Life after Death...

Do you want an exorcise that I found interesting and, admittedly, a little disconcerting? Here is the prelude to the exercise.

I am an atheist. If you ask me, I will tell you that I do not believe in a god. Any god. Your god. His god. Their god. None of them. In fact, I gave up the belief in gods before I gave up the belief in a continued existence beyond physical death. But that too, went away.

I don't believe that I (me, myself whatever that means) will continue beyond the point where my brain ceases to function. When your brain dies, you die. Period.

The reason for both of these decisions on my part to “not believe” is the same as my reason for not accepting the existence of alien visits from other planets. There is no evidence. None.

Now don't get me wrong. I would love to discover that some how, some way, there is an after life existence. I like the idea of sticking around this big ol' universe now that I'm here. Though I have to admit that the idea of an unending existence strikes me as unlikely and undesirable. I can truly get that after a few thousand years, things could get boring. Well maybe a few thousand thousand years.

I understand that there is no reason to believe that I existed prior to my birth in 1953. And I say prior to my birth because there is no reason to believe that there was any kind of identifiable “me” conciseness prior to my birth. While the brain has some pre-birth programming, there is no great awareness.

So when the time comes, there will be an end to this ride I'm on. However it happens, one day I will cease to be, just as I was before my birth. There will be no me. So this was the birth of this little exorcise.

One night I was thinking about all this, and I closed my eyes and put myself in that moment before death. (As best as I could being I haven't had to do that for real yet.) I put it in terms of an accident. Seeing that truck coming at me and then bam. Blackness. Only I would not be aware of the blackness. I wouldn't know that I was dead because there is no longer a me.

I would see that truck coming and then nothing. As there would no longer be a me, there would be no memory of the truck hitting me, or of the years before that moment. Just an end.

My honest reaction was one of being somewhat disturbed. I like existing. It's something of a comfortable rut that I've fallen into, and I'm in no rush to get off the ride. And frankly, it's hard to really put yourself into a place where you can even get a sense of what not existing would be like.

So I find it disturbing. Does this mean that I must now hope for something beyond this life? No.

Does my desire for continued existence warrant my believing in such because it is comforting? No.

Does it give any support to “Life after Death”? No.

It just means that I am human. This is my only guarantee of having a life, and I am not going to waste it going to church, believing in gods, or an “after life” or anything else that takes away from living in the now. Because then is done, and later only goes on so long.

Jay Spears: SMAK DEM CHRISTIANS DOWN

This is a fun video in a "not a Christian" kinda way. (NSFW)

Election Nov. 2008

It is now 12:20 AM and the United States has a new President elect. Barack Obama. I am thrilled that McCain lost, and also happy that there are only 3 months of Bush left.

That the Dems won most of the House seats as well, makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. The Republicans blew it, and this election tells you that.

So far Prop 4 - the Abortion Limits measure is loosing 53% No vs 47% Yes. It has been 36 years since Roe v. Wade, and there is a lesson to learn here. Yes, a court decision brought about the legalization of abortion, just as court decisions have brought about many other changes, but after 36 years abortions are still legal.

Through the Regan and Bush 1 years, and through the Bush 2 years, the Republicans have had ample opportunities to mount serious challenges to abortion rights, but have only been able to whittle away at them. Abortion rights are here to stay. It's been three decades, let's find something else to do with all that wasted time.

Prop 8 is, at this time, passing 52% Yes vs 48% No. This is the measure that is stripping married Californians of their right to be married. But only some Californians. Just those who are gay and lesbian. That's right. Californians are voting to deny gays and lesbians the right to stay married. And this is something that is going to come back to haunt us. After all, if we were to change the target of this outlandish attack from gay and lesbian couples and make it mixed race couples, or anyone who didn't have plans to procreate, there would be quite a blow back over it. This is bigotry plan and simple. It is ugly. And I am sorry to say I know people who will likely have voted to deny equal rights to fellow Californians just because their biology is different.

Hateful and sad.

I am willing to bet that Obama is a man of his word, and will work to reach across party lines. I wonder if the right wing of the Republican party will have the balls to do the same thing.

The News and the Nuts

Ignorance and stupidity can kill. We've seen it on the highways where drunks stupidly get behind the wheel and kill thousands of people each year. After years of vaccines bringing deadly childhood diseases to near extinction, we have ignorant people telling mothers and fathers to not vaccinate their children because they are mistaken in their belief that vaccines cause autism. They don't, but the press gives these idiots a bigger voice than they deserve and that volume confuses people. We also see it with evolution. This is a scientific matter, not open to a vote or opinion. The evidence is bloody overwhelming, and yet nearly every time some ignorant creationist/I.D.iot decides to try introducing it into the school, the news (print, radio and T.V.) gives it "fair and balanced" treatment.

IF...Someone tried to get schools to teach that the earth was flat, or the center of the solar system the press would not bother with "fair and balanced", they would make it clear that scientists have a mountain of evidence to show it's spherical and orbits the sun, and there would be no nonsense. But with all the evidence that science has to support the theory of evolution, and the fact of evolution, the press plays the "teach the controversy" line like there was a controversy. There isn't. Not in science.

And now, the press has again done what it can to stir up fear where none need exist. The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) in Europe, went on line today. Protons were kicked up to near the speed of light (99.99999898% or 299,792,454.9 meters per second). Scientists have made it clear that they are not playing with the fate of the earth. No black holes will destroy our world, in fact, they can't even form.

So where is the harm in the "news" outlets making such a big deal. After all, they just want to sell papers. Tell that to Chayya, a 16 year old (and likely unstable) girl who was so sure that the world was going to end that she drank pesticide to beat the rush. Now so far as I know, this poor girl is the only one to do this, and that's a good thing, and also when you take into account the shear number of people who live on the planet, well, it clearly could be worse. But there is more.

People all over the world are afraid that very soon there will be no world to be all over. The press has played to the ignorant folk who insist that there is a danger, and people are running off to whatever works as a church for them, praying that their version of a god will protect the world. Seriously people, we need to tell these nuts, ignorant and stupid people to get an education and some understanding of science so we can see less of this crap.

Banned Book Week

It's Banned Book Week, which this year will last more than a week. The 2008 celebration of Banned Books Week will be held from September 27 through October 4. Here are some of the books that are on the lists of banned books:

1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
2. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
3. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
4. Forever by Judy Blume
5. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
6. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
7. “The Golden Compass,” by Philip Pullman
8. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
9. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
10. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
11. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
12. Blubber by Judy Blume
13. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
14. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
15. Deenie by Judy Blume
16. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
17. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
18. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
19. Cujo by Stephen King
20. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
21. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
22. Ordinary People by Judith Guest
23. Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
24. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
25. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
26. Carrie by Stephen King
27. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
28. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
29. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
30. Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
31. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman

These are either books I've read (in red) or heard about, or authors of note.

I don't much care for censorship in any of its forms, on television, at the movies, in schools or public libraries or newspapers and magazines. Often the reason for removing a book from public library shelves is that we must protect our children. Bullshit. People who want Harry Potter:fill in your favorite volume here, or The Golden Compass banned wish to keep views that don't fit their narrow religious criteria from showing others that there are ideas that compete with their own.

Too bad.

What makes this nation work, when it works, is the free exchange of ideas. I think an awful lot of Christian ideas are pure crap, but I also support their Constitutionally given right to express those ideas. I also support the Constitutional rights of non-Christians to point out why they are crap to begin with.

Now I think it's time to read a banned book. I have many of them on my book shelves. I'm currently reading Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle. I have to admit that I have not read it before. I will probably make some comments about it when I am done.

So go forth and read a book. It doesn't even have to be banned.

Non Sequitur

One of my favorite comics is Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller . I get it on a daily basis via my email. Here is one of his latest and one of the reasons I like his work.

2012

According to the loose nuts on the internet, 2012 will mark the end of the world. Assuming for the moment that they are right, would now be a good time to party like it's 1999? I'm just asking.