Tuesday 14 June 2011
What am I doing here? and what does the Haddock God want?
Perhaps at first glance this appears a trite question for an atheist, or even a theist for that matter, however the question I am posing is slightly more insular.
What I have been asking myself recently is what am I doing on the net? Twittering, blogging etc. I guess the answer is that I feel that I am engaged in some form of altruistic act. It may be no different to someone who engages with a charity or helps an elderly person across the road.
I am (in my opinion) a fairly tolerant guy. If someone wants to pray to a Haddock God who brings forth Fish in a cheese sauce to his followers then that's fine by me, however when the Haddock God's followers start telling me how I and those around me should live my life then I start getting annoyed. Don't get me wrong, I am not an anarchist, far from it. Society functions through a series of rules. But those rules need to be developed through common sense and a sense of morality and this is the biggest problem with gods. Gods are both immoral and illogical. My frame of reference is that of the Christian God as I grew up a christian. But in recent years I have travelled and read and have an understanding of other belief systems.
What the faithful do not seem to grasp when I speak to them on twitter (and I am generalising to make a point) is that being an atheist is not a religion. Science is not a religion. To me being an atheist is a belief, if a belief can be framed in the negative! That is there is no God, no grand designer, no supreme being watching over us. Its that simple.
Science is not a religion, it is not a faith, it is not even a belief system. It is a methodology, a way of testing and examining the world, the universe, the phenomena from the gargantuan to the sub-atomic which occur around us and within us every moment of every day. Some processes started with the beginning of time and are still occurring others are so fast as to be currently unobservable.
So with that in mind what do I believe in. I believe in lots of things, I believe that the world is pretty much a spherical object, that gaseous exchange takes place in my lungs as I breath, that whilst I am sure Justin Beiber is adored and admired by a huge number of people if he stopped making music tomorrow my life would not be detrimentally influence (although chaos theory may suggest otherwise). I do believe that life on earth was created by chance occurrences over millions of years and that evolution is not something that happened it is something that is happening and will continue to do so.
I am flexible in my beliefs too, this is different to faith. If evolution is show to be false tomorrow then I will re-evaluate the evidence and reconsider my position. Creationism was show to be false years ago. It does not stand up to scrutiny at any level. I ask and continue to ask for evidence of its existence and no one has provided anything that stands up to scientific rigour.
So the reason I am here is to say that I was once a Christian. But religion holds no answers. I use to read the bible, but its just words, stories written during a time that no longer has context. I ask people to think, if you can find answers to some of the more difficult questions mankind has asked himself through reading an book complied from translations of ancient manuscripts then go ahead. But if you want real knowledge then put on your white coat and get in the lab, or pull on a pair of boots and study the world around you. Get out there, stand on the shoulders of giants and make a difference, explore, discover and improve your world, your life and that of those around you. On the other hand go listen to someone reading pages out of a very old book. Choice is yours.
And as for the Haddock God, what does he want? Well, I would suggest he wants you to leave him alone, because he is not really there!!!!
[coming soon, why gods are immoral and illogical, before anyone asks]
What I have been asking myself recently is what am I doing on the net? Twittering, blogging etc. I guess the answer is that I feel that I am engaged in some form of altruistic act. It may be no different to someone who engages with a charity or helps an elderly person across the road.
I am (in my opinion) a fairly tolerant guy. If someone wants to pray to a Haddock God who brings forth Fish in a cheese sauce to his followers then that's fine by me, however when the Haddock God's followers start telling me how I and those around me should live my life then I start getting annoyed. Don't get me wrong, I am not an anarchist, far from it. Society functions through a series of rules. But those rules need to be developed through common sense and a sense of morality and this is the biggest problem with gods. Gods are both immoral and illogical. My frame of reference is that of the Christian God as I grew up a christian. But in recent years I have travelled and read and have an understanding of other belief systems.
What the faithful do not seem to grasp when I speak to them on twitter (and I am generalising to make a point) is that being an atheist is not a religion. Science is not a religion. To me being an atheist is a belief, if a belief can be framed in the negative! That is there is no God, no grand designer, no supreme being watching over us. Its that simple.
Science is not a religion, it is not a faith, it is not even a belief system. It is a methodology, a way of testing and examining the world, the universe, the phenomena from the gargantuan to the sub-atomic which occur around us and within us every moment of every day. Some processes started with the beginning of time and are still occurring others are so fast as to be currently unobservable.
So with that in mind what do I believe in. I believe in lots of things, I believe that the world is pretty much a spherical object, that gaseous exchange takes place in my lungs as I breath, that whilst I am sure Justin Beiber is adored and admired by a huge number of people if he stopped making music tomorrow my life would not be detrimentally influence (although chaos theory may suggest otherwise). I do believe that life on earth was created by chance occurrences over millions of years and that evolution is not something that happened it is something that is happening and will continue to do so.
