most people, I believe, so you won’t see the majority of Americans abandoning the believe in God anytime soon.

What I found most interesting about the report  was that 40% of liberal respondents claimed they have no religion versus only 9% of conservatives. I believe that you would find similar results to respondents that identify themselves as secular. Secularism is too often associated with anti-religious belief systems by right-wing pundits and social conservatives. I think this does a disservice to the benefits of the secular perspective. It is not a movement of anti-religious persons, it is a movement to separate religion from government and philosophy. The founding fathers used secularism as a tool to give all Americans the freedom of religion and freedom from it. This is perhaps one of our most important freedoms and it makes sense that it is included as part of the first amendment.

The animosity between some Christians and Atheists can become too divisive. I feel that debating religion is a waste of time since in most cases there is not going to be a consensus reached or changing minds. If you believe strongly in something, it is extremely difficult for another person to change that belief. What unfortunately often results in a debate of religion versus atheism is hurt feelings and people taking offense. Either that or lots of shouting and name calling.

The problem as I see it is people who take offense to atheism or religion. I am not offended by a person who believes in God or prays. I can respect that believe just as I would hope that religious people can  respect my belief that religion is superstition. We should be able to be mature enough to acknowledge that it isn’t really important if everyone agrees with our own beliefs. It’s like being offended because someone didn’t say “Merry Christmas” during the holidays. I’m not offended when people wish me a “Merry Christmas” even though I’m not a Christian.

Secularism is something that we all should agree on no matter if you have faith or not. It inspired the concept of free religion that prevents government from imposing religion or non-religion upon us. I do think that sometimes atheists are unnecessarily mean towards religion, but it also works both ways. If you are a Christian and you really want to know what I think about religion, you may think I hold an offensive view, but do not begrudge others who are religious so long as they chose to be religious. We all have to figure out who we are and I don’t want to belittle anyone’s journey. I can respect that people find value in religion, so you should be able to respect that I do not find value in religion. Below is a short article that I believe does a good job explaining what secularism really is.

Related articles

Understanding Secularism (atheistrev.com)

Prejudice

I am struck by how powerful negative messages can be when they appease entitlement or false beliefs. Just thinking about the concept of believing in a superior religion, sex, or ethnicity feels strange to me. Biology and genetics have been used to try to prove a superior type of human, namely the white man. One can say this is out of ignorance, but there must be more to it. When Europeans first discovered the African content, they saw the native Africans as  inferior.

Religion, philosophy, and science have been twisted by man throughout history. This is why I believe it is important to be a skeptic. Even so, skepticism is not fool-proof. After reading Even the Rat Was White: A historical View of Psychology, by Robert V. Guthrie, I learned that even psychology has a racist past. Science is not protected from false ideology or false belief. I shouldn’t be surprised I suppose. I learned a lot from the book about where psychology started, an account that you do not usually find in the typical psychology textbook. In part this is because we don’t like to remember the negative experiences of the past.

I feel that the most important message from the book is that diversity is crucial to a healthy society. Now, this is not literally stated, but the book shows how science was stymied from racist assumptions. The attempt of a  lot of white scientists to “prove” the inferiority of African-Americans is likely based on their homogenous upbringing. I would hope that most people today would be appalled at such a notion as one race being inferior. When a person grows up in a homogenous environment, they can form judgements or beliefs that are inaccurate or false. That is why I think diversity is so important and why I am happy to see the U.S. population changing in a more diverse direction. Hopefully that will lead to a more diverse representation in government and the private sector.

Racism, homophobia, and sexism still exist in the U.S. and the world. However, diversity presents us with an opportunity to reduce prejudice. I think that part of why racism was so strong in this country was due to old beliefs based on white superiority. It was also supported by beliefs about heredity being stronger than environment and that European white heredity was superior to other ethnicities. The history of science is not pretty, but that is due to white men who twisted science to fit their own beliefs. Thanks to the effort of African-American men and women, psychology made an important shift away from racist beliefs. You should really read Even the Rate Was White if you want to learn more about the contribution of African-Americans to psychology.

