Sep 29, 2012

"Oh," I said.


I've tried to stay away from imagining specific answers to my prayers, but I think it's safe to imagine what the effect would be.  I explained that in a prevous post, but I also have a recent and vivid example of the kind of sudden insight I'd expect from a revelation.  It has to do with something I found recently that looked a lot like this graphic:


After my father died, we had to sort out his house.  Eighty-one years of his memories were tucked into corners,  closets, drawers, and boxes. It was overwhelming to try to make sense of it all, even though we knew the basic framework of Dad’s story and his life.

My father was a scientist, and so I wasn’t surprised to come across across a stack of glossy papers that appeared to be chemical test results of some kind.  Bleeding out horizontally from the vertical middle of the page were two symmetrical gray stains of slightly different shades, kind of like a Rorschach test. I was tempted to throw them out as garbage, but I set them aside.

When I came back to them later that day, my brother was with me, and I asked him if he knew what these were.  “They’re pictures of the old cabin!” he said enthusiastically, telling me that our grandfather used to own a family cabin on one of the lakes near Dad’s home town. 

Then my brother took the pages from my hand, turning them sideways to view them. Viewed sideways, those vertical chemical stains transformed into faded black-and-white images of a lakeshore.  The old pictures were taken from across the water, and the water’s reflection created the symmetrical “stain.”

“Oh,” I said. 

Sep 28, 2012

Skeptical circumspection


A “saved by grace” Christian on the APE FB page asked why all the atheists are so careful to clarify that they don’t consider each experience they’ve had since the start of the project to be a “revelation.” He wondered “Why is everyone so afraid to Just call Him God for the duration of this experiment…?” He suggested we were afraid our intelligence would evaporate if we had a genuine experience.  It's only a matter of time until someone accuses us of "thinking too much."

If the other skeptics are like me, they’re not necessarily obsessed with their intelligence; they just have more experience than most people at having to admit when they’ve been wrong.  If it happens to you enough, you learn to state things in a more open-ended way.  Certainty is a luxury that only comes with blind faith.

Personally, I do stay away from the word “god” on this project, but only because I think any supreme being that might exist would be insulted by that label. None of the gods men have written about seem up to the task of imagining, much less running the universe we live in. They may be far more powerful than men, but there are worlds of difference between our concepts of deities and what it would take to create multiple infinite universes.  Any being that could accomplish that is going to have a perspective too large to be “jealous” for the worship of a pseudo-intelligent species like ours.

Sep 27, 2012

Revelation that this Skeptic could accept with a clear conscience

Apparently Justin Brierley and Tim Mawson aren't ready to confess that this whole thing was an immense practical joke, so we'll go back to our regularly scheduled programming.

A recurring question on the APE FaceBook page and on this blog has to do with what constitutes "revelation" from a supreme being.  Justin asked yesterday, what would the participants accept as a sign?  It's a very relevant question, given that my own reason for participating in this project was as an exercise in open-mindedness.

What do we mean when we talk about being "open-minded?"

Sep 25, 2012

Revelation, and a new sense of purpose...

…or perhaps just a sense of the true purpose behind the Atheist Prayer Experiment (APE).

Imagine that you were a baby-faced, silver-tongued Christian radio personality fed up with the slings and arrows of outrageous atheist malcontents.  You've been putting up with these blowhards for years, and you're ready for your revenge… but you want to make some money at the same time.

How much money could you make if you bet an Oxford philosopher that you could get at least fifty confirmed atheists to PRAY for forty days?

"Pshaw!" says the Oxford philosopher. "Even atheists aren't THAT stupid."

"No," says JB, "I'm serious. I can get at least 50 atheists to pray for forty days."

"SNCHT!" Snorts the Oxford philosopher.  "Next you'll be telling me you can get them to do it for free."

"Bet me?" says the baby-faced evil genius.

Oxfordboy rubs his jaw speculatively. "You're serious."

"I'll even get them to write about the experience," says JB, grinning maniacally.  They share a moment of sinister laughter.

"OK, 20,000 pounds, but you have to give them a hint that you're setting them up," says Oxford. "It's only sporting, old chap."

"What kind of hint?"

"Name the project something that sounds scientific," says Oxford, "but that has an acronym that tells them what you REALLY think of them.  Bonus points if it's a wordplay on evolutionary theory."

