Santa and Jesus Myths

Santa Claus           

Watching my grand kids indulge in the Santa myth is truly a fun and amazing thing to see. Last year we redesigned the basement turning it into an art studio. The parents and I led them to go down the stairs and Rocky, the youngest, said, “What if he’s still down there?” A frightening thought indeed! He turned to his older sister and said, “Let’s listen for a ‘ho ho ho . . .’. Precious.

This year Lucy being 6 is a little more excited and organized by things. She went to great lengths to write Santa a thank you note for last year’s presents. Santa of course left a note in return telling her what a great kid she was. Santa also ate most, but not all, of the cookies the kids left for him (and the reindeer ate the carrots). What more proof could you ask for?

The Santa myth is a great example of how programmed by evolution young children are to believe what the elders tell them. Their brains are wired for belief of authority. You can see how survival might depend on that early on. ‘Get in the cave NOW or you WILL be eaten by a saber tooth tiger! No time for arguing on that one and similar.

So we can indulge in the Santa myth for the kids’ and our own enjoyment. The preciousness of seeing someone truly believe that this rough old world houses a kind old gentleman who gives you presents and asks nothing in return. Yeah you’re supposed to be ‘good’ to get that but all kids know that Santa keeps the bar pretty darn low.

Is it a little sad when they grow up and get the idea from other kids or all on their own that the Santa myth just won’t hold water any longer? Really the whole world? One night? Every kid? Of course when you’re young and Santa is magical (and you certainly want him to come to YOUR house) you easily suspend disbelief and even invent ways for it to work. This year Lucy told me that if you should happen to see Santa at work he will lose all his magic and that’s why no one ever sees him as proved by the fact that everyone continues to get presents. Usually the sadness is short lived as its now fun to be in on the ruse and embellish for the enjoyment of younger siblings and friends. And so the myth happily marches on.

It is because youngsters are so wired to believe the adults that it is important to start taking them to church and telling them the Jesus myth at the same age you start telling them the Santa myth. So why does the Santa myth vaporize while the Jesus myth takes off and becomes a life directing idea for many people?

There is the same amount of evidence for the existence of both guys. Probably more for Santa! I mean the cookies are EATEN! While getting around the world in a day via sleigh and flying reindeer challenges our credulity at some point why doesn’t rising from the dead, walking on water, turning water into wine, dying for our sins, and being born to a virgin also challenge our credulity? And look, you actually GET something by believing in Santa - presents. You get nothing by believing in the Jesus myth except promises that can only be collected after death.

Faith

Somehow belief in an unprovable idea as been equated with being good. Being a good person. “He’s a man of faith”. A phrase we hear often. If it were spoken, “He is a believer in an invisible magic person”, it doesn’t sound so hot. Well, at least not to me.

So very many of us are locked in to a fear of un-belief. Fear of death. Fear of hell and damnation. Worst case, Santa skips you one year. Worst case for Christians, you burn in hell for eternity!

And big organizations like the catholic church have a vested interest in people NOT questioning. The whole thing collapses in a heartbeat if you see that you are believing in something as childish (but not quite as harmless)  as Santa Claus.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. - 1 Corinthians 13:11


But we don’t when it comes to the Jesus myth itself.

I’ll never understand this.

Capturing Miracles

Recent post from Friendly Athiest...

I think this article really cuts to the heart of the difference between healthy skepticism and blind belief. The World Religion News assumes that miracles MUST be happening so just go out there and use social media to capture them. What would this even look like? How do you show/capture that something happened miraculously?

Miracles you hear about:

Face of Jesus or Mary (sorry Joseph) appearing in toast, tree roots, pizza, etc.

One time in Chicago a stain appeared on the side of an underpass on the Kennedy Expressway that looked like the Virgin Mary. It was a fucking stain! Sure enough people started bringing candles, building a makeshift shrine,  and praying to the stain.

This is a well known phenomena: Pareidolia. We are wired to look for people. We naturally see faces where there are none. I always find it interesting that the images of these holy people are recognized even though no one actually knows or had recorded what they looked like. How sad if the real image of Jesus was popping up on toast the taco shells all over the world but no one recognized the short bald Jewish guy!

