I wish I knew. What would I do if I could make people disappear? No fuss, no muss, no consequences. If I felt that the continued existence of an individual was of no positive use, poof, they would be gone, as if they never existed. They wouldn't be missing, they would no longer exist, and neither would any memory of them.
Who would I get rid of, rapists, mass murders, torturers? But then who are the torturers?
What about DUII murders? I don't know. However, I would like to find out.
I guess I can say that because I know it will never happen.
d
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Diet
OK, Here it is. If it is processed, the more processed it is the worse it is for you. Cook your own meals from unprocessed food. Only eat as many calories as you can burn. Eating 3000 calories is no problem if you burn 3000 calories. If it is not in season eat it only in moderation. EAT AND DRINK EVERY THING IN MODERATION! Eat a variety of foods. High fructose corn syrup is not good for you! Look for quality NOT QUANTITY!
Thursday, November 22, 2007
VOTE!!!
Listen, read, view, think about what the candidates stand for and what they have already done. Then make an informed choice. You don't want it to be close. If it is close the 'undecideds' will decide the vote again and that is not good for our nation. The undecideds vote on emotion not information. Please keep them from deciding our future.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Undocumented
I do not understand the indecision about how to handle undocumented workers. Here's my plan. If a company is suspected of using undocumented workers the Federal government can arrive unannounced and check. Undocumented workers that are found can be given work ID and the books of the company can be monitored for the next year to make sure that all of their employees are getting proper pay and benefits. Any cost for documenting and monitoring previously undocumented workers can be charged to the offending company.
Companies get the workers they need. Workers get the pay and benefits they deserve. The government gets the taxes owed them. And jobs are created to make sure every one gets what's coming to them.
What's the big deal?
Companies get the workers they need. Workers get the pay and benefits they deserve. The government gets the taxes owed them. And jobs are created to make sure every one gets what's coming to them.
What's the big deal?
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
No Prisons
We don't need prisons. They should all be closed and every inmate should be given two choices; go to school on a work study program, gratis, per the federal government or death, gratis, per the federal government (with no second chances). If you break the law again only the second choices is available.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Not in my space!
Why are domesticated animals (cats, dogs, snakes, rats, birds, ferrets, etc) found in public places? They should only be allowed on private property.
d
d
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Why not with people?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070730/ap_on_re_us/hollywood_pigeons
If they can do it with pigeons why not people? A little free population control with your free grain.
d
If they can do it with pigeons why not people? A little free population control with your free grain.
d
Faith?
If there really was a god, indestructible and perfect, why would you doubt, how could you NOT have faith? Having faith in your god would be easy, like having faith in gravity. Know one doubts gravity. Will it be here tomorrow? Will my scale read as accurately tomorrow as it did today and yesterday? Of course it will. If you want to test your faith, try having faith in a person. Trust someone with your life, now THAT is faith. If you have no one you can trust I suggest you just wonder off and die with your god. There are too many people any way.
d
d
Saturday, July 28, 2007
It makes me so angry. Every where I look people are more concerned about there domesticated animals, there things, there jobs then they are about the people around them. People are what is important. How we treat each other matters more then how powerful we are. Our relationship to people is what matters. Spend your time talking to a person not you nonverbal pet.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
The end of faith
“Certainty about the next life is simply incompatible with tolerance in his one.”
Sam Harris The End of Faith.
DO I UNDERSTAND?
Every action you take is influenced by what you believe to be true. If I can change what you believe I can change what you do.
When people of religious faith hold secular positions it must be assumed that their faith influences their secular decisions.
People who do not have religious faith are not allowed to hold positions that require decisions about religious faith based behavior.To the extent you admire and advocate martyrdom, I do not trust you.
All people of religious faith believe that they have an infallible book in which the omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent creator of the universe reveals that individuals who do not espouse belief in this writing will not be allowed into paradise. No two people interpret an infallible book the same which leads to no two people having the same religious faith.
People do not partition their mind into reason and religious faith. They use belief in their religious faith to come to grips with fear. They do not use reason to examine their religious beliefs.We need only to hold life sacred enough so that we treat our own life with respect and have enough insight so that we treat others as we wish to be treated.The only religious faith we need is to have faith in the people we rely on, including our selves.We need only to build a strong society with happy people if we want our example to be followed. We do not need to cross our borders to save the world.That which is now sacred is what was once needed to dispel fear. With knowledge, facts and truth, we no longer need to rely on religious faith and/or the sacred to dispel old fears.Religious faith makes it impossible to accept some facts that are easily proven to be true and are generally accepted.A moderate finds ways to discredit the infallible book their religion is based upon.
