Well, I have to admit, I feel a little like a warm-up band going out to play to a sell out crowd that’s been kept waiting several hours by the headliner.

Since there are undoubtedly many people who don’t know much about me, I thought I would take a moment to introduce myself before diving into other topics. As ~I Am~ kindly mentioned, I have been posting on my own blog Skeptic Rant, for a little over a year now in it’s current incarnation. I started blogging as a vehicle to voice my outrage at the social trends brought into glaring light shortly after the 2004 elections.

I have made statements of disbelief at SR in the past, but think it would be appropriate to start by restating them here. When asked about religion, I find it simpler to start from a position of strong atheism. So, for example, when I get my quarterly knock on the door from the local Church of Later Day Saints, I tend to respond with, “Hey guys, save your breath, I’m an atheist. I don’t have time to save you from a wasted life of devotion to a non-existent deity right now.” Then I shut the door.

The actual depth of my disbelief is somewhat more complicated. I am a bit of a closet Thomas Paine fan, and much of my thoughts on religion are influenced by Paine’s The Age of Reason, with some pretty big caveats. Paine takes the existence of one true God as a given, though he does not believe that any of the churches of man represent the true nature of God.

“Each of those churches show certain books, which they call revelation, or the word of God. The Jews say, that their word of God was given by God to Moses, face to face; the Christians say, that their word of God came by divine inspiration: and the Turks say, that their word of God (the Koran) was brought by an angel from Heaven. Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.”

My affinity for Paine (hmmm that sounds really bad if you read it out loud) has led me in the past, to call myself a strongly agnostic deist. The ambiguity of that position has since forced me to abandon it. I unequivocally disagree with any assertion that any “God” participates in any aspect of our world. I further unequivocally deny that there is anyone, anywhere, that really knows one way or the other. So, while Paine denies the authority of the worlds churches, and embraces the concept of a personal relationship with God, I feel that perceived relationships with God have all been wishful thinking, delusion, or fraud. Anyone claiming otherwise, is deluding themselves, or their audience, or both.

I do acknowledge the possibility that I could be wrong, and that there are most certainly many things in our universe that we do not comprehend. I also understand that people have a right to their own beliefs. The reason I don’t usually start conversations from this point of view though, is that it tends to encourage would be evangelists to use that as an opening to preach, or try to convert me. I do enjoy a spirited debate about religion, but I don’t want to give the false impression that I am on the fence on this issue. I am not.
What really pisses me off, is when people try to impose their beliefs on others. I strongly feel that religion has no business in any aspect of government, and that the inclusion of religion in world government has been the single worst tragedy of human history. Again, Thomas Paine perhaps said it best when he wrote:

“The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.”

Sadly, this is more true today than ever.

I have not always felt this way. I was raised Episcopalian, and my father is a Father, so to speak. That is, he is an Episcopalian priest, now retired. My parents never forced us to be active in church. I was a willing participant. I attended youth group activities, went to Sunday school, became an acolyte, and was confirmed (a religious coming of age ceremony). When I went off to school, I pursued a degree in Environmental Science / Biology before switching to theater. It was during this time that I came to regard religion with skepticism (thus confirming the worst fears of evangelicals everywhere that science is evil) and that skepticism has only strengthened as I grow older.

It is because of my father (the Father) that I write under a pseudonym. Not because he doesn’t have a sense of how I feel, but rather because I wish to avoid rubbing it in his face, or embarrassing him by one of his colleagues or parishioners easily stumbling across my writing unexpectedly. I am also not particularly concerned with people finding my real name, I just don’t wish it to be an easy search connection.

I was asked when I first started commenting here what LBBP means. The rather boring answer is that it is an acronym for a former business name that I liked, and just held onto. Now, I tell everyone that it’s a Disney acronym for Large Bean Bag Plush, without any further explanation. The virtual quizzical responses are much more amusing that way.

Finally, I am not ~I Am~, nor will I try to be. I am excited about this opportunity and I hope you all will find my writing at least almost as interesting as ~I Am’s~. I have long felt that the conversations that have developed in the comments on this site are a large part of it’s popularity. So, if nothing else I hope to be able to offer topics for further conversation. Thank you all for the kind comments in the last two posts. I hope I can live up to the high standards set forward by ~I Am~.

LBBP