sudo life

There are some people in the atheist community I just can’t stand, and absolutely disagree with. Atheists are people, and becoming an atheist doesn’t change our basic nature. There are atheists at every stage of the human spectrum.

I’ve been going to a group that meets on sunday mornings here in KC, called ’skeptical religion studies.’ We’ve been viewing a scholarly lecture about the different world religious (christianity, hinduism, islam, and buddhism), and then having a (not-so-scholarly) discussion afterwards. I am the youngest attendee at these meetings by at least a decade.

The last few times, I’ve walked out halfway through the discussion. I just couldn’t take it any more. People who think they have it all figured out. Christianity is all a lie based on a bringing together of local pagan traditions. The catholic church kills authors of books they don’t agree with. Those are two examples of things that have been advanced by different people in these meetings as cold hard facts. It makes me want to pound my head on the wall. Then there are the atheists who don’t believe in god, but believe in all the paranormal b.s. Who think we live in a subjective reality. I have no idea where their coming from; everytime they talk, my ears go numb.

A couple of weeks ago, one group of them asked the question, ‘for all you who don’t believe in ghosts, where does all the energy go when we die?’ There was one good answer to this, but it was drowned out by some idiot going on and on about how the body runs off of ‘combustion.’

As an human being, you don’t have to know everything in the world. You know what’s really important? Being able to admit that you don’t know something. Repeat after me, ‘I don’t know, but that’s an interesting question, and I should look it up and find out.’ Or if there is someone else in the area that does know what they’re talking about, let them talk.

The body is a bio-chemical machine. When those bio-chemical reactions are interrupted on a large enough scale, we die, and eventually all those bio-chemical reactions cease. That’s pretty simple. There is no mystical energy. And there sure as hell isn’t any combustion going on.*

Then there are the atheists I only know through the net. Some of them are awesome. Some of the others, not so much. Many of them are plagued by the same sort of issues I mentioned above: the inability to admit they don’t know something. They would rather make up something that sounds true rather than provide a basis for what they are talking about. ‘Truthiness’ is bad whoever is using it.

That’s not to say my way is better than anyone else’s. There are atheists out there I disagree with, but would good along fabulously with. I just cannot stand the attitude that says, ‘I’m right and your wrong’ without good reasons. It’s one thing for an evolutionist to tell an cdesign proponentists that they’re wrong, because they have a mountain of evidence supporting their position. It’s not ok for someone to claim that Jesus never existed, and was entirely made up by the romans and was really just Mithra in disguise. I’m sorry, there just isn’t that much evidence, and the issues are really nuanced. The scholarship surrounding these issues are far from conclusive. So, I don’t want to hear it put forward as fact. It’s an interesting theory, but nothing more.

After reading a story or two this morning and really irked me, I just had to get this out of my system.  If you’re an atheist who reads quite a few of the atheist blogs, you can probably guess what I’m talking about.  The whole thing disgusts me.

I realize I’ve said some pretty nasty things on this blog, especially about christians who believe in hell.  If there is one thing this incident has driven home for me is the need to focus on the positive aspects of our world view.  Between this latest news, and the wonderful ‘sermon‘ I viewed yesterday evening, I’m going to try to go in a new direction.  We should look to people like deGrasse Tyson as role models.

*Ok, oxidation does occur, but not nearly at a rapid enough pace to be considered ‘combustion.’ Maybe I am wrong, though, and I don’t really understand what the word ‘combustion’ means.

Atheism Atheism, critique

It’s Wednesday, which means the local Buddhist temple is having it’s weekly meditation class this evening. I’m planning on going for the second time, as I need to take the time to really refocus. It so easy to be relaxed and happy in that place.

I made this observation to a friend of mine last night, which sparked off a discussion about just why this was. There were a few different hypothesis offered up, but then I realized the real reason: it’s my attitude towards it. I expect it to be a place of happiness and tranquility, and so it is.

Have I wandered into ‘dangerous’ territory here? Am I risking the rational, atheist part of me by saying something like this? I don’t think so, not at all. While it can sound like I have forsaken the ideals of an objective reality by claiming that my mere thoughts have created this peace, I think the truth is a little more nuanced.

The temple is just a place. There is nothing inherently special about it. It’s a building that people gather together in. It’s no different in this respect than any other building. If the group of people included fundamentalist Christians and gay rights activists, I highly doubt it would be a place of peace at all. But that’s not what happens. It’s a gathering of people whose goal is to create that personal peace and understanding – of practicing mindfulness.

That alone isn’t enough. If I were to go to this place looking for a fight (perhaps an argument about whether or not reincarnation actually happens or not), I would not find it to be a place of peace. I would find it a place of strife. When presented this way, I don’t see anything particularly controversial. It’s certainly not an idea that depends on a belief in subjective reality.

Perhaps I should begin to look at my apartment in the same way… After all, that is what ‘mindfulness’ is all about, isn’t it?

