My Zen Arcade

Basically, Dawkins says he believes in determinism from an intellectual perspective, but from a personal one, can’t act upon it.
This does seem inconsistent, but Dawkins makes a point of saying:

What I do know is that what it feels like to me, and I think to all of us, we don’t feel determined.

We don’t FEEL determined and so we don’t act that way. This is pretty common, really. We are spinning on a big chunk of rock in space. We don’t act like we are. If we did, we’d be running around terrified. Time is flexible, and not a constant. We don’t feel like it changes based on frame of reference, and so we don’t behave as if it does. We all will die. We know this intellectually, but we don’t feel like we will (most of the time), so we don’t do many things because we think we have all the time in the world.
How we KNOW things are and how we FEEL things are don’t necessarily match.

Theism has to answer every question with ‘because’. That’s a bit of a clue to whether or not it’s true.

More Than Words: Atheism doesn’t work

There we have Professor Dawkins’ candid admission that whilst atheistic determinism is a nice idea which in his own head he believes to be true as the explanation for reality …

… on the other hand, it’s impossible to put into practice in the real world. It’s an idea, and he believes it and writes and speaks plenty in its favour, but by his own confession it’s not an idea that works once you leave your typewriter and actually try to do something.

Consistent atheism doesn’t work. That’s a bit of a clue to whether or not it’s true.

From StreetProphets

I don’t know what I find the most tragic aspect of this case to be.  That a child suffered and died a needless death.  That the parents of the child had such a narrow and distorted faith that their actions led to that death.  That those same parents now face charges and jail time on top of the anguish they must be feeling.  That there are three children without a sister and possibly without their parents.

This is what I was talking about.  Because these people did it in the name of faith, somehow it is tragic that they may be sent to jail for bringing about the death of their daughter.  If the parents had said, instead, that fighting off the condition on her own would make her stronger (an equally crazy viewpoint), there wouldn’t be one drop of sympathy.  Or if they’d done it because they just hate doctors, or distrust medicine for some other reason. 

I do feel bad that the other children are going to be seperated from their parents, however that increases their chances of survival markedly.

Religion should not be an excuse, should not be a ‘get out of jail free’ card.

They’ll almost certainly get away with it too.  All the defense has to do is convince one person on the jury that if we require people to be responsible for their actions taken in the name of religion then religious freedom will vanish.

All that has to happen is for one person to realize that they too might be held accountable.

All that has to happen is for one person to understand that they will no longer have a free pass because of ‘faith’. 

Thats all.

How hard could that be?

Deep down inside, I know that Madeline’s death is our fault as a nation.  We let them get away with it.  We refuse to ever question anything about religious beliefs (unless you are a scientologist…).

And, because of that, people continue to act without rational justification and we continue to say its OK. 

We continue to act as if faith in magic is a good thing to be praised.  We continue to let people make policy based on this magic and never question them or force them to back up their beliefs.  Perhaps if we didn’t, then someone would have felt free to call an ambulance, or the police.  But they didn’t.  And it isn’t surprising.

We don’t just grant freedom of religion (which is a good thing) but we give it complete and utter immunity.  No other freedom comes close to this.  Not speach, not bearing arms, not press.

Only religion can’t be questioned.

We killed that little girl.

Its OK, we killed our daughter because of our religion.  Shouldn’t we get a free pass?

A day before Madeline died, according to the criminal complaint, the father wrote an e-mail with the headline, “Help our daughter needs emergency prayer!!!!.” It said his daughter was “very weak and pale at the moment with hardly any strength.”

Fuck you.

So Florida is considering a vanity plate with a christian message (’I believe’ and a cross).

Of course, many might not see this as crossing the church/state divide.  But those arguments collapse thanks to this telling line:

[Rep. Edward] Bullard, the plate’s sponsor, isn’t sure all groups should be able to express their preference. If atheists came up with an “I Don’t Believe” plate, for example, he would probably oppose it

Thank you, Case Wagenvoord

Living the Beatitudes is a pain in the ass, so it is easier for organized religion to get its knickers in a knot over evolution and same-sex marriage.

 

So we can pummel each other

So, yesterday’s post about Steyn got quite a response.  Some made decent points, some see the U.S. differently than I do, and some completely misunderstood what I was saying (or thought I was pro gun control, which I am not).  However, one was particularly dim:

Do you want to know what the U.S. would be like without guns? Take a look at Europe. They are a hodge podge of dieing nations. Declining birth rates, no one is allowed to own guns to even protect their homes and themselves. they do not even believe in God anymore. their governments control almost every aspect of their lives. If you remove guns from U.S. citizens it would be the first step to the situation they are facing in Europe. If you think that that is a good thing then you really are an idiot.”

The connection between guns, god, and the current conditions in Europe is, to say the least, spurious.  But what I find even more unfair is how people continue to compare Europe and the U.S. as if they were, somehow, equal in the first place.  Europe is not a single entity, even with the creation of the E.U., and, further, much (all?) of Europe is OLD!  Comparing the two is similar to comparing me to my father. 

I have no doubt that every empire, from the Romans, to the Brittish, to the U.S..  It does not seem in the nature of the world for empires to go on forever.  It seems that we live in a cycle, and we would do well to remember that.

(aside to Joe Libson: Yeah, unfortunately, when you work for DoD on an army post, they pretty much choose your browser for you…and, of course, they chose IE7, and send nasty emails when I install Firefox.  Also…McCain???  Thats the best you guys could do???)

please feel free to read his response…however, I think you’ll realize that it hangs by fingernails.

Again, he puts words in my mouth and ignores the context I put things into.

But, then again, while he’s right, no one has conclusively (his word, not mine) proven that religion is a mental illness, if you hear voices in your head, believe the world is run by powers unseen, and that we are all manipulated by an invisible man, then exactly whats the difference?

He’s right, in that context I don’t see a difference.

Were we having a theological debate, that would be relevant.

He’s mistake if he thinks we are.