Sunday, November 18, 2012

Aliens are cool

Let's talk about aliens.

Who hasn't wondered if we are alone or not? With the vastness of space, it is entirely possible that other intelligible life we'd recognize exists. I can't say it does, but I can't say it doesn't.

Question is, do I believe in aliens visiting Earth? And I can say I don't really believe that.

I base that belief in the realization that the accounts I have heard are not terribly convincing. A lot of really poor accounts does not snowball into a solid argument, you just end up with a lot of slush. A stack of baloney never becomes a steak.

I also consider the distances that would have to be traveled to get here, and the scope of such a trip would surely mean that we'd need to face an alien way more advanced than us, and why would they then want to engage us? To eat us? To enslave us? Possibly. But it seems like it would take a lot of resources to send sufficient aliens here to do that, resources better spent on developing their own technology to more cheaply solve the problem they'd need us for.

I think it's really cool to think about aliens out there, and maybe visiting Earth, but it's fantasy. I know it isn't a realistic thing. It's illogical, the personal accounts do not compel me, and there's no reason to believe in it without better proof than the hearsay we get. Not saying it is impossible, just highly improbable.

Do you agree with my viewpoint? I think you probably do, more or less.

The doubt I hold in alien visits is identical to the doubt I hold in supernatural deities. It's fun to imagine in a fictional context, but it's pointless to accept as truth because there is no evidence to elevate it from a neat idea to a serious proposal.

But what if I am wrong, and this god I don't believe in punishes me?

And what if you don't see the aliens coming, and they eat you?

But you are confident the aliens aren't coming, aren't you? You don't really fear that. You can't be bothered. It's science fiction. It's fantasy.

If you can't be bothered to live every day in fear of joining an imminent alien buffet, then why do you bother with the equally pointless concern as to whether you are pleasing the god you've only heard about?

Friday, November 16, 2012

Atheism Is Not A Religion

A great video on YouTube channel 43alley - "Why Atheism is Not a Religion (A Ham-fisted Explanation)"


Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Vote for a WHAT?

An interesting article on NPR's website yesterday explores why people distrust atheists. It might not be as in-depth as I'd prefer, but it is good to see mainstream media talking about this.

I agree with the closing premise wholeheartedly.  We cannot stay in the closet and hide from the world. We need to show the more meek among us that it's ok to be yourself. And I concur with the author that when more atheists are seen as good people with a moral sense and are contributors to society, the "immoral atheist" lie will slowly evaporate.

What do you think? Are there other reasons to distrust atheists we need to discuss? What else can be done to turn this negative feeling around? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Do Atheists Hate God? Do You Hate Dog?

Here's another claim leveled against atheists - we hate God.

Let's say I am walking through the park and we meet, and we say hi. I ask you what you think of my dog. You tell me you don't see any dog. I counter, no, I am walking my dog. You shake your head and say no, there's no dog here. To that, I assert that the dog is invisible. You then tell me you don't believe I have a dog.

When I then moan, "You hate my dog!", am I making any sense? How can you hate a dog you don't even think exists?

Now, plenty of people hate Barney the Dinosaur or Harry Potter. But you can't actually hate them. They are "real" in the imaginations of a lot of people, but they don't actually exist, like a dog does. What you really hate, or love for that matter, is the idea of Barney or Harry, the fictional universe in which they dwell and their unique place in it, and perhaps in the minds of others who also imagine them to be real. You can't really hate Barney; you can only hate the concept of Barney.

To be fair, the concept of the God of the Bible, as one example, is not very appealing to me. I don't think what's written there about God is particularly flattering. I personally wouldn't like the guy if he was my neighbor. But that's one giant "if".

Because I don't have any motivation or reason to believe this, or any, god is real in any sense outside the imagination of numerous people, I don't have any motivation or reason to hate him or her.

