Atheist professor vs. young Einstein? Yeah, right.

I don't post here much, but I am constantly thinking atheist thoughts. Dirty, nasty, secular thoughts, devoid of sacredness; thoughts critical of religion and its books and leaders and followers. And, every now and then, I find time to unload one of these many inner rants. The same themes and ideas always emerge; maybe that's why I write less. Also, some of the ideas might lend themselves quite well to standup comedy, if I ever get the nerve and urge- so I'm not publishing those. But I will share this- one of those folksy tales that goes around the internet...a Christian colleague sent it to me. This is my (typically overlong) response. She's really nice, so I am making a special effort to avoid the sort of bile and profanity I sometimes vent here. I am not an angry atheist, honest. The hissing of hot air is just the sound of me letting blow so my head doesn't explode.

Below is the chain email, and below that my response.
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Science

"Let me explain the problem science has with religion ."The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his new students to stand.

'You're a Christian, aren't you, son?'

'Yes sir,' the student says.

'So you believe in God?'

'Absolutely '

'Is God good?'

'Sure! God's good.'

'Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?'

'Yes'

'Are you good or evil?'

'The Bible says I'm evil.'

The professor grins knowingly. 'Aha! The Bible! He considers for a moment. 'Here's one for you. Let's say there's a sick person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?'

'Yes sir, I would.'

'So you're good...!'

'I wouldn't say that.'

'But why not say that? You'd help a sick and maimed person if you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn't.'

The student does not answer, so the professor continues. 'He doesn't, does he? My brother was a Christian who died of cancer, even though he prayed to Jesus to heal him. How is this Jesus good? Can you answer that one?'

The student remains silent. 'No, you can't, can you?' the professor says. He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax. 'Let's start again, young fella. Is God good?'

'Er..yes,' the student says.

'Is Satan good?'

The student doesn't hesitate on this one.. 'No.'

'Then where does Satan come from?'

The student falters. 'From God'

'That's right. God made Satan, didn't he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Evil's everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything, correct?'

'Yes'

'So who created evil?' The professor continued, 'If God created everything,then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil.'

Again, the student has no answer. 'Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist in this world?'

The student squirms on his feet. 'Yes.'

'So who created them ?'

The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his question. 'Who created them?' There is still no answer. Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom. The class is mesmerized. 'Tell me,' he continues onto another student. 'Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?'

The student's voice betrays him and cracks. 'Yes, professor, I do.'

The old man stops pacing. 'Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Jesus?'

'No sir. I've never seen Him.'

'Then tell us if you've ever heard your Jesus?'

'No, sir, I have not.'

'Have you ever felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelt your Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus Christ, or God for that matter?'

'No, sir, I'm afraid I haven't.'

'Yet you still believe in him?'

'Yes'

'According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn't exist... What do you say to that, son?'

'Nothing,' the student replies.. 'I only have my faith.'

'Yes, faith,' the professor repeats. 'And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence, only faith.'

The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a question of His own. 'Professor, is there such thing as heat? '

' Yes.

'And is there such a thing as cold?'

'Yes, son, there's cold too.'

'No sir, there isn't.'

The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested. The room suddenly becomes very quiet. The student begins to explain. 'You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don't have anything called 'cold'. We can hit down to 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest -458 degrees. Everybody or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat. You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.'

Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom, sounding like a hammer.

'What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as darkness?'

'Yes,' the professor replies without hesitation. 'What is night if it isn't darkness?'

'You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? That's the meaning we use to define the word. In reality, darkness isn't. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?'

The professor begins to smile at the student in front of him. This will be a good semester. 'So what point are you making, young man?'

'Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must also be flawed.'

The professor's face cannot hide his surprise this time. 'Flawed? Can you explain how?'

'You are working on the premise of duality,' the student explains. 'You argue that there is life and then there's death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought.' 'It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it.' 'Now tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?'

'If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man, yes, of course I do.'

'Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?'

The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he realizes where the argument is going. A very good semester, indeed.

'Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?'