Someone recovers from a serious illness. It was a miracle. 

The theist attributes an unexplained event as miraculous. The skeptic says, not explained yet. The lack of an instant logical explanation does not then automatically point to the divine. Sometimes people do just get better. However as  Hemant points out, no one has yet grown back a limb or had a tumor magically disappear.

Escape from a disaster

This one should really piss more people off. A tornado goes ripping through a town leveling houses and killing numerous people. But not all. A survivor staggers out of his crawl space with neighbors houses flattened all around him. He looks around and says, "Well I guess God was just watching over us". Asshole. What about your dead neighbor? Are you so pathetic that you have to look at your survival as evidence that somehow you are more special than your dead neighbor?

Why is it so hard to understand that the highly random violence of a tornado is going to kill some and leave some alive. Period. No miracle is needed to explain what you are seeing.

An expert does what they are trained to do and it is called a miracle.

"Miracle on the Hudson".  Sullenberger actually trained hours for just such a landing on water. He knew the key was keeping the wing tips out of the water and did just that. I think the fact that some would call this expert performance a miracle because they are not expert at anything. They can't understand what it means to dig in and really master something. When you keep explaining the world by saying a miracle happened you just show your lazy thinking. This turns another way. Feeling so inept and then covering that with a blanket of theism forces a whole group of people to even deny that a really clever thing happened. Namely, the moon landings. The fact that people got together to be THAT clever is upsetting to the uneducated believer so deny, deny, deny.(1)

The whole thing about looking for miracles, ghosts, Big Foot,  or the Bermuda fucking Triangle is that they all represent a-priori thinking. That is, one assumes that there are (ghosts, miracles, etc) up front and then sets out to find them and find them you will because you already assume that they exist. A track in the mud - could be Big Foot. A bump in the night - could be a ghost. This is the opposite of skeptical thinking where you have no reason to assume that a thing exists until evidence presents itself. A bump in the night - Let me list all the things it could be... If it turns out that a phenomena can have several logical explanations and one miraculous one then there is no reason to jump to the miracle.

I used to live on a sailboat which means repairing the damn thing on a daily basis. When the water pump wouldn't pump water to the galley sink here was the process:

Is the pump running? If so will it pump water out of a bucket. Yes? then why won't it pump water out of the water tank? Tank empty? NO? OK, is the pump trying to pump water up too high? Lower the pump nearer the water source? Work now? Yes! Install pump in this position.

Notice that it would have done me no good to posit, "Maybe there is an invisible gremlin living in the pump that magically forces it to not work". What would I do about it anyway? Magical thinking is a dead end. It can make one feel smug and secure as if they had actually figured something out. It's lazy thinking and it is encouraged and taught by the church.

Another tack - Let's assume that a miracle had occurred. Let's say that Jesus actually brought Lazurus back from the dead. If it happened there was a WAY that it happened. What is the process by which the Lord performs miracles? How did he rearrange the atoms in Lazurus to get them going again. How were dead cells reactivated? Does he emit some sort of ray? Could this curing ray be detected independently? Could we then build a deivice to duplicate this process and bring everyone (ick) back from the dead? Moreover what extra organ does Jesus possess that he activates to perform the miracles? Is Jesus' body different from ours? If you say, no, he just channels the power of God, then you get to ask how THAT works. What is that process.? Is there a communication? Can we detect it independently and so on.

The whole idea of a miracle though is that it doesn't have a process. It just happens. We skip over any step by step and just blink (like I dream of Jeanie) or wiggle your nose (like Bewitched) and reality itself is just changed. That would be a miracle! 


(1) I don't know that the moon landing hoaxers are also theists. I'm speaking more to the idea of being intimidated but someone being more clever than you so you deny that they even did it.

Death and Dying

The Christian faithful believe in heaven. They, and all of us, miss people and are sad when they die. I certainly still miss my mom and expect I will until I too leave this mortal coil.

