It has been just under a year since I first started this blog. One of the things that most moved me was the plight of the little children in Africa being mutilated and killed because a christian missionary was branding them as witches.
http://simonspeaks.livejournal.com/703.html
In that year I have had the courage to come out of the closet if you will in regards to my Atheism. I have become quite active in several secular humanist groups in Arizona, and started Secular Arizona on Facebook and the Rational Protagonists. As I look back I realize that is not my atheism that defines me, no more than the lack of a belief in the tooth fairy can define a child, but rather my dedication to a rational and critical thinking approach to the worlds problems.
One of the earliest classes I took in college was Philosophy and logic. It was there that I started to realize that there was this method, this way to determine the reality of the world.
Here is some of that reality.
A nine year old Nigerian boy has been accused of being a witch by the local minister. He is referring to the book of Exodus 22:18- that states , "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." His father, having been raised as a good Christian and believing in the word of god, decides to force hydrochloric acid down the boys throat in order to drive the demons out. Imagine, for a moment, how terrified that little boy must have been. How that must have felt? How confused, How betrayed by the loving god that he was raised with? One of the two persons he most looked up to in life, his father, was forcibly pouring acid down his throat as an exorcism. Confused, and in agonizing pain, the acid burned away his face and eyes. He was taken to a hospital, barely able to breath on his own. The boy hardly had strength left to whisper the name of the church that had denounced him — Mount Zion Lighthouse. He clung to life, desperately, and in agony for a month, before he died.
A 40 year old Arizona woman, compelled by her belief in the same book, believes in the miracles of god on earth. She regularly attends church gatherings where she feels the power of god heal people around her. She surrounds herself with others that believe in the same thing, the literal word of the bible. And yet when confronted by the reality of what that literal word of her faith did to that little child, she does nothing.
Did it make her feel uncomfortable, knowing that the same loving god allowed this to happen? The same passage in the Nigerian ministers bible can be found in hers. Or is she conflicted, confused as to why an omnipotent, benevolent, loving god would save some people, from rather banal ailments, and not others. Or does she cloak herself in her "faith" believing that god has higher plans? She could argue that they do not belong to the same sect of Christianity that she does, but still will not admit that the fundamental problem, lies not with the people, but with the book.
How easily we rationalize our behavior when it doesn't fit in with our established belief system. How easily we turn a blind eye, when it makes us uncomfortable. We are all guilty of it, we all do it from time to time. When one looks at Christianity, or really any religion critically and rationally, one is quickly inundated by the hypocrisy, the contradiction. Dare I say, the immorality of believing so strongly in your dogma, that you can no longer feel compassion with those who would make you feel uncomfortable?
Both those stories are true. The plight of the Nigerian witch children has not gone away in the past year since I wrote about it, in fact the problem has become much worse. There are now half a dozen churches operation in Africa killing children, and most of those have links to churches here in the United States including Mount Zion Lighthouse, based out of California. How many times do we see this? How many times has faith and willfull ignorance been used to exploit or harm people?
How long do the children have to suffer the sins of the parents?
The most direct way that you can help is by a donation to the Child's Rights and Rehabilitation Network.
http://crarn.tripod.com/
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Update on that last post. The Arizona Daily Star published an article on 9-17-09 in regards to several comments made by the Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. In it she is quoted as saying that "God has placed me in this powerful position as Arizona's governor". In addition she detailed to the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church, "As with past challenges, tragedies or problems that I've had to confront, I first and foremost relied on my faith to guide me through, for I believe in the power of prayer," she said. "And I firmly believe that God has placed me in this powerful position of Arizona's governor to help guide our state through the difficulty that we are currently facing." "And that has caused me, of course, to be grateful that we are a country of Christianity," she said.
"I don't think under the circumstances that anybody's in the position of living at this turbulent time, these terrible, critical times of our nation, can possibly get through without asking for help and guidance from Jesus Christ and from God," the governor told the ministers.
"For those of us who have lived it and practiced it, we just know that,"
Mandate from god? Guidance from Jesus Christ? The hijackers of 911 had a mandate from god. The Crusaders of the middle ages had a mandate from god. Even Hitler felt he had a mandate from god. Even our beloved President, George W. Bush, who told the French President Jacques Chirac “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East.... The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled.... This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.” How much blood must be split as a result from a mandate from god?
Most mainstream Christians believe that we are living in the "end times". These end times they are referring to directly relate to an interpretation of The Book of Revelation. In it it details the end of the world as we know it in a great battle between good and evil, the outcome of which will be a 1000 years of peace with Christ as master. In addition all Christians ascend to heaven and to eternal paradise before this war takes place, leaving the rest of humanity to eternal suffering. Truly, why on earth would you want to not bring about your progress to eternal paradise? According to modern biblical scholars, the end times will start with a nuclear war in the middle east and spread through out the world. In addition, this new form of Christianity, the one you see in the "Family" In Washington D.C. and in the Az Center for Policy, believe that the United States is that Kingdom of Christ.
Lets recap, shall we? These people believe that they have a mandate from god to bring about a nuclear war and make the United States a religions dictatorship? Far fetched?
A recent poll showed that Fully 59% of Americans say they believe the events in Revelation are going to come true. This includes Our Governor Brewer, Ex Presidents Bush, and Senators and Congressmen too numerous to post here.
You know, just before my Grandmother died we got a chance to sit and talk about her life. About how she saw her country ripped away from her, first by the Nazis, then by the Communists. She saw her friends and family hung publicly for treason. Family whisked away in the dead of night, taken to concentrations camps never to be see again. She told me after watching the news one night, "you don't know how quickly it happens, one day you just wake up, and everything, it is gone. Be careful".
"I don't think under the circumstances that anybody's in the position of living at this turbulent time, these terrible, critical times of our nation, can possibly get through without asking for help and guidance from Jesus Christ and from God," the governor told the ministers.
"For those of us who have lived it and practiced it, we just know that,"
Mandate from god? Guidance from Jesus Christ? The hijackers of 911 had a mandate from god. The Crusaders of the middle ages had a mandate from god. Even Hitler felt he had a mandate from god. Even our beloved President, George W. Bush, who told the French President Jacques Chirac “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East.... The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled.... This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.” How much blood must be split as a result from a mandate from god?
Most mainstream Christians believe that we are living in the "end times". These end times they are referring to directly relate to an interpretation of The Book of Revelation. In it it details the end of the world as we know it in a great battle between good and evil, the outcome of which will be a 1000 years of peace with Christ as master. In addition all Christians ascend to heaven and to eternal paradise before this war takes place, leaving the rest of humanity to eternal suffering. Truly, why on earth would you want to not bring about your progress to eternal paradise? According to modern biblical scholars, the end times will start with a nuclear war in the middle east and spread through out the world. In addition, this new form of Christianity, the one you see in the "Family" In Washington D.C. and in the Az Center for Policy, believe that the United States is that Kingdom of Christ.
Lets recap, shall we? These people believe that they have a mandate from god to bring about a nuclear war and make the United States a religions dictatorship? Far fetched?
A recent poll showed that Fully 59% of Americans say they believe the events in Revelation are going to come true. This includes Our Governor Brewer, Ex Presidents Bush, and Senators and Congressmen too numerous to post here.
You know, just before my Grandmother died we got a chance to sit and talk about her life. About how she saw her country ripped away from her, first by the Nazis, then by the Communists. She saw her friends and family hung publicly for treason. Family whisked away in the dead of night, taken to concentrations camps never to be see again. She told me after watching the news one night, "you don't know how quickly it happens, one day you just wake up, and everything, it is gone. Be careful".
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
I recently had the opportunity to view the Center for Arizona’s Policy you tube video titled “Standing with Arizona Policy”. For those of you that don’t know, The Center for Arizona Policy is a very powerful Christian lobbying group in Arizona that skirts the rules for 501(c)3 organizations with great skill. They were recently responsible for the passing of House Bill 2564 and Senate Bill 1175, effectively tightening abortion laws. This post is a rebuttal to some of the more, provocative statements in this video.
The video can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDe_WBLp78I&feature=player_embedded
What follows are timestamps and quotes from the above video.
0:25 “Awake and Arise”
Keywords used to link to the organization Awake and Arise. This organization follows the teachings of the “Prophet” Patriot Ezra Taft Benson. Also a reference to “Awake Arizona”, A conference recently held in Mesa by the group “Bridge Builders” Cindy Jacobs who ran the conference, bills herself as ''Prophetess to the nations.'', co-founder of Generals International an organization devoted to training in prayer and spiritual warfare. She has written several book the most popular of which is "Possessing the Gates", on Militant intersession. Vocally anti gay and is quoted name checking Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. “We’re not going to give Satan any rest,” she cried. “We’re not going to give city councils any rest. We’re not going to give legislatures any rest.”
0:39 “ How threatened our religious freedoms is in our nation today and in our state”
Exactly whose religious freedoms are we talking about here? The Constitution and Bill of rights of the United States of America very clearly protects everyone’s religious beliefs. I suspect that what they are talking about here is there “right” to impose their dogmatic religion on the rest of us. I challenge them to show me one example of how their religious “rights” have been infringed upon. Can you say the same for the Islamic population of Arizona?
0:47 “”We are trying to protect religious freedom in courts. But also pass legislation that pro actively preserves our rights”
Once again their rights, as all of ours, are already protected in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. This is a classic example of the use of buzz words. They are intentionally using phrases like “protect religious freedom” and “preserves our rights “, in order to gain a reaction. Not only is it misleading, but it is false. It was used here to get a knee jerk reaction from fellow Christians.
1:06 “As long as there are differences of opinion we will always have somebody bringing something that is anti family to the legislature”
Differences of opinion lead to anti family? Let’s clarify; differing from their opinion will always lead to anti family laws being passed. Scare tactics.
1:19 “We virtually look at every bill that’s been introduced in the legislature to see if this is going to impact our families, is this going to impact our religious freedom”
Again they are using the phrase “religious freedom” as if Christianity in this country is somehow threatened. And once again I need to point out that their rights are already protected. So if they are not taking about rights what are they talking about? They have demonstrated that they wish to pass legislation that reinforces their dogma, with no regard to any other belief system. They don’t want religious freedom; they want to change the law in this country so that we have no religious freedom, only their religion.
1:54 “What is seen at times in the legislature is the idea that parents don’t know what’s best for their children”
2:38 “We work to make sure that home schools and private schools wont be regulated”
So, no school standards? No standards for homeschooling? No, sure they want standards, their standards. I suspect that this is a result of the science vs. religion debate. The United States ranks 29th out of the 47th most industrialized nations in the world when it comes to science education by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It measures student literacy in science, math, and reading (focusing this year on science) among 15-year-olds, and is an often-cited reference for policymakers sounding the alarm bells about the state of education in the United States and its implications for the ability of Americans to secure jobs in a global economy.
2:43 “Parents have the right to opt their children out of school activities that are offensive to their religious or moral beliefs”
Let’s make no mistake; they are referring to the Evolution/ Creation debate happening in schools right now. Evolution is science, creationism is religion. I have no problem teaching creationism in a religious studies class; please keep it out of science classrooms. You don’t teach astrology in science do you? Do you teach geology in theology? Accepting the world as the evidence shows us, even if conflicts with their scripture are rational and sane.
3:09 Abortion
I won’t go into the ethics’ of abortion here. Instead let’s look at some legislature that this group just had pass in our state government. The House Bill 2564 and Senate Bill 1175, create a 24-hour waiting period to get an abortion, require physicians to perform the procedure, and require that parents provide notarized consent for their minor children to get abortions. All right, but it also states that pharmacists and other health-care professionals can refuse to provide contraception. What? It is a focus of this group to promote abstinence-only education instead of traditional sex education among teens. No less than three studies in the past five years were done to determine the effectiveness of abstinence in teens. All the studies showed that those taking the virginity pledge engaged in intercourse just as often as those who did not take the pledge . Pledge takers also were found to be less frequent users of condoms and other forms of birth control. Therefore, those youngsters who took the virginity pledge were not only just as likely to have intercourse; they ultimately were more likely to take part in sex in an unsafe manner.
5:00 Marriage-“The goal of our opponents- is to so redefine marriage as to marriage means nothing”
Lets see, The United States leads the world in divorce, with 4.95 per 1,000 people divorcing. There is no evidence that gay marriage has any different divorce rates than straight divorces. The law in this country has already reduced the religious concept of marriage to effectively a civil union, protecting the rights of both parties. It has taken it out of the hands of religion. The argument that allowing gay marriage will reduce their concept of marriage to mean nothing is absurd. It already means nothing according to the statistics. Perhaps they need to look at why the divorce rate is so high in a purely straight population.
6:23 “one man married to one woman is absolutely crucial. We see the effects when you don’t have that in society, we see it in the jails every day”
What the hell is this? I’m not sure what they mean here. Perhaps they are trying to say that homosexuality leads to more crime in our societies? There are no very compelling statistics here, but it is fairly clear that this is an inflammatory comment targeting fear.
7:00 “The truth Project” -“To help us think more critically”
Focus on the Family has launched "The Truth Project," a curriculum designed to reintroduce Christians to a biblical worldview of science, law, and other fields of knowledge. Even other Christian groups have attacked the Truth Project as a mis use of scripture. If anything the, last chapter, on science, shows such a lack of BASIC understanding of science that it is hard not to laugh out loud at some of their assumptions. The largest hole in their approach is that all they say is evolution is wrong. Not so much why creation is right. Not to mention, they never give scientific proof for their reasons.
http://www.planetisaac.com/2009/04/truth-project-science-critique.html
http://hopwoodhopper.blogspot.com/2009/01/wariness-of-truth-project.html
http://mrhackman.blogspot.com/2007/09/truth-project-part-1.html
7:48 “In all these areas and many others we see a great conflict between good and evil and if Christians do not rally to support and encourage those who are trying to bring an influence for good in civil government they leave a vacuum and the influence that is contrary to the standards scripture, and contrary to the purposes of God in the world, and contrary to the advancement of the gospel, that influence is going to become stronger and stronger.”
