I can haz stimulating ecumenical debate?

I'm sitting here listening to Kaki King's new album. It's fucking excellent, you should all listen to it as soon as you can. And that's that.

Anyhow, I was over at the almighty El Sid's blog You Are Not Special yesterday when I stumbled upon this rather nifty little questionnaire.

Ten Questions Every Intelligent Atheist Must Answer

Now, while I consider myself to be agnostic (sorta, tis a long story), I suppose the term "atheist" is used as a sweeping generalisation for anyone who doesn't:

1. Bomb abortion clinics in the name of Jesus
2. Bomb Americans in the name of Allah
3. Circumcise their kids in the name of Jehova
4. Not believe in anything because they're Buddhist and better than that

So I suppose I fall in there somewhere. Everybody seated? Then I'll begin.

1. Are you a moral relativist, or do you believe in absolute morality? In other words, do you believe that cultures, or even individuals, can define their own rules on what is moral and what is not, or do you believe that every action has one unique, absolute, and true moral assessment?

Morality is subjective to each individual. In other words, everybody has a different set of morals and ethics that they live by. Nevertheless, there are a few basic morals that most people have in common such as 'killing is wrong' and 'frequenting post-op tranny hookers may land you in hot soup' (boy did I learn that the hard way) so these morals must have come from a common source. Since we don't believe in the existence of a God, let's go with a scientific theory borrowed from Darwin: maybe most of us feel killing is wrong because we're purposefully taking out a member of our own species, therefore slowly contributing to the extinction of our race? You see? My knowledge on the Origin of Species is major pimping. I'll save the chapter on pigeons for another time though.
Then again, Dostoyevsky and Nietschze gave an interesting little twist on morality, where they claimed that some people are morally superior to others (see Crime and Punishment or any of Nietzsche's philosophical works) meaning they don't feel guilty about say, killing people.
But no, there's no absolute morality. It's all subjective.

2. Is your trust in science based on faith or based on science?

It's based mostly on faith in science. I find their explanations much more plausible than most theist theories out there. Plus, scientists usually admit when they're wrong. Except for Dawkins.
Besides, Science has Stephen fuckin' Hawking. That's enough to convince me.

3. Where does language, art, music, and religion come from?

I think it just comes from pure luck. Maybe those cave paintings just came from a couple of throwbacks throwing their own shit on a cave wall then thinking 'holy fuck, that looks like an ox! Groovy!'
Same applies to music. Except for the poo flinging. As for religion, I believe it comes out of the insecurity we all feel about handling death and what happens when we snuff it.

4. Suppose, hypothetically, that you met with someone who knew nothing about you except your first name. And this person was able to accurately name deceased family members, discuss in detail how they died, and describe intimate personal details about your relationship with these people (including people you aren’t consciously thinking about). How would you explain this?

Let's ask John Edwards, shall we?

"Kenny! Channel Kenny!"
"Sorry, kids, it doesn't work that way."

5. Is absence of proof the proof of absence?

Yar, you'd have a hard time proving otherwise. Just ask the christians.

6. What does the atheist position offer people? How has it improved your life? Why will it improve others’ lives?
This question stumped Richard Dawkins, so maybe you have a better answer.

It hasn't really improved my life. Not as much as NEW CILLIT BANG GRIME AND.... Oh, sorry.
But I dunno, I feel better off believing that there's nothing at all up there and being pleasantly surprised rather than believing there IS a god and being horribly disappointed.

7. When you attempt to use logic to conclude facts about religion, are you starting at the conclusion (God is not real), or are you starting at true premises? Be honest. If you are starting at true premises, then what are they? And how are they true? Think about #5 when you answer.

It's more that I'm trying to disprove the existence of God. Instead of trying to prove he's not real, you start off assuming God is real, then working with proof and indications that lead you to said conclusion. Keep yer options open, then people can't accuse you of having a closed mind and soiled underwear.
For instance if I was to disprove Noah's Ark, I would start off by trying to find genuine proof in the Bible or elsewhere that Noah was a real person, that he had spoken to God, etcetera. Then go about studying the logistics of everything; how could he make such a fuck-off big boat, then capture two of every animal without the aid of his Super Best Friend Steve Irwin. Then ask, why two? What if the animals were homosexual? and so on and so forth.

Heh, and they say I trivialize things.


