Freethinker's corner

I will not go quietly into the night!

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  • Should you laugh? October 12, 2025

    Should you laugh? October 12, 2025

    Should you laugh at religious beliefs? If you have no religious beliefs of your own, you might be tempted to make fun of people who do. If you do it in their face, you risk physical attacks. The fashion today is to ridicule the various religions via social media on-line. That way they would have to find you first.

    Photo by Amir Ghoorchiani on Pexels.com

             Should you do it? There are people with incredibly weak minds, they simply do not realize that, as a friend of mine says, the only reason most believe in god is because someone told him/her that there was one.  They have not one iota of evidence for a god’s existence. They have never seen or, if they are honest, have never heard god. Some, of course, whether truthfully or not, claim that their entity speaks to them. If they are being truthful, that is when you must suspect the believer of being compromised mentally.

             Should you do it? How do you view it? If you see it as naïve and childish having been there, done that, or not, the temptation is to ridicule them into adulthood. The nature of many religions is such that it boggles the mind that anyone would believe them. Add to that the fact that many pastors, some who do not believe themselves, are hilariously rich. Somehow, this charlatan has convinced the gullible that an all-mighty entity capable of producing the Universe… needs your money. Quite naturally, he poses as the conduit for God’s wealth.

             Being a non-believer, you know that claims of the existence of gods is false. You have spent a horrendous amount of time examining the evidence and found only evidence that speaks negatively of a god’s being possible. Unless your friend, or acquaintance, is being pretentious you have to suspect a mental problem. How can you know if he/she is just pretending? You can’t. In light of what you hold as the truth you know that they are wrong. Either they are pretending or they are crazy.

             Should you laugh at the mentally ill? Of course not. A compromised mind is something to pity. You realize that the individual, whoever they may be, needs to come out of their delusion on their own. They would resist every effort you might make to help them. Religion is very much like a mental virus that takes over your ability to think clearly.

             It can’t be left there. You know that there are those who are simply using religion to feed their greed. Those can be ridiculed. You know they don’t believe. Such riches are frowned upon by religious dogma. But, no matter how you portray them there are “believers” who will hand over great sums of money. Unless they, the believers, wake up one day and realize the scam, they are permanently deluded.

             So, use social media, maybe even post a billboard or two, in order to ridicule such baseless belief. You might help a few. Realize that there are those who do not have the mental means to effect escape. No matter how reasonably you present the truth they will not accept it. Many are invested in this and they do not want to lose their seat in some kind of heavenly ever after. They will fight you tooth and nail, insist that you are endangering your own soul. They might become violent. Yes, the hold religion has on them is that strong.

             I doubt there is a solution to this. Even educating people is dependent on their ability to be educated. Some will forever be incapable of escape. “There’s a sucker born every minute”, he said. He must have been a pastor.

  • ARMAGEDDON … October 7, 2025

    ARMAGEDDON … October 7, 2025

    As an atheist, I do not believe any god of any kind is returning to planet Earth.

    I do not believe any god exists out there in the Universe, to come here. Nevertheless, I do believe an end of humanity, call it what you will, may come within a frightening short time.

    Is this something inherent within the species that causes a human to fear or expect an end to the world around the corner? Humans have religions that not only suspect an end but express a desire for it to occur. There are death cults like Christianity and Islam. A disdain for this world is actually expressed in the pages of the tomes of these religions.

    Myths all. The religions all claim to be the one true faith, yet none of them are true. They were all created by humans who did not have a clue about how the world works. Ignorant wanderers who thought the stars were lights placed there by their god. They thought the world was a platform held up at four corners. Not only were they ignorant, but their religions kept them so.

    Yes, myths, yet I think an end will come. The form of this end cannot be discerned now, but I expect it will materialize very soon. There will be no gods involved. Humans are quite able to put an end to themselves by themselves.

    Will it be nuclear?   Will it be some disease component? Maybe it will be a natural disaster. Perhaps some mass in space will pass close enough to strip off our atmosphere. Maybe a rogue world will collide with Earth. There are some rogues out there, some traveling at enormous speeds. Maybe numerous volcanoes, only threatening now, will suddenly exhale poisonous gases, lava, accompanied by Earth shattering quakes. Can a feeling predict a closing act? Perhaps not. Even I have some inherent fear that everything will come to a crashing end. Such programming is difficult to edit out.