Ah there it is the truth. To them this is a war between good and evil. Let’s take a look at some of their goals as stated in this last bit.
They wish to conform government to the “standards of the scriptures”. I’m sorry but do we really need a law that puts those of us to death that works on the Sabbath? (Exodus 35:2) Or perhaps destroy everyone in Iraq? (Deuteronomy 7:1-2) or reinstitute slavery? (Ephesians 2:18). The Old Testament clearly gives a mandate for these and other atrocities. They have stated repeatedly that they believe in the bible as the “infallible” word of god.
They want to conform the government to the purposes of God. Who’s god again? And who exactly speaks for God? The Prophetess Cindy Jacobs? The same woman who held a prayer vigil at the stature of the bull on Wall Street to bring her wealth?
Advance the gospel in Government. Again, to what end?
In this video one can find endorsements from Az Representatives Kirk Adams and Steve Yarbrough, State senator Linda Grey, US Congressman Trent Franks, and US Senator Jon Kyl.
The Constitution and Bill of Rights of these United States are very clear about this.
Thomas Jefferson wrote “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.
And John Adams wrote and codified into law within the Treaty of Tripoly "The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
I am deeply offended and disgusted by this not just from an intellectual viewpoint but from a moral one as well. It seems to me that this was designed as a scare tactic directed toward Christian moderates. Not only is it rife with inaccuracies, it is filled with sensational buzzwords and is intentionally misleading. This is the worse form of propaganda, trying to manipulate through fear.
If you will, remove the religion from the argument for a moment. Pretend that they are purely a secular organization trying to change policy. What are we left with? One could argue, a radical group that wants to dismantle the Constitution and replace it with their form of a fascist state. Why would that be tolerated in our society? It would not, and yet moderate Christians do almost nothing to prevent this insanity.
This isn’t an argument over the existence of god or even of religion; this is one group trying to impose their dogma on the rest of society with no regard for any other belief system or reality. I have to question whether society would be so tolerant if this was a secular group, or I dare say an Islamic one?
The video can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDe_WBLp78I&feature=player_embedded
What follows are timestamps and quotes from the above video.
0:25 “Awake and Arise”
Keywords used to link to the organization Awake and Arise. This organization follows the teachings of the “Prophet” Patriot Ezra Taft Benson. Also a reference to “Awake Arizona”, A conference recently held in Mesa by the group “Bridge Builders” Cindy Jacobs who ran the conference, bills herself as ''Prophetess to the nations.'', co-founder of Generals International an organization devoted to training in prayer and spiritual warfare. She has written several book the most popular of which is "Possessing the Gates", on Militant intersession. Vocally anti gay and is quoted name checking Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. “We’re not going to give Satan any rest,” she cried. “We’re not going to give city councils any rest. We’re not going to give legislatures any rest.”
0:39 “ How threatened our religious freedoms is in our nation today and in our state”
Exactly whose religious freedoms are we talking about here? The Constitution and Bill of rights of the United States of America very clearly protects everyone’s religious beliefs. I suspect that what they are talking about here is there “right” to impose their dogmatic religion on the rest of us. I challenge them to show me one example of how their religious “rights” have been infringed upon. Can you say the same for the Islamic population of Arizona?
0:47 “”We are trying to protect religious freedom in courts. But also pass legislation that pro actively preserves our rights”
Once again their rights, as all of ours, are already protected in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. This is a classic example of the use of buzz words. They are intentionally using phrases like “protect religious freedom” and “preserves our rights “, in order to gain a reaction. Not only is it misleading, but it is false. It was used here to get a knee jerk reaction from fellow Christians.
1:06 “As long as there are differences of opinion we will always have somebody bringing something that is anti family to the legislature”
Differences of opinion lead to anti family? Let’s clarify; differing from their opinion will always lead to anti family laws being passed. Scare tactics.
1:19 “We virtually look at every bill that’s been introduced in the legislature to see if this is going to impact our families, is this going to impact our religious freedom”
Again they are using the phrase “religious freedom” as if Christianity in this country is somehow threatened. And once again I need to point out that their rights are already protected. So if they are not taking about rights what are they talking about? They have demonstrated that they wish to pass legislation that reinforces their dogma, with no regard to any other belief system. They don’t want religious freedom; they want to change the law in this country so that we have no religious freedom, only their religion.
1:54 “What is seen at times in the legislature is the idea that parents don’t know what’s best for their children”
2:38 “We work to make sure that home schools and private schools wont be regulated”
So, no school standards? No standards for homeschooling? No, sure they want standards, their standards. I suspect that this is a result of the science vs. religion debate. The United States ranks 29th out of the 47th most industrialized nations in the world when it comes to science education by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It measures student literacy in science, math, and reading (focusing this year on science) among 15-year-olds, and is an often-cited reference for policymakers sounding the alarm bells about the state of education in the United States and its implications for the ability of Americans to secure jobs in a global economy.
2:43 “Parents have the right to opt their children out of school activities that are offensive to their religious or moral beliefs”
Let’s make no mistake; they are referring to the Evolution/ Creation debate happening in schools right now. Evolution is science, creationism is religion. I have no problem teaching creationism in a religious studies class; please keep it out of science classrooms. You don’t teach astrology in science do you? Do you teach geology in theology? Accepting the world as the evidence shows us, even if conflicts with their scripture are rational and sane.
3:09 Abortion
I won’t go into the ethics’ of abortion here. Instead let’s look at some legislature that this group just had pass in our state government. The House Bill 2564 and Senate Bill 1175, create a 24-hour waiting period to get an abortion, require physicians to perform the procedure, and require that parents provide notarized consent for their minor children to get abortions. All right, but it also states that pharmacists and other health-care professionals can refuse to provide contraception. What? It is a focus of this group to promote abstinence-only education instead of traditional sex education among teens. No less than three studies in the past five years were done to determine the effectiveness of abstinence in teens. All the studies showed that those taking the virginity pledge engaged in intercourse just as often as those who did not take the pledge . Pledge takers also were found to be less frequent users of condoms and other forms of birth control. Therefore, those youngsters who took the virginity pledge were not only just as likely to have intercourse; they ultimately were more likely to take part in sex in an unsafe manner.
5:00 Marriage-“The goal of our opponents- is to so redefine marriage as to marriage means nothing”
Lets see, The United States leads the world in divorce, with 4.95 per 1,000 people divorcing. There is no evidence that gay marriage has any different divorce rates than straight divorces. The law in this country has already reduced the religious concept of marriage to effectively a civil union, protecting the rights of both parties. It has taken it out of the hands of religion. The argument that allowing gay marriage will reduce their concept of marriage to mean nothing is absurd. It already means nothing according to the statistics. Perhaps they need to look at why the divorce rate is so high in a purely straight population.
6:23 “one man married to one woman is absolutely crucial. We see the effects when you don’t have that in society, we see it in the jails every day”
What the hell is this? I’m not sure what they mean here. Perhaps they are trying to say that homosexuality leads to more crime in our societies? There are no very compelling statistics here, but it is fairly clear that this is an inflammatory comment targeting fear.
7:00 “The truth Project” -“To help us think more critically”
Focus on the Family has launched "The Truth Project," a curriculum designed to reintroduce Christians to a biblical worldview of science, law, and other fields of knowledge. Even other Christian groups have attacked the Truth Project as a mis use of scripture. If anything the, last chapter, on science, shows such a lack of BASIC understanding of science that it is hard not to laugh out loud at some of their assumptions. The largest hole in their approach is that all they say is evolution is wrong. Not so much why creation is right. Not to mention, they never give scientific proof for their reasons.
http://www.planetisaac.com/2009/04/truth-project-science-critique.html
http://hopwoodhopper.blogspot.com/2009/01/wariness-of-truth-project.html
http://mrhackman.blogspot.com/2007/09/truth-project-part-1.html
7:48 “In all these areas and many others we see a great conflict between good and evil and if Christians do not rally to support and encourage those who are trying to bring an influence for good in civil government they leave a vacuum and the influence that is contrary to the standards scripture, and contrary to the purposes of God in the world, and contrary to the advancement of the gospel, that influence is going to become stronger and stronger.”
Ah there it is the truth. To them this is a war between good and evil. Let’s take a look at some of their goals as stated in this last bit.
They wish to conform government to the “standards of the scriptures”. I’m sorry but do we really need a law that puts those of us to death that works on the Sabbath? (Exodus 35:2) Or perhaps destroy everyone in Iraq? (Deuteronomy 7:1-2) or reinstitute slavery? (Ephesians 2:18). The Old Testament clearly gives a mandate for these and other atrocities. They have stated repeatedly that they believe in the bible as the “infallible” word of god.
They want to conform the government to the purposes of God. Who’s god again? And who exactly speaks for God? The Prophetess Cindy Jacobs? The same woman who held a prayer vigil at the stature of the bull on Wall Street to bring her wealth?
Advance the gospel in Government. Again, to what end?
In this video one can find endorsements from Az Representatives Kirk Adams and Steve Yarbrough, State senator Linda Grey, US Congressman Trent Franks, and US Senator Jon Kyl.
The Constitution and Bill of Rights of these United States are very clear about this.
Thomas Jefferson wrote “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.
And John Adams wrote and codified into law within the Treaty of Tripoly "The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
I am deeply offended and disgusted by this not just from an intellectual viewpoint but from a moral one as well. It seems to me that this was designed as a scare tactic directed toward Christian moderates. Not only is it rife with inaccuracies, it is filled with sensational buzzwords and is intentionally misleading. This is the worse form of propaganda, trying to manipulate through fear.
If you will, remove the religion from the argument for a moment. Pretend that they are purely a secular organization trying to change policy. What are we left with? One could argue, a radical group that wants to dismantle the Constitution and replace it with their form of a fascist state. Why would that be tolerated in our society? It would not, and yet moderate Christians do almost nothing to prevent this insanity.
This isn’t an argument over the existence of god or even of religion; this is one group trying to impose their dogma on the rest of society with no regard for any other belief system or reality. I have to question whether society would be so tolerant if this was a secular group, or I dare say an Islamic one?
Monday, July 13, 2009
Call to Arms
Every civilization comes to an end. The great empires of the past, the Romans, the Greeks, the Incas, the Aztecs, the Han dynasty, Egypt, are all now effectively extinct. Even in recent times we have seen the collapse of great civilizations, the USSR comes to mind. We have this prejudice that our society is somehow immune from this, that we could never come to an end.
If you were to poll people in the United States what they thought was the largest threat to our civilization was I suspect you would receive answers like, global warming, the economy, war, capitalism, socialism. All are valid answers, but what if I told you that right now there is a majority of people that believe that they have a mandate from god to bring about the end times and the destruction of the world, all derived from a book written in the Iron Age? Crazy?
‘Oh, you’re talking about the religious right, well they don’t really have any real power do they?’
No more power than 9 people had on September 11, 2001.
By most recent statistics Christianity comprises a full 76% of the population of the United States. The fastest growing population among Christians in the past 7 years is what is referred to evangelical or fundamental Christians. It is the Mandate of this group to claim the United States as the “arm” or “sword” of god. They have infiltrated the military to such a degree now that they are handing out New Testament bibles in Afghanistan and in Iraq, and bullying non Christian cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. This of course is expressly forbidden in the military, but leaders, appointed by the ultra religious ex President Bush, turn a blind eye. In addition the “Faith Biased Initiative” started by Bush is still funding these groups even though we now have a regime change in the white house. This is the power of the religious right. In addition moderate Christians are extraordinarily reluctant denounce this movement.
Sound familiar? It should. Islam was accused of the same thing after 9-11.
So what’s the harm? Recent polls show 44% of Americans are confident that Jesus will return to Earth sometime in the next 50 years. What possible motivation do they or politicians that represent them have to improve our world? In fact, they like the Jews and the Muslims, want to bring about the end times, in order to facilitate their ascension to their version of heaven.
Why is it inconceivable to us that these groups won’t “grease the wheels” so to speak to further their agenda? In fact there is a great deal of evidence to show that they are in fact doing so, and at the highest level of power. In 2002, 2003, and 2004 President Bush regularly consulted with the Evangelical Christian right on Middle East policy. Think about the absurdity of that for a moment.
Religion is toxic to the world and to morality. Do we credit religion for the advances in morality in the past 500 years on subjects such as women’s rights, slavery or basic human rights? No, in fact religion has consistently drug its feet on these subjects. A recent example of this would be the Vatican edict to ban condom use in Aids ridden Africa, even though the cost of life and suffering will be enormous. No, I would argue that it was the rise of critical thought and science that improved our morality. It showed us that we are all human beings. That the outdated concept of race is false, and no people are better than others. That we are one world of trillions in an unbelievably vast universe. If anything, religion eventually bowed from pressure from the people to change their morality.
There are still over 8,000 active nuclear weapons in the world today. Each one with enough destructive force to destroy a population center the size of Los Angeles. And there are an equal number of chemical, biological or radiological weapons in existence. We have the capacity, right now, to destroy every human being on the planet, several times over.
I am not foolish enough not to recognize that every generation feels as compelled to act of what they perceive a threat to their existence. In fact the early Christian church thought jesus was returning in their life times as well. The difference is that this is the first time in human history that the people that want to bring about the end of the world have not only the power but the means to do it. You do not need to have your world view challenged at all in order to graduate from any university.