But then if you go to heaven do you also miss the living? You can’t talk with them. No, really, you can’t. You can’t comfort them when they’re sad or hurt. We can watch them they say. The dead ‘look down from above’. Does that mean the dead get to watch the bus coming around the corner that the live loved one does not see and then not be able warn them? Hmm….maybe that’s hell and I need to start over!

I guess I don’t see the bonus of being out of touch with a loved one and being alive or being out of touch and being the dead one.

Of course when both are dead everything is hunky dory. . . for eternity. . .

Do days pass?
Do we together watch (watch real light rays?) friends and family die.
Eternity? Really? Everyone would get annoying eventually! But even if you got a break from them. . . it’s ETERNITY!  Eternity - (we were on a break!) = Eternity!

I don’t think any form of heaven could work if it included the sense of time. Only an eternal bliss state, frozen in time, would do it. Is that so great? Can you even be in any ‘state’ if time doesn’t pass for you to reflect upon the very state you are in and reflection requires time to pass while you reflect?

Wow this is g r e a t!
It’s still great!
wow
how long is this ride?
it is great though. . . really great.
can I get off now?

And then there’s the problem of eternity itself. Does time itself go on forever. It started (probably) with the big bang. Does it have an end too? The big crunch? OK, heaven ride is over (finally) everyone off. Watch your step.

If time passes in heaven the greatest thing in the world would become boring and passé. Except, well, you know, or maybe playing the drums. And if it’s the drums will my dad be telling me to give it a FUCKING REST!

Unknowable

One of the things that makes magical thinking, such as any religion,work is that the realm itself from which the magic comes is unreachable. It is by its very nature ‘supernatural’. The faithful walk a fine line here. The magical world is real for them and yet we cannot fully fathom it. On the other hand the magical world does intercede on occasion and we can request that the magical world enter our world to help us or give us comfort which as we all know may or may not actually work. This is all very convenient. When something good happens FOR YOU you might happily ascribe that goodness to a higher being who cares for you even though it might also be explained as what happened in the natural course of events. And, when something bad happens you get to say that exactly how the magical world works is unknown and unknowable so it only seems really bad without seeing or being able to see the entire picture or that you are being punished by a harsh (yet all loving) being. I guess similar to the really big picture into which the holocaust fits in nicely. This is all very similar to the gods who lived on Mount Olympus who only occasionally decided to interact with mortals for good or evil or the occasional impregnation of a virgin.

Surprisingly there is a seemingly similar motif in physics.

As we venture downward to the microscopic to the atomic level and beyond we reach a state where the actual ‘view’ is by its nature unattainable. It’s not that our machines are not clever enough it is that seeing itself does not work with the ultra small. The simplistic version is that to see something you have to bounce light (photons) off of it but that very process disturbs or ruins that which you were attempting to see. That’s the uncertainty principle (I think). In even simpler terms think about trying to detect something with waves. Water waves come to mind. At a beach you could detect the changes in depth using the behavior of the water waves. You could detect the location of boats and wharfs by the reflection of water waves. Maybe even a swimmer. But could you detect the existence of a 1” diameter pole (like the ones that hold up Martin houses) sticking out of the water by the behavior of the waves? Probably not. The pole is too small compared to the size of the waves (wavelength). With smaller waves you might though and so it is with light and seeing. The smaller the thing you’re trying to see the shorter wavelength light you need to see it. But, darn it, when I try to use smaller and smaller wavelength light I am automatically using photons of higher energy which disturb the object I’m trying to see even more.

So, by its very nature, the sub-atomic world is un-seeable. You might be tempted to think this is just like a magical world then where there is a built in stop-gap to prevent you from knowing all.

But no. The difference is between un-seeable and un-knowable. I venture to say that at this time we know just about everything there is to know about the atom and the nucleus and we’re never going to ‘see’ it. Knowing means to be able to predict the behavior of a system given initial conditions. We have no holes in our knowledge about the atom and nucleus at this time. We have models of behavior and at times it helps to actually draw those models such as the classic atom with a nucleus and electrons orbiting. We’ve never actually seen that and we’re not going to! But the atom behaves like that and when I use that image (mathematically) to make predictions I get verifiable results that agree with my model.

