Let’s find out why Shawn created a book and a website named Outside of Time and Space: Where God Might or Might Not Reside
Shawn, are you a Christian?
For most of my life, I was. I was not raised in any particular faith or religion. I was raised alone by my mother but before I was born, my father told my mom that he would prefer if I was raised in no particular religion (she was Catholic and I am not sure about him as his mom was Jewish and his father was German and they had fled Germany right before WWII and I never ever met him) and to let me decide after I was old enough what faith to select. And so I did. I asked Jesus into my heart when I was 13. I had a born-again experience. I have been a Protestant (Charismatic-Pentecostal) and a Roman Catholic (Western Rite). There were times when I was not attending church but I never stopped being a Christian or adopted some other religion.
I now classify myself as an Agnostic-Atheist as of 2022. Let me explain. I do not believe in any of man’s concepts of God and of course, that means all the Abrahamic faiths. Like Einstein, I do not believe in a personal God. I do not believe that God has communicated with humans because I see no actual evidence of it. The sacred scriptures that mankind esteems do not agree with each other. That being said, I am an empiricist, naturalist, secular humanist, and scientist. I am open to any real evidence of a God that may be presented to me. I am not a hard atheist. I have not visited all of space and time, possible multiverses, or different dimensions. Could God have created the Big Bang? It is possible. Could God exist somewhere outside of time and space? It is possible. That is why I have named my website Outside of Time and Space: Where God Might or Might Not Reside and it will also be the name of my book when it is published. The book will be a clone of this site. My chapter called FAITH will provide more details on my faith!
Shawn, do you believe Jesus existed?
I am not a mythicist and therefore I believe, as do most historians, that Jesus existed, especially based on the Roman historians Tacitus and Josephus.
Shawn, do you hate God?
No! I don’t believe God exists so how could I hate Him/Her/It? However, I am inspired by many of the teachings of Jesus and other religious teachings such as those found in Buddhism, Judaism, Sikhism, and Catholicism. Life is not black and white, it is full of shades of gray. Positive messages can be found in many places. For example, I have been inspired by martyrs for their faith even if I don’t subscribe to their faith. One of the chapters in this book (EARTH) tells the story of a Catholic martyr and Saint.
Shawn, if you don’t believe in God, what keeps you from raping and killing?
The short answer is that I am not a rapist or murderer! I was in a Clubhouse (social media platform) room when a Christian from India asked the same question of the atheist moderating the room. The atheist replied as I have here but added that if the Christians’ faith in God was the only thing keeping him from raping and murdering, then he should definitely not give up his faith! Basically, most humans are altruistic. “Helping others, especially those less fortunate than yourself, can help put things into perspective and make you feel more positive. There is some evidence that being aware of your own acts of kindness and the things you are grateful for can increase feelings of happiness, optimism, and satisfaction.” This is much of what Jesus taught, is it not? Most humans want food, water, shelter, sex, satisfying work, time to relax, and peace with other humans. They want their families to be safe and have food and shelter. They want their families to be protected and at peace with each other. Most humans do not wish to be in constant conflict with others. Most humans do not want to incur fines, lose their freedom by being sent to jail or prison, or have their life forfeited. But there are some that don’t act like most humans. Whether it is because of their environment, their heredity, their abnormal brain chemistry, or their hormones. This is why societies create rules. This is why humans create ethics and values. And what happens to those people who do not follow these rules? There is the enforced justice of the rules that man makes. Man is aware of what lurks in our brains and what good and evil we can produce. History shows this all too well. Laws and limits are established and enforced. All is not black or white. Life is full of varying degrees of grayness. In conclusion, society does not need to have a presupposed God and the accompanying supposed sacred scriptures in order to establish individual rules or the idea of the rule of law. Secular societies exist just fine and in many cases are better than supposed Theocratic forms of government.
Shawn, do you believe in life after death?
That would be great, like icing on the cake of life, but at this time I have seen no evidence for it.
Shawn, what do you think about the Bible?
That is a great question. I am glad you asked. You are a man after my own heart! So it is pretty obvious that humans wrote the Bible only after hearing oral stories passed down for years, generations, or even decades. Pieces of these writings have been found in various fragments, yet no two are exactly identical. Other humans later translated it from Hebrew and Greek into other languages such as English. And yet still other humans interpreted the meaning of the verse or verses sometimes using the methods of Biblical exegesis and hermeneutics, sometimes at only the direction of their religious leaders and yet more often by just using their own suspect methodology under the guise of Sola Scriptura.
