Not an Atheist—Am I Going Mad?

I am not an atheist—I just don’t believe in God. Religion has left me no choice. Being an atheist I don’t believe in this god and that is the standard paradigm. But if I have to believe, it doesn’t exist. No belief between anyone is a consistent description of anything. Nothing is consistent except by memorization, but those aren’t your perceptions of god. They are a consensus of ambivalent confusions.

If God is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and omni-everything to encapsulate an unrestrained supreme deity, what then, could be in the universe that is not god? Your superlatives betray your doctrine.

The Hebrew god is all these attributes. But really, with all these elucidations only creates more confusion. It would have to be everything, including you as an extension of it. There is no line it doesn’t cross, no realm it doesn’t permeate, no organism it isn’t. Christians are actually pantheist or deists, if you carry the logic beyond its restricted norms, using their own adjectives. According to their own terms, everything is god, (except for you), right?

Traditionally, expressing this knowledge about yourself would be blasphemous enough to get you killed, condemned, or at least excommunicated. It’s hard to control people that knew their divine reality. But really what this knowledge does is put the game in jeopardy. Who would put up with this bullshit if they knew the truth? There is only one power the sim possess—it can shut itself off.

It is not my fault I don’t believe in this god described by the majority religions. It falls short on its own argument and modifiers. If it were real I wouldn’t have to believe it, have to convince myself and others of its existence, because unless you were it, something so distinct from you would be as plain as the nose on your face. If it were distinct from you it would be obvious and unavoidable that this god existed, yet no one can see it. Can a program detect the programmer? Can the curser see the mouse? Dammit!

If there is a god it does not know it. The same as if you were god and do not know it. There would be nothing outside of itself to contrast, just as there is no thing outside of you you could call god without it also being you.

No, there is no deity outside of you or it is not a deity, unless this is a simulation and we just can’t see the programmer through the impulses and diodes. If we did see that god we would find he is an intelligent creature that has no remorse for his sims, and can play and play the loop in the game that causes the most trivial of killing sprees where all his characters have multiple lives.

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Reincarnation

If reincarnation is real, what is it exactly that is being reintroduced? It certainly isn’t the biology, the dna, or any physical likeness. It is data that is recycled—everything is data and electrical impulses. Even your food is measured in calories, or energy content.

Our physical world is a system of inseparable differences. Everything exists with everything else. Left and right are one process. If thoughts are real they are permanent data structures that come and go and transcend life and death.

Life isn’t serious. It is completely unnecessary. Why is there something rather than nothing? For his pleasure it was imagined into existence. It is for play—to relive the boredom’s of infinite living.

Theorists such as Roger Penrose, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics, have conjectured that quantum effects underpin consciousness, but this theory is just as lacking as any other theory. Researchers cannot even agree on what form a theory of consciousness should take.

The Polaroid is maybe the best example of creation—the image appears all at once out of the blackness, yet nothing of substance is added to it.

Religious Reality vs Reality’s Reality

Everything we cannot perceive with our senses is not spiritual. It is simply what has been concealed from our field of view, as evolution has adapted species in the most direct way—for fitness and reproduction.

Getting a view outside our ordinary perceptions show there is much more to be seen, but also exposes the inadequacy of gods perfect creation.

Many times these glimpses turn into religions. Yet the omnipotence of the universe is unaware of its creative power, or even if it is doing it. It is the only one with nothing outside itself to compare to.

It by chance there were an omnipotent awareness called god, it would laugh itself silly if it knew that it was an object of worship. Who me?? ROTFLMAO

Irony of Ironies

I find it amusing that people like Ye or Andrew Tate claim they have exposed the matrix and have awakened from reality, yet they are devout Christian and a recent convert to Islam, respectively.

These organizations are the epitope of matrices and the founders of thought control, spreading their entropic ideas while standing firmly on the foundations of them.

This is no different from “waking up” and then switching from democrat to republican, or visa versa. Which side your in matters not to them—it is that you pick a side that matters. The discord that ensues is the program.

Curious if what Ye says is true, that blacks are the real Jews? Moses and Paul, who were Israelites, were mistaken for Egyptians. Egyptians were black Africans. For some, the fact that Ancient Egyptians were Black could be new information and sound outlandish.

But our history is pleat with whitewashing history. Even Jesus was white, right?

What is God and Why It’s Not

Sacredness is not a relationship with belief. This is a categorical error. Beliefs are simply ideas we like to think on then entertain out of preference—then wrongly cling to out of credulous insecurity. Belief is needed because it is not real. Quantum Theory is the closest thing to real that the general population has been exposed to. It demonstrates what is unseen by the senses—this is god.

Highly charged emotional states or chemically enhanced experience may at times give one a glimpse into the hidden portions of reality. This is no more spiritual than your normal existence—it is only different. Calling it a deity is supposing that anything outside our normal perceptions is god, when in reality the process of evolution has not seen fit to expose more than the needed perceptions to eat and reproduce.

That the ground of being is some kind of entity is a fundamental mistake. There may be something underneath it all but it is not a being, it IS being. It is the way things grow or become—no-thing knows how it is done or that it is doing it. Like how you grow your hair or raise your hand. You just do it never knowing how. This is god, if there is such a thing, which I just explained is not a thing.

The idea that god is a being is a projection from our individual aspects of form, which is not too far off the truth. Not as individuals but as apertures of the whole. Every bit is meaningful to us because every bit is the one thing.

Driving with the top down at the speed of life can get a little messy. Getting a glimpse now and the can be rewarding but not meaningful—it doesn’t do anything and is at odds with evolutionary fitness. Plus there is actual thrill in not knowing—this is what makes the Great Mystery meaningful. What point would actually be meaningful if there was no mystery?

If there are entities that know more than we, this is god until we realize they only have different evolutionary hacks and perceptions, a different peep hole into the objective reality that we see vey little of. To see 10% more may very well overload the circuitry and distract evolutionary fitness as we know it.

What we don’t see may or may not be more advanced or better, but simply outside our sensory perceptions and immiscible. We would be as much a mystery to them as they are to us—unless they have evolved to see things they cannot interact with, like watching tv.

Deb Schell, Missouri

The Art of Nothing

Is seems religion has an edge on atheism. How does one continue to embellish on unbelief? What new ideas can we pull out of thin air to aggrandize a negative? There are no assumptions to defend, no miracles to fantasize, no mythical beasts or gods to rewrite, revise, conjecture, or expand.

Religion is science fiction with a penalty, where believing the right fiction is coupled with an unlimited license to caricature your wildest dreams into a human right—where making god more better and more powerful than anyone can imagine—right up until someone reimagines it.

God has evolved in my lifetime to incorporate the ontology of science and atheist philosophers. They get it all. Every idea of existence can be attributed to this mythology. You win. I have no deity to defend.

Even the best argument for nothing is laid waist by belief and tradition. Never failing to take credit for solving your existential anxieties—which tend to solve themselves anyway. All bleeding eventually stops. But give god his due. It is you who solves the crisis and always has been. It’s too bad the men of words cannot give credit to you for your own course corrections.

Paranormal

We are paranormal.

There are creatures similar to us who live among us, that have churned down a different evolutionary path and perception, that which we cannot see nor associate with but in glimpses.

This animation with its limited sensory awareness—unable to see, hear, or even comprehend much of the environmental spectrum, are not normal in the vastness of this cosmic game. We are the anomaly too—short lived, temporary forms who occasionally capture a peek into what is normal of the cosmos, yet beyond our divergent evolution.

It’s all around and yet we can’t see it. We have not evolved to see reality, but to not see reality. If evolution is true, throughout history selection pressure to achieve one thing has distracted our senses from the very beginning to achieve reproduction using shortcuts. The cheapest, most direct route that adaptive behavior could do to replicate our genes.

With biological evolution, from the time of the single cell to now, we have seen nothing outside of the most direct path to achieve this. Reality is far too much a distraction for evolution to allow us stop and notice.

Now that we know that nothing can be fully known… now what? Certainly there are many theories that are useful—even without our understanding it, but with our limited range of perception and reliance on this quirky, temperamental, three pound blob of fat, reality would overwhelm the senses like an acid trip, productivity and longevity would cease, and those that saw the fullness of the universe teeming with trillions of distractions would be virtually paralyzed.

Cause of Climate Change

Of the 265,000 square miles of the Columbia River drainage (size of France) none of its tributaries flow free to the ocean, trapping all particulate matter as well as co2, methane, and sediments behind its dams, effectively halting the natural processes the earth performs to maintain equilibrium.

This process is reduced over 70%

The Columbia is only one system. Over 70% of the worlds rivers no longer flow free, to irrigate crops and produce hydroelectric power. The natural ecocycles of planet earth are effectively ruined.

And it appears now that hydroelectric power has a greater impact on the worlds carbon cycle than fuel powered generators. (1)

Irrigation traps the particulate matter in a never ending cycle, re-spreading it on the land over and over what should be washed out to sea and cycled.

There are 70,000 large dams worldwide and another 3700 planned. These are huge carbon sinks, whose impact has been dismissed as “renewable” and “clean” for a hundred years or more. Over the next 15 years 90% of the worlds rivers will be dammed, and along with it so will we.

Whatever we do to mitigate climate change will most likely be a bust, as long as our rivers and dams are used as they are.

“Dams are a major driver of global environmental change”(2) But as usual, humankind will continue to address the wrong problem having no idea that their fixes are only going to make the problem worse.

It is really no wonder why climate change has accelerated with the building of dams. Electric cars will not solve anything at all.

Religious Graduation

By now, if Christianity were authentic it would have a formula that would fulfill its premises and work for everyone who honestly applied the minimal effort—it doesn’t—except for the chosen ones. (Romans 8:29–30)

And if you put forth the effort and get no response, one should be free to go. Should not the churches at least be honest about this?

Christianity, which in fact resists knowing, is to pretend a carefully crafted teaspoon of belief is the full measure. When those “chosen” to believe do so with no free will of there own and with no merit at all, while the rest of us struggle on, hoping we’re on the in-crowd. This is silly, yet the chosen continue to preach like it matters—like they can save us.

If you follow the precepts of Christianity and nothing happens, it is your fault. Ie; there is underlying sin, spiritual immaturity, or the “gods will” clause. But God has no will ‘cept your own. You can do nothing to merit salvation. He has already decided who’s in and who’s out, before you were even born. That is a real head-trip for those with the “correct” neurons, so what about the rest of us? Why make the effort again and again when the Bible clearly says it is futile—except where it isn’t. Which side of the contradiction is the correct side?

Any proper school has the tools and methods to prepare its students for a minimum level of competence—for graduation. Anything else is a hobby. Certainly some different lines of thought are interesting and sometimes comforting to explore, but let’s be honest; maybe beliefs should be identified as what they are—likes and preferences.

What We’re Made Of

As religion slowly embraces science, the potter has now formed us out of particles and evolution, but did he really make anything at all?

“Our bodies and every-thing that can be seen in the universe are made of such particles”—Isabella

By observation a particle is “an excitation of a field”. There is no atom made of conceivable “stuff” which is the imagined building block. The statement might very well read, “Our bodies and everything that can be seen in the universe are forms of energy fields, eg; apparitions”. This is the illusion. Man is nothing (no-thing) and just as likely, life is a dream of apparitions—it simply depends on how you choose to frame it.

Yet can anyone escape the illusion? Are not the objects in a dream state or a projection on a screen of equal composition under a microscope? The projection of a hologram is made of the same substance of what we deem physical. So what are we??

“We are talking about discrete natural units, or packets of energy hence the word quanta. It is why it was called quantum mechanics/physics in the first place” —Isabella

So god has tricked us—used deception to animate his sims, and you an illusion made of the same stuff he is made of. What would that make you, real or an apparition?

Life after Death

When I die there will be no experience—no regrets or joyous reunions, for there will be no apparatus to manage or attend such consciousness or effort. Even if “spirit” carried on in some idea or another, it is a mindless, blank stare at a static white board without sensory perception for eternity, as unaware as the universe is of itself. Biology fills the void for a time. Life is a symptom of our universe, but it is not intentional, nor has any ideas at all about how it happens. Funny, just like you and me.

Biology is a byproduct of the universe—a symptom. The cycles are endless. The earth is like a slow motion chia pet. Humans have been on this cosmic stage about 20 minutes. Imagine a time-lapse from beginning to end—it would be no mystery.

Taking a Hindu version at face value, if I am here to grow to perfection through repetition, over and over and to resolve the unsolved desires and issues of karma, why would I have ever been born in the first place, having had no karma to be born with?

I have possibly however, inherited such a thing from evolution, that monkeys rang up my karmic credit after they received it from their progenotes, and so on and so on, all the way back to the spawn of life. If it ever died out, nothing would ever know it ever was a thing at all.

That which truly exists must exist all the time, but the body does not exist all the time. Therefore, it cannot be real.

The ultimate oxymoron is life after death. That would contradict the meaning of both.

Suspending Disbelief

Understandium via pretendium.

As a reader or listener of any story we undergo what is called a willing suspension of disbelief as an attempt to understand the narration, trust the narrator, and interpret why the story is being told toward some underlying idea.

This suspension temporarily undermines suspicion. We are encouraged to have an open mind, but can we honestly do that then resurrect our senses at the end of the drama?

To enjoy any theme demands this—to let fiction entertain for a time is to insight the intent of the author to glean whatever underlying meaning for ourselves that can be siphoned off for future use or self improvement, or to simply be entertained.

This suspension of disbelief is a key point of christianity—the actors and storytellers now expect you to live in this state as a virtuous arrival at something, which is nothing at all.

In real life the story was rejected because it didn’t happen that way, but stories are as plentiful as those who believe them—and grow accordingly to the need that human foibles project into real life what lacks substance by any other view.

If there is any value in the Christ narrative it is this—to temporarily suspend doubt to repose some allegorical meaning or entertain some wishful daydream to escape the doldrums and insecurities of life and death. To demand it’s permanence is to stick humanity right where it is today—stuck in the past arguing a point that gave hope to despair, in which each is a symptom of the other.

Permanently suspending disbelief is impossible, for everyone is already an atheist. Trusting your doubt is as natural as temporarily suspending it to enjoy the show, but it isn’t meant as a permanent state of living—it doesn’t lead anywhere.

Things are not what they seem when you flip ‘em over. Our brains construct reality.

Flip the photo.

Perception or Reality—Which is Better

Does natural selection really favor seeing reality as it is? Fortunately, we don’t have to wave our hands and guess; evolution is a mathematically precise theory. We can use the equations of evolution to check this out. We can have various organisms in artificial worlds compete and see which survive and which thrive, which sensory systems are more fit.

So, in my lab, we have run hundreds of thousands of evolutionary game simulations with lots of different randomly chosen worlds and organisms that compete for resources in those worlds. Some of the organisms see all of the reality, others see just part of the reality, and some see none of the reality, only fitness. Who wins?

Well, I hate to break it to you, but perception of reality goes extinct. In almost every simulation, organisms that see none of reality but are just tuned to fitness drive to extinction all the organisms that perceive reality as it is. So the bottom line is, evolution does not favor veridical, or accurate perceptions. Those perceptions of reality go extinct.

We’re inclined to think that perception is like a window on reality as it is. The theory of evolution is telling us that this is an incorrect interpretation of our perceptions. Instead, reality is more like a 3D desktop that’s designed to hide the complexity of the real world and guide adaptive behavior. Space as you perceive it is your desktop. Physical objects are just the icons in that desktop.

Once we let go of our massively intuitive but massively false assumption about the nature of reality, it opens up new ways to think about life’s greatest mystery. I bet that reality will end up turning out to be more fascinating and unexpected than we’ve ever imagined.

The theory of evolution presents us with the ultimate dare: Dare to recognize that perception is not about seeing truth, it’s about having kids—Cognitive Scientist Donald Hoffman

TED talk HERE

So, do we experience the world as it actually is, or as we need it to be? It seems more and more that life is an illusion. Not of the hocus pocus kind, but as a means of survival —

Physical Reality

What is physical reality and what is it made of? Is it not made of non-physical, theoretical particles? Energy/particles that have yet to be explained? But what exactly is a particle? Nobody knows, and the answer is a charming way of saying so (wink)

Illustration of space becoming form by excitation/vibration

Where is the dividing line between theoretical “particles”, waves, and energy that make up physical reality? What level of magnification is acceptable as reality? What we see as the building blocks of life and matter are unreal, non-existent, indescribable ideas of how non-intelligent space manifests as forms. They are words about ideas about how form expands out of space.

According to quantum field theory, particles are excitations of quantum fields that fill all of space. (1) It’s the standard deep answer of people in the know: A clever way of saying I don’t. Particles are “representations” of “symmetry groups,” Hence, particles are theoretical junctions in an excited or energized field that manifests as form. Now form we can relate to, but it isn’t made of any-thing—It is an illustration of nothing (no-thing).

It is a very grey area between math and mysticism. “In positing the existence of these more fundamental fields, quantum field theory stripped particles of status, characterizing them as mere bits of energy that set fields sloshing. Yet despite the ontological baggage of omnipresent fields, quantum field theory became the lingua franca of particle physics because it allows researchers to calculate with extreme precision what happens when particles (phenomenon) interact—particle interactions being, at base level, the way the world is put together. But keep in mind, the particle isn’t real “stuff” as we perceive “real” to be when it shows up to the five senses as form.

So remember—when you see the word particle, that is just to assist the mental imagery. It’s not an actual thing.

Particles can mostly be described as what they are not. Not this, not that, but by a series of negations we form the gist, grasp the idea, comprehend what the physics is trying to tell us. “Chip away the stone to reveal the image”, but that’s not what it is either.

“The correspondence between elementary particles and representations is so neat that some physicists equate them. Others see this as a conflation. “The representation is not the particle; the representation is a way of describing certain properties of the [imaginary] particle,” said Sheldon Glashow, a Nobel Prize-winning particle theorist and professor emeritus at Harvard University and Boston University. “Let us not confuse the two.”

What Is a Particle? Quanta Magazine

So when we talk about the real world, what exactly does that mean?

Deja-Vu—

Seems like I already posted this, but on examination it was only deja-vu.

What is deja–vu other than confusion between real-time events passing through the memory cue? It can be an interesting head game feeling you’ve been here before when you know you never have, but what if you have?

Is there more to it than that? Some feel this as something experienced in a prior life, or seen in a dream or astral visit. Some recount vivid experiences with uncanny accuracy. The only time we are aware of our brains is when they misfire—everything is normal right up until it’s not, but along with that is a sense that something isn’t quite right.

Deja-vu “is not only a feeling of familiarity, but also the metacognitive recognition that these feelings are misplaced”.—Dr Akira O’Connor. So how do you explain it when someone recounts an experience in detail and verifies it? I’ll explain…

I booked an Air BnB near the coast to attend a wedding. It was old farmhouse built in the 1920’s on still, heavily wooded acreage. As we walked in the door my wife stops abruptly and says “I’ve been here before”.

She made a list of notes about the previous colors on the wall, the old man and woman that lived there, the library upstairs which was moved from another location, how the old man and woman died, and so on. Details about his medical conditions and that they really cared for the place.

We met with the new owners (married male couple) who lived in a newer house a hundred yards behind the same property. She gave him the paper and his jaw hit the floor. He said everything she said was how it was and how it happened. How did she know? What are your experiences with this phenomenon?

Are You You, Or Are You It?

For what it’s worth—the idea that everything and everyone are separate bits and entities is an unscientific, social construct.

Everything you see is seen on the inside of your brain, while at the same time, that brain is on the inside of everything you see. Everyone else is also inside what they are seeing too (insert puddle analogy here) I know this seems rather obvious when you spell it out, so why does one feel we are individual agents of it? Why think of consciousness as an emergent property that arises from the brain—tradition, hypothesis, original sin? Why? Here’s an idea—

“The brain does not create or produce consciousness; rather, it filters it”—Peter Fenwick.

“My brain is only a receiver”—Nikola Tesla

Your brain is primarily a receiver too. Sure it has some memory and some habitual functions to conserve energy, but since birth it has received input—countless lines of opinion, indoctrination, definitions, and visual stimuli form a particular viewpoint and, occasionally can regurgitate a few lines of coherent feedback out of the mix, or pull an idea out of thin air (inspiration). How could an emergent property like a brain, developed by outside stimuli, suddenly become independent of it—unless that’s how you were taught to see it? There is no outside stimuli. You’re going through it and it’s going through you. That’s why your body is covered in little tubes. In and out, that’s what it does.

So you are inside of what you are looking at, and inside your brain we are seeing what we’re inside of. It is not outside you—it is you. The whole universe is you. It is all one thing. It’s all one process.

Our current thinking is a neat trick based mostly on a Hebrew interpretation from an authoritative culture where you are the created subject of a king—independent agents of freewill guilty of original sin, that you and your actions are somehow separate from the environment. This illusion permeates deep in our culture. You are responsible to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling”. You are on your own—but, “Any immutable attribute of oneself, cannot be a sin”. (1)

Maybe your brain being a receiver of consciousness is why it is so difficult to change your personality. It is 3 pounds of fat, receiving impulses and scanning for danger. How do you make it stop is the question? There are ways.

We are apertures of the entire cosmos, independent only as semi-unique physical structures—outposts in a self regulating organism where there is no freewill. Everything is a reaction to the flow of stimuli—even a well thought-out decision. Enjoy the ride!

If You Really Believe

Is belief necessary because the world is not real? Believing-in would not be necessary if it was.

Humanity has taken a necessary component of participating in the illusion and made it a dogma—rewarding the creature with promises for correct belief (there are none) Such belief is even considered more important than correct action.

So, why so much attitude when all beliefs have contradictory behaviors as bed-mates?