The class is in uproar. The student remains silent until the commotion has subsided. 'To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student, let me give you an example of what I mean.' The student looks around the room. 'Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor's brain?' The class breaks out into laughter. 'Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor's brain, felt the professor's brain, touched or smelt the professor's brain? No one appears to have done so... So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, with all due respect, sir.' 'So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your lectures, sir?'

Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the student, his face unreadable. Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers. 'I Guess you'll have to take them on faith.'

'Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with life,' the student continues. 'Now, sir, is there such a thing as evil?' Now uncertain, the professor responds, 'Of course, there is. We see it Every day. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in The multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.'

To this the student replied, 'Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.'

The professor sat down.

If you read it all the way through and had a smile on your face when you finished, mail to your friends and family with the title 'God vs. Science'

PS: The student was Albert Einstein. 

Albert Einstein wrote a book titled 'God vs. Science' in 1921....

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First, what a jerk of a professor. I know there are professional atheists who make careers ridiculing the Ark story and such, but I hope the scrooge atheist image will slowly be replaced with the friendly atheist next door image. That's what I'm working on.

Secondly, I don't see god and science as opposed to one another. One is a matter of faith, the other of fact. If there is any disagreement, the rational person examines what their religion is saying- and they say all kinds of things. Did you know Mohammed flew up to visit heaven on a winged horse? There are others who find a disagreement- say, between a literal reading of Genesis and astronomy, geology and biology- and then do all kinds of work trying to disprove, discredit or twist established facts. I pity them. And I also resent the damage they are causing to bright young minds who could be the scientists we need to face the challenges of the future on a planet truly tested by a raging infection of insatiable humans. If there is a judgement day, I think it will be environmental or nuclear, and self-inflicted. But I hope not. We are better than that; or at least we can be.

Anyway; the professor starts with an argument that has been around at least since the Greeks-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilemma

The existence of evil and suffering does raise questions about a a god who supposedly loves people and is capable of answering prayers and delivering miracles and blessings- his distribution of those is questionable. If every prayer were answered, the word 'miracle' would not exist; to me miracles and good luck are the same thing, because you have to be lucky to get a miracle. Most people don't get them. It is tragic to say that there are child prostitutes raped 20 times a day who may still be praying for one; but again, there were kids in the great flood. There were entire elementary schools washed out to sea in the tsunami. God didn't cause that; but he did design the tectonic plates that slid to cause the undersea earthquake. Should have anchored those things! Anyway, I find such an idea of god, the micromanager, hard to reconcile with the notion of a just god. 

My secular definition of the colloquial "miracle" is: an extremely unlikely fortunate event, possibly tied to a remarkable coincidence. The word "bless" perplexes me due to their uneven distribution. Africa? Significantly less blessed. Amputees? No miracles, unless you count the robotics man is developing. But I have heard in Christian as well as Buddhist circles the wisdom to accept your life and not ask why- I would say wise advice since there is no answer. The only scientific question is how- how did my life get this way? No cosmic puppeteer wishes disease, disability, disaster or murder upon good people. (Unless he is flooding the earth or destroying a city, which would  even the babies of that ancient time were no good sinners). A Rabbi who lost his son wrote a book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. The best he could do was posit a god who created the world but now is letting it run its course (similar to the Jehovah's Witness narrative, minus the judgement day and bodily resurrection on earth). Another popular author just tells people they will find out "why" when they get to heaven. Anyway, I agree with anyone, of any faith or no faith, who advises: stop asking why. Few things drive me battier than people declaring with a beatific smile that everything happens for a reason. I always want people to finish a sentence for me, like: the child was raped so that/because ____________. The children were washed into the sea so that/because ____________.  My grandfather was murdered so that __________________. (because: insurance money. Now that's evil.)

