Christian atheists, Christian atheism, Metaphysicians

MetaPhysicians (MP) are adults who share a specific secular outlook on the spiritual aspect of life, and agree to obey a specific set of self-imposed rules.

These rules are grounded on the fundamental principle that nothing supernatural every happened. Their rules comprise their mandatory articles of faith. “Faith” is the unprovable conviction that certain behavior is best for an individual and for a group. MPs believe that following their 10 Commandments is the best way to heal and grow the soul. Deviating from the Commandments is harmful to the soul, and to personal growth–and leads eventually to spiritual destruction.

MetaPhysicians pledge themselves to adhere truthfully and to the best of their abilities to their list of 10 Commandments.

Here are the MetaPhysicians’ Ten Commandments:

You are what you do
Play the cards you are dealt
Love your family and your neighbors; be civil to those with whom you disagree
Help those less-well off than you
Everyone is equal before the law
Forgive the penitent
Do not take unfair advantage
Harm no one in the name of religion
Try to tell the truth
Protect and spread the democratic rule of law

Personal salvation is based on living a moral life, roughly as (the mythical) Jesus defined it, as love for ones fellow man, modestly and with the continual struggle to avoid sinning. This is at the polar opposite of St. Paul who taught "by faith" which was interpreted by Augustine and later Martin Luther and John Calvin to mean the total exclusion of all moral conduct from playing any part in salvation.

_________________________________________________________________________

Editor's Q& A:

Q. What you are not saying is that MPs are essentially Christian atheists.

A. Correct. The atheist part is a natural outcome of the "nothing supernatural" credo. The Christian aspect is simply the adoption by us of one mythical person's story in which to frame our beliefs, providing ready-made ritual, symbols and the like. The Jesus legend has been adopted by so many different creeds and cults, one more will hardly make any difference. There is no sense in re-inventing the wheel.

Q. But that sounds a lot like the Unitarians. How do you different from them?

A. Unitarianism claims to be a pantheistic religion, but it is essentially a social fellowship of political liberals. In order to appear all-inclusive, their belief system waffles on who or what God is, but their fuzzy theology is irrelevant as their activities are largely the advocating and exercise of leading-edge left-wing policies such as same sex marriages, gay rights, multi-culturalism, etc. Their high alter is the UN, their congregation the “International Community.” Political conservatives are looked down upon by them as Paleolithic or with the smug sympathy one would give to a slightly deranged maiden aunt..

MPs are more locally oriented. Self-reliance plays a larger role, including the idea of Government as referee–not as Big Bother of first resort. One theoretical difference is that MPs overtly recognize that Christianity–indeed, all supernatural religions--is an entirely human construct, the first story of which was built up over three centuries and culminated in the Council of Nicea. It’s a noble myth, crafted to embody many of mankind’s most sacred impulses. But it was essentially constructed to support a priestly ruling class that extinguished the power of the Holy Spirit speaking to the individual to substitute its own self-aggrandizing interpretations of social and political control.

Q. What does MP say about those liberal Unitarian political concerns?

A. They are none of our business. But Unitarianism is more of a political action committee than a religion. Of course, there are many to whom left-wing politics is their religion. Those will fit right in. Being less globally attuned and more family-oriented, MPs are not permitted by their creed–-C3--to discriminate against women and gays--or anyone who follows our creed. Obviously, this is a difficult issue for many prospective MPs, but those who are not able to abide by all the Commandments are encouraged look elsewhere. The essence here is not who you claim to be or what you claim to believe, but to what extent you obey in deed our 10 commandments. An honest homosexual is welcome; a dishonest heterosexual is not. An alms-giving prostitute would qualify; a mean-spirited social doyenne would not.

Q. Abortion, birth control, Darwin?

A. Many are more or less against them because of their conservative orientation, and many may agitate against them (and will certainly vote against them, given a chance). But all are obliged not to use force to prevent those who believe in these practices and beliefs to exercise them. Those who cannot abide by this stricture can move over to evangelical and other conservative sects, or--worse--become right-wing terrorists.

Q. What goes on in your fellowship meetings?

A. Well, they are essentially cocktail parties followed by dinner, followed by lectures and conversations. They generally take place in private dwellings. If 3/4s of a fellowship vote a person out three times, he is notified not to come to the meetings.

Q. Wow, “shunning.” I didn’t know that was still practiced in the 21^th Century.

A. Please. You don’t “shun” obnoxious people you meet socially?

Q. I’m not a religion.

A. Neither are the MetaPhysicians. They are a social fellowship, just like you and your circle of friends.

Q. But you say prayers...

A. Sure. Doesn't everyone? It’s just we don’t expect God to suspend natural law in order to fulfill personal selfishness. To us, prayer is an earnest entreaty to ourselves, our conscience, to shape up.

