Rick Santorum. Here, this video should say it all:
Remember Rick Santorum said that he wanted to 'vomit' about the principals this country was founded on. Thomas Jefferson said "build up that wall" in talking about separation of church and state. Jefferson knew, along with the other founders, how dangerous theocracies are and that is exactly want Santorum wants to install. It is beyond belief how he can talk in front of an audience and they clap for this. I guess this is the result when we spend a whopping 5% of GPD on education.
I really want you to watch this next video on Santorum to find out just what a mastermind this guy is and why YOU don't want him in charge.
I had always thought the argument was over. JFK used this speech the help the civil rights movement in the 60's overcome rampant segregation. But according to Santorum these works make him throw up! I get so mad having to hear about this guy over and over and over again on the news as if he is actually some sort of expert on these issues. What is very interesting is how he doesn't want college for you and your kids but he went to college himself! I really don't know what to say because if these videos aren't self evident, I don't know what argument would persuade you. If your a republican vote for Ron Paul or at the least Mitt Romney. MY GOD!
I will be writing on why we need to fight for a secular state and Santorum gives me a perfect segue on this topic. If you had told me a person said what Santorum says, I would have doubted you, but see it coming from his mouth is just as unbelievable. Santorum is a person who loves having ignorant people give him praise and pandering to uninformed. How did we get to the point in this country where ignorance is the preferred mode and stupidity trumps knowledge?! Santorum is the perfect blend of self actualizing lies and ignorance pandering, maybe that makes him the perfect politician?
Just a little more on Jefferson's wall: http://allusionsofgrandeur.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/build-up-that-wall-mr-jefferson/
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
In defense of Atheism
I would like to post some point counterpoints in defense of Atheism or in the least for anti-theism.
One of the most common things a nonbeliever will hear is; What if you're wrong?
I usually understand this point to be Pascals wager or Pascals Gambit. Pascal gives a simple cost benefit analysis to defend theism. It states that if there IS a god and you believe, you go to heaven. If there IS a god and you don't believe, you go to hell. Conversely if there isn't a god and whether you believe or not, you have lost nothing.
So that's simple, you must believe right? Well, no. First on the rebuttle is can you actually fool god? If a person examines the evidence, eg the bible, koran, ect., and cannot find that to be accurate or true, can he then say he believes in a vain attempt to enter heaven? Will god not see through this deception? Wouldn't the jealous god of the bible be angry then? Obviously this makes no sense but it gets worse. How about living with self respect. Are you seriously telling me that you can extol the faith when you know it's wrong?! What kind of person would you then become? If god gave us reason and logic, would it not then be wrong to dispose of these? Wouldn't god want us to search for truth, not settle for self imposed brain washing? It is unhealthy to knowingly believe in a lie.
Pascals wager is really a disgusting attempt at creating self delusion in expense of your self respect, dignity, humanity, health, reason, and all the little things that make us explorers of humanity and the cosmos. This is "religious hucksterism of the cheapest, vulgarest, nastiest kind that is possible to imagine" AND all this says nothing about believing in the wrong god. Last point here, if this god is so forgiving, so loving, so smart, so wonderful why would he have no room in his 'heart' for honest, decent people who have done nothing wrong at all?
Another arguments goes like this; We would not have morality if not for god or religion.
How long have people been around gives you the easy, fast answer. If you believe the world is only 6,000 years old, there isn't much I can do here. If you accept that humanity has been around on the order of 100,000 plus years, it is plain to see that we would not have gotten as far as we did if morality wasn't innate. Morality also follows cultural development and this usually have a religious element to it but as is also plain religion and the bible or koran have come only in the last 2,000 years. How did humanity get by for 98,000+ years without god? How did the jews who wandered the desert before coming upon MT. Sinai know that murder, rape, perjury, theft were not okay? Of course they knew long before then.
If we could go back say 1,000 years or during the time of the Inquisition, we would see that they followed the bible and its tenets very closely. They persecuted witches, tortured and killed heretics, endorsed slavery and genocide on an order that would frighten and outrage us today. We can also read the international headlines and read what most muslim countries offer us in light of gods wisdom. Cutting off the noses and ears for women who dishonor the family, stoning people for conversing with the wrong interpreters of muhammad, and throwing battery acid in the face of women for attending school. Is muhammad's law just and reasonable, I THINK NOT!
Please don't think we need to be stuck in the bronze age of morality and wisdom of our world. Is it not apparent that we need to understand our history and moderate our ignorance of issues and topics with care and understanding? Do you realize modern western culture has moderated christianity to its current standing and the muslin world lags behind us only for the fact that their faith guides their society and not education, science, and reason. Do not let faith guide your actions anymore.
One of the most common things a nonbeliever will hear is; What if you're wrong?
I usually understand this point to be Pascals wager or Pascals Gambit. Pascal gives a simple cost benefit analysis to defend theism. It states that if there IS a god and you believe, you go to heaven. If there IS a god and you don't believe, you go to hell. Conversely if there isn't a god and whether you believe or not, you have lost nothing.
