Atheism, Skepticism and Me

Reading through some quotes, I was struck with one about skepticism that sums up, for me, why religion hates science. "Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism." - David Suzuki. Skepticism and rational, non-emotional thinking are the enemies of an institution that expects you to believe everything you are told about or read in 'divine works.' I don't think that 'atheism' as defined by the religious, is on the rise, I think that skepticism is increasing. People are getting fed up with hollow authority figures telling them what to believe and how to behave, and then becoming something else entirely themselves. Those that are able to think for themselves seem to be doing so more openly now.
Atheism (the lack of a belief in a god) and those groups lumped with them are the fastest growing ideological faction in America, and we are behind the curve compared to European countries. Atheism and agnosticism are very misunderstood terms and those who label themselves as such are often vilified by the religious, claiming they 'hate God' or 'have no morals,' among other ignorant and horrible accusations.
First, one cannot hate something they do not believe in. Second, morality and religion are mutually exclusive, as shown by the hateful and violent nature of many religious groups, those that bomb buildings, soldiers and abortion clinics, and those that claim that homosexuals, atheists and foreigners are destroying our 'Christian Nation.'
There cannot be such a title as 'Christian' for a country that truly believes in freedom of religion, for we are much more than that. We have Judaism, Islam, Mormonism, Wicca, atheism/agnosticism, and dozens of other ideologies. Yet the only one that has experienced growth is the one that disbelieves in a Creator.
In my own circles, I have seen this growth, and the reasons are as varied as the people that express them. Many are tired of religion and its hypocrisy. Others do not care for religious structuring in their lives. A large number have seen the lack of cohesion and rationality in religion and looked into what they once believed, only to find that the foundation was weak and full of holes, and the structure itself collapsed. I am one of these latter, having had doubts surface in my mind, and instead of trying to pray it away like I was instructed, decided to look into what my life was built around. And guess what I found? It didn't hold up.
I wanted so much to believe that what I had been told since I was a child was true, that I fought against myself for years. This led to anxiety and depression, medication and finally, a search for answers. The double-bind in my mind had reached a critical point, and I began to research, study and reflect upon everything I had been taught. Things didn't add up, I began to find rampant contradictions and buried facts. I learned things they did not want teach me in Sunday school or seminary, and all the negative history and lies about my religion I had never known about. I started to 'not-believe.'
I can remember the exact moment when everything finally clicked in my head and I realized I was a non-believer, a heathen, a non-religious person. I was exhilarated--and terrified. My family, many friends and others I associated with were religious to differing degrees, and I was suddenly very different from them. I had a secret, but many doors suddenly opened for me. Things in my life that had been blocked to me by my own conflicted mind were suddenly free, and I felt I could breathe easier--that is, if I hadn't been in one of the most suffocatingly religious areas of our country. I could consume alcohol, but I felt the weight society had placed on such a practice settling on my shoulders. I could enjoy my life without fearing heavenly wrath, but the condescending, scrutinizing eye of religion was now watching me, I had become a minority. This freeing of my mind from the shackles of religion had placed me under the servitude of social pressure.
But I found others. I gained some of my security back from reading others' stories, experiences and opinions, and the few friends I have that felt similarly about religion. Recovery From Mormonism was a wonderful find, helping me through the anguish, dismal rage and fear I felt at finding out I had been lied to my entire life. As far as I have come in nearly two years, I still feel anxiety about even thinking about discussing it with my family. It's hard enough with my religious friends. Often they just do not-or cannot-understand. But I know enough like minded people to keep me sane in this irrational world, and I know that I am far happier now than I have ever been, I am no longer lying to myself or trying to hold faith over knowledge. If religion is the opiate of the masses, I'm totally clean.

Is Logic a Fallacy?

One of my readers and friends, Illpallozzo, sent me this last night. I read it, and felt a little ill, but not really surprised.

