More "Religious Left" propaganda:

The selling idea behind right wing talk shows is mainly gossip & innuendo, but it creates a hormonal response that passes for opinion, & a sense of righteousness that seems like morality. it's cultural manipulation for political ends. In an ideal society, everyone agrees on an action or it doesn't get done. This moral propaganda coordinates agreement. Like Moses on the mount, Top Down brings rules to keep people in line.

A plagiarized gift to theists from Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan, S. James Gates, and Freeman Dyson: Science, human knowledge and the unknown The Fine Art of Not Knowing (youtube.com). The quotes by these scientists are taken out of context and possibly w/o their permission. Ave Maria playing in the background w/ clips of astronomical wonders, make a different statement than intended. (Who made this movie?) The fact that stuff is unknown doesn't suggest (much less prove) a coherent god, without additional instruction that define it as such. Those instructions are problematic.

There are no "blessed wars". Yet virtually all evangelical, conservative and many mainstream church leaders were active supporters of the Bush wars. This isn't a coincidence though, It has been an intentional program by some republican congressmen since the Reagan administration.

NY Times Book Review: The Evolution of God It's confusing when religious people use science to describe social-religious interactions, they should leave that stuff to the opinions of boffins and bloggers.

Sumerians Look On In Confusion As Christian God Creates World (The Onion)

Marcus Aurelius speaking on god(s)

A nations overall belief in god is inversely proportional to that nations average intelligence

The Flat Earth Society is "real"! (allvoices)

Joe lived offshore in Sausalito for a few years on north San Francisco Bay (locally called Richardsons Bay). The offshore people there are an elite society of sociopaths. During winter storms, the offshore people get together for company in one of the houseboats while everything is rolling & pitching in the waves. Since not much can be accomplished under those conditions, a distraction is called for. To pass time during the storm, they smoke weed and drink Southern Comfort till the waves become irrelevant. Everyone sits on the floor below deck for safety, so they won't pitch overboard, or have far to fall if they loose balance. You can just feel the status while the room spins. It feels like being cold, numb, tossed and disoriented, while listening to idiots laugh and hurl. Oh heck yeah!

There was a story about a previous storm party that came unmoored. In their condition, nobody on board noticed as their boat blew out w/ the tide, into the shipping channel, out under the Golden Gate, and into the wide Pacific. The first anybody knew about it was when a Coast Guard seaman came down the hatchway, saw everybody blasted & said "... you guys ok?". Then put them all under arrest for drugs, reckless endangerment, and creating a hazard to shipping. It could have ended worse I suppose, but if they'd survived, their status would have probably been astronomical. At least among themselves.

For membership security, the true believer must say and do things that define the group. Shows of "enhanced" ideology often gain status, like having a bruise on ones forehead from diligent prayer, whacking a rival gang member, or being the most reckless fool on the ship. Most people will do desperately stupid things in order to belong. Belonging trades responsibility for group security.

Testosterone increases sensitivity to political "status", not aggression. (Eurekalert)




Study: Believers inferences about Gods Beliefs are uniquely egocentric (physorg.com)
and If you want to know the mind of God – look in the mirror. same study (theness.com)
Probable source of The New Atheism (unreasonablefaith.com)
Give some money to The Secular Coalition for America
Another glossy brochure to hand out on the street, or door to door. Remember: be sure to dress well & don't go naked smelling like brimstone.
And now: "BRAIN WAVES!" (Science Daily)

I've been breathing easier since the Religious Right scaled back its plan for world domination, but now I'm feeling insecure again. I just watched a CD by PBS on The National Parks by Ken Burns, and noticed most of the theme music is 'ol timy baptist hymns played stringband, and a recurring topic is something like "communing with nature is talking to god" w/ a bunch of quotes by John Muir and some left sounding intellectual talking heads. In other words: Subliminal propaganda, but targeting a new demographic. It looks like the (old) new-age left w/ dope & native americans, but now w/ implied govt backing. Could this be the beginnings of "The Religious Left"? I have to admit the only part about church I ever (sometimes) liked was singing. Now that, and my other weakness, wilderness, are being used to place me in some kind of politically exploitable demographic. So I'm just being paranoid right?

God associated with real estate is a problem. It's true that the national parks have some beautiful places, but my friend Joe avoids them because the tourists are cattle & rangers are cowboys who carry tasers as well as pistols, Mace, and assault rifles. Sacred land is probably more dangerous than private land because nobody is accountable, just look'it Israel.


Immorality causes disasters says minister (BBC)
Priest admits abusing 100 children (Video CNN)
Even more UNSPEAKABLE SCANDAL (Connecticut Post)
In the eyes of many, the reputation of the Catholic church is destroyed beyond repair. (Timesonline)
The Religious Wars (NY Times)
Why do Atheists care about religion? (scienceblogs)
Agressive Atheism (video)

While I would definitely be the last to berate G Bush for eternity, (or even longer) ...



My new favorite Canadian comic strip as of Wed. Nov 11 9:07 PM

A traditional god is part of the human experience
The Crocoduck controversy

I usually rant about god & the church, but it gets boring because fewer people disagree and it's like preaching to the choir (if you will). So this post is a story my daughter told me to write down concerning an incident when my friend Joe was a feral hippy.

This is the famous story of how Joe came to be legend and completely bamfoogled the entire Phoenix Off Road Racing Club (I think that's who they were).

Around 1974-5 Joe drove down to the New Orelans Mardigras in his '59 vw bus. It was in fair condition when he started, but somewhat less on the way back. Somewhere in Arizona Joe decided to take a short cut up toward Las Vegas following his road map, which was unfortunately (or not) out of date, and the road submerged & disappeared into a lake which had developed since the map was printed. So Joe found himself on a dirt road in the wide wild desert, about 30 miles from the highway, & 50 miles from where he turned off. Joe was disinclined to drive all the way back to the turnoff by the way he came, though it appeared to be the only option since his map was useless.

To resolve the issue, Joe camped overnight in a ravine, had rabbit stew w/stroganoff sauce & listened to the wind & coyotes to help decide the only possible choice. The next morning he heard a car coming up the road but didn't go out to look, a little later another & another. So Joe ventured back up to the road & saw orange streamers hanging from the sagebrush & dune buggies roaring past. This was the very excuse he needed to not go back to the highway, because these guys were heading the direction he wanted & they had to know where they were going, so Joe followed them. If anyone ever tells you that ignorance is not bliss, direct them to this story.

The road was well marked & there were even trucks parked at side roads to point the way & keep people from getting lost, but by the time Joe passed, there had been maybe 15 or 20 buggies through ahead of him & the dirt road was so well rutted that it was easy to follow, so when the station guides came out and waived, Joe just waived back as he drove by.

Before now, it hadn't occurred to him that this might be a test of skill & endurance, but as the landscape became more lunar, and Joe began to notice expensive buggies parked off the road with drivers either working on their engines or setting in the shade drinking beer, he realized it was a contest of Man Against Nature!, & A Race To The Finish! Fortunately, (as a hippy) Joe was a veteran VW driver, and unlike many of those newer dune buggies, his ‘59 bus was stock w/ almost 12 inches of clearance, and a low gear that will climb trees. Also, Joe knew his busses' heart very well, so that even with a slipping clutch, bad compression and 200 lbs. overweight, he followed the ruts down sandy creek beds, across winding rocky slopes, & up a couple of short hills that would make sky divers swoon with bliss. The tops of some of those hills couldn't be seen from below, but by the time Joe got to them, he figured they couldn't be worse than what he'd already seen on the course, & he'd also driven through that much on & off for years anyway. Joe didn't pause to contemplate though because he would have become stuck in the sand & needed the momentum, so he persevered like a Republican w/ a hot stock tip. The whole course seemed about 1/2 hour from leaving the road, but it was late afternoon by the time it was over.