Does a religious literalist feel equally abhorrent toward a person of no religious faith, a religious moderate and a person of an opposing religious faith?
If I were unable to sense the world I would be unable to act. If I were unable to form (formulate and remember) beliefs I would be unable to act consistently. Without consistent action I would perish.
Any life form that has the ability to perceive, can move, and has memory, will advance in complexity as it overcomes the challenges in its environment. If it does not use its abilities it will disappear.
The ability to believe, like the ability to see, is an adaptive response to the complex challenges in our adaptive past.
Consistent, productive (goal oriented) action is impossible without belief.
When beliefs within an individual conflict (are not consistent) it causes the person to have multiple personalities.
When two individual’s beliefs conflict their conflicting beliefs must be resolved for them to survive in harmony. Conflicting beliefs culminate in the death; of one of the beliefs, the relationship between the two individuals or groups of individuals holding the conflicting beliefs or the individuals involved.
The world is too small to separate individuals with conflicting beliefs that preclude their mutual existence. We are all local.To the extent that a belief is connected to others it is difficult to change or expunge. Either the connection needs to be broken or the connecting beliefs need to be proven to be fallacious or at least unsound.
As long as belief in god has no basis in its relationship to the real (physical) world it can be argued successfully. If god started the universe and has forever since has had no knowledge of what happens in it (to you until you die) then you may be able to successfully argue for god’s existence before the beginning of the universe and after its end. If you want to argue otherwise (that god hears your prayers and is watching over you and yours) then you have to be able to prove the existence of god in the same way you prove your own existence and the antecedent relationships you have to the rest of the world. God’s existence must stand in relationship to you the same as your existence stands in relationship to the rest of the world and must be similarly proven.
This can be logically and rationally argued and not disproved that the universe was created by a supreme being that no longer has any knowledge of or interaction with the universe and the inhabitants therein. And it can further be argued that at the end of days everything that has been done will be judged and that which is judged to be faultless will live on for eternity in peace and abundance and that which is judged imperfect will suffer. In this argument your soul can be seen as a karma memory chip, where every time you interact with another soul your interaction is given a numerical value along the continuum of plus or minus five and then added to the karma repository pot. The more plus your pot is when you die the more peace you feel for eternity or the more minus your pot is the more you suffer. But is it true? And is there a soul?
Religion is the mere maintenance of dogma. Religious literalists believe that the religious rules they go by were set by god, have been set since the beginning of time, are perfect and are not influenced by any change that is experienced here on earth.
Just because certainty and trust have the power to change our lives and sustain us in times of trouble, does not mean that beliefs and religious faith are based on reality. Do not get confused between the value or usefulness of faith and the truth of what belief is based upon.
Just because you are certain that you are being watched and/or followed doesn’t mean that you are.
Be careful of beliefs that have been learned linguistically and have no physical proof to back them up.How are incoherent beliefs and contradictions reconciled?The more individuals I have around me that hold the same beliefs as I do the grater the opportunity I have to be successful.If there were only two mutually exclusive beliefs on earth and every one on earth held either one or the other of the two beliefs, and the two sides were of equal number and at a signal point in time they all stood face to face, and each person had a weapon capable of instantly killing the other and all were certain that all who held apposing beliefs could never be swayed from their beliefs, and every one had to either believe as they did or die, and they all pointed and aimed perfectly and fired their perfect weapons at the same time and every one was martyred at the same instant, everyone would be physically dead and live for ever. Is this the perfect ending to human existence?
Can we say that a person that believes in a supreme being and a life after death is not delusional?
Modernity is a problem for all literalist religious devotees.
Almost by definition all religions are devoid of any valid mechanism that can be used to test the core beliefs they are founded on. Only the word of god can influence the holy scriptures and because there is no god to amend, interpret, update and or bring the scriptures into the twenty first century all scripture will forever be stuck in the first century.
All people of religious faith are absolutely sure that their religion is based on the word of the one true god. If it is true that only those that believe in the one true god advance to an afterlife of eternal peace and plenty while the rest of the world’s population suffer for all eternity, and if it is true that there are no performance ratings for ascension into paradise based upon which belief is followed, choosing a religious tenant to follow is more a function of culture and birth then anything else, and with no religion in the clear majority and with no provable numbers on performance then it is more likely that you will choose the wrong path and end up in eternal damnation with the majority then it is likely that you will choose the correct path and end up in eternal paradise with the minority.
