After a couple of years away
from this project, during which time I've changed jobs and moved a
couple of times each, not to mention acquired a wife and child, there
have been many changes in my thinking on various subjects covered by
this document. In addition, I've become associated with major portions
of the Freethought movement around the world, specifically including my
participation as an officer and director of the Internet Infidels, Inc., a Colorado nonprofit corporation.
While I've taken the first few
rudimentary steps towards forming an Agnostic movement, I have not been
devoting the time to it that I should have been, given my continued
great commitment to the philosophy of Agnosticism and the need for an
alternative lifestyle for otherwise non-religious individuals.
Accordingly, I'm pledging to spend more time revising, updating, and
moving towards an "official first draft" of the Agnostic Bible
presented herewith.
As always, this document is
open for comments from anybody. However, I don't make any promises as
to what I might do with any comments submitted to me. I only have time
for so many things in my life, as do all of us, and comments which are
actually obvious wastes of time won't get much of my attention (if any
at all). With that said, please feel free to send comments to me
on this document. The purpose of my Agnostic movement is to seek
"truth," and Agnostics by no means have any sort of monopoly on
"truth." It is thus a consistent part of my philosophy to seek "truth"
from even those who strongly disagree with me (and with other
freethinkers, for that matter). But please do NOT write to convert me
to your religion, and in particular, not Christianity. I spent a long
time rejecting Christianity as not being any sort of "truth."
Most enlightening to me at a
personal level have been my discussions with lots of different people
about the nature of religion and why humans seemingly have an inborn
need for religious affiliations. There is also a question as to why all
of the popular religions began as oral traditions that were not
recorded in any known writing until decades (or centuries) after their
origin. More recent religious movements have been subjected to great
ridicule because written records exist that show the founder or the
doctrines in a poor light. The Urantia Foundation claims that its book
was "channeled" from the spirit world, but Martin Gardner used textual
analysis to prove the book was actually the product of the cult
founder. The Scientology cult asserts impossible dates for activities
of alien beings called "thetans" that cling like leeches to unwitting
humans everywhere. Many other cults form around the beliefs of more
traditional religions, such as Christianity (which is also related to
the Urantia cult).
It seems everyone has a need
to believe in something, and in times of weakness, they can be
convinced to convert into followers of almost any doctrine that is
available for them to cling to. Careful study of atheists clearly shows
that they too cling with tenacity to their own belief systems, however
much they might deny it.
To succeed in the long run,
most cults resort to combinations of revisions to their dogmas and lies
claiming no revisions have taken place. To them, the existence of some
sort of "pure" revelation of "absolute truth" is necessary to win and
hold converts. But the underlying dishonesty is usually found out,
eventually. So one of the founding principles of the Agnostic Church is
that no idea is incapable of revision. Everything is open for
discussion in order to ensure that any errors will be corrected, and
that the error correction process will be entirely open to the light of
day.
"A long journey begins with the first step."1
Each revised version of the Agnostic Bible is one more step on the road
to greater "truth." I welcome all who seek "truth" to read and comment
on this latest revision of the Agnostic Bible.
FAIRFIELD, IOWA; JANUARY 1, 1999.
1 Generally attributed, in some form, to Confucius.
