Politics is such a contentious topic right now, it appears nobody can agree on anything. Let’s turn down the temperature a bit by discussing something less controversial:
Religion.
Or, more precisely, the lack thereof.
The 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees us the freedom to worship any deity we choose. Yahweh. Jesus. Allah. Buddha. The Great Spirit. The sun. A volcano. Mr. Wednesday on “American Gods.” The government is prohibited from meddling in spiritual decisions.
We could even decide not to accept the existence of any of those entities (please note that failing to acknowledge the existence of the sun or volcanoes can result in adverse health consequences including skin cancer and death by molten lava).
We could embrace atheism. This isn’t a popular option. Surveys indicate atheists constitute just over 3 percent of the U.S. population, although that figure may be depressed by respondents’ reluctance to admit they don’t believe in the supernatural. After all, other polls have shown atheists to be more disliked by Americans than any other religious group except, by the narrowest of margins, Muslims.
Muslims really need to up their public-relations game.
Most survey respondents would refuse to hire an atheist, do business with one, marry such a person or read a weekly column written by a god-denying journalist (stop here if you fit that profile, lest the following paragraphs shake the foundations of your faith).
All of this brings us to Thomas Waddell of Litchfield, the president of the Maine chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Waddell regularly agitates in favor of atheism, although he does so in ways that are less anti-religious and more pro-tolerant of competing belief systems. In a column he wrote for the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel earlier this year, he said, “[B]arriers to religious coexistence are primarily a problem created by various religions trying to interject their beliefs into our nation’s secular laws. Doing so not only hampers coexistence but violates the First Amendment’s guarantee of the freedom of religion, the freedom from religion and the separation of church and state.”
Waddell has taken his crusade for human self-reliance to the Maine Legislature. In February, he gave a secular invocation, in place of the usual opening prayer, to begin a session of the House of Representatives. On May 30, he was scheduled to offer similar sentiments in the Senate. But Senate President Mike Thibodeau cancelled that appearance for reasons that remain in dispute.
According to Waddell, Thibodeau demanded to review his remarks in advance, a condition not imposed on others delivering opening prayers, including Muslims. Waddell told the Kennebec Journal, “[Thibodeau] personally is not comfortable with having someone who is not clergy get up there in front of the Senate and not reference God or Jesus in their invocation, and that’s the bottom line.”
The Senate president took issue with that, telling Waddell in a letter that he had been “confrontational” and “verbally aggressive” in dealings with his staff.
At this writing, the question of whether Waddell will be allowed to speak remains in limbo.
Much like the state budget.
While the Constitution grants Thibodeau considerable leeway in deciding who can blather on at the start of a Senate session, it clearly prohibits him from rejecting an applicant based on religious affiliation or lack thereof. Our fundamental law says he can either allow all belief systems to participate or none.
Thibodeau might want to seek the counsel of Bangor City Councilor Sean Faircloth, a former Democratic state representative, who’s spent a fair amount of his political career weaving across the tortured landscape between government and religion. Faircloth once wrote a newspaper op-ed in which he claimed religious beliefs were an essential part of governing. “Our best leaders lived life and led others based upon their spiritual views,” he said back in 1992. But in 2009, he began a stint as executive director of the Secular Coalition For America, a national group that described itself as “nontheistic,” dedicating himself to stopping “the persistent intrusion of religion into government policy.”
If that seems contradictory – and it should – it’s probably because reconciling the roles of religion and government is damn near impossible.
Can we all say amen to that.
Guidance – either secular or spiritual – can be emailed to me at aldiamon@herniahill.net.
My Dad had a saying that has served me well for seventy years re: personal “space”. “Let me tell you,one more time, you mind your business and I’ll mind mine.” Works really well in myriads of situations.
“…(please note that failing to acknowledge the existence of the sun or volcanoes can result in adverse health consequences including skin cancer and death by molten lava).”