When Joe finally arrived at the rally camp in his painted hippy bus with the bubble on the roof, he got looks of disbelief from people with $10k chromed buggies. When Joe told them about the compression, clutch, & weight overload, the guy who set up the course was genuinely angry that Joe had finished & implied that Joe was lieing about his car’s condition. Joe told him he was welcome to check the engine if he was in doubt. The organizer stomped off in a fit. But others laughed and were genuinely good guys who gave Joe beer. Joe felt somewhat creeped out there though, because they were all upper middle class competition car enthusiasts, & neither they nor he could believe the other could survive whithout some kind of real life. Joe felt like a Dust Bowl refugee, and they acted like they'd discovered Sasquach, but all & all, it was a pretty good day.

The sumptuous pattern of a peacock's tail, the bronze-green armor of a pineapple, the sensuous curves of an orchid ... No! These are not the work of blind evolution but of an intelligent gay designer.
(and)
If you're at a social function and a benediction is said and the God invoked is not your own, it's a good idea to mutter, roll your eyes, and smirk, so your God will know that you're not taken in by some false God. (Dan Liebert)

When women are sinners in the eyes of extremists (Alaa Al-Aswany)

Natural selection in action: Jerks vs Gentlemen (eurekalert)


"Brain Waves"

When I was a kid, there were occasions when I heard people say (and do) things that they would never have said, for example my 7th grade teacher wrote something on the blackboard with her back turned while saying "Now I know somebody like (me) will raise their hand and say Teacher that's wrong ..", thinking that was my cue, I told her that it was wrong. Her cynicism overflowed and she berated me in front of the class. For years I wondered why she set me up, and why other kids didn't hear it. Now it seems a part of the brain called the angular gyrus has a role in anticipating what our eye will see, based on memory, it also anticipates where a thrown ball will be so it can be caught, and the same may hold true for audio and social events as well. Popular psychoanalysis ordains that, based on current scientific theory, my internal dialog provided the communication by (apparently correct) interpretation of her social cueing.[1] Hmm, maybe. Or I may have picked up ... BRAIN WAVES ...

About that time I had a spate of undramatic out of body experiences, I rose up above the roof and observed the surrounding country from a stationary position. It was interesting at first but became boring & kind of weird. It was discovered accidentally by sleeping on my arm till it lost feeling, so I laid on my back thinking about when the feeling would return. pretty soon I found I could move my finger tips but they weren't where I thought they should be. That was interesting (sort of) so I practiced pretending my arms and legs were in different positions till it was believable, then I'd have to look to verify where they actually were. I thought that was a fun game though nobody but me could play. Pretty soon I could disassociate from my body & I floated up through the roof. Nobody ever told me I could travel, so I didn't.

OK so the theory here is that the same gizmo (angular gyrus) provides spacial orientation and reference points, when information is lacking, by referencing previous memory. I can believe that, because about 1975 I bought a book on astral projection and tried it. It worked ok, but the environment around me at the time sucked, and when I tried to get people interested, they decided I was nuts, or an evil witch (meh!). But the book said how to move around, mainly to places I remembered, but also to places I'd never been, years before I ever went there (an Akido workshop in San Francisco about 1980). According to the angular gyrus literature, that should not be possible, though it may be an independent effect, like déjà vu, which is said to be a false memory, but not in my experience. There's more to it than that, maybe like a dormant ability which needs exercise.

I tested the brain wave theory several times with perhaps questionable success, (since I was both subject and object), to see if I could influence other people by mentally telling them what to do when they were unaware of me. Once when a guy was talking on the phone in a phone booth across the street at night. In the dark, he was probably unaware of me, because he couldn't see me, and was focussed on talking on the phone. I mentally asked/told him to raise his right hand over his head. He held the phone in that hand so he would have had to plan ahead and switch hands w/ the phone. It would have been a reaction instead of spontaneously (somehow) becoming me (?). He switched phone hands, and raised his right hand. That I could subconsciously anticipate by reading his body language that he would do that (and fool myself into claiming responsibility) seems unimaginative.

Another time there was a group of kids standing around in a parking lot. I was on a park hillside about 80 yards away sitting on a log among the trees. I worried that one of them was selling drugs and mentally asked them to play recess games instead. They formed a circle and started kicking a ball back and forth. When they did, I became intensely self conscious for intruding. They stopped playing. Some looked around and spied me, they pointed me out to the others, some left, some waved, some mocked me. I waved back, (why did they care if I was sitting on that log?) They seemed to understand that too. We pretended to mind our own business.

so:
1) does the angular gyrus cause modeling
2) are we really seperate
world shattering propositions (probably) coming soon!


Culture Is More Important Than Genes To Altruistic Behavior In Large-scale Societies This could explain how people tolerate repression and belief in a selfish god.

1: Stories Synchronize Brains (www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog)

.

Here's a tenuous connection between religion and reality based on language:

We constantly describe the world, if we can't describe it, it doesn't exist. This is a big limitation on reality because then the world as we know it is a description, a symbol for whatever it actually is. When something is modeled, like for math, or computers, or even plastic cars, it's the same thing. When a voodoo doctor sticks a pin in a doll, or a priest kisses some relic artifact, it's that process. The Islamic ban on models of the human figure seems odd if it's still a capital offense to disparage the Koran, since the book is a model too, and it's false to say that it won't lend itself to prurience if it demands beheading for a verbal slight. (dude that is like so 7th century)

Scientific models get updated to reflect observation, theories go in & out of style, everyday experience refines the symbolism. Communism accepts capitalism, capitalism accepts communism, but day to day observation isn't what religion is about. The church only apologized to Galileo's family 400 yrs later, but popular language pretty much reflects the current way of thinking because it is the current way of thinking.

Many traditional cultures trace a person's lineage back sometime to 6 or 10 generations to prove (possibly) that they are keepers of a successful genetic recipe. I couldn't tell if that's true or not. I once met a man from Chad who introduced himself as a royal prince of a people that I'd never heard of. He offered me his palm to read as proof. He appeared to be an exceedingly cold hearted and single minded individual (as a charlatan gypsy, my experience with palm reading comes from a book my mom read in 1927). I invited him to a party but when he saw a bunch of unmarried girls there, he refused to speak to me again. I don't imagine he had much of a way with women, so his genetic survival specialty appeared to be bullying men into arranging marriages for him.

Continuity of the Jewish priesthood bites the dust: New genetic research indicates Jewish priesthood has multiple lineages (Eurekalert) This could be problematic for all the Cohens that turn out to be Palestinian.