So that's simple, you must believe right? Well, no. First on the rebuttle is can you actually fool god? If a person examines the evidence, eg the bible, koran, ect., and cannot find that to be accurate or true, can he then say he believes in a vain attempt to enter heaven? Will god not see through this deception? Wouldn't the jealous god of the bible be angry then? Obviously this makes no sense but it gets worse. How about living with self respect. Are you seriously telling me that you can extol the faith when you know it's wrong?! What kind of person would you then become? If god gave us reason and logic, would it not then be wrong to dispose of these? Wouldn't god want us to search for truth, not settle for self imposed brain washing? It is unhealthy to knowingly believe in a lie.
Pascals wager is really a disgusting attempt at creating self delusion in expense of your self respect, dignity, humanity, health, reason, and all the little things that make us explorers of humanity and the cosmos. This is "religious hucksterism of the cheapest, vulgarest, nastiest kind that is possible to imagine" AND all this says nothing about believing in the wrong god. Last point here, if this god is so forgiving, so loving, so smart, so wonderful why would he have no room in his 'heart' for honest, decent people who have done nothing wrong at all?
Another arguments goes like this; We would not have morality if not for god or religion.
How long have people been around gives you the easy, fast answer. If you believe the world is only 6,000 years old, there isn't much I can do here. If you accept that humanity has been around on the order of 100,000 plus years, it is plain to see that we would not have gotten as far as we did if morality wasn't innate. Morality also follows cultural development and this usually have a religious element to it but as is also plain religion and the bible or koran have come only in the last 2,000 years. How did humanity get by for 98,000+ years without god? How did the jews who wandered the desert before coming upon MT. Sinai know that murder, rape, perjury, theft were not okay? Of course they knew long before then.
If we could go back say 1,000 years or during the time of the Inquisition, we would see that they followed the bible and its tenets very closely. They persecuted witches, tortured and killed heretics, endorsed slavery and genocide on an order that would frighten and outrage us today. We can also read the international headlines and read what most muslim countries offer us in light of gods wisdom. Cutting off the noses and ears for women who dishonor the family, stoning people for conversing with the wrong interpreters of muhammad, and throwing battery acid in the face of women for attending school. Is muhammad's law just and reasonable, I THINK NOT!
Please don't think we need to be stuck in the bronze age of morality and wisdom of our world. Is it not apparent that we need to understand our history and moderate our ignorance of issues and topics with care and understanding? Do you realize modern western culture has moderated christianity to its current standing and the muslin world lags behind us only for the fact that their faith guides their society and not education, science, and reason. Do not let faith guide your actions anymore.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Y U NO LEAVE COMMENT?
This blog is still a young blog. June 20th. of 2011 was the first post and after Sept. I almost quit writing at all. Aiming to forget this blog came the new year. Not quite a resolution but on more of a suggestion that I keep writing, I have been posting new topics and have kept the blog current for about 2 months now. I have seen a dramatic increase in traffic from before with a lot of traffic occurring most recently. Total views of this site are not anything to brag about but it has raised the questions; Does my writing reach anyone? Do people read and care?
I have just relabeled the blog posts into a more concise listing and have come to realize that this blog may lack focus. My aim is to have a mix of topics and still focus on 3 main issues encompassing Atheism (religion), politics, and entertainment. After the relabeling I have noticed that many posts are under the philosophy label and this is somewhat of a catch all of coherent ideas and some inane ramblings. Politics and entertainment both have a high content total and to keep it balanced, I will write more on Atheism; what is it, what it means, and to show its not devil worship.
This posts goal is to generate some level of feedback. Since I am new to blogging I have no idea on what it takes to get followers or even comments out of people. As of now not a single person has commented which isn't actually disheartening but it is somewhat like being in the dark. I have tried to post decent content and make the page look half-well designed. I have also begun to include more photos and embed more videos for a more entertaining site.
I have searched blog spot posts randomly by using the 'next blog' widget while logged in and many blogs seem very uninteresting. Sometimes the page that it lands on may have only a tertiary relevance to the blog itself and this single sample is judged for better or for worse. I can see how some of my older posts are less attractive then my current content. So then how do I get a person to stick around a little longer? I can see how a great many people may be put off by the Atheist topics but I try to include enough variety to hook a greater audience. Is it working?
Tell me what YOU want to see or read about. How do YOU want this blog to look? Tell me am I relevant to YOU?
Friday, February 24, 2012
An atheist or should I say a human's point of view
At the bottom of this post lies the url for the point of this post. When you look at a person, what is it you see? Do you see a baseless individual or something more perhaps? Do you see a soul or a primate? When you look into the eyes of a child, do you see a muslim child or catholic child or simply a child?
I frequently come across the writings of religious believers and its runs the gamut of reasonable discourse to insane ramblings that seem more akin to the residents of a mental hospital. The worst make flagrant attempts to sway only the most credulous of us into their way of twisted thinking. This gem here was gleamed from the a fore mentioned link: "....anything this side of Hell is mercy. Remember--you deserve to go to Hell." This is in reference to the 'basic' person; you, me, everyone. This does not seem fit for a healthy mind to think such of people.
