My religious Odyssey began at the age of ten at Hebrew school where I was learning the "aleph, beth, gimel, daleth" (for you heathens that is the Hebrew a, b ,c, d…) . It was late in December and as I left, being imbued with the spirit of the season, I happily said "Merry Christmas, Rabbi." Despite his frozen look I continued to my Bar Mitzvah at which time I was rewarded with the customary fountain pen. It was a highly prized Parker with real ink that leaked onto my white shirt.
About 1930 I was greatly influenced by Clarence Darrow’s autobiography. In particular it was the chapter on the Scopes trial concerning the teaching of evolution in Tennessee. For his unrelenting questioning of the myths in the Bible Darrow was denounced by the religious right as the "great agnostic." His passionate reasoning convinced me. I became an agnostic.
The carnage of WW ll and the Holocaust erased any lingering doubts that there could be a loving God. I neither believed in the Messiah nor Santa Claus. I took my stand firmly as an atheist.
After the war, in which I served as a Naval officer, I was attracted to A. Powell Davies of the All Souls Unitarian Church because of his unflinching attacks on Senator Joseph McCarthy. It was my introduction to Unitarians.
It is said that Unitarians are atheists with children. That was true for me. First we joined the Arlington Unitarian Church and then, forty two years ago, transferred to the Mt. Vernon Unitarian Church. Here I found other atheists as well as a spirit of mutual acceptance with those that did believe. An article by Dr. Dennet of Tufts University that was recently published in the New York Times was another epiphany. In it he writes of a new association on the internet called Brights. Just as George W. uses the phrase "faith based" when he really means religion, Brights is a name adopted to cover humanists, secularists, free thinkers, agnostics and atheists. Brights are those who have a naturalistic view of the world in contrast to the supernatural. They share a disbelief in black magic and life after death. Its purpose is both social and political . Dr. Dennet urges that we each stand up and be counted. I did. If you recognize that Brights reflects your own views and want to learn more about it please visit http://www.the-brights.net/ on the internet.
From Hebrew child to agnostic to Unitarian/atheist to internet Bright, my religious Odyssey has taken twice the forty years of wandering through the desert attributed to my mythical ancestor, Moses.