This anecdote from an unknown person familiar with physics tells a lot about our education system and the common sense/logic/reasoning abilities of our general population. Basically, more than half of people asked (this was at a University, mind you) believed that heavy boots were the only thing holding down our astronauts on the moon, and if they let a pen go, it would float away. Some of the people were disconcerted at being asked things that they had never learned in class, basically the Laws of Physics that govern everything in our known universe. The most important and most readily observed of which, gravity, completely escapes many people. Thinking that the earth had gravity and not the moon is something that never crossed my mind, once hearing that all mass has an attraction to other mass. Logic seems like some sort of arcane magic to some people, a thing that shouldn't be engaged in without years of study. No wonder religion is so prevalent.
It seems that the simpler something is for people to understand (nature, computers, television shows), the more likely they are to appreciate it (rain is wet, Macintosh, Friends). My only true regret is that Darwinism doesn't work as well as it used to, with modern medicine, cell phones, technological advances and all that getting in the way of stupid people offing themselves in various, accidental ways. Now I can't hold just 'people' responsible for their shortcomings, their parents and their schooling are also to blame. How do you reach college age and enter a university without knowing that the moon has gravity? About 1/6th of earth's gravity, if I remember correctly. This seems strange to me, this lack of an ability to logically reach a conclusion without all the information (forced down your mental gullet or not). Maybe someone else can explain this to me without referencing Idiocracy.

Nerd Battle Update

This is not an update on this particular story, but on the use of swords in a violent way. I had hoped that this was just a freak occurrence and not a sign of things to come, but it may be just that. It seems that a Massachusetts man tried to rob a dry cleaners with a ninja sword and a ski mask (very unassuming, you jackass). My guess, guns and bullets are becoming too expensive in a recession combined with possible tightening of gun control laws so people are reverting to more primitive weaponry in order to commit their random crimes and acts of violence. Although it may seem cool to some people to walk around with a sword on your hip, arms akimbo like the swarthy, swaggering pirate you wish you were, suspicions are going to blossom the moment you step out the door, especially if everyone already thinks you're that 'weird guy with the minivan that hangs out at Denny's/IHOP/Waffle House too much.'
I really hope that more of these stories don't continue to surface on Digg lists or Drudge. It pains me to see such an emblem of skill and cultural significance used in acts of such amazing stupidity. If they start instituting waiting periods at your local knife retailer, you'll know something is happening, and it probably isn't skillful or culturally significant.

Daily Douchebaggery

During the recent 'tea-parties,' Texas' governor became America's newest petulant child, threatening to take his toys and run away, because he doesn't want to eat the broccoli on the dinner table. His tossing out of the secession card came off as nothing more than a publicity stunt, since he identifies with his people's problems just about as much as your average American identifies with a starving Congolese child. His whining has been falling of deaf ears, as a report shows that only 18% of Texans would vote to secede, and 75% would not.
I was curious how Hannity and O'Rielly are taking this, are those in favor of secession patriots or un-American? And my worst fears were proved true. Even Beck is on the "America Last" bandwagon, fervently supporting this cry for attention.
Texas seceded once back in 1861, throwing their hat in with the Southern states and flying the rebel flag, while contributing little to the war, and was the last one to fully surrender. Texas has always had a toe over the line of the 'Republic' idea, it carries the Lone Star name and proclaims even in it's tourism ads, "It's like a whole other country."
Why certain Texans fear the federal government so much is as strange as it is unnecessary, a state government can be just as corrupt, if not more so. Look at Illinois. What this douche did was nothing more than cater the fear-riddled, conspiratorial fringe of his constituency. Being this big of a douchebag is just as unnecessary.

Teabagged!

I was musing over the recent 'tea-party' movement going on, and I realized something felt wrong about it. So I did some digging, and a lot of intense, laborious research. I ended up meeting an informant in a parking garage, who requested I call him 'deep throat,' even though I already knew his name. It was a little weird, but I acquiesced just to smooth things out. He gave me a manila folder full of information, and a few names of insiders I could contact. Several hours and two death-threats later, this is what I was able to understand.

