Freethinker's corner

Kingwood Center

2012/05/22

A group, of which I am a member, the Mid-Ohio Atheists, made a trip to the garden estate known as Kingwood Center.

Mr. King began making his fortune when he was hired by the Ohio Brass Company as the its first electrical engineer in 1893. Mr. King was responsible for much of the company’s success and he eventually became President and Chairman of the Board of Ohio Brass. Mr. King never had any children and was married and divorced twice. After his death in 1952, he left most of his estate to the private foundation that continues to operate Kingwood Center today.(http://voices.yahoo.com/kingwood-center-mansfield-ohio-overlooked-treasure-480956.html)

From the Greenhouse:

From Cactus….

… to bananas.

From colorful flowers…

… to the very odd.

The greenhouse was a very interesting place to visit.

But, there was more to see:

Like peacocks roaming the Estate.

The ornate Gazebo.

Flowering pots, ornate statues…

For some reason they saw fit to hang a sign on the Satyr. No doubt so visitors would not think it Satan.

Pools and ponds.

Finally, a little video from a pond at Kingwood. Listen closely….

Frogs
SSSSSHHHHH…. Maybe They Will Go Away…..May 16, 2012

2012/05/16

Some people can be so annoying. It is especially so when those people are pointing out contradictions and flaws in concepts you’ve held true since childhood. At first you try to hush them up by being boisterous, telling them they have no right to voice their opinion about the matter. Each time you try to shut them up they use facts, reason, logic, which highlight all the chinks in your armor. After a few months of trying to shout them down, telling them they are headed for disaster if they don’t listen to your message, you try a different tack.

“Let’s ignore them, maybe they will go away.” you proclaim.

It will not work. It does however make the task of spreading the message of reason easier.

I have written many posts over the years, some good, some okay, some terrible. Many people read them even now. Since taking the blogs off the News Journal site, the WordPress site has worked well, counting each visit. The change is that I do not have to spend time responding to knee-jerk reactions to the posts. Being ignored by the individual is okay, where comments are concerned.

Being purposely ignored by the Media, like the News Journal, and local radio, is detrimental. Though a news release about the Billboard campaign by the Mid-Ohio Atheists, sent to the News Journal, was published on their website, it was carefully excluded from the printed version. Then again, our local rag has always been a coward when it came to difficult issues, preferring instead to not rock the boat, not irritate the reader base. What they don’t realize is that the day of the Newspaper is in the same condition as our Post Office… on the way out.

People may not have liked what I said, but it generated interest for the website. When the website is gone, and it will within a short time, I think, I will continue to speak out against the immoralities of religion.
Apostate

2012/05/07

Apostate: a person who forsakes his religion, cause, party, etc.

There are many reasons a religious believer calls it quits. In fact, there are more reasons people list for leaving, than believing.

Many people believe simply as a result of their upbringing. Children believe and trust their parents, and if their parents are believers of any of the myriad jumble of religions on this earth, most likely their children will follow. The numerous built in doctrines of the faith, fashioned over the millennia, work to keep the believer within the fold.

“I didn’t know there was another choice”, some former believers relate, as to why they remained within the flock for so long. With people who believe the same as you do, it is easy to stay so confined. “I like the people, the social atmosphere, the ability to tell others how I feel, and that they care.” Humans have relied on each other a long long time, as it was necessary for survival against many perils.

Some believe because they have been told it is a requirement to escape a punishment from the very same God they are told loves them. Hell is described as a terrible place, with eternal burning of flesh which never can be consumed. Gnashing of teeth is thrown in for good measure, or bad, if you prefer.

A promise of great reward in some imagined afterlife draws and holds the crowds as well. Unfortunately, it cheapens the life we do have, and makes horrendous acts possible in the name of whatever… religion or God.