I can't hate your god any more than you can hate the Monster In The Closet your child needs you to check before bed. Closet monsters are a pain in the ass, they are not part of how you wish the growing-up process should be, but there's your kid scared to death of something that you know full well is imaginary, and you have to deal with it.

If you believe your child and agree there might be a monster, you might have reason to hate it. But so long as we do not believe in the imaginary thing which another person is so damn sure exists, we are not capable of hating it.

We can hate that the poor tot can't sleep. We can hate that getting from child to adult has to be so hard. But we cannot hate what we believe is not real.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Why do you hate me?

The statistics are too familiar. Atheists are less appealing than homosexuals and Muslims in the American public eye. So I often ask myself, why do people hate me so much? Here's a partial list of reasons I have seen, and my reactions and comments.


1. Atheism = Communism

This one is just baseless. It has its roots in McCarthyism, where being American meant not being even remotely linked to the Communist movement, and Communism often is associated with atheism. But it is associated erroneously. Yes, 20th century Communist regimes were anti-religion, but that was only to remove the strength of will the people might gain from it. Atheist capitalists are as plentiful percentage-wise as capitalists overall. There is nothing in your belief in a god that determines whether you prefer capitalism or communism. It's just a silly proposition, and people need to recognize it.


2. Atheists Destroy Religious Traditions

Well, this depends on the traditions we are talking about. If we are talking about choosing Christmas as a federal holiday for all, well that's just a date on a calendar. It doesn't really favor Christianity, it is the same holiday for everyone. No one is harmed by this. We can argue whether federal holidays like Christmas, Memorial Day and Labor Day are really worthwhile as a whole, but there's nothing in the federal Christmas holiday itself that hurts anyone.

The fact that during November and December you can't go into a store without being inundated with Christian and Christian-inspired imagery, that's not even actual harm. Private businesses can feel free to decorate as they like. Private homes too, so long as they do not violate any other laws or neighborhood agreements in the process. People can opt not to patronize a business if they disagree with the views the business communicates, so there's no problem there.

If we are talking about governmental advocacy of religion, there's a different thing. A standing Christian display in a school, a courthouse, or a public park establishes a religious preference for that government, and the first amendment does not allow that.

Any tradition of a government which lends support to a specific or general religious view is neither a legal nor a moral tradition.

This does not stop a religious person from praying before an exam in school. This does not stop a group of religious people from convening on public property. That's not what anyone's after. But actions by a government or its representatives which discriminate on the basis of religion, however ecumenically the actions might be intended, are not ok.


3. Atheism Hurts The Faithful

If atheists can show they live morally-grounded lives and are happy with their freedom from the arbitrary rule of a deity, what does that say about the religious? Does it mean the religious are stupid? Does it mean their parents taught them poorly? Aren't atheists, by their existence, insulting and eroding the institution of faith mankind has enjoyed?

If my being the way I am shakes your faith, maybe your faith is weak or misplaced. If it did not prepare you to deal with a person like me, perhaps it is not me who is faulty, but the ideas you hold.

And my parents taught me a lot of things that used to be relevant but are no longer important or even true. That is how it works. (I can get a TV to come in great with a shotgun ariel, for one, but old-fashioned UHF broadcasting is no more.) But also how the unknowns were filled in - I was taught by traditional values, but then I formed my own opinion. Parents teach children the best they can, but no child should accept every word of their parents as unerringly true.

If being religious works for you, I'm happy for you. Your believing in a god does not hurt me at all, unless you let it. And I would fight for your right to believe.

But if seeing atheists makes you question your faith, maybe it is your faith that is the problem.


Well, that's just a short list. I'd love to hear other ideas about why atheists are reviled. Feel free to comment.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Election

What have we learned from the 2012 presidential election?

Fringe people are scary.

Women should not be kept in binders.

Hurricanes have a liberal bias.

120 million people - roughly 80% of the eligible voters - went to the polls. That's 4 1/2 times as many people who go to Six Flags parks in a year.

The Gregory Brothers do a fine job auto-tuning the debates.