As for god creating evil, I don't believe in good or evil existing in the world outside of us; they are potentials we define and manifest in our behaviors, ideas, and societies. So, no blaming god for evil- it doesn't exist without people to do it and define it. But if life is designed, one has to ask about the genetically inherited diseases, parasites, and viruses that cause misery and death. These things are alive, therefore created. All things bright and beautiful, well, sometimes. God had to make the nasty creatures, too. No surprise there; check the Bible for why we speak so many langguages (so you won't be able to understand each other!!!) or why childbirth is painful (because of one woman's sin!!!) That god, the god of collective punishment, pardon the 80's youth parlance, a dick.

And why does god not kill the disobedient Satan? I was told god loves him; but secretly think if that god existed, he would need someone to blame the bad stuff on, someone to test and tempt us in his sick hunger game of free will, and someone to do his dirty work when the judgement express rolls down the tracks. God doesn't run a dungeon, but he knows someone who does. And just like a loving father, he will send you there if you disobey. Jesus, nice guy. But his dad is psycho. Just saying. I think that's why my wife's church generally de-emphasizes the old testament. 

I did like the physics lesson- absence of heat and light. But the kid was asking a philosopher physics questions, and just shifting from the colloquial meaning of a word to its scientific definition. Color me unimpressed- it didn't lead anywhere. And does the professor have a brain? Students did not see it or feel it only because nobody opened his skull. 

Nobody has ever observed evolution- true. Until May of last year, nobody had seen inside an atom- new technology allowed for a photo of sorts. But atoms are real- just ask the operators of a nuclear power plant, or the residents of Nagasaki. Our senses are feeble compared to those of other animals, and even theirs pales compared to what we can detect with scientific instruments and processes. When one has "faith" in science, it is a bit different than the metaphysical in that the results of science are replicated many times before something is regarded as a fact. Evolution is one such fact; it is called a theory, and it is, a scientific theory- just like gravitation.

We never will observe one species changing into another, or a complex structure appearing. Evolution has progressed in incremental change over thousands of years. But I guarantee the ancestor of the giraffe had a short neck; the laryngeal nerve is clear proof. Evolution- slower than the imperceptible growth of a plant, with complex results; it is counterintuitive, thus misunderstood. Just remember, the earth going around the sun was also counterintuitive. Common sense is often not the best guide to the truth; just as often, our intuitions are dead wrong.

The building blocks of life- proteins, membranes, the stuff cells are made of- have been made from simple elements in the lab, and even found on asteroids. The fossils line up in an orderly progression from simple to complex. And we have observed, and can observe, genetic mutations that take place in a mouse, or a human- a mutation can be passed down to offspring in a single generation. We are missing some key pieces in the story, but a net doesn't fail to catch fish because it has a few holes. The evolution net, the story of the blind watchmaker, is robust and getting tighter every day. 

Life is beautiful, and against the odds, but that is precisely because everything we see is a survivor, the recipient of countless years of success. Some species are pressured to change drastically over time; others (sharks) stick with old designs and do fine. 99 percent of all species in the fossil record ever 'created' are now extinct- so it is a ruthlessly selective process. Beauty, complexity and unlikelihood are cause for wonder, as is the unfathomable number of stars in the sky; but a feeling of wonder is not evidence for a creator. If nobody created God, the same can be said for the matter and energy of the universe. And from crystals to proteins, this matter has a strange tendency to organize itself. Some say the laws of physics are god; that the energy that animates life to reproduce is god; that god crafted the process of evolution. I think that's where that book I sent reference to was headed. Scientists of faith tend to view the entire earth and life as evidence of a creator; and the good ones who follow the scientific method also know it didn't happen with the wave of a wand 6,000 years ago. We don't get to say, "We don't know, therefore it's God" or "It's unlikely, therefore it must be god." That is not how science draws conclusions. And for those who want to play the math game- conditions are so perfect on earth, etc.- here's one: given the number of planets, what are the odds that at least one, probably many, have the conditions to support life? 100%. The lottery has a winning ticket; and if you pull it, it is not because someone loves you, but because you got lucky. Another way to look at it; people feel lucky they were born, lucky to be on earth out of all of those planets. But what are the odds you could have been born on any other planet? Zero. Life is delicate? There is life in near-boiling temperatures, life that lives off of toxic chemicals- so my question is, what environments can't support some sort of life? As we find it in less and less likely places, life seems less and less remarkable- like something that can happen when you put the elements on a planet with a decent temperature, some atmosphere, and add lots of time and energy. Life happens!