And so it goes adding bells and whistles to the model as more and more hypotheses and experiments come in and our KNOWLEDGE of this un-seeable world increases.

There is nothing you can do to increase your knowledge of a magical world by its very nature - a nature that has been made up in the minds of humans. It must be unfathomable or it wouldn’t be magical.

Does God Exist?

It doesn’t really matter. For one thing, you can never prove the existence of a magical entity nor can you disprove the existence. (You can’t disprove the non-existence either!) What’s more important than questions of existence or non-existence is the fact that God does exist in the minds of about 98% of the world’s population in one of her many manifestations. To argue the case is pointless. The believers will never be convinced that their god does not really exist nor can the believers ever supply the needed evidence that the few rational people among us require to accept a rather provocative world view.

What is needed, I think, is just an acceptance. I don’t care that someone chooses to believe in magical people. I’m surprised that they make up a giant majority but such are the times in which I live. They in turn shouldn’t care that I don’t share their belief. Certainly their world view does not hinge on little old me. Or, at least it shouldn’t or how strong is that belief?

In America we have freedom of religion. We really do! You can damn well worship just about any way you want and I’m with that. The much bigger question then to the faithful is, why isn’t that enough? Why?

Why must you push for religion in school?
Why must you push for the 10 commandments to be posted on the court house?
Why must you jam a ‘creation museum’ down our throats?
Why must you invade peoples bedrooms because due to some vague references in a 5000 year old document?
Why must you single out YOUR magical belief as the ONLY proper magical belief.
Why must you equate belief in magic with high moral standing?

Why isn’t what you already have enough?

When an Atheist says, I’m not comfortable with your bringing religion into the (courthouse, classroom, board room. . .) they are not attacking your faith. Frankly they don’t care about your faith at all. They’re just asking you to keep things in there proper place. No one is asking you to NOT believe and I’m FOR that!

As an Atheist I do fear for the lose of reason that the over doing of religion represents. The only thing that stands between us and chaos is reason. Prayer and faith may give an individual solace in hard times but it’s no way to run a country. You can’t pray new roads. You can’t pray your way to the moon or Mars. You can’t learn chemistry or physics by hoping for it. You can’t pray the climate change away. It takes measured reason and real discourse to solve real problems.

So keep your faith (baby). Pray away because you have the freedom to do so. But please don’t take that extra step in thinking that your way is the high way and reason be damned.

Being Insulted

A group of Sufi Muslims took to Chicago’s streets Sunday to say an emblem used by Italian perfume-maker Roberto Cavalli smacks of insensitivity and is an affront to their faith.

Oh really. So you have some sort of higher ground because of your 'faith'. Your belief in magical people the the power of prayer gives you a right to be affronted.

How about this. . .

I'm affronted by your dragging 5000 year old behaviors and thinking into the 21st century. I'm saddened by the constant grumbling of one religion or another thinking that people using science and reason are attacking their magical position. Look, if your world view can be shattered by logic, observation, and reason maybe don't be so insulted...just drop the religion! It's taking us nowhere. 

Look, whether or not the perfume maker uses some symbol or not, your day to day life does. not. change. If you believe in magical people or not . . . nothing in our reality actually changes.

Could we please just enjoy freedom of religion and work on some real problems - together?

LIfe is Cheaper Than Ever in the Sudan

The Sudanese 'government' has sentenced a 8 month pregnant woman to death for being a christian but really being a muslim. Or maybe it's the other way around. In any case, what she did is against Sharia  "law"  (Hey, I got a sister named Sharia) and she must be put to death. (The actual crime is called apostasy)

NOTHING but religion can get people to be this crazy to think that this is somehow 'right'. NOTHING. I have a good friend who is a multiple black belt and he'll tell you that he'd much rather be attacked by a murderer, drug dealer, assassin then a religious zealot. There is no good way to protect yourself from c r a z y.

