Friday, September 29, 2006
Oh...
Just thought I'd clarify that last post:
I've no problem with faith itself. Faith, belief in a higher power whatever it may be...I've no problem with that at all. Whatever makes you happy and all that....it's just the insidious nonsense that the men (and it's always men) who wrote various prejudiced shit for purposes of power and control, and stuff that made sense 4000 years back but doesn't now...all the stuff that comprises organised religion: that's where the problem lies.
Believe what you want, follow whatever your heart tells you to do, but don't live your life in fear and guilt just because some guy in the 4th C had a fear of women or 7th C thought he heard voices in his head...
I've no problem with faith itself. Faith, belief in a higher power whatever it may be...I've no problem with that at all. Whatever makes you happy and all that....it's just the insidious nonsense that the men (and it's always men) who wrote various prejudiced shit for purposes of power and control, and stuff that made sense 4000 years back but doesn't now...all the stuff that comprises organised religion: that's where the problem lies.
Believe what you want, follow whatever your heart tells you to do, but don't live your life in fear and guilt just because some guy in the 4th C had a fear of women or 7th C thought he heard voices in his head...
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
God. A concept.
So, I don't believe in God, in fact in any Gods.
Am I an atheist? Sort of. I say that logically we can't rule out all Gods, and certainly not that 'God' (used in a loose sense of merely being something beyond our comprehension, and perhaps beyond nature) created everything. I would say I veer between atheism and agnosticism for that reason.
It is funny that all these thousands of years of history have passed and we don't seem to have shaken off the need for a personal God that we can relate to, though. People don't just want to say that as we don't know how we got here God may be an answer; instead, they posit all the rules he gave us and lessons left behind by his spokesmen. That's crazy stuff, without any foundation in reality. And that's where the trouble begins. Because inevitably one man's crazy stuff is held to be absolute, and so is another's - as they can't agree without losing face, or admitting they don't have cast iron certainty, anger and hostility ensue.
But we know all this. Where is this heading?
My take is that, a slow process though it may appear to be, that we are leaving God behind. Within the last 250 years or so, more or less since the Enlightenment took shape, we are shedding faith like a snake and its skin. Atheism was entirely anti-social by the early 19th C when Shelley got expelled for his 'Necessity of Atheism', but now is more or less acceptable in most of the world. There are millions and millions of self-professed agnostics, atheists and non believers, and for every one of them there are several other non-religious types who still keep the framework of faith they inherited but jettison almost every aspect of it. Though the UK is still nominally a Christian country it is truly speaking a secular one, with only about 2% attending church regularly. Fishing is more widespread, or playing the lottery. (And more likely to pay off than Pascal's famous Wager!)
Sure, there are pockets of ardent faith still - the US bible belt, Islamic states, the occasional Catholic nation - but the general trend is easily towards ditching religion and living life here and now instead of waiting for our friend in the sky to lift us up to salvation.
I may not get there with you, but I believe that we as a people have seen the promised land...
Am I an atheist? Sort of. I say that logically we can't rule out all Gods, and certainly not that 'God' (used in a loose sense of merely being something beyond our comprehension, and perhaps beyond nature) created everything. I would say I veer between atheism and agnosticism for that reason.
It is funny that all these thousands of years of history have passed and we don't seem to have shaken off the need for a personal God that we can relate to, though. People don't just want to say that as we don't know how we got here God may be an answer; instead, they posit all the rules he gave us and lessons left behind by his spokesmen. That's crazy stuff, without any foundation in reality. And that's where the trouble begins. Because inevitably one man's crazy stuff is held to be absolute, and so is another's - as they can't agree without losing face, or admitting they don't have cast iron certainty, anger and hostility ensue.
But we know all this. Where is this heading?
My take is that, a slow process though it may appear to be, that we are leaving God behind. Within the last 250 years or so, more or less since the Enlightenment took shape, we are shedding faith like a snake and its skin. Atheism was entirely anti-social by the early 19th C when Shelley got expelled for his 'Necessity of Atheism', but now is more or less acceptable in most of the world. There are millions and millions of self-professed agnostics, atheists and non believers, and for every one of them there are several other non-religious types who still keep the framework of faith they inherited but jettison almost every aspect of it. Though the UK is still nominally a Christian country it is truly speaking a secular one, with only about 2% attending church regularly. Fishing is more widespread, or playing the lottery. (And more likely to pay off than Pascal's famous Wager!)
Sure, there are pockets of ardent faith still - the US bible belt, Islamic states, the occasional Catholic nation - but the general trend is easily towards ditching religion and living life here and now instead of waiting for our friend in the sky to lift us up to salvation.
I may not get there with you, but I believe that we as a people have seen the promised land...
Monday, September 25, 2006
Internet Myths
WHY is it that when people read stuff on the net they immediately suspend disbelief etirely and assume something is true? Obviously here I'm generalising, but the amount of those shitty lists like '20 obscure word origins' (nearly always 90% of which are entirely fabled) or '100 things to amaze you' and all that would indicate that people really buy the stuff written therein.
I guess I've been guilty of falling for some of them myself in the past. Don't believe everything you read: and extend that to be even more vigilant on the net - any old tosser can write things.
I mean, some people even go as to far as to write blogs and fill them with fatuous nonsense.
The cheek of it.
I guess I've been guilty of falling for some of them myself in the past. Don't believe everything you read: and extend that to be even more vigilant on the net - any old tosser can write things.
I mean, some people even go as to far as to write blogs and fill them with fatuous nonsense.
The cheek of it.
Thursday, September 21, 2006
September
September, eh? Almost over already.
Where does it all go I ask you?
Seems like another life when I was at school, or even college, or even University. Am I even the same person I was then? I'm not sure you could say I was, with all the new ideas and things in my head, and my new cells almost entirely. It's just memory that holds it together. And what if memory fails? Are we then someone else? Obviously not. In 20 years time, I'll be someone else again, but my passport will still have the same name on it, others will still know it's me. Tricky thing, identity.
Should I keep this thing going?
I'll come back to it some time. If it's still me by then. If not, someone who looks like an older version of me will. Perhaps.
Where does it all go I ask you?
Seems like another life when I was at school, or even college, or even University. Am I even the same person I was then? I'm not sure you could say I was, with all the new ideas and things in my head, and my new cells almost entirely. It's just memory that holds it together. And what if memory fails? Are we then someone else? Obviously not. In 20 years time, I'll be someone else again, but my passport will still have the same name on it, others will still know it's me. Tricky thing, identity.
Should I keep this thing going?
I'll come back to it some time. If it's still me by then. If not, someone who looks like an older version of me will. Perhaps.
