Unbelief IS an option.

"I didn't know unbelief was an option." I once heard this, I can't remember where, from a person who formerly believed in a religion.  One of the other statements I have heard was "I didn't realize that there were people that had read my holy book or had looked at religion with an open mind and found no proof. I thought it was simply Christians (or any other religion) and people who haven't yet found god."  Statements of both these kinds are from people who have had little or no contact with a person of non-belief or perhaps a person of another faith, in an open and non confrontational atmosphere.

I wanted to define Atheism and what it means or does not mean.  The dictionary would say:
a·the·ism/ˈāTHēˌizəm/  Noun:  The theory or belief that God does not exist. But this is not quite right. Atheism is not a "belief" that god doesn't exist, it more means that a person can find no evidence to believe in god.  The difference may seem subtle but it is important.  Think of Atheism as a zero point expression.  A baby would be Atheist for they no more believe in god, a religion, or Santa Claus *yet*, for how could they. They can't read or speak!  Atheism is akin to NOT believing in alchemy or astrology.  If you do not believe in these two things, we don't have a word for it!

More often than not, a person who 'invokes' Atheism usually has a good grasp on not only his countries popular religion but also of the other minority ones as well. What is also interesting is that many studies have been conducted, where an Atheist or a person who discounts a religion will actually possess more information of that religion than the general population or even that of the layman's of that religion. I will reference the Pew study here: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1745/religious-knowledge-in-america-survey-atheists-agnostics-score-highest

This is a basic framework for Atheism but like all things, there are shades of colors. For example there are 'strong' Atheists and 'weak' Atheists. A strong one will say god is false versus a weak one will say it cannot be proved true.  This is not contradictory to the above framework.  A weak Atheist should not be confused with Agnosticism, a person who says god may or may not exist and may or never be proved.  Now to muddy the waters a little an Atheist may say, without being an Agnostic, that one day god can be proved to be true, if the evidence proves it to be true.

Even if god were to be proved true it would not prove a specific religion was true. This gives us Deism which many of our nations forefathers were. Others were ambivalent on religion and still more were christians and catholics.  Thomas Jefferson was a Deist but today when it is more sociably acceptable to invoke Atheism but still not politically so, may have called himself an Atheist, along with James Madison, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin.

"Atheists have no morals, since they don't believe in God". This is true in part.  There is nothing in Atheism that says anything on morality or politically or anything besides god. You can be a communist or mad psycho killer and be atheist (which you can be part of any religion and be a psycho killer as well).  More often than not what you will find along with Atheism is being a Secular Humanist. Humanism is for another topic but I can most assuredly tell you, it is not devil worship or the like.  I can pull up many parts of scripture in the bible or koran, which by my western sensibilities are indeed IMMORAL and repugnant. It is undeniably interesting to find out what most religions texts find to be moral but many practitioners of said faith find to be abhorrent behavior.

 I would like for you to view your faith from a critical eye, actually read your holy book, and then challenge your beliefs with debate, either in person or watch debates on youtube, Fora.tv or anywhere else.  I must applaud many christians who would say, "If my faith cannot stand the test of scrutiny, I should not be believing in it."

On closing I would like for you to watch this video. A search on youtube on this video will bring up 3 different parts. Please search for them.

Great by Tony Rogers

http://tonyrogers.bandcamp.com/track/great



Found this little nugget of a song. Normally I hate (read loath) TV commercials for many reasons but every once in awhile one shows up and a gem is to be found within. This song on the above track was featured in a Purina dog food advertisement and the sound hit me just right.

For me this is a tragedy and not a comedy. I'm fighting the notion that the song is talking about pets and will continue with the assumption we are talking about people. For me the singers voice doesn't convey bliss or contentment but a sense of what is wrong. Someone else can see what I could be but I still cannot. I feel within that I have the energy to accomplish, but have no outlet. The person who can see these things remains as a icon, to keep striving for greatness.
At the end though it seems that the feeling remains but its almost a resignation has set in. Or maybe I feel that at the end because the song ends, who's to say?



To a point I was good
Tried to do stuff that I should
Tried to do what you said
Tried to sleep in my own bed
But my bones wouldn’t rest
‘Til I put me to my test
And I remembered what you said

That I could be great
So so great
(let it right out)

Being good isn’t tough
But it’s also not enough
What’s the use enduring birth
If I can’t find what out it’s worth
I need dreams, I need plans
I need you to understand
And I remember what you said

That I could be great
So so great

I can bite off more and I can chew
We may never know what I can do

I could be great
So so great

Early Bird

This image was take by me in Spokane, WA on July 19, 2011 4:18 am.  It is of the Upriver Dam.  This dams purpose is to provide water for a large portion of the city of Spokane. Down river, perhaps 750 ft or so, is the second portion of the facility shown here:

 The electricity generated from the turbines is used to power the water pumps from the regional aquifer.  A Google search will clearly show the 2 damns and how they are arranged.  This third image shows the main spillway section in brighter conditions:

The last two images were also taken by me at approximately 6am.  The images are free to use but please credit my blog if you use the them. 

All we have to do, is get rid of the pulse

This is an excerpt from the March 2012 edition of Popular Science:

Regar and the Central American patient proved that humans could survive, indeed thrive, with no pulse.....Rather than augmenting an existing heart...they would replace it entirely with two turbines, one to do the work of the left ventricle and one to do the work of the right. 


Last March, they got their long awaited chance. A 55year old man named Craig Lewis showed up at the Texas Heart Institute with a case of amyloidosis....Lewis had slid form perfect health to death's door in less than a year.


The doctors attached him to a heart lung machine, and another device took over function of the kidneys. He kept going into cardiac arrest, though, and staying attached to the machines was no longer feasible in any case. "That's permissible for only 5 days, and he was on day 14,"
Cohn says...."There was no way he was going to survive a heart transplant; the amyloid would have attacked it."..... Cohn removed Lewis's disceased heart and replaced it with a pair of Heartmate II's.


Two days after surgery, Lewis sat up in bed and spoke with his family. An aspiring engineer, he even sketched ideas for how better to hook up the heart....The patients liver failed so bad that within 5 weeks, he lost consciousness and his family asked Cohn to witch the heart off. But he'd gotten those 5 weeks time to say goodbye. And he'd left a legacy.......


This excerpt is taken from a larger story on how they have already replaced in part or the total function of the heart with a small turbine.  It is a continuous pump that produces no beat.  The article talks about 2 people on this planet who walk around not with a thump thump of the heart rhythm but flatlined, with blood flow and pressure. Wild.

What moved me about this article was the time this "heart" gave to Craig Lewis.  It is interesting how we live our lives and what amounts to a large part of our awaking time, is spent on focusing on moving time along. By not being at work or some function or with boredom. Or doing all the things that we MUST do and not spending time on whats important or worse yet, wasting time in the worst possible way.  It is an interesting dynamic that when we are out of time, what would would give or do for just a few days or even hours more.

There have been many a philosophical tale or story devoted to what would you do in your final days and that notion usually brings a great swell of emotion. Depending on various factors some people would think to engage in extreme sports, skydiving or base jumping, or getting a Corvette.  Nearly everyone would make it a priority contacting loved ones, cherished friends and reconnecting with people lost to time and commitments.  What might you do dear reader?