Welcome to the Temple!

Or the virtual temple, anyway.  You see, the Lake Area Humanist Temple doesn't quite exist.  Not yet, anyway.  The temple exists as a thought experiment, though if there is enough interest it, or something like it, may exist in a more tangible form. But, what inspires this project?

For millennia, people have appealed to the gods for various reasons.  These include protection, victory, provision and many others.  But, one of the most important aspects of the gods was systematized codes of what constitutes correct behavior and belief regarding morality and the nature and origin of the Universe.  We often refer to this belief system as religion.

 Such systematized codes, religions, fulfilled very similar purposes even while they diverged wildly in their factual claims, central characters and promoted values.  Christians maintain that there is only one god that ultimately holds all power in the cosmos, all lesser beings ruling or even existing at his pleasure.  Some Buddhists hold that many echelons of intelligent beings exist in the materiel or spiritual planes and that through achieving various states of enlightenment or successive reincarnations, people can become devas, demons or godlike.  Many doctrines promise immortality to mortals while Norse pagans foresaw Ragnarok as the end of days in which even the gods would be destroyed.

Despite the immense variety of doctrines, religions as institutions filled many of the same roles in society.  Christian and Buddhist monasteries functioned as repositories of historical knowledge and philosophical thought.  Universities were founded by the coffers of Muslim kings to study not only scripture, but a vast spectrum of academic disciplines.  The gods and titans of Greece and Rome (or at least mortals' perceptions of them) had a profound impact on culture, art, politics and history.  And the dogma of the various faiths provided the masses with comfort, a moral guide and explanations (varying in degree of accuracy) for natural phenomena.

There is another tradition, however.  Perhaps as long as people have spoken of the gods, some have questioned even their existence.  Philosophers have speculated on and argued about the nature of beauty, morality, existence and thought for thousands of years.  They sought purpose in life through pleasure, suffering, mathematics, benevolence, self-sufficiency, community and other attitudes, institutions and cognitive edifices.  Some were near hermits or itinerant preachers of their philosophy, while others corresponded at length or lived in communities.

In this age Freethinkers, atheists, agnostics, Unitarians and Humanists continue in this tradition of skepticism and typically meet and communicate via the Internet. Though it seems to some as if their only commonality is rejection of the gods, the real common ground is their reliance on reason.  Some doubt the existence of the gods, others refuse to pass judgement, while others still are absolutely sure that the gods are a fiction.  But, nearly all rely on observable evidence and the operation of logic as their methodology for reaching a conclusion about truth claims.

Though a commonality, this is a very broad value.  But, what if other common ground could be found in a sub-set of this community?  What if a number of individuals agreed on the basis for not just factual discovery, but a foundation for ethics?  What if they decided to pool resources, organize and form an entity to attend to charity, emotional needs, community service and ceremonial functions marking important life events like marriages, births and deaths?  A church.

This is the purpose of this blog.  To speculate on and discuss what such a church would be like.  How would it be organized?  How would it be governed?  What would it do in the community?  Is it appropriate to call it a church at all?  I hope you join me in the dialogue as we seek answers to these and the numerous other questions that are sure to be revealed.

Feel free to comment directly in this blog or email me at jason.c.lebrun@gmail.com.

Here is an event taking place in Baton Rouge that fits the theme perfectly.  Though this blog was in the making before I had heard of it, it did catalyze my writing a bit and I know Jerry personally!