Another fundy relative chimes in

A note from my other cousin:

Summer, I want you to know I agree with almost everything Carol said. Since you're into free thought, I hope you will extend the same right to us Christians. And one of the biggest problems I see with not believing there's a God is not the problem of evil, but the problem of good. I can't see where evolution accounts for the ideas in life we hold dear- love, honor, courage, compassion, mercy, sacrifice, patience, respect.

I write back:

I could recommend some good books, or direct you to websites that explain this concept without the notion of God, if you're interested.

Problem of Good? That's a new one. The only reason you don't see where evolution accounts for human behavior is because you haven't studied it. I have and evolution explains it better than just saying it came from God. Unfortunately, it's very complicated and I don't have the education to understand all of it, so I cannot explain it 100% in an email.

OK, in a nutshell, we have developed altruism as a way to survive within our society. We would not be able to survive outside the group unless we cooperate within the group. That is why people who lie, cheat, and steal are not generally accepted. We also have secular laws, which have also evolved over thousands of years without the help of God, that also keep us moral within our society. All societies have this attribute no matter what their level of technology is. The more primitive the society, the more religious (or superstitious) their laws are. This is an extremely simplistic way of putting it and doesn't do the scientific explanation any justice.

The religious laws that are in the bible are not moral according to today's standards. We no longer consider owning slaves and we would never consider treating women as property in our modern society. The "good" laws or qualities of the bible predate the bible and are not new ideas, such as the Golden Rule.

Am I trivializing humans by removing God? Not at all, for we have a rich history of evolving mentally, spiritually, and intellectually. By saying that God is responsible for this trivializes our achievements by giving us no credit for trying to make our world a better place to live. Religion and God are man-made to explain the unexplainable and science has been making God (or I should say, the supernatural world) smaller and smaller. Demons are no longer responsible for sickness and were explained away by germ theory. The sun no longer revolves around the earth, making us a little less unimportant in the universe. The beginning of the universe is getting better understood by astronomers and physicists. Even the evolution of religion can be explained.

The reason we call ourselves "free thinkers" is because we do not allow ourselves to be held back by the dogma of religion. We think for ourselves. We come to conclusions based on data, evidence, and facts. You may think you do that as well, but you will only allow thoughts within the confines of your religion and will not consider anything that is outside of those confines. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing. It works well for you and your family and I would not want to take that away. I suspect it will be impossible for you consider the facts in the paragraphs above because of your faith and because of your personal relationship with God and Jesus.

Oh, by the way, I want to quantify this fact straight away. Judy and you have both accused me of this. I do not know everything. Period. I do not claim that science knows everything. Period. I can say the same for you, that you must know everything to know that God exists. See how ridiculous that sounds? I would not assume that of anyone.

I find it sad that you agree with Carol. She didn't read anything that I wrote, made bad assumptions, got very defensive, then ignored me. I tried to get her to reread what I wrote, but by that time I'm sure she invoked the delete key and hasn't read anything I've written since then. That's not the sign of a free thinker. BTW, I never delete anything you guys write to me. I read and reread what you write and I carefully consider what to write back. Judy did not show signs of doing that. That is not a quality of a free thinker.

There are others on my email list that have given me positive feedback and have opened their minds to new ideas. I don't think I've changed anyone's mind, but they have told me that they never thought about something in the way I have and that it was refreshing to get a different perspective. Nice! That is all I ask for.