While obviously there is a fundamental between Abrahamic monotheists and atheists (one believes in a deity, the other doesn't), I have begun to wonder whether there is a much more fundamental situation. Modern day atheists (excluding nasty bastards like Stalin) seem overwhelmingly in favour of civil liberties, individual freedoms, etc. They're not necessarily left or right wing, but they do believe in personal freedom. Overwhelmingly, honest believers (not those who aren't familiar with their texts OR lie about them) admit that god offers a tyranny. They might believe it's a beneficient tyranny, but it's a dictatorship nevertheless.
I've also met a lot of atheists who say, even if god existed, they would be of Satan's party - taking a stand against god. As I don't believe there is ANY convincing evidence that god exists, and a BUCKET load that there isn't a god, I have a sneaking suspicion that believers actually know this to be true as well. Nevertheless, they maintain faith. So, is the only REAL difference between believers and non-believers that non-believers aren't willing to bow and scrape the knee? Do believers get satisfaction from being told what to do by some incredibly powerful jerk? Is it sadomasochism? Probably. C.S Lewis seems to be a prime example of this - God is SOOO good he needs to hurt us so that we know right from wrong. Not suprising from a man who signed letters "Whip-lover".
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
A jihad!
By the beard of the Prophet, the time for war has come! The followers of Mani will no longer put up with the great whore of Babylon being present in our sacred land! Our own government has turned against us, refusing the right to protest! So, the worshippers of light must rise up, and attack!
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/thou-shalt-not-annoy-or-trespass--a-hrefhttpwwwsmhcomaupollsnationalformhtmlbpollba/2008/06/30/1214677946009.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/thou-shalt-not-annoy-or-trespass--a-hrefhttpwwwsmhcomaupollsnationalformhtmlbpollba/2008/06/30/1214677946009.html
Friday, June 20, 2008
Out but not proud?
I know this blog is primarily about religion, and why I loath it so, but it is also meant to reflect me. I also don't think you could understand my relationship with religion unless you understood more about my relationship with my own brain. I'm sure most of you know to some degree, but, I have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. As far as I can work out, most people think this illness is kind of hilarious, because it seems to manifest in such unusual ways. Numerous movies have made it out to be an ammusing thing that eccentric people have. However, it's not really like that. It can actually be extremely debilitating. OCD is essentially a disease of doubt. Once you get an idea in your head, no matter how hard you try to get rid of it, you can't, and you perform actions in order to try and releave the anxiety it causes. However, it doesn't work for very long, and they usually return quite quickly. The best analogy I can think of for those who don't have it is imaging a computer with a virus. The scan detects it, and then proceeds to delete it. However, the scan is faulty, and it keeps reading the viruses as being there, even when it isn't, and tries to delete it again and again and again, continually sending error messages. That's what OCD is like.
People get stuck on all sorts of things, from the mundane to the down right weird. I've read about people obsessed with the likelyhood of dying in earthquakes, or tornados. In my case, my OCD has focused on particularly, cleanliness, religion, sex, habits, and my health. As bizzarre as it sounds, my mind tells me that I'm going to become a terrorist (or even worse, a self-righteous "ex-Atheist" like C.S Lewis), that other people can't touch my stuff (they'll make it dirty - I used to wash my books as a kid), that I'm going to have to sleep with my family members or co-workers (that's a particularly pleasant one), or that I have a host of diseases (my favourite was motor neurone disease - I perfected the art of tickling my own feet in order to test for the correct response that would prove I wasn't going to go the way of Lou Gehrig). What is most annoying however, is, I know all these thoughts are insane. I know none of them are ever going to happen (except the dying one, that WILL happen one day).
Needless to say, I'm not asking for sympathy or anything. I just think that people with OCD tend to stay in the closet as it were, because they're afraid that others will judge them, think they're insane, etc. Well, we're not. We just have bad thoughts. And if the shame goes away, then people will seek treatment, and the estimated 2.5% of the population who have it won't suffer in silence and can get some real help. So much research is being done and has been done in the last couple of years, that the treatment options are really much better today. Who knows, a cure could be round the corner. But, regardless, the more we talk about mental health as an illness just like we do other diseases, the healthier the world will be.
People get stuck on all sorts of things, from the mundane to the down right weird. I've read about people obsessed with the likelyhood of dying in earthquakes, or tornados. In my case, my OCD has focused on particularly, cleanliness, religion, sex, habits, and my health. As bizzarre as it sounds, my mind tells me that I'm going to become a terrorist (or even worse, a self-righteous "ex-Atheist" like C.S Lewis), that other people can't touch my stuff (they'll make it dirty - I used to wash my books as a kid), that I'm going to have to sleep with my family members or co-workers (that's a particularly pleasant one), or that I have a host of diseases (my favourite was motor neurone disease - I perfected the art of tickling my own feet in order to test for the correct response that would prove I wasn't going to go the way of Lou Gehrig). What is most annoying however, is, I know all these thoughts are insane. I know none of them are ever going to happen (except the dying one, that WILL happen one day).