But this story has an even more depressing twist. Here's a quote from the woman's husband:

"I'm so frustrated. I don't know what to do," said her husband, Daniel Wani. "I'm just praying."

Praying? Praying? YOU DUMB FUCK THAT'S THE REASON YOU'RE IN THIS SHIT!   Praying for help is like being in hock up to you eryeballs with a loan shark and asking to borrow another hundred bucks! Although, in his defense they'd probably be in way MORE trouble if they happened to be atheists*. Maybe praying is a good way to keep his own ass out of the fire. Just be sure to pray to the right pretend/dead person.

We're doomed.

*Actually, in fact, we're all atheists and when we die we don't get to know that.

The End of People

I don’t think we’re going to make it. Of course that only means that we’ll join the ranks of the other extinct creatures which make up about 99.9% of all the creatures that ever existed.

And good riddance.

We won’t make it for the same reason that our brethren didn’t make it. Creatures go extinct because they cannot adapt to changes and out they go. Now you’d think with our extremely large craniums we’d be able to see change coming and get a leg (or flipper) up on adaptation. Like, OH . . . , noticing climate change.

But no . .

No, we have to listen to people who deny global warming, deny evolution, deny that science actually works. Deny the idea that wiping out other species (whales, Bambi) might come back to bite us in our collective asses. Deny, deny, deny. We’re doomed by our own stubbornness to stick to our guns and especially those who actually own those sticky guns. We’re doomed by our continued marching to tunes that were written 5000 years ago. Doomed by a cave-man-like belief in magic and miracles.

We have every capacity and enough cleverness to go on and on as a species but we ain’t going to make it. That will be sad but ….

No one will be around to actually be sad*.

The planet will recover from our brief invasion and be much happier down the road.

*How weird would it be to be the last human and KNOW it?!

Today’s Three Questions for Theists - April 4, 2014

Well, I see that Easter is rapidly approaching (the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox). Easter is really THE important date in Christianity. It is the resurrection and the promise of a little taste of that for us that is the cornerstone of the whole  deal.

For example:
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:54...text me!)

Ok then.

Now being a piece of scripture it has to be ‘interpreted’. (mysterious ways and all that you know).

Well, we can’t really eat Jesus’ flesh...he’s either a pretend person or long dead. But, wait, actually we CAN because the priest has the magical powers to turn something actually worse than my mom’s home made bread into the flesh of a dead jew from 2014+ years ago. Same with the blood. Priest turns some Thunderbird* into blood which can only be an improvement. So I go to communion and eat the flesh of the savior and drink his blood (this would make an awesome movie!) and NOW I too will be raised up . . .oh wait a minute…’on the last day’.

Hmmmm...MY last day? That would be awesome. Like getting the short TSA line at the airport. OR, does it mean the last day of all days? Will I know I’m waiting because that’s going to be awhile. OR is the ‘last day’ the day of the promised second coming? Well, in any case being raised up is better than being let down I always say (unless you’re calling a guy with a pair of bullets in the hole).

Now then, what of the converse?  If I do not eat of thy flesh nor drink thy blood what then? (Cheeze, now you got ME talking that way!) Banished to the neither world for eternity? I just can’t see a creator of the entire freaking universe really caring what I have for brunch on a Sunday.

Are there three questions in there? You decide. I’ll sit back and wait to not be answered.

* Old Thunderbird wine ad:

What’s the word?
Thunderbird
What’s the price?
30 twice
What’s the action?
Satisfaction!
Thunderbird!

Today’s Three Questions for Theists

1. Is God made of atoms?

2. If God is not made of atoms of what is he made?

3. If you think that there is some other layer of reality where there are real things (spirits, dead people, saints, angels, etc) that are not made of atoms what examples or evidence can you give?

Washed Away

Where do the faithful go with stuff like this:

You go to the magical ceremony to wash away your sins and you get a bonus! YOU get washed away as well and apparently suffer a scary and horrible death.

God has one sick sense of humor!

No more words necessary. The irony is pungent!

