Week in Review (September 23-29)

The Churchianity Problem, Charles Darwin Lies, Moving to an Island, and the Antidote for Everything

Next week we are loading up our trailer and two dogs, and off for a six-month adventure, living on an island of British Columbia. Thetis Island, population 350, is two miles wide and three miles long. Driving to Seattle and a couple ferry rides will get us there. We will be renting a small furnished home on the island from a retired couple who will be traveling to the US for six months, and we are renting our home while we are gone.

Both of us being self-employed trying to make ends meet, we are not the types who casually jet-set to exotic islands around the world just because we can. But for some time we have been contemplating living abroad if it was affordable. I have a couple significant writing projects to complete and my wife, Amy, has a doctoral dissertation to finish. Meanwhile,

Kirsten Powers

had published an article about her decision to leave the US to live in Italy, which she recently did, which gave us a little push.

In addition to writing, we will be doing a lot of kayaking and fishing. Sea creatures near Thetis include orcas. We will also be taking our turn as volunteer librarians at the community library. Every Wednesday the island folk gather for soup in the community center. There is an active craft and visual arts scene on Thetis. There is a coffee shop and pizza place on the island. Phew!

I look forward to possibly getting back into art during our time on Thetis. I play around with abstract art on the side. Here are a few of my acrylics on canvas:

My abstract art - acrylic on canvas

There is a nearby Bible school and conference center, which makes me slightly nervous. I wonder if I should tell them about the work I do as the founder of the Center for Non-Religious Spirituality. I might be in trouble if the Bible camp leaders discover my Amazon page and find books with titles that include “Shedding Religion to Find God” and “Dethroning God and Jesus to Save Ourselves and the World”. I’m definitely not going to be sharing my Substack articles on “Christian Atheism” and “Death of God Theology”. It’s doubtful that I’ll be leading a religious trauma seminar there. I don’t want the dubious distinction of being the first heretic burned at the stake on Thetis Island!

Which begs the question that if I wanted to conceal this part of my identity, what vocation should I choose. This crosses my mind every time I get a hair cut. When it comes to cutting my hair, it’s usually an impromptu decision and I typically choose the closest location to wherever I happen to be at the time. This means a different hair stylist each time. As a random patron at a hair salon you can be anyone you want. Inevitably the question comes, “So, what do you do?” For me, there’s no good way to answer that question (“author”, “professor”, “counselor”, etc.) without opening a can of worms, which prompts follow-up questions with more cans and more worms.

Inventing a new occupation could be tricky on Thetis Island. If I say I’m a professional bowler, it will be my luck that the island has a bowling alley… with a league… and want me to join. If I claimed to be an Acupuncturist, what happens if someone shows up at our front door with wanting a treatment? Would quilting needles work? Don’t ask me! Or, if I tell people I’m a musician, what happens when people discover that I cannot hold a tune and I only know how to play a plastic recorder… and only “Mary Had a Little Lamb”… more or less.

Okay, I’ll stop there. I’m just being nutty. The truth is that British Columbia is a diverse, cosmopolitan and progressive province. British Columbia’s culture combines a unique mix of European, Asian, and First Nations influences. Thetis Island is the traditional territory of the Punelexutth (Penelakut) First Nation, and remnants of their villages, clam gardens, and burial grounds can still be found. Thetis Island residents are known for being friendly and welcoming, and for offering greetings to strangers.

Thetis Island residents share some common characteristics with other rural islands in British Columbia, including ferry service and island life. I’m super excited about learning more about the work of the Thetis Island Nature Conservatory. In addition to this being a six-month writing sabbatical, we want to immerse ourselves into a different culture and way of life.

We look forward to all we will learn and gain from our friendships and experiences, living on Thetis Island. As far as that Bible camp, I’m sure there is much to learn from their perspectives on Christian spirituality. In British Columbia, 34.3% of the population report a Christian religion, 52.1% reported having no religious affiliation or a secular perspective and 13.7% reported another religious affiliation.

I’ll keep you posted on our travels and our adventure on Thetis Island.

This Week in Writing

This week I published two articles on Substack, the first article was: Confessions of an Ex-Megapastor: Behind the Curtain of Organized Church (When Church is bad for your mental health). In the article I discuss:

• My mistakes and regrets as a megachurch pastor

• How churches become toxic and bad for your mental health

• The fundamental flaws of 501(c)(3) Churchianity

• Jesus as a church consultant

• The current clergy mental health crisis

My second article was Part Two of my new series, “The Case for Unifying Science and Religion”. Last week’s Part One is titled, WWSD? What Would (Carl) Sagan Do? In that article I discuss:

• Why Carl Sagan is the patron saint of reconciling the schism between science and religion

• The three mistakes science and religion make when talking past each other

• How a father and daughter’s love proved that science and religion can bury their animosities