A lot of people leave the flock as the result of some tragic event or trauma in their lives. They get “mad at God”, it is said. Such people find it incredibly difficult to weigh their tragedies in relation to a “loving” God. “God has mysterious ways”, they are consoled. Sometimes these tragic events prompt a believer to investigate the religion in question, it’s past, it’s atrocities, it’s impact on society. Many atheists had their origin there.

“Too much dad-burned learnin’…” can lead a man or woman down the path to apostasy as well. Many of the questions religion used to hold sway over have their true answers now, thanks to science and reason. “Where’s the evidence?” becomes the question of the day, one with which religion comes up empty in response.

People leave religion in good times, in droves. The reverse is true, in bad times.

People exposed to other belief systems sometimes leave their own and join a new one, or as is the case most of the time, simply have their faith wither. They witness good and decent people, happy and content, believing in other faiths, or none at all, and despair that the dictates of their own beliefs consign such people to a horrid fate. “How could a loving God send his children to a fiery demise, to suffer for an eternity?”

Some leave, having never believed, upon finding another social group within which they no longer have to pretend. Others, still not believing, remain chained to their churches, their religions, for the sake of family relations. Even ministers, preachers, continue to preach, though belief has long ago waned and vanished. “What else will I do, this is all I am trained to do after (insert religious university of choice here).” Only now is this tragedy being addressed by some secular groups.

I helped form and am a member of a local group of non-believers. It’s there to help fill the social needs all human beings require, and to work toward improving the image of non-believers so soiled by centuries of religious propaganda. It is a group oriented at providing information to the public about atheism and non-belief in general. We work to improve the community through a high-way clean up program, donation programs, and providing for other needs as they arise. For more information go here.
Dumb and Dumber…………………..April 16, 2012

2012/04/15

Our public schools are under attack from many directions. The reasons for these attacks are varied.

Religious fundamentalists charge that the public schools are not teaching the proper morals and cause the young to disrespect and reject religious teachings. These parents, having themselves been indoctrinated in the faith from an early age, find it much easier to believe things than to know them. For these, the faithful, it is easier to accept the ravings of some zero or minus century goat herder than to accept that there are unknowns. Science admits there are things yet unknown, yet, even so, it is the unknown that drives science.

“We have the answers” shout the dealers of myth, yet they offer no basis for those answers, no reasons to accept them, except an appeal to authority. No factual evidence is allowed to deter them, and they offer no factual evidence of their own.

“Give us vouchers to school them where we want.” they demand, knowing full well that doing that would make the public schools even poorer. After all, it’s not their children they wish to educate, it’s their faith they want to force… on all. The uneducated are easy pickings.

“The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance. As I write, the number one videocassette rental in America is the movie Dumb and Dumber. “Beavis and Butthead” remain popular ( and influential) with young viewers. The plain lesson is that study and learning – not just of science, but of everything – are avoidable, even desirable.” – Carl Sagan, from “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a candle in the Dark”

We can excuse the goat herder of ignorance. They had no tools, no knowledge. They didn’t even know how rain developed in the sky. How could these simple people, with simple needs and wants, ever be expected to understand science, much less use it. What is truly strange is that there were people at the time who proffered great thoughts, were well equipped to write, unfortunately, they had no hand in religious tomes.

“The candle flame gutters. It’s little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir.” – Carl Sagan – same source.

There are more directions from which attacks emanate than those of religion, though religion’s are many. We also have the development of an attitude, not from the absence of religion, possibly due to it’s presence, but more general in nature. The attitude that learning is not “cool”, or “rad”, insert whatever label is appropriate.

Students that apply themselves are soon awakened to the reality that their fellow students think they aren’t “one of them”. The brightest boy is labeled a nerd, dweeb, or worse, and bullied into acquiescence. The brightest girl is seen as desirable, pursued by many suitors, and soon diverted from her path of achievement.

Who wins the acclaim? Who brings the cheers from the crowds of students? The football, track, and basketball stars, of course. Physical excellence is celebrated, while educational levels drop. There’s big money to chase for the few who can make it to the top in the sports category.

