Everyone’s Blog Posts – Atheist Nexus

Are We Doing Enough?

2020-06-28T13:41:18.000Z

It appears to me that our non-religious organizations are sort of spinning their wheels on this important issue of separation of church and state (one of the highest priorities for many of such organizations), precisely because a significant majority of our citizens still cling to their ancient religious beliefs. Thus, it would seem to be important to use some of our resources to more directly confront the lack of credible evidence in support of such beliefs. The attached article is offered as a discussion point. Appreciate your feedback.

John

ArticleWorstGuess.pdf

What is Education?

2020-06-13T13:16:21.000Z

I currently teach in Japan. The schools here focus almost entirely on preparing students for tests at specific waypoints in their education. There are tests at every level. Even some kindergartens require prospective students to take an entrance exam. But there is very little focus on developing critical thinking skills. Upon graduating high school, students can perform calculations at lightning speed and recall scientific facts and mathematical formulae perfectly, but many of them would not be able to tell you what the nature of science is or how we arrived at all of those facts and formulae. They spend so much time focussed on rote memorization that they never stop to ask why something is true. Their teachers rarely encourage discussion or debate. They do not invite differences of opinion. For the most part, at least in math and science classes, teachers in Japan spend most of their time facing the blackboard with their backs to the class as students slavishly copy down what they say. And in general, the schools tend to suppress differences. Students are expected to maintain the status quo. Conformity is considered a virtue.

But I would argue that rote memorization and conformity do not prepare students to be engaged citizens. There was a famous case a few years ago of a celebrated biologist who, despite having graduated from one of Japan’s premier universities, falsified her data and lied to protect her hypothesis when scientists could not reproduce her results. Despite having a brilliant academic background, she conducted herself in a way that was wholly inconsistent with the values of science. I have since learned that high schools and universities here make almost no effort to teach the philosophy of science. Can they really afford to forgo this aspect of science education?

I think it is essential that teachers encourage students to ask questions, challenge prevailing opinion, and argue from evidence. Science is not merely a collection of facts, and mathematics is not merely a list of formulae and procedures. The scientific way of thinking is more valuable than the individual facts of science, and the logical rigor and insight that mathematics develops and refines are more important than the formulae of mathematics. But, more broadly, critical thinking should be taught from an early age. And students should be taught that different people may come to different conclusions. Different opinions should not be suppressed, rather, they should be seen as opportunities for discussion and debate.

Just a Story

2020-06-10T12:25:54.000Z

As a kid from Indiana, I always heard it said, don’t go to Gary or South Chicago–dangerous black man territory. So while I had never had any contact with a black person, and my parents weren’t biased that I was aware of (well, maybe my father was), I knew to fear and avoid them.

One summer Sunday day back in 1957 when I was 14, my friend’s father took us by train to Chicago to see the White Sox play. We mistakenly got off at the wrong station and discovered we were in "black Chicago" miles from the ball park. We asked a black man how far we had to walk ("2 miles"). Moments later, as we trudged northward, the very same man drove up beside us and offered to take us to the park. I was thinking "no way"! But we hopped in and got to the game just in time.

My impressions of black people were forever changed. They weren’t so bad after all! My mother thought the story was so good, she wrote it up to send to Reader’s Digest. I don’t think it was ever printed.

I think that incidence influenced the way I looked at race relations for the rest of my life. In fact, I have a granddaughter that is of mixed race. I love her dearly.

Islamist/jihadist/terrorist are also victims of their beliefs.

2020-06-02T23:00:00.000Z

I don’t have the luxury of hating Islamist radicals, or any religious extremist. I have tried to summoned the courage but couldn’t, instead all I have for them is a pity, for they are being deluded with a virus of religion. They are as much a victim, from the same malignant tumor of Islam as all its other obvious victims that it has so much openly destroyed.

A Debt to the Truth

2020-06-01T13:00:00.000Z

When the truth offends, we lie and lie until we can no longer remember it is even there, but it is still there. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid.
— Comrade Valery Legasov, commenting on the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

Back in January of 2017, I wrote a blog regarding what I called “Confrontational Reality” as it relates to our current president. Toward the end of that piece, I made the following prediction:

… at some point during his presidency, it is virtually certain that Trump will be faced with the kind of emergent situation which challenged the crew of USAir 1549. The difference will be that the impact of whatever action he takes will likely go far beyond the 155 passengers and crew which Sully was entrusted with, conceivably beyond the population of our country and several others.

I will admit not to being much adept at reading tea leaves, chicken entrails, or any other form of divination, but in this case, yours truly appears to have been on to something. That “something,” as you doubtless all already know, is the Coronavirus and its disease designation: COVID-19. We all have been witnesses to the progress of the pandemic, as we also have to our local, state, and federal governments’ responses to it. Mike DeWine surprised the daylights out of me when he shut down Ohio back in mid-March, and as a result, while we’ve had our share of Coronavirus deaths, I’m pretty sure we’re fairly well on the low side as it comes to cases or deaths. Andrew Cuomo has taken a positively horrible situation in New York and busted a gut trying to bring it under control. Personally, I think he deserves considerable kudos for the Herculean efforts he has made. Many other governors and mayors have also stepped up to the plate, acknowledged what needed to be done, and did their best to execute.

And then we come to Donald John Trump. His history on COVID-19 has been out there for all to see. “It’s the Democrats’ new hoax … just one person coming in from China … one day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear,” until finally he had to admit: “This is a pandemic,” but then immediately afterward: “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.” Seriously? From there it’s been a tattoo of contradictory words and actions and even worse inactions, whether it’s effectively taking the month of February off from anything that might remotely resemble effective action and promoting hydroxychloroquine as a “game-changer” to undercutting the statements of experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci and claiming no responsibility for the uncoordinated and chaotic federal response to the ongoing crisis.

Thirty-four years ago, Valery Legasov was stuck in much the same position that Dr. Fauci is now: trying to speak truth to an authority which had little to no use for it. His confirmed facts ran counter to what the apparatchiks of the Soviet Union wanted to hear: that their RBMK reactors had a serious design flaw which was exacerbated by the test they attempted to run on the Number Four reactor at Chernobyl. That test resulted in the cataclysmic failure and subsequent explosion of that reactor, and it is the reason why anyone who knows the name “Chernobyl” knows it for that horrific event. What they may not know is that it took Legasov’s suicide to force the Soviet Union to take positive action to correct the critical defect in their nuclear power plants.

Now, Fauci and his fellows, along with state governors of both parties are attempting to rein in the biological and sociological fallout from a crisis which the chief executive of this country apparently doesn’t want to confront, himself. Trump has kept his distance, I suspect because this is one circumstance where his game-playing skills simply have no traction. At some level or other, he may recognize that you can’t spin a disease or negotiate with or intimidate a virus, and since he has no real leadership or organizational abilities, any attempt on his part to try to run a national effort to control the pandemic in the United States would only further show off Trump’s glaring ineptitude. Meanwhile, the debt Legasov referred to is being paid in the lives of Americans who might otherwise have been saved, had there been some degree of competency operating in the White House.

That “debt to the truth” is still outstanding, and I wonder what it will take to cover the balance.

The Clinker Route of Bluestones Transport to Stonehenge Monument

2020-05-12T22:41:40.000Z

Undisputed Route of Bluestones Transport to

Stonehenge Monument, the Royal Society

Undisputed Route of Bluestones Transport to

Stonehenge Monument, the Royal Society

Undisputed Route of Bluestones Transport to

Stonehenge Monument, the Royal Society

Kevin M. Kruse’s One Nation Under God – Review

2020-05-01T14:00:37.000Z

First let it be said that Kevin Kruse has done a masterful job with One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America, of researching and detailing those events which began and accelerated the process of both bringing Christianity more fully into American life while simultaneously politicizing it toward the Republican side of the ledger. We get reminded of well-known names, such as Billy Graham and Herbert Hoover and even Dwight D. Eisenhower, as well as learning of lesser known yet equally critical personalities, such as James W. Fifield and Abraham Vereide. These were all reactionary players in a game designed to reinforce the corporate view of American Free Enterprise and opposing the New Deal and supposed “creeping socialism” of FDR. We learn of movements spawned from these men: “Spiritual Mobilization” in particular, publications and radio and later television ads and programs, along with massive events and rallies, all aimed both at emphasizing the importance of religious belief but also associating it with a certain political attitude with the loaded working phrase, “Freedom Under God.” Kruse traces the threads of this well-woven web from pre-World-War-II through the 2008 presidential election and does so with raw facts which should terrify anyone who values the concept of separation of State and Church.