Reinterpretation of ancient text puts Judeo-Christian Genesis more in line with scientific record. (Telegraph)

Belief in God an Evolutionary Boost, Suggest Brain Scans (wired)

Communicating person to person through the power of thought alone (Eurekalert)

Being Atheist is even more dangerous than you thought

Religion: Biological Accident, Adaptation — or Both (wired)

Catholic bishop caught at the airport with child porn

Atheist groups in Alabama (Pharyngula)

Richard Dawkins on Mormons (Youtube)

Here's the links I didn't post last month:

Proposal for an international Happiness Index (Independent.co)

A map of the 7 deadly sins (Wired)

School band shirt depicting evolution, is recalled (Sedialia Democrat)

Legal case against God dismissed (BBC)

Intelligent Designs irreducible complexity shot down again. (Wired)

Social perils of unsubscribing to the Atheism subreddit (Reddit)

More Placebo (Wired)

The meaning of sleep (EurekaAlert)

Faith and the Republican Right (independent.co.)

Reverse Entropy (arstechnica.com)

Devils Advocate:

After ranting against religion for years, this post draws on some of religion's common themes to explain personal observations. If I'd grown up in a different culture, I'd have a different set of themes.

In a previous post I described a friend getting magical information which he couldn't possibly have known. A piece of the story which I didn't tell was that when the impression hit him (that a non-discript paper bag on a distant curb contained some tools that he needed), it was in a verbal form; words. At the time he put it down to his internal dialog, even when the "voice" said "... and remember that I told you?" (Joe said "ok").

My current thinking is that animals including people have an inherent capacity to be part of a communal synthesis or archetype, Cosmic Consciousness. An easy example is when dogs know that a friend is about to arrive, or a pet travels to an unknown location to be with their "owner". Temple Grandin, an autistic woman w/ PHD in Animal Science in Ft Collins CO, believes animals and autistic humans share the same way of thinking

• When Joe was 3, he woke up from an afternoon nap and nobody was home, so he went out looking for his mom. He found her in the basement of a nearby school attending a PTA meeting. There was no map, he followed his heart.
  
• When Joe found the sack of tools, he was homeless.
  
• A sheepdog named Gigi belonging to a previous employer was 13 years old when she jumped out of his truck unnoticed on the Usall road, about 30 miles up the coast, & across 3 rivers wide enough to swim. 2 weeks later she showed up home looking sleek and fit.
  
• Steve Sinclair sold his property on Navarro Ridge, which included a barn w/ a barn cat named Pearl. Steve moved to Greenwood Ridge near Elk, about 15 miles away. 3 weeks later, Joe was standing with him in front of the Oasis Bar & Grill in Elk when Pearl walked out from under a parked car and jumped into his arms.

A quality that seems to be present in most of these is that the person or animal is moving, they're physically unrestrained, unattached, they're goal oriented & they feel free.

Fear, or belief in some kind of strategic repression (like from the cops or mean people), can destroy ones connection to the "cosmic archetype", the "father in heaven" if you will. The solution to fear is: 1) ignore it, become immortal (or act like it for as long as possible). 2) back off and say "ok, thy will be done, for thine is the kingdom, etc…" & kiss up to the oppressor (love your enemy).

When biblical prophets described god as being selfish and vengeful, they were describing themselves, or their most outstanding social fears. I think because the archetype is given the form of the biggest dealer.

The Bible, Koran, and Torah, all represent the same psychological construction and call it a God, but manipulate it into an organizational tool, with members and "non believers", so that there's an artificial distinction which is politically exploitable. That's wrong headed, selfish, and shameful, but historically typical of that god.

sorry, no links or pics.

There’s a correlation between what a person expects and what they get, just because people only deal with stuff they recognize. Before “Science” came along and established that real stuff was (had to be) objective, the subjective world (heaven, hell, majick, fayerie & thrall) had equal potential and was the personal possession of an individual.

A train of thought, following a thread of reason, discards irrelevant data and draws supporting evidence by random association. Any evidence must be unimpeachable (with historical reference, authorship, and footnotes, etc) or it doesn't qualify, like following a single string through a labyrinth. Intent holds a description of the end result, but random association is the fuel.

There's another way to describe it: by everything it isn't.

During WWll there was a secret code breaking unit in Betchley Park England that set out to decipher the German Enigma code. The code was basically a series of transposed letters that stood for another series of transposed letters, that stood for another series of transposed letters, that stood for the alphabet. Messages were transmitted by radio. it also needed a code book to give the key letters of the day to set the receiver's deciphering enigma machine. The code breakers broke it and as a by-product invented the first computer operating system.

But the guy who broke the code, who defined the process, figured there could be every possible configuration of letters involved for every letter in the code ((4 to the 26th power) minus one). "Minus one" being the letter the code was trying to conceal. Betchley Park was successful and made the computer to speed up the process of discovering the key of the day.

Intent was the thread. Evidence must be something communicable, our social awareness is built on a learned verbal description of what's important, which limits what we allow ourselves to know and express, to only things which we can verbally communicate. Those sources (social conventions) require trusting someone else's experience over our own (historical reference, authorship, and footnotes, etc). Betchley Park was looking for evidence of what wasn't there within a limited set of possibilities. To apply that plan to an unlimited set, requires a different algorithm. Apparently it's not uncommon, (miracles do happen) but resides outside social awareness, wherever that is.

A book review: INVENTED KNOWLEDGE False history, fake science and pseudo-religions by Ronald H. Fritze

Strangeness at the Creationist Museum

Creationist Museum goes under

Vagaries of religious experience (Daniel Gilbert's blog)

Flower scents reduce stress

Dowsing

The new Christianity: Has your (lame ass) religion got this?

Evil Futurist's guide to World Domination

By the Rivers of Babalon: Some evidence that Iran & Iraq have Jewish blood (The Jerusalem Post), which also implies (ahem) the reverse.

Sun Myung Moon Crowned Prince of Peace. No, Dang it! I wanted to be the messiah!

Just going on the reasoning that if a person or animal's stem cell production can be reduced by causing them to despair, then stem cell production must be supported by some kind of internal mechanism (like recognition of potential, or the anticipation of some kind of gain). Otherwise, creatures would die from any insult (let alone being zapped with electric current or placed in a tank of deep water w/ no way out). So here's a list of probable stem cell producing pastimes:

Food

Sex

Chocolate

Sleep (knits up the raveled sleeve of care)

Yoga

Jogging

Sky diving

Creating art

Helping others

Watching children play

Looking at the horizon

Daydreaming

Hunting & Fishing

"To drive before me the wailing wives and concubines of my enemies naked through the streets, for the review of my troops" (recommended by Gengis Khan)

Tai-Chi

Note that they all have potential in common, are voluntary & not compelled, and are fun or gratifying somehow. That Gengis should advise tormenting others as a type of enjoyment shows Psi-ops goes way back, like the Nazi SS it's existence demoralizes opposition. I'd also like to include drugs on the list, but that recommendation should be tempered a bit:

Dope makes things interesting, and allows several trains of thought to be held simultaneously (however fleetingly). That aspect (assuming something unproven is actual fact to see if it fits evidence) when carried to maturity, is indistinguishable from psychosis because ones judgments are based on a theoretical model instead of evidence supported by fact. I mean like even if aliens or the devil DOES control the Church and the Republican party, it's still psychopathic behavior, you'll freak people out, become a homeless nutcase, and live in a Van. Or else go around preaching the word of god. The net result is missing teeth & reduced stem cell production. So any recommendation of drug usage stops before it gets that far. Try the other stuff on the list first. (but maybe not Gengis's advice)

word of god

Some studies on schizophrenia (they're endless) indicate almost everyone has some kind of genetic tendency. One of the more recent connects schizophrenia with psychosomatic repression of stem cell production for any reason (like social isolation, some kind of adverse personal image, etc). Just on the surface, that looks like a reverse of the placebo effect, which would make it an EVIL PLACEBO..