I am angry that we live in a society in which the truth cannot be spoken without offending 90% of the population. The truth is, there is no good reason to believe that the Bible, the Koran, or any other book that was dictated by a "god" in the Iron Age has any relevance upon us today. In fact the evidence shows just the opposite. We do not derive our morality from religion. The end result of belief in these systems is not only corrosive to us as a society but if gone unchecked will destroy humanity.
Make no mistake, our civilization can and will come to an end. We live in a time of unparalleled reason and unparalleled ignorance. We now have a choice. Fight back against this, as Richard Dawkins outlined in his “call to arms”. Or return to a time of superstition, ruled by fear, and quite possibly the end of our civilization.
In the next several months I shall be posting video, tools, and create a new website dedicated to helping those who wish to fight back against this in a non violent and legal way. Stay tuned……….
1 *All data within this blog comes from the 2001- 2008 study, the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), by Barry A. Kosmin, Egon Mayer, and Ariela Keysar at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. ARIS 2001-2008 makes data available for the continental U.S. and DC. If you need additional data (such as state by state information on religions) please refer to the study located at http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_briefs/aris/key_findings.htm
2 *All numbers are estimates from the Natural Resources Defense Council, published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, unless other references are given. If differences between active and total stockpile are known, they are given as two figures separated by a forward slash. If no specifics are known, only one figure is given. Stockpile number may not contain all intact warheads if a substantial amount of warheads are scheduled for but have not yet gone through dismantlement; not all "active" warheads are deployed at any given time. When a range of weapons is given (e.g., 0–10), it generally indicates that the estimate is being made on the amount of fissile material that has likely been produced, and the amount of fissile material needed per warhead depends on estimates of a country's proficiency at nuclear weapon design.
If you were to poll people in the United States what they thought was the largest threat to our civilization was I suspect you would receive answers like, global warming, the economy, war, capitalism, socialism. All are valid answers, but what if I told you that right now there is a majority of people that believe that they have a mandate from god to bring about the end times and the destruction of the world, all derived from a book written in the Iron Age? Crazy?
‘Oh, you’re talking about the religious right, well they don’t really have any real power do they?’
No more power than 9 people had on September 11, 2001.
By most recent statistics Christianity comprises a full 76% of the population of the United States. The fastest growing population among Christians in the past 7 years is what is referred to evangelical or fundamental Christians. It is the Mandate of this group to claim the United States as the “arm” or “sword” of god. They have infiltrated the military to such a degree now that they are handing out New Testament bibles in Afghanistan and in Iraq, and bullying non Christian cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. This of course is expressly forbidden in the military, but leaders, appointed by the ultra religious ex President Bush, turn a blind eye. In addition the “Faith Biased Initiative” started by Bush is still funding these groups even though we now have a regime change in the white house. This is the power of the religious right. In addition moderate Christians are extraordinarily reluctant denounce this movement.
Sound familiar? It should. Islam was accused of the same thing after 9-11.
So what’s the harm? Recent polls show 44% of Americans are confident that Jesus will return to Earth sometime in the next 50 years. What possible motivation do they or politicians that represent them have to improve our world? In fact, they like the Jews and the Muslims, want to bring about the end times, in order to facilitate their ascension to their version of heaven.
Why is it inconceivable to us that these groups won’t “grease the wheels” so to speak to further their agenda? In fact there is a great deal of evidence to show that they are in fact doing so, and at the highest level of power. In 2002, 2003, and 2004 President Bush regularly consulted with the Evangelical Christian right on Middle East policy. Think about the absurdity of that for a moment.
Religion is toxic to the world and to morality. Do we credit religion for the advances in morality in the past 500 years on subjects such as women’s rights, slavery or basic human rights? No, in fact religion has consistently drug its feet on these subjects. A recent example of this would be the Vatican edict to ban condom use in Aids ridden Africa, even though the cost of life and suffering will be enormous. No, I would argue that it was the rise of critical thought and science that improved our morality. It showed us that we are all human beings. That the outdated concept of race is false, and no people are better than others. That we are one world of trillions in an unbelievably vast universe. If anything, religion eventually bowed from pressure from the people to change their morality.
There are still over 8,000 active nuclear weapons in the world today. Each one with enough destructive force to destroy a population center the size of Los Angeles. And there are an equal number of chemical, biological or radiological weapons in existence. We have the capacity, right now, to destroy every human being on the planet, several times over.
I am not foolish enough not to recognize that every generation feels as compelled to act of what they perceive a threat to their existence. In fact the early Christian church thought jesus was returning in their life times as well. The difference is that this is the first time in human history that the people that want to bring about the end of the world have not only the power but the means to do it. You do not need to have your world view challenged at all in order to graduate from any university.
I am angry that we live in a society in which the truth cannot be spoken without offending 90% of the population. The truth is, there is no good reason to believe that the Bible, the Koran, or any other book that was dictated by a "god" in the Iron Age has any relevance upon us today. In fact the evidence shows just the opposite. We do not derive our morality from religion. The end result of belief in these systems is not only corrosive to us as a society but if gone unchecked will destroy humanity.
Make no mistake, our civilization can and will come to an end. We live in a time of unparalleled reason and unparalleled ignorance. We now have a choice. Fight back against this, as Richard Dawkins outlined in his “call to arms”. Or return to a time of superstition, ruled by fear, and quite possibly the end of our civilization.
In the next several months I shall be posting video, tools, and create a new website dedicated to helping those who wish to fight back against this in a non violent and legal way. Stay tuned……….
1 *All data within this blog comes from the 2001- 2008 study, the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), by Barry A. Kosmin, Egon Mayer, and Ariela Keysar at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. ARIS 2001-2008 makes data available for the continental U.S. and DC. If you need additional data (such as state by state information on religions) please refer to the study located at http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_briefs/aris/key_findings.htm
2 *All numbers are estimates from the Natural Resources Defense Council, published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, unless other references are given. If differences between active and total stockpile are known, they are given as two figures separated by a forward slash. If no specifics are known, only one figure is given. Stockpile number may not contain all intact warheads if a substantial amount of warheads are scheduled for but have not yet gone through dismantlement; not all "active" warheads are deployed at any given time. When a range of weapons is given (e.g., 0–10), it generally indicates that the estimate is being made on the amount of fissile material that has likely been produced, and the amount of fissile material needed per warhead depends on estimates of a country's proficiency at nuclear weapon design.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Mother
I see delicate rain whispering her love,
Recall the beautiful moment
and read eternity
in the wind.
Let him cry
for his dream
is in summers blood.
Recall the beautiful moment
and read eternity
in the wind.
Let him cry
for his dream
is in summers blood.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Does truth lie in eye of the beholder?
Part 2 of a 3 part series exploring the nature of truth.
So what is truth?
The word truth has a variety of meanings, from honesty, good faith, and sincerity in general, to agreement with fact or reality in particular.
In fact according to WIKI there are no less than 14 different theories on truth.
For the sake of this blog I will use the most common, the Correspondence theory. Correspondence theory states that true beliefs and true statements correspond to the actual state of affairs. So we can say that there is a “fact” of matters or events. The ball is red. The sky is blue. Night is dark. We can all agree on the fact of these things. But what about questions like, will Obama fix the economy? That question is amazingly more complex then it seems on the surface. Republicans say no, democrats say yes. But why the confusion? 200 years from now we could look back and say, yes or no to that question with some authority, just as we can now say who won the civil war. So there is a fact of things, a truth to them, separate of opinion. With our bias, our opinions, and our faulty senses, how do we come to this truth?
Science and critical thinking my dear friends…
So what is this “Critical thinking”? Critical thinking is purposeful and reflective judgment about what to believe or what to do in response to observations, experience, verbal or written expressions, or arguments. It is a way to process the data that we receive from our senses in order to come to a truth.
What about science? Why the hub bub about that? It is defined as systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation. In other words it is a method of determining facts or truth by utilizing tools such as critical thinking and the scientific method. At its most basic form it is:
1. Use your experience: Consider the problem and try to make sense of it. Look for previous explanations. If this is a new problem to you, then move to step 2.
2. Form a conjecture: When nothing else is yet known, try to state an explanation, to someone else, or to your notebook.
3. Deduce a prediction from that explanation: If you assume 2 is true, what consequences follow?
4. Test: Look for the opposite of each consequence in order to disprove 2. It is a logical error to seek 3 directly as proof of 2.
Let’s say we have a ball, we are trying to determine the color of this ball. Let us also suppose that in this case the ball is red.
First of we observe the ball, we believe it is the color blue. We look at other balls, their labels, their characteristics. We form the hypothesis, “I think the ball is blue because my perception tells me it is blue”. We deduce “all persons must see this ball as blue”. And we create a test to determine this. So how to do that? Well, we would want this test to be independent of or senses and opinions, we would want it repeatable, and we would want our peers to look at it for mistakes. So we create a test. We take ten people, and ask them to write down what color they think the ball is. We also take another ball, a white one and ask ten more people to write down what color they think it is. This is the control group. It is there to make sure that the data we get is not skewed by something we may have missed. In addition we will be publishing our results in the magazine “Ball weekly” the premiere ball color magazine in the world for the public to review.
So what were our results? Well, our study showed that 10 out of the ten persons said that our ball was red not blue. What about our control? They all said that their ball was white, so their perception was not skewed in any way. In addition we published and our “ball enthusiast” public all also agreed that our ball is red not blue.
Our hypothesis was wrong. We run the study again, this time with the assumption that the ball is red, and our results verify our hypothesis. At this point we can call out hypothesis a theory. A theory is the highest level any answer can attain in science. Do not mistake it with the common use of the word. A theory states within 99.99999999999999999% accuracy that the data fits the theory, consistently.
In contrast faith and psudo science say that the ball is blue, because god, the bible, some divine being, some ancient wisdom, tell us it is so. This is despite the evidence, despite our study. As much as we would distort the word blue, rationalize the point, the ball would still remain factually red, not blue.
So how accurate is this wacky thing you call science? Well it depends on just how complicated a system is and how much we know about it. For example, we can predict the movement of the planets and eclipses to extraordinary accuracy. We can measure the distance to the moon to within millimeters, which is the width of a pencil lead. We can predict an eclipse to within nano seconds. In fact almost all science theory is accurate to this level. Even the Theory of evolution accurately predicted that we would find the fossils that we have, and found them and at what time in the past they would have lived. Without this accuracy in science your computer, car, phone, lights, air conditioning, stove, microwave, radio, cd player, dvd’s would not exist. If you are older than 33 you would also most likely be dead as the life expectancy has risen from 33 to 79 in just over 200 years! This is due to Science.
So thus is the power of truth.
"If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in
thought or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth,
which never yet hurt anybody. It is only persistence in
self-delusion and ignorance which does harm."
[Marcus Aurelius]
So what is truth?
The word truth has a variety of meanings, from honesty, good faith, and sincerity in general, to agreement with fact or reality in particular.
In fact according to WIKI there are no less than 14 different theories on truth.
For the sake of this blog I will use the most common, the Correspondence theory. Correspondence theory states that true beliefs and true statements correspond to the actual state of affairs. So we can say that there is a “fact” of matters or events. The ball is red. The sky is blue. Night is dark. We can all agree on the fact of these things. But what about questions like, will Obama fix the economy? That question is amazingly more complex then it seems on the surface. Republicans say no, democrats say yes. But why the confusion? 200 years from now we could look back and say, yes or no to that question with some authority, just as we can now say who won the civil war. So there is a fact of things, a truth to them, separate of opinion. With our bias, our opinions, and our faulty senses, how do we come to this truth?
Science and critical thinking my dear friends…
So what is this “Critical thinking”? Critical thinking is purposeful and reflective judgment about what to believe or what to do in response to observations, experience, verbal or written expressions, or arguments. It is a way to process the data that we receive from our senses in order to come to a truth.
What about science? Why the hub bub about that? It is defined as systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation. In other words it is a method of determining facts or truth by utilizing tools such as critical thinking and the scientific method. At its most basic form it is:
1. Use your experience: Consider the problem and try to make sense of it. Look for previous explanations. If this is a new problem to you, then move to step 2.
2. Form a conjecture: When nothing else is yet known, try to state an explanation, to someone else, or to your notebook.
3. Deduce a prediction from that explanation: If you assume 2 is true, what consequences follow?
4. Test: Look for the opposite of each consequence in order to disprove 2. It is a logical error to seek 3 directly as proof of 2.
Let’s say we have a ball, we are trying to determine the color of this ball. Let us also suppose that in this case the ball is red.
First of we observe the ball, we believe it is the color blue. We look at other balls, their labels, their characteristics. We form the hypothesis, “I think the ball is blue because my perception tells me it is blue”. We deduce “all persons must see this ball as blue”. And we create a test to determine this. So how to do that? Well, we would want this test to be independent of or senses and opinions, we would want it repeatable, and we would want our peers to look at it for mistakes. So we create a test. We take ten people, and ask them to write down what color they think the ball is. We also take another ball, a white one and ask ten more people to write down what color they think it is. This is the control group. It is there to make sure that the data we get is not skewed by something we may have missed. In addition we will be publishing our results in the magazine “Ball weekly” the premiere ball color magazine in the world for the public to review.
So what were our results? Well, our study showed that 10 out of the ten persons said that our ball was red not blue. What about our control? They all said that their ball was white, so their perception was not skewed in any way. In addition we published and our “ball enthusiast” public all also agreed that our ball is red not blue.