If you believe our ontology rests in biological evolution and the right mix of minerals creates intelligence, that natural selection leads to the fittest for survival, how can one simultaneously believe that humans are destructive viruses and the world should be changed—that the world would be a better place if humans never existed? We are simply results in a petri of selfish genes—

You are the result of billions of years of imperfect, immutable, unguided change with the best chance of survival. If you believe this, nothing that has ever happened is in error, so why fight it? Why fight anything? There are no mistakes in nature, yet one thinks he can outsmart his own organism. Thats funny!

If you believe that the universe is a self governing organism, that everything that happens happens to “itself” (god) then you must believe things are exactly as they can be, or should be (or you want it to be) so why the division if all this variety is simply an interesting drama?

If you believe there is a an all-wise, all-knowing creator that is in complete control (even ordains our elected officials since “before the world was”) that he will make you a heaven if you simply believe, why all the gun collecting, racism, and nationalism? Why postulate a god and then immediately make it a meaningless assertion? Is he is really in control? Why do you have no faith in your faith? Why choose to believe something that has no bearing on the outcome of anything?

I could go on, but why the fighting when every religion, philosophy, or science, ultimately shows that there is nothing that can be done that is a mistake, or perfectly natural?

If science really believes natural selection is true, religion is a perfectly natural progression of evolution. Science then would be right about their science but wrong to fight religion. If evolution is true, why fight it?

And finally, why is belief so prevalent around the world? Is it because it isn’t real? There is nothing to hold on to. Is it possible the ground of being is strictly illusory? If not, why the need to believe in everything? Why the world of beliefs if there is such a thing as reality?

Beliefs are so important that they are protected by law—is like protecting a spirit with proper documentation.

The world must be believed to be seen…”Belief makes one fight. Fighting makes one strong—the selfish gene is in control after all”

Who Am I?

While religion has attempted to define that for me and failed, to find yourself isn’t listening to how you have been labeled or perusing through self help books, but looking within and answering the question all by yourself.

The duplicity of humanness is evident even in the structure of everyday language. Who am I? Want to find your real self? Automatically, these imply there is intrinsically more to you (two of you) and that there are many I’s within you, and there is self—The real Self, and finding that one demands you understand that the I you have been trained to be, isn’t the real you, or the entire you at all.

Unconsciously or consciously, we all mostly identify with two selves. The life you live in the matrix, and the real you that tires of wearing the mask. The imperfections you displease in the mirror and the ideal self you, that you can never quite master.

The you that complains about the way the world is but cannot change your own consciousness, habits, or secrets, has no room to judge anyone else who can’t change either, where real change is mostly accomplished by pretending and frequent relapse.

Many of us are quite aware (and tired) of the hard work and imposture of acting out our performative and cultural selves. Humans often seek refuge in nature, in the home, the bedroom, the bathroom; places where the conscious performance of their everyday interaction rituals can be put on hold.

Those that no longer identify as I, are those that have dropped the rigor of charade and discovered self. Ethically, then, it may be important to recognize that for the most part, we are all real impostors—each playing their preferred game; that little niche of life that dispenses the most hormones to their particular personality. The rigorous scholar, the realist, the spiritualist, the concerned politico, the worrier, the philosopher, the court jester, the asshole—each in his own right the perfect display of a self governing organism, when they can get away with it.

If one is to blame all are to blame. Like republicans blaming antifa for leading the White House riot, yet republicans followed them in—when they thought they were republicans…

Your God is not God

A man who believes in God can never find God. If you are open to reality, there can be no belief in reality. If you are open to the unknown, there can be no belief in it. After all, belief is a form of self-protection, and only a petty mind can believe in God.

As long as belief exists, there can never be the unknown; you cannot think about the unknown, thought cannot measure it. The mind is the product of the past, it is the result of yesterday, and can such a mind be open to the unknown? It can only project an image, but that projection is not real; so your god is not God, it is an image of your own making, an image of your own gratification.

There can be reality only when the mind understands the total process of itself and comes to an end. When the mind is completely empty-only then is it capable of receiving the unknown. The mind is not purged until it understands the content of relationship—its relationship with property, with people until it has established the right relationship with everything. Until it understands the whole process of conflict in relationship, the mind cannot be free. Only when the mind is wholly silent, completely inactive, not projecting, when it is not seeking and is utterly still —only then that which is eternal and timeless comes into being— J. Krishnamurti

Now with the word ‘god’ there is nothing to which it refers, so each man creates his own image of that for which there is no reference. The theologian does it in one way, the intellectual in another, and the believer and the non-believer in their own different ways.

Your belief in God will give you the experience of what you call God. You will always experience what you believe and nothing else. And this invalidates your experience. The Christian will see virgins, angels and Christ, [a Heavenly Father] and the Hindu will see similar deities in extravagant plurality. The Muslim, the Buddhist, the Jew and the Communist are the same. Belief conditions its own supposed proof. What is important is not what you believe but only why you believe at all. Why do you believe? And what difference does it make to what actually is whether you believe in one thing or another? J. Krishnamurti

“Belief comes from fear and is the most destructive thing. One must be free of fear and of belief. Belief divides people, makes them hard, makes them hate each other and cultivate war. In a roundabout way, unwillingly, you are admitting that fear begets belief. Freedom from belief is necessary to face the fact of fear. Belief like any other ideal is an escape from “what is”. When there is no fear then the mind is in quite a different dimension. Only then can you ask the question whether there is a God or not. A mind clouded by fear or belief is incapable of any kind of understanding, any realization of what truth is. Such a mind lives in illusion and can obviously not come upon that which is Supreme. The Supreme has nothing to do with your or anybody else’s belief, opinion or conclusion”.

Hope is evidence of despair. Faith is evidence you’ve accepted that. Through this system of belief the trap is sprung and servitude to dogmas will forever divide us through that belief—any belief will do.

Forgiveness and Freewill

Forgiveness is the misguided premise that people have the capacity to make individual, independent choices. Evolution is on auto-pilot. If there were such thing as isolated agency (beyond the organizational will of the field of all existence) the result would be unmanageable, runaway chaos.

Therefore there’s nothing and no-one to blame or forgive. This is the whole of the self-regulating cosmic organism—itself doing it to itself.
Be a little patient out there and flow with it. You are not in control of anything.

The art of forgiveness is a form of self love and self interest. Letting go of the past relieves the anxiety and imagination that the past is driving the present. Such clinging is the root of anxiety. One can stop at any time, but this is what makes the game interesting.

Off to work this morning.

What To Do…About Everything—

Did you exchange, a walk-on part in the war, for a lead role in a cage? —Roger Waters

I figure if all goes well, I have about 35-40 years left as a human being. How do I want to spend it? How do you want to spend it? Anxious for the morrow? Is it productive or even enjoyable to involve oneself in compounding the mess by constantly trying to fix it?

The things that we object about our situation is precisely what we are doing to overcome it. Do you see that? Can you see that?

“It is perfectly obvious that the whole world is going to hell. The only possible chance that it might not is that we do not attempt to prevent it from doing so”—Robert Oppenheimer

While atheism is one step closer to peace, abandoning all sides of all dogmas makes it perfectly clear that beliefs are the cancers that grow more beliefs, to which very little of humanity has any immunity at all.

Be a much better road without the fence

Freewill vs Stimuli

Are we making our own choices or just reactions to stimuli?

Imagine a moment you are a lonely nerve ending. All of the sudden something rubs against you—“are you there?” “Yes, I am here”. But it takes another to stimulate relational awareness. Without other there would be no way of identifying self existence. It is said by some that god (or the universe) would not know it is god because there is nothing outside of itself to bring it to awareness of itself.

On the other hand, identifying self by other is also as ambiguous an introspection, because what others think of you rarely adds up to what you think of you. All of us are simply reflections of our external world.

So what is the difference between commenting, hitting the like button, or just moving on? Do you have to agree to appreciate another point of view? I was accused at watchtower of trolling christian blogs. I responded that I only read two, usually hit the like button to appreciate their efforts, yet only comment occasionally if stimulated to do so. But for some the reward is bloviating what stimulation they incurred previously. That is trolling, fanaticism—a self aggrandized irritation.

You may comment or not, but that choice has already been made by the years of stimuli, or not. There may-be freewill, but it was captured in a bottle long ago the moment humans learned the art of civilization.

Endings That Don’t Mean Anything

After a serious consideration of so many points of view, atheism stands closely to buddhism, hinduism, and the tao, that there are no gods or God as a deity. There simply is—a complex interdependent organism we call universe—that of which, we are all pieces.

There is no god as defined by religions today, for the term god, how used as a deity is silly, really. There is only one thing and it’s an event. A big one—call it whatever you want, but abrahamic religions are at odds with common sense, reason, enlightenment, awakening, etc. And what is and what isn’t. It’s an impossible religion, stripping its members of the tools required for its objectives. Guilt is now institutionalized as a virtue. The hypnotic state is lord and waking up is forbidden. If there is god, there is nothing that is not it.

All I know is there are no things, no people, no objects. A noun is simply a figure of speech. A person is defined much more by what they do than what they are, but in fact its one thing. A thing is a unit of thought expressed in language to describe form. That same form that appears to be so tangible has little or no traditional matter as a concept, but energy. But that too, is one thing.

For purpose of description and understanding we must break the world down into some sort of units, but there is no matter, only shapes. Body and “spirit” are outdated terms. It’s all one thing.

One quite often hears people say “all things consist of matter”, but what is that? They are the specific patterns of manifested energy. Matter as such is an abstraction. Looking for a uniform matter as the principle of everything is like wanting to not eat cherries but fruit in general. But fruit is also an abstraction. Matter cannot be contrasted to separate things as something immutable to something mutable. Matter in general cannot be seen, touched or tasted. It isn’t tiny little granular building blocks of nature. What people see, touch or taste are only certain forms, registered in the neurons by language. Matter is not something that exists side by side with other things, inside them or at their basis. All existing formations are the same matter in its various properties and relations. Matter vs spirit are outdated terms. Its all one event where we calculate regularities and write them into generalities.

These forms of energy that appear so tangible by our senses (made from levels of the same energy) yet things are not what they seem. The christian ego is a fraudulent misrepresentation of reality. You are not a visitor here on probation, but you are here because you are it. You are the big bang still banging, way out on the edge of a continuous happening.

Nothing is in charge. Your freewill is a reaction to stimuli. Your choices are presented to you by dominant personalities that interpret—that the Rorschach Blot of a universe can only be their way.

So, what does it all mean? It doesn’t mean anything at all. But it’s a hell of a vacation from the voids that bookend a function of an interesting process. It’s amazing.

Randomly interesting pantry

Thoughts on Thinking

“Why is this so hard to understand? Our perceptions are flawed, don’t impress that upon reality. Sheesh!”—Steve Ruiz

The illusion is simply that reality is not what it seems to be at first glance—even after inspection. That same flawed perception leads us to believe we can correct it by saying the world is divisible into feet and inches, seconds and degrees—dividing things by regular measurement and the dividing power of thought—The same nature of thought that implies we don’t understand, but somehow can trust the measuring devices we’ve thought up—while every thing requires continued re-examination after interfering by looking—weird

Think is a unit of thought, the same way an inch is a measurement of accepted distance, or a clock can track intervals. We categorize things into boxes so we can manage “the think” about them, pretending then that the world is a collection of bits and catagories, yet is as connected and inter-related as much as a human body. Every single bit is as unexplainable as any other—and to explain one fully we must explain everything fully.

Every perception is real (normal) from a particular point of view, though some truth is a little nastier at heart than others. Imagine how distasteful the world would really be, if believers still knew with a surety that the gospel of saving souls from hell should know no limits to persuasion.

For giggles we have to ask—if reality is so illusory (not what it appears to be) how could humans evolve with our perceptive reality apart from “real” reality? If our perceptions of reality are flawed, how could natural selection point evolution the way things seem to be, versus the true nature of nature? How could brains evolve to a non natural interpretation of things? It’s almost like it is some type of game…

What is Allowed as Evidence?

“I take it for granted that empirical data, which is the data of normal sensory observation and experience, should inform our best guess at what reality is like. But are there any other sources of data that must be taken into account?”—Phillip Goff

“Nothing is more evident than the existence of one’s feelings and experiences”. If a supposedly complete theory of reality can account for all of the data of observation and experiment, but cannot account for the reality of consciousness, it can be falsified.

In the law of non-contradiction (LNC), it states that there aren’t, and cannot be any contradictory states of affairs. This law is known with a kind of certainty, similar to that with which I know my own feelings exist. One can perhaps debate whether our knowledge of LNC is more or less certain than our knowledge of the reality of consciousness, but it is clear that both are known with much greater justification than anything known on the basis of the senses—Phillip Goff

So if feelings and experiences are real and empirical evidence is real, how can a lack of empirical evidence for those feelings be dismissed by science? Or, is it consciousness that’s not real, but an illusion? Logic tells us one, or the other, is not real if they appear in a contradictory state—but both seem to exist. Which is it? Maybe it’s matter (the seemingly obvious) that is not the underlying reality of the universe…

Complete Paper HERE

Metaphysics—a division of philosophy that is concerned with the fundamental nature of reality and being

Panpsychism—a theory that all nature is psychical or has a psychic aspect and that every physical happening participates in the mental

The Element of Illusion

First let me preface, I am an atheist. There are arguments for “something else”, but I don’t know what that means. I am not protective of my atheism (finding what people call god would be a prize winning effort) but I do struggle with the term and how it’s been defined beyond the reach of understanding.

Life itself is some type of illusion (deceived by our own relativity?) What you see on the surface seems so real and tangible (mass) yet is hardly anything tangible at all but energy (what is that?) and According to Einstein, energy and mass are equivalent (that’s the message of E=mc2) But our interpretation of how solid an object is purely relative. How would we know any different than what we are relative to our surroundings (insert puddle analogy) It seems so “there”, but is only a form of energy, which we know little about.

In physics, the kinetic energy (KE) of an object is the energy that it possesses due to its motion. KE= 1/2 mv2. In emergency medicine, we alway want to know how fast the car was going, etc, so the severity of injury and patterns can be predicted. Stopping that motion releases a lot of joules, and how quickly it stops is the difference between life and death.

Earth is energy in form, hurling through orbit at 66,000 mph and spinning—and the energies accumulated to reach that speed it still possesses.

Ideas on the other hand, have no energy. Life has evolved into the lazy mans game, gaining 90% of our knowledge by opinions and papers, instead of experience. There is little horse-sense applied to solving problems, but persuasion turned to belief rules the culture. While utility inspired the idea, now the idea has a life of its own. Man, now disconnected from his environment lives in a life of barriers—and through opinion develops ideas on how to master that environment.

Since the idea has no mass, the end of arguing over beliefs would drown without a whimper—no explosions or mass casualties. It would be like cancelling church during a pandemic. Would anybody have even noticed if it weren’t for a few showmen insistent on keeping there ideas alive for cash flow?

Anyway, Christian influence has the world at odds—because of belief (everyone is compelled to take sides) The appeal to faith also uses no energy, but is the path of least resistance where belief now trumps utility—now the way of the world. The nature that evolved the man no longer exists. There were more sustainable philosophies, but it appears to be too late for that. We are now in the puddle of belief, and for most of the world it’s a perfect fit.

Spirit or Matter

Why does examining the physical world still explain nothing about what it is? What is the most likely reason we haven’t identified one single solitary fact of what matter actually consists? Maybe it isn’t “real”? The simplest answer is usually the correct answer? Or Occam may say—”entities should not be multiplied needlessly” But physics is at a loss, as examining the atom we find 99.99999% empty space—We are empty space.

The physical world is the most elusive, evasive topic of all topics, yet at first glance it seems so obvious (here I am) But you can’t identify what stuff is, any more than you can find anything actually existing anywhere at all. You cannot put your finger on it, nor determine the basic physical makeup—of anything, simultaneously fulfilling all the requirements of spirit. Neither science nor religion has any idea what the hell is going on (forget resurrection of matterless matter for the moment)

Matter is all at once here, there, and nowhere. While it’s properties can be manipulated slightly for our imagined benefit, as far as being the real stuff we have hoped to identify as the physical reality, is likened most easily to an image at the end a projector—though you might just as easily identify the physical properties of an image on a movie screen—where there would be nothing seen at all without the background.

The farther we peek into the physical world the less is discovered—there is nothing there. It is empty shells everywhere we look, and the most obvious yet unsettling reality stares us in the face—there is nothing physical to discover. Is life and the physical world (as we assume) merely concentrated patterns of energy—like a dust devil in passing wind, we see its stationary effects but the wind keeps blowing? Whirlpools along a passing stream? Cyclones of organized chaos? Or is matter any more than a concentration of spirit, for lack of a better term? It, the obvious answer is, essentially energy forming a pattern. The other “one thing” we harness but do not understand in the slightest—electricity.

What should be the most obvious and easy to identify—the physical world, turns out to be the most elusive of all examination. We aren’t really even here in the sense of reality we have imagined. And imagine is what we do best, and will continue to do—our existence depends on it. Whatever the case, life is simply amazing to be a part of. It’s amazing!

What it’s Like to Die

Our flight finally neared the runway as 80 mph side-winds battered the plane. Just before decent, the drink cart came off the floor and nearly hit the ceiling. Suddenly the wings break upward, blocking my view of the horizon, then quickly downward to view the ocean. The plane was nervously quiet on the inside as it was battered outside—a white knuckle approach to San Francisco; landing speed 158 MPH.

Some I could see praying, silently mouthing, whispering to their god—certain some deals were being made that day. I was sitting window seat over the left wing as we lowered within crashing range, watching the wing flexing up and down just missing the runway. Suddenly in a flash I pictured the plane cartwheeling down the runway in a fiery crash, but at that moment the pilot performed his magic and touched the plane down like a foot stomp.

Sighs of relief exhaled from front to back, then a post adrenal crash into applause and chatter—and in an instant we all realize we made it—Alive! Now back to business and the boredom as usual…

Is this how we feel when we die, returning to the mundane existence of eternal life? What a rush it must be to break back through to the other side. For at that moment the game would get us every time.

We know what it’s like to die—the same as it is to survive. All the anxieties of not knowing released in an instant. Yet here, we shackle ourselves to another day, living to escape death—while in our normal existence we would line up for the chance to risk it.

Just a flash of time outside our normal state of being—is life

All The World is a Stage.

We can imagine everything but truth, for the truth is too obvious to be it, and too simple to accept. With the curtain drawn we have now built a story to validate humanity as something less spectacular than the sum of its parts—which is ridiculous considering.

Occasionally one gets a peek behind the curtain. When that takes place a couple of things can happen if you are not prepared—they may walk off the set, self destruct, or go off the chain. This is why no master will ever teach you without a discipline to go along with it.

Another thing that often happens is a rise of self importance; I am god—The Jehovah Effect© I and the father are one—now you must listen to what I say and do what I tell you to do. What I know is the way, the truth, and you have to go through me (to get back to where you have no choice but to be) History is scattered with these types. Jesus at least spoke in parables to not give away the game. It is essential to the longevity of it all, that mankind doesn’t cut the act short by knowing the secret while we’re here—that there is no secret. This is the usefulness of religion—never answering the question, and unable to—constantly searching beyond the simplicity of it all.

Part of the problem is Christianity’s beginnings, where Christ sought out his disciples. Disciples who were not seeking enlightenment nor prepared for the experience (jesus couldn’t wait to share his newfound knowledge) They never did understand him while he was alive, then took it upon themselves to be zealots when he was dead. If you want to wake up then do so, find it, see it, but be prepared; all there is left to do from then on is watch and smile at the game.

Knowledge is simply the absence of delusion—The you who is not the one you see in the mirror, but the you that defines who you really are beyond that (personality, consciousness) is not the ego you’ve been told. Perceiving the essence of yourself in our natural existence is similar to scale of a fish achieving awareness of itself, that could never comprehend the head of the fish—so it is with the universe. We are merely a function, the eyes and ears and perceptions, a nerve ending on the whole living organism.

Our nature, whether here or there has not changed but the slightest. We seek to be entertained, to be engaged in emotions, to laugh, to cry, to feel fear or to feel exhilarated by the fantasy. To seek out endless ways to relieve the boredom and stay busy even after an idle day or two.

We are merely participants in a play, breaking away from the doldrums of everyday immortality to see the show (or be in the show) while others act out the mystery and sometimes misery for a role in the drama. Either way, life here means nothing but a respite from the mundane existence of infinite living. Simply not knowing the outcome is the most masterful, simple game in the universe. And like a fish jumping out of the water, for a moment, getting a brilliant glimpse backstage that there is no more to life than the existence we are living.

Monotheism is especially proud of its level of tail-chasing distractions—a necessary player to reduce enlightenment and retain players in the game.

The Newness Wains—Defending the Faith

Happy with the surge of new found faith? Give it time. This is just the beginning…

Being carefully guided in belief, we learn what “we believe”, but the group effect has some curious side effects. In order to bend your bullets around corners it takes some clever self-interplay as well, guiding your mind carefully into a non-functioning model of thought conviction with no substance—peace through stagnation and empty promises.

The comfort zone of nonproductive faith includes:

• More Handwaving than you anticipated
• Answers without substance become natural
• Built-in redundancy
• Out-thinking your opponent without thinking of your opponent
• Increased desire for sin
• Misplaced gratitude

God is good. Sure, he steadies the hands of the surgeon, but did you know, before surgeons are qualified to operate, they must meet a set of challenging education requirements? These generally include four years of undergraduate study, four years of medical school leading to a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree, and three to eight years of surgical residency at a hospital.

Not to mention having the guts to do the dirty work—digging around in cadavers and engaging in mastery of human anatomy and physiology.

Don’t thank god, thank those who are willing to explore (in any field) People are pretty awesome and there’s no shame in accepting that. If we are going to make it on this rock, we could certainly use some help. But, you may have to set beliefs on the back-burner and engage as passionately in a skill as you do in mere belief. That same belief that has made a lot of claims, yet here we are, having gone nowhere for 2000 years and already hoping and praying it ends? That is the history of faith. Every generation thinks this is it! It isn’t even close.

