Randall Twehous: Art expands ones ability to create options. Look at the following concept born out of a conflation between art and real life:Avant Garde/Dada Atheism is (sort of?) as follows:Many "churches" and "religious" movements such as The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster satire religion by creating a parody religion. Mrdeity.com satires Christianity itself. However, that satire ends at the conceptual level on the internets stage. The Church of Atheism continues the satire by having incorporated the church with the state of Wisconsin and pushes the concept into a paradoxically actual religion - as "actual" as any religion can be. Simply because you have said there is a place for non-believers where you will burn in hell or the beer will always be flat, does not make it true. Nor does having a legal status as a religion, make it true. There is no true religion. All religions are equally false and absurd. Every religious title and ritual has been made up, no ma! tter if it is the ridiculous Christian churches or the Avant Garde Atheist churches such as the Invisible Pink Unicorn religion, or the First Church of Atheism.(It reminds me of Brancusi ‘s sculptures. He was a foreign sculptor who was forced to pay tax on his art even though art is tax exempt. He wound up in a court battle, after which the court ruled that his sculptures were art. When that happened, art exhibits that had previously rejected his sculptures, suddenly regarded his art as art and wanted his sculptures. In effect, the courts determined what was art and what was not. Incorporating an Avant Garde Atheist religion as a legal religion just continues the satire of the "authority" systems which define for us what is a religion, art, or what is true and pushes it into a paradox. Similarly, Michael Duchamp’s dadaism challenged us all with the question “What is art?†when his piece became the first to be rejected by the Society of Independent Artists. What he s! ubmitted was a signed urinal. The next day the news papers pub! lished the scandal on the front page and his “art†became highly demanded. He then underwent mass “production†of signed urinals. A signed urinal today could fetch around a million dollars.)So like Michael Duchamp’s urinal challenged us to question what art was, Avante Garde Atheism challenges us to question what religion is. Pure Avante Garde Atheism, however, pushes past mere parody into a actualized religious status both in an actual definition and a legal definition. The Church of Atheism in Eau Claire is legally incorporated in the State of Wisconsin and holds that all people have a religion as outlined below:Religion, in its most basic, is the answering of the "big questions" such as 1.) Where did we come from 2.) Where are we going? 3.) Is there an unchanging aspect of individuals? 4.) How should we live our lives?Every thinking person has an answer for the Big Questions whether the answer is "I don't know," "Goddidit," or "The Big Bang," etc. Therefore, ev! ery person has a religion.A religion need not be shared by any other person, believe in a god, or believe in the supernatural to exist. A religion need not, and cannot, represent all of the actual beliefs of its adherents. All rituals, titles, and religious organizations are made up. It stands to reason that Atheism can create equally valid (for none are valid) aspects of organization, if they choose to create a church such as the Church of Atheism....Show more
Sharron Salin: Imho, you have to separate 'organised' religion from true religion, which is essentially a spiritual phenomenon. All religions have been hijacked by people with an agenda. I was once in a little Greek Orthodox church on top of a hill in Cyprus. I sat at the back (which wasn't far from the front - it was a small, round building) and over an hour or so watched a procession of people come in, cross themselves, light a candle, say a little prayer and leave. They were the poor people from the local vi! llage. That day, I learned what religion really is....Show more