Our hypothesis was wrong. We run the study again, this time with the assumption that the ball is red, and our results verify our hypothesis. At this point we can call out hypothesis a theory. A theory is the highest level any answer can attain in science. Do not mistake it with the common use of the word. A theory states within 99.99999999999999999% accuracy that the data fits the theory, consistently.
In contrast faith and psudo science say that the ball is blue, because god, the bible, some divine being, some ancient wisdom, tell us it is so. This is despite the evidence, despite our study. As much as we would distort the word blue, rationalize the point, the ball would still remain factually red, not blue.
So how accurate is this wacky thing you call science? Well it depends on just how complicated a system is and how much we know about it. For example, we can predict the movement of the planets and eclipses to extraordinary accuracy. We can measure the distance to the moon to within millimeters, which is the width of a pencil lead. We can predict an eclipse to within nano seconds. In fact almost all science theory is accurate to this level. Even the Theory of evolution accurately predicted that we would find the fossils that we have, and found them and at what time in the past they would have lived. Without this accuracy in science your computer, car, phone, lights, air conditioning, stove, microwave, radio, cd player, dvd’s would not exist. If you are older than 33 you would also most likely be dead as the life expectancy has risen from 33 to 79 in just over 200 years! This is due to Science.
So thus is the power of truth.
"If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in
thought or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth,
which never yet hurt anybody. It is only persistence in
self-delusion and ignorance which does harm."
[Marcus Aurelius]
Monday, June 15, 2009
Is there in truth no beauty?
Disclaimer:
Today I want to start a new 3 part blog post on the nature of truth. Mind you, I am not referring to the subjective truth that we all feel from time to time, but rather the objective truth, the fact, the reality. This post shall also reveal things that one might find offensive and or objectionable, but after all, that is the nature of truth.
Is there in truth no beauty?
Ever since I was a small child I have always been asking questions. I have always been interested in the reasons behind things, the truth of the matter if you will. This of course led to some rather uncomfortable confrontations in catholic school. Inevitably this evolved to the usual curiosity that most children have, although I suspect most children didn’t try to disassemble a television. In college I had the good fortune to attend several classes on Western History. Please forgive me, I do not remember the professors name, but if you can imagine a class being taught by an atheist jesus you get the picture. One of the most valuable thing he or anyone for that matter has ever taught me was that there was a truth to history, to people, that was quite different to the popular view. For example the events attributed to Paul Revere and his famous ride, was a fiction, created by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and detailed the account of three different riders. I became fascinated with this.
As a society we tend to glorify individuals, to raise them on a pedestal or deify them. In a very real sense we remove their accomplishments from the realm of the possible. An analogy would be saying that the pyramids were built by Aliens. This implies that humans are incapable of building them on their own. To illustrate this point I will need three volunteers……. Ok, you in the first row The Dahli Lama, and you next to him, Gandhi, and what about you in the back with the blue scarf, Mother Theresa.
When we think of all three of these people we get this mental image of great peace keepers or incredible humanitarians. I’m not here to dispute that claim, but did you know that one of these people was a vocal racist against blacks? That one of these people accepted millions of dollars from the CIA to fund guerrilla warfare in his former country? Or that one of these created a cult of suffering and denied basic health care to those that she professed to help all the while traveling and collecting millions of dollars to open more “hospitals”. Don’t believe me? Look it up, the record is clear.
The Dalai Lama admitted that he received 1.7 million dollars a year from the U.S. Government to fund guerrilla operations against the Chinese. The Dalai Lama himself was on the CIA’s payroll from the late 1950s until 1974, reportedly receiving $180,000 a year. In addition, the Tibet that he wants to go back to was a horribly unequal social situation where the peasant class comprising 95% of the population lived in abject poverty so that the remaining 5%, the priest class could live in opulent wealth. The Dalai Lama is widely considered one of the greatest humanitarians alive today.
Gandhi not only spoke out against blacks while he was in South Africa he wrote about it quite extensively in the local newspaper “ The Indian Opinion “. Gandhi’s desire for Indians to be segregated from blacks was so strong that he went to Johannesburg in late August of 1904 to protest the placing of blacks in the Indian section of the city. Gandhi was elevated to the status of Mahatma, a title reserved for the greatest of thinkers, analogous to the western “saint” and one Gandhi himself denied.
Mother Theresa and the Missionaries of Charity took in millions from whatever source they could including the family of Papa Doc, The “butcher” of Haiti. There are many accounts from prior nuns, who left the order in disgust, after seeing how the money was being squandered instead of going to the poor as promised. In addition she believed that suffering was important for the soul and denied those she sought to help basic health care. Mother Theresa has been venerated and is well on her way to Sainthood in the Catholic Church.
So what is the point of this? Why should we remember these people as they were and not as society perceives them? Well it is precisely because they have done amazing things that I want this. The Dalai Lama is the premiere humanitarian alive today. He has done untold good in the world. Gandhi started the non violent resistance movement that freed India from colonial rule and ultimately lead to the civil rights movement in the United States. And Mother Theresa went on a public awareness campaign that raised awareness for the horrible conditions and desperate poverty worldwide. She opened our eyes.
When we raise people up to the level of Sainthood, when we deify them, and create an idealized version of who they are, we set them out of reach. They become unattainable. But when we accept them as human beings, on the same level as us, with the same flaws, and fears as us, all of a sudden their great accomplishments enter the realm of the possible.
We all have the capacity for compassion that the Dalai Lama has or the strength of Gandhi or the compassion the Mother Theresa had. We all have these abilities in ourselves. We are capable of these things and so much more if we only learn to listen to ourselves, and the truth.
Today I want to start a new 3 part blog post on the nature of truth. Mind you, I am not referring to the subjective truth that we all feel from time to time, but rather the objective truth, the fact, the reality. This post shall also reveal things that one might find offensive and or objectionable, but after all, that is the nature of truth.
Is there in truth no beauty?
Ever since I was a small child I have always been asking questions. I have always been interested in the reasons behind things, the truth of the matter if you will. This of course led to some rather uncomfortable confrontations in catholic school. Inevitably this evolved to the usual curiosity that most children have, although I suspect most children didn’t try to disassemble a television. In college I had the good fortune to attend several classes on Western History. Please forgive me, I do not remember the professors name, but if you can imagine a class being taught by an atheist jesus you get the picture. One of the most valuable thing he or anyone for that matter has ever taught me was that there was a truth to history, to people, that was quite different to the popular view. For example the events attributed to Paul Revere and his famous ride, was a fiction, created by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and detailed the account of three different riders. I became fascinated with this.
As a society we tend to glorify individuals, to raise them on a pedestal or deify them. In a very real sense we remove their accomplishments from the realm of the possible. An analogy would be saying that the pyramids were built by Aliens. This implies that humans are incapable of building them on their own. To illustrate this point I will need three volunteers……. Ok, you in the first row The Dahli Lama, and you next to him, Gandhi, and what about you in the back with the blue scarf, Mother Theresa.
When we think of all three of these people we get this mental image of great peace keepers or incredible humanitarians. I’m not here to dispute that claim, but did you know that one of these people was a vocal racist against blacks? That one of these people accepted millions of dollars from the CIA to fund guerrilla warfare in his former country? Or that one of these created a cult of suffering and denied basic health care to those that she professed to help all the while traveling and collecting millions of dollars to open more “hospitals”. Don’t believe me? Look it up, the record is clear.
The Dalai Lama admitted that he received 1.7 million dollars a year from the U.S. Government to fund guerrilla operations against the Chinese. The Dalai Lama himself was on the CIA’s payroll from the late 1950s until 1974, reportedly receiving $180,000 a year. In addition, the Tibet that he wants to go back to was a horribly unequal social situation where the peasant class comprising 95% of the population lived in abject poverty so that the remaining 5%, the priest class could live in opulent wealth. The Dalai Lama is widely considered one of the greatest humanitarians alive today.
Gandhi not only spoke out against blacks while he was in South Africa he wrote about it quite extensively in the local newspaper “ The Indian Opinion “. Gandhi’s desire for Indians to be segregated from blacks was so strong that he went to Johannesburg in late August of 1904 to protest the placing of blacks in the Indian section of the city. Gandhi was elevated to the status of Mahatma, a title reserved for the greatest of thinkers, analogous to the western “saint” and one Gandhi himself denied.
Mother Theresa and the Missionaries of Charity took in millions from whatever source they could including the family of Papa Doc, The “butcher” of Haiti. There are many accounts from prior nuns, who left the order in disgust, after seeing how the money was being squandered instead of going to the poor as promised. In addition she believed that suffering was important for the soul and denied those she sought to help basic health care. Mother Theresa has been venerated and is well on her way to Sainthood in the Catholic Church.
So what is the point of this? Why should we remember these people as they were and not as society perceives them? Well it is precisely because they have done amazing things that I want this. The Dalai Lama is the premiere humanitarian alive today. He has done untold good in the world. Gandhi started the non violent resistance movement that freed India from colonial rule and ultimately lead to the civil rights movement in the United States. And Mother Theresa went on a public awareness campaign that raised awareness for the horrible conditions and desperate poverty worldwide. She opened our eyes.
When we raise people up to the level of Sainthood, when we deify them, and create an idealized version of who they are, we set them out of reach. They become unattainable. But when we accept them as human beings, on the same level as us, with the same flaws, and fears as us, all of a sudden their great accomplishments enter the realm of the possible.
We all have the capacity for compassion that the Dalai Lama has or the strength of Gandhi or the compassion the Mother Theresa had. We all have these abilities in ourselves. We are capable of these things and so much more if we only learn to listen to ourselves, and the truth.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Humanity
What an amazing time to be alive.
For the first time in this planet 4 billion year history, a species has arisen that has a clear understanding of the universe around them. Of course I am talking about us, Human Beings. We have developed great art; we are capable of great compassion, left the firmament of the earth to set foot on another world. Written monumental philosophies, and developed tools to let everyone, every human being, access almost all information. We are a way for the universe to know itself.
Only 400 years ago Johannes Kepler said “We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens. The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh enrichment.”
Contrast that to Neil Armstrong’s, “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
We were born to delight in the world. We are curious creatures. We hunger to know our origins. To decipher the mysteries of the cosmos.
And it is now, today, this instant, that through 14 billion years of cosmic time and 4 billion years of evolution that we find ourselves on a precipice.
Every species does it; they come to a crossroads of sorts. They can outgrow their environment. They can use up all their resources. They can even be snuffed out via cataclysm.
We face a challenge that no other species has ever had to deal with. Fundamentalism and ignorance are on the rise, as is a distrust of the very science that has brought us to this point in history. This combined with the 23,335 nuclear weapons still in existence all over the world makes for a very deadly combination. Surely our world leaders wouldn’t let that happen? Of course, but what if those weapons fell into the hands of groups that believe the end times are here? That believes that their ideology overrides the welfare of humanity? That believes that they have divine cause to wipe the sin from the earth? Sound farfetched? I say this that it not only will happen, that it must happen. It is a statistical probability.
That is unless we can stop it. The problem is that these humans relish in the “end time”. They want to purify the earth for their ideology. They will stop at nothing short of killing themselves to this end.
Pakistan for example is a hairs breath away from losing control of their considerable nuclear stockpile to the Taliban, unarguably on of the most fundamental of religions. In addition the Russian stock pike is slowly falling into disrepair, and their government is unable to keep tabs on all their weapons.
Scary. Yes. Insurmountable? No. We have the power to change all of this.
What an amazing time to be alive.
For the first time in human history we have the capacity to destroy ourselves, but we also have the ability to save ourselves. Through, knowledge, compassion, education, and our humanity I feel that we can overcome this. We can survive, that is if we want to.
For the first time in this planet 4 billion year history, a species has arisen that has a clear understanding of the universe around them. Of course I am talking about us, Human Beings. We have developed great art; we are capable of great compassion, left the firmament of the earth to set foot on another world. Written monumental philosophies, and developed tools to let everyone, every human being, access almost all information. We are a way for the universe to know itself.
Only 400 years ago Johannes Kepler said “We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens. The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh enrichment.”
Contrast that to Neil Armstrong’s, “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
We were born to delight in the world. We are curious creatures. We hunger to know our origins. To decipher the mysteries of the cosmos.
And it is now, today, this instant, that through 14 billion years of cosmic time and 4 billion years of evolution that we find ourselves on a precipice.
Every species does it; they come to a crossroads of sorts. They can outgrow their environment. They can use up all their resources. They can even be snuffed out via cataclysm.
We face a challenge that no other species has ever had to deal with. Fundamentalism and ignorance are on the rise, as is a distrust of the very science that has brought us to this point in history. This combined with the 23,335 nuclear weapons still in existence all over the world makes for a very deadly combination. Surely our world leaders wouldn’t let that happen? Of course, but what if those weapons fell into the hands of groups that believe the end times are here? That believes that their ideology overrides the welfare of humanity? That believes that they have divine cause to wipe the sin from the earth? Sound farfetched? I say this that it not only will happen, that it must happen. It is a statistical probability.
That is unless we can stop it. The problem is that these humans relish in the “end time”. They want to purify the earth for their ideology. They will stop at nothing short of killing themselves to this end.
Pakistan for example is a hairs breath away from losing control of their considerable nuclear stockpile to the Taliban, unarguably on of the most fundamental of religions. In addition the Russian stock pike is slowly falling into disrepair, and their government is unable to keep tabs on all their weapons.
Scary. Yes. Insurmountable? No. We have the power to change all of this.
What an amazing time to be alive.
For the first time in human history we have the capacity to destroy ourselves, but we also have the ability to save ourselves. Through, knowledge, compassion, education, and our humanity I feel that we can overcome this. We can survive, that is if we want to.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Roobie Roobie doo!
