Indoctrinated into Ignorance. How Good People are swindled into belief.

Last week I posted a series of bible verses that would make any person without religious bias come to the conclusion that Christian god is evil, apathetic to human suffering, cruel, and far from moral and just. These verses should have made the moderate believers at least ponder the possibility that there is a problem with the accuracy of their belief. The passages were blatant and as obvious as I could find, with very little, if any, room for any other logical conclusion than “God is not good”. In these passages God very clearly endorsed slavery, the selling of daughters as sex slaves, and the murder of women, infants, and rape victims.

Not to my surprise, but not what you would expect from people who pride themselves in being just and moral, I received responses attempting excusing this gods behavior and forcefully circumventing the little thought needed to come to a rational conclusion. What is amazing is that, if I were to have told them that Sadaam Hussein made these statements they would have had him unearthed, revived and hung him again. But since their god made these statements, Killing babies and making your daughters into sex slaves was perfectly acceptable.

My point here is that I believe, based on my own religious experience as a reverends son, most believers are first taught what to think of the bible and God before they even read it. They have already been convinced of a conclusion or told what to think of the bible as they read the bible. They are told that God is always good and just, and that God is always right. When something in the bible is incongruent with this or reality, they will be told to refer to the previous assumption, pray to God for revelation, it is a mystery that only god knows, not to attempt rationalize Gods infinite wisdom just have faith and other similar bullshit. They are told how to interpret the bible as if it is not written in plain English. You are told what to think versus reading the bible without bias and arriving at your own conclusion. They totally subvert opportunity for rational thought and indoctrinate members into a delusional mindset. Questioning of God’s judgment is a sin and the virtue of impervious faith is most pleasing to God. No matter how much you are suffering or how shitty your existence is, you are told God cares about you, and if you continue serve him, he will compensate you after you die. You are told if you don’t serve him, when you die, God will make you suffer for eternity and make them wish you were really dead. When the believer dies after a life of intellectual slavery, it is too late, he has been swindled out of money, time and a sane rational lifestyle.

Why God is a Delusion. The basics.

This is not an end all to the question of Gods existence. This is more like a conversation starter. I will not provide any evidence that God doesn’t exist, this is as impossible as providing evidence of his existence. You can only prove existence, not the lack of.

The right question to ask when analyzing any claim is “why should I or anyone believe?”. It is not your job to refute every claim made. The burden of proof lies with the person making the claim. A claim is not “true until proven false”. This is backwards. A claim is only deemed true when proven true. How could we otherwise determine truth?

The premise of my argument is that truth can only be verified by evidence. If there is no evidence to support a claim then there is no reason to believe it is true. Then the argument digresses into what constitutes evidence. What quality and quantity of evidence is sufficient to reasonably justify belief? That depends on the claim made. Is it ordinary or extraordinary in nature.
If you claim to own a dog, it would it is reasonable for me to take your word as true because it is a fairly ordinary claim and of little importance or ramifications. Dogs exist and plenty of people own them. Dogs are very easy to obtain.

However, if you claim that you own a dog that poops 24k gold pretzels on command, I may try to reserve judgment on your character or your mental health, but I would surely require a significant amount of evidence of great quality prior to believing you. I would want to see it with my two eyes, repeated over many times. I would want scientist to investigate and determine if the dog itself is producing the gold or are you abusing your dog by placing gold pretzels in its rectum. I would want scientist to explain how exactly the dog is able to defecate gold. As well as determining how in the world does he make it into the shape of a pretzel? A gold limacon evacuating canine would have great scientific ramifications and is very extraordinary in nature. This is practically unbelievable from the perspective of the human experience.

If we were to objectively judge the claim that “God exists and is the cause of all existence” by the same standards that we judged the claim of a gold pretzel defecating dog, we will likely come to the conclusion that there is more evidence for a the gold defecating dog than for God’s existence; Evidence for the existence of dogs, feces, pretzels, pretzel shaped poop and gold all exist. Evidence for god however… Nil. Nol. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nashingu.

If there is no evidence of god’s existence then the universe being his creation is equally unsubstantiated. This is why faith is the corner stone of many religions. For example, Christian dogma emphasizes faith that can move mountains. As if saying’” if you believe strong enough it will come true”. It innately disregards the importance of evidence as a means of justifying belief because its claim is not substantiated by evidence.
Because most of earth’s human population believe in deities, the claim that god exists seems ordinary. It gives the illusion that this belief is substantiated because it is perceived to be common knowledge. Therefore, the claim is treated as ordinary despite being an extraordinary one. Not much evidence, if any, is requested by people before the claim is accepted as truth. Religious belief circumvents the standard by which people normally evaluate claims.