Through the entire book, Kruse writes one of the most infuriating volumes it has ever been my combined pleasure and torture to have to read. He documents instances where politicians blithely draw distinctions with few if any differences between State / Church separation and government / religion separation, as a means to inveigle the latter into the former. The eagerness with which some Congresspeople strove to become more fully involved with Fifield’s Spiritual Mobilization movement and propagating their materials to their constituents is related as well, in occasionally exasperating detail. It was ultimately these and related efforts which inserted “Under God” into the Pledge of Allegiance (though with considerable support from the Knights of Columbus) and then: “In God We Trust” on coin and paper money, issues which are being fought to this day in the courts. This was also the time when “ceremonial deism” entered the political and legal lexicons, as a means of allaying fears about breaching the State / Church wall when it was already suffering a potential death of a thousand cuts.

A great deal of the prologue this book describes of the 40s through the 70s culminates with the presidency of Ronald Wilson Reagan. Being the actor he was, Reagan was likely well acquainted with an old saw from another of his ilk:

Sincerity – if you can fake that, you’ve got it made.
— George Burns

Reagan pressed his acting chops into service throughout his presidency, but nowhere with quite the impact as with his acceptance speech at the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit. It was there that, giving the appearance of departing from his prepared remarks, Reagan asserted that “only a divine providence could have created the United States,” then asked for a moment of silent prayer before concluding his address with a coda which has since become near-mandatory for any politician seeking higher office: “God bless America!” With that and with his very purposeful association with the Religious Right, Reagan tapped the Zeitgeist of the nation and virtually insured his election. If One Nation has a critical climax, that is it.

The final point Kruse makes is perhaps the most important: that the nation’s presumption of being a Christian nation from its inception is a false memory, which was conceived in the last century and borne of those who would manipulate the body politic into a specific belief, less to benefit them than those pulling the strings. “One Nation, Under God” and “In God We Trust” and the other religious usages foisted on the American public were calculated to their desired ends. At the risk of stating the obvious, this is what we as atheists are up against. This is the social inertia we are tasked with overcoming and countering, if we are to return the US to its secular foundations.

It is no small challenge and one which many of us have already joined. Let’s keep going.

The test of a false god; Why I am an atheist.

2020-04-30T20:46:07.000Z

The test of a false god; Why I am an atheist.
I was born into Christianity and indoctrinated while growing up. My extended family was extremely religious as well, we even had a few preachers. I grew up in the First United Methodist church, my sect was particularly literalist, they believe that all scripture was inspired by god. They believe that Satan was actively doing harm in our world and we were involved in spiritual battles constantly.

I wanted to become a preacher, more specifically a teacher of gods word. I realized that different Christian religions believed many different things. For example: In some churches females were not allowed to be in leadership. In others lesbians could be preachers. (Not at my church). They all were interpreting the Bible different and stood fast by differing beliefs. They all could not be right. Either God wanted lesbian preachers or forbid the practice as he hated lesbians and women could not be leaders in the church. It could not be both ways. This was just one of many differences in churches that god could only have one opinion on.
I did not care about what man said, the church said or even preachers. I wanted to follow god and do what god wanted. I could not bring myself to teach as I knew I could be wrong about what I believed as no one could agree what gods word actually was. I decided to delay going to seminary as I knew that I would learn mans differing beliefs from a given sect and not necessarily what god wanted. I needed to be alone with god and study the bible myself without the churches bias. I prayed to god to give me clarity so that I could move forward and serve him the way HE wanted, not how I thought he might want.

I had been taught not to investigate or study anything that was secular. Secular meant anything that was not godly. I had been taught that everything is either with god or against it. They also taught me that god was all powerful and would protect me. I was such a hard core believing young man that I did not care or worry that secular information would possibly corrupt me. God would be there to guide me as they promised.
At first I noticed inconsistencies in my bible studies. I found that the Bible Said all sins are forgiven and that blasphemy was unforgiveable. It could not be both ways. I found there was a reason that people had many different beliefs about the Bible. It said many contradictory things and many could not be reconciled. I again had to know why and what god intended.

I started by praying constantly and studying the Bible intensely. I honestly don’t know how many times I read it straight through or how many years I put into more traditional studies. I also began to study history(my favorite), literature, languages, geology, cosmology, anthropology, archeology, statistics, philosophy, etc. Anything that related to Biblical studies including writings from Biblical scholars both secular and Christians. I spent two years just studying the apocrypha and the gnostic gospels trying to find answers.

This led to what I call the test of a false god.

I began to question how was my god any different from any other god. As many different types of gods were described in the ancient Christian writings. There were many false gods out there (that being any god that was not mine). So I asked myself how would one differentiate between a real god and a false god? So what would a real god look like? Many gods are unknowable or unperceivable. Oddly enough if that is the case how could anyone tell me about an unperceivable god? How would they know? None the less an unperceivable god can not be proven to exist by definition. So it would be impossible to define or prove that any god existed even if I just made it up. One can not prove that they exist.
So what qualities would a god that does not exist have?

They can’t work miracles.

They don’t answer prayers.

They can not be perceived.

Most of all it struck me that a god that was not real required faith to believe in them.
All gods required faith!
So how did my god stack up against a false god?

My god did not work miracles. There were claims that were no better than other religions without any evidence.
My god did not answer prayers. There again were claims that were no better than other religions without any evidence. There was certainly no obvious things like limbs being regenerated.
My god could not be perceived. He was unknowable.
But most of all, My god required faith to believe in it. In fact believing through faith was the ONLY requirement!

Then I realized that my god was no more valid than what I knew to be a false or made up god.

When I realized this it was real hard to believe that there was any real god. Even it there was a god it did not care enough to be actively involved in the world as said god was not relevant and there was no reason for me to care about the god either. In which case a god that does not do god stuff is not a god.

When It came down to understanding that my god was no more valid than a god that was not real I simply could no longer believe.

This is the first time I have publically spoken about The test of a false god. Let me know what you think of the concept. Thank You!

Preseli Hills area UK Nursery and Pre- school Kindergarteners. 1961, 1974 https://www.sidestone.com/books/stonehenge-for-the-ancestors-part-1 In 1961 during a Stonehenge UK visit, Drums Elementary Sc…

2020-04-23T06:32:01.000Z

Preseli Hills area UK Nursery and Pre-
school Kindergarteners. 1961, 1974

https://www.sidestone.com/books/stonehenge-for-the-ancestors-part-1

In 1961 during a Stonehenge UK visit, Drums Elementary School kindergartener, G. Willy Wally discovered Stonehenge Bluestones are all pyrometamorphic altered by High-heat Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) Period, Namurian Age, anthracite (Coal Measures) burn above 1200 C, made in ancient Pembrokeshire Coalfield carbon cave dwellings where in 1974, whilst backpacking from Stonehenge to Preseli Hills, the same G. Willy Wally, and Ralphy Raoul Wally, students of UK geology discovered ancient Pembrokeshire Coalfield prehistoric tools, Bluestone wedges, and Coal rank anthracite digging activity; and

https://www.sidestone.com/books/stonehenge-for-the-ancestors-part-2

In 1961 during a Stonehenge UK visit, Drums Elementary School kindergartener, G. Willy Wally discovered Stonehenge Bluestones are all pyrometamorphic altered by High-heat Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) Period, Westphalian Age, bituminous (Coal Measures) burn above 1100 C, made in ancient South Wales Coalfield carbon cave dwellings where in 1974, whilst backpacking from Stonehenge to Preseli Hills, the same G. Willy Wally, and Ralphy Raoul Wally, students of UK geology discovered ancient South Wales Coalfield prehistoric tools, Bluestone wedges, and Coal rank bituminous digging activity; and

https://www.sidestone.com/books/durrington-walls-and-woodhenge

In 1961 during a Stonehenge UK visit, Drums Elementary School kindergartener G. Willy Wally discovered Stonehenge Bluestones are all pyrometamorphic altered by High-heat Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) Period, Stephanian Age, sub-bituminous (Coal Measures) burn above 1000 C, made in ancient Bristol (Dean) Coalfield carbon cave dwellings where in 1974, whilst backpacking from Stonehenge to Preseli Hills, the same G. Willy Wally, and Ralphy Raoul Wally, students of UK geology discovered ancient Bristol (Dean) Coalfield prehistoric tools, Bluestone wedges, and Coal rank sub-bituminous digging activity.

https://www.sidestone.com/books/after-stonehenge

In 1974 after Stoned Henge coring Hele Stone, G. Willy Wally, and Ralphy Raoul Wally, reported their findings to Preseli Hills area UK Nursery and Pre-school Kindergarteners there on field trips, that neither a Northern land nor Southern water route of Bluestones pyrometamorphism was possible, Rather, post Ice Age Coalfield carbon cave dwellers quarried Shoring Pillars for their homes, the route Easterly through Pembrokeshire, South Wales, and Bristol (Dean) Coalfields carbon caves to Salisbury Plain, where countless digs proved their surface fossil fuel trend had ended. See pyrometamorphic Ice Age Coal Cave shoring pillars:

https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com

Stonehenge Pyrometamorphic Bluestones Coal Shoring Pillars
Route through Pembrokeshire, South Wales, Bristol Coalfields
__________________________

Stonehenge Pyrometamorphic Bluestones Coal Shoring Pillars
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/19/12/9998094-6720489-image-a-19_1550580202698.jpg

Route through Pembrokeshire, South Wales, Bristol Coalfields
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/06/29/08/4DBFB8BC00000578-0-image-a-9_1530256635665.jpg
__________________________

G. Willy Wally (1961, 1974) & Ralphy Raoul Wally (1974)

Musings of an octogenarian on the Human predicament

2020-04-21T07:32:10.000Z

In the years to come, our descendants will want to know what it was like to be alive now, during the Great Pandemic of 2020. But memory is an imperfect instrument. It fades, it fragments, it’s easily rewritten. For the sake of those stories we’ll tell one day, I wanted to write down the feel of this moment while my impressions are fresh.