Educational excellence should be the focus of any celebrations, after all, that’s why the school was built. It wasn’t built to generate the next football or basketball, or even baseball great. It was built for educating the generation that would replace the last. Use the money that goes to sports now to provide scholarships for those who would go to college, however little it might be. Encourage learning, not the coliseum atmosphere at sporting events. Physical fitness need not be an expensive venture, nor need it be a spectacle.

“Scientists may reject mystic revelations for which there is no evidence except somebody’s say-so, but they hardly believe their knowledge of Nature to be complete.” – Carl Sagan – same source.

Academic achievements should garner the awards of excellence not displays of physical prowess. It wasn’t brawn that got us to the moon.

Many believe that Unionized teachers are responsible for the decline in academic achievements. I think it more a problem with the parents who do not accord education with the importance it deserves. A lot of parents use school as a means of day care and do not accord the achievements of education at a level of importance that they deserve. They never visit the school or offer to help the teacher in any way. “Teachers are paid to teach, so they better teach” they might exclaim. Children learn from their parents, and if the parents do not accord the teacher respect, neither will the children.

I agree that no school district should accept restrictions as regards the teachers abilities, whether they can be fired for incompetence. This is a major problem. No tenured teacher should hold a job simply due to tenure.

I remember two teachers that should not have been teaching in the High School I attended. One an English teacher, one a history teacher, and both completely senile. This was not a judgment created by a teenager, these teachers were unable to present the material, and unable to control the students. Frequently the history teacher would doze off in class. The English teacher was eventually removed for making remarks that denigrated women, depicting them as children, and she a woman. This was in the late 60’s. So the problem of incompetence has been around for a long time. (He was definitely not worth a Million, and she was definitely not as pretty as a Rose)

The value of education must be relayed to the young in extremely clear fashion. They must be warned not to waste the opportunity available to them. Parents must begin to participate in their child’s education which is a big step in and of itself in teaching the importance of education. If you are going to invest in the child by having them, go the full mile and invest in their future.

Finally… we must embrace the future. Technology is the future, and scientific discovery produces and develops technology.
The Messiah

2012/04/02

It’s that time of year again… that time of Easter eggs, and celebration of the resurrection.

A Man was born of a virgin thousands of years ago it is said, on December 25th, his birth being announced by a star in the East, and attended by three wise men. He was, it is said, a man of royal descent.

At age 12 he was a teacher in the Temple. He then proceeded to disappear for 18 years, appearing again at age 30 for baptism.

He had 12 disciples. He performed miracles, exorcised demons, and raised the dead back to life. He walked on water.

He delivered a sermon on the mount and was transfigured on the Mount.

He was killed, buried for three days, and then he resurrected.

He was known as “Way, the Truth, the Light”, “Messiah”, “God’s anointed son, the “Son of Man”, and the “Good Shepherd”, the “Lamb of God”, the “Word made flesh”.

He was “the Fisher” and associated with the Fish, Lamb, and Lion.

He came to fulfill the Law.

He was supposed to reign one thousand years.

This is the story of Horus, the Egyptian Sun God. The story was written over 5000 years ago.
Free Will……………….March 26, 2012

2012/03/23

Sam Harris, noted atheist and author, does not seem to think free will exists. He has described how our actions, our decisions, occur in our brains several seconds before they are acted upon. He asks where our thoughts originate. How does, and from where does, your next thought come from? Free will, he says, is an illusion.

I think free will exists. I think the evidence can be derived from our apparent dualism (Dualism in the sense that when you ask yourself a question, who are you talking to). Who are you talking to in your head when you talk to and ask questions of someone? ( Dualism also solves the question of who the religious are talking to when they think they are talking to a God.) We have a subconscious mind, and a conscious mind. The subconscious mind operates continuously carrying out various needed orders for required functions of the body. I think it does more, autonomously, than just send out the necessary signals to carry out life maintenance. I think it runs like a computer on a specified program (Ever gone to sleep on a problem only to awaken and have the solution?), and that it is our subconscious that has no free will while our conscious minds have the capability of modifying the decisions generated by the unconscious. It is my assertion that our conscious minds have free will.