As a long time schizophrenic, the antidote I recommend is aspirin and a glass of water, maybe prayer, or perhaps a bath in the blood of sacrificed innocents. Anything works really, what's needed is belief in the spell. The spell itself is a ceremonial pathway to social acceptability. You have to clear it with the world somehow though, because it needs some kind of historic & etiological validation to be recognizable as a spell & you can't just ask around because someone will want to study you (which can get really weird), because some people are actually paid to come up w/ novel explanations for ordinary coping. Yes folks, ordinary coping sometimes involves carrying on imaginary arguments w/ people in other cars while driving down the freeway, and/or walking around your bed 3x reciting "Begone, begone, begone ...". To come up w/ those novel explanations, a student of desperate people must assume an objective position, which just doesn't exist. Like: "what would real space aliens think of the way earth humans act?" well, lets put ourselves in the alien's shoes ... (they're sure to have feet).

The point is, paid observers have to claim objectivity as self defense, so that madmen will stay in the bottle, socially and intellectually impotent, and actively repressing their stem cell production for the benefit of priests, psychologists, politicians, talk show hosts, and intellectual bullies everywhere. It's what we, and probably every other animal, does. So how does one survive the enforced ennui? Well sex pops to mind. lay it on the bully & they have to give up their "objectivity", it validates equality (unless they kill you). If that's not an option, probably drugs, or jogging.

In this person's opinion, objectivity is a social convenience that allows group focus, but it's basically an illusion and an excuse for elitism.


Like the minimum age of consent for sex, how about a minimum age of consent for religion.

People of the Book: God hates women

Free Speech, Religion, & License plates

Paleontologists visit Creationist Museum

Various religious views of sex (graph)

The religious bus poster war heats up...

some more Reddit

According to this article, there's a social force that compels an individual to moral tepidity. Extreme behavior (for good or bad) requires a corresponding dip into scalding or chilly waters to regulate ones moral temperature. Is this a real effect or a result of transposed physics into a subjectively perceived situation? Like determination of implied opposites to chart a course through a maze of acceptable action. An implied opposite is a semantic truism like "SMALL" vs. "big". The basic problem is not having an endgame plan. What happens when Pastor Ted turned out to be gay, or Iraqis turn on their American saviors? Perhaps the worm turns when physics proves hubris to be poor planning. The Japanese don't have a problem w/ that (except their cars are too damn hard to work on).

So I'm Lao-Tse, the inconsistent blogger, "everything has a purpose but me" (approximate quote). I started this blog to declare my opposition to pervasive religious bullshit. Now I'm afraid someone is reading it like I'm supposed to be entertaining & coherent. Get a life. I refuse to be influenced by hit stats (lie). I won't be owned (even though I get lonely). I refuse to write even more contemptuous drivel out of cowering fear of unknown judgments, nor will I correct misconceptions presented in previous posts (except minor ones). Eat Me. I'm lazy alright? (I mean I hope that's all OK w/ everybody ... ?)

--------

percent map of non-religion Going by this map, less industrialized countries show more believers. Since governments develop technology mostly from war industries, but benefit patriotically from blind faith believers, it appears to be a conflict of self interest: The more war they promote, the fewer believers. (yes, except for N Europe & Canada) (both socialist).

Indoctrination fails: 2 out of 3 kids leave the church (World Net Daily)
Same sex behavior seen in nearly all animals (sciencedaily.com)
God's a dick (Sinfest.com)
Rational thoughts from a religious skeptic. — Mark Twain

I'm curious about the rational of remarks about racism towards Israeli Jews & Arabs. on the one hand the there's no race issue because everyone involved is a descendant of Abraham. On the other hand, anyone can become islamic, but no one "becomes" Jewish. You can practice Judaism, but to be a Jew, you have to be a descendant of Aaron (brother of Moses). It's a really good bet that a lot of the arabs in palestine are also descendants of Aaron because the Jewish people tended to adopt the dominant religion (christian, moslems, Hindus, or in the case of the soviets: atheists.) to avoid being targets of discrimination and blend into the host society. So technically it's a family feud where everyone claims to be the rightful inheritor, carries a gun, & is not speaking. Sure looks like a genetic trait. For all the lauded brain potential claimed in that region, nobody seems to be using one. Ireland is different though, because there's no brains involved, never was, & everyone admits it. Crete & Bosnia too.

it's weird that belief wars among the same race can last for centuries. Tribal people of New Guinea have had the same thing going on for thousands of years. In fact race is less of a factor of war than religion. maybe hormones have something to do with that, because other races are viewed as sexually exotic, and there's some kind of pheromone that animals perceive that encourages interbreeding outside of ones known group.

That pheromone might also be the problem underlying religious strife. that is: religious nonsense, & sexual taboos (which usually go together) could be a result of some subliminally practiced method to maintain gene diversity within limited territory. Come to think of it, war could be a way to foster genetic diversity within limited territory, (Mormons, Amish, Heuterites & Menonites are doomed) I mean the most patriotic, &/or aggressive get sent to the front w/ a weapon. Patriotism is another word for faith.

As the internet knocks down barriers to communication, maybe it also knocks down territorial perception. fine so long as the new world is perceived as exotic. maybe not so fine if it's perceived as an extension of "our own" territory.

Funnies: god 0 god 1 god 2 god 3

Militant atheism
Aggressive roots of Altruism

Evolution, religion, schizophrenia and the schizotypal personality video (Robert Sapolsky) online discussion

A list of 639 gods that atheists don't believe in, which includes buddha, (who isn't a god), but doesn't include me (who is/am). My title is "He who affects nothing". I can really do that, unfortunately I don't have any proof.

in defense of "The Lord":

Think of the lord as a stereotype of the person you can't beat (The Man). 6th grade bullies when you were in 4th. The person who has what you need (social acceptance in a new school) They're usually insecure selfish assholes.

It occurs to me that most of the bible is dealing w/ just those types. Like how some king (lord) wiped out some tribe because they didn't make the right kind of sacrifice. We have to assume it was important to wipe them out though the social rules of the ancient tribes don't transcribe to well through 20 translations. Or possibly, when the various books of the bible were put together, the editors had trouble selecting data using the search engines of the time, and they didn't include a preface to explain what they were trying to collect so they got a lot of vaguely germane topics in 1/2 dozen languages (or something, y'know). Ooh, ooh! it was Constantine's idea, he just flew back from his ranch and said "We need a connection between us & God & power, go get some evidence" amazon.com review of the Bible (amazon.com).

But under it all appears to be a social code on how unrestrained lords compel & claim gods blessing afterwards because it turned out ok for the winners. I'm not saying compelling is bad, animals do it, it just is, if I was a lord in those situations I'd do that stuff too, & probably just to impress people because I can. (so fear me) The concept they were looking for though was "Survival of the Fittest", but they may have been limited by their conceptual framework.

Along comes the New Testament: Darwin was a socialist. The main difference is you're supposed to stand up to the Man. Expect to get stomped, do it anyway, speak truth to power, don't destroy anyone, social integration makes peace, & keep on keeping on. The worst that can happen is you get tortured to death, but so what (heh..)? Staying objective while someone is ranting & giving you shit takes guts & perspective to not get caught up in the hormones. As a social model, it commands respect.