In the end, we are left with many contradictions between various verses in the Bible. If Christians say the Bible is the word of God (or Jews with the Torah or Muslims with the Quran) then that obviously would imply that all other sacred scriptures or sacred writings of humans must necessarily be false. As of 2020, Christianity represents 31.1% of world religions. It is odd to me that a God that is loving of ALL His most advanced species would not send some miraculous non-contestable message to Earth informing the other devout religions in the world that only the Christian Bible is His Word.
We also see various stories in the Bible that cannot be collaborated externally with history and archaeology such as the worldwide flood of Noah and the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Even the Genesis creation stories of Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 do not agree but can also be seen to historically borrow from the Babylonian creation myth which borrows from the Sumerian creation myth. Surely the God that is believed to have created the heavens and the earth and is believed to not be the author of confusion and is believed to be the same yesterday, today, and forever could do a better job of educating His creation, of ending humanity’s confusion on which are His sacred texts and thus required laws and precepts?
Why would a loving and compassionate God not show us His love and compassion and immediately put an end to evil in the world now rather than later? How could the omniscient and omnipotent God that supposedly created the heavens and the earth be so poor at marketing, communication, and sales? How could this God be so confusing even to His own followers which results in their continuing conflicting traditions, beliefs, and dogma? It would seem this is a God that is hidden and distant seeming only to survive in people’s beliefs and not in actual reality.
Shawn, why did you leave Protestantism for Catholicism?
Oh, that is an easy answer: A lifelong study of Christian Church history, especially early church history. Furthermore, my Biblical studies resulted in no longer believing in the doctrine of Sola Scriptura. On that topic, I find most Protestants don’t even know how they got their New Testament and Old Testament canons, or which church preserved and copied Old Testament and New Testament manuscripts for over a thousand years until the printing press. That is simply amazing to me! At the time, I was looking for the historical and thus authoritative and most original Christian Church. By the way, I took the required Catholic RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) class for one year. Afterward, I decided I still needed to take it again before I could convert. So wishing to not be in error, and being somewhat a student of history, it was the right thing to do. Given those same circumstances and understanding I had at that time in my life, I would surely do it again. Like many other humans, my life has contained a search for spiritual truth.
Shawn, is it true you once were a street preacher?
Well, yes, occasionally in 1984-1985. Of course, I was not ordained and did not get paid. I was involved with SOS Ministries of San Francisco, which was started by Larry Rosenbaum. I would go up to their meetings on Saturday evenings and after prayer, we would all go out and pass out tracts. Some would bring a guitar and sing or worship and sometimes others would use a loudspeaker and preach a salvation message to the local inhabitants and tourists. We would visit Fisherman’s Wharf (lots of tourists), Powell Street Cable Car area (tourists), the Castro District (gay area of town), the Tenderloin (drug use, homelessness, and crime), etc. You can see examples on their web page at: http://www.sosmin.com/ We had few converts and often non-believers would argue with us. At one point in my life, I even considered going into full-time ministry so that I could reach the ‘lost.’