All monotheistic religions have two things in common, an infallible being that has given the world an infallible text to guide behavior on earth and a chance at life in paradise after death.
Accept death with out an afterlife and we will all find peace.
If I forget, and no longer believe, that it is safe to cross a bridge can I or should I construct the belief of safety to make myself cross the bridge without proof that the bridge is safe?When is the belief in safety constructed and when is it antecedently true?What does it take to make someone doubt a truth?If god perceives or does acts, actions, or existences in the real world then belief in god must be supported by a ‘because’ that is substantiated by the real world. If not then god’s domain is not of this world but the world before and/or after time.To be a person of perfect religious faith i.e. a religious literalist, someone that is certain of the infallibility of their religious scripture is a terrible thing because there is no end to the misery and pain they can do to those that do not believe as they do.
Only those who are unsure can be tolerant of ideas or actions that they do not support.
To understand your faith, know what scares you, what you value and what you can not control.You want to control what can be taken away from you, your life, your loved ones, and your security.Articles of religious faith explain things that happen to you that you don’t understand, things that are not intuitive, and things that you can not control. There are things that are not intuitive that are true.The stronger the religious faith the greater the intolerance.Beliefs represent how we want the world to be. Our beliefs may or may not coincide with how the world actually is. Beliefs need to be checked against repeatable reality not words/faith.Religious faith is either accepted or rejected it can not be examined, evaluated or changed.
Preposterous beliefs lead to the death of innocent people.
There is no way of proving what the absence of faith would/may have produced.To the extent to which a person or population have faith in an afterlife and a supreme being that reigns over it they are to be feared, because to the extent that you do not believe as they believe, they want you removed from the face of the earth. ‘If you are not with us you are against us.’The foundations of our civilization and sophistication were formulated at a time when, by definition, the people doing the work were oblivious to much of what we take for granted to be true today. They fought their way out of ignorance and shed the foolish beliefs that they once held as they came to understand the world as it actually is (round, not flat etc.). In every instance, that is, except for the dogma of religious faith.
Conversion, subjugation or death.It is god’s will that I conquer your land and try to convert you. It is a crime against god if you try to do the same to me.The stronger your faith in the afterlife the weaker your desire to live.When someone believes they know what god wants, that person becomes a threat to people who think otherwise.What is the need for pure, tested souls in the afterlife? Is there a contest? Why test humans? If an afterlife truly exists why not just reveal it, unambiguously, and end the earthly strife that multiple, monotheistic religions promotes?
Who would you cause to make vanish if it would happen without consequence to your self or loved ones? I suggest that first we get rid of all people that believe in an afterlife.Once convicted it must be determined if the convict can be trusted to work in the community to pay back for the crime. If they can not be trusted I the community they must be separated from it and from each other for the safety of all.
Morality needs only one tenet; before you mete out a behavior on someone, ask another to do it to you. And punishment needs only one directive; you will have done to you what you did to another.
Should the quality of your continued life be based solely on the humanity of your past deeds? I.e. instant karma?
Is all human life deemed to be sacred or is it just your life that is sacred because of the way you live it and what you believe to be true?
Compare chapters 20 and 34 of Exodus.
What we do is important, why we do it, is more important, what we believe is most important. Intention can not be ignored when comparing actions and in the end it will be your actions that are judged. No matter what you say, no matter what you intended, it is what you do that is of consequence to your self and others. I can change what you do if I change what you believe.
The biggest problem with drug use is the effect of its use on nonusers, second hand smoke and DUI for example. The person using the drug is experiencing a heightened state of pleasure or calm, or decreased pain. Unfortunately it is all too often true that the individuals that come in contact with the person under the influence of drugs experience a heightened state of discomfort up to and including death.Most of the suffering experienced today would disappear if the population of the earth was halved. If you are suffering do not bear a child. If you can not support two children only have one.
There are currently more people on this planet then there are services to feed, shelter and otherwise protect, and now there are even more people suffering.
At one time every thing was legal.The debate about the ethical treatment of animals (i.e. the cruelty of abusing animals as sport) is not as relevant as the question of why animal cruelty is enjoyed.