But what we got instead is another device to subjugate the masses for the benefit of a bunch of old guys w/ seniority working deals, expecting sacrifice, & claiming ignorance.

Apparent malice usually proves to be ignorance.

Ignorance is no excuse under the law (which also assumes malice when proof of ignorance is lacking).

A negative can't be proved. Therefore:

Bush, Cheney & Rove should be jailed. Reagan should be dug up & jailed.


Conservatives gross out more easily than liberals (physorg.com)
Church of Scientology on trial
Wikipedia bans Church of Scientology

Patronage rant continued:

The church is also an hierarchy of patronage. Jesus, in this case, is a mechanism to allow or restrict access to membership. Since it all takes place in ones head, belief is a key feature. If you really believe in eternal security, you'll get the security part as long as you believe, if you stop believing, naturally, you forfeit any accrued benefits (& you burn forever in screaming agony too while every one else is having a good time. The guarantee on the eternal part is simply not provable). However it requires constant acknowledgment of patronage (prayer, confession, church attendance, tithing, etc). "Forgiveness" insures there are no hard feelings while at the same time makes it easy to re-establish any diversion of loyalty to the patron. Presumably for the benefit of the plebeian, but also for the church (though that's never spoken aloud).

Before Constantine, a lot of this stuff was pretty common among a bunch of competing religions, but Constantine decided to consolidate them all into just one, so he took the one w/ the most potential for intimidation (turning the other cheek, non violence, etc.) and stuffed it full of popular stuff from the competitors, like christmas, easter, virgin birth, Souls, redemption, resurrection, angels and devils, wise men following a star, & so on. The guy was really a genius (well actually, he had some other people do it for him). Another (un-origional) contribution to religious orthodoxy was to make Jesus the Lord of Lords. See, in a feudal society, a lord is an untouchable guy like Bush or Cheney w/ money & power, he owns you, & he can declare war with out asking. Under the Lord of Lords system though, the common man can directly petition the Lord of Lords through prayer and get redress in heaven without upsetting the balance of wealth. Constantine himself wasn't bound by any religious crap though, he had his wife and son executed for treason.

Another example of compelled patronage was used by Emperor Caligula, who threw parties where his political enemies were crucified around the banquet, for the guests to admire. I imagine it really inspired loyalty, or at least discouraged competition, & makes me wonder about Bush's "for us or against us" policy. This could explain why it seems so hard for the US to get out of the torture business: according to the rules of Patronage, we'd loose cred. I couldn't say if that's true or false, I mean if someone thinks you're an insect anyway, they'll change the rules without asking.

‘We did not know that child abuse was a crime,’ says retired Catholic archbishop
More
Atheist News (Atheist.net)
Another faith scam

History reveals that there is very little correlation between religion and morality and some may even argue that the converse is true. (journeymanphilosopher.blogspot.com)

Today's Rant:
A young mans brush with power, or A plausibly universal tale of sodomy and unrequited love:

Joe's dad worked his way up from a bank teller to a loan specialist, it took 35 years. There was however, a glass ceiling to further advancement. Above a certain level, the aspiring professional of this bank was required to join the Mob (Gosh! Which bank is that?). Those of you who saw the movie "The Godfather" may remember the scene where a guy comes in to ask a favor and is required to kiss Marlon Brandos hand in recognition of patronage. Well the '60's version was to dedicate a son to the "family" and, as young Joe learned on an executive hunting trip with mob honchos: the novice is supposed to provide ass to the Don. Joe was repulsed by the proposition and declined, so his dad got transferred to the boonies and bumped to a mid level manager, & Joe grew up to be a homeless scavenger and like most homeless people, worthy of any slur (regardless of fact) because nobody had his back.

A somewhat similar culture in Japan had this to say from the Book of the Samurai: "A man is a good retainer to the extent that he earnestly places importance in his master. This is the highest sort of retainer. If one is born into a prominent family that goes back for generations, it is sufficient to deeply consider the matter of obligation to one's ancestors, to lay down one's body and mind, and to earnestly esteem one's master. It is further good fortune if, more than this, one has wisdom and talent and can use them appropriately. But even a person who is good for nothing and exceedingly clumsy will be a reliable retainer if only he has the determination to think earnestly of his master. Having only wisdom and talent is the lowest tier of usefulness."

Now at the risk of getting sued by the Committee for the Prevention of Defamation of the Mob, I'd like to postulate the following from Joe's albeit limited experience: (and It's not really their fault see, they're just victims of society like us. My heart goes out to you guys, really). I propose the underlying problem is that they're Italian & Catholic. That inseparable combination has a deep tradition of patronage going back through Rome and the Etruscans to be lost in the mists of prehistory. Other cultures have or have had similar traditions but this one has survived the ravages of the centuries with pretty much a working edge. This particular tradition codifies Ass as a form of social commitment. Compare, if you will, the Irish (Joe's people). The peaceful Greens have their smirking pedophile priests to pat their pubescent butts, while the bloodthirsty Orangemen have none and are forced to demonstrate their social discontent through endless strife and upheaval.

The late drift w/ democracy & all (since The Enlightenment) has been to idealize independence, and avoid serfdom & patronage. What used to be called virtues are now social deadweight. So here's contemporary America, Land of the Free, w/ the highest prison population in the world, & a self replenishing source of scandal because the only people in there to form bonds of patronage with are felon Mobsters without civil or voting rights or self respect, who's default class is Pro-Sodomy/Anti-Law. See where this is going? The system denigrates Ass patronage while creating it. There's no socially acceptable rout to a "real world" community. In all honesty though (and I think Joe agrees), that Ass patronage would select for bitchy, pompous incompetents, and not be much different than the politics we have now. But it would cut the crap so people wouldn't get blind-sided by some force they never knew existed, and Joe could have had his own squad of goons by now.

Personally, I'd be just as glad if all that strife didn't exist, but there's a kind of honesty that goes with it. Sort of similar to a commitment that can change the world, like marriage or combat. It may be only a substitute for those, but what (outside of religious literature) makes it such a unique issue of bad morals?

A handy Atheist pamphlet that you can print out on glossy paper to have ready when someone hands you a copy of "The Watchtower".
Atheism is hot! (yahoo)
Atheism pays (the Orlando Sentinel)
Christian Zoroastrianism (Reddit)

New research shows young Americans are dramatically less likely to go to church -- or to participate in any form of organized religion -- than their parents and grandparents. (abcnews)

A congressional resolution to recognize the religious foundation of America? (action)

Definition of Insane delusion under California law either does or doesn't include religious beliefs. (Reddit)

Survey: Support for terror suspect torture differs among the faithful (CNN)

Evidence is reviewed pointing to a negative relationship between intelligence and religious belief in the United States and Europe. (sciencedirect)

This is Joe's take on the American drug policy:
The standard hard line threat used against druggies is alienation because drug users are said to be socially non-functional and irretrievably broken. But people who explore (& survive) alternate realities tend to be more comfortable with alienation. So ultimately the reaction is more real to hard liners who fear alienation themselves. Not that social alienation isn't real, but shunning is easy, contrived, and inappropriate. So when shunning has no effect, lock'em up, & hurt 'em. Let 'em know they're dogs because dialog assumes something of value can be exchanged, & if we don't talk to 'em, we'll never have to consider that their perspectives might be valid. Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work? Remember the hippies who became Jesus Freaks? They got inadvertently exploited because there was & is no practical structure for dealing with what's objectified as craziness, but is subjectively a distrust of social norms. It's not that the church couldn't do it under any circumstances, the problem was the churches perception that (1) the cause is/was the devil, (2) the solution is/was bureaucratic (just recite certain magical words and you'll be saved).

