Reflections

I attended the Texas Freethought Convention in San Antonio this weekend. It was a really good time, like last year. Next year’s convention will be in Dallas, and the year after will be in Houston. If you are anywhere near, you really should check it out. There were a couple of hundred Freethinkers there: Atheists, Humanists, Brights and one token Deist.

On the way back I drove past Brooke Army Medical Center. As I looked at the building I could not help but think about who was lying there in a hospital bed in a heavily-guarded room. I thought about the news reports about the funerals that day for three victims of the Fort Hood slayings. I thought about the words of Kathleen Johnson the previous evening. She told us what she could of the events of the previous week. She works in law enforcement at Fort Hood and knows more than she can tell at this stage of the investigation.

In a couple of years we will give Major Hasan a fair trial. We will convict him and then kill him or lock him up until he dies. We will say that justice has been served, but we know that, whatever the outcome, it will be short of justice. No one will come back to life. Those damaged will not be made whole. Hearts will not be unbroken. Human justice is inadequate, but we do what we can.

And as BAMC faded in my rear view mirror I pondered. What could have been going through the mind of the shooter in the days, weeks and months leading up to this horrific act? Is he insane? By any standard of modern, civilized behavior, he is insane. And what brought on this insanity? We know the answer. There’s no fanatic like a religious fanatic.

The Texas Freethought Convention is represented primarily by Atheists. These are people who have arrived at the logical and reasonable conclusion that there is no God. I have arrived at a different conclusion, but my position is much, much closer to their stance than it is to that of anyone who worships a God who commands His followers to go out and kill in His name. I cannot believe in, let alone worship, a God like that. No religion is far, far better than a religion like that.

I respect people who hold different religious beliefs. I do not respect all that they believe, but if they do not impose their beliefs on others, I think they can believe anything they choose. My own ethical code is simple: be considerate. I take into consideration that other people are usually raised in the religion of their parents. Religion is a social phenomenon, and people derive much spiritual satisfaction from their faith. But organized religion also has a poisonous side. Sacred texts and clergy have urged followers to commit extreme acts against unbelievers and sinners, and followers have followed their leaders’ urgings, no matter how depraved or atrocious. When the promised afterlife is more highly valued than their current life, people can do extraordinary things. Unfortunately, these things are often extraordinarily bad.

Freethinkers use reason and logic to reach their conclusions about life, God and the afterlife. We do not rely on second-hand claims or Bronze Age texts. We can make a leap of faith, but some chasms are too wide and deep, and what is on the other side is not attractive enough. In fact, we just don’t see the allure of what is on the other side. And the more closely we examine it, the more we become convinced that it is an illusion. So as I passed the hospital along I-35 in San Antonio, I tried to imagine what illusion could turn a person into a mass murderer, and my imagination fell short. And I think the shooter also fell short as he leaped the chasm towards his vision of paradise. I believe he plummeted into the depths of that abyss. It’s just too bad that he dragged so many people down with him.