On a more personal note to the friend who sent me the Einstein story, I have heard that god is love. I will not revisit any of the genocides of the old testament here- I will just say that I love is a chemical reaction born of the need to bond as a social mammal. At its most grand, it is a profound outgrowth of empathy which can include all people, all life, the planet, the universe- it can give even people who don't believe in spirits a "spiritual" experience.  But empathy is also something primates have, and it is perfect for surviving in small, social groups. People don't do so well alone- love holds us together, which is good for everyone. Fat and sugar taste good because they used to be hard to get. Love feels good because we need it. Though they can be subverted by gambling, drugs, our hunger for status and power, in general rewards in the brain are where we need them. Things feel good and taste good for a reason, namely that for thousands of years, the things that tasted and felt good brought a survival benefit to our ancestors. That is how the program we were born with was written- one painful line at a time. It's an unsentimental view, but it is no less wonderful- what an inheritance! And my view of love as a chemical doesn't stop me from experiencing it to its fullest, and sharing it. 

I believe we are the most amazing species to ever live on this planet, and have hope that we can overcome our limitations and animal nature to realize a greater good which is in our collective best interest. I am not optimistic about that every day, but barring complete detonation of our nuclear arsenals or a good sized asteroid, there is ample evidence that life will go on, life will find a way, until the supernova. For me, hope and love are rational and need no heavenly hook to hang on. Gods are gods; and love is love. So, I'll continue to keep the divine chocolate out of my materialistic peanut butter.

My recent good fortune

This blog would be more active if my compulsion to write produced more concrete rewards than the pleasure of having strung words together. Much of my creative energies these days are necessarily channeled into work which pays bills. Word-smithing is useful there, too, but not nearly as enjoyable as free ranging over the page and following the mind as it wanders at will. I have much to say on this topic, am drafting some crude atheist material probably best delivered as stand-up...but this is a fine philosophical place to play with ideas that are not necessarily funny.

In the past month, I have lost a number of things. A cat that was given to me escaped the first night. On a journey with my family abroad, my wallet fell out of my pocket while juggling my squirming son. On the way home, my wife couldn't find her green card. And then on the flight home, I left two bottles of booze (mine) and two cartons of smokes (for a friend) in the overhead. I felt both stupid and unlucky. I imagined a happy cleaning crew enjoying the liquor and smokes (and wasn't too pissed about that image, actually- Happy New Year!). I imagined someone pocketing the cash out of the wallet. I imagined spending the night in a hotel and making desperate pleas in the Embassy for an emergency travel document, leveraging my fragile (at the time) health and my son's fever.

After some panicked running around to officials who had no answers, my wife did a second search of secret places in bags and it turns out it was only misplaced. The security guys found my booze and turned it in, and I convinced the airline to let me check it without a fee. The same afternoon (it was a 10 hour layover), I got a call that a crew in a completely different city from my itinerary found my wallet between the cushions- after the security crew at my airport had found nothing. And tonight I saw the missing cat in my yard- now working on seducing him with offerings of canned food.

