The best PR person for the Abrahamic god that I ever met was a believing lay rabbi teaching philosophy classes in a predominantly LDS (called Mormon back then) community.

I delved into ethics, existentialism, epistemology, rationalism and empiricism, logic, religion like a brain starved for wrinkles. The philosophy of religion class with Dr. L left the deepest, most visited wrinkle to date.

I still have my annotated copies of the Tao Te Ching, selections from the Quran, the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Upanishads, the Bhavagita and the Bible. The marginalia expose my budding skepticism and I remember Dr. L’s patience with my semi-formed reductionism and abrupt rejections. God (all of them), to me, was a deadbeat parent, at best.

Dr. L had a presence of peace that I recognized as rare. His inner peace became outer peace in a class of to-the-end belief defenders and rejectors with philosophical minds. I’d call it a miracle of mercy and grace if I believed in miracles. Timing had it that Dr. L held my newborn son while I took my final exam. “This is the Buddha state,” he said as he cradled the sleeping baby. Buddha-baby is now a man and Dr. L is long-retired, but probably remembers everything. He saw right through me, the seeker refusing to find whatever it was I was looking for, and he insisted I self-reflect and think things through to “earn my convictions.” This is the seed that grew into my humanism.

Humans continue to prove inherent creativity and problem-solving ability; that people all over the world can be good with or without gods. There is profound evidence to suggest that people are often better at caring for each other than the God they worship. Until they’re not. Until people turn gods into weapons.

History is drenched with holy wars. Religion is powerfully motivating, carries the danger of fanaticism, and humans do fight over it. Conversely, I’m unable to find evidence of atheists killing anyone in the name of atheism. Not all humanists are atheist but are able to put the welfare of humans as priority over the care and feeding of a supernatural being.

Humanists stand for building a more humane, just, compassionate and democratic society using pragmatic ethics based on human reason, experience and reliable knowledge. Humanist ethics judge the consequences of human actions by the well-being of all life on Earth. War is the antithesis of humanism. Personally, I believe a less superstitious world, one without religious-excused bigotry and apocalyptic thinking, one with greater tethering to this world and to each other would be more just, compassionate, and strangely, more Christ-like.

With the recent holy war in Israel, I thought of this lay rabbi professor of philosophy and sent him a message. I told Dr. L that I landed OK, but I’m still seeking the depth of peace he has, the peace that is a superpower in a world gone violent. Peace as power will make him smile. The man loves a good dichotomy.

#PeaceIsPower

Marugg is a secular humanist seeking peace as power, peace as pro-life and peace as possibilities.