I acknowledge I may not be the best chronicler. The disease hasn’t touched me, not deeply. I’m reading stories of hospitals overwhelmed, brave doctors and nurses crushed by the surge of suffering people. It’s like living in a house where a great storm is raging outside. I can see the wind and the waves beating at the glass, and I know people are fighting for their lives in that maelstrom, but in here it’s silent. But no one has been entirely unaffected, and if I can’t write a report from the center, perhaps I can write one from the fringe.

Looking back, I can admit that I was too complacent. I heard about the first outbreak in China with only mild interest. Even when I read about the total lock-down in Wuhan, it was like something happening on the moon. In retrospect, I can’t understand my own thought process. I suppose I must have assumed that it wouldn’t cross the Himalayas to us, that it would be stamped out like SARS was.

Given the understandable distrust of news from within an authoritarian state, the world could perhaps be forgiven for not taking this seriously when it was solely China’s problem. But then the virus struck Italy and Spain almost simultaneously. That should have been the moment we realized it wasn’t going to be containable. And seeing Italy’s frantic response – its rapid roll-out of once-unimaginable quarantine measures that were nevertheless always a step behind – made us understand how serious it truly was. India did take preventive measures and our casualties are much lesser than many other countries.

With almost everything including the parks shut down, the last three weeks have been uncannily peaceful. I’ve been going for a walk in the road facing my house at 6 am. It’s a short road, 90 seconds to negotiate from one end to the other and I feel like a caged lion in the zoo shuttling from one side to the other. Nevertheless I do my constitutional for one hour. The metric is time and not distance for me. As I often tell myself and my friends – If you cannot spare time for exercise, you will have to spare time for illnesses.

But moving through a world of other human beings feels more perilous than ever. I’m having a juxtaposition of emotions that I would have thought was impossible: the feeling that everyone I see might be a dangerous threat, and also a feeling of solidarity, like we’re all allies fighting side-by-side in the same battle.

The simplest action is freighted with a moral weight it never had before. There’s a low-intensity paranoia suffusing our existence. We’re afraid to touch, afraid to interact, afraid to share the same space or breathe the same air. The supermarkets are like surgical bays, people going about their shopping in gloves and masks as if in a dream where they’re unconscious of the oddity. And just as I’m wary of strangers, I wonder if they’re wary of me. After all, I too could be an asymptomatic carrier, exhaling death and destruction and not even aware of it!

At the same time, we’re united by this common enemy. The virus makes no distinctions of religion or nationality; it imperils us all alike, the rich and the poor, the powerful and the common. The indiscriminateness of its threat underscores our shared humanity and the fact that we live on the same planet and what happens anywhere matters to all of us everywhere.

However the internet has been a particular blessing. Despite all it’s done to spread misinformation and fear, it makes us feel less lonely and makes the isolation easier to bear. It’s like we’re alone together, reaching out to each other: a million small cells of community, separate yet glowing with connection. I can only imagine how much more isolating and terrifying the 1918 pandemic must have been without that channel of communication.

But I’m an introvert and it hasn’t been too bad.

Perhaps it’s too soon to look forward to the resumption of life as we knew it. We’re going through a great upheaval, and there’s no telling how the world may change because of it. It could be for the worse, leaving us traumatized and feeding xenophobia; or for the better, making us kinder, more thoughtful about each other’s needs, and fairer to the underpaid and underappreciated doctors and nurses we all depend on.

Only time will tell whether we learn the right lessons. Until then, our duty is to take each day as it comes and live, as best as we can, in the midst of these strange times.

Missing

2020-04-18T18:49:12.000Z

I have been missing from this community for quite some time. I had a stroke in April 2011 and was focused on bettering myself for many years. My kids were 3yrs old and 15 months old when it happened. I went seven weeks with only seeing them once. When I got home, I still had much work to do. I am just starting to feel "normal" which is really a new normal because I will never feel my old normal again. I am nine years post stroke and I still get nauseated if I over do it, I still get dizzy in certain positions, and I still have some numbness on my right side.

But I hide it well. I am still a nurse. People that didn’t know me before my stroke are amazed when I tell them I had one. They always say "Wow. You can’t tell." and "god must have plans for you." Both of which I find frustrating as hell. You maybe can’t tell, but I can. I worked my ass off (not really since I still have one) to get here. It was very hard work and I feel that my children suffered because I wasn’t as present as I could have been, had that incident not happened. God had nothing to do with my recovery. I never once prayed to god or bargained with god. I was an atheist before my stroke and I am even more of an atheist now. I realized how much insurance played in my recovery. I spent 3 weeks at my local hospital and 4 weeks at the best inpatient rehab in the nation. Had I not had the insurance I did, this wouldn’t had happened. And who knows what my recovery would have looked like. Being a nurse before helped me as well. I knew how important rehab was and I knew how important mental health was.

The support that I received from others was great. And those others can say that god directed them to do those helpful things. I am not going to tell them any different. And without the support of others, I don’t know how we would have made it. I just get upset when people basically shrug off all the hard work I have done as well as the hard work my family has done

I wish I had visited this community more during my recovery to help me vent those things. That really isn’t something the general population gets.

See you around.

A bible for atheists?

2020-04-09T12:58:06.000Z

Believers have their Bibles, Torahs, Korans etc. Shouldn’t us atheists have our own bible too? So that we are not defined negatively in terms of what we don’t believe (i.e. we don’t believe in the supernatural, gods or God, miracles, an afterlife etc) but a statement that defines positively what many of us do believe?

I am an atheist and independent thinker in New Jersey. My recently finished book A bible for atheists tries to do exactly that: positively answer all of the big questions in a compact ethical guide. It is built around a new conception of fate and free will, integrating ideas about causation, human agency, the emotions, rights and politics and the meaning of life. It is not intended as a vehicle to convert believers into non-believers, although it tries to distinguish the good effects of religion from the malevolent ones. It is "a bible" not "The Bible" since I believe that many approaches to atheism are possible, and I offer just one approach. I see it as a work-in-progress; as I learn more, I’ll try to make improved versions, and I encourage people who are smarter and more knowledgeable than me to consider writing their own bibles for atheists.

Amazon will allow me to offer it free in e-book form in the next 90-day period, so if you’d like a free e-book it will probably be in August (I’ll let people know). If you have Kindle Unlimited, the book is free. The lowest Amazon lets me price it is $2.99 (e-book) and $5.99 (paperback). If reviewers would like a free paperback from Amazon to you I can possibly arrange it but my funds are limited.

https://www.amazon.com/bible-atheists-Thomas-Sulcer-ebook/dp/B0867GRNKL/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=%22a+bible+for+atheists%22+sulcer&qid=1586436600&s=books&sr=1-1

So I hope my book helps to advance atheism. Best to everybody, stay safe. — tom

Person of Interest – Revisited

2020-04-01T14:00:00.000Z

I wrote the following about three weeks ago, just before the "shelter-in-place" order for Ohio came down. For those of you who are looking for some appropriate binge-watching material, I would like to offer this:

You are being watched. The government has a secret system, a machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it. I designed The Machine to detect acts of terror but it sees everything. Violent crimes involving ordinary people, people like you. Crimes the government considered “irrelevant.” They wouldn’t act, so I decided I would. But I needed a partner, someone with the skills to intervene. Hunted by the authorities, we work in secret. You’ll never find us, but victim or perpetrator, if your number’s up… we’ll find you.
— Harold Finch, Person of Interest, Season One opening narration

So began the CBS dramatic series, Person of Interest. Its primary protagonist, Harold Finch, is a billionaire hardware / software engineer, who has mostly single-handedly developed and deployed the world’s first “ASI”- Artificial Super-Intelligence – otherwise known as “The Machine.” As described in the above narration, The Machine was designed to ferret out the kinds of untoward events which were anticipated from the fallout of 9/11. What we quickly discover is that this superrich genius is no stereotypical geek, more in love with his creation than he is with the people it is designed to protect. Indeed, Finch is aghast at the “irrelevant numbers” which The Machine’s handlers haven’t deigned to pass on to the authorities for surveillance and either protection or apprehension. His conscience fully engaged and with a device with near-infinite research means at its disposal, he goes in search of competent assistance and finds John Reece, an ex-CIA field agent who has become a victim of his employer’s intentions, despite his dedicated performance for them. Finch offers the sullen and disaffected Reece “a job,” and after some persuasion, this loaded weapon on two legs accepts the offer and thus begins a five-year roller coaster of “numbers” rendered from The Machine – people who may be victims or perpetrators … or both – for Finch and Reece to decipher, untangle, and solve.