I believe humans to be naturally progressive. Most of us want to grow and improve ourselves. While some do not like societal change, we really don’t have that choice. Society shifts and changes naturally. We can change and improve society through progressive values. What was so inspiring to me about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was his inclusive language. He wanted everyone to come together and fight against injustice. After all, equality is ingrained in the constitution of the United States, even if back then it meant equality for white men and no one else. We can decide to interpret the constitution as proclaiming equality to all people no matter who we are.

We cannot help who we are or who we love. More and more people, specifically of the younger generations, believe this. That is the hope we have to eliminate prejudice. While it may take time, I believe it is possible to live in a world without prejudice and discrimination.

Getting Started in Minecraft

Just a short video for those who are new to Minecraft. I help you get a good start in a new world by showing you how to build shelter, so you will be prepaired when it’s night time. This is part 1 and there are more videos to come.

 

The Fight Heard Round the Call of Duty

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am about to share something that may seem strange to write about on my blog, but I feel like I need to share it. Last night while I was playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, a girlfriend and boyfriend began fighting and everyone in the room heard it. Yes, I was hunting down some bad guy in an online multiplayer match and all of a sudden some guy starts yelling and a verbal fight ensues. The girlfriend sounded pretty surprised.

Basically, the boyfriend was told by one of his guy friends that his girlfriend was dancing with a man at a club. I get the feeling she had recently been with her friends at a dance club, discotech, or whatever you young kids call them these days! Anyway, the boyfriend was pretty upset, so I imagine that he believed his girlfriend was dancing in an inappropriate way with this guy at the club. To be fair, she denied any wrong doing the whole time and said she had been dancing with her girlfriends. The girlfriend also claimed that the guy who claimed to see her dancing with a guy at the club was telling lies in order to break up other couples, because he was jealous of them and didn’t like being single. She claimed the guy tried to break up another couple, giving their names. I’d call it, “if I can’t have a girlfriend, no one can” kind of attitude. It may seem farfetched, but I there are weirdos out there.

At first, it was really annoying. Here I am trying to get to prestige level 4 and now I have to endure this fight between two people, probably around their early 20s. But, after a while, I started becoming invested in the relationship when  she asked him, “Don’t you trust me?” I began to feel sorry for her. To me he was complaining about something that seemed overboard. So what if she had been dancing with another guy? Though I wouldn’t appreciate it if my girlfriend had been dancing with another guy doing sexy movies, I still wouldn’t have acted the way the boyfriend did. The mature thing was to calmly talk about it and give her the benefit of the doubt. Based on her reactions, she seemed genuinely surprised at his accusations. How does he know she was NOT dancing with her girlfriends instead of some random dude? He trusted his guy friend more than his girlfriend, which seemed strange to me.

The more the fight went on, the more defensive she got and I didn’t get the impression that she was being dishonest. She was either being honest or was a really good actor. I felt like speaking up and saying something, but I wasn’t using my mic, rarely do I actually use it. Besides, it wouldn’t have been appropriate to intervene, it wasn’t any of my business and yet everyone in the game could hear it. It was like we were apart of their fight. I wonder what the other gamers were thinking? I don’t think anyone was using a mic. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say he is a jealous type and even may have some trust issues. It’s difficult to say for sure since I don’t know them nor do I have any context of their relationship. Maybe she is a liar and has cheated before or maybe he’s just a big jerk. I know if I was the boyfriend I’d at least consider her side of the story. He was intent on believing his friend over her and was upset that she wouldn’t admit to any wrong doing. Well, what if she didn’t do anything wrong?

Thankfully, it sounded like just a verbal fighting match and there wasn’t anything physical going on as far as I could tell. I’d wager that things would cool down and maybe he’d come to his senses. I guess you can tell that I’m on her side! What was scary for me was had there been any domestic abuse, I would have been helpless to stop it. Even if I had my mic on, there’s not really anything I could say to stop it. Had I checked to see which PS3 account was hooked up to the mic, I may not have been able to tell if it was the girl’s or the guy’s. Sending a text message might have been inappropriate and it’s not like I can call 911 and tell them some guy is beating his girlfriend on Call of Duty.

The fight ended and whoever was playing shut off the game. This was all happening around 11:00pm. What would happen next? Ultimately, the realization was that I could do nothing to help, though I wish I could have. It was such a strange experience, it was like I was a researcher observing a couple in a science experiment. I wanted the boyfriend to believe is girlfriend, I was rooting for her. I hope things turned out ok for them. Maybe she will dump this guy, if he can’t trust her, why be with him? Or maybe after calming down he will realise that he overreacted. Then again, maybe he was right all along and he is going to move on. Who knows?

I guess you just never know what’s going to happen when you are playing an online video game late at night.

 

I’m on Tumblr and LinkedIn

Just a quick announcement that I am now on Tumblr and LinkedIn. You can find me here:

http://sdbmania.tumblr.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/scott-brown/6b/11/a7b

If you want to follow or add me, then hit me up. Also, if you have looked at my book news section, you probably have noticed that The Lost Elf (Awakening) is coming to the audiobook format. I can’t wait! I’ll have more news about it soon.

New Cover Art

Ta Dah! The next book in The Lost Elf series is called: Reptilian Encounter. Here is the cover art for book 2. I’m happy to share with you all what the cover will look like. Now I just have to publish the actual book! If you have been  following my little announcements on my “Latest Book News” widget at the top of the site, you know that I am in the editing process. I have another draft to go through, at least. I’m planning on an April release, probably towards the end of the month. Watch for it!

Studying Social Behavior

A photograph of a hand-written, student-generated definition of Social psychology. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Social psychology is sometimes confused with sociology. Like the photo above states, social psychology is essentially the study of social influences. That includes behavior in the social setting, but also how groups influence the individual. How do other people affect our thoughts and feelings? Social psychology tries to answer that. Sociology is the study of groups of people. Sociologists work with demographics and study societies and communities. I’ve just finished my class: Principles of Social Psychology, and I enjoyed it immensely.

I’ve done a lot of research for this class. I’ve written about bullying, racism, prejudice, feminism, depression, identity, among other topics. One thing that really comes out after studying social psychology is just how important other people are to our own development. In the United States, we like to focus on individuality and being responsible to one’s self. It is common to hear about how well successful people worked hard, studied, and paved their own way in society. We are instilled with this sense of being on our own. Sometimes we forget that it’s ok to ask for help from time to time!

We are not alone, however, and there is nothing wrong with getting help along the way. Part of living in a society includes a level of commitment to each other. Even if you feel like that commitment is forced, on some level, we all need people as we are social creatures. I personally spend a lot of time alone, but I do have friends and family that I communicate with. Introverts have social needs too!

Studying social psychology has reminded me again how much power we give to other people. We take to heart what people say about us, which can become dangerous if we stop listening to ourselves. Case in point, when I was bullied back in elementary school, it was difficult to ignore the things the kids said to me. I seemed to handle myself alright, but eventually I began to accept the negative things they said about me. I had a set of expectations about life that as long as they held true, I was fine, but once those expectations were violated things changed. It’s probably common that kids have an idealized view of life that can become invalidated once they grow up into adults. It’s not fun learning that your beliefs about life were wrong!

Anyway, to stick with my main point, we rely on other people. There’s no avoiding it. Unfortunately some people rely too much on other people’s opinions. Part of developing a healthy identity requires us to look deep within ourselves, you can call it self-exploration. If you let others tell you who you are, you risk developing a false identity. It’s difficult not to let others define who we are. Commercials try to tell us who we are by convincing us their products will make us better people or perhaps become the person we think we should be. Religion tries to tell us how to live with moral laws that at times can feel antiquated or outdated. Politicians also try to impose their beliefs on us by passing laws or at least attempting too! Heck even science may influence us, though it’s more suggestion than anything else.