I am flexible in my beliefs too, this is different to faith. If evolution is show to be false tomorrow then I will re-evaluate the evidence and reconsider my position. Creationism was show to be false years ago. It does not stand up to scrutiny at any level. I ask and continue to ask for evidence of its existence and no one has provided anything that stands up to scientific rigour.
So the reason I am here is to say that I was once a Christian. But religion holds no answers. I use to read the bible, but its just words, stories written during a time that no longer has context. I ask people to think, if you can find answers to some of the more difficult questions mankind has asked himself through reading an book complied from translations of ancient manuscripts then go ahead. But if you want real knowledge then put on your white coat and get in the lab, or pull on a pair of boots and study the world around you. Get out there, stand on the shoulders of giants and make a difference, explore, discover and improve your world, your life and that of those around you. On the other hand go listen to someone reading pages out of a very old book. Choice is yours.
And as for the Haddock God, what does he want? Well, I would suggest he wants you to leave him alone, because he is not really there!!!!
[coming soon, why gods are immoral and illogical, before anyone asks]
Friday 27 May 2011
The reality of Dinosaurs from the Creation Museum
If this is not enough check out this link for the photo "Notice how the vegetarian velociraptors ignore Eve"
An excellent article written on an absurd place, worth a look.
Judas turns water into wine and a rhino sneaks into my bedroom
Jesus pitches up at a wedding in Cana, the Brides dad has screwed up because he did not order enough wine, and now the guests are pissed off. You don’t go to a dry wedding what good is that. The off license is now closed and Walmart has not yet made it to Cana (the land had been purchased but there was local opposition to the building because the area was used to stone rape victims). Jesus was worried there was going to be a riot. So to cut a short story shorter he had the servants fill some jugs full of water and when they poured it out they poured it out they found it had mysteriously turned into chateauneuf du papehe. Now we know this happened because the bible said it did and someone wrote it down. All the evidence that anyone ever needs!* Only who can say for sure where the magic came from? Now I admire the work of Penn Jillette and RJ Teller. Both accomplished demigods. However through the style that they adopt it is quiet often Jillette who fronts the miracle the actual work is conducted my Mr Teller. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H81A3bU68k&feature=related Perhaps Judas was really the magician who sat quietly in the background and made jesus look good. When eventually Judas had enough of being upstaged and tried a breakaway independent career it all went wrong for everyone.
*I wrestled a rhino last night, it had crept into my room and tried to reset my alarm clock to make me late for work. When I woke up I asked it to leave. It refused and after a 20 minute struggle I managed to throw it out of the skylight in the bathroom. Now this may sound far fetched but not only did it happen but I am writing it down myself and this is not a third hand account
Wednesday 25 May 2011
A challenge to theists
No matter what you say about western religion, I have not ever heard a satisfactory answer to this problem?
Saturday 21 May 2011
The rapture lot are tweeting like there's no tomorrow!
I have to admit I am bored with the whole rapture thing. As predicted by most, religious and atheists alike it did not happen. I am not a fan of religions but I am sparing a thought for the majority of Christians who have been abused through out the day due to the ramblings of a mad man (and yes I have thrown my tuppence in too). But tonight I am going on the beer and I intend to forget about the whole thing.
But before I go I want to spare a thought to the innocent victims of this farce. The kids who's parent's blind faith and borderline mental illness would have taken them on an emotional roller coaster of fear, excitement and god knows (yes I know I am being ironic) what else over however long they have been signed up to the rubbish. It is my humble opinion (and I know it accounts for very little) that the authorities should be considering this as child abuse. Let's be honest telling your kids theyre gonna be taken up to heaven if the believe in and love with their whole hearts some anthropomorphic self indulgent creator and if they don't they will suffer months of hell on earth before they are consummed by the fires themselves is pretty fucked up. But as most of the followers are American where sadly a nation that was sensible enough to set itself up on a nonsecular premise has swallowed religious dogma like a japanese whore swallows cum at a bukkake party then this call will fall on deaf ears. Thankfully there is a ground swell of american atheists prepared to "preach" the word of reason.
But that's enough from me. I'm off to the pub to celebrate life, love and happiness. Evolution is a wonderful thing.
But before I go I want to spare a thought to the innocent victims of this farce. The kids who's parent's blind faith and borderline mental illness would have taken them on an emotional roller coaster of fear, excitement and god knows (yes I know I am being ironic) what else over however long they have been signed up to the rubbish. It is my humble opinion (and I know it accounts for very little) that the authorities should be considering this as child abuse. Let's be honest telling your kids theyre gonna be taken up to heaven if the believe in and love with their whole hearts some anthropomorphic self indulgent creator and if they don't they will suffer months of hell on earth before they are consummed by the fires themselves is pretty fucked up. But as most of the followers are American where sadly a nation that was sensible enough to set itself up on a nonsecular premise has swallowed religious dogma like a japanese whore swallows cum at a bukkake party then this call will fall on deaf ears. Thankfully there is a ground swell of american atheists prepared to "preach" the word of reason.