Dragon in My Garage, by Carl Sagan (godlessgeeks)

Should Churches be taxed? (reddit)

Liabilities are a curse, assets are blessings. The unknown is either an asset or a liability, but is uncontrollable either way. Most of the world is unknown to an individual. Collectively we have a lot of information that can be converted to assets, but require a trusted source. Confidence in the source is no different from faith, so essentially one needs faith to be blessed, but the same is true of curses. Too often it turns out to be just another scam. 10 handy "end of the world" dates (Wired)
TV sends the message that Christians are nutters (christian.org.uk)



Scientific vs Creationist Timeline
Afghan Rape Law
A blinding stroke of absolute stupidity: Creationist Science Fair
How to Choose Happiness: Combat 5 Decision-Making Biases
Schizophrenic Brains Not Fooled by Optical Illusion
Abstinence: if the church can't do it, how can they promote it? Too Many People on Earth
Neurological Roots of Compassion Run Deep

How to be Unremarkable:

Strife exists. To respond with strife creates more strife, one needs an authority to grant & bestow peace, so one creates an authority from a known model (like a parent or lover), who can say "it's ok" and make it stick. If the model creates strife, it's the wrong model.

To say that George Bush should be accountable for the model he created is an understatement, but also creates strife. What to do? Accountability also reduces strife.

Strife exists within ones self. it's the perception of inequality. So the starting point is that everything is already and always equal. This takes a certain amount of detachment, or at least carefully practiced cat-like disintrest.

A prince named Arjuna was about to go to war against the kingdom next door, but he knew them and was mixed up about his motives because while some of the stuff they did was wrong, some was good. So the gods said "don't worry, be happy, you have a job. Do it & be famous, laugh & dance" etc. ... since he'd recognized the gods as authorities, he took their word as forgiveness and went to war with a clean heart. But also because he was locked in bondage to his social position by being a prince. If he'd been a homeless guy like Joe, he could have said "screw this" & nobody would have missed him, he would have been drinking coffee equanimously in Fresno while the dogs of war chewed on peoples entrails, and 1000 fighting elephants of Chandragupta waded through fields of gore.

Then: returned soldiers with stripes, medals, and scars walk by & see Joe w/ his feet up. They're offended because he ignores their sacrifice. Joe says "Hail noble warriors: don't be iniquitous". They resent missionaries however, are not enlightened, & prefer inequity because it pays better. Not a problem though: some girls walk by & see the soldiers who use the occasion to contrast themselves against unwashed Joe, they score, the shadow of death moves on, & Joe finishes his coffee in peace. The soldiers spend the next 18 years paying child support while their kids drink coffee in Fresno. Sometimes aspirations of greatness are overrated.

Psychic medium, healer (ffffound.com)
Indefensible Religious Advice (atheistmissionary)
"The End of Christian America" (yawn) how about "tempest in a teapot"

Humans behave like individual heard animals. Superorganisms, like termites, ants & bees, function as one entity (Eurekalert). But humans know the difference, so they have the capability for altruistic sacrifice. The problem is probably lack of identity with the society that claims to represent them. i.e. Soldiers don't usually fight for political ideals, they fight for the friends in their platoon.

Meanwhile, in America:
What happens to madmen when they die? does jesus forgive them? (of course) what if they were evil? (then no) How does a madman know right from wrong? How does anyone prove they are not mad? That's a bottomless question, better to pass the buck instead & not look. Governor George Wallace paid some shrinks for a certificate that said he was sane. He framed it, but said he had no illusions about it's value (several thousand dollars).

Learning How to Think. Also Religious advice parallels financial advice (Wired)
5 things you'll need if you go homeless
Selecting for "Tameness"
"Most religious leaders are fools" (bbc)
If Atheists ruled the world (YouTube)

That the church doesn't present a community that's acceptable to everyone could be expected, there's a lot of variation among people. That it doesn't address reality is a side effect of faith. If my friend, call him Joe (story posted below: Thursday, February 26, 2009), had consulted the church about his experience, he could have been admonished about the hubris of bragging about miracles, or told that what seems real to one person may not seem so to another, or advised that it was a sign from god & to pray for guidance, or recommended to drug rehab. (depending on how sane he appeared to be). I find it refreshing though that they probably wouldn't have accused him of lying, just because they don't expect to be lied to (though that makes them pretty gullible targets for anyone w/ a profit/power motive).

So when cultivating miracles, one doesn't just resolve that one will occur and then label something odd as miraculous. Oh no-no-no! One must The Force generate. That's no shit.
One must self discipline have:

• Have you ever wondered why Monks or the Catholic clergy are expected to be celibate? It's a time honored method for cracking loose of convention, selfish or otherwise. The sexual imperative is a real motivator of perspective. You can either go with it & become it, or use it as a reminder that there's a kind of parallel universe that has no use for it. I admit I have no idea how they use the energy they accumulate, there are more and more rarified levels of bureaucracy in the church, each w/ it's own arcane rules. My suspicion is that they've inadvertently messed up the natural course for dealing with it, what w/ angles and devils and permission from higher up the chain of command, and then there's the Sith & all those alter boys... I'm pretty sure though that it's not just grandstanding for the sake of the rustics, they must know something's going on. My guess is they've forgotten that a lotta sex depletes personal power, and some folks that are required to be celibate, for bureaucratic reasons, maybe shouldn't be teaching children.
  
• Fasting works.
  
• Scheduled meditation (a kind of prayer), say at 8 PM every day. Randomly, maybe not so much.
  
• Running, Jogging, walking, crawling, etc.
  
• Regular cold showers. (hair shirts?)
  
• Gypsying, Walkabouts, Pilgrimages.
  
• Other cultures have other methods that I can only guess at. Nomadic people have ritual dances & songs for locating game, only performed when food is short and there's no other option (see #2). Joe had some experience with ritual dances, and songs, they're usually private intellectual property. They work, but one needs permission to use them. For example, the Hopi Rain Dance.
  

All evoke a greater or lesser degree of controlled desperation, and beg the question "why am I doing this?" The answer should be "for my people", anything else will develop into a distortion and Sasquach you will become. Countering the influence of witches was the churches defining project for at least several hundred years, what w/ "the horned god" & all representing evil.

So this is Joe's recipe for what to do when you're stranded in a strange town w/ no money or contacts. Before you go door to door trying to sell your body or your $300 camera for gas money: fast for 3 or 4 days. Something will come up. Works every time & saves on food too.

See, all this assumes personal power equals faith, so faith can corrupt perception because events may be expected to accommodate needs. (i'nish Allah). Then when an evidence based event occurs, such as through scientific procedure, it can appear to be irrelevant or even inimical to faith. With that perspective, the church would be wise to organize the freelance shamanistic tendencies of the parish to preserve some semblance of peace & sanity. But to declare it all evil if it contradicts ecclesiastic policy is hypocritical, it's a human birthright, get over it.