    Maybe the factor threatening the planet is a concept called Capitalism. Companies made to dance dangerous dances so that stockholders can reap the maximum possible profits. Such corporations, forced to maximize profit, will take shortcuts, maybe skip entirely, steps to protect the environment. When no one is looking, maybe dump a few barrels of poison, or nuclear waste, into the deep oceans. No one will ever know… will they? That’s probably it. Dirty your own nests. Make the lakes and stream thick with pollutions so deadly they will dissolve your feet should you dare to wade in them. Really, this sounds like the most possible future.

    How long do we have? If nothing is done to impede the forces at work, it could happen sooner than we imagine, maybe twenty years… could be less. America has been and continues to be the Capitalist capitol of the world. A madman now reigns in D.C. He wants all forests clearcut. He wants all protects withdrawn that have held businesses responsible all these years. He doesn’t care about your National Parks. He doesn’t care about wildlife, except his own. He seems to possess no apprehension about the future. If humans end the ability of Earth to sustain life he seems to imagine he and his cohorts will survive anyway. Yes. This will be it. Earth will become a worldwide sewer. Plant life as well as fauna will perish. As human beings continue to expand their population, the systems the Earth possesses to cleanse itself will fail. Humanity will die. No water to drink, no air to breath, no food to eat. Perhaps 10 billion people will face this fate. Or, not. No one can predict what the future holds. Maybe AI will rein us in.

  • PROUD ATHEIST? 250814

    Does being a “proud” atheist make any sense? If you consider the millions and millions of individuals that have been co-opted by religion and how difficult it is in society to steadfastly be different, it does require a measure of courage to remain unaffected. There are multiple religions, using almost the same offer, that of immortality; the pressure to follow one is real. The desire for socialization is such in the human psyche that it becomes a need to belong, almost a requirement for mental health. This pressure was created gradually over time by evolution. Those that socialized were more likely to survive and pass on that trait to descendants. It is an inherent part of the species to want to be around others and use that power to survive. A solitary individual is not as likely to overcome selective pressures and survive.

    To remain unaffected by all of the social pressures to conform requires a strength of will, as some try to conform even knowing that religions, all religions, are balderdash. To proclaim you do not want to conform, in a society that nearly requires it, takes a mental strength that is rare. Atheists are a minority for this reason.

    My conclusion is then: Yes, it is good to be a “proud” atheist. In the face of pressure to adopt fictional religion, to remain steadfast is something to take pride in. Do you suppose that is why pride is considered a sin?

  • FEELINGS CANNOT BE IGNORED. MAY, 4, 2025

    As you progress through life, you gain experience. At some point you reach a plateau; it is inescapable, and that plateau becomes you. Everything is viewed and judged by those attributes present in the plateau. You can try to change, but you find eventually that the changes are superficial. They are like a front. It’s what you want on an intellectual level, but it isn’t you.
    You come to know what you consider normal. You might say this is at a gut level. No matter how you pretend, you, your self inside, have already set, like a gel, or even like cement, a viewing perspective.

    You can say that so and so is a normal behavior, but you fail inside to change your “gut” perspective. You simply cannot change the feeling that there are some things that dwell in the category of the mentally unstable. You can deny the feelings. The feelings remain. You feel like a hypocrite. If you do not deny the feelings, there are many who would label you a bigot. The artificial façade goes up.

    All of your life you have been given perspectives of what to expect from “normal”. No matter what you claim, you can never change, not inside.

    To be honest and truthful, you must admit to yourself that certain behaviors, certain anomalies, can only fit properly in the column designated “mentally ill”. To accommodate others, the façade remains in place.

    Then, is uncomfortable an adequate word as to how you feel? Or is it worse than that? Most certainly, how people see you is not how you truly are.

    Some will see through your artificial front. A slip here or there is impossible to avoid. Once they see through the veil their own prejudices, perspectives, and assumptions… form the vision they have of you. They really do not see the truth any more than you do. They only have, and will ever have, only what they assume.

    So what next? At that point I say to hell with everyone else, not that I believe in such foolishness, but you must be true to yourself.

  • There is no… February 23, 2025

    … Noah, was no Noah, he was the fictional character in a story written before humans knew better. He did not live 900 years.

    … Moses. Yet another creation of imagination. A supposed leader.

    … Jesus. There is no record of him anywhere. There is no evidence of a singular person with amazing powers roaming the landscape.

