Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and one atheist

I've been fortunate enough to spend a lot of time over the last 5 days listening to the Dalai Lama discuss compassion and early childhood development.  For those of you outside the Seattle area, his visit was part of a 5 day event hosted by Seeds of Compassion.  Well, it was the MAJOR part.  Yesterday's event, which stretched over 4 hours, was a panel on interfaith discussion and spirituality which I enjoyed and found very informative.

You regular readers, and outraged Don Stewart or Fascinating Womanhood fans, will be wondering why an atheist hippy such as myself would go to an event like this and what sort of scorn I'm about to heap on religions and the holy personages named in the title above.  Well, getcher panties outta their bunch, have a seat and calm down.  No scorn-heaping is on the way.  Nor have I converted, so my atheist fans can unclench as well.

The thing is, I have no problem with spirituality, nor with religion.  In fact, Rabbi David Rosen voiced a wonderful defense of religion today - that I happen to agree with - when asked about violence attributed to religion.  He pointed out that those who use religion to justify or rationalize violence have grossly misappropriated spirituality.  Bear in mind that I'm a boob, and he said it better than I'm writing it.  The point is, while religion has been used over centuries and centuries to justify all sorts of horrors, in general religion and the followers thereof lean towards peace and harmony.  The new testament seeks to undo some of the violent aspects of the old testament, with Jesus walking with sinners and calling on believers to practice peace and love.  Islam calls for much personal sacrifice for the community (yes, in addition to some beastly views on gender equality and some calls for violence that A: are mirrored in the bible and B: are clung to a little too closely by the extremists we've come to know as terrorists.  I didn't say all was roses).  These are good things, and as an atheist, I want people to look for harmony and reasons to be peaceful, whether that's inside themselves or in a belief system that includes an invisible man in the sky. 

There are certainly things about religion that can be looked on with scorn.  Views on women are often mysogin..misogyn...bad.  There are strange and contradictory views on peace and war.  One can quite easily find justifications for any manner of abuse towards one's children, gays, women, or even slavery in most (major) religious texts. 

But, especially with Christianity (although also, and intentionally, with Judaism), there is a pick-and-choose sort of religion alive today that has for the most part been for the better.  By picking and choosing, for instance, we've eliminated the need for any inquisitions (although unfortunately picking and choosing always leaves that door just a lil' bit open).  Picking and choosing allows for the Unitarian church which welcomes our gay brothers and sisters to worship as they please without fear of the boot of Jerry Falwell's ghost finding its way to their ass.  Yes, that picking and choosing has also allowed for the evangelical outburst of the last 15 years, prompting sometimes physically violent opposition to abortion, outright hatred of and single-minded focus on homosexuals, and a sort of hybrid hyper-patriotic Christianism.  The dangers are there, and well discussed.  I need not list the sins of religion, particularly American religion, again here.

But for the most part, cafeteria religion has allowed modern believers to focus on giving within their communities, being loving and charitable within their families, and forging tighter bonds between people.  It's allowed for a sense of increased and much-needed comfort and security, as in the uptick in church attendance following 9/11.  And this is what today's event was really about - the different ways these faiths interrelate and work together to bring compassionate change in people's lives. 

I'm all about that.  Atheists, as any true non-believer knows, are no more likely than your average Episcopalian to become an ax-wielding homicidal maniac or child molester (in sheer numbers, in fact, less so!).  And we want peace and harmony as much as any religious leader.  We want our children to be raised well, to be taught to feel safe and love others and show compassion.  The Dalai Lama touched, repeatedly over the weekend, on something that I try to live by (and too many of the Christianists currently dominating the media and our politics do not seem to get):  that to help someone we know who is hurting, while good, is not true compassion.  This is compassion with an angle.  We like them and want them to like us.  We feel good for helping.  True compassion is helping those who need it, even if they despise us or we despise them.  If someone wrongs us yet they need help, they are still people in need of help.  Even bad people (or different people) are still people. 

In any event, I've run right out of steam here.  (Does it show that I've gotten rusty at blogging?)  My point is that this was more than worthwhile, and even a big ol' cynical bag of gas like me managed to pick up a few new things.  Take note, true believers, us atheists aren't all rabble-rousing buttholes out to disrupt the Dalai Lama's speechifying.  And atheist friends, let's take a look at where we can all agree, argue those points where we can't, and, as we would ask others, let's lighten up a bit!