But that's enough from me. I'm off to the pub to celebrate life, love and happiness. Evolution is a wonderful thing.
Friday 20 May 2011
What do Atheist Have to Thank Harold Camping For?
This is rapture eve for me right now, in other parts of the world they are already at the great day May 21st. But not yet at 6pm. So the world waits.
Well actually the world isn't waiting. A few people are. On one side are the faithful followers of the Camping camp waiting to be taken into the heavens. On the other side are the cynics, detractors and atheists (these three are not mutually exclusive)waiting to laugh at the formers expense. But then perhaps there is something inherently honest about Camping... No wait, don't go, let me explain....
Hello, oh good your still there. There is a great deal written about frauds and con artists and religion has it's offenders. Most Christians will talk of the second coming and a fabulous after life. This they do with no evidence of such a claim. And when will it come? At some indeterminable point in the future. At least Camping is making a solid prediction. Okay so he's full of shit, yeah I know. But! And it's a big but in little over 24hrs he will be shown to be full of shit. Okay so the excuses and back tracking will take place. The prays of the faithful saved us all, or there has been a minor error in the translation of the scriptures. Camping has got it wrong before and as social psychologists will tell us past behaviour is a strong predictor of future behaviour.
The important thing about the error of this man is that it will show that you can read what you want into the ancient scriptures it doesn't make it true. Many of the religous main stream will mock Camping along with us atheists but they are missing the point. Scholars have been interpreting the chapters and verses of the bible since it was written. Preachers every week stand up and give their receptive congregations the word of "God" according to them. This word was written by man in the first place. So Camping will turn out to be wrong, thats no surprise. But if Campings wrong what's not to say the Pope or other religious leaders may also have got it wrong? maybe its ok to be gay after all or condoms can be during biblical acts used or women have the right to determined whether they have children or meat can be eaten on a Friday, all contraversial points I know. We laugh today at the gods of our ancestors; the Romans, Egyptians, the Greeks etc but how long will it be before our cultures are the joke.
In the mean time if one person comes through this weekend and changes their world view from that of the blind faithful to one of the questioning sceptic then Harold Camping has served a purpose. And of course their will be the calls of the faithful that Camping was a fraud or a false prophet but then he is one of only a few so called prophets to actually provide a prophecy which can be tested. And as a firm believer in science, for that I am thankful.
Well actually the world isn't waiting. A few people are. On one side are the faithful followers of the Camping camp waiting to be taken into the heavens. On the other side are the cynics, detractors and atheists (these three are not mutually exclusive)waiting to laugh at the formers expense. But then perhaps there is something inherently honest about Camping... No wait, don't go, let me explain....
Hello, oh good your still there. There is a great deal written about frauds and con artists and religion has it's offenders. Most Christians will talk of the second coming and a fabulous after life. This they do with no evidence of such a claim. And when will it come? At some indeterminable point in the future. At least Camping is making a solid prediction. Okay so he's full of shit, yeah I know. But! And it's a big but in little over 24hrs he will be shown to be full of shit. Okay so the excuses and back tracking will take place. The prays of the faithful saved us all, or there has been a minor error in the translation of the scriptures. Camping has got it wrong before and as social psychologists will tell us past behaviour is a strong predictor of future behaviour.
The important thing about the error of this man is that it will show that you can read what you want into the ancient scriptures it doesn't make it true. Many of the religous main stream will mock Camping along with us atheists but they are missing the point. Scholars have been interpreting the chapters and verses of the bible since it was written. Preachers every week stand up and give their receptive congregations the word of "God" according to them. This word was written by man in the first place. So Camping will turn out to be wrong, thats no surprise. But if Campings wrong what's not to say the Pope or other religious leaders may also have got it wrong? maybe its ok to be gay after all or condoms can be during biblical acts used or women have the right to determined whether they have children or meat can be eaten on a Friday, all contraversial points I know. We laugh today at the gods of our ancestors; the Romans, Egyptians, the Greeks etc but how long will it be before our cultures are the joke.
In the mean time if one person comes through this weekend and changes their world view from that of the blind faithful to one of the questioning sceptic then Harold Camping has served a purpose. And of course their will be the calls of the faithful that Camping was a fraud or a false prophet but then he is one of only a few so called prophets to actually provide a prophecy which can be tested. And as a firm believer in science, for that I am thankful.
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