What creatures are sentient? What are they conscious of? Who suffers? Because these questions can not, or at least have not, been answered satisfactorily to the religious mind, the soul was invented to make humans different from everything else with brains.
Is group (social) behavior in animals, with brains smaller than humans, ethical and or moral or merely pragmatic? Group behavior in animals has strictly adhered to rules that are consistent and individuals that do not follow them are punished.
What is the proper response to a moral (ethical) transgression? Can I do unto others as I would not want done unto me if the others have transgressed?
Ethics and morality are the divination between behaviors that promote happiness and those that make others miserable, they are the states of mind that are found in heaven and hell. The happy, moral, people who are right, go to heaven and the immoral people who are wrong, go to hell where they are unhappy and miserable.
If you have no facts to back up what you are claiming then I have no reason to adhere to what you say.Religious faith based behavior is by definition not supported by facts.
Are all humans equally deserving of moral treatment or are some people merely objects?
The stronger your faith the more likely it is that you will act immorally. There are going to be people that lie totally outside of your moral sphere and you have no reason to act morally toward them.
Are there people, which buy their actions or beliefs, forfeit their right to moral treatment?
Everything that is not known or not understood or is misconstrued can still be true.
If you do not understand me does that mean that I am not saying anything? And if you do understand me does that mean that I am saying something?
People who believe in religious dogma may not be capable of knowing the truth. They are blind to it. They are cognitively closed to it.
If we have intuition do we need faith?
Whose happiness is important to you?If you woke up one morning and you were told that it was possible for you to make someone disappear, with out consequence to you or pain and suffering to them, who would you use your new found power on? All you have to do is sincerely want them to be gone and it is done, and the action is not reversible.If you can not now, and never have been able to feel happiness you can not discern what is or is not ethical. Ethics is the process by which we over come evolution to behave in a morally evolved manor.Our symbols can and have evolved faster than our biology.When we have the capacity to understand that our biology urges us to act antisocially or inhumanly we have the responsibility to overcome what was once there as an adaptive advantage to promote the species and is now just a danger to others.
Our biology urges us to over breed.
Compassion for others leads to a cohesive group that works for the common good. Indifference breaks down a group. A strong, indifferent leader can coerce a group to act out against a group lead by a compassionate one and even overcome and control the compassionate group but eventually the non compassionate group will desenagrate.
Is morality very, very complex or very, very simple? Are the most ethical people capable of extremely complex feeling and insight like accomplished jugglers are capable of extraordinary feats of coordinated acts with physical objects and are immoral people simple minded and unable to keep two thoughts aloft at one time? Or is there only one thought or feeling that has to be mastered to be moral? Or does the truth about what is needed to promote ethical behavior lie somewhere in between?
There will be no lasting peace until the ‘There Is No God Proof’ is found.
Can simple minded people be moral? Can very intelligent people act unethically?
Are there key insights that are needed for a person to be moral? Is there a ‘pie’ factor to morality that once learned must be used and that you would never make an ethical decision without if you knew it?
Unlike a geometric truth a moral truth is not absolute; it can be ‘circumstancualy’ true.
We trust, in order to go about our daily activities. We trust our cars, other drivers, the stability of the earth and the people around us. When that trust is broken on a small scale we know how to react. We have all been lied to, but when the earth shakes or airplanes fly into skyscrapers our trust is broken on such a grand scale that it affects us in a way that we are unable to respond to. When we scratch our hand and there is enough trauma to produce bleeding we put a band aid on it. When we receive a large enough trauma that it may compromise our life we go into shock. Sometimes we go into moral shock.
Why is happiness important? What is happiness? Above or beyond the fulfillment of needs (i.e. no longer being hungry) is our happiness just the attainment of set goals (finishing the meal), or is it a sense of well-being, the content of our relationship to our experiences, and not the experiences themselves (I am a good person because I have eaten enough to be full)?
Before you ask ‘why are we here’ ask ‘why isn’t the universe utterly empty’?