During one visit to the Castro District an angry gay person responded by spitting in my face. This was in 1985 before there was any type of treatment for AIDS. We obviously were the focal point of his anger, hurt, and fear. “The global epidemic of HIV/AIDS began in 1981, and is an ongoing worldwide public health issue. According to the World Health Organization, as of 2021, HIV/AIDS has killed approximately 40.1 million people, and approximately 38.4 million people are infected with HIV globally. According to giliadhiv.com: “In 2021, AIDS turned 40 while the world was immersed in another pandemic. It helped shed light on the tremendous scientific progress we made in understanding, treating, and preventing HIV. A virus that was once a death sentence is now a chronic manageable condition. While there is no cure, with care and treatment as directed by a healthcare provider, people living with HIV can live longer, healthier lives. Now we must all focus our attention on reducing HIV discrimination and disparities and helping break the barriers to equitable care so that those most in need have access to these advancements in prevention and care.” I am thankful for the medical community and science that has helped to fight this pandemic. I am especially thankful to Dr. Fauci, yes that Dr. Fauci, because “As an HIV/AIDS researcher he was involved in the scientific effort since AIDS was recognized in 1981, conducting pivotal studies that underpin the current understanding of the disease and efforts to develop therapies and tools of prevention.” and “Dr. Fauci made seminal contributions to the understanding of how HIV destroys the body’s defenses leading to its susceptibility to deadly infections. Further, he was instrumental in developing treatments that enable people with HIV to live long and active lives.”-NIAID
Once when we were at Fisherman’s Wharf some United Pentecostal Church members came to try to convert us to their doctrines, as we were closest to their belief system. They wanted to make sure we had been baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. Otherwise according to their belief system, we were not saved, not real Christians, and would spend eternity in a lake of fire along with all heathens. They did not seem to care about those we were trying to reach. I was amazed at these Christians for disrupting our evangelistic efforts. What I did not appreciate at the time was they were there to help save us while we were there to help save non-Christians. Christian beliefs can be complicated, confusing, and contradictory!
My ex-wife Sheryl joined me often on these weekend SOS efforts and after we were married at Foothill Christian Center in Los Altos, California, and after she became pregnant, we moved into the SOS House in the Mission District (located on the worst street in San Francisco per the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper at the time) and lived there for 6 months. All these changes were a bit much for her and she hated living in this communal environment while being pregnant. Can you find us in a couple of these pictures? Hint: We looked younger back then! https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMrn5fKibYOkeeiPYqB_ObSlWt_1JtvMvIYQqO1Tgz2neYPvmYnFjFV8mNYZFjO1Q?pli=1&key=bER3RWZfTzZaMVZ3RVlRT3RzdWVaMnJwVm5QRERR
Shawn, were you once pro-life?
Yes, I was. I was in Operation Rescue and was once arrested (my only arrest) for blocking an abortion clinic entrance in Fresno, California. I also participated in public protests with both Protestant and Catholic groups near abortion clinics. For many years I was not involved with politics and automatically voted Republican simply because they were anti-abortion (yet not realizing they were not truly pro-life!)
Shawn, who is your target audience for the ABORTION page?
My target audience is Biblical fundamentalists who are anti-choice. This would include most Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Apostolics, Seventh-Day Adventists, Seventh-Day Baptists, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc. By the way, most of these are anti-choice, anti-women’s choice, because of how they have been incorrectly taught, and to some extent even brainwashed.
Shawn, why did you write the ABORTION page?
1) I wanted to show that the Bible is not anti-choice and that the very concept of God that the people listed above believe in would be *Himself* responsible for killing fetuses, babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, and yes, even adults (yes, that was sarcasm). It is hypocritical to condemn women for wishing to terminate their pregnancy (most often because of financial or emotional issues) yet somehow believe it is ok for their God to kill fetuses, babies, infants, adults, and even household pets (all documented in the Bible.) How can they justify this? This is so hypocritical.
2) I wanted to show that it was understood that in ancient Israel there was a life process of a) impregnation, b) (fetal) growth, and c) birth (now called a baby) and that even according to the Bible they follow, the breath of life begins at birth.
3) I wanted to show that it was not even a topic that Jesus or the writers of the New Testament cared to mention. Jesus knew about abortion in his day and what Jews believed, yet he never once mentioned it or tried to change their understanding.
4) I wanted to show that elevating this pro-life, anti-abortion belief above other issues, to the point of determining which American political party one votes for is ridiculous and often would/will violate other Biblical topics and principles that ARE mentioned in the Bible such as immigration, materialism, health care, personal safety, taking care of widows, wise financial investment, caring for ones employees, being good stewards of the earth and animals, war, etc.
5) And finally, I wanted to show that most American Evangelicals were not against legalized abortion before 1979 when the Moral Majority/Republican party made a pact with Evangelicals in order to get their financial and voting support. Please read this for more background info on this topic: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52097ce4e4b0cc1763c7be8c/t/5f6920fdb30f072b0589d22d/1600725289051/I+Was+An+Anti-Abortion+Leader+On+The+Religious+Right%3A+I%E2%80%99m+Pro-Choice+Now.pdf
Shawn, are you against all religions or having any faith in the supernatural?