    … God. An invention of a human who could not bear living without the parents, or leaders that have past. A father figure, to keep that feeling of helplessness at bay.

    … Ark, to seek.

    … Biblical reality.

  • Disconnet… December 5, 2024

    Is that man a man, or a woman masquerading playing a role?
    Is that woman a woman, or a man masquerading playing a role?
    Is that man or woman a deviant, who is masquerading for a purpose?
    Parents worry for their children over many things, now they have one more.

  • Old Fashioned Get Together

    Wanted: Large Torch-bearing Mob.
    Purpose: Cauterize festering open sore.
    Proceed to:
    214 Massachusetts Ave N
    Washington DC
    Goal: Sterilize everything in sight.
    Nature: Urgent!

  • The Fragility of Knowledge: Humanity’s Quest for Continuity… July 18, 2024.

    You make your mark and then expire. You came, you lived, you died. There is no steady, no flow, no continuance. Unless you make an indelible mark, once you expire, the book is closed, and may never be opened again.

    Less than a flash, more like a sparkle, your length of existence is deplorably short. It seems such a waste to invest effort in establishing improvement, when, after remarkedly little time, you will be gone and forgotten.
    The mighty sun that controls the orbits of many planets lasts billions of years. The Earth itself has been approximated at 4.5 billion. Life may have begun shortly after the solidifying of the planet. Macro life, much younger, is still estimated over 500 million years.
    There is no strong continuance. One generation leaves some information for the next, but then they die, taking the nuances with them. It’s like each generation scrapes the scum from the top of the vat, all the details below being consigned to oblivion. Information accumulates, yet one life is inadequate to assimilate it all, no one man is capable of knowing all that has been learned, much less have time to add to it.
    How does humanity improve from generation to generation? A record of what has been learned has been scribed. A fragile pool of information, vulnerable to the next catastrophe. If another asteroid comes at this early date all could be lost. It must be admitted that if no one survives, no one can learn from the information… If there is any recovery, whatever intelligence that follows, will have to start anew.
    You have to wonder if life is just an exercise in futility.

  • THE BEWILDERING STATE OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR 240701

    Humans seem extremely self-harming. The use of substances that directly do harm to their frail bodies seems to be insane.

    There are many substances that interact with the biological processes within the body. Some of these substances are proven safe and help to improve the well-being of the body. Others, though mildly affecting, do harm. Still others are downright dangerous.
    There are medications, there are stimulants, that have been used safely for many years:
    1. Caffeine.
    2. Aspirin and other pain medications.

    Some substances are safe in regulated doses. Many are hallucinogens, or produce effects that are illusionary. Some make you feel strong, others merely strange. These that produce such marked effects are dangerous. The majority produce either psychological or physical addiction.
    The mystery is why they will do this to themselves, even knowing they will deteriorate. Why would any sane person even try something that will cause degradation?
    Perhaps they are seeking something to help them to endure the hardships of life, or to ease the boredom and humdrum. There really is a choice involved. The human could choose a physical activity, perhaps read a new book, engage in a sport like skiing, bowling, or even croquet. Anything but administering lethal substances to create artificial escapes.
    No, many choose the “low road”. Myriad illegal and legal drugs are chosen and abused. The greatest “high” is sought. Many times they soar so high, they die.
    Instead of striving in the real world to better their state, they seek betterment with illusionary effects produced by drugs. What has to be asked is: are they mentally unbalanced? Are they insane? What drives these pitiful human beings to hasten their demise?

  • The Monster Among Us. 240623

    Its purpose is promised good. Its dictates are passed from parents to child. It is touted for teaching moral behavior, yet all it has provided is grief.

    Like a virus, it perpetuates itself, spreading like the disease it is. Thinking itself is the victim of this malady. Good becomes evil, evil becomes good in its light.

    There are many varieties from which to choose. Some are more malicious than some others. All can be totally evil if every aspect taught is adopted.

    Without exception all varieties claim supremacy. Each separate one folk from another. These precepts, it seems, were only meant for tribes. One tribe is said to be inferior to another, or the other way around. With these viruses around humanity will never be united, will always be at war… one group against the other. No peace is possible.

    How can something that is so treacherous be taught as good? When that something is all you know, you cannot draw distinctions. With nothing to compare it to, you can only accept what you are told. Let’s change that.