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2009-12-16T03:19:00.000-05:00

Think Atheist

2009-05-15T07:00:00.001-04:00

Visit Think Atheist

This is where I spend most of my time these days.

A Playlist

2009-05-04T05:29:00.002-04:00

Find more music like this on Think Atheist

Songs and musical pieces I like.
The player can be detached from your browsing.

God an the Military

2009-04-29T13:35:00.000-04:00

via videosift.com

God's army: the U.S . Air Force.

Here's an example where people in authority - and we know how hierarchical the military is - can push their beliefs unto subordinates. Something I'm very intolerant about.

To allow such a piece of propaganda to be shot on their premises also shows the Pentagon's interest in religion as a control tool. Now try to do the similar atheist propaganda or just an honest documentary with soldiers who are atheists or who have become atheist following their war experience...

Plus we trust incredibly powerful weapons to these irrational people and that's a scary thought.

New Religions!

2009-04-22T08:07:00.005-04:00

Quantum Theology and Quantum Spirituality!

Something hinted at by the great fraud Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Transcendental Meditation inventor, parasite of Beatles fame) is now becoming more widespread. The book review for "Quantum gods don't deserve your faith" by Amanda Gefter on New Scientist Opinions is revealing.

Maharishi claimed that transcendental meditation gave practitioners access to the "quantum field of cosmic consciousness". This, he said, was identical to SU(5), the model physicists were then investigating in their search for a grand unified theory. Sadly for cosmic consciousness, real experiments later falsified SU(5).

As for the notion of creating our own reality, this relies on brains in some sense operating quantum mechanically - and there is no evidence for this. As Stenger says, the scales of distance involved in brain processing are more than a thousand times too large for quantum effects to necessarily come into play. Likewise, physicist Max Tegmark has shown that the timescales of events in the brain are 10 or more orders of magnitude longer than the timescales of "decoherence", the process by which quantum effects "leak" out of the quantum system.

Let's get real! Let's not grab any new idea and flex it into our needs for imaginary food without some verification or validation...

How Should We Call Them ?

2009-04-15T01:00:00.009-04:00

It would be nice to have name, a monicker, an appellation or designation, for those who really profit Big Time from their lies and their siblings' ignorance and gullibility.

Other than priests, pastors, shamans, frauds, thiefs or the Federal Reserve Bank for that matter. An original nickname - could be funny ironic sarcastic or just plain factual.

It could also be a completely made-up word. Like Beliefants, for instance.

Atheism Logo Study

2009-04-14T03:38:00.006-04:00

A litttle while back, on Twitter, Michael Nugent, who hosts an atheist blog on Atheism, Happiness and Life suggested the idea of creating a visual symbol for Atheism.

There are already existing icons on the web representing atheism or certain aspects of the worldview, the FFS, Dawkins' A, the Skeletal Fish and others. But it started me thinking and I came up with the above design and the following argumentation:

My proposal for an Atheist Logo:
1 - Since everything either spirals in or out in this Universe, here's the Spiral.
2 - It also represents a Birdsnake, a fantasy hybrid link between reptiles and volatiles. Evolution.
3 - It has an organic sketchy-like irregular rendering, indicating the finest any (known) given star can produce: Life.
4 - Also suggests a galaxy... of like-minded thinkers.

Any opinions or suggestions?

Souls Don't Exist After Death

2009-04-13T17:41:00.009-04:00

Myth: We have immortal souls that survive the death of the body.

We have mountains of evidence that makes it clear that our consciousness, our beliefs, our desires, our thoughts all depend upon the proper functioning of our brains our nervous systems to exist.

So when the brain dies, all of these things that we identify with the soul also cease to exist.

Despite the fact that billions of people have lived and died on this planet, we do not have a single credible case of someone's soul, or consciousness, or personality continuing to exist despite the demise of their bodies. Allegations of spirit chandlers, psychics, ghost stories, and communications with the dead have all turned out to befrauds, deceptions, mistakes, and lies.

From Matt McCormick's blog Proving The Negative

Just A Quote

2009-04-11T09:02:00.004-04:00

This is rather as if you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'this is an interesting world I find myself in - an interesting hole I find myself in - fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!' this is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it's still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything's going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for'

Douglas Adams

On The Importance Of Philosophy

2009-04-08T08:12:00.014-04:00

I'm Just An Amateur Philosopher

Philosophy examines and studies existence, as well as knowledge, action, force and the arts. At the root it stems from the need to understand existence and the nature of existence. Life and death, as far as we, conscious and sentient living things are concerned.

Well, as far as I'm concerned. But I'm a real amateur philosopher. A newbie, not because I'm young - I'm not - but because I wasted too much time dabbling with the same fundamental issues that philosophy deals with but without the proper tools. And without a solid framework such as the one presented for instance here, on The Importance Of Philosophy.

It is based on an Objectivist worldview, first laid out by author and philosopher Ayn Rand, who said:

My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute....

And we, the self-aware, can't escape philosophy. On this other website, Objectivism 101, it says

...that everyone has a philosophy, even if they don't know it. There's no way to avoid it. It's the way you make sense of the world. It's how you put your knowledge together into an understanding of the world. It's how you make choices, weigh costs and benefits, and decide how to live your life.

A statement with which I wholeheartedly agree. For years I developped "a" philosophical point of view without my knowing it. As I was examining the development of my own condition, in itself and within human society, as I was searching for answers and more knowledge on this universe I found myself in, ideas somehow organised themselves around a few pivotal concepts and I slowly became an amateur philosopher...

One who's trying to attain a little more clarity from whithin this chaotic and entropic life he woke up in, fifty eight years ago....