Buddhism Buddhism, Life Hacks, mindfulness

If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance. – Bern Williams

It’s that time of the year where love seems to be on everyone’s mind. Summer is starting, and we hear the ancient call to find someone special. There have been seemingly endless songs and poems written about this phenomena. But really, who wants to study this academically? It’s so much more interesting to talk about that special someone.

We can loose our more poetic side, discussing at length how that person can make you smile just be being present. How you can see her at the distance and fight with yourself against the urge to run to them. How her hair flows freely, and every minute detail of her figure is considered a thing of exquisite beauty. She may be the homeliest person in the world, but to you, she’s an angel.

You go out of your way just to be near her, to catch a glimpse, to say hello. When you talk to her, no matter the subject, you mouth runs dry, and the eloquent things you try to say inexplicably comes out with a stutter. The heart races, your palms feel clammy. It can feel like you’re on a roller-coaster when your stomach seems to drop to the floor, but you’re not moving at all.

You wish you could just put your arm around her, or hold her hand, but any physical contact at all can seem to be nearly overwhelming. When your lips meet that first time, it’s like a bolt of electricity shooting through your body. It’s not painful, but staggering. The softness of her lips is delectable, and the moment stretches as time slows. Your brain struggles to keep up with all the sensory information it’s receiving. How long has the moment lasted? But eventually, the kiss ends, and your arms snake around her, pulling her close. You never want to let go, but you do, eventually. The night ends, and you can’t help but smile. Part of you wonders if it was all a dream.

Sometimes, it is.

Personal love, Philosophy

Spiritual: concerned with or affecting the spirit or soul; “a spiritual approach to life”; “spiritual fulfillment”; “spiritual values”; “unearthly love”

I think we need to new word that describes ’spiritual.’ ‘Spiritual’ simply has too much baggage, not to mention steeped in the assumption of superstitious ideals like the ’spirit’ or ’soul’ of which there is no evidence for.  I chose the definition above for ’spiritual’ as being the closest out of a list of them that described what I’m talking about when I use the word.  Yet, this definition is not close to the concept I am trying to describe.

Even though we have no soul or immaterial part of ourselves, there is part of us – our brains – that seek an understanding of the world we live in.  It drives us to take what we know and create new things – things that have never been done before, and perhaps in some cases, never even been imagined before.  It’s this drive to learn and create that I refer to when I say ’spiritual.’  It is spiritual, because as we do these things, we gain an understanding of the transcendental – a world that isn’t so much beyond matter, but beyond ourselves.  We have the humbling realization that we are just one person on a world full of many, on a planet that is around an ordinary star in an ordinary galaxy, in an ordinary cluster, et cettera.  There is nothing inherently special about us, yet we are here, and that is an extraordinary event in and of itself.

Our existence, as insignificant as it is, is something to be cherished.  While there is nothing necessarily divine about it, the word holy can almost be applied.

I am an agnostic atheist, which means I don’t believe in god, and I don’t think it’s possible to be absolutely sure one way or another if god exists.  But that fact about me doesn’t diminish that drive I mentioned before.  In fact, just the opposite is true.  I am a much more ’spiritual’ person as an atheist than I ever was as a Christian.  Perhaps that’s merely a product of my maturity however.

Never-the-less, the fact remains that I can’t really just call myself ’spiritual.’  Most people won’t understand it, or will get the wrong impression.  I can’t use words like ‘holy,’ as it implies a dogmatic devotion to some ideal that’s not to be question, instead of a description of a bigger perspective.  I can’t use the word ‘transcendental’ to describe an idea that transcends our own individual existence, because it implies something non-material.  These words simply have too much baggage.

There is much more that can be said.  One possible solution is to find new words, but there are problems with that idea.  Another possibility is to just get people to use these words in different ways, and force the definitions to expand, but there are obvious problems with that as well.  I have no doubt that with disbelief on the rise, we’ll figure this out one way or another, and I’ll be very interested to see just what happens.

Philosophy Atheism, pedantry, spirituality

I have a recurring nightmare where I dream the entire school semester, and then I remember at the end of the semester there was that English class I signed up for and went to the first week, and then forgot all about it and never went again.

I’ve had this dream for *years* – even now, when I’m not even attending school.  Every time, it freaks me out as well.  Sometimes the dream takes place in high school and others in college.  I’m not sure why I have this particular nightmare.  It’s true that while I was going to school, I was known on occasion to completely forget to go to class.  I took a political science class where I skipped an entire month because I didn’t need to go.  Well, and I was working through a horrible break-up with my girlfriend.  Still, that was over six years ago.

I could probably analyze this deeper.  Perhaps it has something to do with a fear of not being good enough, or failing to meet the requirements for something because I was goofing off.  Or something.  I don’t know.

I just hate these dreams.

Personal dreams, musings