Epistemic closure is a real thing, even if you don't believe it is.

The Republicans faltered despite being right about the personal invasiveness of Democratic economics, but they were wrong about the personal invasiveness of their own social views. And people would rather risk economic struggle than submit to social authoritarianism, if there has to be a choice.

All the people who called Obama a Muslim extremist socialist a few days ago have been commenting on the weather and the nice songs they heard on the radio today.

And above all, if you claim you believe that your God intends rape as a means of procreation, you aren't getting elected anymore. People are just beginning to see the sickness in religion. We will see how it goes in the year to come.

We now have a second-term black president who is in favor of gay marriage. Is it too much to hope for groundbreaking changes in society's attitude toward atheists in the next four years?

Because we are not fringe people, really. We are not scary. We're almost exactly like the rest of them.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

How Many Beers?

Two old friends are sitting at the bar, and the subject turns to religion.

Tom asks, "So you don't believe in God?"

Rick admits, "No, actually I see no reason to."

"Well, then, who or what created the universe then, if it wasn't God?"

Rick thought for a moment. "I have a cooler in my garage. It's large enough to hold two cases of beer. How many beers are in it?"

"Changing the subject? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just tell me how many beers are in it. I'll bet you $50 you are wrong."

Tom decides to play along. "Ok, sure. There are... 27 beers in the cooler."

"Wrong, there are 41. Pay up!"

"Wait! How am I supposed to just know there are 41 beers in there?"

Rick explains, "I bought 2 cases on Wednesday and stocked the cooler full. I drank 2 on Wednesday night, my brother and I drank 3 on Thursday. And my son stole 2 on Friday afternoon. It's simple math, you can't deny that. 2 + 3 + 2 = 7, 48 - 7 = 41. Pay up!"

Tom is incredulous. "You think I'm a fool? I'm not paying you $50 just because you say I am wrong? That's hardly proof enough for me to pay you! You'd have to show me the cooler before I'd even think of settling up."

Then Rick looked him in the eye. "If you can't part with $50 based on my word, how do you expect me to believe some god created the universe based on yours? I asked you a question with 49 possible specific answers, you asked me one with millions. And you had as much evidence as I did to answer the question. Whatever I say caused the universe that isn't the same your answer, you will say it's wrong.

"The difference is simple - I can actually take you to my garage and prove to you I am right. There is a way to settle this bet. But unless I do, you have to either take my word or reject it. So, really, what's the only answer you can give to my question? How many beers are in the cooler?"

"Well, I can only guess, I can't know for certain!"

"Exactly. And that's the only answer I can give to your question as well."

Defensively, Tom explains, "But I believe in my answer! I have faith that God created the universe!"

"And I believe there are 41 beers in my cooler. But I could be wrong. Maybe someone is drinking one right now. Maybe the cooler was stolen. That doesn't mean I am wrong to believe there are 41, it just means I can't be 100% certain.

"As strongly as people believed that the Earth was circled by the Sun thousands of years ago, it was still wrong. A few thousand years later we found out. But there was simply no way to know back then!"

Tom asks, "So you're saying I'm stupid for believing what I believe?"

"Not at all. In a few thousand years maybe we will know enough about the origin of the universe to be more certain how. In twenty minutes I could be more certain how many beers I have in the cooler. You are no more stupid for believing in an idea about how the universe came about than I am stupid for believing there are 41 beers in my cooler."

"Well, that's fair."

"Now, if I expect you to simply accept that there are 41 beers in my cooler, then I am a little stupid, though."

"Hmm... we could go to your house and check...."

Rick smiles. "We could. The beer here is a little pricey anyway. Let's go."

"Sounds good!"

"Oh, do you have your ATM card with you? You might want to take out $50 on the way there."

Monday, November 5, 2012

The Athiest Witness

Once, many years ago, I was in a diner and ran into an old friend. We caught up on things, and we was very excited to share with me how he had recently found Jesus.