There is plenty of evidence that the Sun and volcanoes actually exist. There is none for any one of the thousands of gods that people have imagined. We know people have been actually killed by erupting volcanoes and by skin cancer, while there have been no verified examples of any god doing anything at all, let alone harming or killing anyone.
“We could embrace atheism. This isn’t a popular option.”
Though it would be the only reasonable one, given that there is no evidence for the existence of a deity. I’d rather be right than popular anyday. Besides, the popularity fallacy – argumentum ad populum – should not be taken as persuasive of any point, because the number of people who believe something is no guarantor of it being right.
“Surveys indicate atheists constitute just over 3 percent of the U.S. population…”
Actually, the most recent surveys indicate that at least 20% of Americans are atheists, and it may be as high as 25%.
“…other polls have shown atheists to be more disliked by Americans than any other religious group except, by the narrowest of margins, Muslims.”
Again, argumentum ad populum. What difference does it make to the validity of the atheist position whether people dislike atheists? Lots of people disliked Martin Luther King, but that doesn’t mean that African Americans didn’t deserve equal rights; Lots of people disliked Susan B. Anthony, but that doesn’t mean that women didn’t deserve equality.
Ian – Actually, there isn’t much evidence for atheism either. We are in a world whose existence we cannot explain (why is there something but not nothing is a good mind puzzle). Time and space exist in a bizarre quantum state, with ours being only one of a multitude of universes. So if we loosen the concept of “God” away from that of a mythological figure defined by organized religions to a more broad “the force, entity, accident or will behind the creation of a space-time universe” we have a believable God-concept, even if not personal or necessarily religious. The idea that our universe just happened to exist is just as implausible as the idea that a deity (which just happened to exist) created it. Fact is, in our space time bodies we lack access to knowledge about the true nature of reality, allowing us to speculate and imagine. That leads me to personally reject organized religions as being too certain about what is inherently unclear, but also to reject atheism as closing the door on spiritual explanations of the amazing and inexplicable qualities of the world in which we find ourselves.
To the article – the tolerant approach ascribed to Waddell makes sense. Atheists, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, etc., could all say, “this is what we believe, but we know that as fallible humans we may be wrong, so we will tolerate the fact others believe differently, and cooperate to run government, with no particular religion or atheism having standing to claim superiority.” Well, that won’t happen any time soon, but maybe someday…
From the British Online Dictionary – Word Origin and History for reconcile (verb): “mid-14c., of persons, from Old French reconcilier (12c.) and directly from Latin reconcilare “to bring together again; regain; win over again, conciliate,” from re- “again” (see re- ) + concilare “make friendly” (see conciliate ). Reflexive sense is recorded from 1530s. Meaning “to make (discordant facts or statements) consistent” is from late 14c. Intransitive sense of “become reconciled” is from 1660s”
“… making (discordant facts or statements) consistent”? Is there any point to even attempt “reconciling the roles of religion and government” beyond what the Founders established in the First Amendment?
Just wondering….. does any nut that comes down, or up, the pike have the ‘right’ to get up and say a prayer or whatever they want??
Ian, there is a preponderance of evidence that God exists. You just have to know where to look. There have been millions of miracles which have taken place in the Catholic Church over the past 2000 years, but most of the world and the mass media ignore them.
My grandmother was miraculously healed of a combination of 2 terminal illnesses 101 years ago. My sister was miraculously healed from a hopelessly cystic, and last remaining, ovary in the 1980’s. In 2007, I went to a a Catholic healing service at Lifesong Healing Ministries in Sherman, ME. My ankle, which had been injured, painful, and stiff for 27 years was healed in a matter of seconds when I was prayed over. I saw about 20 other people miraculously cured there that day. One woman had a deadly case of pancreatitis, and her severely distended abdomen shrunk flat before our eyes. Another woman whose fingers and hand were locked into one position got her full movement back instantly. A man who had been in a car accident 3 years previously, who had broken almost every bone in his body, and who was barely able to move, was restored to full health in a matter of seconds.