What does this have to do with atheism? Well, just that shit happens- good shit and bad shit- and that it sometimes happens in clusters. If I were religious, I probably would have prayed at these various misfortunes (not sure about praying for the recovery of booze and smokes, but fuck- Jesus didn't turn the water into Kool-Aid). And I might have regarded the rapid succession of finding lost things as God looking out for me, answering my prayers. But I didn't pray, and I got all my stuff back anyway. I can hear the saved, washed in the blood sorts saying that God loves me too, so that's why He was so nice to me, or some shit. But the point is, prayer is not needed for good fortune. It simply happens sometimes. Am I thankful? Yes, to the people who found things and returned things. These events have renewed my faith in humanity. And in such moments, yes, Humanism is like a religion, because you kind of have a religious experience when someone you never met and never will meet does the right thing by you- extends an empathy evolved in close knit family and tribe to include someone beyond their circle of self interest. And I believe that churchgoing or not, there are lots of people who would do the right thing. And I applaud all of you for recognizing an interconnectedness among our our species (we can talk about the biosphere later) that transcends our individual experience of this life- the glory and triumph of realizing and reaching for a greater good, that benefits all. That is a "spiritual" experience Humanists revel in, yet one which requires no spirit to have. It is a sort of an intellectual epiphany. It is this selfless and noble idea, fortunately not uncommon, that has ensured the "golden rule" has been enshrined in many religions. I think the good part of religion is an effort to multiply that idea, and inasmuch as it succeeds in doing so, has a contribution to make to the potential social evolution of our species (the other selfish, violent "evil" animal instincts also clearly in play). However, the social control and institutional aspects of many religions, and their infection by self-interested control freaks, tug at the coattails of that good.

the new age dinner guest

The Northwest is a hotbed of new age baloney. This is what happens when the Beatles go to India and hang out with a guru and add some sitars to their music; a whole generation of Westerners throw off the yoke of Christianity, only to rush headlong into the supernatural juju of other continents. Sufism, Buddhism, Hinduism, that sort the usual favorites. And the idolizing of the native, an unsubstantiated respect for indigenous "knowledge" and other forms of "traditional" knowledge, the sort born of thousands of years of tradition or simple intuition- "women's" knowing another that need not be beacked by any evidence to be asserted around here. And most often, this insidious snake oil slides by in a way that is not convenient to question- it's just part of the general lahar of granola that washed over this region years ago and is still choking innocent babies in its uber-natural wake (I refer here to the anti-vaccine hippies, and Steve Jobs' non-invasive 'treatment' choices).

Here's how it rolled out at dinner recently. A Seattle guest, vegetarian, lets drop that some years back she had a friend who was diagnosed with cancer. The tumor was enormous, running from the brainstem past all major organs to the stomach. Doctors gave the woman a 1 in 10 chance of survival. That's the setup. Are you ready for the new age cure?

New Age dinner guest quit her job to care for her (this establishes a moral high ground in terms of commitment to the patient), and put her on a special diet. The doctors thought this diet was nuts (establishes her radical anti-establishment cred). And, lo and behold, the cancer goes into remission, and the woman is still with us 17 years later.

This turd dropped into the punchbowl of conversation with a murmuring of 'wow', but not much else. It wasn't my house, and I had previously endangered my friendship with the host by pointing out that many traditional Chinese medicines are laced with heavy metals and pharmaceuticals and by the way the diagnosis and treatment is completely inconsistent and based on an unproven theories of Qi energy and Yin and Yang, so I kept my lips zipped. But I was shocked at the uncritical response.

She inferred that the diet was the cure without coming out and saying it; which is all for the better. Because the other distinct possibility is that the woman in question was the lucky 1 in 10 who survives. What I wish I had done: ok, 10 dinner guests, ok, I have a secret number in my head between 1 and 10. Eveyone pick a number between 1 and 10, and tell me your number- no repeats. No, no, no, no, YES! You survived, all the rest of you are dead. Oh, and what are you eating tonight? Looks like some meat on the plate there. Repeat after me: correlation is not causation. Correlation is not causation.

What an incredible case study. Let's assume all the facts are straight and we verified all the details. What you have is a single case study. Let me give you another case study: my mom. My mom wanted to quit smoking. She heard acupuncture could help. She went to an acupuncturist, and the quack put needles in her ears and wherever the magical meridians are for the nerves and arteries that allegedly connect to that 'wanna smoke' part of your brain, or your Qi energy, or whatever. My mom still smokes. Proof that acupuncture is a bunch of hooey? It is if you base your conclusions on anecdotes. All it takes for a lot of people is a good narrative; we like stories. We learned for thousands of years through stories; then we figured out how to do systematic, controlled research. We figured out that our intuition is often wrong.