8. If all Christians believed that the Bible was entirely allegorical, what would you argue in support of your position?

I think I'll use El Sid's answer for this one:

If all Christians believe the Bible was allegorical, that Jesus wasn't real, that none of these things really happened... well, then the Bible would be proved to be what atheists have been calling it all along... a work of fiction. It imparts moral lessons, sure, but so do a lot of fictional works. And Christianity still wouldn't make sense, because now not only have they named themselves after a fictional character, but they're worshiping and praying to the author of a book. You don't see me setting up an entire religion around The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, though I could if I wanted to, easily.

Yeah, it worked for L.Ron Hubbard.

9. Why is it important to you that everyone is an atheist?

Erm... It isn't. As long as they don't try to ram their beliefs down my throat, it's all good.

10. Do you believe in extra-terrestrials?

I sure do. Maybe not as much as Dan Akroyd, but I think it's a possibility.



Yeah, so there you have it. I think I might tag a few people with this one.

Shiv's Brain
Plunger Girl
A Mind Boiling Over

They're some kickass blogs. You should check em out.

Peace,

James

Holy Religious Herpes, Batman!

My views on religion have changed drastically over the years, as have my personal and political philosophies. Since I hit puberty, I've gone through several 'phases' where I chose to obsess about something or other to do with religion, such as ghosts, the possibility of life after death and the existence of God. I was brought up as a staunchant atheist by my parents, but I've had the exceptionally good fortune of both my parents turning to me at an early age and saying to me "You believe what you want to believe". Nevertheless, I have always had quite an unorthodox religious environment. While it's less prominent now (but still active), my father has a personal religion that takes inspiration from various occult practices, and incorporates the concept of Egyptian lore into his personal beliefs. While I myself don't really understand his beliefs completely, I'll never forget his main 'speech' to me when ever we discuss religion in general:

I personally believe that we all 'tap into' the cosmic force by exercising our various beliefs and rituals.

Those aren't his exact words, but it's about the gist of it. Pretty profound stuff for a 38 year old ex-teacher from Hull.
My mother on the other hand, who was brought up in a radical socialist background, is a strict atheist. Nevertheless, she finds Christianity to be an interesting religion, and enjoys reading the Holy Bible. As you can imagine, she and my father clash quite often concerning religious views. They discuss it frequently and are always in disaccord with each-other. Then again, such is life.

This unique environment has helped ensure that I have not converted to an organized religion, and indeed am still unsure about how the world works. I have therefore built up a personal philosophy. Please note that this is subject to change in accordance to personal experience. I may become a Scientologist yet.
Anyways, I guess you could call me Agnostic. I truly don't know whether or not there is a higher power, or whether we're all just here for a ride. I don't know if there's life after death, but I believe in a few principles that I try to shape my life and morals around. I wouldn't really call it a religion or anything like that, but some of it does fall into spirituality, I guess.

The Gospel According To James

1. Music is the key to better understanding the world around us. Music is perhaps the ultimate art medium; it is able to provoke and express emotion in such a pure way. Music can make us happy, sad, angry, humored... Therefore it is beneficial for the soul and your mind to build up an eclectic taste in music. This permits oneself to better understand certain cultures and also helps to better balance oneself psychologically.
2. Anything you do that deliberately hurts somebody either physically or emotionally will come back to bite you on the ass. This ranges from talking about someone behind their back, to getting in a fight with somebody. "Wouldn't it be nice if everyone was nice"? Well, yes it would. It would indeed. So try to be nice to people, else it might come back to you in ways you can't even imagine.
3. All humans are created equal, it is simply their own personal actions and society that creates inequality. The physical aspects of a person do not matter, it is their mind you should be interested in. I also believe that people such as terrorists, rapists, murderers and the like are not "born evil" or born with some psychological defect that gives them a predisposition to violence and pain. I believe it is through fault of their own or through the fault of society that they become who they are today. This is not an excuse for their behavior, by the way.
4. We are all hypocrites. We can try to live according to our principles, but somewhere across the line we will all fail our personal philosophy, whether it's intentional or not. The same applies to criticizing someone over trivial matters.
5. Nobody knows what happens after we die; the only way to experience that is by dying. Of course, this isn't advocating suicide, on the contrary. This is further explained in my next point
6. We (as in each individual) are only here once. Life is a unique experience for each person, and we should all try to live a long a fruitful life where we develop a sense of understanding and compassion towards our fellow man.

So there you have it, in a nutshell. Of course, I don't expect people to agree with me or advocate my point of view. Figure it out for yourself.

Live Long & Prosper
James