The entire tea-party movement was actually a well-orchestrated and secretly executed effort by the tea industry to counteract slumping sales in the current recession. As jobs are lost and disposable income decreases or disappears in hard times, high-end products, like Maserati's, caviar and tea, suffer. So the shrouded hands behind the latter pained industry began to move, knowing full well that April 15th loomed in America's collective future, and we have a notorious displeasure for paying taxes. With Obama's tax restructuring in our minds, the stage was set for a hot-beverage coup the likes of which have not been seen since the coffee revolt of 1918. All they needed to do was plant the idea. All it took was a mass e-mail to a group of conservative pundits, known as the 'Illogicatti,' bringing up the subject of a certain Boston Harbor incident, and the seeds were sown. The new 'tea-party' movement spread like wildfire among impressionable, gullible and half-witted conservative population, looking for an outlet to their repressed anger and anxiety over the loss of any political viability for years to come.
The movement was supported and covered by the easily duped and equally impressionable media; the repressed media, mind you, not that liberal media. People began purchasing tea in bulk, much to the amusement and suppressed glee of the tea industry. The string-pulling had worked. Tea bags began appearing with tax returns at the IRS, and with the purchase by one group in particular of one million teabags, tea would now be on the minds of Americans again, and the tea industry has won a secret battle. This beverage will again take the spot as the preferred beverage in the mind of America, and there's not a protest anywhere that can stop it.

We were fooled into buying mass amounts of product by an industry worried about its future, much like how the fashion industry renews 'trends' to save things like angora, uncomfortable shoes and novelty-sized glasses. It was a duping of massive scale; the country was, if you will, teabagged.

Never Interrupt a Nerd Battle

I read this and I just had to do a post on it, since there are so many levels of bizarre to it. Living in Provo, there was always a chance to witness sword-fighting on a weekly basis when it is warm, at a particular park on Thursdays. Geeks of all color and flag would assemble, in arms and often in full battle-regalia, for their weekly Battleguard extravaganza. I assumed this lifestyle (for lack of a better word) was shared around the country, and it appears I may be correct. Normally, the weapons are fake and designed to minimize any possible injury, but experience and common sense leads me to believe that many of the kind of people who participate in things such as this more often than not own particularly realistic weapons, some even make them. This is why I first jumped to the conclusion of 'nerd-fight' when I read this story. Even if that wasn't the case, I beg the question: why did these two men have swords at the ready before an altercation? It's 2009, not 1309. Last time I checked, whenever someone gets hurt with a sword these days, it is usually from an accident, improper handling, or a psychopath. Since there is little information in this story, I assume it is open to wild speculation.

Having been called a dotard-ly coward, Adolf drew his magnificent broadsword. Undaunted, the young Rondeau pulled his saber in a quick flash of steel, glinting in the midday sun. "Prepare for battle, old man," he exclaimed, as the worrisome Franziska stood nearby, looking on. The two men advanced with grim determination written upon their countenances, knowing fully that one or none of them would escape this battle victoriously.

As reality has little to do with what goes on in my head, I must point out that I do not intend to make light of an incident that ended with the death of two individuals, but seriously, who has sword fights? The world is a strange, strange place, and the truth is still often stranger than fiction.

Don't cry for me, I'm already wood pulp.