Evolution Is Wrong

2009-04-05T23:06:00.006-04:00

via videosift.com

According to the simplistic arguments presented in this clip - based on the ideas of Adnan Oktar, the islamist creationist - because some species have not changed in hundreds of millions of years, all life was created at once. He uses numerous fossil examples and compares them with almost unchanged living species today to prove that evolution did not happen.

We estimate that there are between seven to one hundred million different living species today - numbers vary because of issues categorising species - some of them are bound to not need to evolve. To be so well niched at one point that major changes become unnecessary and the form stabilises.

Of course he doesn't mention the fact that there are no human fossils dating hundreds of millions of years, but oddly, and contrary to Bible-bound American creationists, he admits to those millions of years.

Here's a nice example of propaganda for you. It uses all the tricks in the book to sustain Oktar's fallacious argument that Darwin was wrong. About a third of the program is spent on pseudo-scientific explanations of the process of fossilisation, another third tells without giving any facts that all sciences have proofs against evolution and the last consist of enumeration of species that haven't changed.

All with dramatic music, fast editing, lush 3D animations, quality graphics and diagrams, lies and wide approximations, and a smirk in the narrator's voice.

A Good Sermon

2009-04-05T03:49:00.005-04:00

Amazing! What the power of a good sermon can do. And on any subject. This excellent and hilarious demonstration of arguing convincingly against food shows how one can, in more serious fields, with words, intonations and attitude, influence and manipulate other people towards any ideology imaginable. Gain an advantage over siblings.

Good to know about that trick and have a good laugh at the same time.

A Belief

2009-04-03T21:05:00.008-04:00

My only faith:

There will be one more day for me.

My only certainty:

And once, there won't!

Status: So far so good.

Momentous Event

2009-04-01T17:57:00.003-04:00

The Hate Syndrome

2009-03-30T01:46:00.007-04:00

Hatred is many things. But in very general terms it is attention targeted at an idea, an objet or person, with intent to do damage. The foundation of which is usually pain, past or current. Hate features ignorance of all other angle on or concern about its target. It fuels focused imagination and eventually actions to resolve itself.

The picture above was taken in Montreal, Quebec, a few weeks ago during an annual yet impromptu march against police violence. Hatred is often but not always mutual. And it is sometimes caused not by directly by pain, where the object of hate is unrelated to its subject, as in the case of acute mental illness. Or when hatred is directed towards a symbol, an image that incorporates what the subject feels. To hate is to feel intense dislike, or extreme aversion or hostility, always with a reason. Hatred is not evil, it is a syndrome of many emotions, attitudes, views, intentions, and it burns everything it touches. Hatred is animal.

Prayer Is Superstition

2009-03-29T00:54:00.008-04:00

A prayer has the same effect as a lucky horseshoe. Statistically none. No effect whatsoever. It does however stimulate the imagination into creating excuses when a demonstration of the effect of prayers (or horseshoes) fails miserably.

The above video is somewhat "not exciting" to watch but it's arguments are rock solid.

Jesus, Good Luck

2009-03-24T13:00:00.000-04:00

Someone just rang at the door and offered me to participate in a celebration of Jesus in the neighborhood. I answered that I wished him good luck.

He didn’t get it and asked if I was interested to learn more about Jesus. I repeated that I wished him good luck in his enterprises, he left.

I’m not sure but I think it was our parish priest. The Catholics are frenetic with Easter coming… Here’s a collage I made: The Jesus Of The Age, constantly re-manufactured through time.

Myths, legends and superstitions have incredible long lives, which tends to show that imagination is useful in evolutionary terms.

I heard someone saying that at least, priests don’t reproduce. It is true, but the really serious problem is that they teach errors, misconceptions, biases and worse.

I find nothing to celebrate here.

The Biological World

2009-03-24T01:27:00.007-04:00

When I first saw Carl Sagan's Cosmos, I never thought it would still be necessary, almost thirty years later, to be argueing these points over and over again...

This program (Carl Sagan's Cosmos - Part 2, released in 1981, is posted here) should simply be required viewing for every kid, as soon as she or he can understand half the words Dr. Sagan uses. They all absolutely need to be exposed to these clear explanations on the "stuff of life" and what is the scientific worldview. Not just the bright, curious or scientifically-inclined child, every child should watch Cosmos. Better in an educational curriculum but if not, in all possible contexts.

I agree that "we are a way for the Cosmos to know itself" and I think that fighting ignorance is part of that job, still.

Side Note: At 43 min. he uses as demonstrations of DNA's vital role blood processes that would eventually lead to his death in 1996, of pneumonia caused by myelodysplasia an immune system disease. See also here.

Superstition

2009-03-23T11:21:00.008-04:00

Thirteen

ELEVEN PLUS TWO.

When you rearrange the letters:

TWELVE PLUS ONE

Is that confirmation or evidence?

The French certainly don't have to worry about this one!

Counter Measure:

Design Fiction, for a better, more creative use for imagination.

Immaterial Reality

2009-03-14T10:01:00.007-04:00

Matter is immaterial, but you can now slow and freeze light.

Better be able to wrap our heads around the idea. Since we must learn to often rely on the unreliable, fundamental concepts on the uncertain nature of reality are of a certain importance.

Better be able to wrap our heads around these experimental ideas than filling them with notions of "invisible forces". Make me a machine like the lady's got in the above video that capture's god's will and I'll gladly reconsider.

Bring me data that shows a soul leaving a body at death - while I'm waiting, I'll keep on thinking there's enough exciting stuff going around in the actual universe without introducing the superfluous "otherly".

Local Reality

2009-03-14T09:47:00.003-04:00

There's enough information on our local neighborhood to counter irrational knowledge about its purported created origin.