I think it is obvious, and generally agreed upon, that if you are hungry or cold or tired you will feel uncomfortable. And for the sake of argument let’s say that when you are hungry or cold or tired, you feel ‘unhappy’. Are there other states of being that are felt without externally set goals that when felt are the necessary motivation for similar states of discomfort i.e. ‘unhappiness’? Do we also ‘need’ to feel a sense of accomplishment or productiveness? Are we biologically programmed to feel a need to reproduce? Do we have a similar need for attainment of things? To be happy do we need to feel powerful or in control? Must we be creative, in an artistic sense? And if these things are inborn or ‘natural’ can they be, or even should they be, overcome? Are there some people that, by virtue of what they do, how they live, what they are allowed to do or not do, we can label as unhappy, no matter what they report themselves as feeling? When are you happy?Spirituality is nothing more than a very well crafted, or I could also say perfected, sense of denial. Or is a feeling of spirituality just an acceptance of our temporary state or finiteness? Or is it finiteness its self?I was born of people who were born of others. Once pushed out of the womb and a knot was tied I was no longer part of my makers like hair left on the floor after a haircut. As my consciousness organized itself I came to realize where I came from and I worked to separate my self from them. I crafted my independence to deny my dependence and have only found a lasting and satisfactory happiness when I accept my self as part of a greater whole.Is there a goal in being human and if so is it attainable? Or are humans merely a disease that will eventually be overcome and if not can the earth and all its life forms thrive with the human sickness?People of religious faith can not abide change because it strikes at the foundations of faith. The stronger a persons religious faith the more ridged they are. The greater a persons ability to adapt to change the stronger they are and the less religious they are.Eventually either all humans will perish or faith in the unsubstantiated will.
Faith based ethics paves a sure road to misery and the end of humanity.
Sam Harris The End of Faith.
DO I UNDERSTAND?
Every action you take is influenced by what you believe to be true. If I can change what you believe I can change what you do.
When people of religious faith hold secular positions it must be assumed that their faith influences their secular decisions.
People who do not have religious faith are not allowed to hold positions that require decisions about religious faith based behavior.To the extent you admire and advocate martyrdom, I do not trust you.
All people of religious faith believe that they have an infallible book in which the omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent creator of the universe reveals that individuals who do not espouse belief in this writing will not be allowed into paradise. No two people interpret an infallible book the same which leads to no two people having the same religious faith.
People do not partition their mind into reason and religious faith. They use belief in their religious faith to come to grips with fear. They do not use reason to examine their religious beliefs.We need only to hold life sacred enough so that we treat our own life with respect and have enough insight so that we treat others as we wish to be treated.The only religious faith we need is to have faith in the people we rely on, including our selves.We need only to build a strong society with happy people if we want our example to be followed. We do not need to cross our borders to save the world.That which is now sacred is what was once needed to dispel fear. With knowledge, facts and truth, we no longer need to rely on religious faith and/or the sacred to dispel old fears.Religious faith makes it impossible to accept some facts that are easily proven to be true and are generally accepted.A moderate finds ways to discredit the infallible book their religion is based upon.
Does a religious literalist feel equally abhorrent toward a person of no religious faith, a religious moderate and a person of an opposing religious faith?
If I were unable to sense the world I would be unable to act. If I were unable to form (formulate and remember) beliefs I would be unable to act consistently. Without consistent action I would perish.
Any life form that has the ability to perceive, can move, and has memory, will advance in complexity as it overcomes the challenges in its environment. If it does not use its abilities it will disappear.
The ability to believe, like the ability to see, is an adaptive response to the complex challenges in our adaptive past.
Consistent, productive (goal oriented) action is impossible without belief.
When beliefs within an individual conflict (are not consistent) it causes the person to have multiple personalities.
When two individual’s beliefs conflict their conflicting beliefs must be resolved for them to survive in harmony. Conflicting beliefs culminate in the death; of one of the beliefs, the relationship between the two individuals or groups of individuals holding the conflicting beliefs or the individuals involved.
The world is too small to separate individuals with conflicting beliefs that preclude their mutual existence. We are all local.To the extent that a belief is connected to others it is difficult to change or expunge. Either the connection needs to be broken or the connecting beliefs need to be proven to be fallacious or at least unsound.
As long as belief in god has no basis in its relationship to the real (physical) world it can be argued successfully. If god started the universe and has forever since has had no knowledge of what happens in it (to you until you die) then you may be able to successfully argue for god’s existence before the beginning of the universe and after its end. If you want to argue otherwise (that god hears your prayers and is watching over you and yours) then you have to be able to prove the existence of god in the same way you prove your own existence and the antecedent relationships you have to the rest of the world. God’s existence must stand in relationship to you the same as your existence stands in relationship to the rest of the world and must be similarly proven.