Sasquach
Ok, now the point: Say there was a group of people that became so fluent with the exercise of their personal power, that they could exist outside of society. They would have to either look like everyone or else avoid people altogether (or both) kind of like the illumanatti (this would explain the hairy 8 foot tourists in bermuda shorts). But say this group split off thousands of years ago & never bothered to keep up holiday cards w/ the Muggles. It's said that a society of Big Foots couldn't exist because the scattered gene pool, (based on "sightings") would make sexual encounters virtually impossible. Whoever presented that argument has obviously never tried celibacy for very long, or considered the area that could be covered by a person w/ motivation and a 6 foot stride. True believers will now go outside and howl for 5 minutes.

Are You Friends With an Atheist? An American profile
The State of Atheism Address
There’s a new power in America - atheism
How to Spot Atheists and Report Them to the FBI
"I don't know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."
-President George Bush (aka "a Uniter, not a Divider")
symptoms of schizophrenia
Religious majority doesn't understand atheist views (Michigan State Univ, statenews.com)
New Research Suggests Key to Happiness is Gratitude—and Men May be Locked Out (George Mason Univ.)
Seattle's Version of the Atheist bus projects (friendlyatheist.com)

The church has pretty much failed to do what it claimed, which is to provide shelter and comfort to people in need. Instead they get indoctrinated. There's not much comfort in that unless you're really desperate, it's more like a community of idiots w/ patronizing jailers. The whole thrust of the church is business and indoctrination with fixed forms. "Of course we're open to all suggestions, but if you want salvation, ..."

What exactly is salvation? it's a state of "grace" (bliss, happiness, contentment, satisfaction, having confidence in the future, etc.) It's achievable by "faith" that is, believing something is predominantly important (even if it isn't), such as the church community and belief system. That's not so rare, I mean that's the final hook offered by any religion, call it what you like.

Here's "Bill's Religious Method For Getting Shed Of Your Load Of Earthly Care" (shortened to BRMFGSOYLOEC):
Stay focused on anything which doesn't require another person's input, till it becomes more important than anything else, such as running from a forest fire. The forest fire isn't necessary to achieve the result, it's just an example of the ideal commitment. When your thoughts wander, just redirect them to the original point. Sounds Buddhist doesn't it? It is, and BRMFGSOYLOEC gives you the Cosmic Power to ignore bullshit, however it's not as easy as letting someone feed you a special piece of cracker & tell you you're saved, but it is more convincing. You aren't required to offend anyone by being a missionary, and your sister won't get stoned to death for going outdoors without a mask.

The coming evangelical collapse (Yahoo news)
Most religious groups in USA have lost ground, survey finds (USA today). This is too bad really, but a million smiling hypocrites vs instant public scrutiny, I guess it's inevitable.

Dear fellow atheists. Lets piss off the world and claim the '@' sign as the official sign of atheism. (self.atheism). It'll never happen.

10 Most Revealing Psych Experiments

Univ. Toronto Researchers find brain differences between believers and non-believers (eurekalert), 1. Stroop effect 2. Stroop test

Pride: The 7th Sin

Given the differences in cultures, the Large Hadron Collider is basically looking for the same thing that Thomas Aquinas defined as god: 5 arguments for the existence of god the Quinquae viae. The main difference is in how it's represented. It's the writers opinion that neither one is practical for achieving it's purpose, but the 5 arguments define the problem and the LH Collider is a serious effort in that direction.

One of the things that bugs me about the church is the ambiguity of terms and methods between sects. If one of them had more credibility than another, maybe word would get out. Instead it's a race to scrape the bottom for something new. Like programming commands, calling it logic doesn't make it logical. You'd think something as personal and inherent as ones relationship w/ the world would have a default form, where a priest/shrink interpreter isn't mandantory. Everybody has teachers but it gets so formalized, like Tenure, Church and the Crips all require commitment and fidelity in exchange for a sense of security. For professional advancement, members learn a more and more specialized perspective, till the they only think in those terms. When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. A self limiting philosophy.

The Named is the mother of all things. Language shapes perception it takes 200 milliseconds between when an observation occurs and when it's internalized verbal description is formed. During those 200 milliseconds, the "meaning" is fluid. it could be anything.

15 quotes from famous Atheists w/ comments

Dr Jack Horner (Paleontologist): "Religion is about faith, not evidence. Comparing science and religion isn't like comparing apples and oranges—it's more like apples and sewing machines." Horner wants to retro-engineer a (small) dinosaur from a chicken, partly for the scientific knowledge to be gained, and partly because he likes dinosaurs.

Alas, I must bail on my promise to list my unexplainable personal coincidences. As a member of the psychedelic generation, I cannot exceed certain social mores which prescribe the endless detailing of marvelous trips. If you've ever been buttonholed by a gibbering panhandler, you'll know why. I can assure you however that the stories were more fantastic then the fever dreams of the entire Bush Administration, though unfortunately they didn't include sex, violence, money, or world domination. Not a lot anyway.

But they did offer some interesting etiological questions about cause and effect. In fact, without another explanation, it would be reasonable to attribute the phenomena to influences of an unseen social entity. Some people say the world is a result of the social interaction between people and unseen beings, who 's awareness adds coherency and who created physical stuff so it could fulfill some kind of destiny (which obviously happened, so that's the proof).

For example: Some guy is having trouble with his car's clutch, he can't afford to have it fixed in a shop, he's never pulled an engine, and doesn't have the tools. What to do? He walks uptown to have some coffee, he doesn't drive because his clutch is out (in a fairly large city) and while crossing a random street, glances up the block and spies an innocuous brown paper lunch sack on the curb. He has a distinct impression that the sack contains the tools he needs. "That's illogical" he tells himself and continues up to the Café. Thoughts about the bag keep gnawing on him though, so he resolves to look on the way back, if it's still there. It is, he does, and there are the tools.

What happened?

• If it was it god or the devil, then whatever happened to the guy and that car since, is the intended result. As superior social beings, it's their fault or credit. They are accountable, and he's just a hapless pawn.
  
• It was god "A" getting revenge on god "B", concerning some fracas that took place long ago in a galaxy far, far away.
  
• He subconsciously overheard someone talking about exactly what he needed, when he needed it, giving the location. So it was a simple matter to go over and pick it up.
  
• Good or evil had nothing to do with it. Like Remote Viewing, used by the US and Russia during the Cold War (and practically every shamanic culture), it was his own desire and awareness that located the nearest available tools that he needed. ("cosmic consciousness" dude) The Café excursion was just an excuse of logic. (rent the DVD "Suspect Zero", the movie is kind'a harsh, but there's a bonus clip on remote viewing that seems authentic).
  
  • A word of caution about Remote Viewing: I decided to buy a course from Ed Ames was appalled by his crass & commercial presentation. It's possible that the problem lies with the ad agency, but even so, it's an insult to the buyers who make up that market. It cost $300 which is another way of saying "Greedy stupid people pay outlandish money for our unproven product because they think it will give them anything they want! We have nothing to loose by insulting your intelligence because we don't respect you anyway!". You have to ask to get off their spam list, or they'll assume you'll want to buy 50 other CDs w/ similar crap for the same price.
    
• The story could be fake.

Although I have that story from the most credible source possible, there's no way to prove it. The only reason for you to take my word would be if believing benefits you somehow. for example:

• someone offers you 72 virgins &/or a place at gods right hand after you're dead.
  
• retelling will amaze your friends so you gain stature (unless you blow it). You get to be seen, at ease, with rich guys and your social superiors if you tell their story and lend them credibility. By retelling their story, you establish your own social superiority, and can then qualify to join the republican party, or the church & be saved from the forked tongue of The Deceiver.
  