Humans Still Evolving

2009-03-12T00:26:00.010-04:00

To my great surprise, I only recently learned that the consensus among scientists was that humans had ceased evolving more than fifty thousand years ago. They held that natural selection hasd't come into play since then and that our modern skulls houses Stone Age minds.

But closer observation of the genetic material of the last ten thousand years now seem to show that instead, there's rather been a growth, an avalanche of evolutionary changes in the human body during that recent period and apparently the mutations accelerate as we speak.

The brain, digestive system, lifespan, immunity, sperm production and bones, some two thousand mutations have been identified and traced back. We are differenciating under a wide diversity of environments, the variations in social condition, lifestyle, stress levels, pollution, and the intensification of some of these factors that comes with population growth, all at a recently unsuspected speed.

What will we be in five hundred years?

Learn more from DiscoverMagazine.

Converting First Impressions

2009-03-09T00:26:00.019-04:00

From PhysOrg.com:

Neuroscientists at New York University and Harvard University have identified the neural systems involved in forming first impressions of others. The findings, which show how we encode social information and then evaluate it in making these initial judgments, are reported in the most recent issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience.

...

The neuroimaging results showed significant activity in two regions of the brain during the encoding of impression-relevant information. The first, the amygdala, is a small structure in the medial temporal lobe that previously has been linked to emotional learning about inanimate objects, as well as social evaluations based on trust or race group. The second, the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), has been linked to economic decision-making and assigning subjective value to rewards. In the Nature Neuroscience study, these parts of the brain, which are implicated in value processing in a number of domains, showed increased activity when encoding information that was consistent with the impression.

Think Fast, A Vital Ability

In the brain, first impressions seem to be linked to multiple functional areas: to an emotional learning enabler, to the system used in building a sense of social rewards and values, and to how we estimate winning compatibility with our peers. The original first few seconds imprint can then initiate a self-confirming loop of likes or dislikes that will usually stick to us. Specially if corroborated by further information.

But then again, these first impressions can be shattered, switched, eroded or mutated. A friendship of forty years, I started with a strong antipathy; another long-time friend I did not really trust for a long while.

More information, intuition, effort, a revelation or even chance can convert a first impression. It happens. Both ways, from right to wrong and from mistaken to pertinent. The relative reliability and success of this arrangement though, seem to show that we are more often right than we are wrong, fast judgement is probably a vital ability.

The success of this strategy however also might explain why some first impression will never be convertible. Why some people will not be able to change their mind, adopt a different view, reconsider a relationship or the nature of some content. With fast (or lazy) jugments the flexibility seems to be lost.

Hence the hard-core devots, irreductible fanatists and even suicide-cultists.

Benevolent Design

2009-03-08T12:11:00.002-04:00

Evil proven. Maybe more than an indifferent universe.

It is fearsome. And it somewhat legitimizes this need to fantasize on an imaginary benevolent designer. But it is now safe to say that observations and measurements have shown no trace of such benevolence in the known universe.

Other than for small occasional "pockets of luck", this is a dangerous place.

Supernatural

2009-03-08T10:40:00.013-04:00

Supernatural faith-based religions create undue fear and worries in the minds of children and adults about things that don't exist. It redirects time, money, resources and people wanting to do good into useless endeavours. It promotes magical and superstitious thinking. It gives respect and credence to religious leaders for no good reason - and often with terrible results.

From http://conversationalatheist.com/

Fear, worries, time, money, resources, useless endeavours - all soaked in good intention salsa (from dulce to picante).

That's what one has to invest in order to adhere to irrational views.

My Pretension

2009-03-04T10:02:00.015-05:00

Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.

Bre Pettis and Kio Stark's "Cult of Done manifesto".

So let's pretend that I'm a human animal, bent on science and philosophy, an artist and a curious observer of both inside and outside realities.

That's what I say I am.

Learning From Books

2009-03-03T01:38:00.004-05:00

Learning From Books, originally uploaded by me.

My advice at this point in time:

Learn from as many books as possible. When learning is to come from books, make sure there are enough in your library. If learning is to come through the entertainment you get from books, read multiple tales from different authors to build as many angles as possible.

Singularities

2009-02-27T13:42:00.005-05:00

Singularity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Singularity may refer to any of a variety of concepts.

Mathematics:
Mathematical singularity, a point at which a given mathematical object is not defined

In complex analysis:
Essential singularity, a singularity near which a function exhibits extreme behavior
Isolated singularity, a mathematical singularity that has no other singularities close to it
Movable singularity, a concept in singularity theory
Removable singularity, a point at which a function is not defined but at which it can be so defined that it is continuous at the singularity

In algebraic geometry:
Singular point of an algebraic variety, a point where an algebraic variety is not locally flat
Rational singularity, a concept in singularity theory
Singularity theory, which deals with these concepts

Science:
Gravitational singularity, a point in spacetime in which gravitational forces cause matter to have an infinite density and zero volume
Mechanical singularity, a position or configuration of a mechanism or a machine where the subsequent behaviour cannot be predicted
Prandtl-Glauert singularity, the point at which a sudden drop in air pressure occurs
Singularity (climate), a weather phenomenon associated with a specific calendar date
Technological singularity, a theoretical point in the development of a technological civilization
Van Hove singularity in the density of states of a material

Singularity is an interesting concept in a universe where things are
generally self-similar and continuous (as part of a continuum).
Singularities also happen in one's life. A birth, a tragic loss, a very
close call with death, a brush with mental illness, something or an event that changes the rules for ever.