I was sitting with my son today, watching a new Scooby doo made for tv movie. This movie seemed to follow the traditional Scooby Doo formula, Kids run into ghost/ monster, Scooby and Shaggy create mayhem while the others uncover the truth of the mystery, the gang determines that this ghost/ monster is simply a mere mortal in disguise. All of a sudden I was struck with the realization that this childrens show, one that I grew up with, while horribly done and stupid at times was teaching the virtues of skepticism! Think about it, the gang would almost always find a mundane explanation for supernatural claims using reason. In fact Carl Sagan favorably compared the formula to that of most television dealing with paranormal themes, and considered that an adult analogue to Scooby-Doo would be a great public service! (thank you wiki!)
Well back to this movie, and as I waited for the "reveal" I realized that there would be none. For the first time there in fact was a paranormal explanation for the ghosts/monsters! At one point, a deity, perhaps the devil, came down to summon his minions back to whence they came. In fact the gang were all transformed into demons and Scooby himself was morphed into some kind of dog dragon. Of course they were all transformed back to normal at the end.
I was stuck by how this, the simplest of childrens programing, has contributed to this backslide of critical thinking in our society.
Even comparing the original Star Trek, from 1965 to the modern one. Great care was taken in the original to base all of the technology on real science. This seems to have been abandoned in the reboot in favor of "Red Matter" and random travel through black holes.
Is it any wonder that psudo science and ignorance is on the rise again with critical thought and science at large thrown out of even our simplest forms of entertainment.
Then again, its only a kids show. Pass the Scooby snacks wont you?
Well back to this movie, and as I waited for the "reveal" I realized that there would be none. For the first time there in fact was a paranormal explanation for the ghosts/monsters! At one point, a deity, perhaps the devil, came down to summon his minions back to whence they came. In fact the gang were all transformed into demons and Scooby himself was morphed into some kind of dog dragon. Of course they were all transformed back to normal at the end.
I was stuck by how this, the simplest of childrens programing, has contributed to this backslide of critical thinking in our society.
Even comparing the original Star Trek, from 1965 to the modern one. Great care was taken in the original to base all of the technology on real science. This seems to have been abandoned in the reboot in favor of "Red Matter" and random travel through black holes.
Is it any wonder that psudo science and ignorance is on the rise again with critical thought and science at large thrown out of even our simplest forms of entertainment.
Then again, its only a kids show. Pass the Scooby snacks wont you?
Friday, May 22, 2009
Why I don't believe........
I was recently asked why I decided to declare myself an Atheist. This answer is very complicated but I will try to be concise in my response.
I was raised Catholic. I remember sitting at the pews during mass, looking up at the huge painting of the crucified Christ before me, his mangled body, his suffering, and wondering if my father would allow the same thing to happen to me. I could not reconcile even at that early age how a loving god could let the suffering of his only son take place? To forgive our sins?
I recall that almost every evening I would find myself downstairs at my grandparents; listening to my grandfather, father, and whomever else came by arguing about philosophy, religion, or the news. These conversations would get quite heated and loud, but they thought me a very valuable lesson and that was to think, to use my brain.
Skip to High school, where I had some friends convince me to attend a local Baptist church. I was baptized and went on my merry way, attending Sundays and seminars. At this time we were living in poverty and as a result I did not have the finest clothing to wear to church. I remember the looks from the fellow worshipers, the distain on their faces. I thought to myself that even Christ hung around the poor and downtrodden, how they dare judge me for my clothing!
In the following years I continued my search for god. I became a Wiccan, almost converted to Judaism, Dabbled in Bahi, looked into Taoism and Buddhism, I even attended a service at a local Mosque.
All I found in these was contradiction and people willing to kill for their “faith”. They were not even practicing what the tenants of their religions prefaced.
And then I found the two loves of my life, history and science. History taught me that there were no less than 6 messiahs during the time of Christ that all were born of a virgin birth, raised the dead, professed to be the son of god, were sacrificed for humanity, and rose from the dead. This list also includes the Roman God Hercules (whose virgin birthday falls on December 25th). This didn’t stop there. Much of the book of Psalms was taken almost word for word from the Egyptian Pharaoh Akanatan. The story of Noah and the flood was taken, again almost word for word from the Babylonian texts, The Epics Of Gilgamesh. In fact the 4 gospels of the bible were written at least 4 decades after the death of Christ, and were only included in the bible by a committee of Christians 2 hundred years later (other books were thrown out at this time such as the Gospel of Thomas, The gospel of Judas, and the gospel of Mary Magdalene). History also taught me the almost unbelievable atrocities done in the name of god.
Science taught me that the universe is 14+ billion years old, that we evolve over time, and that there are 100 Billion stars in our Galaxy and over a 100 Billion galaxies out there. It also taught me just how precious we all are, how unique we all are, and yet how linked we all are to everything else. I learned that we are almost identical biologically to all the other primates on the planet. Most important it taught me how to think critically, how to argue logically and how to identify the fallacies in other people’s arguments. To me these concepts seem so much more profound than a myth of god or the threat of eternal damnation.
Both taught me that the functions of religion were Law and to explain the nature of the world around us. In modern times the law is the realm of government and the search for truth has been taken up by science. So what does that leave religion? Control? In the case of Fundamental Christianity and Islam that is most certainly true. One could argue that without religion we would not have the crusades, witch burning, the inquisition, the massacre of the native Americans, the holocaust, or 9-11.
But how can I be a moral person without god. Well, I believe that morality is both a taught behavior and a inherited one. Morality is the glue that holds our society together. I was raised by two very free thinkers, and I have never been in jail, never stolen a car, never had a drug problem, never ran away from home. I don’t obey the law because I am in fear of god. I obey because it is the right thing to do for me to function in society.
I no longer live in fear of offending a jealous god. I just live in fear of what his followers are capable of in his name.
I was raised Catholic. I remember sitting at the pews during mass, looking up at the huge painting of the crucified Christ before me, his mangled body, his suffering, and wondering if my father would allow the same thing to happen to me. I could not reconcile even at that early age how a loving god could let the suffering of his only son take place? To forgive our sins?
I recall that almost every evening I would find myself downstairs at my grandparents; listening to my grandfather, father, and whomever else came by arguing about philosophy, religion, or the news. These conversations would get quite heated and loud, but they thought me a very valuable lesson and that was to think, to use my brain.
Skip to High school, where I had some friends convince me to attend a local Baptist church. I was baptized and went on my merry way, attending Sundays and seminars. At this time we were living in poverty and as a result I did not have the finest clothing to wear to church. I remember the looks from the fellow worshipers, the distain on their faces. I thought to myself that even Christ hung around the poor and downtrodden, how they dare judge me for my clothing!
In the following years I continued my search for god. I became a Wiccan, almost converted to Judaism, Dabbled in Bahi, looked into Taoism and Buddhism, I even attended a service at a local Mosque.
All I found in these was contradiction and people willing to kill for their “faith”. They were not even practicing what the tenants of their religions prefaced.
And then I found the two loves of my life, history and science. History taught me that there were no less than 6 messiahs during the time of Christ that all were born of a virgin birth, raised the dead, professed to be the son of god, were sacrificed for humanity, and rose from the dead. This list also includes the Roman God Hercules (whose virgin birthday falls on December 25th). This didn’t stop there. Much of the book of Psalms was taken almost word for word from the Egyptian Pharaoh Akanatan. The story of Noah and the flood was taken, again almost word for word from the Babylonian texts, The Epics Of Gilgamesh. In fact the 4 gospels of the bible were written at least 4 decades after the death of Christ, and were only included in the bible by a committee of Christians 2 hundred years later (other books were thrown out at this time such as the Gospel of Thomas, The gospel of Judas, and the gospel of Mary Magdalene). History also taught me the almost unbelievable atrocities done in the name of god.
Science taught me that the universe is 14+ billion years old, that we evolve over time, and that there are 100 Billion stars in our Galaxy and over a 100 Billion galaxies out there. It also taught me just how precious we all are, how unique we all are, and yet how linked we all are to everything else. I learned that we are almost identical biologically to all the other primates on the planet. Most important it taught me how to think critically, how to argue logically and how to identify the fallacies in other people’s arguments. To me these concepts seem so much more profound than a myth of god or the threat of eternal damnation.
Both taught me that the functions of religion were Law and to explain the nature of the world around us. In modern times the law is the realm of government and the search for truth has been taken up by science. So what does that leave religion? Control? In the case of Fundamental Christianity and Islam that is most certainly true. One could argue that without religion we would not have the crusades, witch burning, the inquisition, the massacre of the native Americans, the holocaust, or 9-11.
But how can I be a moral person without god. Well, I believe that morality is both a taught behavior and a inherited one. Morality is the glue that holds our society together. I was raised by two very free thinkers, and I have never been in jail, never stolen a car, never had a drug problem, never ran away from home. I don’t obey the law because I am in fear of god. I obey because it is the right thing to do for me to function in society.
I no longer live in fear of offending a jealous god. I just live in fear of what his followers are capable of in his name.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Education and ignorance
Good day to you all. Today I ran across some news articles that brought up some very interesting ethical questions.
The first was a article from Scott Hurst who has written an entry for Swift. It raised the question over whether the Anti Vaxx movement should be held responsible for the deaths caused by their rhetoric. He quotes Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. who said that "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic." And then went on to write, “This should be a warning to Jim, Jenny and the Huffington Post. If they aren't already, they certainly will be responsible for unnecessary and avoidable deaths and disabilities. By giving medical advice they are utterly unqualified to give, their liability will be clear. I hope they're ready, because someday they will be held accountable for "shouting fire".
The second story comes from CNN. It would seem that the mother of Daniel Hauser, a 13-year-old boy who is refusing treatment for his cancer, has abducted her child and is now had an arrest warrant issued for her. Daniel and his parents stopped chemotherapy after one treatment and opted for "alternative medicines," prompting Brown County authorities to intervene. The cancer is regarded as highly curable with chemotherapy and radiation, but is likely fatal without it. It is very likely that Daniel will die without treatment.
In addition to those there comes the wrenching story of Gloria Thomas, who was born in perfect health in July 2001, and died from a skin infection with malnutrition and eczema so severe that her skin broke every time her parents removed her clothes. The parents, devout doctors of Homeopathy, are standing trial in the an Australian Supreme Court charged with manslaughter by gross criminal negligence after they allegedly resisted the advice of nurses and a doctor to send her to a skin specialist.
The question is, how far should the state go to prevent the deaths caused by our stupidity? How far are we willing to let the government protect us from ourselves? Is it our right to allow our children to kill themselves, as in the case of Daniel Hauser? Is it our right to say what we want, influence people, with misleading information, knowing that it will cause death? Jenny McCarthy has been quoted as saying that it is acceptable that some children will die as we quit all vaccinations.
I do believe that an adult has the right to kill oneself if they so wish. The issue here is that the parents of children are forcing their mislead pseudoscience upon their children often killing them. And now in the case of the Anti Vaxx movement the potential for a public health hazard increases. At what point does the government step in to save the lives of innocent children and elderly who will die from diseases once completely under control?
This brings up an up an interesting question for the scientific, medical, and skeptical. Why do these people disregard the overwhelming scientific data and yet chose to put their faith in untested and often dangerous treatments that very often are fatal. It is obvious that they have lost faith in science. Perhaps we have failed as educators, as a society at teaching what science and scientific thought are. When these people use the argument that science is driven by solely profit or that we evolved from monkeys, obviously have no understanding of what the scientific method or scientific thought are.
It is time to raise the bar. I believe the solution is twofold. Not only do we need to prosecute ignorance at the expense of others but we need step up to the plate in education as well. And not just in the classroom. Every individual can make a difference, by challenging those who don’t understand to find the facts themselves. To open their minds. To seek answers. And to discover the tools that we have to do that. Science and reason.
The first was a article from Scott Hurst who has written an entry for Swift. It raised the question over whether the Anti Vaxx movement should be held responsible for the deaths caused by their rhetoric. He quotes Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. who said that "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic." And then went on to write, “This should be a warning to Jim, Jenny and the Huffington Post. If they aren't already, they certainly will be responsible for unnecessary and avoidable deaths and disabilities. By giving medical advice they are utterly unqualified to give, their liability will be clear. I hope they're ready, because someday they will be held accountable for "shouting fire".
The second story comes from CNN. It would seem that the mother of Daniel Hauser, a 13-year-old boy who is refusing treatment for his cancer, has abducted her child and is now had an arrest warrant issued for her. Daniel and his parents stopped chemotherapy after one treatment and opted for "alternative medicines," prompting Brown County authorities to intervene. The cancer is regarded as highly curable with chemotherapy and radiation, but is likely fatal without it. It is very likely that Daniel will die without treatment.
In addition to those there comes the wrenching story of Gloria Thomas, who was born in perfect health in July 2001, and died from a skin infection with malnutrition and eczema so severe that her skin broke every time her parents removed her clothes. The parents, devout doctors of Homeopathy, are standing trial in the an Australian Supreme Court charged with manslaughter by gross criminal negligence after they allegedly resisted the advice of nurses and a doctor to send her to a skin specialist.
The question is, how far should the state go to prevent the deaths caused by our stupidity? How far are we willing to let the government protect us from ourselves? Is it our right to allow our children to kill themselves, as in the case of Daniel Hauser? Is it our right to say what we want, influence people, with misleading information, knowing that it will cause death? Jenny McCarthy has been quoted as saying that it is acceptable that some children will die as we quit all vaccinations.