Nobody even asked what the miracle diet consisted of. Was it of her own invention? Then she should publish it! Did she borrow it from other sources? Then give them credit! Meat is known to raise risk of developing cancer; veggies and fiber and fruits known to lower it. But what research has been done on remission in this regard? Any double-blind studies with thousands of cases?

I'm not disregarding the notion that a vegetarian diet has great health benefits- the evidence on that is solid. But don't waltz into dinner claiming you cured cancer. It makes anything else you say harder to swallow than the charbroiled meat.   

The sanctity of life

There are certain stock phrases that are kicked around the American Christospere repeatedly. These, for some reason, provoke almost agitated questioning in my mind. Christian euphemism, pithy sayings and pious proclamations evoke the same question outright: says who? God. Which one? The only one. Are you serious? Yes, we have a book that proves everything. God provides, and life is sacred.

Life is sacred.

First off, which life? Just humans, and screw the rest of creation? No, we are stewards of all that. Now there is a great plan! Hey, bible devotees, we have been fruitful and multiplied. Life is sacredish and all, but the petri dish is getting stinky. anyway, what of the animals? Sure, josses' little kittie is up in heaven, but what about a pet bird? rat? Wild rat? Cockroach? Bacteria? Plant? Mold? Which life is sacred exactly? And even if people are special to god, his messed up image and all that, can the rest of life on the planet be sort of sacred or special too?

Second obviously related question, what does sacred mean? I thin it means, some idea or word that if you don't buy it or show it public obeisance, you are shunned or even attacked. You burn a Koran, you get knifed or a riot erupts in Butfukistan or whatever. Respect the prophet!!! Uh.. Who? Why? You are offended? How old was Aisha, the prophet's favorite wife? If my wife is disobedient I can beat her? Hey, we are both offended, let's call it even and seek common ground as best we can.

Some Christians are almost offended that I exist; you know, that I would openly say that I don't believe in any god or gods or metaphysical hoobie joobies. Or they are simply afraid, afraid to face the world without their imaginary friend and jello socials. My dears, we can still have donuts and jello together. We can even talk ethics and family. But these folks truly believe that without the wisdom of their particular book and th e bizarre human sacrifice deal it involves, that the world is lost. I get it. Jesus people are often very nice, and the feeling that modern culture is lost and the desire to hue to tradition are all strong, especially in times of change. But the world is in fact a cold and random place. We have to do our collective best to get on with it.

Anyway, there you have it. Even if life isn't sacred, you still have to hand it tot the big man in the sky for those few creations he hasn't extinguished yet. Like liverflukes, and malaria. River blindness. All things bright and beautiful!

Life is sacred. Thus all the miscarriages.

Forgive me for not buying any of it: jeebus, Krishna, sun god, tree spirit, Barney, captain America or ghosts or angels or tooth fairies. Great for children's stories, but once one reaches what George carlin called the age of reason, one moves off the arc. Permanently.