Now as far as my general statement, “God is a delusion” refers to beliefs correlated with religion, that are unsubstantiated and or contradicted by well establish knowledge. The most common example is the bibles 7 day creation myth. It claims that all life on earth, as well as earth in its current form, was created by a god. Despite the plethora of evidence supporting scientific explanations for the evolution of earth and life (physical, geological, paleontological and biological), Christian creationist insist the creation myth is truth. If you notice most arguments against evolution merely attempt to discredit it but never provide scientific evidence for the creation myth other than quoting the bible. The closest thing to a scientific argument is intelligent design which is a merely a sophisticated version of creationism and is actually antiscientific in nature. This is merely one example of many that abound.

If someone believes a claim despite contradicting evidence it can be said he/she has a delusional belief because it is not only unsubstantiated but contrary to proven truths. People who believe in deities usually do not make habit of challenging claims by evaluating the evidence that supposedly substantiates it, and therefore they are prone to believe falsehoods or delusions.

I encourage you to ask me questions, analyze my statement, and do your own research. Question everything.

God, Morality and Atheism!!

A few days ago I had a discussion with my father. While conversing we came upon the subject of morality. He mentioned that he believed that the majority of people, who are atheist, are so because they don’t want to live morally. I was offended and shocked that my father could make such a thoughtless statement. The statement assumes many fallacies. One, morals are exclusive to Christians and created by God; Two, atheist lack morality; Three, atheism and morals are correlated. I am not attempting to express scorn towards my father; I love and owe him too much to do so. My conversation with my father is only what motivated me to write this blog. The statement my father made is all too common and while I don’t consider my father a bigot, his statement expresses the sentimental prelude to it.

First and foremost, morals do not exist because God dictates them. In fact, it can be concluded by the bible that the Christian God does not abide by the moral codes he is given credit for creating. Thus, it can be inferred that God is not even an example of a moral being. Many of Gods laws and commands are immoral. Now take in mind that this god is supposedly perfect and incapable of committing errors. For example, Slavery, God condones slavery and abuse of slaves:

· When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are.  If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again.  But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her.  And if the slave girl’s owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter.  If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife.  If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment. (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)

· When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished.  If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property. (Exodus 21:20-21 NAB)

· Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear.  Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. (Ephesians 6:5 NLT)

· Christians who are slaves should give their masters full respect so that the name of God and his teaching will not be shamed.  If your master is a Christian, that is no excuse for being disrespectful.  You should work all the harder because you are helping another believer by your efforts.  Teach these truths, Timothy, and encourage everyone to obey them. (1 Timothy 6:1-2 NLT)

· The servant will be severely punished, for though he knew his duty, he refused to do it.  “But people who are not aware that they are doing wrong will be punished only lightly.  Much is required from those to whom much is given, and much more is required from those to whom much more is given.” (Luke 12:47-48 NLT)

You can bring the lame duck ancient Asian culture argument, but if God is perfect and is who dictates what is moral, then morality is absolute, transcends culture and is universal. Slavery is immoral but God condones it. God also condones and has ordered the killing innocent children and babies in the Old Testament:

· Anyone who is captured will be run through with a sword.  Their little children will be dashed to death right before their eyes.  Their homes will be sacked and their wives raped by the attacking hordes.  For I will stir up the Medes against Babylon, and no amount of silver or gold will buy them off.  The attacking armies will shoot down the young people with arrows.  They will have no mercy on helpless babies and will show no compassion for the children. (Isaiah 13:15-18 NLT)

· “Then I heard the LORD say to the other men, “Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked.  Show no mercy; have no pity!  Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and little children.  But do not touch anyone with the mark.  Begin your task right here at the Temple.”  So they began by killing the seventy leaders.  “Defile the Temple!” the LORD commanded.  ”Fill its courtyards with the bodies of those you kill!  Go!”  So they went throughout the city and did as they were told.” (Ezekiel 9:5-7 NLT)

· When the people heard the sound of the horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the city from every side and captured it.  They completely destroyed everything in it – men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, donkeys – everything. (Joshua 6:20-21 NLT)

What moral ground would God stand on to argue against abortion? The answer is none what so ever. This is a devastating blow to the argument that morals are godly. It is obvious that if God is capable of immoral actions he is as morally flawed as a human. Taking your moral queue from a person who apathetically kills innocent children and is an advocate of slavery is at the very least disdainful. So how could being a Christian make you a good person? It doesn’t and quite the opposite can be said.

