Last night I became an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church. Surprise! Yes, I am still an Atheist. In fact, my atheism is what lead me to do this. I was watching a YouTube clip from "The Atheist Experience" TV show that airs here in Austin, and one of the hosts, Matt Dillahunty, said that he was also an ordained minister. He said that he took a few moments and signed up online. This idea intrigued me, so after watching the clip I went to the web site for the Universal Life Church and became ordained. All I had to do was enter my legal name, address, and e-mail address and abracadabra I became ordained. Easy as cake (Carlin fans will understand that). Now, you may be asking yourself why I wanted to do this. Well, I find the whole idea rather amusing. The idea that someone like myself can become a real ordained minister over the Internet further proves to me that this whole religion thing is just plain silly. The Universal Life Church issues ordinations based on the belief that all people are already ordained by god and that the church is simply recognizing this fact. So, if we're arguing that a god does exist, then even someone like me is capable of being a minister. If any of you out there need someone to officiate at a wedding, funeral, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, etc. you know who to contact.
I considered doing this once. I was doing it more so that I could have fun referring to myself as a minister then anything else, but I was a bit concerned by the process. These are people who are functionally just giving you a picture, and in return will take your various identification data and do who knows what with it.
ReplyDeleteBut if this particular internet anointing service is tied to an actual church that you know of I may consider this again.
The Universal Life Church is a real church. They claim to have over 4 million members.
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