Born again atheism

We've all seen someone get in to dire straits and suddenly -- poof! -- they love Jesus. They emerge a new man, turn their life around, and are reborn. What happens when that happens to someone who happens to not believe in gods? Basically, you get me...

I call it "born again atheism". In my case, I was reborn in love, not to some pretend god or some other being, but reborn to my true self, to live life on my terms, to love freely and deeply and openly, and to damn the consequences!

I've often said that I am my own god. The truth is, we all are. All the things you think about god are just a reflection of how you view yourself, your parents, your role in the world, and even your self-esteem. All the power you give to god, RECLAIM IT! It is yours to use.

Of these powers, the most wonderful is the power to choose love. Every day, with every person you touch, you make a choice: love them -- yes or no? You ask and answer that question a million times a day, every day, from birth to the grave to rebirth and back again. Don't "pray" and leave it up to god to heal or help someone -- open your heart and use that power yourself.

In my life, I took a three step approach to this. First, I eliminated from my life all the negative people. Some of them were family, and some of the rest of the family is not happy about my choice: but again, notice the words -- it is MY choice. I would challenge all my friends to look around your life, make a list of everyone you know, and simply see if the majority of your clan is positive or negative.

I bet, without knowing who your friends/family are, I can tell you after a 5 minute conversation with you whether your circle is positive or negative, because the thoughts and assumptions and roles of the people around us -- conscious and unconscious -- effect and change who we are. Have you ever spent time around an extremely negative person and found yourself developing a bad mood? Same idea.

Second, I made the choice that, regardless of whatever else I do in my life, I would love myself above anyone else. Religious people cannot do this -- they have other obligations to their gods and, depending on their culture, their families. I choose no such entanglements. I love myself above anyone and everyone.

BECAUSE I do that, I am energized and capable of giving more than I otherwise could. If you did this, you would be too.

Thirdly, the people I did keep in my life, and the people I choose to bring into my life, I love them. Not some kind of fake bullshit love. Not love in a generic sense. I love my friends the way you love your brothers and sisters and cousins and aunts. They are as much my family as my traditional family, and in many cases, they are closer to me.

This causes some problems for some people, mostly because I believe LOVE = TRUTH, and i spare no one the indignity of a lie. I am the kick in the ass some people need. I am the phone call that's available at 3 am to talk. I am the calmer of storms and the provoker of rage. Like I said before, take the power you give to god and give it to yourself. If a friend needs redemption, redeem her! If a friend needs forgiveness, be merciful! Or do not -- it is your choice, your life, your power.

You are a god. When you understand how awesome a responsibility that is -- how much power you have to do good in this world, trust me, you will change your life. And you will love, freely, openly, deeply, with a zest and zeal that none can match.

Be the light. Be love. Be a god -- for once you think it, you already are!

Love
john

Rinato Con Amore!

Why a new title?

Why not?

It's italian for Reborn with love...and that is what I am. More on this in a few minutes.

Over time, I am like written Hebrew...

...best understood as moving from right to left.

It's the damndest thing, really. I spent 23 years working on a political world view, weaving in and out of conservative and libertarian arguments. The theory was simple: government power is a necessary evil, tolerated in small, unimportant doses and feared in larger roles. The more power government has, the less freedom we all have, so for almost any political question, the correct answer is "whatever reduces or limits government power".

And then there was Fred. Fred is Erinn's dad. He's a lawyer, which means he's spent the last few decades getting paid to argue. This is good, because when my anxiety doesn't overtake me, I enjoy a little back-and-forth with someone intelligent.

Fred has been a liberal since, well, since "liberal" meant something noble, you know?

So, anyway, we were spending the night at Casa de Foley and the Bill Maher program on HBO turned into a conversation on health care. I was trying to argue what is basically the republican and "moderate" democrat plan -- private insurance as opposed to a government run plan. It goes back to the original point behind my politics: government power is too rich a power to be allowed to control something as precious as our very health, life and death.

And then Fred made this point (and i'm paraphrasing because I didn't think to write it down). Basically, he said that libertarians (the closest thing to my thoughts) mistrusted government consolidation of power but that we had nothing to say about PRIVATE consolidation of power. His thought was that, not only was private power an evil to be reckoned with; it was probably also an evil worse than government power.

I had never thought of it that way. I mean, corporations are generally soulless bastards leeching all that is good from the earth, buying up shares of our democracy while enriching their friends via a pipeline of public money and government-sponsored monopolization...but it never occured to me that they were WORSE than government.

So if you're wondering how the hell I went from Bush apologist to Health Care crusader, now you know why...because of Fred. It's all Fred's damn fault. Haha.