• Using Hegel’s dialectic for synthesizing science and spirituality

This week’s article is titled: Can you believe in Darwin and Jesus? Some of the themes I address are:

• Why Jesus would not be a Young Earth Creationist

• Exposing the religious myths and lies about Charles Darwin and Darwinian evolution

• Lessons learned from the leaving-religion and religious deconstruction process of Charles Darwin

• Why Jesus and Charles Darwin would have gotten along just fine

In my exploration of the latest thinking in evolutionary biology and Darwinian evolution, a lot of terms come up that are relevant to the conversation, a few being:

abiogenesis - the natural process by which life arises from non-living matter

complexity science - a scientific method that studies how complex systems change over time, and how self-organization and adaptation shape the structure and function of those systems

emergent properties - characteristics that arise when the parts of a system interact, but are not present in the individual parts themselves

thermodynamic evolution - the concept of viewing biological evolution through the lens of thermodynamics, where the process of natural selection and increasing complexity in living organisms is understood as a natural tendency towards maximizing entropy (disorder) within an open system, driven by the constant flow of energy from the environment

dissipative structures - open systems that constantly exchange energy and matter with their environment

self-organization - refers to the process where complex structures or patterns emerge within a biological system through local interactions between its components, without the need for external control or a master plan, essentially creating order from seemingly random interactions

evolutionary epistemology - a philosophical approach that examines the origin and development of knowledge by applying principles of biological evolution, essentially suggesting that our cognitive abilities and the way we acquire knowledge evolved through natural selection

information theory - evolution as a process where information is flowing from the environment into the genome

phase transitions - a sudden, significant change in a population's characteristics or behavior, often occurring rapidly due to environmental pressures or genetic mutations

causal power - the probability that a cause produces an effect when it's present, which is an essential component to understanding evolution and natural selection, and is inherent to several key evolutionary concepts

evolutionary algorithm - a type of optimization algorithm that is developed by the process of natural evolution, which can be counted on to yield a certain kind of result

autocatalysis - a process that allows a chemical system to quickly self-repair or self-amplify in size and complexity through a series of linked reactions that establish a positive feedback loop

design space - a concept that refers to the environmental constraints that a design must adapt to over time, and is applicable to both natural species and human-made artifacts

An explanation of essential terms that are useful to know related to Darwinian evolution include:

• Natural Selection: The primary mechanism of evolution, where organisms with traits better suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on those beneficial traits to their offspring. 

• Variation: The natural differences that exist within a population of organisms, which are essential for natural selection to occur. 

• Adaptation: A trait that enhances an organism's ability to survive and reproduce in a particular environment. 

• Survival of the Fittest: A phrase often associated with natural selection, meaning that the organisms best adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. 

• Common Descent: The idea that all living organisms share a common ancestor and have evlved over time through branching lineages. 

• Evolution: The process by which populations of organisms change over time through natural selection, leading to the development of new species. 

• Species: A group of organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. 

• Population: A group of individuals of the same species living in a particular area. 

• Mutation: A random change in the genetic code that can introduce new traits into a population. 

• Heredity: The passing of traits from parents to offspring through genes. 

• Descent with Modification: The concept that organisms gradually change over generations, with new species arising from pre-existing ones. 

I know it’s Monday, and slogging through a list of complex scientific terms may not be your idea of a good time, but my studies of evolutionary biology and Darwinian evolution have had a profound impact on my growth as a human being. Many years ago, it was Carl Sagan’s promise of a more profound spirituality that compelled me to explore the natural sciences, and they did not let me down.

I have discovered that the antidote to almost every challenge, opportunity or problem is: Learn new things. In fact, this has been the catalytic energy at the heart of the evolution of all things, especially our species. Acquiring new knowledge is not always easy, and at times can be quite difficult. You don’t have to be a genius or enroll in a PhD program to acquire knowledge. Albert Einstein wrote, “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” A useful book for cultivating a deeper intellectual life is, The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods by A.G. Sertillanges.

My Substack isn’t dedicated to evolutionary biology or Darwinian evolution. I am covering these topics because toxic religion often harms people through fear-mongering, misinformation, and significant deficits in spheres of necessary knowledge. Nowhere is this more true than how toxic religion has prejudiced people against the theory of evolution. I will be addressing this in more detail in Part Three of the Series: “The case for Unifying Science and Religion”.

A few useful books on the evolutionary biology and Darwinian evolution are:

• On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

• The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

• Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett

• I Am A Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter

• The Romance of Reality by Bobby Azarian

• Why Evolution Is True by Jerry A. Coyne

What Subscribers are Saying

Thank you, Jami, for subscribing and recommending my Substack publication! In my recent article Confessions of an Ex-Megapastor, I share some about my crisis of faith that led to my exit from religion and my ministerial career. My first book, Divine Nobodies: Shedding Religion to Find God (and the unlikely people who help you) tells the story of my early religious deconstruction days.

