Tuesday, February 10, 2009

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"

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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.

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