That is a logical question to ask. My answer is NO. Faith can bring peace to many. It is indeed a wonderful feeling to go to sleep believing that you are at one with the Creator of the universe and that ‘should you die before you wake’ your sky daddy and friend will usher you into eternal bliss where you will never, ever, ever die! Faith and belief can be used for good and evil purposes. We see both positive and negatives from faith and belief over the centuries. Many, but not all wars, have been fought over religious beliefs. I personally believe that in the macroevolution of the Homo sapiens brain there evolved a need to answer questions such as: Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? What are we to do while we are alive? What happens after death? Will I meet dead relatives and friends after I die? How can we somehow live forever after our life on earth? What gives purpose and meaning to our life? Why do some people live for only a short time while others live long lives? How are humans supposed to curtail some of their natural desires that may infringe on others such as in the areas of sex or material possessions? Are there right and wrong ways to live? Did this Supernatural Entity inspire humans to write sacred scripture? If yes, how would humans know which ‘sacred scripture’ is Sacred Scripture? Are there right and wrong ways to believe? Why is there suffering and pain in this world? Why does a Supernatural Entity allow evil in the world to continue? Is there meaning when others die in natural disasters such as storms, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, etc. that cannot be prevented? What is reality? What is consciousness? Are some sexual desires and actions wrong? Did something supernatural create everything? Can we know this supernatural entity? How does this supernatural entity communicate to mankind? Can this supernatural entity somehow give us eternal life? If so, what must we do to gain His/Her/It’s favor so we will have eternal life? Should this supernatural entity rule mankind’s governments? If so, how exactly would that work? Does this supernatural entity have moral rules for humans to follow? Does a supernatural entity have ethics and values that societies should follow? How many supernatural entities are there? Do these supernatural entities fight each other? Shouldn’t humans follow the most powerful supernatural entity? Do humans ascribe human emotions to these supernatural entities? Can these supernatural entities change world events? Do these supernatural entities know the future? Do these supernatural entities take the sides of one tribal group over the others? If one prays to one of these entities and their child or loved one is not healed, is it because the person that is praying to the supernatural entity is not good enough to be asking or does not have enough faith or should not be asking for healing in the first place or that the supernatural entity is mad at the ill person or that the supernatural entity is not even listening to the prayers? etc., etc., etc.
Shawn, could you be wrong in your beliefs?
Certainly! But I would then ask you, might you be wrong in your beliefs? Feel free to prove me wrong. But bring real data, logic, and historical facts. Don’t just quote me verses from texts you believe to be sacred. That is just circular reasoning. Don’t just tell me about your experience and your certainty because I can then present to you many other wonderful people who are equally devout (or maybe even more than you.) These individuals are well meaning yet have many different faith beliefs than you. They are just as adamant as you are that they are now in a personal relationship with God (or even Gods!) and have found the truth!
Please note I always enjoy discussing religion, politics, and sex, but not so much rock ‘n roll music. 😉
That being said, to my dear theist believer friends who are open-minded I ask you the following questions:
Biblical Contradictions
Objective Morality
https://divineatheist.quora.com/If-someone-is-atheist-what-gives-them-the-right-to-force-their-moral-opinion-on-me-and-others-when-they-lack-any-object
If someone is atheist, what gives them the right to enforce their moral opinion on me when there is no objective morality and I can treat people however I want?
“I can treat people however I want”?
“So, how’s that work out for you? Hmm?
If you treat people with respect and kindness, they are less likely to kick your ass, might invite you for BBQ, and not steal your stuff. Do the reverse and get the reverse.
When someone is doing shitty things, the group gets together and deals with them. That goes for chimps, wolves, other social creatures.
So, it has nothing to do with “Atheist”, it has to do with what group-dwelling social species have evolved because it improves success rate.
OTOH, demonstrate that there is objective morality under your model?
This will be fun. BTW, you will have to do better than to claim that you are telling us what some god-thing says is moral. How do you know the god-thing, or its commands are moral?
Might makes right isn’t a moral model. Following instructions isn’t morality, it’s just like the dog which is trained not to get onto the couch, not morality- training.
In addition, every Theist is full of “what god-thing says” but I’ve not heard a damn thing from any god, just people preaching. The fact that they preach different and often contradictory things blows them out of the water for even claiming that they are repeating what their immoral god-thing says.”
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