Bad News

2009-02-20T15:39:00.010-05:00

Intermediate Ends Of The World

When I die it will be the end of the world as far as I'm concerned - and since I don't believe I'm the habitat of something "higher" than me, that'll be that. For most of us and most of our descendants' descendants, it will be the same, a private end of the world.

There is also a probability that the human civilization will exterminate itself, and that catastrophic change might happen so relatively quickly that people will be witness to it. That's another possible intermediate end of the known civilized world.

Then there's the chance an asteroid hits our planet to smithereens, in which case we would all live through an end of the earthly world. And if none of the above occur, the following clip illustrates what's most likely to happen as far as a galactic end of the world.

Then later, something might endanger our local cluster of galaxies either ripping the fabric of the universe, or having it's space filled with neighboring clusters, as the heading picture (educated simulation) of clusters of clusters suggests.

An ultimate End Of The World? of course! One day - a freeze, a crunch, no one is yet certain. But all seems to indicate that fatal entropy will win. Until then let's just forget about the many religious justice scare tactics and expected judgement days, and relax. Let's consider instead and keep busy with our own peremptionality.

A.R.T.

2009-02-16T09:48:00.009-05:00

Making or doing art

A fabricated object or behavior loaded with intent.

Intent to share, communicate, intervene, interfere, entertain or otherwise impact fellow humans.

For the artist it is a statement. The object or performance is infused with his intent. The viewer is touched and reacts, feels and interpret its effects and forget, remembers or integrates the experience. Not much need be done for art to be made. In the above picture (taken by somenone else) I just added some tint and texture and an english word. Other artists will put an ordinary object out of context or under a different light. Or highlight a pattern or behave in special ways... Art can be simple or flourish in sophisticated intricacies and technical achievements. And it is something we human animals do to each other to enjoy or enlighten ourselves on our ephemeral condition. And we are now at a point in our evolution where art has become vital.

Basic Cosmological Knowledge

2009-02-09T14:10:00.005-05:00

This is the basic knowledge about the universe that should underlie all theological and philosophical speculations and assumptions. Please push the Play button.

And this explains the method by which knowledge such as the above is acquired, verified, built upon.

For more vids on scientific knowledge, try this . Or watch the following clip on what "life" really is.

The Table's End

2009-02-07T13:44:00.002-05:00

Where does the table effectively end?

Infinitesimally, atoms of solid wood turn into flowing atoms of air while from my point of view, there is a surface of solid wood. But is there?

We know that however polished that surface is, if you look close enough, it is rough and ragged. And at the atomic level, there are places that are wood and places that are not. There's even a level of uncertainty on what is part of the table and what, is part of the room's air.

We also know that this solid wood surface is constantly being modified by traveling molecules and electromagnetic bombardments and other contacts with solid objects. And that atoms and molecules of the table are constantly let loose from the solid. We also know that some particles can even go through that solid wood table.

What's interesting it that there is no exact frontier between the table and the air, even though from my point of view, there seems to be one. Then my assuming that there is a trustable interface between solid and gaseous would be "close enough for rock and roll".

So for most of us, most of the time, approximate assumptions are more than enough for functional living. If it wasn't for challenges and curiosity.

Justice

2009-02-02T10:05:00.002-05:00

There will be justice

Bad people get punished.
You, however, will be forgiven.

From The American Cargo Cult.
Get the rest here

Reading, Evocation and Simulaton

2009-01-29T11:03:00.007-05:00

Readers build vivid mental simulations of narrative situations, brain scans suggest

A new brain-imaging study is shedding light on what it means to "get lost" in a good book — suggesting that readers create vivid mental simulations of the sounds, sights, tastes and movements described in a textual narrative while simultaneously activating brain regions used to process similar experiences in real life.

Does that mean that stories use the same brain areas as real-life?

Or that what we conceive to be real-life is really happening in the same brain areas as fiction but with the added benefit or sensorial input? Both seem to operate in the same fashion. A friend who studies lucid dreaming also expects the similar brain areas to fire up when a dreamer acquires lucidity.

Real-life worldviews are of the same substance as more or less educated stories?

That would render myths, legends, fallacies, and other imaginary constructions indistinguishable from evidence-supported hypothesis.

Faith & Consequences

2009-01-26T16:31:00.000-05:00

Miss Beatrice, the church organist, was in her eighties and had never been married. She was admired for her sweetness and kindness to all.

One afternoon the pastor came to call on her and she showed him into her quaint sitting room.

She invited him to have a seat while she prepared tea. As he sat facing her old Hammond organ, the young minister noticed a cut-glass bowl sitting on top of it. The bowl was filled with water, and in the water floated, of all things, a condom! When she returned with tea and scones, they began to chat.

The pastor tried to stifle his curiosity about the bowl of water and its strange floater, but soon it got the better of him and he could no longer resist. 'Miss Beatrice', he said, 'I wonder if you would tell me about this?' pointing to the bowl.

'Oh, yes,' she replied, 'Isn't it wonderful? I was walking through the Park a few months ago and I found this little package on the ground. The directions said to place it on the organ, keep it wet and that it would prevent the spread of disease.

Do you know I haven't had the flu all winter.'

Improbabilities

2009-01-14T10:52:00.018-05:00

What happens happened because it was the most probable thing to happen then. Most of the time.

The next now for most average folks is a highly probable, predictable, expected moment, life that continues. Until for some, the unexpectedly improbable outside force strikes directly and life takes a turn. But the surprise doen't always come from beyond.

Errors, mistakes, bad choices and other wrong moves are examples of points where we ourselves are the cause of an unexpected turn of event. Which of course doesn't exclude the improbable - an erroneous assumption leading to real discovery for instance, or a bad turn in an alley... Even the highly improbable can happen - News Of The Weird is full of such demonstrations.