Evolution Deniers

During the methodical march of science since the time of Galileo we’ve simply followed the evidence. We throw out things that don’t fit the data and revise our new ideas and test them with more observations and experiments. The only agenda in science is the search for truth...testable truth. Ego and politics go on in meetings and behind the scenes to be sure. But the only thing that wins the day is truth...testable truth.

And in that time we’ve established the laws of mechanics, electricity and magnetism, plate tectonics, DNA, the entire periodic table, quantum mechanics, special and general relativity, the big bang, vaccines, fundamental particles that build all atoms, fission and fusion which powers the sun. Oh, and we went to the moon.

This is of course a partial list but within all of that there is not a murmur from the religious right (ok maybe the Big Bang).  But somehow they feel that the basic procedure that is the underpinnings of all science and has led to the list of discoveries above is somehow faulty when it comes to evolution. Evolution - probably the most successful theory, the most unifying theory in all of science. It explains e v e r y t h i n g we see in the living world.

Do they not have any perspective. Can they not take one tiny step back and think, “Maybe I need to re-evaluate MY position”. It would be laughable that they cannot except for the fact that they prey on the ignorance of their fellow citizens and get themselves elected to school boards, congress, county boards, etc.

I’m not asking them to drop their faith. But maybe just an adjustment. Did people of faith not adjust when it was shown that it was the sun and not the earth that was the center of the solar system? Did they not adjust when the mind bending distances involved in the universe were revealed and thereby showing that heaven is probably not up in the clouds. The clouds - the unreachable place where the gods must live.

You learn pretty early on that to dig in your heels and ignore the facts no matter what is never a good course. It doesn’t take you anywhere and it sure as hell doesn’t take US as a civilization anywhere. Being stubborn is not all together bad. Being skeptical is not bad either. It’s a requirement of a reasonable society. But to not listen to reason NO MATTER WHAT, to beat your drum just because you like your drum is to simply demonstrate your own ignorance. The fact that you have have sizable numbers of people with you means nothing but it is depressing.

Go For It

Here's the experiment. We'll build two communities. One will be based on logic and polite interaction (so no FOX 'news') and what's best for the most people with individual freedoms paramont without interferring with any other persons freedom. Golden Rule is THE rule. Gross incidents of not playing nice (murder, robbery, etc) gets you extra education until you're ready to rejoin the group.

The other is faith based. They get to pray to make their cars work and pray for their team to win etc. Of course there will be the reasonable among them and that's fine. I'm looking to make a divide between the faithful and athiests and see who can better do the best in education, productivity, fairness, etc.

Of course this is the same as the end of Atlas Shrugged (last chapter = 400 pages? :)) where all the competent people quit and formed their own colony while the rest of the world descends into anarchy.

I'm guessing that the two communities would fare about at well. There would be competent clever people in the faithful group. But it's a tie! The point being that you don't get anything extra out of this world by imagining another magical world overlaid  on top of it. You only get to have a smuggness that you believe you have a leg up on infinity. But you don't.

It's still just us. It's your noisy neighbor, the guy with the stuck car, the guy ripping off Walmart (go dude!), dog people, art people, music people, teachers, the hot dog salesman, the checkout lady at Aldi's. . .. It's still just us and its still just us riding this rock round and round the sun. Imagine what you will. Kill who you will for your pretend friend. Won't change the FACTS one iota.

And when you've completely fucked up this little rock for your pretend friend you can scream at the top of your lungs into the black night for some fucking JUSTICE from the invisibles. The rock keeps rolling and no one hears you and the people you could have helped are already gone.

Happy Birthday Issac Newton

He was born on Christmas day, 1643 (by the calendar in the works then . . .actually Jan 4 now). No shepherds came. No star alerted the masses. No wise guys. No frankincense nor Murray. But we do know that he was born on this day. Records show it. We have his school records (not so hot either!). And of course we have all of his work published in The Principia. We have eyewitness accounts of his lectures and his letters. We have his journals including the entry about the apple (which did not hit him on the head).

