Comments on “Blind Obedience and Absolute Truth Claims”

Psygeek Makeover -- Extreme Edition

2009-05-08T09:10:50-07:00

Awesome job! Love th new design :) Looking forward to reading your stuff soon :)

Cheers, Ian

H1N1(A) AKA Swine Flu

2009-05-14T17:57:55-07:00

Have you seen James Randi's stuff about Homeopathy? If not, search for James Randi on youtube. Pretty great stuff. Also, your wordpress installation looks much nicer than mine. :)

Book Writing and Tiddler Wiki

2009-09-13T20:24:57-07:00

Hopefully you didn't destroy his Tiddler!

Without context that sentence is a little odd.

Ubuntu for the Eee PC

2009-11-26T04:00:23-08:00

Here's a great PDF guide for Ubuntu Karmic Koala. Its something both linux newbs and experts will appreciate. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-incredible-guide-to-ubuntu-karmic-koala-linux-pdf/

Atheism vs. Solipsism

2009-12-10T01:45:17-08:00

Thanks for your thoughtful response. I must say that a couple of the other self-proclaimed atheists who responded to my blog comment were rude, offensive, and boorish. Hopefully they don't typify the majority of atheists.

I'm not trying to be confrontational when I talk about "globs" of flesh (I noticed you call it "gobs"--not sure which is correct). To me, that would be the logical conclusion of atheism: To treat humans no differently than animals. Sure, I'm kind to animals, and I abhor their senseless slaughter, but if it comes down to me starving or dying from an animal attack, or one of my loved ones, the animal dies. No ifs, ands or buts. And hey, if I could get a million dollars and be set for life by killing an animal or two, watch out little furry beast. Since that is my attitude about animals, and since I (wrongly, after reading your comment) assumed that all atheists felt the same way about humans as I do about animals, I came up with the globs of flesh statement.

I still don't consider your response to be "rational," I consider it to be more emotional. Not judging, just saying. Instead of giving me reasons, to me response seems to be more along the lines of "it feels good" to treat humans in a nice manner.

And the problem with feelings is that they can change. Or what feels good to one person (treating people nice) might differ in another. That other person might "feel good" when he/she mistreats fellow humans, or even when killing and eating them (sorry for the grossness, but you know that there are canibals out there). I TRY (don't always succeed) to treat all humans with dignity and respect not because it "feels" good (oft times it doesn't, and I have to grit my teeth) but because I believe it is the right thing to do.

I know that I've probably mischaracterized what you wrote, and that I'll probably offend you, but I assure you that is not my intention.

Atheism vs. Solipsism

2009-12-10T10:24:04-08:00

The "feels good" was not my intention, and I probably misplaced that. By "it feels good" I meant that it warms me to see other people being happy -- and we have evolved to have sympathetic and empathetic responses to others of our species.

There are ways to circumvent this particular evolutionary trait, and that's why we have sociopaths. Because, despite the fact that we've evolved to have response to our fellow human beings, it still has to be nurtured. We have to be taught how to do this -- by our parents, our aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. If they don't show us love, nurture us, coo to us, feed us when we're hungry and cuddle us when we cry as young children, then we never learn what it is to love and be loved. That part of our brain never gets developed, and is for the most part forever gone.

Everything we have that religion (from my understanding) claims is innate, we have to learn. Children aren't born knowing god -- they have to be taught to believe in him by their parents or others around them. Children aren't born automatically caring about the world -- they have to be taught.

My parents, I suppose, were excellent teachers in this regard, because I deeply care about the world around me.

I treat humans differently than animals because we are different from animals. Our brains make us different -- our brains are "superior" to the animal brain, more complex. They give us what animals lack -- what I mentioned in my post. So I won't essay into that again.

As for me, if someone stood between me and a million dollars, I'd walk away. As I said already, you can't put a price on a human life, and I, for one, would not kill someone to get money. The only reason I would kill another human is if that human was killing others. Furthermore, greed like this is not limited to atheists -- this is a human attribute, something some people would do based upon their ethical code, and something others would not do based upon theirs, regardless of religious beliefs.

Thank you for the reply, and you did not offend me. I'm not offended when people misunderstand what I say. I'm offended when I am insulted off-handedly and without reason. Our conversation has been most stimulating.

I guess what I'm trying to say throughout all of this is that what you take for granted in religion -- that everyone deserves life, love, respect, dignitiy, etc -- is not just a facet of religion. It comes from being human, being alive, able to think and reason. These are not gifts from god -- they are things we evolved over thousands of years.

Mass Effect 2

2010-08-11T18:25:53-07:00

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