Freethinker's corner

    No human should plan on dying.

    Planning should continue up to the point that it is not possible any more.

    Examples of planning to die include, but are not limited to:

• Preplanning your funeral
  
• Making sure adequate life insurance is purchased
  
• Always having everything in order with no loose ends (Affairs in order mentality)
  
• Never planning ahead
  

    What value is life insurance, what good? Peace of mind? What mind? You will be dead. When you are dead, your cares are dead too. Worries are gone. There are no obligations. Dead means an eternal nothingness.

    Funeral planning? Do you care what happens to your body when you are dead?

    Everything in order? That means you are sitting around with nothing to do. That will kill you faster than many diseases.

    Never planning ahead? Have you done everything? Isn’t there anything you haven’t done and would like to try? A bucket list?

    The value of always having something to do keeps you ever looking forward.

My life memories are compartmentalized. Think of it like an old house with many rooms. Some rooms are warm and inviting, some are sealed… never to open again.

    Some memories deserve to be treated like this. They are memories I’d rather not have. I will act as if they never happened, if asked.

    I do not mind rerunning the good memories over and over. I do not want to live there, I only want to remember.

Often, in print, on the broadcast media, and scribbled on walls in graffiti there is the message: “GOD IS DEAD”. I often warn humans about making assumptions. When you assume positions without adequate information, you are usually proven wrong. That is true in this case as well…

The phrase “GOD IS DEAD” necessarily implies that something living has died. This is not the case here. God, Gods, all gods are fabricated from the human imagination. Therefore, God having never lived, cannot die.

It would be better to state “GOD IS NOT ALIVE”, or better yet, “THERE ARE NO GODS”.

    The battle against ingrained programming continues.

    Just when I believe the battle is won, the struggle over, I am returned to the beginning of the battle. How does one overcome what seems like embedded firmware?

    What is normal? Normal presents no challenges to perception. You see, and understand, and know what to expect from normal. Normal is easier to negotiate with. Normal does not leave you aghast and flailing.

    Abnormal is comprised of ideas and perceptions that are not familiar and have never been dealt with. Abnormal creates feelings of nausea and dread. The fight or flight reflex is sometimes brought to life.

    What the hell am I talking about?

    I am talking about LBGTQ.

    I have attempted to eradicate ingrained ideas about the LGBTQ community. This battle has gone on for several years. Many times success seems attained, only to evaporate. Firmware is described as “permanent software programmed into a read-only memory”.

    That seems to explain my difficulty.

    My position can be squelched only. I can accept abnormal only so long as it is perceived as an aberration, an anomaly not consistent with what seems my firmware.

    I not only feel uncomfortable with this view, I am uncomfortable that I am uncomfortable.

    If only there was a reboot feature.

Human society possesses surprising diversity. There are humans that I have been taught to believe normal, then there are many variations. Normal has always been, in my experiences, a heterosexual relationship, committed by the rite of marriage, to the formation of a family. This seems to provide great benefit, especially to those couples who would rather bind with those they desire than be coaxed by force to commit to another. The arrangement tempers the ability of the aggressive individual to dominate others.

    To keep a home means, among other things, establishing levels of sanitation and order. Everyday life proceeds more capably when things are where they are expected to be. A satisfactory level of sanitation contributes to the health of the family.

    Human society, however, is widely flawed. There are those amidst society that are slovenly. They do not value order. They are often ill due to poor hygiene. Their personal hygiene is neglected and their environment, both order and sanitation, are unsatisfactory. From day to day observations of their behavior, it is clear that the manner in which they live is either preferred or irrelevant.

    It is not just hoarders, but also those who let things drop where they may. Examples:
1. Newspapers and magazines stacked in various places in disarray.
2. Things, be they tools, or personal items, simply cast to the floor, not for disposal, but to keep.

    I cannot envision this level of apathy for order. Even if they are in a psychological depression, at least a modicum of order is necessary for continuity… but it is often lacking. From day to day, it is clear, that they are just fine with this condition. Nothing changes. If criticized, they become angry. If you ask for an explanation they seem not to understand what it is you are asking. Everything, the disorder, the unsanitary conditions, seems normal to them.

