Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Gone

Tempus edax rerum. Ultimately it is a foe for soon enough it will devour all that's cherished. Time spares nothing and no one.

Euphemism

Even the great Isaac Newton--whose nativity we celebrated on December 25-- labeled his ignorance "God." And so when those around you employ that word to explain some phenomenon, just do the politically correct thing and smile for they are simply euphemizing their benightedness.



2000

Two thousand years ago there was not a shred of good evidence that the claims of astrology were true. That fact still stands today. So it is with theistic claims.

Surrender

The condition of an enlightened mind is a surrendered heart 
--Alan Redpath 
Exactly what he means and in what context, I don't know. But when reason has mulled over a question deeply in congress with the heart and the latter does not agree with the decision of the former, it is when the heart surrenders to reason that one can better expect to be on the path of enlightenment.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Door

The aphorism is "The wise man proportions his belief to the evidence," not "The wise man proportions his belief to the emotions elicited."

Reason naturally wants to close the door to self deception. The heart, on the other hand, keeps putting its foot in the door.

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Scratch

And God said unto all the species of the universe: If you stroke my ego day in and day out, I promise to scratch your back and even watch it. But! If you ever hurt my feelings, mark my word, I will torture you for eternity.

Insolence

During my more cynical moments I wonder whether the reason believers who profusely thank their god whenever things go right don't criticize or blame him when things go south is that they're concerned he'll frown upon and fume at their insolence and won't (ever) come through again if and when they need a favor. For fear of reprisal you don't shake a fist at the King and Big Brother.

Friday, December 11, 2015

Fiction

If the bible were a book about the cosmos I'd've devoured it cover to cover several times over. Alas, I've not ever had any strong drive to read fiction and fantasy and have rather had a marked revulsion toward anyone passing them off as fact.

True

I believe in an alien who became human who became a zombie and then beamed back up to his universe. Because I believe, this alien will turn me into a zombie too and beam me to his white fluffy nebula to live with him and fellow zombies for eternity.

Do not thumb your nose. Do not brush me off as a crank. I am not insane; nor am I deluded. These beliefs are true. For I have faith orders of magnitude larger than the pit of an avocado.

Evidence for these beliefs is irrelevant. Reasonableness is irrelevant. For as the great Tertullian averred: They are absurd, hence we must believe. They are impossible, therefore certainly true

Feeling

"It all begins with a feeling. No one really comes to sincere belief in religious doctrines on the basis of an argument. They come because of how they feel deep down inside. Different cults rely on different feelings. Some focus in anger and resentment. Others on feelings of helpless, insignificance or submission. But more often than not, the feelings that really do the trick are hope and, most importantly, joy."

"While joy may be what brings them in, it is often fear that keeps them here. Our patient must feel that to leave would be to fall from the light back into darkness—into the cold, lonely, meaningless oblivion from which we have rescued her."

--Stephen Law, Tapescrew Letters

Sick

The Lord finds your lack of faith most disturbing


Bernstein

"Theologians, and religionists in general, start with a fantasy premise and then proceed to apply rigorous formal logic to tease out its implications."

"Here is the tragedy of theology in its distilled essence: The employment of high-powered human intellect, of genius, of profoundly rigorous logical deduction—-studying nothing."

--Andrew Bernstein, prof of philosophy

Insane

"The Son of God died: it is by all means to be believed, because it is absurd. He rose again: it is certain, because it is impossible." --Tertullian

"To be right in everything, we ought always to hold that the white which I see, is black, if the Hierarchical Church so decides it...." --Ignatius of Loyola

Does religious belief lead to intellectual atrophy or does the latter lead to the former? Or does emotional attachment to irrational beliefs lead to the co-option of reason, imagination, creativity in the rationalization of such untenable, insane ideas?

Antiscience

From the antiscience homily by the pathetic pope:
[W]e find ourselves confronted by another spirit, which is opposed to the spirit of God: the spirit of curiosity. It leads us to want to become masters of God’s plans, of the future, of things, to know everything, to seize hold of everything.... The spirit of curiosity draws us away from the spirit of wisdom.... [T]he spirit of curiosity is not a good spirit; it is the spirit of dissipation, of drawing away from God, of talking too much.
That spirit of curiosity led to all the technologies the Vatican and the poop have been all too eager to use for their purposes: all manner of transportation to visit places around the world, communications technologies, the internet, and agricultural products and medical treatments that have kept them alive and healthy.

What an idiotic, hypocritical statement to make. If curiosity is a no good spirit and one that's anti-God, then have the friggin' integrity to shun everything that's come out of it.

"You talk and talk, but have no guramba" --Nausicaan (Star Trek TNG, Tapestry)