If Christians follow God’s example and his commands then they are not by default moral people. Morality is not only, not exclusive to Christianity, it is not derived from God. Being a Christian can only make you as virtuously as the god you adore. The Christian god not only lacks ethical virtue but can be said to be wicked.

That being said, Atheists are as capable of being as moral as any righteous person. Statistically Atheist can be said to be more moral that the religious. In general, people are usually arrested and convicted of violating moral codes (rape, abuse, murder, stealing, fraud, .etc). A 1997 study by the Federal Bureau of Prisons showed that 0.21% of the prison population was atheist. This in is in contrast to 35% Protestant, 39% Catholic, and 7% Muslim. Now, take in mind that according to the 2001 ARIS study by The City University of New York, the non- religious make up 14.1% of the U.S. population, while Protestants make up 52%, Catholics 24.5%, and Muslims 0.5%.

If morality was in any way correlated with religious beliefs the statistics above would at least hint to a relationship. However, the numbers spit in the face of the religious mans moral ego. Godlessness does not produce wicked people and, statistically speaking, the non-religious are virtuous. However, if righteousness is not correlated with religious views, then atheists cannot claim ownership either. This brings me to argue against the next fallacy.

Atheism is in no way correlated with any particular preconceived moral perspective. Atheism is the lack of belief in gods. An Atheist has found no reason or evidence that compels him/her to believe in the existence of deities. That is all there is to say about atheism. Any other attribute forcefully adhered into the definition of what an Atheist is, is mere bigotry or flattery. Atheist can be just as ignorant as some Christians (though studies have correlated mediocre levels of education and lower I.Q.’s to the likelihood of religious belief) and just as moral or immoral.

So what are morals and where are they derived from? Morals are rules of conduct that groups of people agree to live by for the general well being of the individuals that coexist in the group. It has been though deep thought (philosophy) and experience that humans have developed ethical codes of conduct. However, since religion and culture have been inseparable throughout human history and since deities were ignorantly attributed with controlling and creating everything in the universe, morality and piety were confused as one. This has created the illusion that religious belief and morality are related.

The truth is the origin of morality in social creatures is based on the ability to empathize with other individuals. This is the ability to put oneself in another’s place and imagine how an action or event affects him/her. The result of this thought process is ethical reciprocity, better known as the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”. You treat others as you wish to be treated in hopes that others in your group reciprocate your behavior. If everyone in the group reciprocates each other’s ethical behavior then the group increases its chances of living pleasantly. Ethical reciprocity also strengthens the group’s cohesiveness and cooperation with one another allowing it to function efficiently as a unit. Morals are a convenience, and from an evolutionary perspective a survival niche.

However, morals are observed when they benefit our survival or at the very least do not jeopardize it. The following metaphoric dilemma was given by ecologist Garrett Hardin. Suppose there is a life boat, in the middle of the ocean, with 50 people on board, with room for 10 more souls but only enough food and water for 50. There are hundreds of swimmers surrounding the boat pleading to be rescued. If you take on ten more souls everyone will die, and no one stand a chance of surviving. What is the ethical thing to do?

In this circumstance, empathetic behavior will put everyone’s survival at risk. The normal moral standard shares the same fate as the struggling swimmers in this scenario, because no one benefits from attempting to save swimmers. My point here is that morals are circumstantial. Morality has to be judged in context with the situation, keeping in mind all that are affected, and the severity and scope of the suffering or evil done.

In conclusion, morals are arbitrary ethical codes of conduct determined by human discretion, and observed by people in societies for its beneficial qualities. There is no correlation to gods or piety, especially when the god worshiped has a poor sense of what is ethical. Statistically, religion and morality are not in any way related. Atheism by definition indicates no moral perspective. Therefore saying that “an atheist chooses not to believe in gods in order to live immorally” is akin to saying “baseball players choose not to be football players in order to kill kittens”. It is absurdly illogical and false.

What Would Hitler Do? (WWHD?)