These are just miracles that I have had personal experience with. And billions of Catholics have lived on the earth in the past 2000 years. And Catholic miracles are not limited to the sphere of healing. Look up the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano. The miracle occurred in 700 AD, but the stunning physical evidence still exists today. The miracle has been confirmed by 2 different teams of scientists since 1970, and most of the scientists were unbelievers before they examined the miracle. There have been many other amazing Eucharistic miracles, also.
The Catholic Church also has what are known as Incorruptible Saints. They are the dead bodies of men and women who lived very holy lives, yet their bodies have not decayed, in many cases over periods of hundreds of years. Many of those bodies still don’t even have rigor mortis. And some of those bodies have even bled fresh blood when having been cut, even many, many years after death occurred. My son saw a large number of incorrupt saints when he spent a college semester in Rome, a number of years ago.
So the evidence is there for the existence of God. All that you have to do is research it and accept it. It is real and tangible, for all people in the world to learn about and witness. The major problem with the evidence is that many people don’t WANT to accept it, even though it blatantly stares us all in the face.
Must so many people insist on forcing their views????? Mike Martin – That is YOUR OPINION!!
Sorry Why, but what I posted is tangible, absolute fact, some of it definitively proven by medical science. I realize that it would be very hard for many people to acknowledge that the Catholic Church has experienced countless miracles. Because if non-Catholics would acknowledge the miracles, then they would have to totally re-think their lives, and their relationship (or non-relationship) with God. You’re not forced to believe in anything, Why. But I put the facts out there so that people can be free to evaluate them, and to make a decision regarding them. After all, our eternal destinations hang in the balance. I would be shirking my duty toward God if I had kept my fingers off the keyboard, after someone else had made a post that denies the existence of the God whom I am absolutely certain exists. Why didn’t you also call out Ian Cooper for putting his opinion about God on the pages of the Bulldog?
Mike, what you posted is faith – your belief. There is no way to know for sure if these miracles occurred. Moreover, there is just as much evidence from Muslim, protestant, Buddhist and other religions for super natural events. I personally think that it is wrong to dismiss the possibility of something outside space-time affecting our lives. Positive thinking has been proven to do miraculous things in medical treatment. If there were really definitive proof that “Catholic miracles” are somehow special or true, that would be known by everyone. It isn’t because even a google search of what you list shows disagreements and uncertainties.
I do think people who insist that their one particular religion or story line is “the only Truth” are doing a great disservice to whatever “God” is. Stories like yours exist all over the world, not just for Catholics. I believe there is something more than this material world. I think we’re like ants in the oval office. Those ants have no clue that great world events are being planned there, they just look for crumbs. We don’t really understand what goes on outside our space-time framework, we just are trying to get by in the world in which we find ourselves. I have faith in life, but the answers are outside our frame of reference.
“Muslims really need to up their public-relations game.”
The more visible Muslims are the ones that give the religion a bad name, at least among us infidels. For instance, I wouldn’t have known Richard Thompson was Muslim if you hadn’t said so, and you couldn’t get him to elaborate.
Mike, you witnessed some amazing things! Hard to believe at least one of those miracles didn’t make headlines.
Scott, we’ll just have to agree to disagree. Medical science has proven many Catholic miracles to have happened through supernatural means. And I didn’t just imagine the healning miracle that I experienced in my own living body on Oct. 27, 2007. Just travel a fairly short trip to Quebec, to the Basilica of St. Anne de Beaupre, or to the St. Joseph Oratory in Montreal, and see the stacks upon stacks of crutches, braces, wheelchairs, and the like, that were left behind by people who were cured when they visited those Catholic havens. The reason that people don’t know about these miracles is because those who hold power in the world (e.g., governments and their in-the-pocket mass media) hate the moral authority of the Catholic Church. Powerful interests work hard to keep the world in the dark about the wonders of the Catholic Church, because if the Catholic Church were to be acknowledged for the truth which it espouses, a whole lot of people would have to change their thought processes and the way they live their lives.