I do believe that an adult has the right to kill oneself if they so wish. The issue here is that the parents of children are forcing their mislead pseudoscience upon their children often killing them. And now in the case of the Anti Vaxx movement the potential for a public health hazard increases. At what point does the government step in to save the lives of innocent children and elderly who will die from diseases once completely under control?
This brings up an up an interesting question for the scientific, medical, and skeptical. Why do these people disregard the overwhelming scientific data and yet chose to put their faith in untested and often dangerous treatments that very often are fatal. It is obvious that they have lost faith in science. Perhaps we have failed as educators, as a society at teaching what science and scientific thought are. When these people use the argument that science is driven by solely profit or that we evolved from monkeys, obviously have no understanding of what the scientific method or scientific thought are.
It is time to raise the bar. I believe the solution is twofold. Not only do we need to prosecute ignorance at the expense of others but we need step up to the plate in education as well. And not just in the classroom. Every individual can make a difference, by challenging those who don’t understand to find the facts themselves. To open their minds. To seek answers. And to discover the tools that we have to do that. Science and reason.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Quotes
"The Constitution of the United States, for instance, is a marvelous document for self-government by the Christian people. But the minute you turn the document into the hands of non-Christian people and atheistic people they can use it to destroy the very foundation of our society. And that's what's been happening." [Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, December 30, 1981]
The Rebuttal:
"The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." Treaty of Tripoly, article 11 -John Adams [1735-1826] 2d President of the United States
"Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man." - Thomas Jefferson
"In no instance have . . . the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people." -James Madison
"The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma." -Abraham Lincoln
"I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absenteed myself from Christian assemblies." -Benjamin Franklin
Case closed.
The Rebuttal:
"The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." Treaty of Tripoly, article 11 -John Adams [1735-1826] 2d President of the United States
"Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man." - Thomas Jefferson
"In no instance have . . . the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people." -James Madison
"The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma." -Abraham Lincoln
"I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absenteed myself from Christian assemblies." -Benjamin Franklin
Case closed.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Well then! "Sociobiology"!
Ah Ha! Well, so I wasn't the first, But there are some quite interesting parallels between his theory and mine!
From Wiki:
Sociobiology
Michael McGoodwin quoting Wilson on sociobiology -
Sociobiology is defined as the systematic study of the biological basis of all forms of behavior, including human, incorporating ecology, ethology, and genetics. "If humankind evolved by Darwinian natural selection, genetic chance and environmental necessity, not God, made the species." "The brain [and the mind] exists because it promotes the survival and multiplication of the genes that direct its assembly." The two apparent dilemmas we face therefore are: (1) We lack any goal external to our biological nature (for even religions evolve to enhance the persistence and influence of their practitioners). Will societies transcendental goals dissolve and will we regress to mere self-indulgence? (2) Morality evolved as instinct "which of the censors and motivators should be obeyed and which ones might better be curtailed or sublimated."
Although much human diversity in behavior is culturally influenced, some has been shown to be genetic - rapid acquisition of language, human unpredictability, hypertrophy (extreme growth of pre-existing social structures), altruistism and religions. "Religious practices that consistently enhance survival and procreation of the practitioners will propagate the physiological controls that favor the acquisition of the practices during single lifetimes." Unthinking submission to the communal will promotes the fitness of the members of the tribe. Even submission to secular religions and cults involve willing subordination of the individual to the group. Religious practices confer biological advantages [14]
Wilson used sociobiology and evolutionary principles to explain the behavior of the social insects and then to understand the social behavior of other animals, including humans, thus established sociobiology as a new scientific field. He argued that all animal behavior, including that of humans, is the product of heredity, environmental stimuli, and past experiences, and that free will is an illusion. He has referred to the biological basis of behaviour as the "genetic leash."[15] The sociobiological view is that all animal social behavior is governed by epigenetic rules worked out by the laws of evolution. This theory and research proved to be seminal, controversial, and influential.[16]
The controversy of sociobiological research is in how it applies to humans. The theory established a scientific argument for rejecting the common doctrine of tabula rasa, which holds that human beings are born without any innate mental content and that culture functions to increase human knowledge and aid in survival and success. In the final chapter of the book Sociobiology and in the full text of his Pulitzer Prize-winning On Human Nature, Wilson argues that the human mind is shaped as much by genetic inheritance as it is by culture (if not more). There are limits on just how much influence social and environmental factors can have in altering human behavior.
Quite interesting, no? Perhaps this entered my subconscious long ago......
From Wiki:
Sociobiology
Michael McGoodwin quoting Wilson on sociobiology -
Sociobiology is defined as the systematic study of the biological basis of all forms of behavior, including human, incorporating ecology, ethology, and genetics. "If humankind evolved by Darwinian natural selection, genetic chance and environmental necessity, not God, made the species." "The brain [and the mind] exists because it promotes the survival and multiplication of the genes that direct its assembly." The two apparent dilemmas we face therefore are: (1) We lack any goal external to our biological nature (for even religions evolve to enhance the persistence and influence of their practitioners). Will societies transcendental goals dissolve and will we regress to mere self-indulgence? (2) Morality evolved as instinct "which of the censors and motivators should be obeyed and which ones might better be curtailed or sublimated."
Although much human diversity in behavior is culturally influenced, some has been shown to be genetic - rapid acquisition of language, human unpredictability, hypertrophy (extreme growth of pre-existing social structures), altruistism and religions. "Religious practices that consistently enhance survival and procreation of the practitioners will propagate the physiological controls that favor the acquisition of the practices during single lifetimes." Unthinking submission to the communal will promotes the fitness of the members of the tribe. Even submission to secular religions and cults involve willing subordination of the individual to the group. Religious practices confer biological advantages [14]
Wilson used sociobiology and evolutionary principles to explain the behavior of the social insects and then to understand the social behavior of other animals, including humans, thus established sociobiology as a new scientific field. He argued that all animal behavior, including that of humans, is the product of heredity, environmental stimuli, and past experiences, and that free will is an illusion. He has referred to the biological basis of behaviour as the "genetic leash."[15] The sociobiological view is that all animal social behavior is governed by epigenetic rules worked out by the laws of evolution. This theory and research proved to be seminal, controversial, and influential.[16]
The controversy of sociobiological research is in how it applies to humans. The theory established a scientific argument for rejecting the common doctrine of tabula rasa, which holds that human beings are born without any innate mental content and that culture functions to increase human knowledge and aid in survival and success. In the final chapter of the book Sociobiology and in the full text of his Pulitzer Prize-winning On Human Nature, Wilson argues that the human mind is shaped as much by genetic inheritance as it is by culture (if not more). There are limits on just how much influence social and environmental factors can have in altering human behavior.
Quite interesting, no? Perhaps this entered my subconscious long ago......
Quote of the day........
"Education on the value of free speech and the other freedoms reserved by the Bill of Rights, about what happens when you don't have them, and about how to exercise and protect them, should be an essential prerequisite for being an American citizen—or indeed a citizen of any nation, the more so to the degree that such rights remain unprotected. If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness."
—Dr. Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1996
—Dr. Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1996
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Death of the Innocents.
On March 9, 2009 Dana Elizabeth McCaffery died at 4 weeks of age from Whooping cough. She was born on February 5, 2009 to Australian Parents who recently had moved to a small quiet community called Northern Rivers. This community has become a hot bed in Australia for the anti vaccination movement. In fact The Northern Rivers region has one of the nation’s lowest childhood vaccination rates.
“First, our tiny daughter coughed uncontrollably until she turned blue and required oxygen to regain her breath. She was fed through a nasal-gastro tube, was given fluid via a drip and placed in an oxygen headbox. The paediatrician told us that when Dana could recover without oxygen we could go home, but she would continue having coughing attacks for up to 100 days and possible respiratory complications. However, this is for the ‘lucky ones’.
Dana developed Pneumonia on the third day. She was placed on a ventilator and airlifted to Brisbane’s Mater Children’s Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. We still did not panic, on the advice she would be there for a week until she was strong enough to breathe on her own.
On the fifth day, the Pertussis took an unexpected and deadly turn. In what seemed an instant, Dana had an aggressive reaction to the toxin, which attacked her immune system and heart. The Pertussis blocked every drug or treatment that the team of specialists could throw at it. We were powerless to save her. After nearly 10 hours of desperate blood transfusions, Dana’s beautiful heart stopped beating and she let out her last sweet breath.”
She was the first to die from this appalling but totally preventable disease since 2004!
She contracted it from the anti Vaccination community of Northern Rivers. And even though her parents Immunized her siblings and believe in vaccinations it did not save little Dana.
Let me pose this question. Let’s say that you have been poisoned. You go to the emergency room for the Antidote only to be confronted by two lines.
Line A leads to a man. He says that he has the only true antidote, that he has faith it works and that the Doctors in the other line are out for profit only, so they can’t be right. He states that his wife’s “Mommy sense” told her that this was the correct antidote. He says that the doctor’s antidote causes horrible side effects but has no proof.
At the end of line B stands a group of people. They say that they have the antidote, that they have tested it on lab animals in a double blind study, have had their research reviewed by peers, and had an independent lab confirm their results. In fact you can see the cages of rats and the publications. It, in their opinion, is 100% effective. They also state that they have done a double blind study, also reviewed by their peers, and independently confirmed that this antidote does not cause any side effects.
Who would you turn to? At least you have a choice. Little Dana Elizabeth McCaffery did not.
“First, our tiny daughter coughed uncontrollably until she turned blue and required oxygen to regain her breath. She was fed through a nasal-gastro tube, was given fluid via a drip and placed in an oxygen headbox. The paediatrician told us that when Dana could recover without oxygen we could go home, but she would continue having coughing attacks for up to 100 days and possible respiratory complications. However, this is for the ‘lucky ones’.
Dana developed Pneumonia on the third day. She was placed on a ventilator and airlifted to Brisbane’s Mater Children’s Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. We still did not panic, on the advice she would be there for a week until she was strong enough to breathe on her own.
On the fifth day, the Pertussis took an unexpected and deadly turn. In what seemed an instant, Dana had an aggressive reaction to the toxin, which attacked her immune system and heart. The Pertussis blocked every drug or treatment that the team of specialists could throw at it. We were powerless to save her. After nearly 10 hours of desperate blood transfusions, Dana’s beautiful heart stopped beating and she let out her last sweet breath.”
She was the first to die from this appalling but totally preventable disease since 2004!
She contracted it from the anti Vaccination community of Northern Rivers. And even though her parents Immunized her siblings and believe in vaccinations it did not save little Dana.
Let me pose this question. Let’s say that you have been poisoned. You go to the emergency room for the Antidote only to be confronted by two lines.
Line A leads to a man. He says that he has the only true antidote, that he has faith it works and that the Doctors in the other line are out for profit only, so they can’t be right. He states that his wife’s “Mommy sense” told her that this was the correct antidote. He says that the doctor’s antidote causes horrible side effects but has no proof.
At the end of line B stands a group of people. They say that they have the antidote, that they have tested it on lab animals in a double blind study, have had their research reviewed by peers, and had an independent lab confirm their results. In fact you can see the cages of rats and the publications. It, in their opinion, is 100% effective. They also state that they have done a double blind study, also reviewed by their peers, and independently confirmed that this antidote does not cause any side effects.
Who would you turn to? At least you have a choice. Little Dana Elizabeth McCaffery did not.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Ruminations on Society......
I seem to find a lot of time on my hands…. So I apologies In advance for the long winded nature of this blog. Sorry Dave, I know I’m breaking one of the rules of blogging!
This week I’d like to introduce you to a little idea I call, Simon’s model of Society.
A word of warning, what I am doing here is not, I repeat not science. It is merely the beginnings of a hypothesis, a mind game. If anyone reading this would like to do the experimentation and work to prove or disprove any of this, have at it!
What is society? A society is a group of humans or other organisms of a single species that is delineated by the bounds of cultural identity, social solidarity, functional interdependence, or eusociality. That being said, I started to ask how important is our society? Can we survive as individuals without our society? It permeates every aspect of our existence as human beings. From our media, to food production, to our reproduction we are guided by society. In fact the line becomes quite blurred when we talk about the biological human and the human society. Is it possible that it is human society that defines us as human beings? It is most certain that it was society that allowed us to develop cities, agriculture, arts. In fact, some would argue, it is most likely this that separates us from the animals. So if we are no different than other animals biologically in the way our bodies work, in our chemistry, what makes us believe that our society is so different either? And what is the role, or myth of the individual in all of this?
About a year ago, I found myself watching an aerial photo set of tribal people’s villages on the internet. At one point I started seeing a pattern in the trails left by the people and I started thinking if there was a mathematical formula dictating that behavior. I remembered seeing several films that focused on showing our cities at a wildly accelerated rate. I was struck by how antlike the behavior of people was at that speed. Could you use that formula to predict the behavior of streets in cities?
Almost at the same time I saw a wonderful TED lecture by Stanford University professor Deborah Gordon on her study on Sonora ants. This study showed that ants can change their predetermined role in their society to suit the needs of society. The interesting thing was that there was a model of behavior that regulated this. For example forager ants can change to warrior ants to defend the colony but warrior ants could not become forager ants. There seems to be some kind of hierarchy at work. She goes in to much more detail about the parallels between humans and ants but for the sake of brevity you can read about it here: http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF1904/Foster/Foster.html
The ants too had a pattern in the construction of their colony.
So if we take that leap and transpose animal societies upon our own we see some startling similarities. Forester ants changing to warrior ants and the surge in enlistment in the military after 911 comes to mind. A well as birth rate surges in time of war and statistically more males being born.
Patterns created by our cities are errly similar to the same ones constructed by termites and ants, as a specific way to work with an environment. Both ants and termites instinctively know how to build fungi farms and air conditioning in their mounds.