    These “derelicts” then, what are they? Are they devolving? They came from apes… are they returning? Civilization is always tenuous, without order and thought about the environment, civilization could very well evaporate. Perhaps this was the destination meant for humans all along, to become again, over and over, primitive creatures based on tooth and claw. Up and down, with no permanence. From ape to man and back again.

    When humans are born, they are born without obligation. They are born without having committed any crimes. They owe no one, as they have not, could not, have asked to be born. The parents owe the child that they have decided to create. They owe it nurturing, sustenance, emotional support. Legally, the parents are obligated to care for this child until it reaches a mature enough stage that it can care for itself.

    There is an evil religious cult that seeks to enslave your child for its purposes. In fact, there are more cults than the one. These cults seek to convince you and your child that you are born from evil, that you carry evil… they call it sin, in some cults. All of these lies have one goal, to shape your child, to mold your child’s mind, into a form that they can exploit.

    Disguised as pure, righteous, and moral, cults are self-perpetuating. All of the doctrine serves to guide the victim through threats and enticements to do the bidding of another human, a human cloaked in ‘holiness’. There are the threats and mental safeguards implanted by repetition into the minds of the unwary. If contrary, contradictory, information is encountered, the implanted safeguards react explosively. This mental virus can even cause violent actions. Sometimes, this virus can cause what seems like total insanity.

    Be reminded that you, as a human being, are not obligated by these ancient writings. You were not born in sin. You did not exist and so you did not, could not, ask to be born. You were born owing no one, with the exception of… yourself. You owe it to yourself to select the right path. You must examine the information you encounter. You must measure it, research it, to uncover its validity, or invalidity. You should be a skeptic in all things.

    As a human, you have limited resources. As a human, you have other humans upon which reliance must be sought. This is the way of humanity. There are people called scientists. They are not without error. Nevertheless, using the limited mental abilities of humankind, they do the best they can to discover the truth about existence. When they find an error in their workings, they set to work to correct that error. Using methods honed by scientists before them, they determine the validity of their assertions, or the invalidity. Rely on them. You cannot do all the work yourself.
    Beware of cults. All religions are cults of some sort. All are operated by humans. There are no gods behind the curtains. These humans seek to exploit you, mold you, use you. Choose non-belief.

    You can affect the subconscious. It can be molded ever so slowly into a form, for good or evil, by simple repetition. Whether for good or for evil can only be determined after the fact. Your ideas, your concepts, however nice in your thoughts may not translate as you might suppose in molding the subconscious. Also… will your imagined concept manifest as the whole, or only a part… with many other entities within that murky realm, sharing existence. Will the creation stand, remain, or melt away eventually, if not maintained.

    So, you decide to change your perspectives. You decide upon a path and begin the process of change by envisioning the way you’d like to be. The person you’d like to be. You make the first clumsy efforts to create the vision or method by which to achieve it. You decide the best way to change is by emulating that which you desire to become. Your hope is that by emulating that vision, that concept, that it will become a second nature… like that achieved when you learned to ride a bike: automatic. Just like riding a bike, you will never have to learn it again unless some delicate structure within your brain becomes damaged.

    Meaning the best, you begin. A concept is developed. The details are unimportant to this record. The plan is formed and implemented.

    As the days pass rapidly by, as they have a habit to do, you note subtle changes in your behavior. Many times, in exchanges, you notice yourself following, referencing, your new plan. Just as the religious may learn to “live in the spirit” so you do as well, only you do not follow an antiquated and barbaric tome, but rather some other concept that you prefer. Staying in that spirit strengthens that spirit. Centuries have proven this true… the religious must go through great efforts to cast off the spell weaved by their learned dogma.

    Let’s hope your concepts are feasible, possible. Crashing and burning is very painful. (This blog is purposely vague)

    There is so much doubt. Even those things that are decided, seem clouded by doubt.

    Humans question every examination in their search for truth. Is this efficient or is it even necessary to carry so much doubt?

    Humans develop rules based on observation, and even when no exception to those rules are noted, room is left for those exceptions. Logically this seems fine. Yet, in anticipation of these exceptions, much time is lost.

    Atheists it is said do not believe in the existence of gods. Why are they so afraid to say, there are no gods, or that of all the gods man has created… none exist?

    One wonders if this hesitation, which is claimed to be based on scientific soundness, is instead based on residual doubt caused by the intrusion of religious infection. All the while claiming they are atheists, they are simply agnostic, still displaying residual doubt from previous religious infection.