Out of respect, I decided to keep my atheism to myself.

He went on and on about how he was finding such good things in the Bible and how his feelings about life were turning better after this discovery. I smiled, offered praise where I felt it was warranted, and let him go on. At the end, I told him I was happy he was happy, and I hope he continues to discover new things and grow. We shook hands, and he left as I finished my coffee and waited for my bill.

Just then, a person I had never met approached me. She was smiling, and thanked me for how I witnessed for my friend. I really didn't know how to react. I smiled back, told her he was an old friend, and I was happy that he was doing well.

But did I witness to him? I did in a sense; I listened to his story of finding Jesus, I let him talk about his experiences. But doesn't that simply mean I was doing what a friend should do? Doesn't witnessing also demand that I, too, believe? Perhaps it was not possible to see that I did not.

Did I do the right and moral thing? I think so. I could have screamed at him and told him no, no, this is moving backwards, you are abandoning reason for faith, etc., but I did not because I knew he was happy and I didn't really think there was an immediate purpose in spoiling that.

But it makes me think about how we can similarly share the atheist experience with others, especially those we care for. How do we do it respectfully and without causing divisions and anger?

I started writing this blog, in part, because it allows me to express these ideas in a way that is not going to upset people who don't wish to hear them, but is available for all those who do. I don't want anyone to accuse me of trying to strong-arm people into letting go of religion. I think it's the right thing to do, but now may not be the right time for many people, and I must respect that.

Much like quitting drinking or smoking, quitting religion is simultaneously beneficial and extremely traumatic and difficult. But it remains that every day more people are seeing that reason is more helpful for day-to-day living on the whole than blind faith. I think it's our duty to express that in ways that are inviting and welcoming, but tolerant and non-aggressive.

Here are a few ideas.

  1. Always be tolerant, not pushy. There's nothing to be gained by evangelizing your conviction that a person is foolish for believing the god myth. I think it's ok to let others know in quiet, peaceful ways that their feelings of doubt about religion are normal and that they are not alone, but there is no point in trying to convert anybody. Let them believe what they like so long as it does not hurt others.
  2. Answer questions honestly but briefly. If your child, your neighbor, your co-worker, or anyone wonders why other people go to church but you don't, answer them as straightforwardly as you can. If they ask your opinions about religious matters, do the same. But be aware that some topics are best left untouched. Depending on your workplace, it might be wise to respond to a co-worker with, "I don't discuss religion at work, I don't think it's right. I hope you can respect that."
  3. Let children safely explore. If your son or daughter decides to go to a church, temple, mosque, etc., be cool about it. Be sure you do your homework and know who they are going with, where they are going, and definitely talk with them about the experience before and after. If other adults you know and trust with your skepticism can help you find out more, talk to them and learn along with your child.
  4. Encourage the consideration and acceptance/rejection of ideas. Parents should ask their children what they would do in a particular moral dilemma. They should teach children why lying, stealing and hurting others is unfriendly and encourage them to explain why they think so as well. When you read together, talk about whether the story is about something that is true, could be true, or must be make-believe. "Could this really happen?" "What would you think if this were true?"
  5. Speak up when doing so is positive or necessary. If religious people do a good thing, even for the wrong reason, be sure to express your pleasure when the topic comes up. But if someone does something harmful, even with the best intentions, be sure to express your concern. Don't sit silently by as someone is harmed by an immoral action, regardless of the purposes behind the action.
  6. Live as an example of morality. You may be the only open atheist many people ever meet, and there is a lot of responsibility in that. Always be sure to demonstrate a sense of moral purpose and respect in your daily life. Many religious people believe atheists cannot have a central moral code: prove them wrong through your actions.
I welcome more ideas along these lines. We need to be true to our understanding of reason and sensibility, but we must also live peaceably with those who disagree. Each one of us must be the best person we are capable of being.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Ten Commandments

We are all probably familiar with the Ten Commandments of Exodus and Deuteronomy in the Bible. It is often claimed that they are instrumental to the development of our nation's set of laws. David Limbaugh wrote, "Much of our Bill of Rights is biblically based, as well, and the Ten Commandments and further laws set out in the book of Exodus form the basis of our Western law."