So would it be too much of a stretch to assume that our society is no different than the societies of other animals, granted more complex. That the same behavior controls both species? It is obvious that creatures that evolved societies as a survival mechanism have a huge advantage. And where does that leave the role of the individual in all of this.
My question is, are we all predisposed genetically to our role in life? Do we have a specific function in our society, perhaps like ants but more complex? It is reasonable to state that some people are more genetically disposed to certain tasks than others, let’s say how math skills run in family groups. Could it be that the yearning I feel to be an artist is a function of society, and somehow by becoming an artist that I would fulfill my role in society? What would be those roles in our society?
Perhaps our myths led a clue. It seems that almost every human society has the same types of archetypes’ within its myths. Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung both pointed this out in their life’s work. There is the Hero, The journeyer, the trickster, the child, the great mother, and the wise old man. These can be thought of as exaggerations or stereotypes of real human behavior. Perhaps they are a reflection of the roles that we take in our society. Take me as an example. I believe that I would fall under the trickster mythology. The trickster deity breaks the rules of the gods or nature, sometimes maliciously (for example, Loki) but usually, albeit unintentionally, with ultimately positive effects. It can be said that through my artwork that I reflect what I see, sometimes in a grotesque way, which can ultimately help society. Why is it that I am happiest when I am fulfilled doing this? Do artists serve a benefit to society?
And now here is the catch, I believe with all my heart that we as individuals can become anything we want to in society provided we have enough resources and time. This is a very powerful theme in our society in our mythology and media. So how can I reconcile the two? How can we be preprogrammed to a specific role in society and have the ability to choose any role we want? Is that choice an illusion?
Another thought, what if these biological systems are merely scaled reflections of other systems? Perhaps our society represents a complex organism and we as individuals are just “cells” within the context of that organism fulfilling our role? There are interesting parallels here as well. Society attacks threats to itself just as the immune system reacts to a pathogen. We see this scaled phenomenon in the physical universe all over the place. From the orbits of satellites, to the orbits of galaxy’s. From the patterns created by growing neurons in our brains to the pattern from the widest survey of the universe.
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/08/14/science/20060815_SCILL_GRAPHIC.html
The patterns are remarkable the same. Or perhaps we are just really good at recognizing the similarities in patterns.
So this leads us to some interesting fundamental questions. In the context of society, do we really have free will? Or are we, like the cells in our body, happiest when we are fulfilling our predetermined role within the organism of society? Can we as individuals make the choice to change from a worker ant to a forager ant? I’m not sure I know the answers to these questions, but then again perhaps I don’t want to. Perhaps I want to just be a happy little cell in the fabric of our society.
This week I’d like to introduce you to a little idea I call, Simon’s model of Society.
A word of warning, what I am doing here is not, I repeat not science. It is merely the beginnings of a hypothesis, a mind game. If anyone reading this would like to do the experimentation and work to prove or disprove any of this, have at it!
What is society? A society is a group of humans or other organisms of a single species that is delineated by the bounds of cultural identity, social solidarity, functional interdependence, or eusociality. That being said, I started to ask how important is our society? Can we survive as individuals without our society? It permeates every aspect of our existence as human beings. From our media, to food production, to our reproduction we are guided by society. In fact the line becomes quite blurred when we talk about the biological human and the human society. Is it possible that it is human society that defines us as human beings? It is most certain that it was society that allowed us to develop cities, agriculture, arts. In fact, some would argue, it is most likely this that separates us from the animals. So if we are no different than other animals biologically in the way our bodies work, in our chemistry, what makes us believe that our society is so different either? And what is the role, or myth of the individual in all of this?
About a year ago, I found myself watching an aerial photo set of tribal people’s villages on the internet. At one point I started seeing a pattern in the trails left by the people and I started thinking if there was a mathematical formula dictating that behavior. I remembered seeing several films that focused on showing our cities at a wildly accelerated rate. I was struck by how antlike the behavior of people was at that speed. Could you use that formula to predict the behavior of streets in cities?
Almost at the same time I saw a wonderful TED lecture by Stanford University professor Deborah Gordon on her study on Sonora ants. This study showed that ants can change their predetermined role in their society to suit the needs of society. The interesting thing was that there was a model of behavior that regulated this. For example forager ants can change to warrior ants to defend the colony but warrior ants could not become forager ants. There seems to be some kind of hierarchy at work. She goes in to much more detail about the parallels between humans and ants but for the sake of brevity you can read about it here: http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF1904/Foster/Foster.html
The ants too had a pattern in the construction of their colony.
So if we take that leap and transpose animal societies upon our own we see some startling similarities. Forester ants changing to warrior ants and the surge in enlistment in the military after 911 comes to mind. A well as birth rate surges in time of war and statistically more males being born.
Patterns created by our cities are errly similar to the same ones constructed by termites and ants, as a specific way to work with an environment. Both ants and termites instinctively know how to build fungi farms and air conditioning in their mounds.
So would it be too much of a stretch to assume that our society is no different than the societies of other animals, granted more complex. That the same behavior controls both species? It is obvious that creatures that evolved societies as a survival mechanism have a huge advantage. And where does that leave the role of the individual in all of this.
My question is, are we all predisposed genetically to our role in life? Do we have a specific function in our society, perhaps like ants but more complex? It is reasonable to state that some people are more genetically disposed to certain tasks than others, let’s say how math skills run in family groups. Could it be that the yearning I feel to be an artist is a function of society, and somehow by becoming an artist that I would fulfill my role in society? What would be those roles in our society?
Perhaps our myths led a clue. It seems that almost every human society has the same types of archetypes’ within its myths. Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung both pointed this out in their life’s work. There is the Hero, The journeyer, the trickster, the child, the great mother, and the wise old man. These can be thought of as exaggerations or stereotypes of real human behavior. Perhaps they are a reflection of the roles that we take in our society. Take me as an example. I believe that I would fall under the trickster mythology. The trickster deity breaks the rules of the gods or nature, sometimes maliciously (for example, Loki) but usually, albeit unintentionally, with ultimately positive effects. It can be said that through my artwork that I reflect what I see, sometimes in a grotesque way, which can ultimately help society. Why is it that I am happiest when I am fulfilled doing this? Do artists serve a benefit to society?
And now here is the catch, I believe with all my heart that we as individuals can become anything we want to in society provided we have enough resources and time. This is a very powerful theme in our society in our mythology and media. So how can I reconcile the two? How can we be preprogrammed to a specific role in society and have the ability to choose any role we want? Is that choice an illusion?
Another thought, what if these biological systems are merely scaled reflections of other systems? Perhaps our society represents a complex organism and we as individuals are just “cells” within the context of that organism fulfilling our role? There are interesting parallels here as well. Society attacks threats to itself just as the immune system reacts to a pathogen. We see this scaled phenomenon in the physical universe all over the place. From the orbits of satellites, to the orbits of galaxy’s. From the patterns created by growing neurons in our brains to the pattern from the widest survey of the universe.
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/08/14/science/20060815_SCILL_GRAPHIC.html
The patterns are remarkable the same. Or perhaps we are just really good at recognizing the similarities in patterns.
So this leads us to some interesting fundamental questions. In the context of society, do we really have free will? Or are we, like the cells in our body, happiest when we are fulfilling our predetermined role within the organism of society? Can we as individuals make the choice to change from a worker ant to a forager ant? I’m not sure I know the answers to these questions, but then again perhaps I don’t want to. Perhaps I want to just be a happy little cell in the fabric of our society.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Yuri's Night
On this day in 1961, for the first time in all of human history, a human being left the safety of our atmosphere and entered the vast expanse of the cosmos.
On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first human to bridge the gap between the earth and entered the void launching to orbit aboard the Vostok 3KA-2. For 108 minutes this man, born of a peasant family in the village of Klushino Russia, orbited the earth.
I never learned of this man in grade school. Nor did I learn about him in High school, nor in college. Instead I was inundated with the patriotic propaganda of our society. It was only by searching out, by my own volition that I came across the supreme accomplishment of not only this man but of the scientists and persons that put him there.
So I toast to you today, Mr. Gagarin, for you were the first to enter the greatest of human mysteries.
“The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us- there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.”
-Carl Sagan, Cosmos
On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first human to bridge the gap between the earth and entered the void launching to orbit aboard the Vostok 3KA-2. For 108 minutes this man, born of a peasant family in the village of Klushino Russia, orbited the earth.
I never learned of this man in grade school. Nor did I learn about him in High school, nor in college. Instead I was inundated with the patriotic propaganda of our society. It was only by searching out, by my own volition that I came across the supreme accomplishment of not only this man but of the scientists and persons that put him there.
So I toast to you today, Mr. Gagarin, for you were the first to enter the greatest of human mysteries.
“The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us- there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.”
-Carl Sagan, Cosmos
Thursday, April 2, 2009
... let the stupidity begin!
Well that didn't take long! Thank all of you anti vaxxers for responding so quickly and with such enthusiasm! I particularly like the comment that included the phrase "I hope your child gets autism from all the crap you are putting into his body". Very adult! So instead of trying to respond to this insanity directly I think I will just let the facts speak for themselves. And for those of you who wont even believe the research or facts and believe that this is a huge cover up from the government or big pharma, please do us a favor and crawl back into that paranoid hole you came out of, because you know what, I am watching you! Right now! From your computer! And I command you to go now, and stick your head in a toilet and flush!
Anyhow, as promised.......
Stop Jenny McCarthy:
http://www.stopjenny.com/
Jenny McCarthys body count:
http://www.jennymccarthybodycount.com/Jenny_McCarthy_Body_Count/Home.html
The CDC's website on Morbidity and Mortality that the data was taken from:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/
And research:
http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/division/generic.jsp?id=84662
http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/division/generic.jsp?id=84662#wakefield
http://skepdic.com/autismtimeline.html
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/autism/mmr/
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7076-autism-rises-despite-mmr-ban-in-japan.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1808826.stm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-512348/The-research-disproves-MMR-jab-link-autism.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMR_vaccine_controversy
and as a bonus: http://www.wimp.com/thetrouble/
Until next time, please keep educated!
-Simon
Anyhow, as promised.......
Stop Jenny McCarthy:
http://www.stopjenny.com/
Jenny McCarthys body count:
http://www.jennymccarthybodycount.com/Jenny_McCarthy_Body_Count/Home.html
The CDC's website on Morbidity and Mortality that the data was taken from:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/
And research:
http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/division/generic.jsp?id=84662
http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/division/generic.jsp?id=84662#wakefield
http://skepdic.com/autismtimeline.html
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/autism/mmr/
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7076-autism-rises-despite-mmr-ban-in-japan.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1808826.stm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-512348/The-research-disproves-MMR-jab-link-autism.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMR_vaccine_controversy
and as a bonus: http://www.wimp.com/thetrouble/
Until next time, please keep educated!
-Simon
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
News of the mentaly challenged!
Ello All!
Well a couple of interesting news items this week.
The Texas Board of Education voted on Friday to remove the universe's age from the state's educational standards. As many of you are aware, Texas has been and is once more become the battleground for the anti-science agenda of the creationist movement.
I wonder if the state of Arizona will retract the theory of Gravity? Perhaps it is gods goodness that holds us to the earth? Oh wait, the earth is flat! Silly me! Perhaps I could get my age taken off my driver’s licenses? After all, it is only a theory that I was born on the first of January, I certainly don't remember it!
Ok, so now this is getting ridiculous!
Other decisions included specific language requiring scientific explanations on evolution to be "evaluated" by students and teachers. Chair of the Board Don McLeroy testified to the reason why that may be the case at the meeting:
"I disagree with these experts. Someone has got to stand up to experts."
Ahhh the "evil" experts! I understand now!
Just keep in mind that this will set the standards for children’s textbooks nation wide.
The second story is the announcement of Jenny McCarthy s new book "Healing and Preventing Autism". For you that are unaware, dear Miss McCarthy feel that her "mommy sense" told her that vaccines are causing Autism and that we should no longer vaccinate our children. In fact, to date she has shown exactly no evidence that her case is correct, while there is mountains of peer reviewed evidence showing the vaccines are safe. Don't believe me? Then please look up the studies for yourself! This is going to be in the news alot in future months as this seems to be heating up again. In fact the LA times just ran an article about how more and more parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kids when they go to school, specifically because of the fear of autism. Its a bit scary that so many people can be duped without even looking at a shred of evidence. Doctors all over the US are bracing for a Measles epidemic coming out of California this summer.
Unrelated, there’s a measles alert in Pittsburgh. Terrific.
And to end at least end on a positive note: There is a news program titled "What would you do?" Usually pitting actors in situations to judge just how the public would react or not as the case would be. The previous one I saw had two actors playing a couple out on a first date. When the Woman got up to use the restroom the man overtly slipped some substance (Sugar) into the drink of the woman. AKA Date rape drug. There was the obvious reaction from the public.
Well the latest one places two gay actors into a New Jersey blue collar bar. As the evening progresses the reaction from the public even surprised me! People would go waaayyyyyy out of their way to isolate anyone who was not tolerant of the couple, no matter how affectionate they were. Completely blew my stereotype out of the water! You can see the episode here:
http://www.wimp.com/helpout/
So adieu until next time some insanity provokes me to writing, which perhaps might not be long at all..........
-Simon
Well a couple of interesting news items this week.
The Texas Board of Education voted on Friday to remove the universe's age from the state's educational standards. As many of you are aware, Texas has been and is once more become the battleground for the anti-science agenda of the creationist movement.