And so a legend is born among practical jokers...

Sep 24, 2012

The demon of unbelief

Day 8 is here.  I prayed but didn't post yesterday, because I was working through some frustration with the project.  It really seemed silly to me, and I couldn't help but think I'm wasting my time on this.

For eight days now, I've tapped that metaphorical microphone and asked for any listening deities or supreme beings to provide a return message.  Will going another 32 days make me any more open-minded than I already am?  

I'm reminded of an experience that I had years ago with deliverance, which for the uninitiated is the term used by charismatics to describe the casting out of demons. My discipler had recommended that we pray together with an elder in our church who was purported to have that particular spiritual gift.

Together the three of us prayed at the church offices for my heretofore unnamed demons to be cast out.  We prayed for a few minutes, and they asked if I felt anything.  I said, "no." We prayed for a few more minutes, after which I felt silly enough that I blurted out "I just don't believe anything's happening here."

"Ah-hah!" said the elder and my discipler.  "Now we know what the problem is!"  Then they began to rebuke and cast out the "demon of unbelief."  To the best of my memory, I never noticed anything happening, but it satisfied the faith requirements of the other two.  The power of faith is amazing.

Sep 21, 2012

Day 5: Tempted by the Rosary


Much to my surprise, I find myself craving for a script in my "prayers," something I can repeat every day instead of thinking of what to say.  I find myself tempted to pray the rosary.

Sep 20, 2012

Day 4: What constitutes revelation- more thoughts

If communication has come so far from any supreme being, I haven't recognized it. The discussions at the Experiment FaceBook page yesterday highlighted the difficult of defining what would count as communication.

Sep 19, 2012

What constitutes revelation?

Coincidences happen.

Many people I love and respect don't believe that, but they do happen. And they do not count as signs from gods, unless we're going to accept all coincidences as signs from gods.

On the Experiment FaceBook page, another blogger commented that he'd had a couple of nice coincidences since the project started.

Is this thing on?

I'm back to wondering what makes it a prayer. I've been praying out loud, without a set prayer in mind.

Sep 18, 2012

None of the above

Which god(s) to pray to? Tim Mawson and others discussed this question before the project started. We could pray to the toaster god, for instance, though Tim seemed to feel it made more sense to pray as if one might be heard by a Supreme Being.

My answer, of course, is "none of the above." I've yet to read or hear about a god of men that lived up to the universe in which we live. It's difficult to reconcile omniscience and omnipotence with Jehovah, for instance.  His acts, as described in the Old Testament, are those of a tribal warlord.  He commands and blesses the activities one might expect from a band of cutthroat raiders looking for good luck omens.


How long will I listen for a response?

Yesterday on the A P E FaceBook Page, the consonant-challenged Mr. Breeuwer made the comment below:

"I like your analogy about SETI. Shouldn't a prayer's response, in that context, be worth waiting for? How long has SETI been operational? How many responses have they received? How long are you prepared to wait for a prayer's response?"


These are good questions. SETI has been listening for decades now, and they've only targeted a small fraction of the sky. Why shouldn't we keep the antennas up as well?  

I have no problem with the idea of keeping the antennae energized and in position indefinitely with

Sep 17, 2012

What makes it prayer?

What makes a prayer a prayer? I wrestled with this while trying to decide whether to participate in the Atheist Experiment project. Justin Brierley read a comment from an Unbelievable listener indicating that an atheist's prayer is a misnomer, because one requirement of prayer is belief.

Sep 16, 2012

The "Atheist Prayer Experiment" starts tomorrow

Fifty atheists from across the English-speaking world are participating in an "experiment" to test the lines of communication with any supreme being, should one exist. Dr. Tim Mawson of Oxford and Justin Brierley, host of the British radio show and podcast "Unbelievable," are coordinating the project and soliciting feedback from its participants.

The project is not scientific.  It can not provide conclusive results about the existence or non-existence of gods. It is almost certainly going to result in some false positives.  

Even so, such a project could be a good exercise in maintaining open-mindedness, provided there is no coercion, intimidation, or manipulation (beyond the obvious hope of the project's coordinators that praying atheists will convert to Christianity).



Links:

FaceBook page for the Atheist Prayer Experiment