I am a professed news-junkie. the first thing I do in the morning is get online and browse Drudge, Digg, Consumerist and other various sources of news. If I see a newspaper lying around I flip through it, looking for anything that might catch my interest. I read (real) magazines fairly often, flipping through Time or Pop Sci in the office when I have nothing else to do, always looking for a story that I can become engaged in. I'll watch TV news if nothing else is on, and I'll even watch FOX News if I absolutely have to, just to get the skewed information. But in the current economy, something is happening at a more precipitous rate than ever before.
Each time I see a story of a failing newspaper, I should feel slightly saddened, but I don't. When a daily paper closes its doors for the last time, there is a sense of impending finality coming down the road of history; soon to be gone are the days when people went down to the corner to pick up a paper, but I'm not distressed.
Some might believe that journalism is dying, as papers disappear, but it isn't. It's changing. It has to, or it will end up where the entertainment industry is going, as they cling onto the last shreds of their antiquated ideas until the 24th hour. Just about every major newspaper has gone online, and some have even stopped printing in favor of their websites. Blogging has exploded in recent years, showing that everyone has a story to tell, no matter how mediocre it is. There is a massive thirst for information, and you can satiate it indefinitely on the Internet. I've learned a lot about the world from bits of information flowing through copper wires over the years, and my desire for news has grown exponentially.
Journalism has been evolving for decades, since the idea of 'New Journalism' came around in the apex of the beat generation. There's always another way to tell a story, and now, there's another where. Information is available so much faster online, stories can break even faster than on television, and the information can be accessed by anyone, almost anywhere (at least in countries with free access to information). Even if the newspapers all die off and there's not a New York Times left anywhere to drape over a lone hobo, journalists will always be out there, getting the story, relaying information, speaking to the people. And we'll save a few more trees out of it as well.

Handfuls

Daily I receive
handfuls of rage,
uncertain of how
I am to dispense of it.
Every little thing,
people's quirk's-
bad driving-
fashion non-statement's-
create anarchy in
my brain,
meaningless, cursing,
blinded white-hot
temper flares
and it all goes
red again.

Burn the Witch!

And so it has begun, another witch-hunt reminiscent of the fifties 'red-menace,' where to openly admit being a communist was as close to professional- and social-suicide as you could get, and to be accused of such was pretty damn close. It ruined many careers and reputations back then. Now, the menace seems a bit similar and all-too-familiar, but the reasons are radically different, as I see it. After the end of the second World War, Russia began looming up behind its Iron Curtain, a red shadow that was the perfect piece of propaganda to keep people afraid and in line, a specter that had infiltrated our country, even to the point of American citizens like the Rosenberg's being executed for selling atomic secrets to the Red's. The Cold War was going quite well until the U.S. government went and threw their collective greedy hands into Vietnam, and got people all riled up and angry instead of staying quiet and afraid. The last remnants of that 'war' effectively disappeared with the crumbling of the Soviet Union in 1989, but by then there was the AIDS scare and the War on Drugs and soon Iraq to keep the mind of John Q. Public occupied.
Okay, enough of the history lesson. Today, socialism is the new word-of-warning being bandied about, at least by the republicans. They are trying their damnedest to get everyone nice and frightened of the idea of socialism, since the general population knows as much about socialism as they to about nuclear physics, or democracy, for that matter. That it has its roots in communism and is practiced in 'liberal European' countries is enough for them. They hear O'really or Hannity utter the word daily in connection with the Obama administration and persons connected to it, and about any attempt at universal health care. Why don't the Repub's support this? Mostly because it doesn't support their political ends, most important of which is to make sure large corporations keep making money hand over fist at the expense of the general population. They aren't afraid of our country turning socialist, it is too steeped in capitalism for that to happen. The men in power do not want the working party to call the shots, because that means they don't get to anymore.
There are already a multitude of 'socialist' programs in the government that have been there for years, ever hear of a thing called Social Security? It's in the damn name, people. Or how about Medicaid? You know those welfare checks your lazy-ass neighbor with six kids and no discernible job cashes every month? Yeah. I would be more worried about the Federal Reserve than I ever would be about the idea of universal health care if I were you. It isn't even a government institution, and it lends the money it creates to our government with interest, every single penny of it. We create money with built in debt, now how fucked-up is that?
I don't have health insurance. If I got hit by a car and was out of work for two months, I would basically be screwed, and send my family spiralling back into debt. Even if I had some insurance, whatever I could afford as a mid-twenties working student, it wouldn't be enough to cover a traumatic injury. Last time I went to the hospital for an injury, I had insurance, and I still had to pay sixty dollars for a tetanus shot, and they wouldn't stitch me up because it had 'been too long' since the injury. Just remember, every time you hear the word 'socialist' or 'socialism,' someone is most likely trying to scare you, not inform you of anything. The longer the drug companies and private hospitals can keep you paying five dollars for an aspirin, and 120 dollars to sit in a waiting room for 45 minutes, on a cold table for 30, just to have five minutes with a doctor who tells you that it's probably nothing and wont even prescribe you anything, all the better for them. Universal health care? Bring it on. I wont dodge the 'socialist' bullet.