As their adventures proceed, additional parties come into play on both sides of this dynamic equation. On one side are New York City police officers. First we meet Jocelyn (“Joss”) Carter, a by-the-book detective who knows the city and her business well. Not much later, Lionel Fusco, also a detective, and while he has fallen to the dark side of the city streets, Fusco is slowly but surely reclaimed by The Machine’s operatives and turned not just into an asset but a full member of The Machine’s family. Not long after one Sameen Shaw, sociopathic hit-woman and the enigmatic “Root,” a.k.a. Samantha Groves, find their way to the team.

On the other side of the ledger there are multiple opponents, the first of these being “HR” – renegade cops who have taken it upon themselves to right the city’s wrongs outside of the usages and practices of Standard Operating Procedure. There is also The Brotherhood, a formidable city gang with a leader who tends to get underestimated, based on superficial appearances, yet has the intelligence and cunning to control a great deal of the underground dealings in the Five Boroughs. Mention must also be made of the singular personality who is Carl Elias and his followers, some late of the “Five Families” and not at all to be trifled with.

But the most dangerous of The Machine’s adversaries is personified by one John Greer, head of Decima Technologies. He and his organization also wish to harness the power of artificial super-intelligence for their own purposes, though with far more hostile and usurping intent than that with which Harold designed his Machine. Therewith we learn about a competing multiprocessing monster, known as “Samaritan,” and the game is emphatically afoot.

I originally watched Person of Interest when it first was aired on CBS, though I suspect more than a couple episodes were missed in the process. That’s problematic for a series like PoI, because it is organized as a continuing arc, each vignette contributing to the overall puzzle, which is an exquisitely detailed and nuanced conundrum, or so I more fully appreciated when I recently binge-watched it over the past several weeks. Having experienced it in that fashion, the individual threads of character and plot development pull far more closely together, giving me the kind of full appreciation the writers and producers wanted PoI to have.

In fact, it is the characters which really make Person of Interest the riveting show that it is. Each of the major participants get their backstories told in sufficient fashion that we truly get to KNOW them, get their motivations and thought processes, though I will confess that I never fully understood “Root,” and if there was an odd fillip if not flaw in the warp and woof of PoI, she has to be it.

That notwithstanding, Person of Interest has left a lasting impression on me for being dramatic television entertainment of the first water and which I heartily recommend. If you haven’t seen it, it is available on DVD, Blu-ray and Netflix.

Oh, and if you’d like a sample, try the following:

Primary Vote Held Hostage in Ohio

2020-03-17T12:20:15.000Z

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine just took the COVID-19 debacle out of bounds last night, announcing that, because of the current “health emergency,” the polls would not be open today and the Ohio primary would be postponed until June 2nd. His action was allegedly in response to a lawsuit from two elderly Franklin County voters who feared exposure to Coronavirus in the public voting place.

This action was immediately challenged. Per reporting in today’s (March 17, 2020) Plain Dealer:

But shortly before 7 p.m. Monday evening, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Richard A. Frye, a Democrat, denied the request. He said he was uncomfortable making an 11th-hour decision to delay the election, especially since state officials couldn’t say June would be any safer, and since many voters had expected the election would be on Tuesday.

He sided with an argument made by a longtime GOP elections attorney representing Jason Stephens, a Republican appointed to the Ohio House of Representatives last year.

”There are too many factors to balance in this unchartered territory to say that we ought to take this away from the legislature and elected statewide officials, and throw it to a Common Pleas court judge in Columbus 12 hours before the election,” Frye said before issuing the ruling.

The back and forth continues through this morning. Again referring to reporting from the Plain Dealer:

Among those arguing against the state’s request was longtime GOP elections attorney Don Brey, who was representing Stephens.

Brey said delaying the election would harm candidates who have spent money telling voters the election was March 17, and confuse voters. He made an analogy that moving the election at the request of the governor the night before the election would be like President Donald Trump asking a federal judge to delay the general election in November. [emphasis mine]

To put it at its mildest, I am PISSED. Certainly, I realize the issues and liabilities associated with the Coronavirus. I ALSO recognize my constitutional rights and the reasonable expectation I have to vote at the designated date, in line with those rights. Also note that absentee voting has already taken place, starting days before voting day. Being something of a traditionalist, I like to vote on THE DAY, unless extenuating circumstances force me to file an absentee ballot, which has happened once, perhaps 30 years ago. The matter of the precedence this sets is also of grave concern to me, particularly considering Republican Mike DeWine’s rightist leanings in a primary election which is mostly involved with Democratic candidates, as Trump is unchallenged in the Republican primary in Ohio.

Having written this, I mean to head to the Bedford Heights Community Center, our local polling place, to see if DeWine’s order has gone through. If not, I mean to vote. If so, I will absolutely register my strong discontent to anyone willing to listen … because this is WRONG, and that needs to be expressed, loud and clear, to the powers that be.

Reminder the Apostle Muhammad revealed Tabernacle of Allah location & Reminder the Alamo Mission in San Antonio, Texas is its Eternal Home.

2020-02-05T23:25:58.000Z

Reminder the Apostle Muhammad revealed Tabernacle of Allah location & Reminder the Alamo Mission in San Antonio, Texas is its Eternal Home.
Wed, Feb 5, 2020 3:27 pm
Melchizedek King of Salem [email protected] Hide
To WSCoronersOffice [email protected], chiefcoronersoffice [email protected], godsquadquestion [email protected], newsdesk [email protected], mirrornews [email protected], mail [email protected], exclusive [email protected], editor [email protected], contactus [email protected], tips [email protected], dtnews [email protected], office [email protected], newswatch [email protected], international [email protected], admin [email protected], kate.mavor [email protected], wiltscpre [email protected], hilary.mcgrady [email protected], YHWH.Allah.LORD.God [email protected], JesusChrist [email protected], DoctorDenkenstein [email protected]

Reminder the Apostle Muhammad revealed Tabernacle of Allah location &
Reminder the Alamo Mission in San Antonio, Texas is its Eternal Home.

Messiah Isa, son of Marium
_______________________________________

Behold, the Ark of the Covenant, the Tabernacle of YHWH (LORD) Allah (God), the Mighty, Amplegiving, the Knowing, Wise, is finally completing its long journey; From the Sinai peninsula Mount Horeb and from atop Pisgah on Mount Nebo to where He Did show Moses, the Father of Texas, all of His promised land.

Behold, the Ark of the Covenant, the Tabernacle of YHWH (LORD) Allah (God), the Mighty, Amplegiving, the Knowing, Wise, is completing its journey; From the Altar Stone (80) original Stonehole 96, enroute from beneath Heel Stone (96), to where He Did show Moses, the Father of Texas, all of His promised land.

Behold, It’s a Done deal. (via Nacogdoches, Taysha)

YHWH Allah
(LORD God)
_______________________________________

https://desuarchive.org/his/thread/8030594
https://boards.4channel.org/his/thread/8030594
https://desuarchive.org/his/thread/8031582
https://boards.4channel.org/his/thread/8031582
https://desuarchive.org/his/thread/8033220
https://boards.4channel.org/his/thread/8033220
https://desuarchive.org/his/thread/8033863
https://boards.4channel.org/his/thread/8033863

O LUCIFER
the Devil
Satan

Melchizedek King of Salem
[email protected]

Alexander Hamilton – On a Man Unprincipled

2020-02-01T15:20:45.000Z

When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits — despotic in his ordinary demeanour — known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty — when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity — to join in the cry of danger to liberty — to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion — to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day — It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may “ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.”
— Alexander Hamilton, 1792

I found this quote the other day – a comment made on Hemant Mehta’s Friendly Atheist website – and it did well and truly put a knot in my gut for what (or WHO!) it describes, well over 200 years before said person appeared on the current scene. Ignore the “military habits” for a moment and focus on the rest, and what Hamilton outlines is frighteningly descriptive of our current chief executive.

Similar people were doubtless about in his time and gave rise to the above commentary, but the time itself was very different, particularly with regard to media and news. There is also the matter of the newness of our country 200 years ago and the possibility that with that newness there was an elevated sense of its vulnerability and heightened desire to defend its principles. Regardless, it is safe to say that such attitudes have relaxed in the two centuries since, to the point where we have had a sham of an impeachment trial with no witnesses called nor evidence presented, which will see the accused acquitted in a matter of days. Doubtless, the madness he has spawned to this point will careen onward, spurred by his perception of his invincibility, until and if a stop is put to him, most likely by the ballot box, this November 3rd.

And even then, we may not be safe, depending on how much influence Trump has glommed up by that time. I do not say it lightly that we are in deep shit, people, and we need to watch out for ourselves and each other and speak out loudly and forcefully against any further attempts to arrogate yet more power to himself between now and then.