Q. How does one get in touch with the MP organization?

A. One doesn’t. They get in touch with you.

Q. You are...tapped? Isn't that rather exclusionary?

A. Yes. But, you could form your own fellowship. You don’t need anyone’s permission.

Q. So it’s a secret society, just like Skull & Bones!

A. Yes. Keeps out conniving liberal journalists in sheep’s clothing.

Q. Harumpf.

**************************************************************************************************************

Reader Questions:

"Anonymous" has kindly agreed to answer some reader questions. One question he again declined to answer is how to contact him.

______________________________________________________________________________

Q1. If Unitarians are primarily political liberals, what is the political make-up of Metaphysicians?

A. It's an unusual combination: First, they are either intellectual atheists, or agnostics who just don’t buy into the whole huge edifice of organized religion. All are people who have more or less come to terms with the realization that all supernatural religions (including Christianity) are entirely man-made. In particular, many of us believe that there never was an historical Jesus Christ. He is an assembly of legends crafted over the centuries. Yes, he is the focus and deep manifestation of man's spiritual yearning and the will to believe--which is completely legitimate--but his natural birth and death (even though we feel he never existed as a single person) means he can lay no claim to special privileges outside the religion. We believe that much of the immense evil by organized religion has been closely bound-up with the belief in a supernatural God. A God who must be avenged, obeyed, believed-in, etc. Eliminate the supernatural God, and you eliminate the rationale for most of organized religions' endemic evil. It's that simple.

Secondly, most MPs are politically conservative, that is, there are many more Republicans than Democrats, along with a significant contingent of libertarians. But there are few, if any, political ideologues–-those people who cannot control themselves (and become hotly irrational) when it comes to arguing their position. Excess in attacking anything that other people do, that does not directly impinge on you, is not condoned. Without a God to defend or attack, religious extremists have a lot of wind taken out of their sails.

Thirdly, they are all-over the map on their social outlook from conservative (anti-abortion) to liberal (pro-life). But the anti-abortionists do not try to force you to bring a baby to term; nor do the pro-lifers push the abortion option on anyone. Although these issue are discussed often, it is always done so in general terms, and never as imprecation. Again, without a God to defend, what other people do in error loses its threat to your belief system.

It's an exciting mix without the corrosive ideological one-upmanship and holier-than-thou attitudes that pervade liberalism today. Because you can’t brag abut what you feel or believe. It is considered very bad taste to get hot under the collar over any political opinion or pull out litmus tests of ideological purity, which seems to be the mainstay of liberals today.

Q2. I do not understand what keeps you MPs on the straight and narrow. Why not cheat, lie and steal--or even kill--to gain advantage? There is no God looking over your shoulder to stop you. You won't, you claim, even go to hell.

A. Good question. We believe that since there is no God looking over anyone's shoulder, it is we humans who are personally and individually responsible for the welfare of ourselves, our fellow man and the world. We cannot shuck this responsibility off on a supernatural ghost. We cannot sin all life-long and then be "saved" in a deathbed conversion. If we sin, we are sinners. We believe that behavior that violates our 10 Commandments is self-destructive. Because you are what you do, violate them too often and you will become what you do–a liar, a cheat, a thief or a murderer. These people are miserable no matter what material benefits they may accrue. Look at how miserable so many rich white-collar crooks are, how many Hollywood celebrities. They are awful people, and they are unhappy people. Would you change places with any one of them? MPs would not in a thousand years.

Q2.1 Are there a lot of Greens among you?

A. Some, of course. But the fanatics among them have gravitated to the Sierra Club and others of that ilk.

Q3. How hopeless, your religion. What happens to you when you die?

A. You are buried. You've had your shot. But while you are alive, you should always be able to look back and say to yourself: "So far I'm doing the best I can to live a productive life, and make the world a better place for my children and my friends." Not for "greater mankind" or orphans in Africa. Not being able to say that truthfully is the hell that liars and cheats face every day--and no amount of wealth or power will assuage their discontent, their misery, at the realization of just how greatly they are failing themselves and their family and friends. This is our faith.

Q3.1. How are you MPs any different than run-of-the-mill atheists?

A. Theologically speaking, we are very close, but our outlooks are very different. If Christianity disappeared, official atheism would suffer a serious blow. They would have nothing more to rail against! So many atheists seem to be people whose lives revolve around attacking Christian orthodoxy. That is certainly good sport, but to us it is beating a dead horse. (Remember the pugnacious Madalyn Murray?) God died a long time ago. Atheists seem rarely to have enough time left over to constructively engage the trials and tribulations of living in today's difficult times, and solving the spiritual problems we all have. And if you think about it--what are atheists other than people whose hobby is to complain about religion? What do you know about a person if you learn he is an atheist? What does he do? What is his spiritual outlook? You have no idea.

We Metaphysicians, on the other hand, have a distinct calling. All of us must be in a field that helps those less well-off. Thus, we are comprised primarily of teachers, nurses, doctors, policemen and the like. And of course we have a graduated tithing system--similar to the US tax code. Oh, and part of each person's tithes go into private social security accounts. NO MP has ever retired without enough money to see him comfortably through the rest of his life. Comfortably--never lavish.

Q4. Wow--sounds like communism!