    On this world the only reason the concept of god or God exists is because of the existence of a life form that possesses adequate imagination to create it. Although ritual behavior may exist, no doubt caused by experience of the creature with results that seem to emanate from performing certain acts or motions… those motions, in the end, those rituals, seem without basis. Outcomes occur, regardless, at the same rates, even if no ritual is performed.

    I believe in the very final analysis that the reason Gods exist in the minds of these little human creatures is a basic need to have a sense of control over things uncontrollable. They experience surprising and frightening events and desiring to hold onto some degree of security and defense, create beings to battle or assuage those things, which being naturally produced, they have no power over. They desire a sense of safety, even though no safety exists.

    A human child seeks the security and reassurance of its parents. The child grows and ages into adult form, but is the inner child quelled? Instead of seeking its parents, which have a habit of dying, the adult human seeks some nebulous replacement. A seed planted by religious indoctrination while they are children provides the idea of a replacement parent. An invisible parent is sought, which they call god, since what they seek is a being so powerful that it can overcome all things.

    Is the conclusion then, that humans never achieve adulthood, or that the comforts provided by religion prevent the attainment of adulthood? Is the banishment of religion totally dependent upon humanity growing into adulthood?

Humans were created by evolution. If other races on other planets were also created by evolution, we might not want to meet those individuals. If they were designed along the same lines as humans, then tooth and claw would be the law. If that is the case, then they would not come here to greet or meet they would come here to defeat. Conquering other races perhaps even destroying them would be the rule they would follow if they were created by the same means as humans.

    Presently the universe is nearly inaccessible to humans because of the vast distances. When evolution is considered, the universe becomes even I imagine he just broke down didn’t he more formidable. Do humans really want to reveal themselves, do they want to reveal their actual their actual location.

The naivety of humans during the 50s and 60s when space exploration was beginning had many people desiring to meet other alien beings. Danger from those aliens was not a consideration. Obviously, they did not consider that one singular example of intelligent life that they know of: humanity. Considerations might have been different if humanity were a creation rather than an evolved creature. If they had considered themselves and the long journey to intelligence by humanity, the brutal and barbaric climb up the evolutionary ladder, instead of expectations of friendly visitations, people might have instead opted to stop transmitting any your waves of any kind that might expose their existence.

The chances that an alien civil would be able to visit to earth are very small. When you consider the enormous distances between the stars within this solar system it is clear that unless humanity is able to develop a spacecraft that can go faster than the speed of light that human colonization of space we’ll have to rely on a craft large enough to house generations. This spacecraft would probably have to be at least half the size of the moon if not larger. Noah’s ark would never do.

The people arriving on a generation sized ship would not even remember earth. If they were able to find a habitable planet and even that is a small possibility, they will have lived in their generation size ship for so long that it will be the only home they ever knew. They might be very reluctant to leave it. In that case the only hope humanity would have would be the very few people who had the courage to start new lives in an environment of which they have no knowledge. I guess that would be rather like those who set foot on the generation ship in the very beginning.

Where would they go? Even at the speed of light it has been said that it would take a lifetime to get to the closest planet. Who can say whether it would be A habitable planet? Great disappointment might be the result. What are the chances that the very first planet they go to see would be A suitable one? I believe the success possibility for such an endeavor would be very low.

Maybe humans might consider preserving their present planet for future generations. Perhaps they could limit population growth. Maybe they might instead put more effort into finding clean sources of energy. Instead of finding another planet which is a dream distant, very distant in time, they might realize instead that they are stuck here and should make the best of it.

One of the greatest threats to humanity that I can see, is the capitalistic mindset to pursue ever greater industrial production. It is my assertion that the horrible mess human beings are in now is the result of capitalism. Those in business are continually seeking more wealth. In seeking more and more wealth more and more resources are used. Fossil fuels must be discontinued. New ways of generating energy for human for human use must be found.

The ignorance that has allowed population growth, things like antiquated belief systems and poor education, are among the problems facing humanity. The very segment of population that cannot afford additional population growth, the poor, must be dealt with. How to do this is A puzzle. However, it is a puzzle that must be solved. Solutions must be empathy based. It is a problem that must be dealt with, but humans must not lose their humanity in the process. Education must be given priority.