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):

Deconstructing The Purpose Driven Life - Chapter 40

Living with Purpose

I made it folks. 9 months after I was challenged to read The Purpose Drive Life by the Christian missionary da, I finally dragged myself through the last chapter of this rag.

Richard concludes his book by asking 3 questions which I will attempt to answer:

Who are you? A father, husband, neighbour, lawyer, golfer, skier, traveller, blogger, procrastinator and citizen of the world. Contrary to what I am told in this book, I don't need an imaginary friend to get a grip on my identity.

Do you matter? If you exclude my family and friends, most certainly not. Postulizing a supernatural creator who demands adoration certainly wouldn't give me any greater feeling of importance.

What is your place in life?It's the sum total of the effect which my life has on others. After I'm gone, I expect that is all there will be of me.

Richard summarizes the thesis of this book when he writes:

"Who are you going to live for? What are you going to build your life around? You can center your life around your career, family, a sport or hobby, money, having fun, or many other activities. These are all good things, but they don't belong at the center of your life. None is strong enough to hold you together when life starts breaking apart. You need an unshakable center." According to Richard, that emotional crutch is god.

Surprisingly, I finish this book agreeing with Richard on one point. If an individual is going to be thrown into existential despair at the thought that all good things come to an end, perhaps they are better off convincing themselves that the center of their life is an imaginary friend. In fact, the delusion can become quite convincing when it is shared by millions of like-minded brethren.

I share the same attitude as Dr. James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and a noted atheist. The purpose of life is to live well and the prospect of a good lunch tomorrow is more than enough to keep me going.

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:

Deconstructing The Purpose Driven Life - Chapter 39

Balancing Your Life

I would love to know what percentage of those poor suckers who started reading The Purpose Driven Life made it to chapter 39. A safe bet would be less than half and my money would be on far less.

In this chapter, Richard sums up his lordy's five purposes for your life. The Golden Rule is included in this list and I would never criticize Christianity for promoting that purpose. My difficulty lies with the other four purposes listed by Richard (he really likes lists):

• "Love God with all your heart" (i.e. worship). Two problems with this one. How can you love someone/something that you are fairly certain does not even exist? Even if you could accept lordy's existence, how can you love someone/something that demands adoration?


• "Go and make disciples" (i.e. evangelism). Richard is a generous supporter of the efforts to tackle global poverty and disease, including the spread of HIV/AIDS. He also supports literacy and education efforts around the world. While these charitable efforts should be lauded, he clearly has an ulterior motive - he wants to "save" those he helps. This is precisely why I wince when people talk about all the good works performed by religious institutions around the world. If you give a dollar to Richard's Saddleback Church, they will spend some of it helping those in need but only after they pay their clergy, maintain their opulent place of worship and train those who they will fly to the far stretches of the earth to preach the gospel. Why not just give your dollar to Oxfam and cut out the proselytizing middleman?


• "Baptize them into ..." (i.e. fellowship). What Richard is talking about here is the importance of maintaining interaction with those who share your delusions. This is Cult Maintenance 101.


• "Teach them to do all things" (i.e. discipleship). This is Richard's way of saying that his followers should become like Christ as disciples of Christ. In this regard, I would concede that Jesus of Nazareth was a great moral teacher. This is not meant to suggest that I would want anyone to emulate all of Jesus' teachings. For example, in Why I am Not a Christian, Bertrand Russell (pictured above) observed:
  

"There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ's moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment. Christ certainly as depicted in the Gospels did believe in everlasting punishment, and one does find repeatedly a vindictive fury against those people who would not listen to His preaching -- an attitude which is not uncommon with preachers, but which does somewhat detract from superlative excellence. You do not, for instance find that attitude in Socrates. You find him quite bland and urbane toward the people who would not listen to him; and it is, to my mind, far more worthy of a sage to take that line than to take the line of indignation".

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.

Deconstructing The Purpose Driven Life - Chapter 38

Becoming a World-Class Christian

This was an interesting chapter because Richard encourages his readers to just get up and go on a short-term mission project to another country! That's right. Take a leave from work or school or Oprah (and Jesus would encourage you to leave your family) to spread the Good News. Apparently only those who know they were made to serve and made for a mission should be considered World-class Christians. Richard tells us that: World-class Christians are the only fully alive people on the planet.

Consistent with the theme that runs through the book, Richard implores his readers to shift from "here and now" thinking to eternal thinking. This is probably the message of Christianity which is most antithetical to a secular, atheistic worldview. Richard explains that the old adage "you can't take it with you" is belied by the fact that Jesus told his followers to "store up your treasures in heaven". Apparently, Christians can win the afterlife lottery by bringing as many people as they can to Christ during their time on earth.

After reading this chapter, I realized that I am guilty of indoctrinating my children in a manner quite contrary to Christian teaching. Although I bend over backwards to get them to think for themselves, I plead guilty of encouraging them to make the most out of life. I try to live each day like it's my last because it could be my last and, most certainly, some day will be my last. I couldn't agree more with the now famous atheist bus slogan "There's probably no God ... now stop worrying and enjoy life".

Christian dogma clearly diminishes the importance of human and nonhuman life on earth. According to Richard, life on earth is just a temporary training ground for the real show in the afterlife. That is not a message that I want communicated to my kids. Why? Well, in honour of Canada's Olympic gold medal winning hockey team, I'll use a hockey analogy. If I gave you a stick and a puck and brought you to centre ice, which shot would you give a better effort for?

• One breakaway in the last game of hockey you will ever play with a chance to win the Olympic gold for your country; or
• A breakaway in the first of an eternal number of Olympic finals and it doesn't matter if you score because you'll have an infinite number of future chances.

That, my friends, is a no-brainer.