The last thing in this world I want to be is an alarmist … but the fact is that I’m scared, scared for our country and for us … and I will do what I can to stop this business before it evolves beyond our control.

Revolt of the Angels Book Review

2020-01-27T19:14:04.000Z

https://theautarkist.wordpress.com/2018/06/12/revoltoftheangels-book-review/

“I have delved deep into Oriental antiquities and also into those of Greece and Rome. I have devoured the works of theologians, philosophers, physicists, geologists, and naturalists. I have learnt. I have thought. I have lost my faith.” – RotA

Arcade is many things. As Arcadia, it’s the town built by the survivors of post-apocalyptic Earth in “The 100”. It’s the province of the ancient world where the cult of Pan originated, and the name of French Americans and Canadians which originated the term “Cajun”, now linked to Louisiana. It’s the name of the ship that transported the dinosaurs in Jurassic World. Arcade also has a place in Satanic literary tradition: in his book Revolt of the Angels, Anatole France created a literary character, Arcade, who rebelled against Jehovah after learning atomism and science.

An Epicurean under-current exists throughout the work: the bed-side book that the angel was reading during his awakening was Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things–particularly, the copy that had Voltaire’s notes. Mention of Gassendi is also made.

The novel reminds one of the series Once Upon a Time, where everyday characters in our world derive their transcendental identities from their heavenly origins–but instead of being drawn from fairy tales, these characters are drawn from the angelic hosts. It also reminded me of the series Lucifer–which was recently cancelled by its network and will be rebooted on Netflix to give fans (who were clamoring for more) some semblance of closure. Its main character is based on the Neil Gaiman character Lucifer Morningstar, and–as in Revolt of the Angels–it precipitates fallen angels into modern cities, living modern lives while evolving and going on adventures as their archetypal characters.

The Light-Bearer Lucifer himself is re-imagined in Chapter 18 as an angel of science and freedom. His counter-history is narrated by the most Epicurean of the characters in the novel: Nectaire, also known as “the Gardener”. His name, of course, relates to “nectar”, ambrosia, sweetness, and therefore pleasure, and one wonders to what extent the author intended the epithet “gardener” to remind the reader of the Epicureans. In order to enshrine Enlightenment values in the work, the author attributed these words to Lucifer upon being cast from heaven:

Friends, if victory is denied us now, it is because we are neither worthy nor capable of victory. Let us determine wherein we have failed. Nature shall not be ruled, the sceptre of the Universe shall not be grasped, Godhead shall not be won, save by knowledge alone.

… In these silent realms where we are fallen, let us meditate, seeking the hidden causes of things; let us observe the course of Nature; let us pursue her with compelling ardour and all-conquering desire; let us strive to penetrate her infinite grandeur, her infinite minuteness. Let us seek to know when she is barren and when she brings forth fruit; how she makes cold and heat, joy and sorrow, life and death; how she assembles and disperses her elements, how she produces both the light air we breathe and the rocks of diamond and sapphire whence we have been precipitated, the divine fire wherewith we have been scarred and the soaring thought which stirs our minds.

… It is through pain that, suffering a first experience of Nature, we have been roused to know her and to subdue her. When she obeys us we shall be as gods …

The rebel archetype is cast in heroic and noble relief when, at the crucial moment, Lucifer chooses not to take heaven from its former inhabitant, fearing that if he did, he would become in the end like his arch-enemy. He expounds the details of this choice to his angels in an epic speech, which gives the author an opportunity to furnish his critique of religion through the mouth of the Light-bearer.

The Ialdabaoth Tradition

It may sound like a creature out of HP Lovecraft mythos, but it’s not. Ialdabaoth is a name for the Demiurge (or Divine Craftsman) in the Gnostic tradition which was popular in Egypt when Christianity was young. The idea of the Demiurge ultimately has its roots in Platonism–and, in fact, Arcade exhibits a strong anti-Platonic spirit when he engages in debates with monks in a chapter which is just one of the many gems of great value in the novel.

The Demiurge is a false God or angel–syncretized also with the angel Ariel–who, out of vanity or ignorance, believes himself to be the one and only true god of the universe and seeks to convince all in heaven and Earth that he is to be worshiped as the only God. Naturally, he was syncretized into Jehovah of the Jews and Christians. It’s possible that this tradition emerged as a way for people in a world that had always been polytheistic and was heavily influenced by Plato to make sense of the petty jealousy and megalomania of the deity of the desert tribes.

“… I do not think He is either eternal or infinite, for it is absurd to conceive of a being who is not bounded by space or time. I think Him limited, even very limited. I no longer believe Him to be the only God. For a long time He did not believe it Himself; in the beginning He was a polytheist; later, His pride and the flattery of His worshippers made Him a monotheist. His ideas have little connection; He is less powerful than He is thought to be. And, to speak candidly, He is not so much a god as a vain and ignorant demiurge. Those who, like myself, know His true nature, call Him Ialdabaoth.” – Arcade, in Chapter 10

Some Christians from ancient times–in order to address the obvious differences between the Old and New Testament Gods–have claimed that the false, jealous God of the Old Testament was the Demiurge, but that there was still a higher and true God above him who is the one that Jesus revealed in the Gospels. This makes sense of John 8:44, where Jesus converses with a group named merely as “Jews” and tells them:

You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

If the God of the Jews is the Father of Lies, then the Father of Jesus must be a different person–to think otherwise would create too much cognitive dissonance, and history has shown that syncretistic appropriation is a convenient way for religious populations to resolve conflicts of this sort–hence the Ialdabaoth tradition, which had deep roots in Gnosticism. Gnosis means “knowledge”, so those who elaborated this tradition would have thought of themselves as being “in the know” and capable of explaining the contradictions that perplexed those who delved into these matters. This proved quite popular, particularly in cosmopolitan Alexandria (Egypt), where during Roman times had many Greeks and Jews, and people were often challenged with a vast variety of beliefs from different sources.

But the Gnostic flavor of Christianity would not survive. The Pauline Church of Rome sought by all the means at its disposal to do away with Gnosticism–as well as with any other competing version or interpretation of Christianity or the Bible–and to firmly establish its own salvific and exclusivist interpretation. This best served the interests of a Roman empire seeking to consolidate and to TEST the loyalties of its subjects. The attack on the Gnostics was not entirely a fruitful campaign because Anatole France, the author of Revolt of the Angels–who lived between 1844 and 1924–knew of the Ialdabaoth tradition decades before the Nag Hammadi scrolls were discovered and forever changed our ideas about the diversity that existed within primitive Christianity.

Some of the more paranoid end-of-days cults within Christianity (like Jehova’s Witnesses) also teach that the true god of this world is indeed the devil, but they seem oblivious as to the Gnostic roots of this tradition. Either way, I think that understanding the Ialdabaoth tradition is useful (but not necessary) to the enjoyment of this work.

Conclusion

I absolutely relished every page of this novel. The html version available from The Gutenberg Project was translated beautifully into English by Wilfrid Jackson–and I’m sure the French original is just as delicious and refined. Anatole France was an award-winning author and a member of the Académie Française who sympathized with the revolutionary ideas that were en vogue in early 20th-Century France, as Russia fell into the hands of the proletariat. The historical period and the solidarity that existed in the Parisian left at the time the book was written, add another layer of complexity to the novel.

I believe atheists, humanists and Epicureans will derive the most pleasure and inspiration from this book. It is ultimately a book about rebelling against religious tyranny and totalitarianism.

Then, as now, they showed themselves, for the most part, incapable of lofty thoughts, and in the fear of the Lord lay their sole virtue. – Chapter 18

Buy Anatole France – The Revolt of the Angels

Detailed Review of “A Few Days in Athens”

Book Review: How to Live a Good Life

2020-01-27T19:12:57.000Z

https://theautarkist.wordpress.com/2020/01/07/how-to-live-a-good-life/

Today is the official book release date for How to Live a Good Life: A Guide to Choosing Your Personal Philosophy by Penguin Random House (Amazon link here), a collection of 15 essays edited by Massimo Pigliucci, Skye Cleary and Daniel Kaufman. In includes chapters on Epicureanism, Daoism, Aristotelianism, Stoicism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity Progressive Islam, Existentialism, and other philosophies of life as they are lived today.

The purpose of the book is to help people living in the 21st Century to tackle the challenges related to choosing a personal philosophy of life by giving them fifteen radically different examples of how others are doing it. Most of the essays were written by members of clergy or of academia. I wrote the Epicureanism chapter, and have had the opportunity to read the book in its entirety. From the intro, we learn that these are a few of the goals of the book:

First, to appreciate the sheer variety of philosophical points of view on life and better understand other human beings who have chosen to live according to a philosophy different from your own. Understanding is the beginning of both wisdom and compassion. Second, because you may wish to know something more about your own—chosen or inherited—life philosophy; our authors are some of the best and brightest in the field, and their chapters make for enlightening reading. Last, it is possible that you, too, have been questioning your current take on life, the universe, and everything, and reading about other perspectives may reinforce your own beliefs, prompt you to experiment with another philosophy, or perhaps even cause you to arrive at a new eclectic mix of ideas.