As a primitive animal the subconscious mind with it’s ability to react swiftly without conscious thought was needed for survival. Hesitation guaranteed that natural selection would eliminate you. Harris’ remarks that our brains fire up to 7 to 10 seconds before an action is taken is misinterpreted in my opinion, and instead, it is only the concept presenting itself from deep within the recesses of the subconscious brain. (Work has been done showing that the brain will fire in the area where it would if an action might take place, even when only watching someone else perform that same action. ) Perhaps such a concept can apply to the animal brain, as they most often carry out immediately everything that emerges. I assert that the conscious, sentient, self-aware mind of the human being does not immediately carry out each activity, but weighs whether or not the activity is appropriate.

The human mind, a product of the sheer difference in size between our brains and those of the animal world, became capable of generating self-awareness, conscious thought. Hence the dualism, as the primitive brain continued to exist alongside the new.

Even today the human being is capable of being snapped into action quickly by the subconscious brain in times of threat.

I personally remember waking up after already having sat up in bed upon the sound of a wire connector being ripped out of the side of our house by an errant semi-driver striking a wire and pulling it along. My conscious mind did not “get up” until after the subconscious(unconscious) mind had already primed and activated the body to rise. There I was, sitting up in bed, and then having conscious awareness emerge. Vision started at the center and grew as a field from the center point, as you would imagine an old tube-type television coming on. This was a very important survival feature in the primitive past. Up and running before you knew you were up and running.

Even though the unconscious mind generates a constant stream of decisions it is my assertion that upon receiving the emerging thought the conscious mind has the ability to modify, or change completely, and therefore change the course of behavior in an act of free will. Indecision itself, to my way of thinking, invalidates the concept that free will is an illusion. Also, consider guilt. Why would people have regret, or guilt, if we were helpless automatons of our thoughts?

Another thought… gaining the conscious mind was an impediment to our continued survival as it delayed action with thoughts about whether the actions were in the best interests of the animal, therefore it had to arrive after we became social animals and able to work together to guarantee survival. This socialization and the subsequent acquisition for the taste of meat (high energy source), may have been the facilitators of our large brain development, without which we would be in the same boat with the more primitive animal.

I realize that a lot of non-believers will “slap me down” for this viewpoint… “Harris has credentials” “Who are you to question the great…”. To that I say, if millions of Christians can be wrong about the existence of their deity, which I truly agree that they are, then one man, can be wrong about free will, by my reasoning. What could be Harris’ purpose? Why does he seem to desire that freewill be invalidated? Perhaps he thinks that the non-existence of free will invalidates God, or at least the offer of salvation, because it eliminates the possibility of choice.

If there is no free will, there is determinism. With everything from the past determining the future, the future is set in stone. There would be no free will to elicit changes. If God knows everything, everything is set in stone, nothing can change it. Omni-prescience supports determinism, supports… Calvinism. If free will exists, then nothing is set in stone and an omniscient God… can not exist. Free will does not open a door to a Christian God, but closes one.

In my opinion Sam Harris reaches his conclusions in the same way theologians reach theirs… by assuming the conclusion, and then trying to prove it correct. For some reason he feels that the existence of free will gives the religious an edge in proving the existence of God. Also he seems adverse to holding people responsible for their actions and instead holding their “programming”, genetic, or environmental factors responsible. Again, in the same way Christians surrender their responsibility to their God.