This can be logically and rationally argued and not disproved that the universe was created by a supreme being that no longer has any knowledge of or interaction with the universe and the inhabitants therein. And it can further be argued that at the end of days everything that has been done will be judged and that which is judged to be faultless will live on for eternity in peace and abundance and that which is judged imperfect will suffer. In this argument your soul can be seen as a karma memory chip, where every time you interact with another soul your interaction is given a numerical value along the continuum of plus or minus five and then added to the karma repository pot. The more plus your pot is when you die the more peace you feel for eternity or the more minus your pot is the more you suffer. But is it true? And is there a soul?
Religion is the mere maintenance of dogma. Religious literalists believe that the religious rules they go by were set by god, have been set since the beginning of time, are perfect and are not influenced by any change that is experienced here on earth.
Just because certainty and trust have the power to change our lives and sustain us in times of trouble, does not mean that beliefs and religious faith are based on reality. Do not get confused between the value or usefulness of faith and the truth of what belief is based upon.
Just because you are certain that you are being watched and/or followed doesn’t mean that you are.
Be careful of beliefs that have been learned linguistically and have no physical proof to back them up.How are incoherent beliefs and contradictions reconciled?The more individuals I have around me that hold the same beliefs as I do the grater the opportunity I have to be successful.If there were only two mutually exclusive beliefs on earth and every one on earth held either one or the other of the two beliefs, and the two sides were of equal number and at a signal point in time they all stood face to face, and each person had a weapon capable of instantly killing the other and all were certain that all who held apposing beliefs could never be swayed from their beliefs, and every one had to either believe as they did or die, and they all pointed and aimed perfectly and fired their perfect weapons at the same time and every one was martyred at the same instant, everyone would be physically dead and live for ever. Is this the perfect ending to human existence?
Can we say that a person that believes in a supreme being and a life after death is not delusional?
Modernity is a problem for all literalist religious devotees.
Almost by definition all religions are devoid of any valid mechanism that can be used to test the core beliefs they are founded on. Only the word of god can influence the holy scriptures and because there is no god to amend, interpret, update and or bring the scriptures into the twenty first century all scripture will forever be stuck in the first century.
All people of religious faith are absolutely sure that their religion is based on the word of the one true god. If it is true that only those that believe in the one true god advance to an afterlife of eternal peace and plenty while the rest of the world’s population suffer for all eternity, and if it is true that there are no performance ratings for ascension into paradise based upon which belief is followed, choosing a religious tenant to follow is more a function of culture and birth then anything else, and with no religion in the clear majority and with no provable numbers on performance then it is more likely that you will choose the wrong path and end up in eternal damnation with the majority then it is likely that you will choose the correct path and end up in eternal paradise with the minority.
All monotheistic religions have two things in common, an infallible being that has given the world an infallible text to guide behavior on earth and a chance at life in paradise after death.
Accept death with out an afterlife and we will all find peace.
If I forget, and no longer believe, that it is safe to cross a bridge can I or should I construct the belief of safety to make myself cross the bridge without proof that the bridge is safe?When is the belief in safety constructed and when is it antecedently true?What does it take to make someone doubt a truth?If god perceives or does acts, actions, or existences in the real world then belief in god must be supported by a ‘because’ that is substantiated by the real world. If not then god’s domain is not of this world but the world before and/or after time.To be a person of perfect religious faith i.e. a religious literalist, someone that is certain of the infallibility of their religious scripture is a terrible thing because there is no end to the misery and pain they can do to those that do not believe as they do.
Only those who are unsure can be tolerant of ideas or actions that they do not support.
To understand your faith, know what scares you, what you value and what you can not control.You want to control what can be taken away from you, your life, your loved ones, and your security.Articles of religious faith explain things that happen to you that you don’t understand, things that are not intuitive, and things that you can not control. There are things that are not intuitive that are true.The stronger the religious faith the greater the intolerance.Beliefs represent how we want the world to be. Our beliefs may or may not coincide with how the world actually is. Beliefs need to be checked against repeatable reality not words/faith.Religious faith is either accepted or rejected it can not be examined, evaluated or changed.
Preposterous beliefs lead to the death of innocent people.
There is no way of proving what the absence of faith would/may have produced.To the extent to which a person or population have faith in an afterlife and a supreme being that reigns over it they are to be feared, because to the extent that you do not believe as they believe, they want you removed from the face of the earth. ‘If you are not with us you are against us.’The foundations of our civilization and sophistication were formulated at a time when, by definition, the people doing the work were oblivious to much of what we take for granted to be true today. They fought their way out of ignorance and shed the foolish beliefs that they once held as they came to understand the world as it actually is (round, not flat etc.). In every instance, that is, except for the dogma of religious faith.