I wonder if the state of Arizona will retract the theory of Gravity? Perhaps it is gods goodness that holds us to the earth? Oh wait, the earth is flat! Silly me! Perhaps I could get my age taken off my driver’s licenses? After all, it is only a theory that I was born on the first of January, I certainly don't remember it!
Ok, so now this is getting ridiculous!
Other decisions included specific language requiring scientific explanations on evolution to be "evaluated" by students and teachers. Chair of the Board Don McLeroy testified to the reason why that may be the case at the meeting:
"I disagree with these experts. Someone has got to stand up to experts."
Ahhh the "evil" experts! I understand now!
Just keep in mind that this will set the standards for children’s textbooks nation wide.
The second story is the announcement of Jenny McCarthy s new book "Healing and Preventing Autism". For you that are unaware, dear Miss McCarthy feel that her "mommy sense" told her that vaccines are causing Autism and that we should no longer vaccinate our children. In fact, to date she has shown exactly no evidence that her case is correct, while there is mountains of peer reviewed evidence showing the vaccines are safe. Don't believe me? Then please look up the studies for yourself! This is going to be in the news alot in future months as this seems to be heating up again. In fact the LA times just ran an article about how more and more parents are choosing not to vaccinate their kids when they go to school, specifically because of the fear of autism. Its a bit scary that so many people can be duped without even looking at a shred of evidence. Doctors all over the US are bracing for a Measles epidemic coming out of California this summer.
Unrelated, there’s a measles alert in Pittsburgh. Terrific.
And to end at least end on a positive note: There is a news program titled "What would you do?" Usually pitting actors in situations to judge just how the public would react or not as the case would be. The previous one I saw had two actors playing a couple out on a first date. When the Woman got up to use the restroom the man overtly slipped some substance (Sugar) into the drink of the woman. AKA Date rape drug. There was the obvious reaction from the public.
Well the latest one places two gay actors into a New Jersey blue collar bar. As the evening progresses the reaction from the public even surprised me! People would go waaayyyyyy out of their way to isolate anyone who was not tolerant of the couple, no matter how affectionate they were. Completely blew my stereotype out of the water! You can see the episode here:
http://www.wimp.com/helpout/
So adieu until next time some insanity provokes me to writing, which perhaps might not be long at all..........
-Simon
Thursday, March 19, 2009
This has all happend before.........
Find it in you, raise your eyes
Look beyond the place you stand
Towards the furthest reaches
And to the smallest of things
The sound you're hearing
Is the symphony of what we are
Revelation will not come
With heart and mind closed and divided
No need of sun to light the way
Across the ages, we have reigned as we endured
Through the storm fronts we will ever surely pass
To stand as never ending light
Throw away the mantle
Awake from your uncertain hesitation
No way to describe or equate the feeling
No end to what is at your command
A million thoughts run through you
Concentric circles, ever greater
But you have always known
That this is not all that there is
To your questions there'll be answers
Let there be, let there always be
Never ending light
Look beyond the place you stand
Towards the furthest reaches
And to the smallest of things
The sound you're hearing
Is the symphony of what we are
Revelation will not come
With heart and mind closed and divided
No need of sun to light the way
Across the ages, we have reigned as we endured
Through the storm fronts we will ever surely pass
To stand as never ending light
Throw away the mantle
Awake from your uncertain hesitation
No way to describe or equate the feeling
No end to what is at your command
A million thoughts run through you
Concentric circles, ever greater
But you have always known
That this is not all that there is
To your questions there'll be answers
Let there be, let there always be
Never ending light
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Skeptics
Hello all, sorry for the long absence. You know, sometimes life just happens. Let’s just say that as long as I get that Neuron dematerialize in the mail this week the world will be saved once again!
Ok, in all seriousness. I recently got into several discussions questioning my belief in skepticism and my "soulless" love for science. I thought for the sake of brevity, and in order to remunerate my viewpoint I would turn to a couple of videos.
The first is just a gem that I found this morning on the nature of science and how most people have a skewed view of it.
http://www.wimp.com/skewedscience/
The next is from the TED conference, If you are not familiar with this, I highly suggest you check it out!
http://www.skeptic.com/downloads/ted_shermer_m_2005.mov
Science is not a noun but rather a verb. It is a method in order to explain the world around us. It is a comprehensive framework for describing, making and falsifiable about related sets of phenomena based on rigorous experimentation, observation and logic.
If you would like to learn more about the skeptic movement The Skeptics Guide to the Universe blog is a great place to start:
http://www.theskepticsguide.org/
until I have more time,
Peace.
Ok, in all seriousness. I recently got into several discussions questioning my belief in skepticism and my "soulless" love for science. I thought for the sake of brevity, and in order to remunerate my viewpoint I would turn to a couple of videos.
The first is just a gem that I found this morning on the nature of science and how most people have a skewed view of it.
http://www.wimp.com/skewedscience/
The next is from the TED conference, If you are not familiar with this, I highly suggest you check it out!
http://www.skeptic.com/downloads/ted_shermer_m_2005.mov
Science is not a noun but rather a verb. It is a method in order to explain the world around us. It is a comprehensive framework for describing, making and falsifiable about related sets of phenomena based on rigorous experimentation, observation and logic.
If you would like to learn more about the skeptic movement The Skeptics Guide to the Universe blog is a great place to start:
http://www.theskepticsguide.org/
until I have more time,
Peace.
Monday, January 12, 2009
So whats the harm........
Well hello everybody, I trust you all had a wonderful and uneventful holiday season.
I have undergone several bouts of viral infestation, and in fact am fighting one off right now. Thus is the joy of working in hospitality and having a 5 year old in preschool!
I had a couple of interesting things happen in the past several weeks. The first is that my sister had quite a serious cancer scare. During a routine follow up for her hysterectomy the technician thought that he saw several shadows that could have been tumors.
The second is that I have been involved in more than one rather heated discussion about my skepticism, my lack of faith, and my distrust of religion. The one question that all these had in common was, “what’s the harm if someone believes in that”?
Let’s take a look at that.
Well a very clear example arises this year with the touting of Jenny McCarthy. Yes, that Jenny McCarthy. If you are not aware, she has a son that was born with Autism. This is a terrifying thing for any parent to go through, and I would imagine what a strain it would put on a person. Well, Jenny first found comfort in a group called the Indigo Children. This group believes that children born with Autism are a next step in human evolution, and that they are “removed“and “anti social” because they exist in several planes of reality. After leaving that group she discovered some very poor research and pseudo science that tried to link vaccines with Autism. Before we go on I feel that it is important to point out that there are some very real and documented problems with vaccines, they are by no means perfect, and in fact my brother contracted Gillian Burre syndrome which rendered him totally paralyzed for about 6 months, from a flu vaccine. But percentage of persons with complications is almost nonexistent faced with the potential millions that would die otherwise. It would seem that Miss McCarthy has now publicly joined the anti vaccine campaign and had done a multitude of interviews speaking against vaccines. Well this mis information has now taken its toll, in small communities across the US there has been a unprecedented spike in Measles cases among unvaccinated populations. Her belief in this nonsense is now killing children. Can you imagine the effect small pox would have on today’s population? To put this in perspective let’s look at The Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919. This flu killed more people than the First World War, at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351. So “What’s the harm”?
I recently heard an interview with the actor/ politician/ economist Ben Stine (Buller, Buller) where he was promoting his new movie on education and creationism called, Expelled. In these interviews he said that “the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed. That is where science in my opinion leads you” and “love of god and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place and science leads you to kill people”. Hmmmmm, love of god, like Israel and Hamas? Perhaps the Catholics and the Protestants? Possibly Islam and the western world? Perhaps this god he is speaking about is a different one than the one that commanded Abraham to kill his only son to prove his love for him? And just perhaps the science he speaks of is not the same one that that has saved countless lives by developing penicillin? I think it would be very safe to say that the amount of human suffering and death that was caused by misguided pseudo science (eugenics) is nothing as compared by the amount brought on by religion. So again “what’s the harm”?
As many of you know my sister is very much a proponent of homeopathy and naturopathy, primarily because she is terrified of the medical community at large that she perceives as killing our mother. I have respected her beliefs for some time. Well, her first reaction to her discovery of the possibility of cancer was to ask the family for money in order to receive a Homeopathic remedy for her cancer. Needless to say we exchanged some very heated words on the subject. I started to feel guilty that I had not been more supportive of her methodology. But then I realized that we were talking about her life. Homeopathy and Naturopathy have long been debunked by multiple scientific studies. It is very well established in the scientific community that Homeopathy and Naturopathy have absolutely no benefit and in some cases can be very harmful. The case of the father in Australia recently force feeding his daughter with heart disease homeopathic vitamins and inflicting permanent brain damage upon her, comes to mind. It took a family intervention instigated from my father to finally get my sister to see reason and see her Oncologist. As it turns out, the shadows were most likely non cancerous. I can’t imagine the anxiety, the damage to her body, receiving a treatment that she didn’t need. “So what’s the harm”?
We are all participants in this society; we are all responsible of the actions of our society. And yes, this includes 9-11, George W. Bush, and our present economic crisis. Our inaction, our ambivalence has brought this world into being. We created it. I think it is time we start to take responsibility for our society; it is time to call out the lunatics, to let people know that racism is unacceptable, that ignorance is unacceptable, and that blind faith and religion are outdated and unacceptable. We live in a world where pseudo science and religious fervor rule. And for the first time in human history, we really do have the power to destroy all human life on earth. I fear that the hour is late, but I want to my son and his generation to at least know that someone stood up and said “what’s the harm? Well let me tell you………”
I have undergone several bouts of viral infestation, and in fact am fighting one off right now. Thus is the joy of working in hospitality and having a 5 year old in preschool!
I had a couple of interesting things happen in the past several weeks. The first is that my sister had quite a serious cancer scare. During a routine follow up for her hysterectomy the technician thought that he saw several shadows that could have been tumors.
The second is that I have been involved in more than one rather heated discussion about my skepticism, my lack of faith, and my distrust of religion. The one question that all these had in common was, “what’s the harm if someone believes in that”?
Let’s take a look at that.
Well a very clear example arises this year with the touting of Jenny McCarthy. Yes, that Jenny McCarthy. If you are not aware, she has a son that was born with Autism. This is a terrifying thing for any parent to go through, and I would imagine what a strain it would put on a person. Well, Jenny first found comfort in a group called the Indigo Children. This group believes that children born with Autism are a next step in human evolution, and that they are “removed“and “anti social” because they exist in several planes of reality. After leaving that group she discovered some very poor research and pseudo science that tried to link vaccines with Autism. Before we go on I feel that it is important to point out that there are some very real and documented problems with vaccines, they are by no means perfect, and in fact my brother contracted Gillian Burre syndrome which rendered him totally paralyzed for about 6 months, from a flu vaccine. But percentage of persons with complications is almost nonexistent faced with the potential millions that would die otherwise. It would seem that Miss McCarthy has now publicly joined the anti vaccine campaign and had done a multitude of interviews speaking against vaccines. Well this mis information has now taken its toll, in small communities across the US there has been a unprecedented spike in Measles cases among unvaccinated populations. Her belief in this nonsense is now killing children. Can you imagine the effect small pox would have on today’s population? To put this in perspective let’s look at The Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919. This flu killed more people than the First World War, at somewhere between 20 and 40 million people. It has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history. More people died of influenza in a single year than in four-years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351. So “What’s the harm”?
I recently heard an interview with the actor/ politician/ economist Ben Stine (Buller, Buller) where he was promoting his new movie on education and creationism called, Expelled. In these interviews he said that “the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed. That is where science in my opinion leads you” and “love of god and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place and science leads you to kill people”. Hmmmmm, love of god, like Israel and Hamas? Perhaps the Catholics and the Protestants? Possibly Islam and the western world? Perhaps this god he is speaking about is a different one than the one that commanded Abraham to kill his only son to prove his love for him? And just perhaps the science he speaks of is not the same one that that has saved countless lives by developing penicillin? I think it would be very safe to say that the amount of human suffering and death that was caused by misguided pseudo science (eugenics) is nothing as compared by the amount brought on by religion. So again “what’s the harm”?
As many of you know my sister is very much a proponent of homeopathy and naturopathy, primarily because she is terrified of the medical community at large that she perceives as killing our mother. I have respected her beliefs for some time. Well, her first reaction to her discovery of the possibility of cancer was to ask the family for money in order to receive a Homeopathic remedy for her cancer. Needless to say we exchanged some very heated words on the subject. I started to feel guilty that I had not been more supportive of her methodology. But then I realized that we were talking about her life. Homeopathy and Naturopathy have long been debunked by multiple scientific studies. It is very well established in the scientific community that Homeopathy and Naturopathy have absolutely no benefit and in some cases can be very harmful. The case of the father in Australia recently force feeding his daughter with heart disease homeopathic vitamins and inflicting permanent brain damage upon her, comes to mind. It took a family intervention instigated from my father to finally get my sister to see reason and see her Oncologist. As it turns out, the shadows were most likely non cancerous. I can’t imagine the anxiety, the damage to her body, receiving a treatment that she didn’t need. “So what’s the harm”?
We are all participants in this society; we are all responsible of the actions of our society. And yes, this includes 9-11, George W. Bush, and our present economic crisis. Our inaction, our ambivalence has brought this world into being. We created it. I think it is time we start to take responsibility for our society; it is time to call out the lunatics, to let people know that racism is unacceptable, that ignorance is unacceptable, and that blind faith and religion are outdated and unacceptable. We live in a world where pseudo science and religious fervor rule. And for the first time in human history, we really do have the power to destroy all human life on earth. I fear that the hour is late, but I want to my son and his generation to at least know that someone stood up and said “what’s the harm? Well let me tell you………”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