In the past, I have published commentaries on Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian, Humanist, Nietzschean and other philosophical traditions, as well as Christianity, Islam, and the Bahá’í Faith. I have learned much from each of these traditions. I’ve learned to appreciate Muhammad’s good business sense–even if I profoundly disagree with most of the rest of Islam. I’ve learned to come to terms with and appreciate some of the good aspects of my own Christian upbringing.

I even cheerfully stumbled across a Daoist philosopher who was Epicurean in all but name! One of my favorite chapters in the book was the one on Daoism, which coincidentally is the philosophy that has the most in common with Epicureanism. It reminded me that if there are innumerable atoms in infinite space, as Epicurean cosmology says, this means that the cosmos is very complex and phenomena may have multiple valid explanations from various perspectives. This modern Epicureans call “polyvalent logic”.

From Confucianism, I was reminded that relations are part of what defines our identities. From Stoicism, I learned that it is prudent to let go of what we have no control over. From the Progressive Islam chapter, I learned that the efforts to bring Islam into the future go well beyond ijtihad (independent interpretation of the Qur’an), and capitalize on the Qur’anic message of economic justice to make the religion relevant to contemporary progressive issues. From Reform Jewish Rabbi Barbara Block, I learned:

How wise our world would become if only we would all learn from each other!

I also learned that there is a non-theistic religion called Ethical Culture (aka Religious Humanism), which is in many ways similar to Humanistic Judaism and to the Unitarian Universalist Church.

Existentialist thinkers like Sartre and De Beauvoir were very interested in how people objectify each other, and asked questions about how we can best develop mature, intersubjective human relations between free individuals. The Existentialism chapter reminded me that enemies can sometimes be a source of healthy competition and–in a strange way–be at the same time good friends,

that other people are vitally important because they challenge us and open up possibilities in ways that we do not always see on our own, and the best kinds of relationships are those that are constructively critical

and that

signing up for a set of rules that someone else created is “bad faith,” meaning that we are not being authentic.

The Effective Altruism chapter reminded me that, if I’m going to be putting out efforts to help others, I may as well ensure that my efforts have the greatest impact.

It would be unfair for me to “review” the content of the Epicureanism chapter, since I myself wrote it. I will leave that to others. However, I will say that the experiment of writing this chapter was a great chance to re-evaluate my own personal philosophy and to re-visit many of the things that I’ve learned as a student of Epicurean philosophy, and that everyone should carry out this experiment as a way of assessing the ways in which we sculpt ourselves and our lives as pleasant, how we create meaning and value, how we deal with existential baggage and challenges, and how we discern truth from untruth. In fact, ancient Epicureans were known for writing Epitomes that summarized their doctrines as a learning and memorizing tool. So my exercise of writing this chapter is actually a recommended practice of the tradition.

If you read How to Live a Good Life and want to maximize the pleasure that you get from the book, my advice is that you take this project a step further and write an essay where you expound your own personal philosophy, perhaps inspired by a few of the things you read here. If you do publish your essay, please share the link below! Most importantly, remember that philosophy is not just an exercise for academia: it’s an exercise for daily living.

The Word Is "Entropy"

2020-01-22T13:30:13.000Z

Entropy (n) lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder.

A Never-Ending Battle

Canaries, Coal Mines…

Believing is easy. Knowing is hard.

“Coasting” “The bill doesn’t come due until after we’re dead” … so why care?

“Eternal vigilance…”

I was reflecting the other day on a couple of my more recent blog posts and what they had in common. Looking at issues like climate change, social justice, LGBTQ rights and that observant comment by Tim Gill that it is a never-ending battle. The more I think about it, the more I have to acknowledge that he’s right. This is a struggle which has no finish line, no last battle, no deft move of rook or bishop after which we could triumphantly declare, “Checkmate!”

The obvious question is: “Why?” Certainly we’ve made some progress since going from hunter-gatherers to farmers and ranchers and explorers and scientists and politicians (was THAT an improvement?) and so on. Means of organizing ourselves have evolved from patriarchy and the rule from force authority to representative government in at least some countries. These have had varying degrees of success, but at least we keep trying. Steven Pinker in his book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, asserts that humankind in the 21st century is the least violent and most civilized it has ever been.

Lately, though, I feel as though we’ve hit a wall. There’s been a great deal of reaction going on lately, some of it ascribable to Trump, but not all. It’s gotten meaner out there. The temperature on the weather report isn’t the only one that is rising. I could ruminate about the impact of the Trump administration on civility in government, but that isn’t the point of this piece.

The point of this piece is one word. The word is: “Entropy.” Even as closed physical systems increase in disorder over time, so do human systems, if not pushed to do better. The tendency is toward the lowest excited state, the same as with electrons in their orbitals about atomic nuclei. Taking the least action necessary is very often the preferred option, and that “least action” is frequently NO action or action which only benefits first-person, singular.

Such behavior in the long term and frequently even in the short term is a formula for disaster. While I haven’t first-hand knowledge of such, early Homo sapiens was well advised to take care of his fellow humans back in the days when their primary and overriding concern was survival. We weren’t the fastest or strongest of the predators out there, but we were far and away the smartest. Cooperation, organizing, working together for the common good was the clear means not just to maintain our existence on this planet, but eventually to dominate it.

The problem has become, now that we’re the preeminent species on Planet Earth, some of us have gotten lazy. Our focus too often has shifted from survival to self-indulgence, from the group to the individual, along with a lack of concern for events going on around us. To quote George Harrison, it’s all about “I – Me – Mine” for a certain fraction of the population, and moving them off the dime can be an exercise in frustration if not utter futility.

And it’s not as though we don’t have enough problems to solve. From the living corruption which is Donald Trump to the daunting challenge of anthropogenic climate change, humankind has done a superb job of fouling its own nest. Sadly, because there are those who either will not participate in solutions to these and other problems or will deny that there is a problem at all, we wind up with a situation where the fight is never over, the battle never ends, and the finish line is always removed from where we currently are. The damnedest characteristic of this whole mess is that such may truly be the natural state of the human animal.

So it may be. Those of us who are engaged with these and other problems and determined to resolve them amount to the Little Red Hen: gathering the wheat, making the flour, and baking the bread, while the other barnyard animals await the arrival of the final product when it emerges from the oven, having done nothing to contribute to its production, yet thinking they are deserving of a slice, if not the whole loaf. The job is mostly thankless and may be endless, so long as the hangers-on don’t care to engage. Yet here we are, still slogging away, mostly I suspect because we believe we can do more than just deal with the messes we’ve made. We can improve things, lighten our collective load, and make our lives better yet.

I haven’t quit yet, and I don’t see you slowing down either. Let’s get on it.

Politics or evolution?

2020-01-19T08:38:58.000Z

We have all seen those people who obstinately deny pejorative effects of air pollution , polluted water, polluted soil in farming, toxic company.

Many think it’s partisan politics. But I think it’s evolution.

Stop Childhood Indoctrination – A Message of Hope

2020-01-13T02:48:03.000Z

A child who has just entered existence has absolutely no knowledge of the universe around him/her. A newborn relies completely on its parents for everything from nutrition to unconditional love. Anybody who reads this will agree that a huge majority of the people on earth claim to believe in one of the many religions because their parents indoctrinated them from a very young age. It is simply a constant cycle of indoctrination from generation to generation. By stopping childhood indoctrination, the newer generations will be able to make a choice for themselves after they have thoroughly researched the alternatives. It is very possible that these fresh, brilliant minds will understand that the world would be better without the dividing hostile barrier that is religion. The major problem is that many religions such as Catholicism/Christianity teach their members that childhood indoctrination is required because a pure, innocent child is actually filled with original sin. The members of these types of religions are left no choice because they are under the delusion that their child might suffer excommunication from the church and hell in the afterlife. Once the child is indoctrinated he/she will follow a life of delusion in which they will blindly follow religious claims without evidence and ignore scientific facts and logic. In a world where religion has caused division, ignorance, and bloodshed over imaginary entities parents would be making a huge positive impact on society by not indoctrinating their children into a religion. We do not have all the answers to life, and there is nothing wrong with that. We should encourage freethought, and continue our pursuit of the truth through science, it has been working out well so far, and what we have discovered is already incredibly beautiful in all of its nature.

“Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”

‘My God’

2020-01-08T15:55:19.000Z

My first entry on this site – which caught my eye, actually while looking for the song "I’m as mad as a hatter" by Chad Morgan, posted on here by ‘Michael’ back in 2010, but that’s another story :).

I have always considered myself an atheist, and yet always grappled with what a god or God might be. Was I missing out, or had I just not understood something, or taken some things too literally. I wasn’t sure. So, a would-be poet, a sometimes singer-songwriter (my profile picture was taken at Douglas Corner Cafe open-mic in Nashville where I have performed) I penned the following thoughts.