Come out as an atheist


Out

God will provide

many of the posts here will serve as a relief valve. there are many moments that, as a rational being, one of my theist friends or colleagues smiles and says something which apparently brings them great peace, perhaps not realizing that their casual dropping of the g word or their pat pious phrase causes me excruciating intellectual pain. Or, perhaps they are well aware of this pain but seek to torment me, or, knowing of my atheism, drop little breadcrumbs which they hope will lead me to their moldy, petrified loaf of bronze-age wisdom. "god will provide" is one such phrase I was forced to countenance recently, in response to my concern that a friend was putting themselves out with their generosity. God will provide. Indeed. If god had provided, you would not be writing a check for $100.00 to help out. God will provide. Indeed, to European Americans like you and I, your god apparently delights in providing. Take your beatific smile and fine phrase over to sub-Saharan Africa and tell it to the mother whose baby has just died of malnutrition. God will provide! Except when he doesn't, which is a lot of the time. the usual theist response is that god does provide-in fact, there is enough food to go around- but it is up to us to be godly and loving enough to share it, and we fail in that, and our human corruption is why so many suffer. There is truth in those allegations, but this does not let god off the hook. How is it that a compassionate god allows innocent children to suffer because adults are ungodly? That in his bestowing of blessings-you know, have a blessed day, I am blessed, god bless America, god is so capricious in distributing his blessings? Africa is less blessed or divinely neglected at best in comparison to the USA, despite being a very religious continent. Just like Rick perry, they love god but it apparently isn't mutual, at least not in terms of the blessings that would make most of feel lucky- er, I mean, blessed. It's really the same thing when you think about it. Hordes of mexicans pray to the virgin of Guadalupe, who is especially pure on account of not having sex, which is a sexist old testament obsession for another post. But think about it. If every Mexican who prayed to the virgin got what they prayed for, they wouldn't call them miracles anymore. It is only because lots of people pray and only a select few get what they ask for that such things are called blessings or miracles. And why are some prayers answered and others ignored? Some people born with plenty and others into disease and starvation? This is a mystery that the best theologians tell us we will only be privileged to understand, if we are lucky, after we die. I once met a woman who said that she is the sort of person who always needs to know "why" things are happening...as if every event in her life has a cosmic micromanager. How sad. The only way she found peace was through a book that reassured her she might get to know god's reasons when she died. So, in other words, god may seem so capricious that events in the world appear to be random. And, lacking any rational narrative for them, your experience of them will in fact be just that-random and lacking any reason. And the best comfort you can hope for, the thing that allows you to sleep at night, is to trust that there is a reason you might learn of later...and until then you have to accept not knowing. How those clumsy intellectual gymnastics bring anyone peace is beyond me. allow me to apply occam's razor: there is no why. Accept that and stop asking. Saves a step and eliminates the uncertainty of maybe not finding out when you die! Life is random, god does not bless people or care who will win the football game- so stop thanking him. And when you rescue some miners from miles under the rock, don't forget to give credit to the human engineers who designed the capsule that got you out- unless you prefer to sit and wait while people pray for you to miraculously emerge. All of the miracles of modern medicine, including cures to diseases supposedly created by god, were made by men. And that is the true blessing; we bless ourselves, while gods flit about in the imagination and lay entombed in stone monuments to whichever mythology is currently fashionable. Zeus bless you.

"God will provide."

Haven't posted for a while; but that just means I have a backlog of rants. So here they come!

On good days, when I am feeling the love of being alive and the joy of human fellowship, I wax brief in Facebook posts about it. But then there are the other moments; no, not the ones where people are rude, or drive aggressively, or walk past dying people without batting an eye. Those things disappoint me, but they don't get my goat. The world is a cold, tough place and manifesting love seems surprisingly hard to cultivate in our species in public settings or outside one's in-group. No, the other moments that stimulate my writing are the passing encounters with well-meaning Christians (and a few who know I am an athiest and take some pleasure, or imagine some future salvation, in sort of poking me with their faith). They say things that are common enough but which truly get my goat by confounding any attempt at reason. There are four I will focus on, and they are interconnected: "God will provide", "Everything happens for a reason," various characterizations of people as "blessed", and "God has a plan for you." All these phrases make my brain convulse. If I could claim that such language was against my religion, I would- because I feel my intelligence insulted whenever I hear them. Your religion offends me.

First thing is first: quite often, God will NOT provide. Over 10 million children die each year from hunger: which is precisely why the UN and countless charities, many of them Christian, have to step in and fill the gap. So, who provides? People. Certainly these people are well-intentioned; and I have not seen any Atheist food banks in town (Dear fellow Atheists, put up or shut up as far as 'we are also ethical people'. We should be emulating the Christians on this front, just minus the ridiculous notion that a god is needed to feel love or teach us to share.) But it doesn't matter if god told you to share, or krishna, or you just thought it would be nice. God allowed lots people to be born without a pot to shit in, and as added insult, without any food to digest into shit. So how about this: God will provide, except when he doesn't, in which case people can help out. That is what churches do when they organize, do fund raisers, and then donate the proceeds. People do all that, yet they sell themselves short and give all the glory to god. God did not cure Polio; he created it, and we beat it with science. God is bringing beautiful babies into being in regions infested with the beautiful mosquitoes that carry the beautiful malaria he created; and man is busy trying to fix it. But who did they thank when they pulled the Chilean miners to safety? You guessed it. How about thanking the engineers who rigged the capsule? Same damn thing whenever they interview a quarterback after a football game; as if god was up there picking teams and calling plays. People are lucky, and unlucky; shit happens, some good, some bad, some predictable, and some highly unlikely. None of this indicates divine intervention. News flash: roughly 50 percent of football teams will lose; the others will win; and a few will tie. There will be some amazing plays from time to time, but god isn't "blessing" any of those criminals, unless you count their salary. And that brings us to blessings.