If we were truly puppets on strings at the mercy of every emerging thought there would be no civilization. Everyone has had thoughts emerge where vengeance on an enemy is imagined. Instead of proceeding to acquire chains and battle-axe, our conscious mind, in most cases, analyzes the pros and con and sits us back down, leaving us realizing such endeavors could only end in a negative detrimental fashion. Despite protestations to the contrary by Sam Harris and others who claim we are slaves to our destinies, our “programming”, I beg to differ. Some do follow these inane macabre thoughts emerging from the subconscious, but if we all did, imagine what a world we would all be living in. Only chaos would prevail.
Who Goes There?…………………March 19, 2012

2012/03/16

“Who Goes There?” is a book written by John W. Campbell, Jr. and copyrighted in 1948. This is basically a story about an alien creature and it’s ship that crash landed in the Antarctic around 20,000 years ago, and the subsequent discovery of it in 1948.

Using thermite, the hapless humans managed to destroy the creature’s craft which was beneath the ice. Then they found the creature in a separate area beneath the ice and carved the alien out. (Sound familiar?) They carted it away using a dogsled and soon arrived at their camp.

Naturally the creature managed to get thawed. “The Thing” is freed.

This creature exhibited unusual abilities. It could assume the form of any creature by absorbing it. With the left over mass, it’s original mass, it could go do it to another creature, so on and so on. If the humans had not managed to destroy it, it could have conceivably gone on and literally become the population of the Earth.

Another quality it had was technical genius. Able to build sophisticated machines like atomic reactors and anti-gravity. (This is the book, not the movie)

After finishing the book I was struck by the thought of how similar this creature’s procreation power was to the spread of religion. How each individual became a nondescript part of the group. All thinking the same, all behaving the same, and all with the same goals.

I continued that thought line and remembered the Old Star Trek series with James T. Kirk and Spock and what happened in one episode named “ Landru”. On planet Beta III a computer controlled an entire population. Landru had died 6000 years previously but as a means to enforce his concept of an ideal world programmed a computer for this purpose and gave it the ability to actually induce euphoria within the minds of the people and instill order. They were all part of the “Body”. Everyone walked the streets in a slow methodical manner, greeting each other with simple greetings, and wishing each other the “blessings of Landru.” All thinking the same, all behaving the same, and all with the same goals.

On, to the Borg. Wow, yet another example where everyone thought the same, behaved the same, and had all the same goals. Part people, part machine, totally cyborg. Their greatest asset, the communal mind, in the end became their greatest vulnerability. They could not function well once the communal mind link was broken. The virus consisting of the concept of self, individuality, became their downfall.

This is very much similar to what is happening to Christianity today. Many people are examining their beliefs and finding them absurd. Under close scrutiny the deception is not hard to discern, and more and more people are joining the ranks of the nonbeliever. People are finding their individuality and assuming behavior much less that of sheep.

Christianity will not go easily and is putting up one heck of a battle. They are determined to either forcefully insert religion, namely Christianity, into the schools, or by god, whoops, by golly, they will close up the public schools by demanding a voucher system to attend private schools, or assume the chore of home schooling; either of which will surely shortchange America.

With science education declining in America the rest of the world is having an easy time wresting the title of “superior technology developer” out of America’s grasp. Even Stem cell research has been hamstrung by government restrictions prompted solely by the conservative right’s demands. Evolution, proven over the span of 150 years to be unassailable, is still under attack by the ignorant, most of which have never read the author’s work.
The Basis of Arrogance

2012/03/09

Scientists admit they do not know everything. Science means the observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena. Only those things which are verifiable and falsifiable can be tested and investigated. There are many areas outside the ability of science to presently adequately investigate. Included in that list is:

1. What existed before the Big Bang? (Universe)

2. Existence of non-falsifiable, untestable entities including God, unicorns, extraterrestrials, big foot, and Nessie among many.

3. Multiverses.

4. Does anything persevere after a person dies.

This is simply a tiny portion of the many things science cannot investigate adequately today. Although science can speculate on these things, theorize, conjecture, or make educated guesses, nothing definite can be claimed.