I believe in the potential of humanity, but first we must discard the biggest problem that holds us in first gear.

The padlocks on this paper show how some things are just way too important to some people—beliefs are no different. There is a better way.

HG Wells—

Indeed Christianity passes. Passes—it has gone! It has littered the beaches of life with churches, cathedrals, shrines and crucifixes, prejudices and intolerances, like the sea urchin and starfish and empty shells and lumps of stinging jelly upon the sands here after a tide. A tidal wave out of Egypt. And it has left a multitude of little wriggling theologians and confessors and apologists hopping and burrowing in the warm nutritious sand. But in the hearts of living men, what remains of it now? Doubtful scraps of Arianism. Phrases. Sentiments. Habit

So we see HG Wells, ably predicting many future events, also ably observing the condition of Religianity™️ There are no more replacement parts. Time for a new model—

The Transmission of Faith—Now What?

Imagine a moment I’m projecting my consciousness on you—there, that was easy.

That is the beauty of religious belief. It takes no effort nor academic discipline, but is lauded as type of high achievement. Belief was never intended as an end-point, but a proving ground, a temporary waypoint to truth. We test our theories and improve them, retest and share them, accept criticism and hone our hypothesis into a working physical model that creates actual things—results.

Resting on belief we find there is nothing to do, no equations to solve, no advances in the general knowledge of humanity, so we take to the road and teach the technique on others—and believe harder, like concentrating on it could bend a spoon. Dreamy philosophies of heaven and celebrated archaic battles in hairsplitting, immoral grandeur.

It is not natural to believe in god. How many have found god having never been persuaded, presented, or indoctrinated by another mere mortal? The true wonder of nature hits us the first time our toes touch the grass as a child. It’s real and you know it! That wonderful mystery spawns curiosities and appreciation all on its own. Through beliefs we quickly quell the desire for discovery, resting on our smug fat butts with a specially tailored shortcut to never knowing anything—Faith

Like a kid that found his dads hatchet, what are we to do with all this free time? What else is there to do but injure yourself and everything around you? And thinking about thinking about belief. Whoa! That’s deep!

There are no Spiritual Realms

As we discover deeper and deeper into the quantum field, our understanding expands and we gradually grasp the nature of nature and its building properties.

Is the electricity that powers your toaster “metaphysical”? We have harnessed its potential and understand how to manipulate its properties, but really don’t know much about what it actually is. Is the free movement of these electrons that constitutes an electric current supernatural? Of course not. Is the electric currents that flow through the universe, that are perceived more intently by some than others, a supernatural phenomenon? Certainly not. We can read many of these impulses and feelings in the EEG.

The only spiritual realms or “non physical” worlds are just not discovered and quantified yet. We are still a superstitious lot, but when we master these principles—not by viewing them with our eyes but by manipulating them with our genius, we will see the universe is all a matter of matter. Understanding sometimes takes time—I’ll wait.

How to know there is no God

“Just out of curiosity do you believe there is no God?” Lander

That is not a valid question. Unbelief is not a belief. Your statement is a misnomer. The evidence that has been attributed for god have other valid explanations (including forgery) In fact, most of what was once attributed to the gods are now fields of study these days. I’m not so gullible to assume these last few pieces to the puzzle won’t be explained in the near future. I’ll wait so I don’t have to backtrack to keep finding cracks to shoehorn in an underwhelming, divisive belief into pseudo-reality.

Out of curiosity, do you believe there are no other explanations for unreliable human perceptions? There are dozens of one cares to look.

THIS 4 minute bird video will brighten your day!

Contradiction—Enduring Faith

In a nutshell, the less you believe in Christianity, the more likely you are able to understand it. The ability to handwave and justify contradictions is erased by unbelief. That is a big plus towards a firmer reality. We’re not talking one or two contradictions, but a massive patchwork—it’s thematic

In pharmacology there are statistically not eight prescription medicines you can take without drug interaction—basically at that point, taking medication to treat side effects of medication.

Christianity’s circuitous contradictions are so frequent, they now use contradictions to explain the contradictions.

Only through unbelief can we see that this is the great mystery of the kingdom—how does he get us to do that?

This is exactly what happens when you concoct a story without thinking it through. It may sound convincing at first, but as we peel back the layers they have to add another. Today we have no other institution on earth so grand where built-in redundancy is another million volumes of contradictory explanations—per year!

Diabla cooling off after a long run up the mountain.

An Enemy to God—The Natural Man

Being judged and sentenced by believers of god for a passive decision—a process of random inputs, neurons, billions of synapses interacting, perceptions weighed, likes and dislikes and cultural influence considered, simply for not believing a story—merely thoughts.

After having to process this information against my own choice, the ticket has popped out unbelief. What can I do to change that? What should be done to appease the masses…conform to become a natural man—gullible, trusting, yielding, herd instinctive, and fearful since birth? The desire to belong clouds judgement while the powerfully placed men of words and their yes-men apply pressure to consider the supernatural—by coercion.

A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised—1 Corinthians 2:14-15

Au contraire! A neat trick of religion and the biblicants is defining terms to suit their purpose. The natural man is actually the believing man as evidenced in the obvious. Everyone wants a belief. Since birth we are lied to, fearized, pressured, goaded—and though living in a society of liars we believe nearly everything that we are persuaded to believe. That, is the natural man. Either the believer is the enemy of god as the Bible says, or the Bible has decriminalized our natural tendencies and labeled the unnatural, independent-minded as the enemy. I am not the natural man. Having eyes that have opened through a struggle of librarial pursuit and observation, followed by the unpleasant task of unbelief, integrity will not undo this fact.

The strongest faith can’t protect us once we know the truth. Protection comes through conformity and abandoning honest virtue—integrity comes at a price. We now sit on the fringes of society writing anonymous blogs. Natural man? I’ll leave that to the churches where it’s modern version originated.

Scientific Points for Religion—The Switch

One of the interesting developments of religion is the attachment to scientific theory and advancement to suit their purposes. Evolution being the largest swing in recent memory, but also shoehorning bits and bobs of the Big Bang—calling out “god did it” and the insistence there had to be a first-cause to set it all in motion. It didn’t, and most likely there never was nothing.

Simple reason can point that out better than a god, and if anyone can display the ultimate in proving a negative—prove there was ever nothing… we obviously have these materials in front of us—more than you could ever say about a god. There’s no magicians trick here. The universe is a brute fact. Myth, however, is the true basis of religion, now making scientific claims using secular reasoning.

Even if per chance the world is a 3D simulation, there also then has to be a supreme all righteous omnipotent god at the helm, right? Pure bias is religion staking claims on what they had denied forever. When the curtain is pulled back we would most likely see a fossilized crazy scientist dead in his chair after working himself to the bone trying to fix his experiment that got away. Whatever discoveries man seems to find, religion has god in all his power drip-feeding advances to share his love.

The idea that a god has to be supremely infallible of perfect righteousness is a pipe dream of runaway human imagination. And imagine, is what we do quite well. Simply reading the scriptures shows us through unbelief—their construct of god is a prick—unless you imagine otherwise.

Which brings us to consensus. How many religious points do the atheist agree? None. How many points of science do the religious adopt hijack? Nearly all of them. Its not that hard when you have an actual model that produces results. Creationism Origins is the last puzzle to solve. What then will the believers do with their god? Another claim as part of the masters plan?

-7° with a High of 13° Fahrenheit—Snowing

If this world per chance is a simulation, today would be a good day to pull the plug. Which got me thinking (of course) about what would happen if we pulled the plug on religion.

Air traffic controllers go through an extensive, escalating simulation for several weeks before taking over their assigned airspace, but what happens to the simulator, after hours of stressful (that part is real) training is unplugged and the lights turned off?—Nothing

Enter Religión—

Disconnecting from religion (another simulation without substance) seems at first would be a catastrophe, is in actuality extremely empowering and calming. “The moment I realized there was no god, I looked back down at the house and realized I’ve got this—I always had” I’ve been on my own my entire life. Wow! The stress I felt by religion was also real. Contemplating a life of no gods was a brief moment of unwarranted worry. Moving from simulation to the control tower is an easy transition.

It reminds me of when President Obama signed the marriage equality bill. No lightning, no thunder, nobody struck dead, just a thunderous applause stifling the fear of the religious right. And what has happened since? No second coming, no global upheaval, nothing but positives.

What happens after the lines are erased and religion folds? Nothing…Nothing but personal responsibility and liberty of mind to chart your own course within the framework of civil law. We’ve got this. We always have. It’s about people proudly helping people, giving and taking credit where it is due—to us!

What I Believe—

I believe that mere belief without evidence has been unjustly elevated to the gold-standard of ones knowledge and character.

I see intense belief in anything is a seedbed of tribalism—

That belief undermines real academics and embraces mediocrity.

I know when belief is required to be part of group, the group will betray you over unbelief.

I’ve observed and experienced the key to understanding the mysteries™️ is unbelief.

I understand the universe is a diverse array of energies and dimensions where some people are attuned more so than others to it.

I believe the foibles of human neurology, perception, and bias need to be understood at a grade school level to promote tolerance of difference and friendship—all of us!

I notice that religious beliefs need to be protected by law because they cannot stand on their own merits.

I observe herd instinct, peer pressure, indoctrination, and impatience supplants reason.

I believe the ability to hand-wave contradiction and fallacy hardwires neurons through repetition and submission. The problem is now in the physiology.

I believe faith should never be the end-goal of intellectual achievement.

I found that submitting your will to belief in god/allah, or any other godform disempowers the best part of human nature, delays intellectual advancement and personal achievement.

I would wager belief should never be intended as a solution and should be the least respected of all professions.

I believe that mans impatience has allowed him to be conned by men of self importance. Now the prisoners drive the ship.

I think that humanity is much older than we realize, that man has appeared on the scene several times in multiple generations of geologic time—things are much stranger in the past than we realize. We are much more capable than we realize too.

I believe that any belief should be able to provide some empirical data, and transition from belief to pure knowledge in a reasonable amount of time.

I’ve observed that big box religion and one-size-fits-all dogmas are inadequate to provide the needs of nearly 8billion differing physiologies—evidenced by each member choosing for himself the parts of morality and teaching (s)he already knows.

I believe people’s beliefs are merely hunches, feelings, intuitions—guesses, if you will, they’ll divide their families and friends over. I also believe that is immoral.

I believe coffee was the second greatest product of plant evolution.

Crossing the Line

Escaping religion required me to cross over into the neighbors pasture. At night and under the cover of darkness, spreading open the barbed wire meant to protect me, I would venture into his fields. I later learned the fence was there to keep me in, not the other way around. I can distinctly remember the change, that feeling of uneasiness venturing into forbidden paths—but nothing is the way I was warned.

Exploring Washington’s train tunnels is fascinating. Three long tunnels connect the east to the west, shortening track and steep climbs by hours, opening up into a new climates and breathtaking views.

One such tunnel under Snoqualmie Pass has been decommissioned and is now a hiking trail (although most people just drive over it unaware it exists) that in 2.3 miles connects the east and west.

Built in 1910, straight as a string, you can see a pinhole of light at the other end. It’s about a 45 minute walk, and the view at the end is incredible. The men that dug this and built this railroad performed an astonishing feat for the time.

Enter religion—

Religion has an uncanny way of digging itself in—there is no light at the end of the tunnel. The line is not straight and has wandered “to and fro, from the north and even to the east” to seek the answers of life’s questions…and nothing. When does the spectacular view emerge as you break out into the light? No one can say—just keep digging. All the while, no unfinished project boondoggle is too long for religion. Never a breakthrough in a never ending struggle for relevance. Faith is the ultimate play on the human psyche.

And into the dark

Born Again—Again

Faith and belief as a temporary, trial-state to work towards a fact may be a useful tool in the short term. But as a endgame achievement…not so fast.

Trying the words of faith are essential to proving all things, as taught in the Bible, but who actually does that? Atheists? And how much time should you allow for such proofs? 80 years? 1000? Will you pray with me to know if there is a god? Will you pray with me to see there isn’t?

Mormon missionaries ask you to pray to believe “if these things are not true according to the desires of your heart”. How does that work inciting a negative counter to ones desire to believe?

Psychology of praying for what you want to believe is a well known phenomenon in the mathematics of mindfulness. Odds are in your favor that sometimes you’ll get what you ask for—even if you mumble some crap under your breath. Especially if you pray like everything depends on god, then work like everything depends on you. What essentially prayer comes down to is arrogance. Is god willing to override physics in your special case, often to the detriment of another individual—like commanding tornadoes in the name of Jesus, into another neighborhood, or denying someone a dignified and speedy death to suit your own insecurities?

When you realize there is no god and no prayer is answered, there is no loneliness or despair that settles in. To the contrary. You’ve been doing this on your own your entire life anyway—with a little help from people. The self empowerment of this reality is astonishing clarity. The key to understanding the mysteries is unbelief.

Conversion—Submitting yourself to belief in what you can’t prove or know in hope of reward or answers, effectively separating your rational mind for fantasy. Relying on someone else to give your life meaning.

Deconversion—The aha moment followed by the haha moment. You already held the answers you sought. There is no mystery.

Happy New Year everybody. We won’t get fooled again.

View From a Horse—

Sometimes you miss the best scenery watchin’ where you’re going—Frank

Riding a horse on the trail is near like bein’ a truck driver on the road—a bird’s eye view down into places most folks think ought to be private. I told LT this piece when I dropped by his place—I think he actually peed himself. I won’t do that again. Bein’ careful who you talk to is important, and he may just remind me about this the rest of my life—plus everyone else. He knows how I was raised in the strict confines of religion—and so do I—most of the time.

I’ve hiked nearly the entire Pacific Crest Trail within the Washington border and a thousand other miles between, and never saw what I’ve seen riding half that time on a horse. Walkin’ you spend a lot of time checkin’ the trail and watchin’ your footing to keep you upright—like one time I was on an eight day backpack from Darrington to Stevens Pass. I’d been into it about sixty miles or so when I stepped off the edge and rolled down about fifty feet. I crawled out of it ok, but one second of distraction at the wrong time can be a catastrophe in the back county. Riding a horse alleviates a lot of that—it also makes me about nine feet tall which allows me to see, and seein’ too much in the pejorative sense can make you go blind, according to my mother.

A lifetime of parental warnings does not necessarily protect you from anything, sometimes goin’ blind can be a real eye opener—Frank

My first time seein’ nature happenin’ in the human sense was from the trail, and it looked like more of a scuffle than I had imagined it would. A hiker would’ve never seen it bein’ too short, and that particular part of the trail was a little bit technical, so watchin’ your footing was important—I caught a glimpse of a red blanket down my the stream, so I backed up my horse just a touch to see what was going on, peering over the brush I aimed to solve this curious eye catching red amidst the greenery. Nature was taking its’ course in the wild—two buck naked souls in a passionate tussle. I sat back in my saddle for a spell and watched. I decided I’d better move along…but then I watched some more. I thought for a minute there something was wrong ’cause she was hittin’ him on the back and makin’ a lot of painful noise, but after they were done doin’ what they were doin’ she gave him a big hug.

It wasn’t at all what I expected, but I did find myself pressing my toes hard into the stirrups. Maybe I was gettin’ my footing there a little bit too. The year before I was in Jamaica and we went to a nude beach—optional, but the only people that had no clothes on were the ones that should’ve. This wasn’t like that at all. I thought about it quite a bit over the next few days, then I thought about it again…and then some more—hell I was seventeen, what was I supposed to do?

Some people aren’t so subtle or sneaky about their nudity. I was headed down to Deroux from Gallagher Head Lake and there was a female hiker coming alone up the trail—topless. She stepped up on the high side to let me pass, said hello, and I said hello back—but what I was thinkin’ was a whole lot different. Keepin’ eye contact is not as easy as they say it is, and back to nature was takin’ on a whole new view for my wanderin’ ways—and eyes.

Changing your thinkin’ is hard…especially when you don’t want to—Frank

I reminded myself of Saint Augustines prayer when he was a young man. “Lead us not into temptation Lord, give me chastity,” he prayed, “but not yet”. I did a lot of thinkin’—and even more thinkin’ after this happened.

Bein’ on my way to base camp one day I came up to Lake Ann and stumbled into another situation once again, but things aren’t always the way I’d been raised. I was heading up from Van Epps, and from that direction the lake is just appears in front of you with no warning—a bit of a nice surprise. Coming in from the top you get a bird’s eye view and you can see what’s ahead of you, but not this way.

It doesn’t matter where you are, only the direction your headed—Frank

I wasn’t payin’ close attention and rode right up to the lake to see two guys standing there on the boulder naked, holding hands looking at the water. They heard me, and when they saw me they just looked over their shoulders and said hello, then the taller one jumped down and walked over to me to ask a couple questions. We talked a little about the area, then I let them know that the ridge on the trail to the west had the best view of Mount Rainier anywhere—it’s amazingly close as the crow flies, and breathtaking to see, to say the least. My household growing up was a modest bunch, so after contact of this nature I had some thinking to do, and somehow nudity didn’t equal shame anymore. When I told the story to LT he said I looked like I’d seen a ghost. And that ain’ all I’d seen, that’s for sure, but un-seein’ is a whole other story. That makes two things I know.

If you look around and cut through all the deception, things are rarely what you’ve been told—Frank

I guess if you spend enough time anywhere you’ll find oddities and different ways of life. Funny it was the open wilderness where I slowly started to see life from another point of view, although a bit of it was a little too “up close” at the time.

Things aren’t always what they seem, even after they seem like it—Frank

Core Shamanism—A World-Wide Coincidence?

Micheal Harner, who recently passed away, was an anthropologist who studied shamanistic similarities around the world. The foundation for shamanistic studies houses the largest data base preserving the practice.

Shamanism can be seen as a fundamentally spiritual approach to real-life problem solving informed by an animistic philosophy that is practiced by individuals for the benefit of their group. These individuals systematically utilize a technique or combination of techniques to alter consciousness in such a way that they reliably access nonordinary reality.

“Core shamanism emphasizes the shamanic journey, an excursion into nonordinary reality by an individual or group of individuals facilitated by monotonous drumming. The excursion is purely a consciousness experience. The destination(s) of the journey is/are the conventional Lower, Middle, and Upper Worlds. Individuals are taught to journey in a weekend workshop, focused on methodology. Each participant has as a goal in initial journeys the meeting of at least one of their own existing power animals and spirit teachers. These become the indispensable resources of each person for further shamanic work. Participants are taught that shamanism is designed for healing, both of self and others“(1)

Prior to colonialism regular people had access to the spirit realms and these things were forcefully done away with, while the church took control over spirituality—Now you had to go through them, while they swept under the rug ancient practices that gave people personal connections, personal ability to provide for their own spiritual needs, it was viewed as heretical or witchery, outdated or “uncivilized”, but the fact is that there were core shamanistic practices around the world, all different walks of life shared in the same common rituals to seek out higher levels of spiritual connection beyond our ordinary reality.

A common thread—They knew something, (and the church continued to keep their own mystics), while abolishing it wherever they could outside the church walls. Common people didn’t lose their ability to connect with god, but it was taken from them and replaced with a forgery that only provides hope without substance. The churches will never replace what man could originally do for himself, but that won’t keep the church from claiming authority for these things, while all along it was done at a higher level and with regularity (at will) by maintaining certain practices that are largely missing from the modern world.
It is evidenced by Christianity today, each believer going their own way but knows not where to turn, picking and choosing and searching, but failing. The power has always been within you to chart your own spiritual journey, but the churches have destroyed the tools to do so, yet each has gone their own way is evidence christianity has failed the people at a global level.

The Horns of Moses

Imagine yourself gathered around the water cooler after Sunday school class where for several hundred years we would debate and conjecture about Moses and his horns. How long were they? Why would god go such a thing? What color might they have been? Were they transmitters to god? Thanks to Jerome, a heralded father and translator of scripture into the Latin Vulgate bible which was the template to translate the Bible into dozens of other languages, said Moses had horns. This is good evidence to have someone check your work. But Christian will believe anything if it’s in the Bible. That is obvious. But, while they continued to learn about the horns of Moses, no one seemed to mind they may very well be debating about another fictitious character altogether, which is par for the course. If the Bible commenter said Moses was a charcuterie, instead of character, a simple typo would have Moses working in a meat store, and they would believe it for centuries. It’s inherent.

Unicorns, Noah and the ark, creation story and the 6000 year old earth, all unfortunately didn’t exist , except in a time where few could read, and even fewer had even a slight opportunity to question. “All along the mistranslation of the verb karan by Jerome had tragic consequences. For centuries, millions of people around the world have wrongly believed that Moses – and in some cases, all Jews – have horns on their head”.

Even the great Michelangelo was fooled by this, as well as multiple popes, leaders of countries, and other artists depicting the Moses charcuterie with horns. I can however, imagine how this contributed to his temporal lobes…If any of it were true at all. I wonder what else is in the Bible that is purely false?

I stumbled across a fairly new blog from Neil. He provides some very nice, concise context to the contradiction of Christian faith and I think it’s worth a look.

Don’t Blame God For Christian Atrocities

The pastor Mel has repeatedly stated that we can’t blame god for the atrocities of his followers. Sometimes it takes me a while to develop completeness in my case that virtually every iota of real Christianity produces the opposite of what is preached. No, I can’t blame god because I don’t believe there is one, but it is 100% accurate when we remember the terrible consequences that arose logically out of Christian faith. Burning witches is just a popular, but tiny blip on the radar of the barbarism that naturally arose through faith in jesus.

Karen King puts it, “there are “torturous narratives at Christianity’s foundations.” Fascination with torture has been a part of the religion since the beginning and the practice thereof has permeated Christian history. Quite possibly it’s just a part of human nature that arises naturally in certain circumstances, and has only recently been suppressed in our civilization. But whatever the reason, torture has always been in the DNA of Christianity. You can’t talk about Christianity without talking about it’s long and romantic relationship with torture”.