I generally preface the poem with the caveat and bridge-building words "A personal view on what ‘religion’ might be. It is not meant to offend". Given that we are all self-professed atheists here, I should not be undermining your faith or demeaning your ‘God’. Perhaps I still need a preface though, to hope you will bear with me if I share that I have a god, but one that lives inside me. I hope this resonates with you.

’My God'

by Trevor Valentine

My god
Lives inside,
Within me
And yes,
So does my devil,
Unfortunately.

But, my god will prevail
Because he is good
And without vice or sin
And, it is these both
Which ultimately
Will help the other,
His nemesis,
Dig his own premature pit
And he will be buried
Forgotten
Well, almost.

And it may be
That my god
Is the same
As your God
Because he embraces
Goodness
In whatever form

He is not vain
And I believe your God
Is much the same
So they may be friends
Already

That either God
Can seem to allow
Great hurt
Or great pain
Is sometimes perplexing
But, I think I now understand

We are blessed with life
For however long
For however short
Under whatever strain
In whatever form
Transient sometimes
And he is our friend
He is there to support

And, if I am right
This same God
Lives within you too

So, as my friend
Our Gods may then join
And we are both stronger
And we share the pain
And the joy
Together

And this joining
This union
Is the beginning
Of something
Much bigger
We may call it
‘Religion’
And this is good
And strong
And collective
And embracing

At least most times

For when it does not
Embrace
Or would inflict power upon
Or would suppress
Other brother
Or sister
Or cousin faiths
Or even those
Who would choose
What you might call
‘Rejection’
This causes harm
And is not
What my god
In his peace
Intended

He gave me
This form
This frame
To live
To create
To perpetuate
And yet
He also gave me
An inner frame
An inner voice
An inner mind
Which lives within

Is it Him
Or Her
It does not matter

It is a voice
A conscious thinking
A spark of life
And it is always there
And it always speaks to me
A comfort
A support

That he gave me
And you
This life
This opportunity
I am grateful
And always will be

Eternally.

+++

Then What Are You For?!

2019-12-05T14:15:23.000Z

…they [the Roman Catholic Church] for example thought that slavery was perfectly fine… absolutely okay, and then they didn’t, and what is the point of the Catholic Church if it says, “oh well we couldn’t know better because nobody else did”? [To the affirmative team] Then what are you for?!
— Stephen Fry, answering a question during the 2009 Intelligence Squared debate, “Is the Catholic Church a force for good in the world?”

Of course, slavery was okay to the Church. The concept isn’t just approved by the bible, its practices and usages are fully outlined in Exodus 21 and Leviticus 25. It’s also endorsed by their big boy, “J” in the New Testament – “Slaves, obey your masters…” As the bible is the revealed and inerrant word of their god, any belief, action, or practice which has such rousing approval should be beyond question.

Yet not only has slavery as a practice been questioned, it has been proscribed and abandoned by the vast majority of the civilized world in the current day. Worse, the RCC was well behind the curve as regards this massive change in attitude. While encyclicals from Rome varied in their opinions regarding the topic, as late as 1866, representatives of Pope Pius IX expressed no condemnation of the sale or exchange of slaves, based in “divine law.” Meantime, the United States had already very nearly torn itself apart in a Civil War whose primary point of argument was the issue of the ownership of people as property. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, establishing the rights of African-Americans, were being proposed and would be ratified only a few years later, even as the Vatican was holding forth with a clearly opposing position.

Very well … how was it that, all at once, the Catholic Church decided that slavery was NOT okay? Clearly, they were not taking their holy book as a primary source in making such a decision, as evinced by the above-cited biblical verses. It’s dubious that any other reference in the Vatican’s considerable library would be anything like definitive in countering the root basis for the structure of their religion. So what did it?

My own suspicion may be summed up in one word: “blowback,” the blowback of ordinary people whose personal moral senses were enraged at the idea of the treatment of certain human beings as something less than human. Simple human decency, bolstered by considerable numbers, finally forced the hand of the Church. One would think such a thing shouldn’t be necessary. As the Church is supposed to be the foremost authority on matters moral and ethical, for them to be so badly out of step on an issue this critical speaks to a systemic failure on their part to assess, understand, and adjust their position.

Sadly, this state of affairs is not limited to slavery. The status of women, of the LGBTQ community, of the aberrant behavior of their own priests with children, and too many other issues to count show the Church badly out of the mainstream of modern social thought. The reason is tragically simple: their seemingly immutable attachment to a standard, expressed in a single book, which was written by men, frozen in time, and exempt from modification or evolution, and which cannot deal with the changes which humankind has undergone in the intervening years and decades and centuries. Because of that dependence, any possibility of those who would represent Roman Catholicism of joining the rest of us in the 21st century is reduced to little or none.

In the light of that intransigence, one might well ask those of the denizens of Vatican City and its representatives around the world: “What ARE you for?”

What A Long, Strange Trip…

2019-11-16T14:10:28.000Z

Sometime in early November, 2009, an atheist friend of mine on the now-defunct Experience Project website directed me over to a relatively new site called Atheist Nexus. There, EVERYONE was an atheist, and you didn’t have to worry about believers crashing the party and constantly trying to convert you. Gee, I thought, I should have a look, and I did, and what I found was a lively, vital community of freethinkers who had no problem with stating their points of view in boldface.

Cool, I thought, and it wasn’t very long after that I published my first piece, relating my own atheism to my love of classical music, including religious music. Shock and amazement, I got all sorts of responses, which doesn’t hurt the old ego at all. Not very long after that came the shooting incident at Fort Hood, Texas and we all learned the name Nidal Malik Hasan. The clear relationship between Hasan, Islam, and that tragedy all but demanded some form of commentary and therewith came my first-ever blog. Over 170 have followed after, most of which I can say I’m pretty proud of.

There have been a lot of changes in the intervening time. Huge discussions on everything from climate change to circumcision to the politics of skepticism. I came here one year into the presidency of a black man until three Novembers ago, whereupon we shifted abruptly from a thoughtful constitutional scholar to a narcissistic, blithering idiot who seems to be determined to take down our democracy any way he can. During this arc, I got an online education in atheism and people I had never heard of before, with names like Dawkins and Harris and Dillahunty and Andrews and Ra. I discovered a brilliant British-born American contrarian by the name of Christopher Hitchens, whose encyclopedic understanding and rapier wit skewered opponent after opponent in discussions and debates. And then we all lost him, and while we grieved that loss, to one degree or another, we recognized the legacy he had left, not just in his books and YouTube videos but in us, in how we approached our own atheism and how we approached others with it. We owe him so very much.

A|N has changed too, in ways obvious and subtle, from the original visual format which in places could be downright garish down to the cleaner, sparer layout we know today. Sadly, our contributing population has suffered a similar winnowing as well, from who knows how many members in 2009 down to a hardcore bunch of nutcases who continue to hang in with this place, for its familiarity and our investment in it, both monetary and written, and absolutely for the close, dear friends we have made in the process. A lot of the growth I’ve experienced in the decade past I can credit to them in what they have brought to this place and what they have taught me. That value is incalculable to me.

Indeed, what a long, strange trip it has been from here to there. How much longer it’ll hang in, I have no idea, but I mean to hang in with it … because I think it’s worth it.

German Baptist Wedding

2019-10-27T12:32:41.000Z

I attended my first German Baptist wedding yesterday, and it was quite the experience.

German Baptists in my north-central part of Indiana are a mix of old and new ways of living. They drive vehicles and have cell phones, but don’t own televisions, for example. The women put their hair up in bonnets and wear long dresses. The men all have beards and wear black.

Lorene, the bride, has worked on my farm for 6 years (along with several other GB girls). So she invited me to her wedding. My 3 grandchildren all played a role in the wedding.

The whole affair was held in a large tent on Lorene’s parents farm. The weather was awful–windy and rainy and chilly–and muddy. Out of the 250 or so attendees, we were basically the only non GBs there. The people were very friendly, so I never felt out of place. We’re all used to interacting in our community.

We all sat in hard wooden chairs. From some man in the "congregation", a hymn was started. No instruments of any sort. We had a "song book" to sing How Great Thou Art–all 4 verses and VERY slow! Then another song, and then another, all in harmony.

Finally, the bride and groom came forward. No parents, best man, or bridesmaid. The backdrop was an old barn door with green plants around it–very plain and simple.

The preacher rambled on in sermon-like fashion about what the Bible says about marriage and what "we" expect (I suppose "we" meaning the GB community.). From Eve being made from Adam’s rib to several other references, there was no mistaking that Lorene was to be submissive to her husband. He was to be the bread winner, she the dutiful housewife. Lorene is a very strong and independent young lady, so I don’t how that went over with her. We’re not sure whether she’ll return to working on the farm. (The groom is a welder by trade.) I’m guessing she will.