Someone recently asked me what the “turning point” was for me on my spiritual journey. One of them was grasping that “God is love” - stated explicitly in the Bible in 1 John 4:16. That was the first domino that fell that led to my liberation because it removed the element of fear.

Have you ever noticed how much of religion is about fear?

• Fear of judgment and punishment

• Fear of going to hell

• Fear of having wrong theology

• Fear of death

• Fear of not pleasing God

• Fear of missing God’s will

• Fear of not measuring up

• Fear of God’s discipline

• Fear of losing God’s blessing

• Fear of trusting yourself

• Fear of thinking for yourself

• Fear of one’s humanity

• Fear of doubting and disbelief

• Fear of having struggles and hardships

• Fear of questioning authority

• Fear of one’s innermost thoughts and feelings

• Fear of other fields of knowledge

• Fear of people with different beliefs

• Fear of the world

• Fear of being oneself

There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. Religion too often chooses fear. One way religion prevents personal growth, development and self-actualization is by trapping people in a fear mentality.

At the time, this is what “God is love” meant to me. God’s love is not tied to the performance-based system that I learned in religion. God’s love is not a reaction to my actions or beliefs. God’s Love is not a spigot that turns off and on based on the accuracy of my theology, how religious I am, or how far I’ve progressed on my journey. That is why it is UNCONDITIONAL. There is no condition necessary to meet in order to be secure in God’s love. It’s not that God DOES loving things – God IS unconditional Love. We are never going to show up in a moment when this is not so.

God’s love does not fluctuate. It cannot be earned or lost. It is never threatened. God’s unconditional love is available to all people, all the time, everywhere. These realizations were instrumental in the earliest days of my religious deconstruction process. Through the “God is love”-lens, I deconstructed my entire Christian belief-structure, which was based on the false premise of what I call “separation theology” - the idea that we are born into this world separate, separated and estranged from God. This whole belief-system collapsed under the weight of grasping God is love.

I know to some this God-is-love idea may sound a bit juvenile or romantic, but at the time it was profoundly impactful. For me it meant that it was no longer necessary for my life’s journey to be limited or constrained by fear. I didn’t have to constantly be looking over my shoulder, afraid of God’s judgement. Whatever ultimate reality was at the heart of existence, I didn’t need to be afraid of it, but I belonged to it, an expression of it and could work with it, without fear. After discovering “God is love”, I then conjectured that “Love is God”, but that’s another story.

Leaving-Religion Substack Articles of Note

What follows are a few Substack articles that you will particularly find useful if you are someone working through your leaving-religion or religious deconstruction process:

• Matthew Taylor of

  The Bulwark
  published an article titled, How ‘Left Behind’ Got Left Behind, which explores the history and fading of “rapture theology” in Evangelicalism.

• Kirsten Powers
  wrote an article titled, That Time I Accidentally Became an Evangelical Christian and Completely Lost Myself, which includes a discussion about how fewer women than men are being drawn to “traditional” Christianity.

• Christine Greenwald
  wrote a compelling piece, titled, When God is an Abusive Parent: The psychology of religious trauma and the doctrine of hell. I hope every person working through their religious deconstruction process will read this.

This Week in Pictures

I couldn’t help myself. Thanks David Hayward (the “naked pastor”).

A cargo ship sails on the Black Sea during a thunderstorm some 20 nautical miles from Malta. I’m fascinated by what life must be like for those who sail the stormy seas for their occupation. The Black Sea boasts some of the roughest waters globally, characterized by strong currents and unpredictable storms. Its treacherous nature poses a significant challenge for ships

A six-week-old male white rhino calf, covered in mud, stands next to his mother, 32-year-old Donsa, at the Singapore Zoo. World Rhino Day was celebrated on September 22.

It may seem an unlikely career path for a man who once dreamt of being a pastor, but “JonBoy” Valena traded the cassock and rosaries of seminary training for a life at the tattoo gun, at the iconic Bang Bang tattoo parlor in New York.

In Summary

• There are fundamental flaws to 501(c)(3) Churchianity, and most congregations wouldn’t want Jesus as their church consultant.

• I have learned that the antidote to almost every challenge, opportunity or problem is to learn new things.

• Toxic religion is about fear and shame. That might keep people in line on the outside, but can’t liberate anyone on the inside.

• Survivor: Thetis Island begins next week!

• Thanks for subscribing to my Substack and making this possible. If you find what I write and share meaningful, consider becoming a paid subscriber and recommending this publication. Thank you! :)

• If I can’t be a professional bowler, acupuncturist or musician, maybe I’ll claim to be a professional woodworker. On second thought, my final project in high school shop class was to build a bird house, to which Mr. Johnson asked, “What is it?”

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
- Oscar Wilde