Atheism Corner

Humanity in Progress

Sister “Internet” Is a Fine Example

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This next piece of news is pretty surprising, but when you think about it again, its not that surprising at all

Sister Maria was apparently asked to leave the religious order where she has resided in seclusion for 35 years because she spent too much time on the website, it has been reported.

This is one friendly sister… and one old religion that is admirably holding back on progress (lets not assume that Facebook is actually progress). But seriously, this is one of the main points of all the three main religions, not allowing anything new in, at least not until its dead or has been around long enough for believers to use it themselves because they know there is nothing wrong with it.

As many say, imagine that Islam will have its way… no new Radiohead album, no internet (absolutly no internet) TV will probably be kept for praising God or the leader or the self annoyted king, no books or art, and lots of dirty old work for 99% of the population who were not lucky enough to be related to the ones in power.

I hope this sister understands that progress is contrary to religion, maybe once she is past that she could really start investing time in what she really loves to do, not other things.

Sister "internet" in action, Oh Lord!

Why Atheism II

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There are many things happening all around the world, all the time.

There is so much more I want to discuss on this blog then I do.

But, I try to focus on atheism, because I believe it is key. Its a key idea, a concept, a lighthouse that could guide us all from darkness to light. Of course those of us who want to maintain a cultural identity that is tied to a religion can do so freely, but without the bounding effect of the establishment and organized religions.

One of the easiest things to do is label someone as a revolutionary, a romantic, an anarchist, and one of the easiest stepping stones on that road is to find out if you can label someone as a non-believer, since you know exactly what to expect of a believer (or actually you know exactly what to expect a believer will present himself as) and you could proceed with great ease to tell anyone who cares to listen that this person is not a bliever and therefore a wildecard. while there is not only no correlation between believing and moral behaviour, the idea that you need to believe in order to be called moral is dangerous.

So, if we peel away this facade of belief, if we stop playing stone age myths and stories to ourselves and our children, we might make things easier on us, we might start to look deeper into profound things like the life in our oceans, why whenever one war is over another one begins – in a different part of the world, why even though politicians change the world stays exactly the same, and why does it have to be that the simple people carry most of the burden in this life.

Atheism is the easiest point to start, adopt a critical way of thinking of things, examine not only religion, reflect on philosophy and science and you will be well on your way to expanding your own personal freedom, and maybe even others. Just do not let anyone call you anything because you do not dance to their flute, or because you allow yourself a non traditional thinking process, fight the flow, fight conservatism, fight ignorance.

Egypt’s Copts & Future

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For those of you who do not follow the media last week has been a scene of violence in the middle east, this time it was Egypt, in the city of Alexandria, where a suicide bomber targeted a Coptic church, killing and inuring many innocent people. This must not be a big surprise for anyone in Egypt, a couple of months ago a christian was stabbed and murdered in the same city, on the same backgound – the religous intolerance of some in Egypt.

Many argue that the action did not come from within Egypt but from outside, maybe al-Quida. The regular conspiracy theory in the Arab world always points a finger at Israel as a cause of any kind of problem, for example the shark attacks in Sinai a month ago (some claimed it was Israel who “sent” the sharks) or eagles spying on Saudi Arabia ground (a research on the migration of eagles done around the world with the university of Tel-Aviv participating).

This kind of attack is not outside the ordinary for anyone who follows the modern day Muslim belief, which has perfect reason to believe that there should be no other religion than Islam and that there is no place for any other belief system next to Islam, especially in places that are ruled by Muslims or ever have been under Muslim law (which places much of Southern Europe under that principle).

If anyone asks how religions can be dangerous and physically threaten the lives of millions of people, that is exactly how and why. Islam is (to its believers) the final word of God, it is the last and final set of rules and “best practices” the all-mighty has dictated to the prophet via his angel. There is no question in the mind of a true Muslim that there is no other truth and that following the word of the prophet will lead to a very happy ending. In Islam, much more than in Christianity, trying your best to be like the prophet actually makes sense and has a direct reward system behind it. The prophet did not tolerate any other religion (under the house of war, not the early and diplomatic house of peace) so there is no reason for his followers to do any different.

Add to this the pre-programmed viral power of Islam (the way it is programmed to spread quickly and convert everyone to its law) and you have yourself a problem, well, at least if you plan to have any other religions or belief systems around. It is one of the main issues with most of the worlds conflicts, and will probably get worst in time. Even within the Arab/Muslim world there is no peace because of this ideology, since no one path of Islam can accept the other.

And so, the Coptic church, a true relic of history, finds itself attacked with the clear purpose of total destruction 2,000 years after it started, in the same city that saw Christians advocate their cause to pagans, later to convert to Islam by the power of the sword. One can not but wonder when the great city of Alexandria will, as Richard Dawkins puts it, “Go one God further” and see the light.

Hitchens: Why Fight Religion?

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In the next post – note how the question is “why fight god?” not “why fight religion”, how some people are so blind as to think that atheism is fighting anyone, its not. We are fighting ideas, most of whom pose a real danger to the quality of lives of most humans.

The Case of Galileo Galilei

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There are a few things anyone can learn from the case of Galileo, the main one (in my humble opinion) is that even with enormous contribution to the human race the church can still hunt you, despise you, place you under house arrest and prevent your family from burying you at their preferred location. The good news is that you might be cleared of all charged and praised for your contribution a couple hundred years after you passed away, which is the best the church can do.

So how long did it take the church to go from “the earth is the center of the universe, the universe is a dozen stars we can actually see with the naked eye, and the sun orbits the earth” to “Galileo was right, the earth is round and not the center of the universe, and the universe is much bigger, because the all powerful creator is great”. As long as it took it makes little difference to the man, and even worst to his work and lifetime achievements.

Consider this for a moment, lets say that a man is truly gifted in disease research, he is with no doubt the best at his work at his time, and he is studying cancer. There is no doubt that eliminating cancer disease will have a tremendous effect on the quality of life everywhere on earth, and will not only change the lives of human beings but probably animals as well. Lets say that you are the supreme leader of the country of which this person is a citizen of, and that you can control every aspect of this person life, will you limit his access to resources and try to make his life as difficult as possible, or will you allow this person ultimate freedom in perusing his goal?, it seems to me that the answer is so simple that a 5 year old can answer it without hesitation.

It is obvious that the church did not choose the second option for Galileo, it preferred the first option, and by doing that it deliberately limited and crippled this mans work and prevented science from leaping forward a little sooner.

Almost every case I know of, in which the church was challenged with a new idea it rejected the idea and persecuted the thinkers of these ideas. New ideas are not welcome, in fact the church likes to wait until those ideas become stale and obviously clear to everyone around to accept it, usually anything between 100-300 years would do it, who knows, maybe in the year 2250 the catholic church will say that gay marriage is a good idea after all, or that using condoms in Africa is a good idea – it just might happen. The only question is what good is it for those who lives are a liviing nightmare right now.