I found Lord driftwood in Jamaica

I believe that the driftwood pictured above (taken on a beach in Trelawny Parish, Jamaica on March 28, 2010) is the Lord of all Creation.

Did you notice how I prefaced this statment with the words "I believe"? As long as I use that proviso, I can say anything I want. Nobody really cares. I can believe anything I want to believe, no matter how silly the belief.

On the other hand, consider the following statement: the driftwood pictured above is the Lord of all Creation. Now this is an intellectually dishonest statement (i.e. a fraud) unless I can put forward sufficient evidence to prove that driftwood is lordy.

Do you follow my drift ....?

Reading in the tropics

A short report from Trelawny Parish, Jamaica:

I can't connect my laptop to the hotel Wi-Fi network and I am suffering from podcast withdrawal.

I am catching upon my reading and here is what I have digested so far:

The Ghost in the Atom: A Discussion of the Mysteries of Quantum Physics edited by P.C.W. Davies and Julian R. Brown. This one will blow your mind. Suffice it to say that things are not necessarily as they appear. This quote by Niels Bohr is too true: If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet.

A Case of Conscience by James Blish. This is a 60 year old science fiction novel set in the year 2050 about a Jesuit investigating an alien race that has no religion and no conception of God. Great stuff. If you are ever looking for a book, go to the website www.abebooks.com rocks. You can find anything there.

Mindfucking by Colin McGinn. In my preferred reality, philosophers would be treated like (and compensated like) rock stars.

Climbing Mount Improbable by Richard Dawkins. Just getting into this one. I save gems like this for my vacations.

The Mysterious Visitor - Trixie Belden #4. As you might have guessed, I am reading this one with my daughter. Best of class.

Off to recharge my atheist batteries

My wife and I and our three little heathens and taking off for a two week sojourn to Jamaica not far from the Montego Bay scene pictured above. I plan to read plenty, rest up and work on my golf game here:

Let it never be said that I didn't try to make the most of my brief stay on this 5.98 x 10 to the power of 24 kg chunk of rock located some 26,000-28,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way.

Richard Warren and Christian "Love"

This fellow makes a very good point about the hypocrisy of Christian ideology (warning to those with kids within earshot - offensive language):

Hichens' sibling scared into faith

Years after burning a bible, Christopher Hitchens' simple-minded brother Peter let a painting scare him back to Christianity. Now he's an avid Christian apologist: http://bit.ly/bPdUJ8

I love this quote by Peter:

Left to himself, Man can in a matter of minutes justify the incineration of populated cities; the deportation, slaughter, disease and starvation of inconvenient people and the mass murder of the unborn.
.....

For a moral code to be effective, it must be attributed to, and vested in, a non-human source. It must be beyond the power of humanity to change it to suit itself.

Peter ignores two significant problems with this line of thinking:

1. If the non-human source of the moral code is imaginary, the human imagination is the only limit to what can be deemed moral and immoral; and

2. Assuming that the non-human source of the moral code exists, there is nothing to stop that source from deeming any action, no matter how deplorable (i.e. rape), to be moral.

Kissing Hank's Derriere

This is very well done:

Proud to join the Humanist Association of Toronto

I am proud to announce that I am now a life member of the Humanist Association of Toronto ("HAT"). For those unfamiliar with the concept of humanism, it is defined in the HAT constitution as follows: "Humanism is a rational philosophy informed by science, inspired by art and motivated by compassion. We seek to understand and improve the human condition through the development of secular ethics, for the benefit of all."

HAT's declared principles are as follows:

1. Freedom of Inquiry: Every individual should be free to inquire into any and all areas of thought, to explore, to challenge, question or doubt. Without freedom of inquiry, we lose the ability to improve the human condition.
2. The Use of Reason: Reason provides a common standard against which we can test our perceptions. Without reason there is no valid tool for making judgements.
3. Knowledge: The only thing that can be called knowledge is that which is firmly grounded in human understanding and empirical verification. Without human comprehension and verification we lose our connection with the natural world around us.
4. Creativity: Human creativity is essential to the ability to solve problems, expand knowledge, and fulfill our cultural needs.
5. Fallibility: Human knowledge and human ethics have changed over time and will continue to change. Without acknowledging fallibility we risk descent into dogma.
6. The Natural World: The physical world is the world in which our ethics must operate, rather than in any imagined Utopian societies or afterlife. Because the physical world is the only one of which we have empirical knowledge, it is irrational to sacrifice benefits in this world for supposed gains in imaginary ones.
7. Human Ethics: Ethical decisions should be made in the context of real people, real situations, real human needs and aspirations and the consideration of real consequences. Humanism combines personal liberty with social responsibility. It affirms the dignity of every person, the right of the individual to the greatest possible freedom compatible with the rights of others, and the need for community. Without this context we risk the worst excesses of ideology.

For more information on HAT events and how to become a member, please visit their website at: http://humanist.toronto.on.ca/index.php Also, please visit the Humanist Toronto blog (which you can access through HAT's homepage) and you will see that they display exceptionally good taste in their list of "Blogs of Interest".

I should leave more comics like this lying around the house for my kids

Hal Lindsey's There's A New World Coming. I can still remember this comic freaking me out as a kid. It was my first exposure to fundamentalist Christianity, the rapture (described in the comic as the "Great Snatch") and the supposed end of times. I can't remember where I picked it up but I had fun reviewing it at: http://finkel.org/avi/revelation/index.html

I must pick up a vintage copy for my 7 year old son. It'll be right up his alley.