The Catholic Church is hated and/or opposed not only by governments, but also by non-Catholic Christians, believers of other religions, atheists, Communists, crime syndicates, hedonists, and especially by Satanists. Some of those people who oppose Catholicism would not like to consider themselves to be on the same side as Satanists, but the Catholic Church is public enemy number one to those who worship the devil. This worldwide agreement among otherwise diametrically opposed groups can mean only one thing – that the Catholic Church is the single depository of God’s truth.
Jesus Christ proved that he was God by performing miracles. He said in the Bible that he condemned the Pharisees not because they didn’t believe in what he spoke, but rather that he condemned them because they didn’t believe in his miracles. In the Gospel of John, Jesus said that those who believe in him would be able to perform great miracles. The Gospel of Mark in the 16th chapter also predicted that the followers of Christ would be able to perform miracles. The books of Romans and 1st Corinthians in the Bible said that some members of the Church would have the gifts of miracles and healings. Those Biblical prophecies have been more than fulfilled in the 2000 year history of Catholicism. Through Catholic miracles, God has made himself known to mankind in many tangible ways.
The Catholic Church is simply the guardian and distributor of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus left us that Church so that all mankind would have an institution that would guide them on the right path to salvation, from the time that Jesus ascended into heaven, and until the time that he comes again. If the world would only embrace what Jesus left us, rather than reject it and detest it, it would be a far better place than what it is right now.
Captain, they were amazing! And like I said, I saw about 20 other people healed on the same day that I was healed. And I know of many other amazing miracles, including ones where people were given back body parts that they had previously lost. And there are other types of miracles, like the one when Pope Pius V announced that the Catholic naval fleet had won a great victory over a large Muslim fleet at Lepanto in the year 1571. Pope Pius had gone into a trance and seen a vision of the battle, but the actual news of the victory didn’t even reach Rome until more than 2 weeks later. The whole world should know about these things from big headlines, but the powers that be will keep the good news squelched for as long as possible.
Drank too much of the Kool-Aid
Thank you Dr.Mike Martin for your comments. I have seen miracles happen through the power of prayer even though I have not seen the miracles that you describe. I am a true believer of the Christian faith even though I am not a catholic. Thank you again!!!!!
To Also Seen Miracles – you’re welcome! I want to especially thank the Hansteins at the Daily Bulldog for publishing my comments in the first place! The press in general is not too keen on publishing evidence for the existence of God. As an example, I wrote a letter to the editor of the Bangor Daily News a few months ago, which described some of the above-posted miracles. They called me and said that they would print the letter, and then they never did. Frankly, I was disappointed, but I was not at all surprised. Many people in the world want to keep things quiet about the existence of God, so again, I thank the Hansteins very much.
Hello, folks. I’m Matt Martin, Mike’s brother. I’m not here to defend a particular church or religion, as I’ve had an on/off relationship with those for years. God, Himself? Yes. I do know Him, and stay in regular contact. He keeps me well.
But what of Mike’s and other’s healing experiences in Sherman, ME? I can confirm the events took place exactly as he has described. Mike could not physically make the trip himself, so I volunteered to drive him and my father to Sherman.
I witnessed some subtle, and some not so subtle, events that day which defy scientific explanation. In other words, Mike didn’t imagine or make up any details of events. It was not his ‘faith’ or ‘opinion’. It just happened for himself and many others. For this first hand witness, there is no other way to tell it.
In no way am I making any recommendation to folks, nor asking anyone to take actions, make changes in beliefs or behaviors. Everyone is of free will in my estimation. But I can not deny my direct experience from that day in Sherman, ME.
Since Time, Space, and Matter could not have created themselves, there is only one alternative. Simple as that. The “Big Bang” didn’t create anything, things that don’t exist can’t explode. Even young children understand that. At best, it’s the atheist term for Creation. No evidence that God exists? Everything that exists is evidence.