I think the most important lesson we can learn from social psychology is that we should define ourselves based on our own thoughts, feelings, and instincts. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t listen to what other people say about us, but we can’t put too much credibility into what they say all the time. After all, you know yourself better than anyone else.

Do you have a Question?

What makes us qualified to answer your questions? Well, for starters we are both very, very old. Now that we are in our 30s, I feel that we have had enough experiences to help guide you young ones and perhaps even those older than us. Both Mark and I have long educational experiences and have spent years in college. I have a BA in psychology and I am working on a Masters in psychology.

If there is something you want to ask, please feel free to comment on this post. Please note that we will be answering these questions publicly in a video on YouTube. That means you have to be comfortable with us sharing your questions on our video. If you don’t want us to use your screen name or real name,  just e-mail me your questions at sdbmania@outlook.com instead. I won’t use your name/screen name if you send your question to me e-mail address. Otherwise, we will mention your screen name before the question.

Please note, I am a wannabe comedian, so there is a chance that we will not take the questions serious and may answer in a way that is NOT helpful. Well, really, more than a chance. Please be assured that this is in no way meant to offend you or give you bad advice. That’s just the fun part! We just want to bring you a little humorous entertainment, if we can.

Disclaimer: I am not a practicing psychologist, I’m a student of psychology and in no way do I represent any psychological association or organization. We will be treating this as a comedy bit, so you probably shouldn’t take our advice seriously. If you need serious guidance, there are plenty of places you can go for that. Yahoo! Answers is one such place. Also you can probably find good resources at apa.org.

April Fools!

I haz April Foolz lolcats. Intended for use on an April Fool’s page. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I hope everyone had a fun April fools day yesterday  I enjoyed some of the jokes from some of the websites. I thought YouTube’s one was funny and Google had a decent funny one as well. Of course, I had to get in on the action as well and so I am sorry today that I played a little joke on you all yesterday!

Yesterday I announced that I was going to be a future guest on Chris Haye’s new show, “All In.” Unfortunately that was a hoax! I wanted to do a joke that would be believe able. Rachael Maddow said on her show that when you want to do an April Fool’s joke that you want it to seem believable. It should be something that sucks you right in, only to realized afterward how silly it was to believe. Well, I feel I accomplished that, at least my friends and family got it. I had my mom for a second!

If some of you were excited to see my on Chris Haye’s new show, I am sorry to say you were fooled! Or more likely you thought, yeah right, no way this is true! Whatever the case, you can get me back next year!

By the way, I’m thinking of trying to start a hash-tag, #sdbmania. Or are you still mad? Never mind then!

I’m All In with Chris Hayes

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MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, “Getting Past the Fail Decade” LIVE at The Common Good – July 18, 2012 (Photo credit: thecommongoodusa)

I’m excited to announce that I will be a future guest on Chris Hayes’ new show, All In! I was an avid fan of his on Up With Chris Hayes as the show dealt with many interesting issues. While Mr. Hayes has “liberal” opinions, many of which I share, I feel that he has been respectful to his guests with different views. There have been several conservative republicans on the show and it was great to see differing arguments on issues. There were times were you could see conservatives and liberals debating their positions and I feel the show has brought credibility and civility to political debate.

I can’t wait for the start of Chris’ new show, All In. Tonight at 5pm PST, will be his first show! I’m not sure when my appearance on the show will be yet, still working out the details with his staff, but it should be really soon. I’m looking forward to discussion politics with Chris and of course my self-published books. More information will be posted on my blog once the details get sorted out.

Here is the link to the show’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/allinwithchris?group_id=0