A. Perhaps that what it sounds like, But we are far from being communistic. We prize individuality of the John Wayne variety.If we had a god, he would make a far better one than the current regime has.

Q5. You are a heretic and a blasphemer! You will burn in hell for all eternity!

A. Thank-you. I hope your obviously very strong, God-fearing Christian faith continues to provide you with much inner peace and happiness.

Q6. OK, I get the theory. What are some of the day-to-day realities of being an MP?

A. We are strongly attuned to family and friends. We think locally and we act locally . We rarely proselytize. We keep a very low profile. To the point of evading answering the question: “We’ll, what religion ARE you?” Our answer is something along the lines of: “Oh, I’m a kind of Unitarian,” or “I belong to a small, local Christian congregation.” Or something along those lines. It's awkward because we are strongly inveighed not to lie. But we also can't afford to draw attention to ourselves.

Q7. Why the secrecy?

A. Atheists are strongly discriminated against, even in this 21st Century. Oh, maybe less so in New York city, but pretty much anywhere else your job could easily be jeopardized if your employer learned you are an atheist. Thus, we remain an underground membership that lives above ground. We do not wish to fight with our neighbors—or anyone else—over our "beliefs"--our church doctrine. We want only to be judged on how we behave. Especially as we do not seek to replace their beliefs or impinge on their right to believe whatever they want.

Unfortunately, the more orthodox some Christians are, the more virulently they object to our brand of Christianity. Even though we have adopted much of the essence of early Christianity, but with no supernatural God, our doctrine threatens the very foundation of orthodox Christianity. And they can't seem to mind their own business! But it’s even worse: If we are right, they are wrong, they will have wasted their entire lives in believing a lie.

Few ideologues can stomach such a revelation. They often react with extreme emotion and sometimes, unfortunately, they act on their feelings. So we do keep a very low profile. Frankly, we think people who believe strongly in the supernatural are–no matter how otherwise nice--slightly nuts. It’s just not worth the effort to fight with them. Even when we treat them nicely (as we must), they still spit on us. We are "unbelievers." (How right they are; We don't believe anything. We do.) Since they judge us only on what we " believe "--not on what we do, we can never make them happy. What’s the point in engaging them at all?

Q7. Are you looking for members? Is that why you decided to go public now?

A. When we discover a potential new member, we seek him out by inviting him to our "services"--which are simply cocktail parties and dinner and conversation. No prospective member realizes he is being looked-over for possible induction. If he or she passes muster, he or she is invited back. If they, too, enjoy our company, they will return regularly. After that "membership" occurs willy-nilly.

But we are very carefully not "going public." What we are doing is continuing to make the idea of our religion public, which we do from time to time, so that it will spread spontaneously. We saw “Professor Woolsley’s” article and the interest it aroused made us think that people would be interested in learning that a community much like the one he hypothecates, already exists. We can’t be completely secret--this is the U.S.A. after all. And we are very interested in spreading the idea of our doctrine, which you’ll notice, incorporates a very modern concept to some of the historically tested “10 Commandments.”

Q8. Democracy?

A. Yes. The great missing link of so many religions that claim to be modern. No religion that eschews democracy will survive—although their demise will be drawn out for years—maybe centuries.

Q9. Even Judaism?

A. The most ancient religion. Yes. Some believe it is already in the process—however slowly—of finally breaking up. Their claims to supernatural exceptionality also evaporate in light of the fundamental principle of ‘no supernatural anything.’ Any religion that relies for its authority on a supernatural mandate is not a spiritual organism, but a political one. No matter how ancient. And speaking of ancient, the Jewish religion--the most ancient--has taken a very odd turn recently. It has imbued Adolf Hitler with mythic demi-god status! That would be positively weird, if Christianity hadn’t already made the torture and execution of its leader their central symbol too. Where can such symbols and thoughts lead anybody? But, as I said, their days are numbered even if the number is big.

Q10. Wow—I can see the potential for, ah, strong disagreement. From all sides. No wonder you keep your heads down. But why isn't your anti-supernatural edict a commandment?

A. Because it is not necessary. People who make supernatural claims should be able to prove them--no matter how long they have been embroidered and repeated. But they cannot, and they never have. Their list of equivocations on this point is amazingly well-crafted and amazingly long. But what they are really saying is: "We claim that something really unusual happened a very long time ago. Therefore, we are your boss." It would be laughable if they didn't take themselves so seriously--so dangerously serious.

In closing, let me admit that there is potentially one supernatural event that may have occurred. The Big Bang of the birth of the universe. That event may have been so different from anything that has ever happened, it may qualify as a singularity or miracle. Our universe was miraculously conceived. This would leave the door open for a "watchmaker" theory of a God, as Prof Woolsley so cleverly noticed. We enjoy debating this, but, of course, it is so theoretical as to have inconsequential significance on our behavior.

Thank-you all for your questions. And thank-you, Velocity Press, for allowing us this opportunity to air our views.

*****************************************************************

[See also this BBC note on Christian atheism.]

"Positive Atheism " described here.