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2012/06/19

In the pursuit of equality in civil rights struggles it does not further the cause to adopt concepts and language which the public at large finds offensive. I am not talking of criticism of many of the publics faults, belief systems, but of common manners.

Feminism seems to think that to have equality with men they must adopt the behavior of men. There are many men who are crude in expressing themselves, and seem expected to be so. The general public, seeing many feminists adopting male crudeness, react negatively, and rightly so. Equality does not mean equal crudeness.

Atheists seem to have found a fascination with the “F” word of late. Whatever it is they are trying to change by profuse use of the word is not working. Instead, the public at large sees vindication for their preconceived notions about atheists. Most of the atheists I know are intellectual in persuasion, and certainly have no need of the use of such a word in expressing themselves plainly and convincingly.

Desensitization may be the goal of these efforts. Perhaps it is hoped that by such actions barriers to all sorts of behavior, held in the minds of the public as chicanery, will be broken. Is civilized behavior to be thrown out the window? Should there be couples coupling on the street corner? Should drug use be free to proliferate? Should all the monsters of the ID, be released? Chaos is not a desirable state of being.

I am an atheist, yet for me, common morality includes moral decency. Decency is defined by the society you are living in. Some change is undesirable. Despite the need to be equally recognized, demonized groups need to exercise common decency, otherwise they risk living up to the preconceived convictions held by the public in general. This impedes the cause.

To exercise common moral decency does not mean that valid and strong arguments have to be sanitized. A few insults sometimes leaves a seed for people to think about. However, insult ideas, concepts, not people, and present the information clearly enough so even the most dense stoop knows what direction you are going. Use reason and knowledge, and make sure your opponent in an argument knows that when you say the world ignorant, that ignorant does not mean stupid. Know your audience… and know what is commonly decent among them.

If the audience thinks you are a sewer rat, you won’t change their mind by spewing sewage.
Balloon Flowers

2012/06/15

The balloon flower, or Chinese bellflower (platycodon grandiflorus), is a late-blooming perennial admired for its color and shape. The flower is blue, and as the bud opens, it inflates into the shape of a balloon until it reveals bell-shaped flowers upon opening. It blooms in July and August.

Well, that’s the way the website describes them. And yet… here it is mid-June, and ours are already blooming.

The 12th

14th

15th
A Population Out of Control

2012/06/14

Last year another milestone was reached by human beings: Population reached 7 billion mark. In a world already struggling, and failing, to meet the nutritional needs of it’s inhabitants this was not one of our shining moments. In impoverished and uneducated parts of the world the population continues to expand.

Human population growth is proceeding at levels which are outstripping the means to maintain them. If we were only a small number such growth rates would be necessary, yet, as vast as we are in number, the growth proceeds at rates as if we were recovering from near extinction.

The reasons for such growth are myriad. In the past many children were necessary as many of them did not make it past childhood. Medicine has improved and now death in childhood is major news. Due to such improvements in medical care people are living longer than ever before. Diseases which were death sentences at one time in history are no longer a controlling factor on population. Even the many wars which humans engage in are no longer a limiting factor to population growth, and as population continues to grow unabated such wars will become more frequent as struggles for dwindling resources will increase.

Food production has improved as well, making food cheap and plentiful in progressive nations even allowing for distribution to far points of the world. This growth of food production has it’s limits and is governed by weather and by availability of suitable agricultural area. One horrendous weather related calamity and food prices will soar out of reach and a vast segment of humanity will starve. Starvation is not a desirable mode for controlling population growth.

Human beings realize that population is an important consideration in the animal world. Since humankind has eliminated many of the predators it is necessary to limit the growth of animal populations of those remaining. Deer, left to themselves will proliferate beyond the capacities of the land to support them. So we cull the herds, sometimes sending out groups of individuals to take “game” which is then provided to agencies for distribution. Our domestic animals, pets, are also controlled through neutering or spaying as well as euthanasia.

With our population growth out of control we are expanding into every nook and cranny of this planet. As a result habitats available for the varieties of other creatures on the planet are decreasing. Many species have gone completely extinct and many others are headed in that direction. The diversity of this planet is being eliminated.

Taboos against contraception and abortion of unwanted pregnancies continue to hamper the curtailment of this unprecedented growth of the human population. The consideration of the preciousness of human life, though commendable and necessary, has led to unceasing growth, and eventually life as we know it will not be worth living. We are headed towards a disaster predicted by Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek series of the 60’s. The “Mark of Gideon”, where a people had eliminated all disease, where death became a desirable element. People were living a nightmare where population had grown to such proportions that they were crammed shoulder to shoulder. To return their planet to a manageable population these people were determined to reintroduce disease.

Religious groups and others they have persuaded to join them continue to villanize contraception and abortion. Family planning agencies are frequently protested along with abortion clinics. Abortion clinics have been bombed by fanatics.

Where is the value of life when life is undesirable? Life is precious and can only be kept so when life is enjoyable. Continued population growth will make life less precious by making it miserable. Progress in stemming the tide of growth will never occur as long as a majority of people guided by belief in an ancient tome 3400 years old, that promotes procreation with abandonment, continues to oppose it. As long as a majority continues to believe it will be rescued from such a fate by imagined deities returning to Earth there will be no efforts toward managing this growth of population, nor will there be any efforts at preserving the Earth for future generations.

A question was put to Yahoo Answers:

“Mankind is slowly, but surely, destroying the Earth, is that also part of “god’s plan”?

The best answer chosen:

“Yes, the quality of the earth means nothing to those who await their entrance into heaven.”
An Outrage

2012/06/01

Imagine the public outrage at the following possible, fictitious headline:

MUSLIM LANDOWNER FORCES REMOVAL OF CHRISTIAN BILLBOARD!

There would be no end to complaints of violation of free speech.

Or:

ATHEIST LANDOWNER FORCES REMOVAL OF CHRISTIAN BILLBOARD!

Both cases would be a violation of free speech. Why is it that the following headline would be accepted as justice by 70% of Americans?

CHRISTIAN LANDOWNER FORCES REMOVAL OF ATHEIST BILLBOARD!

or:

MUSLIM LANDOWNER FORCES REMOVAL OF ATHEIST BILLBOARD!

The plain truth is that religion must stifle free speech for in the face of actual truth, the pseudo-truth of religion withers. This is why Christianity, despite claims to the contrary, is waging war on the Constitution of the United States, and has waged war upon it, since it’s inception. Without the ability to control the government and the courts Christianity is powerless to enforce it’s dogma upon the public at large. Life under a Christian concept of God’s Law would be no more tolerable than life under Sharia Law, or for that matter under anyone’s rigid religious dictates.

Stifling of free speech, be it Atheist, Christian, or Muslim is a diminishment of guaranteed Constitutional rights. It is an admission by the oppressor that the ideas he/she proposes cannot withstand a debate and can prevail only if other ideas are suppressed or eliminated.

There are those who would accept the negative publicity generated by the stifling of free speech in such an oppression of Constitutional rights as promoting the cause of the oppressed. There are others, like myself, who see it as a perpetuation of the stigma generated by the religious against anyone who detracts from, or opposes, their tyranny.

For the story behind this blog go here.
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.