Let us try to imagine our soul, just now infused into the zygoat of our mothers womb. Did I ask or better yet, did my soul ask to be created and then infused into this biology? It seems to me that in any event we all came into this world through no choice of our own. Only now many years after our birth do we now have the ability to even question such things. So here we are 'given' life for which we do not deserve for we are immoral, grotesque, sinners. We are all apparently just a breath away from being evil. If you thinks this of us, then we do indeed deserve hell. But fortunately for us all, there is no evidence of any sort that leads, either rationally or logically, to these conclusions. This evidence include literature, science, history, and even other holy books and scripture.
If the theist god who created the cosmos is to be true, he gave us many faculties in which to learn and disseminate how the world really is. This quote says much: "....because ''believing on Christ'' means surrendering everything, giving up everything. If you are not willing to surrender everything,..." I have heard this before and I'm betting you have as well. I understand this to mean that we are to give up our logic, reason, skepticism, and even our very inquisitive nature. Why would god give us these things just for us to dispose of them? This isn't how you treat a gift.
Would anyone argue that we are not, at a base level, explorers. We all explore the universe, our world, ourselves, human experience, emotion, and a myriad of other 'things'. Even the religious try to get to the truth, even if they incorrectly discount certain information. So in our very nature to seek religious truth, the above quote seems to be irreconcilable with what the aim of its objective is.
There is racking misery to be found right here on earth. Fortunately nothing in, on, or above this earth tells me there is a hell waiting for us. Nor is there a heaven where god sits waiting for us to commit thought crime to judge us without appeal. I cannot submit myself to this willful attempt at intellectual suicide and I implore you not to fall for these tricks they would have you fall into. All this talk of humanity belongs in hell seems very hateful to me. Why would god use hate in order for us to conform to his wishes, which seem to me to be mightily terrestrial.
There is nothing in the bible or koran or any other holy text that suggests they have any special knowledge. There is nothing in these books that have any information any more advanced than that of a 1st or 7th century man. A modern wheelbarrow would have been the invention of a lifetime and yet we should listen to them on the creation, workings, and death of the universe? No sir, I will not let this happen. I will not subscribe to ignorance in the face of knowledge. I will not let my mind fall victim to irrational discourse. I will not let my country fall victim to theocratic politicians. And I beg that you will not either.
http://freegracepreacher.blogspot.com/2010/07/letter-to-awakened-sinners.html
I frequently come across the writings of religious believers and its runs the gamut of reasonable discourse to insane ramblings that seem more akin to the residents of a mental hospital. The worst make flagrant attempts to sway only the most credulous of us into their way of twisted thinking. This gem here was gleamed from the a fore mentioned link: "....anything this side of Hell is mercy. Remember--you deserve to go to Hell." This is in reference to the 'basic' person; you, me, everyone. This does not seem fit for a healthy mind to think such of people.
Let us try to imagine our soul, just now infused into the zygoat of our mothers womb. Did I ask or better yet, did my soul ask to be created and then infused into this biology? It seems to me that in any event we all came into this world through no choice of our own. Only now many years after our birth do we now have the ability to even question such things. So here we are 'given' life for which we do not deserve for we are immoral, grotesque, sinners. We are all apparently just a breath away from being evil. If you thinks this of us, then we do indeed deserve hell. But fortunately for us all, there is no evidence of any sort that leads, either rationally or logically, to these conclusions. This evidence include literature, science, history, and even other holy books and scripture.
If the theist god who created the cosmos is to be true, he gave us many faculties in which to learn and disseminate how the world really is. This quote says much: "....because ''believing on Christ'' means surrendering everything, giving up everything. If you are not willing to surrender everything,..." I have heard this before and I'm betting you have as well. I understand this to mean that we are to give up our logic, reason, skepticism, and even our very inquisitive nature. Why would god give us these things just for us to dispose of them? This isn't how you treat a gift.
Would anyone argue that we are not, at a base level, explorers. We all explore the universe, our world, ourselves, human experience, emotion, and a myriad of other 'things'. Even the religious try to get to the truth, even if they incorrectly discount certain information. So in our very nature to seek religious truth, the above quote seems to be irreconcilable with what the aim of its objective is.
There is racking misery to be found right here on earth. Fortunately nothing in, on, or above this earth tells me there is a hell waiting for us. Nor is there a heaven where god sits waiting for us to commit thought crime to judge us without appeal. I cannot submit myself to this willful attempt at intellectual suicide and I implore you not to fall for these tricks they would have you fall into. All this talk of humanity belongs in hell seems very hateful to me. Why would god use hate in order for us to conform to his wishes, which seem to me to be mightily terrestrial.
There is nothing in the bible or koran or any other holy text that suggests they have any special knowledge. There is nothing in these books that have any information any more advanced than that of a 1st or 7th century man. A modern wheelbarrow would have been the invention of a lifetime and yet we should listen to them on the creation, workings, and death of the universe? No sir, I will not let this happen. I will not subscribe to ignorance in the face of knowledge. I will not let my mind fall victim to irrational discourse. I will not let my country fall victim to theocratic politicians. And I beg that you will not either.
http://freegracepreacher.blogspot.com/2010/07/letter-to-awakened-sinners.html
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