Do Christians ever stop and think what their beliefs imply? Take for instance the concept of original sin. According to Christian dogma, we are all condemned to burn in hell from the time of conception because of Adam’s and Eve’s sin. You are being held accountable and punished for crimes you haven’t committed. God will torture you for eternity because you’re related to Adam. Is this just? Is this moral?

If we assume God is all-good and always acts justly and morally, then genocide is also moral and just. In the Christian God’s eyes, the merciless killing of an entire race (Men, Women and infants) as punitive measure for the transgressions of one man, is moral and warranted. Imagine Hitler a moral icon. What would Hitler do (WWHD)? All Hitler would need to excuse his gruesome genocide, is one crooked Jew.

Since the Christian God is assumed to be all-knowing; he must have known that Adam would sin before creating humanity. So God was looking forward to torturing you for eternity. Not only that, he looked forward to having his only begotten son, Jesus, beaten to a pulp and crucified. His own son!!!

This Gods total apathy towards human suffering, more accurately phrased, lust for human suffering, can only be deemed as evil. To say “God is love” and “God loves you” is absurd and deceitful.

Frankly, if you get your morals from the god of the bible, you’re basically an evil piece of shit.

All Men Created Equal????

This is a quick thought about the myth of equality among humans. I wrote this comment for a blog I read explaining what was meant by the Declaration of Independence stating “All men are created equal”. The conclusion was that it we had equal worth. But I disagree with the Declaration of Independence. I like its implementation in our society but don’t believe it is true. Here is why:

Are all men really of equal worth? What supports this belief? What is a man’s worth based on? I don’t believe that all men are of the same value. This is a myth. This idea is really part of our social contract. We promise to treat each other as if we were of equal worth. This compromise is to everyone’s benefit. I like it but the argument for it is weak.

Some thing’s worth or value is a function of another’s perspective. To who is it valuable? Something’s value is correlated with its usefulness and necessity. Usefulness and necessity are also dependent on the circumstantial situation at hand. Because of these truths there can be no absolute standard for worth and it can never be said that all things always have the same worth, including humans.

In social animals there is usually a hierarchy. Inherently in a hierarchy there is no absolute equality between members of the group. Humans are social animals. We function best in groups, so naturally there will always be a hierarchy. Thus there is no real equality. Even from the groups perspective a lazy or nonproductive member cannot have the same worth as a fruitful one.

In the wild the animals whose design allows it to best exploit its environment and survive lives on, while the worst suited for the environment die off. In this sense there are no equals. Every animal is not identical to the next, and in most cases even within its own species (even bacteria mutate). Therefore if humans in comparison with each other are not identical in design and abilities, how can it be said that they have equal worth?

This phrase (all men….) in the Declaration of independence was meant to express that contrary the feudal system in Europe (where the King and nobility ruled), Americans believed that your families class or wealth should not dictate your worth in society. The Kings of Europe were said to have divine rights. Our founding fathers believed that if according to Bible, we were all created in God’s image, we were of equal worth. Well, since there is no evidence for a God, nor is God relevant in what really dictates social class (wealth & power), this founding argument for equal worth is not worth much. Besides being in the likeness of a God doesn’t infer equality among men. The bible itself condones of slavery.

Equal worth among humans is a delusion that helps maintain a cohesive, stable, productive society. If we all share in this delusion we will feel better about ourselves and our society. It is a functional delusion.

Atheist Response to a Christian Blog

The following was a response to a blog by a Christian at wordpress.com. The blog was a comment on an article concerning the newly built Creationist Museum (where a the creation is exhibited as per “intelligent design” theory). He had gotten upset because I made the point that the pseudo-scientific theory of “Intelligent design” is moronic. I made the point the “a man who claims to know all” is really an idiot. While a wise man admits to know very little. He thought I directly called him a idiot, though in light of the scientifically ignorant statements made on his part, it can be implied. Here is the response:

Johnathan, though I do understand I was abrasive, my intentions were noble. A wise man and moron/idiot are extreme contrasts in the same way that theist and atheist are to one another. Now, I do not believe that all theists are stupid people, as well as all atheists being bright people. There are intelligent theists with ignorant misinformed beliefs and the same can be said about atheist. I think one can be wise in some aspects and equally foolish in others.