Theories are conclusions, speculative conclusions, made as a result of experimentation, observation, and reasoned thought. Those theories, like evolution, gravity, or relativity which have endured despite myriad challenges assume the level of fact. Though these theories may undergo refinement as new information is discovered they remain as the best explanations for the observed phenomena. Though the likelihood seems remote, should contradictory information be discovered which invalidates these theories, they will be abandoned and new theories postulated. Such is science.

Religion claims to know everything: Who made the Universe and life. What existed before the Universe, and what will happen after death. Not only that but it claims knowledge of why we exist. None of this is verifiable. It is totally non falsifiable nor testable. It’s adherents are asked to believe solely by faith in it’s tenets. The only offered evidence is second hand, or after the fact testimonies and dubious improvable reports of miraculous occurrences.

Arrogant: Having or displaying a sense of overbearing self-worth or self-importance.

A scientist makes no claim to complete knowledge, as complete knowledge would eliminate the need for there to be a scientist. Science is all about investigating the unknown, finding the answers. There is great humility in the admission that there is much that is unknown.

A theologian claims that their religious book provides all the answers. A minister, preacher, priest, reverend, or Muslim cleric purports to know the unknowable, assuming a position of authority which is totally undeserved. The only humility expressed is that of submission to an overarching deity. No humility is expressed as to the lack of the answers to the unknowable.

“They think they have a pretty good bead on things” –MIB agent Kay

As far as the world is concerned it seems that scientists are infinitely humbler than theologians, admitting that some things are presently unknown. Some things may remain forever out of the reach of human knowledge.

The theologians meanwhile, assuming complete knowledge, discourage and deplore exploration which might contradict this assumption. Some things that might have been discovered years ago are only now being discussed as a result of this opposition.

I see the religious leaders as pompous and arrogant. Full of themselves they claim knowledge which is unknowable. If they make it to a heavenly paradise not only will this be proof that the eye of a needle is more the size of a hula hoop, but that heaven is only a place for those barren of thought.
So, You Want A God…. March 7, 2012

2012/03/06

Feeble are the Gods invented by man. Contradictory, vague, and the cause of much misery. Figments of the mind are they all, never having seen the light of day, much less been the creator of it. But, wait, there are entities worthy of your praise, dead, but not forgotten by those who care. Massive orbs, boiling, churning, casting massive arcs of plasma into the voids of space. Stars more massive than our average sized sun. Stars so massive they used up their allotment of hydrogen in millions, instead of billions of years. Then, collapsed and exploded spitting their innards into space. Heavier elements saw their beginnings in this way. The heavier elements of which we are made came from these massive stars. They died making it possible for us to live.

If you must praise something praise these massive stars. At least they can be proven to have existed, if only from their remains.
The Liar Apologizes ……. March 6, 2012

2012/03/05

Rush Limbaugh who labeled a Georgetown law student a Slut for daring to speak about contraception made a condescending apology as a result of pressures emerging from many sources. No doubt at all the major source of pressure being from sponsors who began to leave his show (Despite his prevarication to the contrary). ProFlowers.com was only the latest to withdraw advertising. Quicken loans, Sleep Number, Citrix, Carbonite and LegalZoom withdrew previously. Arrogantly, before his apology occurred he stated he would replace all of the advertisers that left, as he had previously rejected many advertisers, he claimed.

Even many of his fellow Conservatives had called on him to apologize.

“I descended to (the left’s) level when I used those two words to describe Sandra Fluke.” Rush claimed. Yet another slam amidst the debacle caused by his rant on Fluke. The left generally and literally is more respectful of women and women’s rights than the blowhard Rush Limbaugh, and the conservative circle in general.

The N.O.W. wants him fired.

Rush went on ranting that liberals would never apologize for saying things about conservatives, about which he did not go on to illustrate. For all intents and purposes sounding like a scolded pre-adolescent child. Complaining about non-existent double-standards was next, the same tactic most Conservatives use when caught with their pants down.

I have listened to this man on various occasions when listening on the car radio. If you listen from an objective point of view you will find the lies add up in quick order.