Causality?

My point: In view of the chaotic circumstances of the universe at the time, I'd dare to say that the emergence of life and subsequent self-aware beings resulted from a chain of these highly improbable events. If you consider that reality, at our level, is the gazillion nano-to-mega events required to maintain the consistency of matter, with such numbers improbable things are bound to happen.

But they just rarely do, sitting at the edges of the Bell curve as they are.

FUTURE

2008-12-15T12:44:00.003-05:00

"There's no data on the future.
That's what makes it interesting."

Don Derosby of GBN

Discontinuity

2008-12-02T11:10:00.009-05:00

Awareness and the sense of self that ensues appear, contrary to expectations, to be very discontinuous. Our consciousness is attention-driven and we know how flickering is attentiveness. Even time flow is actually grasped by tiny blocks of varying size or weight - most certainly related to our short term memory capacity. Emotions ebb and flow, ideas change (hopefully!), wakefulness varies, and dreams, when we can remember them, are the best if exagerated example of that discontinuity of the self. This discontinuity is actually what allows paradoxical behavior/belief systems, lies and hypocrisy, religious scientists, makeover sex and things like that. It also accounts for broken resolutions and promises, forgotten intent and decisions and elastic sincerity. Of course I've been Michel all day today, but I certainly don't feel now like I felt this morning, and that change throughout the day has not been a continuum. Maybe someone with so-called perfect recall can pinpoint the switching that occured in his awareness, I'm not very good with memory but I can remember many points today where I became something else than I was just moments before. Knowledge about this aspect of awareness is useful when making plans.

A Human Being

2008-11-20T13:50:00.001-05:00

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." -
Robert A. Heinlein

Embryo

2008-11-15T01:15:00.003-05:00

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=XcMBjiILTRk
More clips of the event at YouTube.

The Embryo Of War.

This very funny clip of priests of different christian denominations fighting it out in the streets of Jerusalem is probably humorous because of the huge contrast between the (supposedly holy) costumes and the (violent) posturing and attitudes.

But it also underlines how faction wars begin. It could be just an accidental aggravation during one of these street fights that will start ill feelings, needs for retaliation and things like that. And Bam! you have a religious war.

Now that's all we need, Catholic and Orthodox nations at war, Greece and Turkey now united, supported by Russia, at war with Italy, supported by Europe and the USA. There must be something in these people's "books" that tells them how wrong their differences are, at least something to the effect that they are somewhat brothers. Mmmm... don't these two read the same book?

Actually I think they choose to overlook the good advice and let instead their hurt feelings guide their actions, oblivious to the real consequences. Revenge, retaliation, restitution of justice, all suddenly seem more real, important, urgent, than their religious and moral pretense , than those virtues they claim ownership upon.

And war becomes part of the sacred fantasy.

Music

2008-11-12T11:20:00.006-05:00

Using the above ZuneCard you can listen to some of the music I like.

Music is Art.

It is one of the things we do to ourselves, as humans, to exercise our imagination and to provoke emotions. For the performers it promotes creativity - an abilty that can be used in other fields as well - and for the enjoyers, it is interpreted immediately and it can mark memories.

I greatly enjoy listening to music, it's a way to control or influence my moods, and to stimulate memories when I listen to older songs. I'm mostly interested in new music however, stuff that reflects our current condition, stuff from all over the world and from all genres.

I'm even interested in religious music, as, beyond its insidious propaganda, it also reflects the big existential puzzle humans have had to deal with as their self-awareness emerged.

Music is important, like litterature and visual arts. It is something that we do to ourselves - so better be aware of what it actually does to you, that we leave for posterity - and mark our collective memories with, that we use to try to understand the world and ourselves.

The Devil

2008-11-04T09:00:00.004-05:00

The French poet Beaudelaire said: "The devil’s best trick is to persuade you that he doesn’t exist!".

A) The devil exists and indeed all atheists are his intruments. And there is Good and Evil, while health and madness are just consequences of the actions of these forces. Human society needs to be saved from Evil, protected from the devil's hidden influence. Fighting him in one's individual life - one of the believer's duty - will prove difficult however, because if the poet is right, we might not see him coming.

B) The devil does not exist, all moral issues rest on the shoulder of the beholder, human society adheres to the principles of individual responsibility, and it is mental health that is the real issue behind criminal behavior. Maintaining and enforcing sanity are matters of scientific research and poetry remains in the realm of imagination.

The blame for our collective soggy condition is not to be wasted on imaginary foes but should be focused on our own misundertsanding of the real situation.

As Woody Allen once wrote:

"We stand today at a crossroads:

One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness.

The other leads to total extinction.

Let us hope we have the wisdom to make the right choice."

Undirected

2008-10-27T12:36:00.011-04:00

In an attempt to reconcile Darwin and faith , a christian theologist presents a god that is continuously engaged in the creative process through undirected natural selection (Scientific American, Nov 2008).

Why do we absolutely require an intent behind everything? Does something like a universe necessarily abslolutely require an intent to be and become?

I think it comes from our survival instincts (the animal again) when we need to predict what our predator will do next. For this we have learned to imagine intent, and now there's even a part of our brain that's been identified, closely related to the empathy centers, as active when we try to find a meaning to something, and I'm pretty sure this brain area lights up when religious people think of and/or relate to god, and the creation of the universe.

In Other News

There is apparently an increase in the numbers of biology teachers that promote creationism as a valid hypothesis... I'd love to hear their own personal compromise between this idea of intent and what the whole of science seems to be revealing, that the universe just grew.

As I said in the first post of this blog, " I have now come to the conclusion that pretending, teaching or preaching anything else (than up-to-date scientific knowledge) is dangerous." and I might add, should be fought.