Physical torture has decreased in the past 200 years, not because of higher religiosity, but because of less of it. When they have run of the schoolyard, as they continue to assert themselves politically, we are on a path to brutal Muslimism. Our safety depends on a secular government. Brutality arises naturally from unchecked Abrahamic religions. It is not about love in any way whatsoever. It is about force and control. Unchecked religion historically has created a torture class of priestly terror, rape, murder, plunder, false accusations, neighbor on neighbor and misery. Not just a few mind you, but widespread because of the religion. That is the religion I will not form an alliance with. It is the DNA of faith that turns men into monsters. We don’t have a people problem, we have a religion problem. It is its own mark of the beast. It has warned us about itself.

Sunk-Cost Fallacy—Moving Beyond Faith

Coming to the crossroads of unbelief eventually moved to ask the lord for help to believe based on the idea that maybe I had missed something. Show me the way, inspire me, hear my prayers—just one. His answer came as complete silence. No still, small voice. No thunder, enlightenment, or verse popped into my head. Nothing but quiet reflection. Literally every point of the gospel needed ad nauseum excuses and mental gymnastics. I couldn’t do it anymore. Turning to the house I looked back and knew I was alone. I had always been alone. Realizing that changed nothing for me. I found I was capable enough and needed no one to chart my path. So what was I to do?

Up till then I had thrown my hat in the ring of Christianity so many times I can’t remember them all. Acquiescing to “what if I’m wrong”, I never believed I could leave faith. I kept that premise as I no longer had faith in the religion that preoccupied so much of my time and more or less, I dissolved my relationship without a whimper. If there was a god, it certainly wasn’t interested in me.

There are ministers, priests, pastors, and other clergy all around the world who have invested a significant portion of their lives in theology, who can no longer manage to hold supernatural beliefs — who have moved beyond faith.  Hundreds of them recognize those sunk costs and are searching for the best way to move on, whereas many others cannot accept the loss of their religious investment, and continue to practice a profession inconsistent with their belief

When living contrary to your knowledge or disbelief, you are living the sunk-cost fallacy. Not willing to give up the time and energy invested in a failure, throwing in the towel on your life to live your status quo, biding in the atheistic closet for fear of losing friends, business, or family because the cost is too high to formally buck the system. Moving beyond faith—the facts are not for everyone. Hypocrisy is easy. What would one do without a god? That’s easy. You’ve already been doing it.

Reductio ad Absurdum

(also known as: reduce to absurdity)

—If everyone lived exactly like Jesus, the world would be a perfect place

Reductio ad absurdum is a technique to expose fallacious statements like the one above. Taken at face value we will assume it is true. In such a case, we would have 8 billion people on this earth roaming from town to town, living off the charity of others, preaching about God (with nobody listening). Without anyone creating wealth, there would be nobody to get charity from—there would just be 8 billion people all trying to tell each other about God.  After a few weeks, everyone would eventually starve and die.  This world might be a beautiful place for the vultures and maggots feeding on all the Jesus-like people, but far from a beautiful world from a human perspective.  Since the world cannot be both a perfect place and a horrible place, the proposition is false.

Fortunately for the rest of us, no christians actually live like jesus anyway. The talk is heavy in contradiction and the rituals mean absolutely nothing. And, internet christians being true to form, are as absent in practice as their god is in reality. How can one actually follow something that never existed in the first place? It is my duty to make the world a beautiful place by refusing to live like Jesus and embrace all our varieties and talents. Less religion, more humanity. Less hate, more love. Less conjecture, more truth. Less faith, more personal responsibility.

If everyone lived with grace by faith, the world would be a horrible place of reckless deferred responsibility. Reductio ad Absurdum that one!

Foundering

Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Ships founder when overladen with good things, or when a load shifts positions in high seas. Any unforeseen problem can effect the vessel and cause it to list and wain, eventually sinking under its own weight. Poor design can also affect the ships performance.

Horses can founder when they consume too much spring grass containing too much Fructan. Fructan is a sugar stored in grass that is typically saved for future development of the plant and photosynthesis. During early morning and cool overcast conditions grass can contain too much of this sugar the horse cannot process. The Fructan builds up and passes to the large intestine where it creates lactic acid which then delaminates the hoof wall. Sort of a diabetic type process for horses where a sugar overload causes problems and then pH levels become acidotic. Again, what appears to be a normal pasture to most, is highly toxic to reality.

Religion is constantly switching positions and foundering as well. With too much psychological/chemical/neuro stimulation without reference to reality, feelings are easily manipulated by smooth talk and big promises. Promises that don’t match with reality. Too much bible skews perception and causes its adherents to narrowly assess life through a small prism of archaic contradiction and excuse for changing morals and long explanations of why it was ok. The answer is alway more bible, which entrances the mind, and like any single disciplinary approach, foundering occurs oblivious to the host. The key to understanding the mysteries is unbelief, which is why unbelief is condemned so highly in Abrahamic religion. Monotheism has no room for tolerance, and evidence contrary to faith is easily dismissed without second thought. This is not a virtue, it is an illness. What is thought of as the remedy, is actually the illness. Horses have to change their stance when foundering, which is exactly what we see in religion when things don’t add up. But god never changes? Hmm

Horse changing his stance to relieve the pain in the coffin bone and hoof from laminitis.

Clinically Dead vs Biologically Dead

Clinical death occurs when the heart stops beating and the blood stops flowing. Clinical death precedes biological death by 4-6 minutes, whereas clinical death is reversible with intervention, but biological death is not.

Since religion is always the opposite of what we hear, so it is with its death. Christianity is biologically brain dead, but it’s members are pumping on the chest of the corpse and counting compressions as heart beats while claiming a code save. Not sure if you’ve ever done CPR, but it takes a lot of energy, resources and strength to keep a clinically dead person from slipping off into biologically dead. It’s a tiresome process that requires you pass off to other rescuers to keep compressions efficient.

Ceasing resuscitation efforts is difficult at times. Family and friends often urge you to keep trying, go one more round on the algorithms to get a shockable rhythm for a chance of spontaneous heart beat and respiration. At some point you have to call it off. Religion has been in asystole for quite some time, but the members are too attached and too full of need to recognize their beating a dead horse—one that is biologically and clinically dead. It’s time to lay this one to rest.

God is Shrinking

Denying evidence has the Christian god stuck on a Tilt-a-Whirl going round and round. The more science deniers deny, the smaller the gaps that give room for any god at all. Their god is shrinking. Science doesn’t know everything, but it does know quite a lot. Data continues to grow, and as it does, false premises and pseudoscience themes are stuck in first gear on a round pedal car track, re-explaining themselves over and over, honing the wording to satisfy religious sophistry and maintain fear in its loyals.

When worn out explanations keep repackaging themselves, never coming out of immaterial spirit (what is that) mode and dualism to explain the explainable when perfectly viable research and answers in neuroscience grow steadily year after year, the religion that has bound the minds of men for millennia is finally making its way out the door. Soon. Very soon.

The Bible cannot be taken literally any longer. It is far from inspired truth and those that cling to its allegorical power too will fade. Soon the Bible will only be found in the mythology section along side the rest of the immortals that have gone missing.

The Mysteries

Nothing unravels the mysteries like unbelief. That is the key. They want us to believe, then have us solving unsolvable puzzles the rest of our lives that are easily thwarted without faith. They say with god all things are possible—the opposite is true as always.

The blinders of belief in god are the ultimate distraction to a fulfilling life. The mysteries of god are but a controlling distraction designed to waste time in conjecture. Religion is the divisive wedge that separates. It’s only complicated with faith in the absurdities of a god.

Gods Absolute Morality

I was told in a comment section that gods absolute morality is only found in Christian faith. I asked him to name an absolute, unchanging moral truth of the Bible, and this was the closest he could go. “I’ll cite to you what seems to me to be about as near to an absolute moral statement as I can think of. In Matthew 12:31, Mark 3:29 and Luke 12:10 it is written that Jesus told people that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven in this world or the world to come”—But what if I have not received this Holy Spirit through revelation? I’m told my ego has kept me from accepting jesus.

It this the closest example of an absolute found in scripture. I would like to learn more. Something concrete and unchanging in the Bible’s exemplary moral standard.

The Good Shepard

Canaan Dog Breed

Keeping the flock together and protecting the sheep is the Shepard’s primary job. Most shepherds take care of sheep, although they may be responsible for goats as well. They often work in isolated areas and may work independently except for the assistance of herding or guard dogs.

The Canaan dog has a 3000 year history in the Middle East. Since the Shepard has derelict his duties in keeping the flock together, they frequently send out missionaries dogs to keep the herd together. The dog will say or do anything to return a sheep to the fold, and when resisted will resort to tactics of deceptive counter attacks and growls and even nips and verbal assault.

Propping terms like “The Good Shepard” would indicate a Shepard that has a tight flock, well protected, cared-for with medical needs, properly fed and trusted. How’s he doing? Remember, we never see what we hear when it comes to religion.

According to the Borgen Project, about 793 million people are starving in the world as we speak. Medical cost is the number one cause of financial ruin in the US, and worldwide more than 200 million children lack basic healthcare. Children of developing countries are twice as likely to die from treatable disease. Diarrhea is still a leading cause of death in many countries where 4 of 5 women lose at least one child before puberty.

He protects the flock—how many beheadings by Muslims are considered collateral damage too good to intervene for the just cause? The church is scattered with strange doctrines no-one group or person can agree on. Gods mercy is played with a blind eye of false hope and excuses with the wisdom of an abused spouse protecting her attacker. Gods bounty is shared amongst the wealthy nations that use manipulation and deceit in a system of cruelty and monetary deception to most of mankind, where the purveyors of faith sit on piles of hypocritical cash, leaving it to god to care for the poor, teaching them lessons they have no idea how to interpret. The children die a slow and torturous death for their own benefit though not a soul can figure out the riddle of why, but claim from the rooftops that god is good. Good for what?

So how is our Good Shepard doing? Even those that claim to be his sheep are in constant peril beneath his footstool. He has done nothing to protect even one person. Are things EVER what they say it is?

Self Awareness

You may not be what you think you are. You may not be as clever or adept as you think you are either. According to this study done at Cornell, people with the worst skills in the different areas of the study thought they performed the best, while those with the highest skill levels were also more accurate at estimating their ability. The mere fact that you are seeking and evaluating yourself as an individual, is a good sign that you may be a little more savvy than the average joe.

As an atheist, as well as most atheists I am aware of, we have gone through critical phases of self evaluation. We all wondered if we were crazy for doubting, crazy for believing, and sought answers to difficult dilemmas in contradictions of the gospel, then sought information outside of our indoctrinated upbringing.

Breaking away from the numbing effects of acquiescence when so many are rolling along in a near stupor of acceptance of a thousand things that add up to zero. Zero evidence that god is good, god is love, god is merciful, or god is in control. When compared to what is seen in the real world the opposite is true, “if” there was a god. Microanalysis of prayer to seek a smidgen of answers adds up to pure rationalization for its ineffectiveness, then we accept a non answer as gods will. What is gods will? Well, nobody really knows, but a lifetime of indoctrination leads us down the path of excuses.

The study concludes that all hope is not lost if you are one of the trouble spots. With education the numbers changed to a noticeable improvement, but how do you get someone stuck in the trap to look outside of what they already know, which apparently isn’t much when it comes to knowledge outside what they want to believe.

“It didn’t even help the poor performers to be given a benchmark. In a later study, the most incompetent participants still failed to realise they were bottom of the pack even when given feedback on the performance of others”.

Most of us have lived the religion side and learned enough to walk away. Maybe it’s time they walked in our shoes to determine if our views have merits, instead of hand waving and discrediting the reality that there is no god.

I Was Never Saved and Prayer has a Confirmed Victory

Gaylord (comment at your own risk) has just proven to me prayer works. He says “What you mistake for smugness is confidence in who God is. You were never really saved. It was 50 years of outward appearance but no spiritual substance. People do that all the time in church, just as Jesus showed us in the letters to the church in Revelation. God answers my prayers quite often. For example, we evangelicals who support the President have prayed for the plots against President Trump to be exposed and for the plots to backfire on the schemers. In recent weeks we’ve seen that happen with members of the deep state being demoted or fired from the DOJ or FBI and their plot being exposed”

“The Bible teaches that God moves in the affairs of men quite often. The deep state is trying to cover their shenanigans up, but God has moved in the hearts of some of the men and women in government agencies and in Congress to uncover their wicked plots. Deny the Lord’s hand all you wish, but he’ll continue to answer our prayers–just like he did when Trump moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem after Trump rightly acknowledged Jerusalem as Israel’s capital”.

Uh, men established modern day Israel, and now men have moved the embassy to Jerusalem.

UnerTan and Religion- Comparing Biology

Closed systems often have dramatic implications. Small villages where locals continue to mingle with locals, leads to inbreeding and can offset your balance centers in equilibrium and cognition. While closed systems vary in degree, each has its own problematic framework, whether its physical or spiritual in nature.

While not my attempt to make light of Uner Tan syndrome, the example is on the far end of what closed systems can do to the biology of a small group. “What is causing this disease? Scientists noticed a trend with many cases: The children’s parents share the same blood.  In the Arab culture it is common to marry in your bloodline.  It’s called consanguinity (shared blood).  Consanguinity makes you more prone to genetic disorders.  In the Ulas family, the parents are cousins“—Medical Daily

Being raised safely and securely in the confines of a religious home, faith also carries a host of cognitive and rational decision making barriers. The inability to see the obvious, or the ability to overlook tremendous flaws in your approach to thinking soundly comes from these closed systems. The dichotomy between stunted potential and growth in reality creates a barrier to analytic thought, and the ability to immediately dismiss any information contrary to what you have been taught. This phenomenon known as “spiritual bypass”, is a defense and coping mechanism, protecting one from dealing with uncomfortable truth. If you missed yesterday’s link, HERE it is again, but the two topics overlap in significance.

We see it in our area and here on WP. What is so absolutely obvious can be glossed over and dismissed without a whimper, leaving us befuddled and shaking heads. But, at least we can cope with the dilemma having a little understanding of what we’re up against. Closed, one line dogmas that belittle outside influences is the prime detractor of free thought.

Insanity Bites

She says “I am a total conspiratress, love thinking outside the box, unraveling mysteries, discovering what is lurking beneath the surface.

Loves thinking outside the box so much that she has joined the free, lockstep, mindless thought of 80% of the U.S population. Looking below the surface? Then how can you possibly adhere to religion other than a blind willingness to follow the masses—in your own, outside the box way? Once you decide to believe in obvious nonsense, all reason is tossed out, followed by absurd accusations that the rest of us just don’t get it. She’s wrong. We do get it, we just don’t buy it.

Here is the first comment on the thread, and yes, the masses historically have been wrong before.

“To insist that 80% of people, those claiming to believe in God, even loosely, are just indoctrinated, victims of an elaborate conspiracy, all part of a great Christian hoax, is just symptomatic of some really flawed thinking.”
Hey, sometimes it takes a while for some of to get up to speed“

Old Skill and Wisdom

Some of you know I am writing a book about some of my previous experiences and the history that prevailed in the area. I can’t help but be in complete awe of the skill and fortitude of the men that mapped the Pacific Northwest. We easily take for granted the raw practical knowledge of the times. Here one map from the area circa 1901. These contours and elevations are still used today and extremely accurate. On foot. Unbelievable.

Today we have a lot of information, but knowledge is fleeting. How many alive today could produce a map like this? Really quite astonishing when you think about it.

I remember during the same generation that these maps were created, Ernest Shackleton took a lifeboat 800 miles across the Weddell Sea to rescue his men. He had a handful of sunny days and a sextant to measure the horizon and some charts, then crash-landed his boat on the wrong side of South Georgia island. The Weddell Sea is essentially the headwinds of the world and some of the most treacherous waters on the planet —Remarkable use of practical knowledge to say the least.

Mark Twain also is from the same time period, and though not a surveyor or explorer, possessed equally savvy smarts in history and knowledge of the ways of the world. He was every bit as skilled as Shackletons navigation or A.E. Murlin was at topography. He was raised in a time of fierce religious revival, but was smart enough to call BS on religion —and see what was obvious in front of him, instead of listening to salesman with a blank bill of goods and a promise. While reading “Letters from the Earth” it has occurred to me to trust your good senses and if you compare it to some form of practical knowledge, you’ll see it for what it is. Look around you, and don’t be afraid to see things as they really are. Twain didn’t buy into the delusion of faith, and neither am I.

Rubidium

Rubidium is an alkali metal with an atomic weight of 85.4678. The half life of rubidium is 49 billion years, meaning it will take approximately 3 times longer for it to be worth half its value, than the universe itself is old. The universe has been dated by multiple disciplinary studies at 13.799 billion years old, +/- 20 million years has been the consensus of averages. Using observations of decay rates and math, we see how old each element is and can project its duration.

Through new research techniques, rubidium was discovered in 1861 using flame spectroscopy. Prior to then it was unknown. It was found by two men that used multiple techniques to imitially detect and name the unknown element just by looking. -Enter Religion.

Religion has a known objective. Discovering god has been a focus of more people than any other project in the history of the world, Billions of people, including scientists, have sought evidence of god and have come up empty. -Nothing. Yet we can easily find many other elements that were unknown, just by looking. Imagine for a moment that those billions of searchers, were actually applying themselves to reality? Where could we go? Advances have only begun recently, by very few people, pressing forward in spite of religion, and will continue to do so. Religion has had its day and failed. Time to move on to making this world a better world without time waning failed religious oppression.

K-Y Jelly – A Christian Model

K-Y Jelly, a product of Johnson and Johnson, developed in 1904 as a surgical lubricant, quickly found its way as a multi use product. Hollywood makeup artist use the jelly in the horror-movie industry. Special effects technicians like Stan Winston and Rob Bottin use the jelly to create a “slimy” appearance for monster puppet effects.

K-Y Jelly is also used clinically to perform prostate examinations in men and gynecological examinations in women. For prostate exams, physicians use K-Y Jelly to lubricate a finger to ease insertion into the rectum for prostate assessment. A similar process is used in the pelvic and recto-pelvic exams in women.

The product is also widely used as a sexual lubricant. It does not react with condoms or rubber-based sex toys. While K-Y has a thick consistency and a tendency to dry out during use, it can be “reactivated” by the addition of saliva or more water.

Christianity also was invented with a single purpose, but quickly induced other untoward effects and diminished cognitive abilities. Initially, faith was thought only to cause warm and fuzzy feelings, but quickly was used to penetrate six continents. Also, 80% of infected parties developed SORTS, (stupor of rational thought syndrome), where they would blindly go along with fairy tales, as well as follow their leaders to inflict misery on unsuspecting indigenous genotypes. Also noted in double blind case study 3-16, gullibility increased ten fold. Absorption ratios to PBS* increased to alarming level, where christian faithful were seventy times more likely to believe anything they were told of a supernatural, or conspiratorial nature. The Faithful tend to accept whatever they are told from specially designed pulpits, to the point where K-Y has been essential for parishioners to just bend over and take it. And while the speaker reaps his eternal reward in cash, the congregates will still have to wait postmortem to see any benefits.

* Pulpit Bull Shit

Letter to Mark Twain

dear mr clemans, after reading part of your book, ‘Letters From the Earth’, I think you are a disgusting man. I know your real name, and I am warning all of my good christian neighbers not to read this gross expose’ of our god. We cannot, and will not allow you to espouse such truths and spread your cancerous words into the puritan ears of this community. We demand you retract your words.

The fact that heaven is composed of all the things we hate is true, but only for now. Who are we to judge gods wisdom. The fact that all of the things we love are absent is true, but only for now. I imagine that endless harp music and choirs singing praises to God might seem like a torture to you, but god knows what is best for us. If he says it will make me happy, I believe him, regardless of the apparent absurdity of eternal noise and worship. You see where you are lacking mr clemens? You have no faith. Faith is where I get to decide what is true. Faith will let me live in eternity with god and be happy with no intellect. It is intellect that has caused you to own these blasphemous truths. Your words are temporary mr clemens, but gods word are eternal. You are a dirty man exposing the christian heaven as a sexless heaven. You are a heathen now, and probably have sex for fun, but god knows what is best for us. If he needs to manipulate our natural tendencies to control the heathens, then I trust god to do so. We won’t need these things in heaven because we will be wrapped in jesus’ arms in eternal embrace, singing and praising god, and bathing his feet in our tears of joy, while you mr clemens, will be in hell.

75 cents for this 1962 edition. Best $6 I’ve ever spent. Should be mandatory reading for all.

Buckminster Fuller

Buckminster Fuller impacted my life. I just didn’t know it at the time. Some short lessons — I AM NOW CLOSE TO 88 and I am confident that the only thing important about me is that I am an average healthy human. I am also a living case history of a thoroughly documented, half-century, search-and-research project designed to discover what, if anything, an unknown, moneyless individual, with a dependent wife and newborn child, might be able to do effectively on behalf of all humanity that could not be accomplished by great nations, great religions or private enterprise, no matter how rich or powerfully armed”.

If you’d like more click HERE

“From now on you need never await temporal attestation to your thought. You think the truth. You do not have the right to eliminate yourself. You do not belong to you. You belong to Universe. Your significance will remain forever obscure to you, but you may assume that you are fulfilling your role if you apply yourself to converting your experiences to the highest advantage of others”.

“I live on Earth at present, and I don’t know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am not a thing—a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process—an integral function of the universe.”

Disappearing Hate

How many deconverts of religion have turned to divisive, discriminatory speech and hate groups? How many are condemning alternate lifestyles and supporting religious laws to ban women’s rights? How many choose to impose their lack of belief on others by going door to door, or casting stones at immorality, while practicing immoralities. None. That’s because when people leave religion, and think on their own accord, sometimes for the first time in their life, they speak in support of freedom and fairness and equality to all. That is who I believe people really are. It is the churches and their stiff indoctrinations that separates, setting themselves above others with “inspired” lines drawn in the sand of divisiveness. I know some of us struggle to make all the changes at once, but by and by, love is found. Fairness is found. Equality and acceptance are found. And for many, it is the first time in their lives they have thought their own thought, said their own words, speak what they have learned, and not what they have been told. And it is good. Very good.