Conversion, subjugation or death.It is god’s will that I conquer your land and try to convert you. It is a crime against god if you try to do the same to me.The stronger your faith in the afterlife the weaker your desire to live.When someone believes they know what god wants, that person becomes a threat to people who think otherwise.What is the need for pure, tested souls in the afterlife? Is there a contest? Why test humans? If an afterlife truly exists why not just reveal it, unambiguously, and end the earthly strife that multiple, monotheistic religions promotes?
Who would you cause to make vanish if it would happen without consequence to your self or loved ones? I suggest that first we get rid of all people that believe in an afterlife.Once convicted it must be determined if the convict can be trusted to work in the community to pay back for the crime. If they can not be trusted I the community they must be separated from it and from each other for the safety of all.
Morality needs only one tenet; before you mete out a behavior on someone, ask another to do it to you. And punishment needs only one directive; you will have done to you what you did to another.
Should the quality of your continued life be based solely on the humanity of your past deeds? I.e. instant karma?
Is all human life deemed to be sacred or is it just your life that is sacred because of the way you live it and what you believe to be true?
Compare chapters 20 and 34 of Exodus.
What we do is important, why we do it, is more important, what we believe is most important. Intention can not be ignored when comparing actions and in the end it will be your actions that are judged. No matter what you say, no matter what you intended, it is what you do that is of consequence to your self and others. I can change what you do if I change what you believe.
The biggest problem with drug use is the effect of its use on nonusers, second hand smoke and DUI for example. The person using the drug is experiencing a heightened state of pleasure or calm, or decreased pain. Unfortunately it is all too often true that the individuals that come in contact with the person under the influence of drugs experience a heightened state of discomfort up to and including death.Most of the suffering experienced today would disappear if the population of the earth was halved. If you are suffering do not bear a child. If you can not support two children only have one.
There are currently more people on this planet then there are services to feed, shelter and otherwise protect, and now there are even more people suffering.
At one time every thing was legal.The debate about the ethical treatment of animals (i.e. the cruelty of abusing animals as sport) is not as relevant as the question of why animal cruelty is enjoyed.
What creatures are sentient? What are they conscious of? Who suffers? Because these questions can not, or at least have not, been answered satisfactorily to the religious mind, the soul was invented to make humans different from everything else with brains.
Is group (social) behavior in animals, with brains smaller than humans, ethical and or moral or merely pragmatic? Group behavior in animals has strictly adhered to rules that are consistent and individuals that do not follow them are punished.
What is the proper response to a moral (ethical) transgression? Can I do unto others as I would not want done unto me if the others have transgressed?
Ethics and morality are the divination between behaviors that promote happiness and those that make others miserable, they are the states of mind that are found in heaven and hell. The happy, moral, people who are right, go to heaven and the immoral people who are wrong, go to hell where they are unhappy and miserable.
If you have no facts to back up what you are claiming then I have no reason to adhere to what you say.Religious faith based behavior is by definition not supported by facts.
Are all humans equally deserving of moral treatment or are some people merely objects?
The stronger your faith the more likely it is that you will act immorally. There are going to be people that lie totally outside of your moral sphere and you have no reason to act morally toward them.
Are there people, which buy their actions or beliefs, forfeit their right to moral treatment?
Everything that is not known or not understood or is misconstrued can still be true.
If you do not understand me does that mean that I am not saying anything? And if you do understand me does that mean that I am saying something?
People who believe in religious dogma may not be capable of knowing the truth. They are blind to it. They are cognitively closed to it.
If we have intuition do we need faith?
Whose happiness is important to you?If you woke up one morning and you were told that it was possible for you to make someone disappear, with out consequence to you or pain and suffering to them, who would you use your new found power on? All you have to do is sincerely want them to be gone and it is done, and the action is not reversible.If you can not now, and never have been able to feel happiness you can not discern what is or is not ethical. Ethics is the process by which we over come evolution to behave in a morally evolved manor.Our symbols can and have evolved faster than our biology.When we have the capacity to understand that our biology urges us to act antisocially or inhumanly we have the responsibility to overcome what was once there as an adaptive advantage to promote the species and is now just a danger to others.
Our biology urges us to over breed.