F*ck you, sir.

A few weeks ago, I read this blurb on Consumerist about a Texas woman who was arrested last year, way back in August, for saying the f-word within the hearing range of a fire marshal, who apparently have the right to arrest people. I think someones briefs are a little too tight, particularly since the conversation in which the expletive was uttered was with another adult, and not directed at anyone in any nature. He handcuffed her after a brief altercation and took her out to his car to write her a citation. This was while people were trying to prepare for a tropical storm landing. The charges were dropped last month after a judge basically decided that where was no case.
Believe it or not, your right to free speech is being attacked constantly, from small incidents like this, to the thousands of book censorship requests every year, to seemingly arbitrary and cautious things like self-censorship. I've always had a problem with censorship, long before I ever read Fahrenheit 451. If left unchallenged, censorship leads to state-controlled media much like in Iran, North Korea, China and others. People love to have the ability to control others, it's one of the sinister sides of our nature.
Controlling how we act leads to controlling how we speak, which eventually leads to controlling how we think. Still haven't read 1984? Maybe you should. Censorship is all part of control, and it is rarely for purely altruistic reasons. They say you shouldn't read this because it's 'offensive,' but what they really mean is that it has ideas they don't like. You shouldn't say this word or that one, because it's offensive, but it's merely that they find it offensive.
I don't hear atheists walking around telling Christians that their beliefs are offensive (at least, not very often), but Christians don't mind one bit tell everyone else they don't agree with how they feel. Why? Because they're the majority, and feel they can. And they can say whatever they want, but I also have the right to disagree with them, just as loudly and obdurately as they do with me. And the next time someone gives be a dirty look or 'excuses me' because they are eavesdropping onto my conversation and overheard a swear, I will let them know exactly how I feel. "Hey, mind your your goddamn business."

Daily Douchebaggery

And on the eighth day, God created jackasses. People like this are why religion scares me. The fundamentalist Christian and Evangelical movements have high-jacked the Republican party, and their ideals have infiltrated our government and its policies. He is using bible verses as a reason to not have to worry about climate change and environmental impacts of our actions, and most Repub's follow this line. Since God 'decides' when and how our world will end, it's okay to pollute, dig up, and lay bare our planet, since it'll all be destroyed eventually anyway. This attitude infuriates me and should infuriate any other reasonable creature.
It is NOT okay to just throw environmental concern out the window just because you think some invisible man is going to come down and scoop your righteous ass up onto his shoulder and then lay everything else to waste. And the religious nutjobs aren't the only reason they do this. They are pandering to their corporate and CEO buddies, making sure they don't need to environmentally responsible and can pad each others pockets with bills of a monetary and big-business protection kind.
I'm more afraid of what people like this can and will do to our country than I ever have been or will be about any boogey-man terrorist/dictator/communist threat. These people can immediately affect our lives through legislation like this. As mush I feel sorry for coal miners losing their jobs, we need to stop raping the earth to completely dry up our limited coal and oil reserves so greedy oilmen, speculators and refining companies can make a few dozen more billion dollars. I truly despise this douchebag and all of his ilk.

GTFO! Srsly, karma.