Needless to say, I'm not asking for sympathy or anything. I just think that people with OCD tend to stay in the closet as it were, because they're afraid that others will judge them, think they're insane, etc. Well, we're not. We just have bad thoughts. And if the shame goes away, then people will seek treatment, and the estimated 2.5% of the population who have it won't suffer in silence and can get some real help. So much research is being done and has been done in the last couple of years, that the treatment options are really much better today. Who knows, a cure could be round the corner. But, regardless, the more we talk about mental health as an illness just like we do other diseases, the healthier the world will be.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
A faith revived (or, alternatively, what I plan to do in my holidays)
Too many times I have walked past town hall and been berated by crazy Christians, Scientologists, or Hare Krishnas. Often, I have an argument with them myself, but I'm just getting tired of doing this. I really feel like I ought to hand them back a pamphlet outlining my beliefs, and why I don't agree with them. But that would be pretty stupid, seeing I don't have any (except, you know, secular humanism). BUT, I have often thought that I would like to hand out my own religious pamphlets. Not for any mainstream religion, but something totally different. So, I've decided to re-launch the Manichaean faith in Australia. This won't be like those Neo-Manichaeans in Oregon, who pick and choose what they like. No, I'm gonna go with the whole demons ejaculating/aborting fetuses (fetii?) to make humans, Jesus splendour, Zurvan, moon boat cosmology thing. And I'm gonna put it all (concisely) in a leaftlet. Anyone interested in helping out (and please please do so, because I have a very boring life and religion is one of the few things that really motivates me), let me know, and we'll start drawing things up, printing etc. Straight after exams.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Faith and the mind...
The more I study about Judaism (and to a lesser degree, Islam), the more I realise at the heart of the faith is ritual. It's not really about belief, it's about doing things that will make god happy. Why? Who knows. You just do it because of tradition. I think this is probably true of Confucianism (sans the deity and add some learning), and a lot of the Dharmic/Iranian religions. But, that said, there is ritual in every faith. And it's not just ritual once a year, or twice, alot of it's daily ritual. Now, as a person with obessive compulsive disorder, I really have to wonder, were all these great religious founders simply OCD sufferers?
It would certainly make sense. In Islam, the ritual washing and purification before entering the mosque, five times a day, right down to obsessive details like washing in between the toes, really strikes me as something that only a person with a problem with germs and contamination would think up. Similarly, kosher food in Judaism, the milk and the meat, the huge amounts of laws that Confucian ministers had to learn for their exams. All of them - OCD.
But you know what? Obessession isn't a healthy state of mind. So is religion. Both of them should go. Let's all stop pretending and go on zoloft or some such, and just chuck faith out the door. And then at last, all those OCD people with scrupulosity (i.e. me) can finally get a rest and stop worrying about the whole damn thing.
It would certainly make sense. In Islam, the ritual washing and purification before entering the mosque, five times a day, right down to obsessive details like washing in between the toes, really strikes me as something that only a person with a problem with germs and contamination would think up. Similarly, kosher food in Judaism, the milk and the meat, the huge amounts of laws that Confucian ministers had to learn for their exams. All of them - OCD.
But you know what? Obessession isn't a healthy state of mind. So is religion. Both of them should go. Let's all stop pretending and go on zoloft or some such, and just chuck faith out the door. And then at last, all those OCD people with scrupulosity (i.e. me) can finally get a rest and stop worrying about the whole damn thing.
Monday, April 21, 2008
My beliefnet results...
According to beliefnet.com I am:
Good to know.
| 1. | Secular Humanism (100%) |
| 2. | Unitarian Universalism (90%) |
| 3. | Liberal Quakers (78%) |
| 4. | Neo-Pagan (76%) |
| 5. | Nontheist (70%) |
| 6. | Theravada Buddhism (66%) |
| 7. | Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (61%) |
| 8. | New Age (56%) |
| 9. | Taoism (50%) |
| 10. | Orthodox Quaker (46%) |
| 11. | Reform Judaism (46%) |
| 12. | Mahayana Buddhism (45%) |
| 13. | Bahá'í Faith (33%) |
| 14. | Sikhism (33%) |
| 15. | Scientology (32%) |
| 16. | Jainism (31%) |
| 17. | New Thought (29%) |
| 18. | Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (26%) |
| 19. | Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (23%) |
| 20. | Seventh Day Adventist (21%) |
| 21. | Hinduism (19%) |
| 22. | Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (19%) |
| 23. | Eastern Orthodox (17%) |
| 24. | Islam (17%) |
| 25. | Orthodox Judaism (17%) |
| 26. | Roman Catholic (17%) |
| 27. | Jehovah's Witness (13%) |
Good to know.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
A wager...
Hmmm, a thought occurs. If I'm going to be an atheist, I really better put my beliefs on the line. So, I'm organising a count down. From this moment, I deny God, Jesus, Muhammad, Allah, Yahweh, Zoroastor, Ahura Mazda, all of them. None of them exist. If they do exist, may they strike me down at this VERY moment. Well, there you go. I'm still here. Let's just keep the count going.
And just for good measure - I deny the holy spirit. Muhammad made up Allah, and worshipped idols, just as I do. I don't follow the Noahide laws.
And just for good measure - I deny the holy spirit. Muhammad made up Allah, and worshipped idols, just as I do. I don't follow the Noahide laws.
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