After an hour of sitting on hard chairs, I was ready to leave. All 250 of us had to greet the newly married couple. I was talked into staying and was glad I did. We were summarily fed a large meal of chicken, rice, bread, fruit (grapes and bananas), and salad (lettuce from our Silverthorn Farm). Big bowls of food were passed down the table. Water and sweetened iced tea to drink. Then cake and ice cream. My, oh my, everything was so delicious!

It was quite the experience, but very difficult for an atheist to sit through. Despite the great dinner, I think I’ll pass on the weddings of Lorene’s two sisters who also work on our farm!

State / Church Separation, Mike Pompeo, and My Reaction

2019-10-14T18:45:10.000Z

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been hanging out at Hemant Mehta’s Friendly Atheist website, reading and commenting on his multiple daily posts. This afternoon, while scanning an entry regarding an art teacher who was criticizing students whose work offended her Christian sensibilities, someone posted the following graphic, which I thought was particularly disturbing, especially considering its source:

I was sufficiently incensed at this clear breach in State / Church separation by Mr. Pompeo that I was moved to write the following on the State Department website:

It is one thing to be a Christian and espouse Christian beliefs and viewpoints as a private citizen. It is entirely another to do so as a person in a position of high responsibility in a government whose Constitution was designed and intended to be without taint of ANY religion, whether Christian, Jewish, Islamic, or any other system of belief. Yet this is what Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has done with his appearance at the American Association of Christian Counselors on 11 October of this year. Need I remind you that it is the de-jure nature of our government to be INDEPENDENT from ANY religion, so that we can treat all people of all religions as well as those who have no religious belief EQUALLY? The favoritism demonstrated by Pompeo’s appearance at this meeting is emblematic of the lack of religious independence which has characterized this administration from its beginning. I have to ask the obvious question: Would Mr. Pompeo be equally as willing to address an audience of Muslims … or Mormons … or a Jewish assembly … or a gathering of atheists … and assure to them that their voice would be equally as heard in the halls of American government as Christians are?

As an atheist, I have to call Mr. Pompeo to account for his actions in this regard. While the United States is a nation containing a great number of Christians, It is NOT by any intent a Christian nation. I state this with the confidence represented by the text of Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli, which begins:

"As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion…"

I would add to that Article VI, paragraph 3 of our Constitution, which insists that no religious test shall be applied to any office or public trust, as well as the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Certainly Mr. Pompeo may practice his religion as he chooses. However, as Secretary of State, his position in the government demands a higher standard of behavior and decorum, one which he has clearly ignored.

I therefore write this to express my extreme disappointment and disapproval of the actions of Mr. Pompeo, with the suggestion that he rethink his attitude toward his position and the necessity of maintaining his own separation of State and Church when he acts from the office of the Secretary of State.

Respectfully submitted,

Loren C. Miller, Jr.
Bedford Heights, Ohio

An Open Letter / Rant

2019-10-04T17:10:13.000Z

This is an open letter to certain people … people who are supposed to work for the government on our behalf in an official capacity. It can be a cop or a judge or a district attorney, a mayor, governor, or even a president. Judge Roy Moore comes to mind … and more recently Judge Tammy Kemp. If her name doesn’t ring a bell, think “Amber Guyger.” Kim Davis qualifies here as well. As to presidents, use a little imagination and at least one or two should come to mind. Regardless, this is addressed to all of those who are in the service of their government, yet cannot seem to be able to separate their job from their bible or belief system. I’m thinking of those people who are convinced down to their marrow that this is a Christian nation, populated with enough Christians that dealing with those couple people who might not be (and SHOULD be, by their lights) shouldn’t matter that much. Most especially, if you don’t believe as they do, they’ll encourage you to do so, not only as an individual, but as an authority figure, bulwarked by the government that employs them and acting as though it endorses their actions.

I just have a little something to say to those people. Bear with me; this won’t take long:

Look … I don’t care whether you’re Christian, Jew, Muslim, Mormon, whatever. The second you step into a courtroom as an officer of the court, or put on a badge and a gun and go out on patrol or take on a client to represent them before the government, so long as you are in that role, Your ONLY Obligation Is To The LAW. What your Bible or Quran or Bhagavad Gita or Book of Mormon says HAS NO PLACE … because you will be dealing with people who may believe different from you or may have no belief in any god at all. And because that is the case, it is incumbent upon you to be NEUTRAL.

And if you can’t do that … you should not take on that responsibility. PERIOD.

And that’s all I got.

the farce

2019-09-25T05:59:53.000Z

Anywhere and everywhere we find thousands of people in utter penury, some begging, some eating one meal a day, offspring with malnutrition facing imminent death, womenfolk exploited by affluent by molest , bond labor , and what not, a sea of infinite pain and unendurable suffering spanning millions of people. Who are they? Why they are in such condition?

For academic discussion we ignore Darwin theory of evolution and presume there is God, as envisaged and presumed by different faiths.

I analyze the reasons, not with an intention of belittling any faith but seeking answers for my doubts as an ongoing zeal and quest for knowledge. This is not a mudslinging exercise as seen now a day,. I today stand by my convictions, crystallized at a very tender age and I try to be impartially objective in my presentations and not with any ulterior motive or any psychological complexes originated due to relentless indoctrination and acclimatization of easy and legal path to privileged atmosphere as evident in many instances.

God is necessary to regulate the behavior of society, but not infinitum. After the society is accustomed, guidelines imposed and the administrative machinery in place , the necessity ceases ,but as a fallback position in cases of utter desperation , it helps as a vent of relief of escapism to pass the buck. I agree but the disadvantages outnumber this escapism.

The Hindu faith says these sufferings are due to sins in this life or preceding life. Why account not settled in last life or in hell? Why brought forward? when a person suffers he does not suffer alone , his family members also suffer, may be it that the family members also committed some sin and due for punishment , and they were joined with the person like a jigsaw puzzle to receive punishment in varying degrees. The puzzle is solved as all pieces fitted together. And it is inferred that the tax evaders, the fraudsters, and all other who committing sins now may or may not face punishment either here or in hell ,and perhaps in next life but enjoy affluent life in this life. At present their slates are clean, and only for this reason they are made affluent and trouble free or with less trouble. Fantastic theory. With Vedas, Upanishads, numerous puranas and sustained and systematic rituals 220-225 days in a year to ensure that the believers do not go astray, this faith with glaring lapses in their sources still feel insecure and marginally contribute to the destitute but spends significant amount on faith rituals. Do their faith not tell them that the service to mankind is service to the God? Still they conveniently overlook this and obsessed with only keeping their folks together.

This is for a start.

Av53

ABC News Cops Out Again

2019-09-11T20:10:52.000Z

I have recently learned that, in the Democratic Primary Debate, scheduled for tomorrow, 12 September, 2019, ABC News has once again opted not to air the following commercial, sponsored by the FFRF:

Sadly, there is little new in this decision, being that none of the major networks are given to offering air time to the FFRF. That does not change the fact that they deserve to be well and properly spanked when those failures occur. That said, the following was just posted to ABC News’ feedback site:

I am disappointed to hear that you have refused to air a commercial, sponsored by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which features President John F. Kennedy, stating: "I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute." Why should such a statement be controversial? Church / State separation is codified in our Constitution and further reinforced in Article XI of the Treaty of Tripoli, yet you apparently are frightened of the response of those who would have us believe that the United States is something other than a secular nation, who most likely think the US is a Christian nation, where the Christian powers-that-be do all they can to strip away the wall between government and religion and favor THEIRS over others. What is saddest of all is that the above-mentioned commercial was intended for airing during the Democratic Primary Debates, whose audience would include both secularists and religionists who strongly support the idea that there should be no interplay between those two establishments.

The fact is that I watch very little of ABC’s programming as it is these days. While I will almost certainly take in at least some of the debate, your failure to consider that portion of your audience which endorses Kennedy’s statement gives me that much more incentive NOT to bother with your offerings any further.

It’s pretty clear to me that ABC’s decision-making personnel are not keeping up with the times. They certainly fail to recognize that the number of non-religious citizens in the United States is doing nothing but going UP, while US religiosity in general is going DOWN.

I would urge any of you who feel as I do about this blatant inequity to contact ABC News through their feedback site, add your voice to my disapproval and let ABC know that it is well past time they got with the program.

Dot

2019-09-07T12:13:26.000Z

My dog, Dot, tags along when I go on long walks on county roads. She often gets distracted in her curiosity. The other day, she fell behind and never caught up. Since I went around the 4 mile block, I didn’t see her on my return. I waited all day for her to come trotting home.

About 6 hours later, a young lady knocked on my door and asked if I’d lost a dog. There Dot was in the back seat of her small car. Relief! The lady asked her neighbors (in a small town of about 100 people over a mile from my house) about the dog and possible owner. Someone knew the connection. The young gal refused my "reward" offer.

My point is this: I’m misanthropic for the most part. But, there are times when the goodness of my fellow humans produce pause and cause for reconsideration.