Belief and faith are strange ills. They are contrary to open dialog and contrary to real problem solving. They are driven by fear and supported by groups such as ADF and others. The propaganda from the pulpits is a powerful sermon from gods anointed, but the thoughts people have and the words they speak are not theirs. They are the churches.

I am very optimistic about the future, as I know that the hearts of the people are good. Their minds have been sealed off by faith, but the real person inside is good, and when they finally leave religion behind, like waking from a long stuporous dream, 100% of them return to true love and equality. That’s a pretty impressive number to have hope in.

“Early Storm Sky”

Solving Problems – A Christian Model

George Dantzig recalls his story “It happened because during my first year at Berkeley I arrived late one day at one of [Jerzy] Neyman’s classes. On the blackboard there were two (math) problems that I assumed had been assigned for homework. I copied them down. A few days later I apologized to Neyman for taking so long to do the homework — the problems seemed to be a little harder than usual. I asked him if he still wanted it. He told me to throw it on his desk. I did so reluctantly because his desk was covered with such a heap of papers that I feared my homework would be lost there forever. About six weeks later, one Sunday morning about eight o’clock, [my wife] Anne and I were awakened by someone banging on our front door. It was Neyman. He rushed in with papers in hand, all excited: “I’ve just written an introduction to one of your papers. Read it so I can send it out right away for publication.” For a minute I had no idea what he was talking about. To make a long story short, the problems on the blackboard that I had solved thinking they were homework were in fact two famous unsolved problems in statistics.

A year later, when I began to worry about a thesis topic, Neyman just shrugged and told me to wrap the two problems in a binder and he would accept them as my thesis.

Suppose Dantzig had been on time for class, and heard the news that the problems were unsolvable?

Christianity is an expert at pigeonholing it’s members that the problems can’t be solved. Waiting for the messiah to solve them, or being trained from birth that without god you are nothing. Prayer and hope are nothing but disabling crutches for the masses to restrict human potential by waiting. It needs to stop.

Years later George was told by a friend that he heard his story from the preacher at church. It was so embellished that it was hardly recognizable. Weird huh?

Here’s the whole story from Snopes

Pretty Cool

photo credit TheCommonAtheist “Sunset from my house” 2018

Nothing’s Changed. All is Well. Well?

The manifesto of the LDS church, says “The Lord will never permit any Prophet of this Church to lead you astray”. I guess not allowing children of gay couples to be members of the church slips in behind this prophecy. It is hurtful, and one of many missteps of the church leadership. Spending most of my life in the church, hearing is believing when it comes to the faith, and only approved sources will suffice. I have been out a few years now, but yesterday I ran across this thread on FB, and the sheep are alive and well. These comments are in response to a book recently published about problems with Mormon culture.

“Read the conference talks and follow church leaders first”

“Honestly, I think you’re getting a bit big for your britches. I am looking for messengers from my father. I’ll be passing on this one and sticking to authorized church publications”

“None of you seem to understand anything about the problem with this … these writings are identifying a perceived issue with LDS society / culture and pronouncing a fix … This is exactly squarely in the realm of why we have a prophet and apostles … it is their key job … Do any of you ever wonder why a man not called to the position would choose to do the exact job our church leaders are called to do … To espouse this mans work is a full on admission that our leaders and by extension Jesus Christ failed to give us “ enough “ information or the “ whole “ story … Were I to write a book or dissertation the last place on earth I would seek a subject is in the realm squarely where our church leaders operate … like I would have some “ additional “ information to add … but this is where this man feels he needs to operate”

Heaven forbid if your narrow bubble of belief should be challenged, scrutinized, or improved upon. If and when you decide to take a real and honest look at what your doing, leave me a note so I can help with your new atheist blog.

Horace Eye

Although this is fairly new to me, I thought this quite interesting to think on, and wondered if anyone else has run across this. Deeply inspiring or convincing someone in such a way to cause conversion by apparent supernatural means, appears to have been understood by the Egyptians prior to our time. Conversion takes place when the senses are overloaded, and a feeling, many times indescribable, causes belief, faith, understanding or enlightenment. This can be done in several ways, through truth, through deception, lies, and medications, during emotional and traumatic experiences. Not sure if you’re aware of this, but there is a completely different realm of enlightenment associated with this, and it may be the sole source of spiritual awakening, thought, and inspiration. The Horace eye is nearly identical to the hippocampus of the human brain, and is composed of the five senses surrounding the pineal gland, which interprets light and darkness and houses serotonin as a precursor to secrete melatonin to regulate sleep patterns. Surely can’t cover all of this in a few minutes, but when thought of in this manner, spirituality takes on an entirely new spectrum. Rene Descartes believed the pineal gland to be the “principal seat of the soul, and the Egyptians used this story of Horace and the symbol to remind where enlightenment comes from, When activated, the pineal gland causes a sensation of euphoria and oneness, or wholeness. I have thought for some time now, the power that is called god, and the ability to spiritualize ourselves, likely comes from within. Neurotheology advances will surely be including this deep seated and mysterious part of the brain. In modern times, pineal calcification and atrophy are believed to be more advanced than in earlier times. Prior to pineal atrophy, I’m just imaging what might have been, when our pineal glands were larger and possible healthier. Still a lot to learn.

The Other Creative Mel. Not Wild

It seems the name Mel is a trigger for creativity. Mel Blanc, the versatile, multi-voiced actor who breathed life into such cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Pie, Sylvester and the Road Runner. In the 1960’s he also contributed to the Flinstones, and in that series he did the voices for both Barney Rubble, the dull-witted neighbor of Fred and Wilma Flintstone, and Dino, the Flintstones’ pet dinosaur. Quite a Wild array of voices.

The other Mel has his own array of cartoon characters in his supporting cast, that also breathes life into the make believe world of faith. How can you go wrong with the likes of InsanityBites, BrainYawn, ColorStorm, Wally, and of course, the main man himself Melvin Wild. While Mel only does his own voice, what comes out is an array of changing character roles and dogma, slipping down the slope to deism as his pet Brainyawn clings to his voiceovers like a parasitic twin mimicking the change as he attempts to keep up, memorizing the bias with the skill of a used car man.

And creativity? Wow!! Threads that confluence, eddy about, upstream, downstream, over the falls and back up again, all the wild is woven into a masterpiece of contradiction and code winks, reaching for the safety line of obscurity, in the belief that blanket vagueness will stop the easily defeated beliefs, that his god is the god, and still fail to explain the why.

A Logical Version

Because of the sin of Adam and Eve death came into the world, and the resurrection of Jesus was supposed to reverse the “wages of sin which is death, and grant immortality and eternal life. If the story of Jesus were true, after his death and resurrection showed the victory over the grave, everyone should automatically be immortal. No more death. Wouldn’t that be the logical conclusion?

Anybody want some crazy?

Here is my final comment to a post here This is a little like Mel, but narrower. Here’s my final reply. We’ll see if it moderates.

Difficult for you to see the humor,

Once I was in your shoes,

Everything so serious,

So much of you to lose,

So much time invested,

In the fable you call god,

That good sense out the window,

Won’t call a fraud a fraud,

For if I may I’ll be so bold,

And try to do with tact,

But everything your selling off,

Has everything but fact,

It has the how’s with maybe’s,

Conjectured ambiguity,

Guesses based on hopes and dreams,

Fails you in realities,

Your quick to point a finger,

But observations firm,

Don’t forget to look around you,

There is so much more to learn,

The books you read are narrow points,

Funnels dropped of religious care,

But faith requires no good sense,

As lone disciplines can attest,

A skewed vision of life and love,

You think you have it all,

Your good book’s made your messy mind,

And you want me to take the fall,

I may not have all the answers yet,

With that I’m not concerned,

With your head shoved so far up your ass,

You’ll fail where others learned.

Power of Reason

Reason can answer-

Designed deceptivities-

Opulent excuse-

“Early night sky”

TheCommonAtheist 2018

“Wild Turkey”

TheCommonAtheist 2018

More Wild Turkey (not Mel) A Religious Model

15 second video

It’s pretty fascinating to watch the similarities between religion and a Rooster like Mel here. He shows up and throws his weight around, disrupting what is peaceful and trying to force others to comply to his way. This Tom turkey here, appears to have also studied the Quran. He is abusive and carries an air of dominance. Side note: Hens lay eggs even without him, and some (40%) are asexual and don’t need a rooster (religion). The numbers even match up to what we see in humanities need for a higher power. “Almost all vertebrates reproduce sexually, i.e. the sperm and egg join to form an embryo. Vertebrates that reproduce asexually are exceptionally rare, however turkeys are one such species that can do so. Many explanations are given as to why turkeys reproduce asexually on occasion (as high as 40% of offspring are products of parthenogenesis): low sperm count, male unavailability etc. I’ll offer one of my own. Female turkeys see males (photo above) and think, “No way in hell am I having sex with that!” Their heads are blue during breeding. It appears to have a lack of oxygen to the brain. They are very vulnerable during mating season.

dedicated to Ron

The Perfect God (and tom turkey)

Why, if god exists, does he have to be perfect and omnipotent? What would be the problem of a “not all powerful god”, but one that had a skill for creating things? The insistence on a perfect and kind, loving god is contradictory to scripture and the natural world.

Aaannd, the first tom turkey showed up in the yard this morning. Very cool. He reminds me of god a little. He’s all puffed up for a big show, but up close he’s an ugly dude. Struts around bossing everyone when they were doing just fine before he showed up.

Courtesy of Professor Taboo-

Sound Effects

New Portable EEG

Edinburgh University, Scotland has developed a prototype EEG and has tested it on 95 volunteers over the age of 65. The study is recording brain activity in everyday situations in different urban settings from busy streets to parks.

I am imagining the implications here, and as an irreligious writer I am eager to get this device into the hands of neurotheologist researchers. Can we strap this baby on to some Pentecostal regulars and mega church parishioners? Can we get Mel to volunteer to wear this during a blog fight? This image shows average brain regions for 22 subjects during testing. Blue areas represent brain regions more active when telling the truth, red areas, when lying. How much red inside the head? Can we get some prayer? Can somebody please record the conversion process and confirm what part of the brain started this mess? Oh the implications are grand, and to get this everywhere to corroborate the overwhelming evidence that brain function creates spiritual experience? The floodgates are about to open. The field is ripe, and ready to harvest. Maybe we can end this debate once and for all. Here is a great 2 min video of right brain left brain with separated corpus callosum.

The Botfly Larvae- A Christian Model

Lessons from nature cover the scope of the human experience. Using the tried and trued model of expansion in the botfly population, Christianity has honed its craft using unsuspecting children and the unprepared masses to deal its bidding.

If you are not familiar, the human botfly proliferates by capturing a mosquito, laying its eggs on the mosquito, then turns it loose. This little messenger then takes the eggs, and finds an unsuspecting human to suck blood from. As the vampirical transaction is taking place, the botfly eggs are injected into the skin. The mosquito isn’t even aware of the damage she is causing, but is carrying a painful and disturbing parasite that will change your very life.

The first clue to the new convert that religion is a bogus and unproven tool, is your prayers offered to remove the botfly will be lost in the space-time continuum, and medical treatment will be required. Prayers to the Doctor! Amen. Trust your instinct.

Reducing Religion Dream Act 2018

The IRS, the FDA, and the APA, are taking what it calls a “historic first step” toward eliminating religions’ addictive properties and concerns of mental health longevity by seeking comments on the impact of lowering non provable belief levels, how lowering of these levels might be accomplished, and whether doing so might have unintended consequences. Non-Profit status of churches and the ongoing mental health threats have forced the IRS and the FDA to combine efforts with the APA in combatting addictive, propagandized religious benefits.

The agencies said that they would eventually propose faith reduction as part of a comprehensive overhaul regulating religions’ unfounded claims. Today’s announcement came in the form of an advance notice of proposed rule making — essentially, a document designed to elicit comments and show what direction the agencies might take if it were to require higher provability levels, and setting a “burden of proof” standard of passed-on and written information. Given the combination of toxicity, divisiveness, addictiveness, prevalence, and the effects on nonusers, religions are in the category of damaging belief that causes the greatest of public health harm,” said James Zell, Director of the APA.

“Religion is the only legal entity that when used as intended will reduce the intelligence and mental wellness of the lives of all long-term members prematurely,” he said, adding, “We’ve known for decades that religion is highly engineered and designed to get users addicted, and euphoria at these levels are regulated in every other industry”. The FDA said it envisions “the potential circumstance where piety levels in faith do not spur or sustain addiction for potential converts. This could give addicted believers the choice and ability to quit faith more easily, and it could help to prevent experimenters (mainly youth) from initiating regular attendance and becoming regular attendees.”

Agenda as follows:

1. Harmful short and long term effects of early indoctrination.

2. Mental illness stemming from guilt, peer pressures, and counter-intuitive learning.

3. Contradictory learning. How giving the obviousness of credulity stunts academic reasoning.

4. How resources and time could be focused on actual fact-based scholarship.

5. Recommendations on faith based non factual learning materials. Fiction/Nonfiction advisory labels and age restriction guidelines.

6. Possible taxes or fines to be levied against churches for compensation to deconverts to assist in recovery efforts and long term psychological therapy.

in a joint meeting next Friday, leaders from all three camps will implement an emergency discussion called “cessation session” to create formal documents to present to Congress. (Hey I can dream, Right?)

TCA Newsflash 3-16-2018

Washington State

TheCommonAtheist

Have You Heard the New Testament is Better?

You ever find that your thinking has been all wrong, and had an epiphany that Christianity is all what it is purported to be? Yeah, me neither. A reoccurring theme, that after the Old Testament Jesus fulfilled the law and all the bad god parts were done away with. So we look to the words of Jesus, to “right the ship” of all that had gone wrong wth Abrahamic religion. The New Testament is a kinder, more loving, and gentler version; a higher law, if you will, wiping away slavery, racism, bigotry, oppression, and more. The mean god of the old testament had a change of heart….or did he?

A handful from of a full basket of NT scripture is enough to show that this is complete BS. Modern Christians are banking on you never reading the full text, and if you do they have the tools to whitewash it. A select sampling of scripture is just enough to give you the warm and fuzzies of faith to conversion. Dig a little deeper and find the origins are less than godlike.

Slaves are instructed to obey their masters, (Eph 6:5) and societal decline is greeted with anticipation in Revelation and the gospels, “the end is nigh”, and any day now believers are to hope for the return of Jesus to wipe out all the wrongs of the world, leading Christians to apathy about the health of our planet. Jesus is coming, only after things have gotten terribly wrong, so wrongs are praised as an ushering in to redemption.

Women are still to be silent, men are socially superior to women, demons take the blame for medical problems, owning humans as property is still endorsed, eternal punishment for thoughts of lust or feeling anger is equal to murder and sends you to hell. Now even your thoughts can get you sentenced. Death penalty for children reaffirms OT way of thinking. “He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.” Matthew‬ ‭15:1, 4‬ ‭KJV

And finally, the central point of the New Testaments, is that human sacrifice is a great way to solve your problems.

An old saying that I still love today; You know that little white speck that is on top of the chicken shit? Well, that little white speck is chicken shit too

Slight of hand rewording of bad doctrine is the core of Christianity.

Comatized by Belief

Finding the right words to describe what you don’t believe, can sometimes be a little tricky. I was commenting on Dr Seggy’s site and I just had to make up a word, since nothing has adequately described how the religious have blindly defended a factless hypothesis of a god to explain our existence. Vehemently defending that belief that took no effort to get, and requires no effort to maintain, yet act like they are gut shot if you question the validity of their faith or their story. Comatized by belief, and blinded by faith in supernatural, abrahamic religion is anything but righteous, provable, or even sensible. And we have to explain why we don’t believe what apologetics, archeologists, science, or believers have failed to show evidence of. Go figure.

Are We Getting Any Better at All?

In 1918 world population was 1.8 Billion people. The world record 100 meter dash of 10.6 seconds was set by Donald Lippincott from the United States. 100 years later with 7.6 Billion people we have managed to shave off one second, bowing to Usain Bolt from Jamaica. With all the advances in science and nutrition and training. 1 second! With 6 Billion more people to choose from!

Maybe, we’re more intelligent? Have we learned to discard the notions of childhood fable and superstitions? With almost all available knowledge at our fingertips, not much has changed.

In 1910 approximately 34.8% of the world population was Christian. In 2010 that number was about 32%. A 2-3% decrease. Islam is up 10% but with a population growth of six billion people worldwide, number went from the 225,000 range to 1.5 billion Muslims, with Christians coming in at 2,260,440,000. Muslim fertility rates are much higher, and projections show a dead heat by the year 2050 Muslims and Christians will be near parody [sic] with equal percentages at about 30% each of the world population. CHARTWhy is it so hard to abandon the superstitious god worship? I know that conversions are down, and most of the growth comes from fertility rates as islam has reached a self perpetuating critical mass, just as Christianity did in the past. It’s going to be up to our kids to get us past this stunt in our growth. Press on, but be patient. I think we’re close to big changes in the next few generations.

“I contend that we are [all] atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours”. Stephen Roberts

Ancient Desalination Discovery

TCA Newsflash 3-9-2018

Eastern Turkey

Hikers near the cradle of Mount Ararat, Turkey have found what appears to be a massive prehistoric pontoon style desalination plant. The incredible discovery happened while evangelical researchers were trying to locate Noah’s Ark, which was spotted by another group of evangelical Christian explorers in 2010.

With modest estimates, the ark would have contained a range of 8000 to 14,000 animals requiring approximately 20,000 to 35,000 gallons of water per day during the over year-long drift at sea. (378days) Evangelical scientists have been working out the details for centuries; just how did Noah provide enough water to all those animals? The find answers a boatload of questions, that until today just seemed like a fairy tale.

While the eight survivors would have had their hands full, each feeding a thousand or more animals per day, calculations estimate each person would have had to feed 70 to 120 animals per hour round the clock, 7 days a week for a year. Feed them what? Just the two elephants alone would require approximately 150,000 pounds of food for the journey. Two lions would consume 40,000 pounds of meat for the trip, as well as the tigers and bears. Polar bears could be sent out on reconnaissance to hunt seals and other aquatic life, so that is no problem. But food for the other 7,996 pairs might have proved problematic. Even if every animal only averaged eating one pound per day, that would be over 3,000,000 pounds of food for animals. Not including the eight survivors.

Mathematicians have calculated about 14 years for the sloth to arrive at the ark from Central America. Kangaroos, while excellent swimmers, must have built their own boat to make the trip from Oz, or to Oz after the landing on Ararat.

Evangelical scientists are confident the discoveries will come. Real scientists have been criticized for demanding photos and physical evidence, but none to date are forthcoming.

Listening for the Spirit

When I was a boy I was told this quote as part of a larger story. “The first order issued by a commander mounting a military invasion is the jamming of the channels of communication of those he intends to conquer.” Paraphrasing now, The devil has influenced this culture of noise and hustle and loud music that blocks out the still small voice of the spirit, and in order to receive the spirit and personal revelation, we were instructed to find places of quiet in our lives to listen to the promptings of god. Careful study and thoughtful prayer and meditation to hear the prompting of god yielded nothing. I went out in the woods and found solitude, humbly prayed as best as I could, and never heard a damn thing. Nobody does! They give it their best to find answers, and finally realize if you want answers, we would have to make our own way in the world, not dependent on proven time wasting techniques as prayer.

Keep trying they say, and it will come. The truth is , you can convince yourself of anything if that is your focus. I remember a couple of years ago, Victoria (neuronotes) had a piece on praying for what answers you want. It was compelling evidence that finding truth with this premise in mind gave you the answer you desired, not an answer in reality. Prayer does not work.

S.O.A.P. For Atheists

Developing observation skills are of key importance when working as a paramedic. About 25,000 times I had responded to assess, treat, and transport patients in various stages of life and death. In our state we use the SOAP format to document patient contact.

S: Subjective is what you are told by patients, bystanders, witnesses, police, other personel. Also patient history, meds, allergies, and so forth. Clues like medications and last time they went to the doctor for the current problem can tell you a lot about you patients underlying conditions, and if this ever happened to them before, and so forth.

O: Objective is what you find during a detailed exam from head to toe, ECG, blood draw, labs, vital signs or other modalities as needed.

A: Assessment/Diagnosis

P: Plan is what you have done to treat the patient. Airway, splints, procedures, medication IV’s, shocks, etc. Preferably all documented in order.

The first two, the S and the O, are the focus of today’s topic.

In Christianity we are told many things of Gods love and his eternal goodness, perfection, wisdom, protection and so forth. God is love, and god answers prayer and cares for your needs. What we actually see is a completely different story. Our examination does not match the nature of the call.

What we find in scripture, the physical world, and from the pulpits is another story altogether. And if the followers of god are trying to be like him, we are in for a world of vanity, jealousy, incoherence, miscommunication, arrogance, ambiguity, murder, slavery, genocide, contradiction, oppression, eternal torment, shifting morality, lying preachers, pious racism, land grabbing, famine, fear, guilt, and diplomatic tension. But this will be good. “Very good”

What I found when comparing what I was told in the church, to what I actually saw as obvious evidence of how things really were, nothing was as advertised. Short Video of Chief Dan George and a salesman.

Common Sense

The term “common sense” is used frequently, mostly due to the the “lack of it” in other people. The majority of people think they have it and others don’t. While common sense has been studied as far back as Aristotle, and various definitions or applications can be noted, here is my definition. “Common sense is the ability to solve problems by applying a wide variety of experiences or learning to accomplish or complete a new task, or the ability to integrate or adapt by applying prior knowledge from a variety of experience or disciplines.

