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Religion and spirituality . . .
Atheist View
by Kelly Freeman as Autumn Cassavetes
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During my journey searching for information on religion and spirituality in SL I met someone I now consider a good friend on SL. I randomly met her at a Jesus’ Place. She too, was researching religion, maybe not for a class but for her own sake.
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I immediately felt myself drawn to her openness and willingness to help and speak with others.
She considers herself an atheist even though she grew up a “staunch” Baptist.
“Atheism comes in some different flavors with some subtle but important differences. I'm what you'd call a weak atheist, someone who doesn't believe in deities because I have yet to fins compelling evidence to do so. Mine is a withholding of belief rather than an active assertion that deities do not exist (which is 'strong atheism')" Terpischorde Dix says. |
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Terpischorde Dix is often seen conversing at Jesus House. |
Dix is dressed in a black leather half jacket with a black cropped top and jeans emblazoned in butterflies, but what really stands out is her “furriness.”
However, she prefers to be called a Sabertooth. What really stands out are the glasses that rest on her nose. They are lifted directly from the Spider Jerusalem character in“Transmetropolitan,” a Garth Ennis graphic novel, Spider Jerusalem is a curmudgeon of a journalist who brings a president down.
She goes around searching different religions and spiritualities in a sense to understand others and perhaps, to understand herself better.
“Exploring beliefs is important to me, I think everyone should look at what the people around them believe, with an open mind, just to listen and see if they can understand. Not agree, that’s too much to ask but at least take the time to know where the other gal is coming from,” she continues.
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“So much strife and division could be avoided just by taking the time to do that, people wouldn’t be so quick to label whole swaths of humanity “evil” if they just, talked. And discussed what they believed was right and wrong. It’s hard to hate someone you actually understand,”
“I tend to be a rationalist by nature, with high opinion of the scientific method and the disciplined thinking of science.....but there are areas science cannot fundamentally address, at least not in this day and age, such as the big questions of "Why?" and "Are we here for a reason?"
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Terpischorde Dix talks with Autumn at her molehole.
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Those questions fall strictly in the purvue of philosophy and religion, where we don't have any rigorous tools to tell truth from fantasy.....in short, we're all feeling our way in the dark when it comes to such matters.
And because we're finding our way by feel alone, it makes sense to me to talk to as many people I can about what they sense of the answer....in the story of the blind men describing an elephant, I'm the one going 'Joe....you say you felt something snaky, Rebecca, a rope, David a tree, and Kiatsu a wall.....what does it all mean when you put it together?" Dix says.
Dix looks everywhere to the answers.
She believes SL is a useful tool when it comes to this aspect because it permits people from all over the world to network which makes accumulating views other than one’s own a bit easier.
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“Atheists are the single most mistrusted group of people in th US according to recent Gallup Poles. It is unlikely in the extreme for an atheist who is open about their lack of belief to be elected to public office, for instance.” Dix explains.
As we chat we sit within what she calls her “molehole” which is a small one roomed “haven” Dix can come and chat or come collect her thoughts. She is in the middle of furnishing the moss-covered home.
“It’s sort of a chance to express a bit of myself here in SL. It’s small and cozy and humble, and well grounded and earthy, the things I aspire to be.” She says with a smile.
She took me on a tour of the Universal Unitarians of SL place and says that she spends a lot of time there because they share the view that religions are to be explored and you can find wisdom and truth in all religious customs.
“I’m hoping that if I handle myself well, if I make it clear that I am a moral, ethical, and caring being and also an atheist, that’ll do something to help remove some of the bad rep. It's an attempt to wrest meaning from my life, or partly so, because in the end, at least it appears to me, life only has the meaning we give it.”
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