A woman in California is getting six in the hole for causing the death of another person after crashing into stopped cars due to speeding and texting. Why this took aver a year and a half to be decided is obviously the problem of our screwed up legal system, but that's a complaint for another day. And although her lawyer is going to appeal, I believe that she deserves every day of that sentence, and then some. This is becoming such a massive problem here in Utah, that there is debate about passing our own no-texting law similar to California's, as I mentioned in a previous post. I get so angry when I drive, seeing people doing such obviously stupid things, that I begin to drive like a bit of a dick myself, which recently culminated in me being followed for several miles by some crazy person who almost rear-ended me whom I proceeded to flip off. Although I found it amusing, it just goes to show you that you shouldn't be an asshole on the road, and try not to flip people off, you never know you do it to, or what psychological problems they may have. And for FSM's sake, put your phone away for twenty minutes. You will survive without it that long. And if you continue to weave through traffic and text, you just may end up killing someone, or yourself.

"It's got a curse on it!!" "What, Provo?"

I was disturbed and not all that surprised to find out that I previously lived in and still work in the most conservative city (over 100,000) in the United States. Provo, Utah was ranked number one in a recent study on the political leanings of American cities. Detroit, oddly, is the most liberal. It surmises a direct correlation found by the study on African American population density and political leaning. Liberal cities have the highest number of black residents, and the conservative . . . well, this photo pretty much sums up Provo. Residents often speak of an invisible 'bubble' over the valley, curiously known as Happy Valley (those sky-high anti-depressant use numbers help, I'm sure). The Conservative sway is easily evident, as many Utahn's do exactly as they are expected to do and vote consistently for Republicans, making it the 'reddest' state in the Union.
The encapsulated lifestyle of this city, for social and geographical reasons, has kept it a haven for white, conservative Christians and maintains the school of thought from being easily altered by, say, unbiased information, reason, science and partisanship. There are still Democrats and Independents in Provo, they just rarely make themselves known, and together number about 14%.
At the center of this town is the Brigham Young University, the most sober (and annoying) university in the country, and the third most conservative, above two military academies and the College of the Ozarks. The 'zoobies' follow an indoctrinating religion, social life, and educational forum where they must follow an Honor Code (unless they're really good at sports) and often go only for the purpose of finding a proper spouse.
After living in this valley for nearly two decades, I have seen every shade and color of hypocrisy, cheating, dishonesty, pride, horrendous judgement and every other form of social disease and neurosis there is, all from the good citizens of this Righteous Valley. Why am I still here? I ask myself that every once in a while. I still have my family here and several good, die-for-them friends. And honestly, there are a lot of smokin' hot babes in the UC. Too bad most of them are relious or religious hypocrites.

Daily Douchebaggery

Should I create a new genre for douchebagettes? I only ask that because my douchebag candidates are usually men, and I realize it wouldn't be fair or me--nay, it would be sexist if I didn't consider the fairer sex when writing these posts. Women commit just as many stupid actions as men do. So in this equality spirit, I nominate Nadya Suleman for committing unwarranted acts of douchebaggery. She is referred to by the lazy-ass, nickname-obsessed media as the 'octomom.' Having eight children at once isn't necessarily the act of a douchebag, just horrendously bad judgement and way too many fertility treatments over the years. She's a veritable baby-factory. She now has fourteen children, all under the age of seven. And there is nor was a father. Now we're wandering into the right territory. She had IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) to have all of her children. That's right. She never has any intention of getting married, she only wants to have children. She has no job, so is supported by everyone else. She fired a free nanny service that was helping care for her children 24-7. She has become an attention whore (potentially the reason she had so many damn kids in the first place), and spends ridiculous amounts of money on things for herself, and puts on her good-mom face just for the TV cameras. And she has enough sense to tell the media that she tried stripping. And yes, she's obsessed with Angelina Jolie.
If there was ever a person that made the case for eugenics , it would be her. She has some neurotic desire to have children, then is thrust into the spotlight (I'm holding the media mostly accountable for this one) and loves every minute of it. She's not the brightest bulb in the closet, either. If there was a way to sterilize everyone this stupid and insane, the world would be a much better place. What a douchebag.

At least she's not as creepy(1) as the Duggar Cult Family. Eighteen home-schooled Christian children? First sign of impending doom and this family will go ape-shit. They mast have taken that Monty Python skit a little too literally. I truly fear for us reasonable people.