• it agrees with your previous experience.

How many times have you picked up the phone and knew who the caller was before they spoke? Some other occasions might be: knowing that something is imminent, like a cop car is behind you, your kid is waking up, someone or a piece of information is about to arrive.

Stuff happens all the time, the problem is that it's a sin to question god.


church essentials
Atheism in search of an identity more (I don't like the asterisk, #9 is my choice)

Ok, Ok, so god doesn't ignore you because he answered your secret longing. I can't argue specifics if someone wants to hang gods name on the cause, but there are other possibilities. The framework of expectation determines the probable cause, ask a cop, even an objective one. Unreasonable faith is not a credible aspiration.

Yaaaah! Awaken oh religious people, you're not gullible enough, you should be ashamed! wups that's what got you into this mess, silly me. Unreasonable Faith isn't something to brag about, it's swallowing 7200 pounds of pure and unblemished virgin crap in one gulp. It might make the Guinness world record for credulity, but the only way you'll ever be respected for "unreasonable faith" is by explaining the reasoning behind it. Good luck. You do it because everyone else in your community does it. If they all went to war, would you go too? ... OK, wrong question, how about: If they all met weekly to recite banal platitudes that justify righteous arrogance and condescension toward others, would you do it ... ahh .. too? Why is this so hard? The Lord must be messing with me. OK but which Lord? Hamlet had this problem when a ghost claiming to be his Dad told him that he'd been murdered.

Thus I propose a Play to be staged, the plot shall be such that it shall portray the symphony of society, wherein the wealthy shall be played by the homeless, the homeless shall be played by the rich, the Devout shall portray Atheistst, the clergy shall play the whore, .. uh ok, but every other station and situation shall be interpreted by it's nemesis. I myself shall be the director and everyone shall surely give me timely advice in all that I should do.

Well that looks like a mess, but we'll see who chickens out first.

How to create less selfish societies (physorg) a kind-of-hard read.
Atheists banned from public service in 6 states

Coming soon: My personal list of unexplainable coincidences. Don't miss it!

Not enough Jihad lately?
Islam makes the offer of 72 virgins, like it's an incentive. Most men have enough trouble with only one. It's true girls can be sweet, but 2 or more can also be remorselessly catty & vindictive. With just one person's attention to compete for, I imagine all those martyrs will about now be hiding out in heavens tractor shed, speaking in whispers. No wonder it's part of the offer, it probably screens for total ignorance, or a tendency to suicide. Wasn't Mohammed famous for being an honest judge, a critical thinker and peacemaker, like when some tribes were at war, or about to start one? Duh.

Meanwhile in other news, more religious myth: The Jewish "Race"

*****************************************************************

The case for multiple gods
(I'm not selling this, it just seems worth considering since the 3 main western religions are all monotheistically attached to the same god, and behave like selfish idiots):

Without feedback, how would you know you exist? You'd be like in a coma. If you're God, where do you get self awareness? There needs to be something "other" for perception to occur. Where does the other come from? If you're God and are self aware, there must be something else. If you're "The One God", you should be completely spaced out and unaware of everything, without need or conflict. (even dreams require hormonal plumbing and a physiology to support it). Seem trivial? I think not, it's absolute proof that god ignores you because he doesn't exist. religions are all part of a big plot, see ... yawn.

ok, it's not just Yaweh, they're all full of bullying manipulators, (you're not guilty enough). So why do we even consider something as unprovable as a god? More about playing the "getting conned" game: 20% of crime confessions are false (Scientific American), and false confessions (also Scientific American). I keep coming back to it so much that it's starting to sound (to me) like old news. There's a thesis there, get on it (somebody).

Maybe I'm going at this wrong: Here's someone in a hut throwing rocks at shadows, or a van full of hippies channeling Seth, or a bunch of people in a laboratory trying to retro-engineer a primary algorithm. Their results all conflict, since causality is lacking & nothing makes sense, we'll just trust that the folks that feed us, won't eat us (no guarantee, so keep your head down) and faith claims the day.

But non conclusion doesn't equate w/ confusion, it's not the result that's of interest, it's the process of formulation. nonsense is relative to the observer. The part of the brain that makes sense of what we see, is connected to the part that trusts. It's like basic orientation, the confidence that an observation won't change when one blinks (which is a dead giveaway that you're dreaming, and/or proof of hallucination). Said confidence is taken for granted (especially if you're a slight-of-hand artist), and used for locating ones self in relation to the world, a ram buffer for short term memory. Bummer when you find you've been driving for 10 minutes and forgot where you are & don't recognize landmarks? Why would that make a person feel insecure, & insecure of what? getting mugged? going crazy? wandering empty streets till you starve, run out of gas & are finally eaten by zombies (happens all the time)? Believing in confusion is what makes it confusing. "God is unknowable" no kidding, duh, if that's part of the definition, why go there? It's also possible that god is just another word for whatever happens, & life goes on as well by any other name, except without all the guilt & exploitation.

Please check out the following links, especially Jesus and Mo (NOTE: The depiction of Mohammed is actually a look-alike stand in, but Jesus isn't). Also Russell's Teapot
Nov. 25: NY Post Reports that due to a broken Jaw, Ann Coulter's mouth has been wired shut. Atheists everywhere are given momentary pause. From Tom Tomorrow

God's a name for the object of a person judging themselves. It's probably too late now, but if I were an ancient dictator, I'd say how I have a divine right to rule, and how god has a short & gruesome cure for dissent. Then I'd levee taxes that will reveal non-believers as traitors. They all did it, Moses, Ashurbanipal, Ramses, Genghis Khan. It's a sign of civilization if not enlightenment. Saddam was going to resurrect the glory of Babylon & I think the Bushes were jealous of his hubris, so they had a war. But these things don't stay in the publics awareness for very long. I suspect as soon as the outrage wears off & the hormones evaporate, something else will come along. Religion and atheism will both loose favor as that polarization recedes too. Self judgments need a social context, like some group to identify with, what a politician would call "an issue". Who's side are you on?

Many Americans doubt the morality of atheists (St Petersberg Times)
Atheists dealing with death
Religion may have evolved because of its ability to help people exercise self-control.
Thomas Jeffersons advice to his nephew on religion (#4).
Demographics of Atheism (Wikipedia)
Brain mechanisms of social conformity (eurekalert)
The next big religion UFO cults
When prophecy fails How to rationalize the difference between what's expected and what actually happens.
Atheists that believe in god
Butterflies and Wheels Command central in the war against fashionable nonsense

ok here we are again in Faerie: I have beneath this satin cloth, a small box (whoosh) pretty isn't it? it was made that way to elicit curiosity, and given by Jupiter to the first woman (not Eve) to illustrate the complications of knowledge. So like once you know something, it becomes an indelible point of reference in your intellect. Even though the discovered thingie may only be an unprovable plausibility, there's no way you can erase it's existence (except with lots and lots of drugs, but which again compound the distraction). So whatever you do, don't think about some secret govt. agency watching through your desktop video cam.

Now inside this box (creak) is a personal problem which everyone has .. (fumble - rummage), Ah-Hah! there he is, it's God. No, don't let him out, he just makes trouble, ... oh shit.

Now we have to explain him away, & how we gonna do that with him floating around, morphing faster than HIV. Maybe we could just ignore him.