Disintegrating Moon

2008-10-20T13:39:00.005-04:00

It must have been quite an impact! It happened during the new moon so it was not seen by anyone. But now the moon is disintegrating. Fragments should begin to fall on us in a day or two. Impact on the tides will be catastrophic. Earth's orbit will change. Nowhere to flee.

Ignorance Is Fear

2008-10-16T18:38:00.005-04:00

"When disease in a small village on the edge of the rain forest can travel to an international travel hub within the incubation period of virtually any known disease of concern, this kind of policy endangers everyone, including all US citizens."

From Effects Measure, the science blog.

The kind of policy mentionned in the above quote is the ban on U.S.-made vaccine exports towards certain "threatening" countries for fear that the vaccines be turned into chemical weapons. A spectacularly innate bureaucratic decision basted in ignorance; scientific ignorance, lack of or wrong knowledge, and ignorance of potential consequences.

Just one example that shows how ignorance can hurt. How ignorance allows fear to foster pure danger, danger for all.

Death: Loosing The Self

2008-10-11T22:33:00.017-04:00

We are going to die, one day.

Hard fact to accept, ingest and digest. First because we never like to think about our own termination, the consequences appear too unpleasant. And it is something we cannot really conceive of. Those who have been through the experience do not talk about it, in fact we can never tell what happens when we die. The living understand the death of someone else, their grief, loss, the sudden absence of personality and the decaying of the body, the biology of death we can map and understand.

But the subjective experience of the loss of self, is most probably impossible to grasp, not enough time to build an idea. And no means of communicating it to someone else, after the fact.

There's also the difficulty of giving meaning to the apparent futility of death when considered coldly, outside the reassuring fantasies of cults and religions. I think it is the hardest path to thread. From the angle of our genes however, it's another matter. Death becomes actually the price we pay for having sex, we must die but our genes will survive.

Death is necessary for the continuation of other lives, of Life itself. Small consolation, but the only one available right now from observation.

I strongly recommend viewing the five parts of this documentary : not always easy to watch as someone has accepted that his own death be filmed and some cold hard facts about physical and mental death are difficult to integrate. But I think we should get to know as much as possible about the only absolute certainty we can entertain: we will die, one day, and our self will dissolve into nothing.

There are no proofs of an afterlife.

Is ignorance really bliss?

Sense of Humor

2008-10-10T22:15:00.004-04:00

No sense of humor.

Because of the sacred nature of religious beliefs (mild or accute) the
beholders will rarely allow any kind of jokes about faith. About their own faith. Some of the more sincere won't even laugh at jokes about other faiths. Some seriously addicted people are sometimes able to see their own condition in a humorous way, they can laugh at their sorry selves. Not those addicted to religious faith.

So, even if I enjoy it immensely myself, I don't think faith-humor is a successful strategy to convince the religious of the folly of their fantasies. Those who believe will still think it is "sacrilegeous". And they will refuse to see the funny side revealed in the joke.

Catholics are against abortions.
Catholics are against homosexuals.
But, I can't think of anyone who has less abortions than homosexuals! --
- George Carlin

Most passionately religious people would benefit from seeing their own system of beliefs as they see the other ones around them in the world. How are Allah, Yahveh, Thor and Jupiter erroneous and God rigtheous?

And for those who forgot, let's remember that atheism is a non-prophet organization.

Evolution

2008-10-05T08:47:00.007-04:00

Studying real evolution through artificial means.

Darwin-at-Home, a project harnessing individual computers has been used to study how artificial (virtual/digital) creatures can evolve. Evolution: that's how the actual living things have become more complex, sophisticated, adapted - through minute changes from generation to generation, over time.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7989532956224708331&hl=en

In this video, we see artificial creatures who have evolved (from various initial object shapes) the ability to walk. In this case of course, there were gods involved: the researchers who initiated the project. As some mildly religious persons will say, God laid out the rules and told us to procreate and populate this universe under our our free will and our own responsibility.

My own opinion is that the evolution process is an entirely probabilistic affair, with the help of the brute force of an extremely high number of random interactions between components.

Mathematics, Truth and Doubt

2008-10-01T02:42:00.007-04:00

Mathematics is the only religion that can prove it's a religion.

Barrow

Truth: If you get it wrong you'll get crunched, in an evolutionary world. Truth is important in a sort of deeply ingrained way. This plant is toxic, fire is dangerous but it keeps you safe, Earth rotates around a star, there are truths all over that we need to hold for true if we want to live. Most life is not advanced enough not to abide by nothing but seeking the truth about the world they are seing.

But we are sophisticated primates, humans, and in the worldviews we've been having for a while now there are these surrogate peceptual objects that we hold in our minds to study later, and we do have imagination, memories and imagination. That's how we needed to invent doubt. The most efficient tool to gather truth.

We should spread doubt.

God's doing?

2008-09-25T13:54:00.002-04:00

Beautiful little clip showing undoubtebly God's doing.

There is this invisible magical being, all-powerful, handling every little detail of existence, from the molecular reactions to the grand scale of biomass, in a personal concerned manner.

Of course...

Michel is 100

2008-09-25T01:21:00.012-04:00

That would be me.

I worked for many years in the graphics arts business in TV and cinema as a designer and then as a digital effects coordinator and specialist. I directed more than a few shots. I was fun because I liked arts, artists, the many creative processes, the fantasy and anarchy that still peeks around in these circles.

Then the local production industry collapsed, and a well paid experienced specialist like me was out of a job.

I recycled in high-end call centers, and more recently, found a much more interesting job, doing deep medical interviews with all sorts of people. An enlightening anthropological experience if there was one. Not to mention the immense compassion arising in me for some of my fellow human primates.

I have had a priviledged middle-class childhood, raised by considerate and liberal light catholic parents - my other mostly, with all my primary schooling and half my high-school occuring in religious-controlled institutions. Again I've been lucky enough to have implanted in me, very early, the impulse to think for myself and not believe everything I hear, thanks Dad. I've also enjoyed good health all my life, and had lots of fun abusing some of it.

But I recently was struck with a serious illness: Myelo Displastic Syndrome, a precursor to Leukemia, Carl Sagan died of this a while back.

It was pure luck that it was discovered, but I spent a year thinking life was going to end in eighteen months - an interesting shift in perspective. Then I was lucky enough to stumble upon an hemato-oncologist who cared, and managed to have access to a compatible - and very anonymously generous - bone marrrow stem cell donor. Receiving that gift was pure hell. It involved two months of isolation, two bouts of chemotherapy, the knowledge that it could collapse anytime, annoying side effects and much much more. Pure hell.

But I think I will survive, and I can now, after one hundred days, statistically hope that there won't be too many acute or chronic GVH effects - Graft Versus Host problems. You see, in the case of ordinary organ grafts, it is your immune system that will not recognize as "you" and fight the strange organ, it must be restrained if you want to keep your precious addition.

In my case, it is the immune system that has been replaced, (bone marrow stem cells produce white blood cells and neutrophils that fight external invaders) and it is my whole being which is to be rejected, or hopefully eventually adopted. Restraining my brand new immune system becomes of paramount importance, and I'll be busy at it for quite a while.

But so far so good.

And I don't think any god or other imaginaring beings or magic coincidences or non-natural circumstances had a play in any of this. Lots of luck and the practical knowledge and compassion of some of my fellow primates are what helped me stay alive on this planet for a little while more.

Jacques

2008-09-20T23:02:00.007-04:00

Jacques passed away on Wednesday September 17 2008 at ten in the evening. He was 76.

He was a witty man, a philosopher, an artist, an interested listener and a good teller of tales. A man of charm and culture who genuinely liked people.

He was my wife's father and was dearly loved by all his family.

I've known Jacques longer than I have known my own Dad, and I know he loved me like a son. Jacques will be missed.

Solar Art

2008-09-18T00:34:00.000-04:00

via videosift.com

Made from scientific recordings of the sun's activity.

Atheiphobia

2008-09-15T23:49:00.004-04:00

Harboring a fear of atheists.

As a friend said about a fierce catholic opponent of atheism: "He is one of those people who will not listen to corrections either, but keeps flogging away at the same prejudicial notions -- that atheism promotes immorality, that all atheists are radical reductionists, that only a God could explain the universe, that atheism is obviously intellectually bankrupt and so on."

A barrage of justifications to keep his fear from overwhelming him. Fear of emptyness.

These poor people don't seem to notice that atheists love their kids dearly, are generally good citizens, contribute some of the brightest minds on Earth, and are totally capable of empathy and compassion. Even with scared idiots.

We Are Animals

2008-09-14T23:44:00.003-04:00

Primates to be more precise.

Being probably the smartest of animals has allowed us to take over the world. We are so successful we could indeed be lead to believe that the world was made for us, and that we would therefore have a purpose higher than our animal condition.

But we are still nothing but animals, and we don't even have the exclusivity of self-awareness and communication anymore. Sometimes the human polish is rather thin, showing through with all sort of very instinctual behavior, that won't sustain scrutiny for reason. In many ways we are not different from our dogs: we live, we love, we feed, we die. And we depend upon our fellow human animals for sustenance. Most of us would perish in isolation, as a pack, we rule the planet. We are that kind of animal.

This top-of-the-food-chain position will not always be all that comfortable as, collectively, we're bound to find out pretty soon when - not because of evil but because of carelessness - the system collapses.

The End Of The World?

2008-09-12T11:24:00.006-04:00

The End of the World

Well not quite, as events like these may have happened repeatedly in our past. A god's way of regulating us?

More probably a random cataclysm that doesn't quite eradicate possibilities of organic evolution, showing to me at least, the resilience of the laws that govern matter. Do these laws require a maintainer, some sort of life force to withold them, to keep them operational? If God pulls its attention back, will gravity cease to function?

Or did life only appeared after the last such planet-conditionning? And could thereford be completely wiped by the next event? But, like the inevitable individual death, the actual end of the planetary world is something to consider.

But is it a useful perspective to contemplate? Isn't the thought that God has something better in mind for us much more reassuring? Does thinking about meaningless death help living a better life, than submitting to the will of a god?

Creator

2008-09-12T02:41:00.005-04:00

Some use the same data on the scale of reality to prove the existence of a creator.

I don't feel the need to introduce anything supernatural in this equation. I just think things are, manipulated dynamically by all the forces acting together, towards greater entropy. There doesn't seem to be the necessity for intent, to explain our fancy primate presence, but I suspect conscious lifeforms are bound to happen, once in a while, anywhere else in this vast pool of galaxies . I'm convinced that awareness is commonly raised in exceptionnally proper craddles, most probably all over the universe.

The bad news is that there's not much of all this that'll give a shit about my personal life, the good news is that I can do what I want as nothing will come for me if I don't do good. Nothing other than my fellow people.

Scale

2008-09-11T14:27:00.008-04:00

Huge. If you trust the measurers, that is.

The scale of the universe alone should inspire humility in any observant primate. Even though we're giants relative to our constituent particles, we, the whole biosphere in fact, are nothing but thin growth on the surface of a small ball in this spectacular universe of gas clouds and stars.

For some reason, that perspective might be difficult to hold. Again, maybe a question of not enough meaning for our subjective existence, a difficulty in finding significance with life in this worldview.

New paradigm - that awareness, the appearance of organic beings seemingly doted with consciousness, is an emergeance, a refinement a flowering in the life cycle of certain planets. Subject to weathering and expected decay, of course.

The universe hasn't been put out there for us, and we should'nt worry about any kind of retribution or justice from what is basically an indifferent reality.

The Better Worldview

2008-09-08T10:40:00.003-04:00

What is the better worldview?

The one that brings all the answers and the fatherly presence of a personal god? Or the one more unsettling view where significance and meaning must be constructed, and where death is terminal?

I guess its a matter that's only resolved towards the end of one's existence.

Stardust

2008-09-07T10:13:00.007-04:00

We are stardust, that's all the religion I need. And it's not an issue of faith, it is poetry, the thoughts and concepts that describe my own tiny bioslot in the megascale of entire reality.

This knowledge on our local star was acquired, measured and re-measured by sophisticated observations, the assumptions based on these facts are most probably accurate, and the emotions it procures are authentic and moving. That's why I chose that worldview, because I trusted what I learnt from it: that we are stardust.

For some however, this is not even an issue. This is all the fabrication of an atheist conspiracy, and as their book says, the universe has been created, is six thousand years old, and the sun has been placed where it is for our convenience.

The problem is that many of these people did not choose to hold this fantasy worldview, it was drilled in their imagination and awareness by relentless rituals readings and preachings, as well as negative and positive reinforcements by other victims of the same delusions.

But which is the better worldview?

Miscelanea

2008-09-04T21:23:00.010-04:00

Pat Condell
Is a funny, courageous man, I wouldn't want to receive his hate mail, but he's worth listening to.

Magic
Here's an interesting page at PsyBlog on how magic techniques can help psychologists and other researchers in the field of consciousness science.

Faith
A Pat Condell monologue asking the question Why does faith require respect , really just a little bit of schock therapy.

Neurologica
A very interesting blog on neurological sciences, with a staunch scientific approach, and a wide field of interests. Published by Steven Novella.

Proper Use Of Fantasy

2008-09-02T12:38:00.007-04:00

Tales of fiction and fantasy are very useful, of course, as they probably have been throughtout the history of human awareness. Perhaps as social simulators, to help grasp complex social situations or as a fuel to curiosity, stories have always been the mainstay of cultural transmission between generations. No problem with fiction.

Strong beliefs in legends is another matter.

And, when fantasy provides its answers to the most fundamental questions, twists the perceptions into delusions, or makes an enemy of every non-believer, there's something very wrong. Misuse. Storytelling should be used for inspiration, practice grounds, acquiring patterns and models, behavioral simulator, whatever, anything but for faith.

I don't think there's any one book that should be taken at face value. There is no tale that can encapsulate all the answers to the big philosophical and scientific questions, they are not known yet. And in some ways they might never be. So we're going to have to wing it, as we go along, and for this I suggest reading a lot of science, fiction and fantasy.

And as Scrubious Pip would say, "Think for yourselves!"

Danger

2008-08-31T20:44:00.003-04:00

I say that beliefs in magic and the supernatural are dangerous, because they keep verifyable knowledge from taking hold; religions and fables were meant to be placeholders until the time came when our intuition and dilligence would replace them with more detailed observations and finer facts. Not to promote ignorance.

These beliefs are also dangerous because they cast their holders against one another. Every other, different belief is a menace to theirs. Some believers will not hesitate to go the extra legnth to ensure integrity, stability and perennity for their precious worldview. Segregation, war, jihad, genocide, or just plain hatred.

It goes to show how flimsy these edifices are!

Stiff

2008-08-30T17:18:00.006-04:00

Living without hope? And it gets better as I don't think human life has any specific meaning in the grand and even in the small scheme of things. My own personal life has the meaning of what I have done so far and what I will do in the future, if any. I'm an ordinary guy though, with not much influence.

Come to think of it, all I am internally is memories and imagination - which, on close scrutiny, do not harbor any significance other than for my friends and my close ones, those who know me. And I expect that when I pass away, all that will remain of me is the memories I have left with others.

Here's reason enough to be fair and kind to people.

Dry

2008-08-29T23:17:00.007-04:00

Atheism is dry?

Not so much if you consider that I believe in Science, in the ways it acquires knowledge and in all the marvels it constantly reveals. I gape at the universe and at the fancy apes that call themselves humans, at the quasi-unfathomable scale of everything, and at the existence of organic awareness.

So many more mysteries to unravel, observations to engage in, knowledge to refine and adjust, that I would never consider my predicament as dry.

My only complaint will be: not enough time.

Straight

2008-08-29T22:01:00.008-04:00

The reader should know that I don't believe in reincarnation or life after death, in fact I don't believe in magic of any kind, in imaginary invisible beings, in cosmic consciousness, worse, I don't even believe I have a soul.

Rather dry? You can say that again. That's probably why I enjoy so much SciFi and Fantasy fiction litterature.

I think I am the expression of particular genes through the process of evolution. I don't think there is any predestination other than my given qualities at birth, which in the probabilistic chaos that is modern living, doesn't amount to much.

I believe I emerged in an indifferent universe, and that the only compassion I'll ever find will come from the heart of my fellow humans and a few other higher animals. I count on no omnipotent personal invisible god to witness or evaluate my actions. I'm on my own.

When my time is up I'll simply stop being in all my dimensions, under the all-prevailing influence of entropy, having contributed to the the courageous process of the complexification of organic life.

Stiff but alas true, methinks.

And I have now come to the conclusion that pretending, teaching or preaching anything else is dangerous.