Are they? Are they really the basis of our modern law?

Here's the list as found in Exodus 20:3-17. This is the traditional Christian way of dividing it up, you might have learned it a little differently.


  1. You shall have no other gods before me.
  2. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
  3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
  4. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
  5. Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
  6. You shall not murder.
  7. You shall not commit adultery.
  8. You shall not steal.
  9. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
  10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
 For ease of discussion, let's shorten it up a bit.
  1. One god
  2. No idols
  3. Don't misuse name of god
  4. No work on holy Sabbath by anyone/anything
  5. Honor parents
  6. No murder
  7. No screwin' around on your spouse
  8. No theft
  9. No perjury
  10. Don't want other people's spouses and stuff
Can these be seen as the genesis of American law? I don't think there is a case.

First, there is the pesky First Amendment in the Bill of Rights which guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of religious involvement. So the first four commandments are impossible to rectify with the Constitution, and therefore American law. We permit all religions to peacefully coexist, we defend the artist's right to respectfully depict gods in their work even if it is offensive (the taboo against offending Muslims with representations of Allah is not in US law), we protect the right to even religiously offensive speech so long as it is not obscene or directly inciting violence, and even religious bookstores are open seven days a week.

There goes 40% of the case against the Ten Commandments influencing our laws.

I think it's a generally good idea to honor your parents. In the absolute worst case scenario, you must respect that if they had not met you would never have been born. In the best scenarios, they fed, taught, protected and nurtured you into an adult who still relies on their counsel often. I also think it's a generally good idea not to cheat on your spouse or to crave your neighbor's things. But nowhere in US law are these notions actually legislated.

There are some local laws against adultery and "deviant" sexual behavior, but these are being struck down on a regular basis because they are simply not supported by the Bill of Rights. And laws which require you to treat your parents with any more respect than other human beings or police your wants and desires would be seen as repugnant by thinking people, and cannot be supported by legal precedent in the US.

We are down to three remaining Commandments - the ones against murder, theft, and perjury. And these three are quite illegal in the US. So do we then have a 30% case for the Ten Commandments?

Not quite. The Sumerian Code of Ur-Nammu (c. 2100-2050 BCE) is the oldest verifiable prohibition of murder, robbery and perjury. By contrast, the book of Exodus was not written much prior to 600 BCE. In other words, if I wrote something based on the Canterbury Tales, it would not be original work but a derivative - and the time between Ur-Nammu and the writer of Exodus is double the span of time between now and the 14th century.

Laws against murder, theft and perjury were not new in 600 BCE, they had been so for a millennia plus. Saying a work written in 600 BCE is the basis for our laws against stealing and killing and lying is like saying that the books by Emily Post are the reason we are polite to each other, or that Roe v Wade is the reason abortions started.

The facts are clear. 3 of these Commandments restate already established laws, and the other 7 just have no representation in American jurisprudence. Any argument that they form any basis for our system of laws, or the basis for any modern legal system, is simply baseless and wrong.

Posting these Commandments in a government building is not an homage to our laws and nation. It is a bald-faced homage to a deity, and that irksome First Amendment expressly forbids it. Remember than when you vote.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Throwing Away Ideas, Not Observations

Why do people believe in a god or gods? Two simple reasons.
  1. They cannot explain the world around them (death, disease, natural disaster, etc.) with reason, so they guess that someone is playing a trick on them, or making things happen behind the scenes.
  2. They were taught to - sometimes gently, sometimes harshly - at a relatively young age. If they doubt their beliefs, they fear reprisal from family as well as the "man upstairs".
No person is born with an innate knowledge of the existence of any god. I admit this is a bold statement and I probably can't prove it. But I can show why it is extremely likely to be so.

