-( notice: this is an atheist only zone. )-
Hello !!
....ellle hello eello elloo elo o
Wow! This is a big place.
We're standing in the middle of a empty cathedral, but the arches only give way to the blue sky and the fine cool summer day above.
A fresh breeze of cedar wafts through.....
Pull up a chair! Screeeeeeeee...... sit down! get comfy. inhale sigghhhhhh.......
Awww yeah. mmmmm Isn't this nice? A place where where we can relax. And not worry about anything.
We can just sit, drop all formality, and watch the sunset in peace.
Isn't it beautiful? Now that's a sacred vision! Those purple clouds. I think I can hear the beach...I know I smell salt on the breeze.
Ah well, let us just sit in silence for awhile, and clear our minds.
shhhhhhh.
Its getting dark now, but before you go....
Let us give thanks. To the universe. To the world. To our ancestors. To all life and minds before and beside ours. Let us acknowledge that the ideals of curiosity, love, understanding, integrity and commitment are all based on natural, rational conclusions which are self-evident in themselves.
I love this place. You are welcome to come here anytime you like. Bring your friends.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
The Invisible Gardner
Once upon a time two explorers came upon a clearing in the jungle. In the clearing were growing many flowers and many weeds. One explorer says, "Some gardener must tend this plot." The other disagrees, "There is no gardener." So they pitch their tents and set a watch. No gardener is ever seen. "But perhaps he is an invisible gardener." So they set up a barbed-wire fence. They electrify it. They patrol with bloodhounds. (For they remember how H. G. Well's The Invisible Man could be both smelt and touched though he could not be seen.) But no shrieks ever suggest that some intruder has received a shock. No movements of the wire ever betray an invisible climber. The bloodhounds never give cry.
Yet still the Believer is not convinced. "But there is a gardener, invisible, intangible, insensible, to electric shocks, a gardener who has no scent and makes no sound, a gardener who comes secretly to look after the garden which he loves." At last the Sceptic despairs, "But what remains of your original assertion? Just how does what you call an invisible, intangible, eternally elusive gardener differ from an imaginary gardener or even from no gardener at all?"
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- From Antony Flew's Reason and Responsibility (1968)
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Curiosity is an emotion
Curiosity is an emotion. Which represents a drive to know new things. Curiosity is the fuel of science, art and all other disciplines of human study. It can transform every part of your life. Try sprinkling some extra curiosity into your life today. Quite often, the greatest insights are found in the things which are so obvious, we are blind to them.
Thought Experiment:
Walk around your living space. Choose an old personal object which you use often, something you never really focus too closely upon. A kitchen implement, toothbrush, watch. Study the object closely, like a forensic scientist. Make a note of the archeological/emotional differences between the actual object and your memory of the internal simulation of the object before you studied it.
I will later refer to this difference between an object and its mental representation as a "reality delta".
For each mind, different objects and classes of objects have different "reality deltas".
We can logically say that mind with "lower reality deltas" have minds which reflect reality more closely.
Thought Experiment:
Walk around your living space. Choose an old personal object which you use often, something you never really focus too closely upon. A kitchen implement, toothbrush, watch. Study the object closely, like a forensic scientist. Make a note of the archeological/emotional differences between the actual object and your memory of the internal simulation of the object before you studied it.
I will later refer to this difference between an object and its mental representation as a "reality delta".
For each mind, different objects and classes of objects have different "reality deltas".
We can logically say that mind with "lower reality deltas" have minds which reflect reality more closely.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Nature has no ethics
AIDS, Cancer, Alzheimers. If all life was created by a god, then why does he torture and kill innocent people with diseases?
Diseases do not have ethics. Nor are they evil outside of our minds. The host/parasite condition affects all animals equally. This is clear proof that there is no "all-good all-powerful" anything watching over us.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
I believe...
that it is possible to create a dialogue which traverses certain questions, theories, evidence, and rationality that exposes supernatural claims for what they really are: myth.
This is a blog about skepticism and the search for truth.
It is about using rationality to overcome ignorance.
It is about being willing to change your mind, if the evidence is sufficient.
I'm not here to be your friend, nor will I attack you personally.
This is a discussion about the ideas, truths, and the facts that all gods are created by the mind of man. But we'll also look at WHY, HOW and WHAT of religion..... since its not all evil.
Everybody can have a richer life by embracing ritual and the sacred in our everyday life.
I'm not calling for anyone to renounce their gods. Just their authoritarian way of knowing.
The point of this blog is to expose as undeniable truth that the god you imagine is within the imagination of believers alone.
Since we are beginning, I will begin the dialogue with what I can know for certain:
- I exist.
I also appear to be a human on the planet Earth, in the year 2009, but I know this with less certainty. Questions so far?
This is a blog about skepticism and the search for truth.
It is about using rationality to overcome ignorance.
It is about being willing to change your mind, if the evidence is sufficient.
I'm not here to be your friend, nor will I attack you personally.
This is a discussion about the ideas, truths, and the facts that all gods are created by the mind of man. But we'll also look at WHY, HOW and WHAT of religion..... since its not all evil.
Everybody can have a richer life by embracing ritual and the sacred in our everyday life.
I'm not calling for anyone to renounce their gods. Just their authoritarian way of knowing.
The point of this blog is to expose as undeniable truth that the god you imagine is within the imagination of believers alone.
Since we are beginning, I will begin the dialogue with what I can know for certain:
- I exist.
I also appear to be a human on the planet Earth, in the year 2009, but I know this with less certainty. Questions so far?
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