You couldn't be here if stars hadn't exploded.
To the question, “Why me?” the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply, “Why not?”
Atheist: Natural Morals, Real Meaning, Credible Truth

27 March, 2011

Why am I moral?

Another rabbi embarrasses me « Why Evolution Is True:

"I’m pretty sure that Rabbi Jacobs, like nearly all Christians and Jews, picks and chooses his Biblically-based ethics. Why? Because he has an innate sense of what actions are right or wrong, or because he doesn’t think that god’s expressed will comports with modern secular reason and “well being.”

Those, by the way, are also the sources of atheist ethics."

Why, as an atheist, am I moral? Why don't I take and use as I please? Because not following reasonable social standards would not promote the well being of me, my family, my community. Where do those standards come from? From rational reasoning and consensus in the community. Sometimes that consensus isn't all that rational, especially when it is based on theology and belief in magic. But there is no sign that any of it had to come from any gods. Except for the commandments like not to worship other gods and to stone unbelievers to death. Those sound like rules to help keep the priesthood in control of the masses and are not really morals.

In addition to the rational, reasoned morals, there appear to be innate morals that we come pre-wired with. Most of us couldn't abuse our children or harm our parents or attack for no reason our neighbor. There is plenty of evidence this is not learned but innate in our brains. Religion tries to claim ownership of these morals but it is clear we and many mammals come with them ingrained. Thus the free will argument rages, I am not free to harm my daughters because I have these ingrained morals holding me back. The religious say without god, I could. I don't think so. Could you? Seriously?

25 March, 2011

Godless in Tumourville: Christopher Hitchens interview - Telegraph

Godless in Tumourville: Christopher Hitchens interview - Telegraph:

"His outspoken advocacy of atheism made Hitchens a very public figure, and has made his illness a very public one, casting him as some sort of antagonist in a battle with fate, the Almighty or, if you believe in neither, random and merciless bodily malfunction. As he has written, 'To the dumb question, “Why me?” the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply, “Why not?”’"

First LockMart-Built Milstar II Satellite Marks 10 Years In Service

First LockMart-Built Milstar II Satellite Marks 10 Years In Service: "The first Milstar II military communications satellite, built by a Lockheed Martin team for the U.S. Air Force, has surpassed its 10-year design life of on-orbit service, providing our nation's warfighters with secure and reliable communications since its successful launch on Feb. 27, 2001."
My, time flies... That was actually a rough time in my life and for my daughters. Their mother and I had just separated the summer before and nobody was happy. The greatest regret in my life is the hurt I caused my daughters in that time period. I don't know what I could have done better. It was a hard time. The good thing is I met Liz two months after this launch, things got better after that.

23 March, 2011

One of those days.

Liz is grumpy, Ernie had poop stuck in his butt, my car had an inch of water in it, and the cat is dying.

Update:  The cat is not dying.  Yet.  He is 20, it could happen any day.

14 March, 2011

AC Grayling on the evils of earthquakes

Thanking god for what?

"For if he is not competent to stop an earthquake or save its victims, he is definitely not competent to create a world. And if he is powerful enough to do both, but created a dangerous world that inflicts violent and agonizing sufferings arbitrarily on sentient creatures, then he is vile."
Why bother worship that which can't help, won't help, or is incompetent to help.

13 March, 2011

Rapture on 21 May 2011

We'll see if it happens...


I drive by this every day on my way home.  I understand these may be all over the country since this is a nationwide radio network.  Or maybe not, am not sure.

"THE END OF THE WORLD IS ALMOST HERE! HOLY GOD WILL BRING JUDGMENT DAY ON MAY 21, 2011"
The crank's name is Harold Camping out of Oakland, CA.
I am not sure I want this guy's image on my blog, but he's been at it for years, he graduated from Berkley as a Civil Engineer, he had to have been halfway intelligent at some point.  But then engineers aren't known for being the most skeptical.  A guy who works for me knows he hears ghosts.

The faith of idiots

"God said it, we believe it, that settles it."


A Condell video, short and concise.

11 March, 2011

Finding Truth

Wallidjan,

I watched the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GADt13X3OBI).  It said nothing other than what you've already said... look around, stuff is complex, there must be a god because stuff is complex.  Someone must have created it all.

How did the flawless order of the whole universe come into being?
Who provided the delicate balances in the world?
How did living beings, incredibility diversified in nature, emerge?

Asking these questions and resigning (submitting) yourself to the easy answer of "god did it" is the way to The Truth?

I am sorry.  No.  Not going to happen.  These questions have very good, god-free, answers.

It isn't flawless in any way.
Nobody.
Evolution.

You kept saying how complex the inner workings of a single cell is.  Yes it is.  But it is understandable and even though I am not a micro-biologist, I know they have very detailed knowledge of how proteins and DNA and all the other compounds of the inner cell work to do the things they do.  The knowledge base of cell mechanics is huge and there is no magic involved.  You are going to claim a designer had to have put it all together.  No, there are natural paths to how the cells evolved.  Chemical reactions are predictable and traceable.  It isn't magic.  How chemistry works isn't magic, it is even easier than biology to test and examine since now you are dealing with the basic elements and chemical reactions.  And these are predictable from the mechanisms of quantum and particle physics.  All the way to the big bang we can trace how things work.  Our universe is probably only one of infinitely many, each with it's own characteristics.  This is the one we exist in.  It is that simple. No god necessary.

A month of listening to the Nature podcast would show you how much they know about the inner workings of cells, physics, chemistry, cosmology.  
http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/

"A Universe From Nothing" by Lawrence Krauss, beautiful talk on the creation of the universe.  Clear, easily understood, and it even makes sense!

Short clip to tease you to watch the long version: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfOL_oGgRVk

Long version: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ImvlS8PLIo
Very much worth the  time.

Pull yourself out of the grips of this medieval backward belief, it will only drag you down with it.

Tom

God's Gift of Evolution

God's gift of evolution and natural selection...

“the gift of creativity that God bestowed on the creation” – meaning the blood and screams when animals are shredded by predators. Thanks a lot for the “gift.” ~ Ophelia Benson
If that "loving" god dumped us off after creating life to sit back and watch what happens, it is a fucking bastard.  Almost every animal on this planet dies a violent, messy, painful death.  Evolution is messy.  All life is messy and almost nothing perfect involved in it anywhere.  Everything is a compromise from what existed before.

02 March, 2011

Living Without Religion - A Campaign by the Center for Inquiry



"To hope, to care, to love. We have all experienced these powerful, fundamental feelings. They help define what it is to be human. These important elements of a fulfilling human life are experienced by religious and nonreligious people alike.

Find out more: http://www.livingwithoutreligion.org."

The only thing I dislike about this: "Living without God." Like there really is a god.

Jewish Gymnast, 7, Balances Religious Faith And Sports


Sad to see a child indoctrina­ted so early with religion. It is almost child abuse.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost