Atheist implies that I have a
Belief System.
That's not the case.
Some folks might insist
that I could make a list
of what I feel is true,
and what I feel is false,
and they might then insist,
that,
looking at those lists,
I would see,
that I do indeed
have a system
of beliefs.
I would argue back
that I simply
understand
some correct information.
While they
believe
some ideas that I know
are not correct.
Even though my brain power
is limited,
and my time spent doing research
is limited,
so I don't know everything,
I think I know enough
to understand
the basic nature of all things.
And,
I know enough
to understand
that religions,
at least any religion I know anything about,
the major religions,
Christianity,
Judaism,
Islam,
I know that these three religions
tend to mislead folks
about the basic nature of things.
What is the basic nature of all things?
More below the
divider doodle.
I have mild autism,
sometimes called
Asperger's.
I analyze things well.
I've correctly analyzed
the basic nature of all things.
Here it is:
Every event is an accident,
caused by all the previous accidents.
Example:
Big bang.
Example:
Evolution.
Example:
All human behavior.
The major religions tell us
there is some kind of
Ghost in the Machine.
They say
The Ghost
started everything,
not the accident
we call the big bang.
They say
The Ghost
has guided,
and ordained as beautiful,
every feature
of every creature,
not the accident
we call evolution.
They say
The Ghost
inside humans
is responsible for all human behavior.
Interesting point:
most atheists
agree with the religionists
on that last point.
Most of you reading this
firmly believe
that the real you
is an inner
Ghost in the Machine.
You are wrong.
You are nothing more than your body,
and your brain
is just another internal organ.
When you say,
I'm hot,
I'm tired,
I'm angry,
I'm excited,
you are correct.
Your whole body
becomes those things,
and you are
your body,
nothing more.
You are an animal,
same as a
dog,
pig,
elephant,
bird,
spider,
or
ant.
All those listed
have very complex behavior.
For example,
the leaf cutter ants
of the Amazon
grow crops,
and apply pesticide
to their crops.
But they have no free will.
They apply the pesticide,
because they must,
so they can eat.
Just as you have no free will.
You go to work at your job,
so you can eat.
I'm writing this because
I feel frustrated
when atheists say they have an inner person,
and I feel the urge,
the same urge so many others feel,
the urge to set the record straight,
even though I know,
for most of you reading this,
I will not change your minds.
If you disagree before you read this,
you will disagree still,
after reading this.
Those who agree with me,
thought so before reading this.
There is very little chance
anyone will change a thought
from what I write here.
But the urge to write this is stronger
than my cynical feeling of,
"why bother?"
No free will,
just a moment when one urge
won out over the other.
So,
on all these points,
the religions are misleading,
and I'm simply correct.
However.
What keeps me humble,
is a little side note,
which is actually very important,
in my day-to-day living.
This side note:
When it comes to understanding
human nature,
as it plays out
in day-to-day living,
many religious believers
get it right.
That fact pisses me off no end,
but,
there it is.
Examples of challenges,
involving human interaction,
in which
religious believers,
(at least a few of them)
and myself,
truly agree:
Monogamy.
My first wife, Pam, died in 2008.
I had two girlfriends for three years.
Both were dead ends.
A woman who had known me for years,
Tonia,
became my new, better girlfriend.
She assured me,
"You can still fuck your other girlfriends."
"I don't mind."
For a very short time,
we did things that way.
However.
She didn't mean it.
Evolution,
and ancestral memory,
makes the human female
crave
all, all, all
of the attention and wealth and work
from one man.
Think of a human female,
in the wilderness,
100,000 years ago.
If human females
were not like that,
very greedy,
our species would be extinct.
Extinct.
And,
I have the nurturing instinct,
stronger in females,
but fairly strong in me.
Nurturing Tonia means
not hurting her
by fucking another woman.
So.
We got married,
and we are monogamous.
Most pastors and mature believers
of most major religions say:
Monogamy.
I say,
for reasons stated above:
Monogamy.
Second example:
There are many Bible verses
that speak of
separating the grain from the chaff,
to use one metaphor.
Many religious believers
feel that's all about
the afterlife,
the judgment day.
But some believers,
such as Tyler Perry,
as Madea,
speak of sorting out
people in your life.
My Tonia is a black American,
and watches a lot of Madea,
and other such things.
We live in a big house
with two of her brothers,
and her uncle,
and,
until recently,
a nephew,
Shaun.
For a while,
I would cook for him at times,
and he would help me,
help me take care of the dogs,
help me carry groceries in from the car.
As I mentioned in my other diary here,
Tonia talks a lot
about sorting and sifting
people,
separating the grain
from the chaff.
It's not about someday,
after we die;
it's about right now.
Example:
the nephew,
Shaun,
complained to someone
who sent the Kansas
Department of Children and Families
(social workers)
to our door,
with two police officers.
To see if we are providing
a good enough home for him.
We don't have hot water,
yet.
We don't have a working
kitchen sink.
We don't have a regular stove.
Shaun is not grain
for this house.
He is chaff.
He no longer lives
in our house.
(He may mature into a useful citizen.)
I keep predicting
a terrible famine,
a true apocalypse of our
opulent American way of life.
Those who survive
will need to work together,
in small family groups.
Those who work hard,
and maintain loyalty
to the group,
dedicated to making sure
everyone in the group
is well fed and warm and clothed,
those will stay in the group.
Others will be sent away.
This is a winnowing,
a sorting of souls,
as the religious believers might say.
So,
this is another point of agreement,
between myself and some religious believers;
we must sift and sort,
and choose our friends.
Post-apocalypse,
those choices might be
life and death choices.
Thanks for making me
a member of this group.
Thanks for reading.
Sat Mar 01, 2014 at 1:51 AM PT: I forgot to write, the term, Atheism, gives a label to a man or woman. A label that seems, on the surface, similar to any label of any religious believer. The term, non-believer, is an attempt to describe rather than label myself. I look for any little thing to make me seem as different from religious believers as I can. I once thought that atheists could start thousands of local chapters of American Atheists, taking over unused church buildings. But that would confuse folks who are on the fence, and they would be more likely to shrug and stay away from the truth, rather than question religion, and look at science. This is why I don't like Buddhism. It has a name that starts with a capital letter, it has a leader called, "his holiness," it has a place to make a pilgrimage to, it has incense, it has altars, it has monks who wear robes. Sounds like the Roman Catholic Church.