All in all Newton was undoubtedly a real person and we’re thankful for his work which has given work to all those teaching introductory physics for centuries after his death.

On the other hand there is NO record of Jesus having been born on December 25th. The story with the manger and the no room at the inn is pure myth. No eyewitness accounts. No letters from Mary. No love notes from Joseph (well that’s probably understandable). No mention in the historical records of the time in question. Jesus left us no writings of his own (which seems strange) and the ‘eye witness’ accounts of his lectures were actually written years after his alleged death. Who knows how much the writings of Paul, John, and Ringo were massaged over the years by a church struggling for survival.

So happy birthday Isaac. For me your work and your life are more real and hold much more importance than the passing on of a popular myth for the perpetuation of those creating and supporting the myth.

NOW pray for me

Police think Claire Davis, 17, was a random victim -- in the wrong place at the wrong time when a gunman opened fire at her Colorado school. Her friends and family are asking for prayers.

OK I'm in. There I just prayed. I just prayed to the same god that let her get shot in the first place. The same god that let the kid buy a shotgun.

It's the same after every disaster. People want to pray to a god who is all powerful without asking why the same god let the event happen in the first place. Why doesn't the whole process just seem stupid on the face of it like it does to me?

I guess I lake faith.

I did pray though...Really. Does it count when an atheist prays?

Not Dead Yet!

Here we go again. Another round of 'journalists' investigating near death experiences. In reading (ok I skimmed) this article from CNN I find once again people who claimed they 'died', saw their bodies, talked to a couple of saints, but then returned to life.

Except they clearly weren't completely dead because they're alive now. Let's talk about chatting with the saints, and looking down from above after you've been dead for a least a week or two.

Born Again

I saw a section on CNN about famous people who were 'born again'. I didn't care since I hardly knew who any of these 'famous' people were but it did start me thinking about the concept of 'born again'.

Here are some ways that being 'born again' changes a person (on Wiki). Of course it's different for different types of people of which apparently there are only 3.

• Its effects vary with the type of person involved:
• rebirth is expressed in a new alignment of the will
• to the breakthrough of a "vision"
• With others it leads to the discovery of an unexpected beauty in the order of nature
• they develop a direct and personal relationship with God.

Notice the abiguity of all of this? The last one is the one you hear so often but what does it mean? I'll state right now that I myself have a direct and personal relationship with God. Prove that I don't.

To be born again you apparently don't have to do anything. It just happens to you and then you too can be a prosylitizing asshole! No school. No orals (well except for the Catholics). No tests of any kind. How smarmy. "I'm born again". Now you must gaze upon me differently. You see me on a different plane from you don't you?

Try going to a major university and say, "I'm a physicist because I thought about it real hard and hoped I could be one and now I am one. Where's my office? Do I get a window?

Not Going To Fly.

That brings me to the fourth one on the list - discovering the unexpected beauty in nature. Unexpected? I can tell you that my study of physics has led to some unexpected levels of appreciation of nature. Take the rainbow for example. Is it not MORE beautiful to me in that like anyone else observing the rainbow I get all the color and symmetry that it presents plus I get to see a demonstration of some properties of nature that I'm familiar with. I know 'why' the colors are in the order they are in. I know why there are colors there in the first place. I know why the rainbow forms an arc that is 42 degrees around my shadow. I love seeing all this at once. I love seeing that there is a mechanism and reason behind the phenomena of the universe. To me this is MORE beauty and a fuller appreciation than the throw away phrase, "God made it".

And, in the case of the rainbow 'God made it' as a promise to not go on a planet wide killing spree again. I'll take my explanation (and it's verifiable by independent observers) over a promise from a serial killer any day.

So to say you're born again or to say you or somebody is a very spiritual person might just be a way to get some mojo for yourself without really doing anything. Look at Tim Tebow (look quick though as he is quickly moving WAY off the radar). Big guy, somewhat coordinated, can't play in the NFL. AT ALL. But with his none to subtle proselytizing he became . . . what? A lightning rod for others who can't do things so well but who also wear their spirituality on their sleeves. A behavior that takes absolutely no skill.