Have a blessed day. I am blessed. Sure you are! God will provide, especially if you are born in a developed country, even more likely if you are white. The notion that there is a conscious being up there passing out the good luck and bad luck is patently offensive, because of his inequitable distribution. I mean, you have this all-powerful, all-intelligent being, capable of miracles, who supposedly loves each one of us, possibly from the moment of conception (though that makes all the miscarriages hard to explain), and yet he can't even manage to have us all born where there is enough food to go around, or for the food to grow decently where the people are. But wait, you say, there is enough food produced to feed the world; the PEOPLE are to blame for not sharing it. That is an interesting proposition, one that is paraphrased on the cover of the weekly newsletter my wife brought home from her church: "God give us all, then calls on us to Share (superfluous capitalization theirs)." Omniscient, omnipotent, but doesn't do distribution. Leaves that to us. That is a sick little game, isn't it? Almost as sick as what he did to Abraham. But not the sickest! No, to truly appreciate how god blesses people- or more accurately, how people use that notion and the others listed above to handle psychological adversity- let's look at another category of misfortune: combat veterans.

Imagine running is your favorite activity in the world. But god loves you, and he has a plan for you, which goes like this: blow his legs off! Now, maybe god is just testing you. Trying to teach you a lesson. Using you to help others. Sure. Whatever works to stay positive, believe it. That is the power of faith- you can ignore the statistics and use the irrational part of your brain to believe that you can beat the odds, which, like a placebo pill reducing pain, actually increases the chance that you will succeed. The power or prayer and such are real- as real as a placebo; and I wonder if even I can access that power despite knowing it is rooted in hooey. I'm slightly jealous of those who have 'freed' themselves from rationality and accessed this power (along with a raft of steaming camel crap like creationism, faith healing frauds, and so on). This god sure has a funny way of blessing people- I mean, sure, the lucky veteran is the one who made it home- they are certainly more blessed than the dead- or those who made it home and then died. What a blessing! What a plan! But that's ok, they are in heaven. See, you can't lose with this god, no matter what he dishes out! There is a great benefit to looking on the bright side, and no one is better at this than the Jesus people. But more on "everything happens for a reason" and looking on the bright side and counting "blessings" and luck vs. miracles later. It is time to baptize the porcelain with a wave of my staff.

The world is random, yet beautiful

The ideas that life evolved by events of chance, and the idea that events in our life happen randomly (without a divine reason) seem to threaten a lot of people. I will expound on that more later- it requires the mathematics of probability and some psychology to unravel. For the moment, I just want to explain my choice of banner- a fern, generated from a not terribly complex equation, plus lots of randomness- fractals.

http://bioquest.org/esteem/esteem_details.php?product_id=249

The biological world certainly does have the appearance of design- complex parts functioning in complex wholes. And it is difficult to imagine such structures appearing by chance- mainly because it is hard to conceptualize the time scale involved in evolution. But this fern, along with snowflakes and other crystals, proves that random inputs, given a few natural constraints, will form an apparent order organically, through a reiterative process, with beautiful results. Randomness is the opposite of design. But it does not occur in a vacuum; there are laws of physics and chemistry and such. How structures began to reproduce themselves, thus becoming "life", remains a mystery; but one thing is clear- given time and energy, randomness can "create" something beautiful.