This being said, most people do get along fine in the world. Each finds their niche and have their own way of doing things. But here’s where the problem lies; In religion and other superstitions the “common sense” passed down from generation to generation stunts human potential. The Common knowledge that is part of the molding of common sense is off the mark and makes rational decision making impossible. I once had an eleven year old foster daughter whose mother was a mentally ill and superstitious religious woman. The girl could not make a rational decision of any kind, and often quoted her mother about various topics. It was a real life waterboy situation. Her baseline was skewed with certified confusion, only not to her. In her mind we were wrong, mom was right.

Raising children in superstition and religion can be an awkward awakening when actually faced with reality, where what you know conflicts with the real world. It can be a psychological mindbend, and for many the only way to swim out is complete reversal and abandonment of the old ways. One foot in and, one foot out is a forever unbalanced act of will.

Here is a pretty good wiki page about the history and concepts of common sense.

Thrib Nigriv

Thrib Nigriv is the opposite of virgin birth. This is commonly known as copular denial. “I don’t know how this happened, kind of denial. Ketamine induce sexual activity brain altered denial. Denial is a clever way one maintains innocence through excuses and unlikely tales. But it also causes problems. If you give up your virginity before it’s time, remember, your cover story may change the course of history. We don’t need any more of that.

The Second Oldest Profession Is Lying About It

No Wrong, No Doubt

Honesty and Christian apologetics is the fifty first shade of grey. Advancing the lords work requires the utmost skill and knowledge, and serious fudging of the truth from time to time. “I don’t know” is an ok answer, but confirming any personal doubt or lack of knowledge is not the apologist way. No chink in the armor of god can be displayed.

As I can only speak for myself, here is why I immersed myself in apologetics–Doubt, Doubt, Doubt! Doubt is what puts you into apologetics. After many years of innocent faith you investigate below the surface and come to the crossroads of doubt. Next, spend the rest of your life trying to prove you’re not naive and gullible. I spent 20 years reading Qumran, Nag Hammadi, Dead Sea scrolls, and miles of Bible commentary and scripture trying to find proof and validation. I never did. But in Christianity the conversion process is to “believe” before you know the details, then apologetics takes the rest of your life wading through cleverly worded arguments trying to prove yourself right. Faith, them knowledge, then doubt, is the fuel that keeps Christian apologetics alive. And doubt is inevitable when there is no substance but supernatural hearsay.

Archeologists Discover Massive Water Valve

TCA Newsflash 2-17-2018

Happy World Flood Day!!

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Northcoast Oil And Hydrocarbon (NOAH) geologists coupled with geophysicists and a Johannesburg based archeological team unearthed a massive water valve south of Addis Ababa during an open pit oil investigation. Dubbed immediately ” The fountain of the deep”, the valve measures 30 meters in diameter and is made of an unknown metal component. The valve is free of rust and appears operational.

“This is no coincidence ” says team leader Jorge Medirás. The discovery occurred on world flood day, commemorating 4365 years since the great flood. A memorial service is planned to honor the 8 survivors.

“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep were opened up, and the windows of heaven were opened.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭7:11‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Archaeologists are currently deciphering curious markings indicating at least 12 additional pre Babylonian valves are in existence at various global locations. No windows have been discovered. More to follow.

How to Separate the Facts from the Myths?

Some excellent points from Ark in yesterdays post, and some unanswered questions from Mel, who is not taking a fundamental approach to believing the Bible, such as the Adam and Eve story or Noah’s ark, but we are to believe in the virgin birth and the resurrection. Other than some place names in the Bible that we know exist, how can we determine which is fact and which is fable?

Science is a Matter of Trust, Not Faith

I may have cracked the code on this one.

Trust – reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.

Faith- “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews‬ ‭11:1‬ ‭KJV‬‬

I do not have an iota of faith in science, but I do place some trust and confidence in science and scientists because of the prior and continued successes all around us. It has a track record of measurable performance. Religion still has none. The paradox of religious faith is also found in scripture. Let this next part soak in a second.

“If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” John‬ ‭3:12‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Was Jesus a scientist, or better yet, astrophysicist? The Greek word for heavenly is Ouranos, pronounced (oo-ran-os) meaning – heaven, the visible heavens: the atmosphere, the sky, the starry heavens. I digress.

Monotheistic premise today does not believe the earthly obvious, but holds to faith to explain what is otherwise clearly known.

Fundamental knee jerk resistance to science is holding the religious hostage to faith. If they won’t even admit to proven basics, how will they understand more complex disciplines like physics and evolution?

1820 Apostate Memoir

Unknowingly an innocence of my own doing struck calamity to my congregation a fortnight ago. To me it was a most natural of decisions that caused all of the fuss, but to them it was tears of the grandest sobbing heartache. When I no longer believed, it was the only logical conclusion to leave faith behind and make my own way in the world.

Reasons for my departure were no less than two small things that glared an ominous stare into my logic for two score and two years. The first being the inefficacy of prayer, and the other being the ambiguity of the book and the conjecture of the preachers.

How many offered prayers have disappeared into the vastness of space in behalf of me and my kin? How many silent mumblings have I uttered, calling upon god to walk with me and enlighten with his counsel? Hundreds of days I dare say (with a hint of current embarrassment) have distracted me from focusing on other tasks laid before me. Waiting as I did for the almighty to give me a clear hint of inspiration, I’m sure a year or two of days was spent on such matters. And not one time in all my efforts did he make himself known to me. I addressed the issue with my current and former ministers and each encouraged me to continue on, that god’s ways were at best difficult to know, and nearly impossible to understand. I relented. Acquiescence is a terribly wasted life in my opinion as of now, although being the faithful type I did “give in and let God”, as they say. Let god do what, dare you ask? That is a good question and presume at this point you will hear my answer.

At ten minutes per day of prayer and a brief study over 40 years equals 2433 hours. Just a hundred days of my life. But if that were all I would be content. I attended faithful mind you, and also kept the building at times and performed various duties on the lords errand.

Classes to be taught and monies to count and meetings and conferences to attend to. On average I would venture a modest guess at about 7-10 hours per week. Even as a boy there was labor and classes and seminaries to attend. On the low side of 7 hours per week I could safely render an accurate guess of about 806 full days including my morning and evening rituals and not including travel.

And at what point might you expect the lord to show himself in some subtle, fantastic way? Day 807? No. That is the day I had a moment of clarity, skipped meeting and went to the river. It was over. Not one thing had worked as promised, though faithful I had continued all those years. In my mathematical studies I can most frequently determine answers of the most perplexing kind. In religion, no answer given is sufficient to cross the void of truth or evidence. Faith is a manipulative ploy with no end to measure. I will let god proceed and continue what he always favored. Nothing at all. Good day! Jim-TCA

Science Basics, Religion Basics

I could tell you how many times we’ve heard this week that atheists have faith too, but I’d have to re-sift through a mile of apologetic comments to make a count. Contrary to what continues to be parroted, most of science is based on reproducible fact that is no longer theory. Although some of the more advanced ideas are currently in developing phases, most science is provable on a daily basis. Water boils at 212f or 100c at sea level. Every time. Objects fall at 9.8 m/s squared. Every time with wind resistance calculated for mass. If I jump off the 325 foot bridge by my house I will fall 4.49 seconds and travel 81.4 MPH at impact releasing 77,616 joules, since I weigh 75 kilos. Every time. If I want to have my buddy in Norway cast a bronze statue, I can send the alloy formula to him based on a variety of aluminium bronzes of differing compositions and he will make the exact alloy I could make here in Washington. All lab testable for density and purity. Human life requires a tightly controlled pH level in the blood of about 7.4 and during illnesses we can regulate it pretty well with interventions. We also know how the body maintains this homeostasis in great detail. I could go on, but the point is almost everything in our lives today is explainable by science. Pretty good odds someone is getting it mostly right. Except one point. So now it’s your turn. Let’s show some proof on prayer and some proof it works. Ready…..go! If that’s too hard pick another topic. Revelation, faith healing, authenticate your creation story, find some evidence of the Exodus. Ok …go again. Just one. Why is it so hard for religiosos to admit prayer doesn’t work? They all know it doesn’t work! (Except when casting tornados into adjacent neighborhoods) Also, as a side note, religion is also testable for density

Here is a great article researching the efficacy of prayer in a medical setting. Be sure to read to page 2 as it really sums up some of the psychology which prayer may actually be harmful in clinical settings.

Better off Without the Law

Adding burdens to an already busy life is the Christian way. They can’t help but share, but are we better off not knowing? Without the law we cannot come under condemnation from their god?. “Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭4:15‬ ‭KJV‬‬

“So, according to Bible, if you don’t tell me, I am not accountable. So why are you telling me? I have a guess…but please,…

I feel compelled by the sprit to make a word correction to a popular verse. What is promised versus what is real are most often two different things.

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you stress”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭11:28 KJV‬‬

Adding a new form of tactical manipulation filled with ambiguous writings and hidden meaning is not peace. Nor is sifting through endless interpretations excusing archaic morality and promoting divisions a form of rest. Quite possibly at the end of the verse it should say “the rest”. “The rest”of the story is adapting to a new way of life making excuses for unanswered prayer, or excuses for immoral scripture, or belief in 6 day creations, or unicorns and talking snakes, what day is the sabbath, and constant threat of hell and apocalypse. Rest? How about anxiety and non-answers to an already difficult life. Adding a new discipline takes time and effort. Living with Abrahamic religion always ever-present hell threat and manipulation promising relief if you can just “do it right” (if you figure out what that is in 30 years) is not rest. It is psychological tail chasing. And don’t get me started about prayer!! And don’t forget to shake the dust off your feet when you leave.

How we do it?

First we pray and wait for the Holy Spirit to inspire us. Then, based on conflicting messages we choose the answer that best suits us. When things don’t work out we ponder what god really meant, then usually stick with our bad decision based on initial inspiration and ask others to pray too. We don’t want to admit prayer doesn’t work, or give off the message that god is wrong. That would be near blasphemous.

The Way it Was

I, Having been indoctrinated and guided carefully into belief and faith most of my life, and having studies most lengthy and focused in one particular area of religion I have come to the point where the things I believe, even though preposterous, I believe are true. They will stand the test of time and scrutiny, for my knowledge of these beliefs is vast and as solid as the very foundation of reason and right. I cannot be swayed in my faith, for god has shown me through revelation and feelings and the persuasion of his servants the truth, and now it is my obligation to share that truth with you. To push and persuade you to believe as I believe because I am right! My singular disciplinary approach has not given me the “well rounded” preposterous man made knowledge base to blend experience of the world and science causing a man made “common sense”, but my knowledge is directly linked to god through his prophets by his holy word. How can you doubt the truth when it is the most useful thing in the world to maintain order and peace? Through fantastic miracle, god has used regular men to convey his word in a most uncanny and unlikely fashion. He has used deplorable sinners, forgery, and money grubbing lying preachers to pass his truths and to preserve his words for all the world. Who could do this but a god? Who could circumvent the physical world and the learning of men in such a way as to bind their very tongues with his absolute truth and authority and perfection? My presuppositional truth will dare to challenge your very existence with an ambiguous, morally elastic, fraudulent piece of imperfect, infallible literature that causes the entire world to endless conjecture and debate. You will believe this “one” all perfect god has revealed himself, not to all his subjects, but to only those few that believe in him without any proof of existence. Neither spiritual nor physical evidence is needed. You will believe based on my word and the confusion the words create. You will believe in spite of doubt because of fear and persuasion of the most loving kind. This is the blindness of faith in gods. This is where a person stays without careful scrutiny of the facts and an ounce of self awareness. This is the prison of fear to peek outside the lens if faith and see the world is not as they said, and the courage to see inside the faith is not what they said either. This is the nonsense of being raised in faith. Professing wisdom they remain fools.

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” -Aristotle

“You have the right to defend the belief that you are right, but in the end belief is not truth. Why is appearing to be right and self validation more important than truth?” You have nothing to offer to the discussion when all you have is belief. Jim

Cherubims, Flaming Sword, Tree of Life In Bible Codes

TCA Newsflash

2-4-2018

Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan from google earth. Potential site of Garden of Eden has the arial appearance of marijuana, shedding additional light on what really happened with Adam and Eve.

Recently discovered clues in Bible codes apparently transcend one language translation to the next, proving god works in mysterious ways including in Japanese. Using a new supercomputer Tokyo biblical scholars have cracked a code in Genesis 3:24 from the New Interconfessional Version translated from the KJVe specifically to align with Japanese culture. The English text clearly shows an accurate description of what actually happened at the end of Adam and Eves tumultuous departure from the garden. It reads as follows.

“So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3:24‬ ‭KJV‬‬

The New Interconfessional Version reads like this.

“かみは人ひとを追おい出だ

し、エデンの園そのの東ひがし

に、ケルビムと、回まわる炎ほのお

のつるぎとを置おいて、命いのち

の木きの道みちを守まも

らせられた”

As you can clearly see from the Japanese translation the Cherubims and the flaming sword mentioned in verse 24, and using every second syllable of every fourth word identifies the exact location of the east end of the garden of eden. (If you missed it, don’t forget horizontal Japanese is read right to left) The CFOBR (Center For Oriental Bible Research) has a team of experts on the ground in two unspecified location in Canada. Wikileaks’s has identified a previous location and researchers are investigating the correlation. One team is at a bakery in Vancouver, the other in Saskatchewan.

Why Does The Word Worship Bother Me so Much?

Images of myself sitting at someone’s feet in continuous homage while they express their love to me as I obey their every desire. Prostrating routinely as they enter my presence so I can give sips of wine and hand feed grapes placing one at a time in the mouth of a superior being while softly singing songs of praise and greatness. Blessed be thy name oh holy god. All the while being very conscious not to mention any of the other gods, for my sweet everlasting is a jealous god and vengeance is looming. Eternal reverence and adoration. How heavenly as we look down at all the suffering fools that didn’t believe while coddling the majesty. Anyone want to join me in worship? 6:00 Tuesday PST. BYOB.

American Atheist Converted at Medjugorje, Bosnia

One of my very best friends went to the pilgrimage at Medjugorje, Bosnia while vacationing about five years ago to see Our Lady of MedjugorjeHe went as a skeptic. I want to give you just a short history of one of the smartest people I know. He has the best memory recall of anyone I have ever met, loves to study the sciences and religion and many other disciplines, and he is currently active in coaching and teaching at a collegiate level.

He went up to Medjugore completely convinced it was nonsense and looking to see what all the talk was about. He came down as a believer. He saw the apparitions and the images dancing in the sun. He could look directly at the sun and suffered nothing. He felt something special he can’t explain. Raised catholic but operated as an atheist since late teens. Now he is an active catholic and a 100% believer. He can’t explain it. Can you? I can’t help but believe there is a logical or psychological explanation. One thing I do know, the Catholic Church regards the first visit to the children a miracle. They are remaining skeptical about the continued messages delivered by Mary.

Phil also stated that “not everyone that goes sees it. Only those meant to see it I guess” Another question I would pose, do people that have no prior knowledge of the site see the miracles? It’s not obvious what your mind is going to do with the stored knowledge and expectations or reservations of any specific event. Here is some good read and video if you haven’t seen it, and this is an email answer I got from Professor Taboo. “Bottom-line? Neurological and endocrinological explanations are quite plausible in all cases of ‘paranormal’ activity and visions/hallucinations. The pilgrimmage/hike in Medjugorje, Bosnia contributes to those physiological conditions…. as they do in other parts of the world. When large groups/crowds all participate/perform the “worship” together, it makes it all even MORE intense — the Placebo-effect.”

Further reading and Other Insights

Believers and Make-Believers – Is there a difference?

Believers in Make-Believe were congratulating themselves after two hours of debating and attempted grandeur. Is it possible to “win” a debate when all if your evidence is complete horse shit and smug showmanship? I read where John Lennox “wiped the floor ” with Dawkins. With what? Make-believe? The pluralistic ignorance of religion is strong. has some sweet history of success in other arenasNorth Korea is the current leader several Muslim countries all tied for 2nd place. Keep moving and agree. It’s safe there. But nowhere on earth can beat the USA in pluralistic ignorance about biblical histories that have been debunked years ago. Accepting fraudulence is a way of life for make-believers. Remember the story that broke about gold plated chariot wheels found in the Red Sea. “What they found strewn across the bottom of the reed sea has shaken the religious and scientific community,” says Rood. “Cameras mounted on remote-controlled submarines revealed coral-encrusted chariot parts, horse and human remains strewn like battlefield wreckage on the bottom of the reed sea.” Years later they are still working the story which was fake news. Snopes. But there are new stories still on the web pushing this. Is it only here you can “be all that you can be” by hanging on to the disproved and claim a cover up is hiding the truth. Only in Christianity can you quote gospel commandments as gods law given to a prophet that didn’t exist. If you’re wondering “am I the only one?” No. You’re not!

Branyan Apologist

TCA Newsflash

2-1-2018

Christian apologist and ego-fed blogger John Branyan made the pages of the world renown Urban Dictionary today from his Indiana home. Branyan, famous among locals as the “little apologist that could”, had few words for reporters, which is rare for the “eager pleaser of the man from Nazareth”. Fame and notoriety are nothing new for the man known as “Brain Yawn”, in certain blogging circles. Branyan Apologist! It’s official! Congratulations John. Although not accustomed to having anything approved, Urban Dictionary set a new approval speed record of 28 seconds. Seems they knew you were coming, lurking, watching, waiting to pounce and mine out any potential opportunity for conjecture. Congratulations!

Famous Apparitions

How much more proof do you need?

Family Farm

I know some of you are animal lovers. For 3507 years now my family has been keeping a pretty big flock of a mixture of special animals. We saved them as kind of a hobby. When the book of Job came out, Behemoths became the rage. My dad bought one at an auction and he’s had it ever since. He said it may be a collectible some day. Man he got that right. I don’t think it will ever die. The thing is cursed or something. Our hay bill is outrageous, but since we feed it instead of tithing it’s probably cheaper in the long run. I did some sketches since they don’t like being photoed. Ever since dads daguerreotype caught on fire they hide from the camera.

He also bought a Leviathan as a baby. We kept it in a small pool so it didn’t get big. They’re like goldfish and stay small if you hold back the food and keep the pool small. It’s a nasty little thing but dad likes it since it talks a lot. I’m pretty sure this would be the beast from revelation, so keeping it small is probably the best thing.

When dad was just a kid he picked up a serpent looking thing in the garden. He says it used to talk to him, but sometimes I just think dad talked to it a lot when he was little. It’s about as smooth as a used car salesman though.

His pet dragon is the coolest of them all. Frickin thing is ancient and still lays eggs. I was raised on them. We never need matches or anything. I tried to get dad to convert its stall to a thermal breathing heater but he never did. All that energy wasted all these years. He says he bought it from a guy on Patmos Island? Where is that any way?

Well, there’s more but I have to go out and feed. I lost a finger last week to that fuckin cockatrice so I feed it last just to piss it off. Little bastard!

Gods Morals versus Humanist Morals

“The greatest insult to humanism is that man needs a god in order to have a moral framework. The moral framework that comes from god is always tested against mans own morals and the idea that we don’t know right from wrong. But then we have to take it from words dictated from a rather hot-headed neurotic desert tribe is just insulting” -Stephen Fry. It’s so easy even a comedian gets it!

The humanist morals compared to the morals of the nomadic tribe? Hmm

Secular humanism. “The philosophy or life stance of secular humanism embraces human reason, ethics, social justice, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, pseudoscience, and superstition as the bases of morality and decision making”.

It is painstakingly ridiculous to sift through an archaic and divisive text dictated by a cruel nomadic desert tribe thousands of years ago to determine which is moral or immoral for our time. Theirs was an immoral and violent time that would not pass any litmus test of decency today.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” ~Albert Einstein

But imagination with knowledge……Unimaginable–TCA

Masterpiece!

This here piece from my Ugandan connection to the atheist world. Dr. Seggy just gave a perfect glimpse to religious devotion. Well worth your time! Bravo Doc! Sometimes someone else just nails it for you!

Panama Apocalypse

It happened again. A 5.7 quake in Los Santos Province of Panama near my home there. The world is ending and god is coming to wipe out the sinners and wrap the believers in his arms for eternal hugs and stuff like that. My evangelical neighbors down there are hoping to be alive to see it all play out. And they hope its soon and they will be lifted up in rapture to god while massive bloodshed and revenge and vengeance for all those wicked homosexuals and atheists unfolds. Not sure why they want to be around to see all the carnage other than the mind of a blood-cult, pious, holier-than-thou baptist saint shouting out SEE, SEE. We told you so!

I think if god existed he would judge Christians for the way they treat gays and unbelievers and other faiths. One of their core tenets is that in the end god is coming to destroy all of us. They pray for it. They welcome it. It’s in the doctrine. Meanwhile nothing gets solved while they sit and wait behind a line of piety drawn in the sand of self righteous racism and bigotry. They fight every social advancement and scientific progression. That’s who they are. That’s why I write!

Were Abraham and Muhammad Primatologists?

What distinguishes Abrahamic Religion from the apes? The apes could not write their ideas of territory, food, male dominance, and sex into law. It was all about protecting what they had and staying at the top of the clan.

Mixing Science and Faith

Maybe Christianity could adapt some scientific principles. They could claim it as gospel like they did paganism and mythology. But I don’t believe the two will ever mix because science is unprejudiced. Don’t forget their core! They are waiting and praying for god to come back and slaughter all the rest of us. That little tidbit says a lot about how they really feel. It’s a religion that is divisive and racist and prejudice to its core, and piety sets dividing lines to fight every step of social equality or scientific advance.

Wrought for Change

Sounds like the humanist-pig natives lost this round. Columbus wrote “the natives are so naïve and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone.”

He also wrote,

“I believe that they would easily be made Christians, because it seemed to me that they had no religion.”

“The European settlers took a free society without possessions, property, currency, hierarchy or written religion and replaced it with today’s America – the world’s shining beacon of selfish materialism, where every square inch of land/water/airspace is publicly or privately owned, taxed, and governed through a corrupt hierarchical system of laws and regulations where Mother Nature’s gifts are treated as personal possessions to be bought, sold, owned and defended. Howard Zinn “A people’s history of the United States ”

They also threw religion at their feet and forced them to comply or die.They stripped them of their heritage and language and families, and stole all that was left of their land and resources. It amazes me that there is one Native American or African Native Christian on the entire planet that carries on in this belief system that destroyed their beautiful ways of life. It is beyond me. I’ve had this question on the back burner for several years. Long before I was an atheist it amazed me how enthusiastically the black and native communities embrace Christianity. Why? How was this done?

The Requermiento, a document that offered the Indians a choice between salvation and slavery, helped the Spanish “benevolently” force various Indian groups into the missions. The basic mission plan for Catholic missionaries followed a structure repeated by later groups and based on Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, which outlined a plan for Christian communities. Mission life revolved around and resembled rural European Christianity as much as possible, creating communities of Indians who ate, slept, and worked under the aegis of Christianity. Most missions had compulsory attendance at matins and masses, required all able bodies to work within the mission, and set up systems of governance using the patriarchal family as a model. Every day, Indians went to matins, worked in the fields, went back to church, worked in the fields, and then went home to a system where fathers and men ruled and met as councils, mimicking European societies more than biblical ones.

Essentially by eliminating the non compliant, it turned into generational compliance by remaining natives. Why are they still in it? And particularly, why are African Americans still in it so strongly? We all know their history here.

Richard Dawkins on The Cosmos

“Even if we don’t understand how it came into existence, it’s not helpful to postulate a creator because a creator is the very kind of thing that needs its own explanation. It’s a hell of a lot harder the explain how a god came into existence than to explain how a simplicity came into existence”.

Oxford Museum of Natural History Dawkins vs Lennox

Fascinating Deconvert of Islam

I read this tonight, and knowing very little about Islam it was fascinating to read some of his posts to see an inside view of a different than Christianity twist from an Iranian Atheist. Very interesting read. http://decentatheist.com/2018/01/24/why-is-god-so-angry/

Why do Hard When Simple is Hard Enough?

I used to write a lot of songs and they just kept getting more and more complex, when finally my buddy said, “why do hard when simple is hard enough”? Musicians have made great music with two and three chord songs. Simple is beautiful. Perfecting simple is outstanding.

It is easy to get mired down in the weight of all the information trying to sway you this way and that. Try this: Go someplace quiet. Throw all your preconceptions and indoctrinations in a big pile and burn it. Think what it would be like to face everything you ever learned about religion was a lie. It’s a pill that needs to be swallowed. Think how easy this is without someone trying to influence you in order to validate themselves. Try to show a little self awareness and open your mind. You don’t need convincing circular conjecture and apologetics to know the truth. The truth rarely needs a footnote, or, an explanation to an explanation. You can’t justify one iota of doctrine, or one miracle or prayer unanswered without rationalizing the deficiency of god or being outright deceived. The cliches don’t solve your problem. They are these; “You pray in your time, and god answers in his time”. “We can’t imagine the wisdom of god”, or “He is testing your faithfulness. We just can’t comprehend god”, or “he wasn’t meant to be healed because god is testing his faith”. Why would god need to do that? These are some of the most common excuses for god, passed on from generation to generation. When you look at the objectives there is nothing here but excuses and ambiguous text of archaic language allowing for multiple interpretation and confusion. By design.

I know. I was in it for 50 years and nothing added up. I had several “spiritual” experiences that were based on lies. Positive emotion is not the holy spirit testifying to you. Feeling good by passing off your responsibilities to another entity is psychological feel good. Nothing more. Nothing has changed but the feeling someone is watching over you. They aren’t.

You don’t have to know the science behind it. I didn’t. All you have to do is face the reality that you might be wrong, and look at the failures of religion openly and honestly. It’s about three things. Power, control, and money. Every institution is corrupt. You think religion has escaped unscathed? Hell, they’re the ones that initiated all the corruption. Pointing fingers, deflecting and distracting. The devil has no horns. That is the trick. The devil wears a suit and tie and holds a microphone. Quit making excuses for gods and failed preachers and let’s start working towards something productive instead of wasting millennia of time running in circles chasing hidden meaning of ancient writing that doesn’t come true.

Why do hard when simple is hard enough? Life is pretty peaceful since dumping the hope of an invisible being that instills guilt and racism and has a history of mass destruction and murder. Why do hard when simple is where you find true peace. That is a motto to live by.

The Gods are Doin Their Thing

I’m a little upset with Boreas today. Snow is too wet and trees are down all over the property. Hoping all of my Dryads are safe and sound. I checked my Yggdrasil and it is doing ok. Yggdrasil is my immense mythical tree that connects the nine worlds in Norse cosmology.

And the turkeys came for a visit while I was cutting two trees off the road to the house. They love dinner rolls.

Thank Artemis they are good. Today I am a god. The god of snow shoveling.

2 James 6-9 found! New scripture Predicts Trump

I came across these while rummaging through some old papyrus I found in the basement.

6 Thus saith the LORD, Verily verily I say unto you in the last days one shall rise up in a choice land across the great waters and perform secret works of darkness upon all nations of the earth. And in those days all men shall use one voice to be heard every man in his own tongue like a river to every dwelling upon the face of the earth.

7 And secret works of darkness, and lascivious defilers of their own selves at war with many nations. And no man shall know the truth as all things are confusion and strife with knowledge abounding and fleeting truth as a slippery serpent.

8 Many shall cry lo here, and lo there, as the death of all nations creeps inward, the groaning earth will rock to and fro like a ship tossed on the waves of the deep. And the rulers of men work secret combinations to ensnare all the inhabitants of the earth with gold and with silver and with precious stones while blackness pours from all the deep places filling the earth with smoke and dust in all the waste places where no man shall hide.

9. Hear ye, hear ye children of the most high god. Repent for the hour is nigh that all the valleys will be raised up, and all the mountains shall be swallowed to the great depths, and all those that slumber shall open the earth wielding the sword of justice to all those that cast their lots for the son of evil masking as righteousness as the dawn trump sounds, boasting in the wisdom of a fool.

10 If any man adds or takes away from these sayings, blessed be his name for creativity sake. Hell why not? The scribes did it all the time. Interpretation is the key to good scripture. On an interesting note, neither America or the internet are in the Bible. How did they miss that? It’s ok. I fixed it.

Sex – vs – Violence

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone talk about a movie and say “there are no sex scenes, only violence”. Viewing killing has just become a way of life I guess, and what comes natural to all species is sinful to lay eyes on. Studies show most people have to be trained to kill. The military uses simulations and repetitive virtual killing of humans to condition soldiers to “hit” enemy combatants. In WWI and WWII trigger pulls per soldier were quite low, along with soldiers not aiming at the enemy. Essentially having to be trained to kill. “S.L.A Marshall did a study on the firing rates of soldiers in World War II. He found that the ratio of rounds fired vs. hits was low; he also noted that the majority of soldiers were not aiming to hit their targets. This was a problem for the US military and its allies during World War II. Soldiers were reluctant to kill another human even while under attack. New training implements were developed and hit rates improved. The changes were small, but effective. First, instead of shooting at bulls-eye type targets, the U.S. Army switched to silhouette targets that mimic an average human and killing increased dramatically. After implementing virtual reality simulation, and research shows that the more virtual people you kill, the easier it is to devalue other human life. A high percentage of soldiers today have killed thousands of people before ever enlisting in the military. Kids today are a shoe-in for high trigger pull ratios as they are desensitized to the reality of how horrific killing naturally is. They’ve already done it. Is war like a video game? Prince Harry of Wales thinks so. The Telegraph reported that Prince Harry compared piloting an Apache to playing a video game. He said,

“It’s a joy for me because I’m one of those people who loves playing PlayStation and Xbox, so with my thumbs I like to think I’m probably quite useful,” prince Harry stated. As a downtown medic I was on the front lines of urban death far too long. I remember my first, and I remember the last and every single one in between. The violence leaves a wake of panic and hysteria to the family left behind tying to make sense of it. It is ugly and senseless.

So, sex is labeled throughout the pious world as the great sin, while violence gets a pass. Hell, it even makes you a star!

Where is the Insane Asylum??

This must be the new go to argument against atheism. Twice in two days. I just learned from A bit of Orange that because I don’t eat my young I have already rejected atheism and I’m ready to be saved. Don’t bother checking his site as he blocks any comments he can’t answer. Here ya go.

“I don’t doubt that you and your family love each other. I merely point out that atheism offers no basis to give value to love or priority to your duties as a parent or spouse. On atheism, there is no good and evil, so the difference between loving your children or killing and eating them differs only in the normative evolutionary path our species has taken thus far, and the moral code AGAINST killing one’s children forced on western culture by the Biblical worldview. Other animals eat their young, why should YOU not do so if we are merely animals as Atheism claims?

Also, your love for each other is merely chemical brain states, such as being hungry. When you tell your children you love them, then if they were REALLY atheists, they ought to respond, “Oh, you are?”

Here’s my point- if you love your family and know that loving them is BETTER than killing and eating them, then you have already rejected Atheism. I believe you do love your family. I just want you to see that you are already rejecting atheism. After that, you may see that you have a heavenly father who loves you, and is waiting for you to come home”.

#JesusLovesYou

And JB poses this beauty only in order to sidetrack the conversation as he does. “Where do you get the idea that Christians shouldn’t kill natives”? Because of evolution and atheism we we would actually justify the stronger spaniards in killing pacifist natives that don’t comprehend killing. It wasn’t natural for them, and he can’t see that it is unnatural to use a law/bible to justify slaughter.

He doesn’t really know that it is mostly natural to not kill. Only a law splitting Christian can master that.

Why would anyone reject a humanist view that protects life and promotes freedom better than religion?

i would like to explore a solid answer to these thoughts though.

H.G. Wells

“Investigations into the beginnings of religion have accumulated steadily throughout the past half century. It is only by great efforts of censorship, by sectarian education of an elaborately protected sort, and the like, that ignorance about them is maintained.”

H. G. Wells

Might is not Right

Bartolome De Las Casas sailed to the “New World” in 1502 and recorded many of the things he saw in his book, “The Devastation of the Indies”: Quote – “With my own eyes I saw Spaniards cut off the nose, hands and ears of Indians, male and female, without provocation, merely because it pleased them to do it … Likewise, I saw how they summoned the caciques and the chief rulers to come, assuring them safety, and when they peacefully came, they were taken captive and burned … (The Spaniards) took babies from their mothers’ breasts, grabbing them by the feet and smashing their heads against rocks … They built a long gibbet, low enough for the toes to touch the ground and prevent strangling, and hanged thirteen at a time in honor of Christ Our Savior and the twelve Apostles …

Then, straw was wrapped around their torn bodies and they were burned alive … When the Spaniards had collected a great deal of gold from the Indians, they shut them up in three big houses, crowding in as many as they could, then set fire to the houses, burning alive all that were in them, yet those Indians had given no cause nor made any resistance …They would cut off an Indian’s hands and leave them dangling by a shred of skin … they would test their swords and their manly strength on captured Indians and place bets on the slicing off of heads or cutting of bodies in half with one blow.”

On every island Columbus ‘discovered’ he planted a cross, claiming ownership for his Spanish Catholic patrons.

I do think the spaniards were doing there religious duty here according to Ezekiel. “When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.”

‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭3:18‬ ‭KJV‬

The Finite Human Mind Cannot Comprehend

I’ve heard this one before, but I just want to know who gets to determine what I can comprehend? I think we’re ready now. Go ahead. Explain it.

Now I know how few people depend on Answers dot com for their religious questions, but this did get 7200 confidence votes from a guy named fowl1. Good job. Thanks for the material Christians.

Wednesday Affirmation

Hubble Captures Distant Images of Temples on Other Planets

According to an anonymous insider, The Vatican along with NASA’s HST division are withholding critical images proving that Mormonism is indeed more than a world religion. God has created “worlds without number” and recent Hubble images have captured LDS temples in other distant solar systems. LDS temple alignment and curious symbolism is literally a “modern day Mormon stargate “. Below are some codings in alignment from specific LDS temple architecture.

LDS officials routinely open these gates using a stellar map and detailed compass aligned with a curious sword that was deposited in the Hill Cumorah in upstate New York and retrieved by the prophet Joseph Smith.

Officials state ” we’ve had the answers for quite some time”, although common members are not currently participating in intergalactic travel because of “unbelief”, Church officials do commonly visit other planets to coordinate the various second coming scenarios soon to unfold.

“There’s only one Jesus, so these things take a little planning “. LDS doctrine teach “Christ’s atonement was for all of gods children, and in the big picture, that is a lot of worlds and a lot of people that need saving”.

Current leadership is also in pursuit of the Erdapfel globe. “We want it back”, for as rumored the globe is not a 15th century creation, but a much older relic of precolombian mesoamerican mormonism.

Why Fasting is Important

The first Sunday of each month the LDS have fast and testimony meeting. Members fast 24 hours as a general rule. Typically you would have dinner the night before, skip two full meals, than have dinner again the following evening. Somewhere between the 15-20 hour mark you’d have your testimony meeting. Mormons tout the health benefits and spiritual awareness of fasting, but rarely is the caveat considered. Fasting alters brain chemistry and sugar uptake Opening brain fazes to a more programmable state. During this drowsy state of weakened physiology you listen to 20 or so people tell you they know the church is true, and other anecdotal Mormon doctrine and testimony. The science of Physiology works! So does monthly brainwashing.

Howler Monkeys

I took these shots from five feet away with a banana in one hand. Normally very difficult getting a dark body against the sky. These were just above eye level. 

Half Is Not Enough! Game of Acquiesce

Staring at me every day is a couple of glaring missteps in the religious model. Hearsay and opinion are the driving force of modern faith, and you only need to know the key points. But the devil is in the details. The text is incomplete and the revelations too vague. The origins are muddied with folklore and fable, and mythology is mixed with faith and canonized doctrine overrun with philosophy. The TV preacher will say, “see how god has done this”. No, sir, you have done this! The world has rejected reasonable good sense to pursue charlatan promises about a half read book with a large comment section, while most of the text is kept hidden away from public knowledge

Imagine any philosopher, or physicist or anything deciding they had learned all they needed to know halfway through freshman year quitting before fully comprehending anything! Religion is a kid that just got his yellow belt and wants to show off his karate. He doesn’t know enough to know he doesn’t know enough. But like most faithfuls he will quit the lessons and go on doing roundhouses in front of his buddies. Theist have a bible. An incomplete book of fragments and copies mixed with myth and folklore and a little paganism just to make it friendly. You read through it with a few friends, hear their testimonies and Boom! That’s all you need to know to start preaching. And usually a lot less. This is the wisdom that creates a klan. That is a dangerous juncture to start wielding the sword of righteousness judgement. That is zeal without knowledge. The other side of the coin is the “rather be safe than sorry approach” of Pascal, which is actually a game of acquiesce. You lose your fight and thirst for knowledge when you accept something reluctantly without protest and just give in to it. Just because. They make it too easy. All you have to do accept the free gift. Have you ever gotten a free gift with no forms, no obligation, no strings? No brainer, right? Click here and give your life away along with thinking for yourself. But that’s the way it is. I guess anything worth doing is usually just too hard. And learning takes time.

The LDS system turns kids out to proselytize before they can say boo. But they’ve memorized the key points. They get you into the temple to make lifelong covenants, without even telling you what you will be promising. Then as a large reverent group full of family and friends all raise your hand and make the oaths. If you won’t do it, you stand to be dismissed in front of the group. Who does that? They have to agree before they know what they are agreeing too. Total bullshit. Should be illegal honestly. But that’s the way christianity works. Get everybody to buy into it before they have the knowledge.

These columns are approx 4 light years tall from the vantage point of the Hubble. Awesome!

Really?

It’s not even a very good hoax. Who is it that leaves all their sensibility at the door for a poorly written hearsay of a long ago past? It is now the grown equivalent of a massive federation bureaucracy driven by incoherent laws with rogue outposts crying “lo here” and “lo there”. Their making this stuff up! The only thing keeping it afloat are the gullibles that won’t look at real knowledge to change it, and the other passengers that are driving the ship with the zeal of a half eaten library book. Just the way it was planned.

Sunday I have a very special post that would appreciate your input. Thanks so much.

Snowy Winter Eve

It’s a great day to be alive!

Twenty feet out the back door. I love this place!

Priests and the Gutenberg Bible

Reading Victor Hugo’s “Hunchback of Notre Dame” published in 1831, and he breaks away on a sideline narrative to explain how the priests were afraid the printing press was going to replace the pulpit. Priests were in fear that everyone else could read their own Bible. Why? Wonder how they feel now, almighty google scholar? But with all the knowledge in the world available to us, has the information made the majority any smarter? When the words “look it up” are deemed too critical or offensive we have a problem. The level of apathy towards sound learning and reason is astounding. At least we still have the priests to tell us what it all means.

Where two or three are gathered…parody

“Where two or three are gathered together, there will I be also”. These could be Jehovahs Witnesses missionaries, but one didn’t stay behind in the car. Below is a lone set of footprints. This one is ripe for poetry as the lord carried this turkey through his trials.

Turkey tracks always point the way back home. What a beautiful allegory! I just love how god shows us his power through natures wonders!

I have a lot of turkey and deer poop in the yard during winter. Our house is a safe zone and we feed them. Winters here are pretty hard. I am an Atheist.

Debunking Untruisms

“There are no atheists in fox holes”. Truth –“there are no foxholes without theism”.

What to buy next?

When I commented the other day on a blog comparing the fallacy of atheism compared to Christianity, the guy fired back that I sound like a disciple of Dawkins and Ehrman, and then he blocked me. But the truth is, I have never read either of them. If the reasons I left faith are the same as they’ve written about, I guess you can figure it out on your own using you good old fashioned brain, minus what’s lacking in religion with sugarcoated faith. Prayers don’t get answered. Ever! But you all know the excuses. “God knows best”, or “he’s just testing your faith” or ” you pray in our time, but god answers in his time”. B frickin S! Then the scripture is an elastically moral fraud that demands ones full attention and years of endless debate and conjecture. The unsolvable religious Rubiks’s cube. I gave it my full attention. The reason I left is simple. Things never added up the way they were supposed to. Nothing made sense unless it was explained over and over. Then someone would explain the explanation so the explanation made sense. But in the end it is a charade that people believe only because they want to. They feel the need to. If you have a quiet few days you can figure this out. Looks like I need to buy some Dawkins and Ehrman? I really got a lot from John Zande’s 2 books and am science and physics fan. What should I read next as a relative newbie?

Closet Arsonists

Mom died a few years back, and at 80 years old my dad remarried. His new wife is a very devout Mormon and her testimony is so powerful. She said, “I just know what I know. I don’t know why, but I just know this church is the true church, and when I know something I just know it”. Let me tell you something else this big, bright, child of god knows because she learned it at church. She knows that “gay men are closet arsonists”. That’s right. Arsonists! “They may not always start fires, but they want to, and that’s why they’re called “flamers”. LDS Relief Society teaching manuals may not carry the message, but it may even be worse that the faithful can have these ideas and beliefs on their own! Big problem with belief vs fact and reason. So, what do you call a fat pompous know-it-all bigot? Well, sometimes you call her mom. Everyone has someone in their life don’t they?

Selling What We Already Have

I have laid low these past few years since my deconversion. My mind works like a good stew, and then it’s ready to go. I generally take my time with things, especially after being controlled by those I thought I could trust for so long. Essentially duped by the duped. Funny now, but wow! Having just finished a couple of good books by John Zande these past few weeks, my mind has been working out a concise summary of what struck me profoundly. So without giving too much away, here is one point I have milled in my mind to a chiseled point. Every element from hydrogen to uranium, every molecule and atom, every cell and creature is in a naturally constant state of anxiety. Each one is desperately trying to stay together, to hang on for another day. It is this drive and desire that pushes to new boundaries. Defenses continue to mount and stretch the elements ability to cope and survive. To grow. To evolve. Every bit if matter has this inherent drive to hang on. Hope is the card that religion plays. And they play it well. Hope for eternal life after death. Hope to continue on. Hope things get better. But hope is something we already have. It is in us already. So why do we need to buy it? Fear. Abrahamic religions attach fear to something that is natural and unavoidable. Then they offer the solution. Meanwhile everything in this state of panic is dying and death, struggle and change, and anxiety. Pure, perfect evil if you would. And when you are done with this struggle for existence you die. Miserably decomposing and holding on till another day, but the final outcome is without question. When we observe this creation it is fair to assume the mind and disposition of this perfect creator. If there is a god and this is his doing, then he is enjoying the suffering and delights himself in the misery of all of the elements. Including man. I choose not to believe in deities. The evidence is compelling that no good god would have done this. He is either incompetent or he is malicious. There is much, much more to be taken from Mr. Zande in these two books, and I highly recommend these for every avid learner that wants to challenge what he thinks he knows. It is a fresh look that flies in the face of “god is good”, and has compelling evidence and good supportive reasoning and science. But the conclusions will be left to you.

The Double Slit- A Practical Application

Most of you are familiar with the double slit experiment in physics where photons change their behavior and properties merely because they are being observed. It’s just barely more detailed than that, but if you’re not up to speed in armchair physics click HERE for a five minute cartoon summary. What physicists fail to realize is we’ve been watching this behavior in the theological sciences for many years with much bigger particles than quantum mechanics. In fact, entire organisms have displayed the “particle duality” phenomena. The quantum model of the universe has been masterfully hidden… Right in plain sight!