If I said that no one is born with an innate knowledge of the English language, or of juggling balls, or of making a fire, not one person would challenge me, because obviously we needed to learn these things ourselves before we knew them. There are many people alive today who cannot speak English, juggle balls, or make a fire without some sort of special technology. Clearly these are not innate.

However, we can argue that we have the innate ability to communicate, to manipulate objects, to experiment with phenomena we observe. I don't think anyone will argue these. It's those innate skills that led our predecessors to invent formal language, juggling and ignition.

And we also teach these skills with care to not abuse them. We tell our children what sort of language is permissible in certain places and situations, and which words would result in a less than favorable result for them if used. Jugglers are aware that they need a safe distance from others to perform the feat, and that the whimsical nature of it does not blend well with certain more sober situations. And we keep matches and lighters away from children while we let them plan our fire escape plan, and we collectively support the very socialist notion of a local fire department so even those who cannot afford to pay for such property and life rescue can benefit.

I think it is innate that we reason. I think it is innate that we look at things fall and notice that they never fall up. We see that fast things hitting objects perform more spectacularly than slow things. We notice that it is light out for about half a day, then it is dark out. All of these observations make us curious and drive us to understand more about the reality we find ourselves in.

The trouble is what happens when we can't reason it out. A few thousand years ago we did not understand why tides rose and fell. We needed some explanation because reason wasn't cutting it. We didn't understand why life can just stop, and someone becomes dead. We needed some sort of explanation.

Generally, the answers to the above problems was that a god or gods did it. God made the tides go in and out. God cursed a person for their evil, or called him home for his good deeds. And without any evidence to contradict all that, that served us as good as any other explanation.

Now we understand the Moon's gravity with the Earth and how it affects the oceans. We understand infection, disease and the genetics of old age. Yet there still are those who attribute tides and death to divine action, despite all we have learned.

There are many who reject science as against religion, as a sort of sorcery or evil craft that lies to us. They claim evolution is no better a theory than, say, intelligent design, and when shown mountains of strong evidence supporting evolution they simply say it is faulty, it doesn't prove a thing.

Now, having provisional explanations for things we don't understand is fine and normal. Gestalt psychology is criticized,  but most agree that when we see something that is incomplete we fill in the blanks naturally. It's in our nature.

The problem is when we use these provisional explanations even when our reason shows us that there are other, more reasonable explanations. When we dispense with the science of radiometric dating and insist that this book says the Earth is only so many thousands of years old, we are letting provisionality overrule reason. When we insist that a pregnancy initiated through a violent sexual attack is "God's will" we are letting provisionality overrule reason.

Tim Minchin wrote, "Science adjusts its views based on what's observed. Faith is the denial of observation so that belief can be preserved." In other words, reason means dispensing with an idea when it does not match observation, not dispensing with an observation when it does not match an idea.

If the god idea was innate, why would there be so many contradictory versions of it? If there was one true god or set of gods that we can just know, why aren't we all in agreement? Does this deity want us to kill each other over it?

It's like the old saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.When repeated observations and man's best ideas do not match up, we must throw away the idea, not the observations.

I have no problem if you want to personally fill in the cracks with God Spackle. I do have a problem when there already is an explanation for what you are spackling over, and you refuse to accept it because it doesn't fit your premise. My problem is that you then teach your children not to think critically. You encourage ignorance of reality over believing tradition. You celebrate the emotional security of a Father in Heaven over the need for stewardship of our Actual Reality.

If you must be religious, please never allow religion to become harmful to others. Take care to juggle a safe distance from me. Use words that are peaceful, not inflammatory.

And please, above all, don't let your children learn to love the flame of religion like a modern-day arsonist, but to respect it, just like our earliest prehistoric chemists did when they invented fire. Religion, like fire, can destroy if left unchecked, or if used without rational thought.