I’m a spiritual atheist which means I care about the soul, rejoice in the diversity of the natural and human worlds, but don’t take comfort in projecting a father or mother figure or supreme consciousness onto all things. Even if I were in my last moments I would find no peace in knowing God was waiting for me because in my world this would mean ‘a psychological projection of mine – the teller- will await your soul after death’. This means little to me except that the person doing the telling felt afraid of death being the end of my animal life in and through my body and required a more comfortable way of rationalising my ending.

And why put their psychological struggle onto me, especially on my way out. I’d much prefer to hear an affirmation that I had given more than I took, that my time in this body had been useful, that my spirit touched and enriched the lives of others and will live on in the nostalgic inner worlds of those who loved and valued me after I’m gone. To me, this is the only heaven I’m fairly certain might have a space for me and I’m comfortable with that and need no grandiose beliefs that inflate my worth to any God.

We are facing many many challenges; global poverty, AIDS, wars, the horrendous disadvantages in many remote Indigenous communities, lack of services for those with disabilities, the destruction of rainforests, the progressive extinction of endangered species, the shocking prospects of global warming for all of our countries…. So what is our archaic right wing prime minister planning this week to spend 90 million dollars on? He wants to install chaplains in all our government schools with the faith to be nominated by the social majority associated with those schools and the government maintaining a right to withhold funding where it disliked the choices these school communities make.

Mr Howard had the audacity to claim that all people gain solace from consulting chaplains, including those without religion. Was he refering to spiritual atheists? He assumed we’d all like to be reassured God loves us when facing extreme crises.

I remember when we had religion taught in our primary school in the 1970s. I was about 11 and tried to believe in Jesus and hoped this ghost of a dead Jewish son of a royal family almost 2 thousand years ago might help stop the sickness of child abuse, alcoholism and the torture and killing of animals in our house. But, alas, this ghost did nothing. Perhaps I needed some water splashed on my head by someone who’d climbed the heirachy in a place that passed money bowls and adorned the room with golden ornamentation. So when I was in my 20s, I drank out of a big cement bird bath thingy in a Paris church. It had a dead moth floating in it but maybe he’d gone to be with God, I don’t know. But nothing changed. It was just water.

I’m sure there’s some very nice chaplains but if they care about the world, this planet and Australia in some lasting way, perhaps they’d like to waive the $20,000 schools would win for appointing them and recommend that these funds go towards something more spiritual and lasting than spreading religion among impressionable minds before they fully understand choice. After all, schools already have highly trained, impartial counselors. They could decide to leave it to the professionals.

… Donna Williams

http://www.donnawilliams.net