Creationism is not science. Why? Well for one, what scientific method was used to arrive at this conclusion? Well none, if you just repeat the bible’s creation myth, but for flattery’s sake I will continue as if otherwise. In creationist theory (more along the lines of hypothesis) God is a presupposition, an assumption. The idea of God (defined as a creator) has not been reached by the convergence of empirical data. It is an assumption inherited by primitive humans who knew no other way of explaining natural phenomena. You must remember that God/gods are not unique to Judeo-Christian religions; all primitive humans seem to have utilized magical thinking in understanding their world. Greeks, the patriarchs of western philosophy were polytheist. These beliefs however, are today considered antiquated myths. I’m sure even your atheist in respects to Zeus. An assumption by nature is not scientific, Science ideally assumes nothing, and all conclusions must be supported by empirical data.

Another problem is that there is an inherent religious bias in creationism. Theist are looking for an outcome that favors belief in their deity, not seeking blindly “the truth, the whole truth, nothing but truth”( Needless to mention the obvious response to Evolutionary theory, where it’s unacceptable due to the fact that there is no acknowledgment of a deity involved in its explanation). In the scientific method one does not come to a conclusion then goes in search for supporting data. In this way a creationist train of thought differs from serious scientists. The process seems to follow an order alien to science.

“The Creation begs for a Creator”, one assumes the other (Begging the question or circular argument). This reverts back to my prior statement where a creator is assumed, except a “creation” is now the presupposition. There is no conclusive evidence that we live in a creation. The next argument I usually hear is “We didn’t ain’t come from nowhere”, or more elegantly put “everything has a beginning”. While I do agree that everything known has a beginning /origin, I don’t see the next logical conclusion being “then there must be a creator”. If so though, who created the creator? Where does this end or better put, begin? The right answer is “I don’t know”, because we don’t know at the moment. What came before the universe is speculative science at the moment (though there are some very exciting new hypotheses). This brings me to a statement you deleted. There is nothing wrong with “I don’t know” other than our need to know. But this does not excuse arbitrarily plugging in creators to the equation in place of unknown variables. If we continued to explain mysterious phenomena in this manner, as primitive people did, what would we really know? We would assume to know all, when in actuality ignorance becomes us. We would have no need to search for answers, science. Which is in actuality, was my point in saying the man who believes he is all knowing, is really the moron. This in contrast to the wise man admitting he knows very little. Thus “What do you call a man who pretends to know everything? An Idiot.” No pun intended.

How I Became an Atheist

Why am I an atheist? Why do I defy my parent’s Christian upbringing? Never in my wildest dream growing up would I have believed I would become agnostic. The majority of my past life is saturated with Christian influence. My world revolved around my family’s beliefs, back then also mine. My father was a well educated devout charismatic minister. I was raised in a wholesome Christian household. I grew up in church, literally. My largest social circle was in church. Up until 2003, I was complacent with how my parents explained my universe.

As a child I was very intuitive and bright. I enjoyed reading zoology magazines and science books. Since then, I have had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, trying to piece together and solve my awesome universes conundrums. Infallible logic ruled my universe, yet I was a steadfast in my religious beliefs. I had subconsciously divided my universe between the spiritual and the scientific. They both seemed as one but never conflicted with one another. I blindly followed my parent’s doctrines and never questioned God’s existence.

Now that I am openly Agnostic (gay’s aren’t the only ones with closets), my parents believe my four year Endeavour in the U.S. Navy twisted my perception. Contrary to their beliefs, I held their belief until a year after my discharge. The culprit of my theological corruption was not the salty grime and soot of ethically deprived sailors or my alcoholic escapades in trashy neighborhoods around the world. It was the wholesome nurture of the Discovery Channel. It was my thirst for knowledge.

There came a time after my adventures as a seafarer when I came to the realization that I needed to define myself. The oppressive uniformity of military life plunders individuality and left me devoid of an identity. I lost the Ibzan Fernandez. I had lost myself in the system. It was as if I was dormant for four years. My intellect slumbered as if hibernating a long winter. But alas it was spring and I began to thaw. I rediscovered my innate passion of science and knowledge.

In my quest to find myself, I began to read a lot of scientific, historical and political articles and televised documentaries. I was on a journey to find my own path, to form my own opinions, to be myself. I wasn’t consciously on the road to disband biblical myths and ask heretical questions though. My faith was still intact. Until then I had kept my two worlds separate. But as I nurtured critical and syllogistic thinking, my once disparate worlds began their collision.