People say they like church because they like the community that it provides. But at what cost? This might be considered a community of people who are so insecure about their own abilities that they have to join a club of others whose only skill is to say they are born again and they love the baby Jesus. The community supports this view and by everyone agreeing with everyone gives the impression that they really got something there when in fact all they have is vapor. Vapor that is dispersed (vaporized?) at the slightest reasonable question. 

Well, I guess I'll have to be satisfied by just being born once. I'm pretty sure once was enough for my mom!

Cherry Picking

“God’s word explicitly says homosexuality is a choice, a sin,” said Reed, pastor of First Baptist Church of Gravel Ridge in Jacksonville, Arkansas. (CNN)

This in from an article about the southern baptist (southern letting you know that they are even stupider than normal babtists) church kicking the boy scouts out now that they have 'the gay'. The issue I want to discuss though is how these bigots  cherry pick a phrase from the bible to use for their own hatred. I think you have to use them all then right? If the bible is the word of god and needs no interpretation well then let's have at it!

How about the role and treatment of women?

"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Whoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death. He that sacrificeth unto any god, save to the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed." (Exodus 22:18-20)


Slavery?

When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are.  If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again.  But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her.  And if the slave girl's owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter.  If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife.  If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment.  (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)

Evolution? OK, don't even get me started! 

How about Murder?

Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death.  Such evil must be purged from Israel.  (Deuteronomy 17:12 NLT)

The point is that on one hand you claim to have a document that is true and perfect by definition because it somehow came from the creator. On the other hand you find some really horrible things in there. How do you pick ONE and not apply the others? Try cutting off a woman's hand for helping her husband and see how that flies in court! 

Anti-Science

Well there you have it. I was going to write a piece about congressmen and senators who believe in creationism over evolution. The first link I hit said that 46% of Americans believe in creationism.

So, fuck it.

I guess if we are a government of and by the people we should expect to have representatives who are just as stupid as nearly half the general population. I don’t blame the schools. Ideas that are inserted into very young children are almost impossible to dislodge. You can run the most logical, well constructed, and evidence supported argument you like and you’re just going to get a blank look in return.

Never try to teach a pig to sing. You frustrate yourself and you annoy the pig.

And, it’s not only that they choose to believe in something that is completely impossible, full of discrepancies and self-contradictions. It’s that this is just the tip of an entire anti-science, anti-logic world view. Why study science or math? It’s all laid out in the bible (but oh so badly and only if you cherry pick!). Why devote tax dollars to pure research (and we’re not)? What for? Who needs it?

This world view is soooooo  handy too. It allows you to deny anything because you refuse to understand or appreciate a logical argument or an argument supported by evidence and experiment. Now you can deny global warming if you like. You can claim we never went to the moon if you prefer. Uncomfortable with the Holocaust? Deny it!

America cannot continue to lead (if we even are) with this mentality being so prevalent. Notice the LHC is NOT in America. The best physicists in the world are working in Switzerland. If this keeps up then in 100 years we’ll be a tiny backwater of the planet with our guns and our bibles. People will certainly leave us alone because we’ll still be devoting 80% or more of our resources to our military. But invention, innovation, creativity and zest for exploration will be happening somewhere else.

Heaven

Wow, this guys true story about going to heaven has been on the best seller list for 27 weeks! Hmmm...

Well, who doesn't like a good story! If you take solace in this or as affirmation that heaven exists then good for you. I'm not against anyone finding a little peace when thinking of the long, long sleep.

Of course all the popular accounts of people going to heaven are from people who are alive. So. . . there's that. Don't you really, really have to die to go to heaven? Better evidence of heaven would be a visit and first hand account from, say, Abe Lincoln. Or Einstein. Someone who is completely dead.

I'll be waiting for that and in the meantime I'll stick with what I told my daughter when she asked me what it was going to be like when she was dead. I told her it would be as good or bad as the year 1965 was for her (she was born in 1979). Were you miserable when you didn't exist? No. So, get ready to not be miserable again!