“What do you mean” you say? If you “observe” Theists they behave predictable and conform to well established patters. But alas, when alone the behavior becomes less predictable. The pattern becomes unpredictable. But a new super secret recording device has been remotely observing this phenomenon. Google has surpassed Shakira with a new number one hit “Their clicks don’t lie”. Without any prejudice they have found the highest population of religious coincide with the highest use of hetero and gay porn based on clicks per 1000 in population. Utah and Mississippi neck and neck for first place. But when they are under normal observation there in no indication that they are randomly straying off the detection screen. So (c1)<c2= p=hx2) = (piety =hypocrisy squared) And I thought they were anti porn. Hmm.

So physicists are right after all. What can be discovered in the quantum world is a predictor of what we already find in the macro world. We just had to look in plain sight. This is why they say—

Why do you always take two Mormons fishing with you? If you only take one he’ll drink all your beer.

Inside Out

Usually you all know nothing about how your efforts here in presenting Atheism and Humanism can affect just one person once in a while. But you all have stuck with it. I see many familiar names from when I was posting religious spew on your blogs a few years back. I was pretty nice about it but was curious too. Having my own belief questions I wanted to see how my arguments stood up outside of the faith. I tried to have an open mind and really see things from another vantage point.

One day I was asking some questions and interjecting my beliefs, and I mentioned I was really just trying to understand but would never leave religion. Violet (I think was the name) jumped in and said “you will”. “That if I really was serious about learning about life outside of faith that I would eventually leave it”. That really stuck with me and I stewed on it for quite a while. She knew if I saw what was real outside of that lens that I would at least know a decision had to be made. Believe it or don’t believe it. It was a choice! How right she was! That moment was pivotal in my deconversion.

I have always sought truth the best I know how. I don’t care to be right, I just want the truth wherever that may be. If I’m wrong I’ll admit it. I won’t defend a position I know in my head is wrong. That moment started a long search outside of the church and its approved doctrines and materials. Actually took about three weeks of full time searching and trying to justify staying in the faith. Once I peeked at the reality and reasoning there was no going back. After 50 years of church and Jesus I walked away. My wife and kids were in Panama City on vacation during that time. When they came back to the jungle I told them what I wanted to do and why. My wife had done her own looking and promptly agreed. We gathered up all of our church crap, the manuals and home school religious items and scriptures and burned it all. I burned books! Never regretted it for one moment. Free baby!

Anyway, I just wanted to thank you all for your insights and mentoring me in your blood soaked heathenistic pagan smart ass ways. Sometimes good sense does rule the day. Life without church is life indeed! Glad somebody told me! Is an excellent example of how I felt. Thanks Shiarrael!

Where is Violet anyway? Haven’t seen her in quite a while. Give her my regards if any of you know her.

Born Theists Lite Version

Bill the Bad Atheist has a short follow up over at his site if you want to take a peek. Be curious to see what some of you have to say. My overall feeling on the topic is we are comparing something with nothing, and wind up with a riddle as an answer.

Evidence Evolving in Space

NASA has released some interesting data about Scott Kelly and his year-long stint at the ISS. Although more data will be forthcoming, early statements seem to chalk one up for the good guys. A drastic change of environment seems to accelerate some evolutionary processes. Here is a quote from NASA

“the chemical modifications that were seen in Scott’s DNA during the trip in space returned to normal once he came back to Earth. The same thing happened around the midpoint of the study for Mark’s end, which led scientists to believe that genes are actually sensitive to changing environments.

NASA found that there are hundreds of unique genetic mutations for both Scott and Mark”.

Also stated were changes in sizes and shapes of red and white blood cells.

Imagining the implications here I thought this was pretty big.

Acronyms and DSRD

I was training a newly hired EMT to enter his reports in the computer, and shortly after writing a practice report we got a call to go out for an MVC. We transported a minor injury patient to the hospital and since the new guy tech’d the call, he wrote the notes. Medical people use a ton of acronyms, and as I was reviewing his report I noticed some strange ones I’d never seen before. He stated ” PT found in FPS, A/O X4 PWD, airway intact. Pt with MLLUA and ALSOF. I thought “huh”? I called him back to the office for a minute to explain. “Oh, FPS is front passenger seat”. And MLLUA is mild laceration left upper arm”, and ALSOF is “abrasion left side of face”. I said “Aaron you can’t just make shit up on these reports. No one knows what these mean except you”. There is a long list of accepted acronyms and I gave him a copy to work from. Heres a small sample.

Aaron appears to be mixing religion and work here, since “make it up as you go” is a common tool for building credible rapport in the churches.

I’ve heard some faith promoting whoppers during my time in the church. I felt the spirit (emotion) over outright lies and fabrications. I’ve seen the faithful tie silly things together that show god is with them every step of the way. From found car keys to successful surgeries, god gets the credit. When things don’t go your way he gets a free pass. If uncle Eddy survives the heart attack,”praise god”! If he dies, god took him home to heaven. He knows what’s best for you. Right?

WARNING– What you about to read might cause you to think.

Preachers tell lies and twist stories to convince you that god is real and their religions are right. They desperately want you to believe what they believe. They will tell you things to drive your emotions. That feeling is not the spirit. It is a manipulation tactic to get devotion and keep you in faith to give themselves power and money. Do not believe it. You have been tricked by professionals that prey on people during vulnerable times in their lives. Do not buy it. You already possess everything they have to offer. It’s already in you. You can do this without the bs of a religious dogma. Waiting for god to answer your prayers is a waste of time. Time that could be spent working out your own future, free of charge and free of mental bondage.

DSRD = dumb stuff religions do

Faith + Fiction = Miracles. Here have a bible

Another End is Just Around the Corner

Just got off the phone with a baptist-gringo buddy of mine in Panama and the end of the world is most likely 2018. According to him and his sources, Edgar Cayce, Baba Vanga, and Nostradamus all have pointed to 2018 as the destruction year. The west coast will disappear and the east coast will have just a handful of people left. They said this 4.5 earthquake off the coast of Panama last week was proof all the upheaval is starting. They are not worried. In their smugness they believe they’ll be taken up in rapture, but they do fear for their non-christian friends. I poured through a days worth of ambiguity with the eye of the sceptic and to my surprise I found nothing to suggest what the devout followers of these prognosticators predict. If you read the actual prophecies… Nothing. Could be’s and if’s is all you need with a devotee. My life has been filled with warnings and predictions that never happened. If the modern day Glen Becks of the world were correct, the whole thing would’ve been over years ago. If you’re looking for the end you might find it sifting though miles of ambiguity, you could listen to your favorite summarizer in the hope that jesus will come and save the world. Just like preachers preaching. Read it on your own and you find a lot of nothing but fallacy. They actually believe this crap. To be reasonable we need to rid the world of soothsayer religious alarmism and get to work. It’s all up to us. Jesus ain’t coming to fix it.

Earthquake prone region in the ring of fire

Free Jeep Rental $50

Cozumel is usually a pretty good idea. We stayed at an all inclusive resort with the dive club, and of course while you’re in they try to get you to the timeshare presentation. Usually I won’t go to these, but we had nothing going on for the day so we figured “what the heck”? Get a free jeep for the next day and just say no to everything in the sales pitch. What could it hurt?

I’m a math guy on just about everything, so I did the calculations and we could buy this timeshare for what we were already paying as regular guests. Not a great deal. It was like the Outlaw Josie Wales and Ten Bears. ” I’m ain’t promising you anything extra”. So we walk with our Jeep coupon and the next day go to the counter. With tax and other fees it was $50. $50 for a free Jeep. Hey! This reminds me of church! We had to pay for something you’re supposed to get free. Being an exmo, going to long boring meetings and was a way of life, and getting pressured to do things you don’t want to do is really the way of life. In the end, what was supposed to be free from jesus cost 10% of your income or no blessings. No exaltation, no temple marriage, no important callings. Nada. It’s the equivalent of buying free tap water. Pretty good scheme.

Many thanks to everyone here for sharing your insight, knowledge, and cynical as hell anti- religious wisdom. WP was a big part of my deconversion.

My Sunday Read

The fire is hot. The kiddos are busy. Time for my Sunday read. I heard I need to watch out for this Zande guy!

Sometimes a Stranger is Fiction

I got a flat tire last year on a remote gravel road, and as I was changing my tire an old blue sedan came barreling up the road. I called to my dog but he was so engrossed in a hunt for field mice he wouldn’t hear me. Right as the car approached my dog bolted my way across the road and bam! The car never slowed down or stopped. My dog laid in the ditch. He was dead. I sat there. I think most of you have lost a pet before. No explanation can tell you how devastated I was. I cried. I prayed. God help me. After a little while had passed I collected myself enough to finish my tire, and just as I was about done my dog licked the back of my neck. I was in shock. In complete joy. How? No way! As I held Roger I saw a man hurry across the road and down a steep embankment. I shouted “hey”! I ran to the edge where I last saw him and he was gone. Nothing. I knew what I had seen. I knew my dog was now alive and not a scratch on him. God had sent his holy angel to help me. Thank you Jesus thank you Jesus. God hears our prayers, and in our most desperate times he is here for us. To comfort. To heal. To help.

Should I post this story on Facebook and ask for likes, amens, or shares. I could strengthen testimonies with a story like this. The problem is … it is just a story. Total fabrication. While most church stories contain a wee bit of truth, I’ve seen first hand how they grow bigger and better with time.

The churchers and their preachers embellish nearly everything they say to tug at your emotions then attribute it to god. And I’m not even close to exaggerating here. Just last week god the father and the son and the Holy Spirit visited a friend of mine in the form of three hummingbirds! What the hell do you say to that? If people are looking for miracles, they’ll get them. Or see birds. (Below is the area where none of this occurred)

Dammit Jim

Finally they named a beer after me. They must have talked to an old station manager of mine. I used to hear this 10 times a day when I would go off script and ruin his reputation. But he and I used to have some long talks about religion before he fired me. He was an atheist and I was a (cough cough) Latter Day Saint. My favorite one liner to his comment that “you can’t know this stuff. You can believe it, but you can’t know it”. I told him, the reason you can’t know it is because you don’t believe you can. He’d say “Dammit Jim”. Then he’d go on to tell me what an idiot I was. Bob, you were right. I was an idiot. Rest In Peace old friend.

Now when I see this ridiculous circular reasoning as an outsider of the faith, I remember not so long ago how I was that way. Faith is an unreasonable guide. It commands that you believe a lot of nonsense. Just wish my beer had a better rating.

Why the “What have you done for me lately Church” is hard to leave

As soon as I was old enough to safely go to church my parents brought me before the congregation and I was given an official name and a blessing. A name which would be recorded in the records and make me an official unbaptized member of the LDS. I was about a month old! Hey, thanks for that. Of course I don’t remember this, but those blessings take place the first Sunday of each month just before Fast and Testimony Meeting, where the members share their beliefs with the audience. This was the beginning of the indoctrination of Jim, as for the next hour I would listen to many testimonies that day about how true the church was, and how god played a role in various members lives that week. “I know this church is true” was proclaimed from the pulpit and into every rooms intercom. Even while I was in the mothers lounge, i could hear the testimonies of those who would soon be raising me in the church. Hey! No second opinions allowed either. Whenever a stray Mormon would stand up to bear his soul, and offer how he really felt about the church he would be escorted out. No second opinions needed! This is the true church!

At home it would continue. Exposed to everything mormon. Pictures of jesus and prophets and primary songs. Family home evenings every Monday for twice weekly indoctrination. Family prayer morning and night along with personal prayer. They even taught me what to say. How thoughtful.

Progression of church member Jim

Baby blessing –check

Baptism at 8. -check

Priesthood at 12 -check

Early morning Seminary 4 years. Check

Higher priesthood at 19-check

Temple endowments -check

Mission -check

Marry in the temple- check

Children -check

Memorize countless scriptures and songs – check

Endure to the end– hmm. Not so fast.

Pay Pray and Obey

Keep paying

Questions. Not allowed

Endure to the end, endure to the end

Learn the things you weren’t supposed to learn.

Be bold enough to question

Church court and discipline

Attend in shame.

Fade away. Resign the church. Lose all your friends. All!

In the Mormon faith you are taught if you don’t endure to the end, keep the commandments and keep paying your tithes til the day you die you won’t be saved. You can lose your salvation. Everything done to the children is focused on member retention. Keep you engaged. Don’t give you time to think. Here is how they did it to me

Scoutmaster 15 years. That’s an extra day at the church every week

Early morning Seminary teacher entire school year 8 years total

Home teacher to multiple families each month 30 years

Young men’s presidency 6 years

Adult Sunday school teacher 4 years

Ward missionary 4 years

Finance clerk 2 years

Membership clerk 2 years

Elders quorum presidency 8 years

Multiple tours in some of these callings. Oh!, and work a full time job to support my family.

I was also a pretty good speaker so I would give talks frequently on Sunday.

Frequent temple attendance

Temple initiatory worker 4 years

Veil worker 4 years

By the time I was 50, I had done about 75 years of service callings in the church. This is fairly typical, but not good enough. Pray pay and obey til you die if it will account as nothing.

It’s no wonder it is so hard to see the fallacy of your ways when it is all you know. Variety makes things right.

Don’t forget to look around you. Be humble. You might be wrong

Smug if by Faith

Recently looking at a little bit of Mel Wild, and just ran into this comment thread where John Z got gamed by this dude up above (in his own mind). He claimed victory several times, ignored questions, and was generally wrong about everything, but he backed it up with the hard, solid evidence of faith. He smugly won the day, and no amount of reason could sway his internal victory as the checkmates rolled off his keyboard. As instructed in the thread, I have prayed about it in Zande’s behalf. I also took the liberty to bless his food. I got the answer I desired by randomly opening the Old Testament, and in miraculous, ambiguous fashion from forgers inspired by god I was made to see the light. The post and comments is exactly why children don’t play ball in the men’s league. No matter the score, we can all claim victory! This was a painful display of zeal without knowledge. I could only guess, but is Banyon from the US where hanging on to disproved myth is a badge of honor? I have a relative that just knows what she knows. No amount of overwhelming evidence can shake that. No sound reasoning can spoil it. “Be humble. You might be wrong” only applies to the faithless I suppose.

ps.. I would link the thread but is just too painful. If you missed it, lucky you.

Suicidal and Mormon

I guess appearing to be perfect is taking its toll in Utah. Mormons are prescribed antidepressants at twice the national rate, and teen suicide is on another record pace this year and 5th highest in the country, climbing each year. Why so sad when you have all this truth and worthiness? I can tell you the pressure in the community is always in the judgment seat. There is a conflict in the mind about reality and what you’re told you believe, and sexuality is governed to a very unhealthy level using guilt and shame as a tool to exact clean living. Also they apply high expectations that are infrequently met regarding teen love and masterbation, declaring those as sins next to murder in severity. Grow up with that guilt trip! I’m surprised any of those kids make it into their 20’s.

I grew up in this culture and the pressures to go on a mission, marry early and in the temple and start pumping out kids is huge. If you fail? Families and congregations are disappointed and judgmental. Whenever I’d move to a new ward, the bishop would call you in for an interview to see what kind of Mormon he was dealing with. One of the first questions was “did you serve a full time mission”? From there they can judge the depth of your commitment and what kind of callings you could perform. I’ll tell you, the day I walked away was a collective sigh of relief to me and my wife and kids. It is no wonder to me what’s wrong in Utah, although health official are stumped as to what’s going on because no one discusses the elephant in the room. You want to know what’s going on? Ask anyone that was courageous enough to get out.

Off The Wall Here

I went through this as a kid. Finally some awareness to a horrible practice in the Mormon church. Please take a minute to read some of these testimonials highlighted at the bottom of the article. Sign the petition if you feel inclined. Although I no longer am affiliated with the mormons, I think it’s important to protect these innocent kids until they have the ability to get out of this mess. https://invisiblescubit.wordpress.com/2017/12/07/petition-already-protecting-children/ This is an embarrassing part of my childhood and important to get this out there. Thanks everyone. I think you’d be surprised how long this has been going on. Happened to me in the 70’s.

On The Problem of Good

Once in a while you stumble across something so contrary to the main views of the world that is so compelling, so convincing, that you really have to evaluate what you think you believe. As a fairly new deconvert, I found this a compelling and contrary view of good and evil, and it presented itself very plausible and convincing. A work that is very hard to counter without interjecting words like “belief” and “faith”. Another reviewer on Amazon put it well–“The research and supporting argumentation is frighteningly persuasive and would pass any Doctorate board of review.” Thank you John for the excellent work. Much appreciated! You can find the book here. On the Problem of Good (The Owner of All Infernal Names) https://www.amazon.com/dp/154247793X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_t4wkAbD9VC5W1

The Antithesis of Answers

In Christian apologetics the most complex answer is the best one, because it is the only one that will wear out the investigator to the point where they just look at the overwhelming picture and say, “well, 2 billion people can’t all be wrong. Can they”? I was embroiled in it for years explaining the defense of the Mormon faith until I got too tired. It went against my simple solution brain. Even the best thought out answer requires additional explaining and hair splitting. You really have to choose to believe or not. It’s that simple. Then if you believe it you’ll know it’s true. Got it!

The Superstitious Panamanian Divorce Effigy

I was driving to Cambutal, Panama to visit a favorite beach with my family, and over the road from a high tree was a hanging in effigy. I asked my neighbor lady what that was all about and she said very matter-of -factly, “when your husband leaves you if you hang a scarecrow outside the house dressed in his old clothes, he will have misfortune in his new life, and when the clothes are weathered and ruined he’ll come back to you sorrowful and faithful”. Another version is a neighbor will hang it for her to taunt her. She’ll eventually burn it down if he does not return before the clothes rot away.

Depending on where you were born will determine which superstitions and folklore or “old wives tales” you believe to be true. Here is a look at one regional hocus-pocus superstition of the Panama/Catholic culture.

Panama is a non politically correct country. You can say anything about everything, banter back and forth and be better friends because of it. Very refreshing having come from the land of “watch everything you say” America. A fat neighbor lady of mine has the nickname “gorda”. Fatty in English. She even has “Gorda”for her Facebook nickname. No fake outrage, no worries at all. Each person is proud of who they are and hold nothing back. Imagine that! Gay, fat, trans, woman or man, there is no need to hide who you are. Fatty is also a twin, so if the locals have back pain, they see her so she can use her left foot to massage out the pain. She and her twin sister also use other means to help men or women, and for $5 they’ll rub out anything you want. When they work together it’s $5 each. Anyway I regress. Back to the effigy.

This particular superstition, as do most of the rest, have natural outcomes that are to be expected. Men in rural Panama hold infidelity in high esteem. Many frequently cheat and often go on walkabout. They know where home is, but because of economics (the women rarely have the resources to go anywhere else) they wander around shagging new tails until they run out of money. Broke, dirty clothes, and now repentant, they return home. In the eyes of the woman, the effigy worked, and her despondent man will take up a job again.

This part of Panama has a grande Arabic influence. Very proud men. Very capable and strong adulterous men. Mountain girls are pretty and raised to serve. Rarely will the returning man be rejected. In what is otherwise a very beautiful life, in a very beautiful place with very happy people, this is one injustice that is traditional and tribal and accepted.

Depending on where you were born and to what family, you might be catholic, jewish, muslim, hindu, and so forth. If you were born in Utah after 1870, chances are very good that you know the one true and authorized religion of the one true god, and be mormon. We all have our qwirks now don’t we?

The ability to think for yourself is hamstringed by the region and traditions we were indoctrinated in. I am happy for this writing community of free thinkers to help the world make a little less biased sense!

Here are some favorite Panama superstitions and their silly counterparts.

1. In the land of barefoot people, if you don’t wear socks in the house you’ll catch a cold.

2. Don’t get rained on. 80 degree rain on an 80 degree day will make you sick, but getting sprayed by the fire truck in the heat of carnaval will not.

3. If you walk barefoot in the mud you’ll get worms in your skin, but barefoot constructing a house or farming is ok.

4. If your children don’t go to sleep at night, a white faced witch will look in your window. That’ll keep their eyes closed!

¡Que tenga buen día!

What would we Argue About?

Last week Nan was talking about childhood. No politics, no religion, and how great it was to be a kid from so many of us. What did we have to argue about when life was so sweet? On Steve Ruis I brought up an old favorite topic of The Savannah Baboons and their toppled hierarchy, now living a non competitive life of leisure. There is nothing to fight about once the top 1% were toppled from their control. Without the elite of the government/business/religious complex, what would we have to fight about? One of the great lies of the world is we’ve been manipulated and forced to choose sides. Democrat or republican, Christian or Muslim, socialism or capitalism. All are two sides of the same coin designed to divide us and preoccupy us with endless banter about who’s right, when in fact they are all wrong. The elite class has everyone convinced that without them, who would provide jobs that fuel the economy, who would lead us through the worlds troubles, and who would save us from hell and eternal torment? The only reason we need them is that they are there. They create the problem and division, then offer the solution. The oldest trick in the book. Without them is a non-competitive life of leisure. With them is the destruction of the worlds beauty and depletion of every last natural resource. For their money and our misery

What do you want to believe

Because the “four corners of the earth” are mentioned in the Bible, pseudo-scholars driven by faith have set out to prove the earth is flat. They will cleverly word every point to show that the Bible is right, and dupe many faithful followers to dig in their heels on this non topic to make Christianity even more silly than it already is. As if the 6 day creation wasn’t silly enough, they continue to believe this nonsense rather than look outside and see with their own eyes what the world is.

As I was walking in the canyons with my seven year old looking at the rock formations and fossils, I mentioned that some people believe all of this was created and formed in 1 day. She looked at me like I was crazy. I know she trusts me, and if I had sat down with her and read the “official” book on this (the Bible) and explained in detail that this was true, and god said so, she would have started a path of contradictory self doubt about the real world and what she is actually seeing, and myth. For now we don’t really talk about the mythical being in the sky. It’s an irrelevant distraction that keeps some of the best minds from real progress in reality.