As I studied the formation of our planet and life within, the how and why scientist arrived at certain theoretical conclusions, I began to realize that the bibles creation myth was flawed. The earth wasn’t created in seven days, it took millions of years. All species of life on earth did not arrive in a day’s time of one another within the span of a week. Different sets of animal fossils are found in different layers of earth, each layer of earth representing different time periods on earth, spanning back millions of years. Human fossils are not found next to T-Rex. Why? Well, because they did not exist simultaneously. If one part of the bible was flawed why couldn’t there be other errors. I began to subject all that I was taught to critical analysis. I found other scientific fallacies. I also found logical defects in its philosophy and doctrine. Day by day my faith withered, until I came to the undeniable truth that the people who wrote the books of the bible were not inspired by an omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent god. They were merely doing the best they could explaining the marvelous world they lived in. They observed their universe with ignorant eyes. The ancient did not judge and interpret events in their lives with scientific eyes. The Hebrews did what all other ancient civilizations did; they filled their gaps of knowledge with gods and superstitions.

This finally lead me commit the ultimate heresy; questioning gods existence. This did not come easy to me. I wasn’t only confronting my parent’s beliefs, I was confronting my own. I was disillusioned. I felt disoriented. I was on a mission to find and define myself and ended losing more of who I had come to be. The fundament of which I had based my existence, my orientation in life, my place and purpose in this universe, was sent into total disarray. For the first time in my life I felt truly desolate, devoid of a non-existent god’s presence.

Like when a child is told that there is no Santa, I felt a loss. Except the loss, in this case, was an all-knowing, ever vigilant and caring father figure, who had a purpose for my life in his grand plan and promised me eternal life after death. Not to mention that this would affect how I associated and interacted with, and thought of my parents. With my accepting this, in their eyes is heretical, truth; a wall erected between us. There entire existence is devoted to this marred belief. In their eyes god is everything and in everything and vice-versa.

This especially affected my relationship with my theist father. We had little in common to begin with. He was always too absorbed with his ministerial duties to observe many of life’s other aspects. Not much else left to build a relationship on, other than I love and respect him. How was I to tell him that I thought that, that which he had whole heartedly devoted his entire self too is complete rubbish in my book? Luckily my father has always had respect of my thoughts and took the news relatively well. He never forced his beliefs on me. He would say “God doesn’t have grandchildren”; meaning just because he was devout son of god did not mean by default I was. I had to have my own encounter and relationship with God. For this I am grateful, though I wonder if my father regrets it. My great father allowed me to come to my own realization, though with faith that God would reveal himself to me.

So here I am an agnostic with atheist views. Still finding myself and making my own path. Accepting and at peace with the fact that there is no heavenly purpose to my existence. Realizing I give myself purpose. Here I am, dealing with the harsh prospect living only one life, with no expectations of an afterlife.

People share the misconception that life without a God is meaningless and devalues ones existence. I say the contrary. Life with the belief of a creator depreciates the value of it. Life is that much more special and cherished when one realizes that you only live once and that there isn’t a soul factory in heaven that can replace the loss of a life. Without conscious life forms like ourselves, who would be the eyes and ears of our universe? Who would gaze in awe, discover and describe our unique planet? The fact that you are alive is more a miracle without a God. The fact that chance brought me into existence makes my everyday that much more special. I take nothing for granted and am grateful and honored to have the opportunity to observe, touch, feel, smell, hear, and taste my awesome universe. Every moment is unique and vivid, every moment is cherished as if were my last. My new stark reality has made my purpose to enjoy life and the plentiful booty it has to offer. I say booty because booty is stolen or taken by force. Live life forcefully. Live it with ferocity. Live as if you have but one.

Did a god plant the seeds for evolution?

I Myspacer asked me the following: “Do you believe it impossible for God to have planted a seed of creation for which all evolution began?”. And I responded:

I think thats a cop out argument, with the purpose of keeping ones faith without perturbing the rational side of your intellect by appeasing it. Evolution is a sloppy, unguided process in which we are a fortunate coincidence. This is consistent with the idea that there is no god, no purposeful creator or (for weak arguments sake) if there is a god he is not a personal god. You must ask yourself what evidence is there for the existence of a god? The proof for a god is tantamount to the evidence for a green three headed swan in our neighboring universe laying titanium eggs. You can’t prove there isn’t one, but there isn’t any data that implies there is. So what is the most likely scenario? The most likely scenario is that there is no god. I really wish I had a good willed invisible being looking over my shoulder. However, when I observe the apathetic universe I live in, all the human and animal suffering I observe, I would be a delusional egomaniac to think that there is a universal steward that cares about me.