Compassion for others leads to a cohesive group that works for the common good. Indifference breaks down a group. A strong, indifferent leader can coerce a group to act out against a group lead by a compassionate one and even overcome and control the compassionate group but eventually the non compassionate group will desenagrate.
Is morality very, very complex or very, very simple? Are the most ethical people capable of extremely complex feeling and insight like accomplished jugglers are capable of extraordinary feats of coordinated acts with physical objects and are immoral people simple minded and unable to keep two thoughts aloft at one time? Or is there only one thought or feeling that has to be mastered to be moral? Or does the truth about what is needed to promote ethical behavior lie somewhere in between?
There will be no lasting peace until the ‘There Is No God Proof’ is found.
Can simple minded people be moral? Can very intelligent people act unethically?
Are there key insights that are needed for a person to be moral? Is there a ‘pie’ factor to morality that once learned must be used and that you would never make an ethical decision without if you knew it?
Unlike a geometric truth a moral truth is not absolute; it can be ‘circumstancualy’ true.
We trust, in order to go about our daily activities. We trust our cars, other drivers, the stability of the earth and the people around us. When that trust is broken on a small scale we know how to react. We have all been lied to, but when the earth shakes or airplanes fly into skyscrapers our trust is broken on such a grand scale that it affects us in a way that we are unable to respond to. When we scratch our hand and there is enough trauma to produce bleeding we put a band aid on it. When we receive a large enough trauma that it may compromise our life we go into shock. Sometimes we go into moral shock.
Why is happiness important? What is happiness? Above or beyond the fulfillment of needs (i.e. no longer being hungry) is our happiness just the attainment of set goals (finishing the meal), or is it a sense of well-being, the content of our relationship to our experiences, and not the experiences themselves (I am a good person because I have eaten enough to be full)?
Before you ask ‘why are we here’ ask ‘why isn’t the universe utterly empty’?
I think it is obvious, and generally agreed upon, that if you are hungry or cold or tired you will feel uncomfortable. And for the sake of argument let’s say that when you are hungry or cold or tired, you feel ‘unhappy’. Are there other states of being that are felt without externally set goals that when felt are the necessary motivation for similar states of discomfort i.e. ‘unhappiness’? Do we also ‘need’ to feel a sense of accomplishment or productiveness? Are we biologically programmed to feel a need to reproduce? Do we have a similar need for attainment of things? To be happy do we need to feel powerful or in control? Must we be creative, in an artistic sense? And if these things are inborn or ‘natural’ can they be, or even should they be, overcome? Are there some people that, by virtue of what they do, how they live, what they are allowed to do or not do, we can label as unhappy, no matter what they report themselves as feeling? When are you happy?Spirituality is nothing more than a very well crafted, or I could also say perfected, sense of denial. Or is a feeling of spirituality just an acceptance of our temporary state or finiteness? Or is it finiteness its self?I was born of people who were born of others. Once pushed out of the womb and a knot was tied I was no longer part of my makers like hair left on the floor after a haircut. As my consciousness organized itself I came to realize where I came from and I worked to separate my self from them. I crafted my independence to deny my dependence and have only found a lasting and satisfactory happiness when I accept my self as part of a greater whole.Is there a goal in being human and if so is it attainable? Or are humans merely a disease that will eventually be overcome and if not can the earth and all its life forms thrive with the human sickness?People of religious faith can not abide change because it strikes at the foundations of faith. The stronger a persons religious faith the more ridged they are. The greater a persons ability to adapt to change the stronger they are and the less religious they are.Eventually either all humans will perish or faith in the unsubstantiated will.
Faith based ethics paves a sure road to misery and the end of humanity.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Sunday, January 14, 2007
du-u-u-u
Former inmates often untreated for mental illness Reuters - Fri Jan 12, 5:12 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Findings from a small study suggest that prison inmates seldom seek help for a diagnosed or a perceived mental health problem upon release from prison. A lack of trust in the healthcare system was the main reason cited for not seeking help.
shouldn't all inmates be treated for mental illness?
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Findings from a small study suggest that prison inmates seldom seek help for a diagnosed or a perceived mental health problem upon release from prison. A lack of trust in the healthcare system was the main reason cited for not seeking help.
shouldn't all inmates be treated for mental illness?
Saturday, January 13, 2007
next
what about tomorrow? what about the next generation? what about the year 3200?
think about it and do what is right.
think about it and do what is right.
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