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      "body": "Congratulations @thisbrent! You received a personal award!\n\n<table><tr><td>https://steemitimages.com/70x70/http://steemitboard.com/@thisbrent/birthday1.png</td><td>1 Year on Steemit</td></tr></table>\n\n<sub>_[Click here to view your Board](https://steemitboard.com/@thisbrent)_</sub>\n\n\n**Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:**\n<table><tr><td><a href=\"https://steemit.com/steem/@steemitboard/steemwhales-has-officially-moved-to-steemitboard-ranking\"><img src=\"https://steemitimages.com/64x128/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmfRVpHQhLDhnjDtqck8GPv9NPvNKPfMsDaAFDE1D9Er2Z/header_ranking.png\"></a></td><td><a href=\"https://steemit.com/steem/@steemitboard/steemwhales-has-officially-moved-to-steemitboard-ranking\">SteemWhales has officially moved to SteemitBoard Ranking</a></td></tr><tr><td><a href=\"https://steemit.com/steemitboard/@steemitboard/steemitboard-witness-update-2019-01-07\"><img src=\"https://steemitimages.com/64x128/http://i.cubeupload.com/7CiQEO.png\"></a></td><td><a href=\"https://steemit.com/steemitboard/@steemitboard/steemitboard-witness-update-2019-01-07\">SteemitBoard - Witness Update</a></td></tr></table>\n\n> Support [SteemitBoard's project](https://steemit.com/@steemitboard)! **[Vote for its witness](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=steemitboard&approve=1)** and **get one more award**!",
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      "body": "We are going to die and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred? - Richard Dawkins  \n\nAs I write this Aubrey de Grey and his fellow Biogerontologists are exploring ways to turn us from humans to transhumans. We are, in the decades to come, going to understand our cellular biology so well that we will be able to end or greatly push back this annoying problem called death. Aubrey de Grey and his fellow scientists are exploring regenerative medicine, which is a process of regenerating or replacing human cells, organs, or tissues in the body. This is done by replacing damaged tissue and/or by stimulating the human bodies own repair mechanisms to heal previously irreparable organs or tissues. I was lucky enough to attend a speech by Michio Kaku recently where he spoke of the future of humanity. Among computerized wallpaper, computerized contact lenses, and invisibility cloaks he also mentioned harnessing our biology. We already have 3-D printers printing prosthetic limbs and creating vegan \"beef\" in the lab for those that don't eat meat, the world of tomorrow is going to be very different. Death will more than likely be a thing of the past.\nSo I am dating myself while writing this. If for some reason this blog entry survives decades from now and people look at it, it will be in historical context of \"oh that's when people died. How weird it must have been for these people.\" Hopefully, as we all wish this anti-aging discovery will be made available before I die. Of course my luck, it will be discovered and presented for public consumption as I'm 85 years old. So I'll forever be stuck as an 85 year old man all hunched and bitter. Stuck forever - bitching out those damn kids and their bell-bottoms and Jimi Hendrix (because you know it will have looped back around for the 6th time by then and become popular again).\nI was talking to my atheist friends recently about death and I mistakenly said that I was terrified of death. They mentioned how they were not terrified of death at all. Are you terrified during Delta Sleep? When the blackness takes over you are neither here nor there. You die every night and we don't live our waking lives in a panic that we will eventually have to go into oblivion later that night when we lay our head down on our pillows. What I was really saying was, like most people, I'm afraid of dying. The process of dying is terrifying. It's the not knowing part of it. The various ways to die are endless. I could die violently and painfully (which is by the way the way most species of animals have died on this planet in Earth's history – A pleasant thought!) or I could die peacefully at an old age of 84. I could die slowly of cancer (odds are high in this country. Plane crash death - odds are low. Car crash death - odds are higher. Do you ever think about how fragile life’s moments are? When you are driving around town, looking briefly at your iPhone or flipping radio stations get that freakish realization that you are driving this hunk of plastic/metal at ridiculous speeds (that weren't really meant for our fragile human frame in case of impact.) It's terrifying to suddenly pulled yourself out of the thick veil of \"I'm of course going to be fine as I drive 75 miles an hour down this uneven road\" and realize, holy shit this is really happening right now.\nRecently \"This American Life\" aired an episode called \"Hit the Road\". Act one was about 23-year-old Andrew Forsthoefel and his journey to walk from the east coast of the U.S. to the west coast, interviewing people along the way about what they would tell their 23 year old self if they could. He went through five pairs of shoes and met all kinds of people, recording with his hand held tape recorder their stories. He talks about different types of walking he experienced: speed walking, fear-walking, weep-walking. As he reaches the last hundred miles of his journey he describes his \"weep-walking\" euphoria. He expresses how he was haunted by the thought of \"The End\", the end of his journey, yes, but really the end of his life. Tears rolled down my eyes as he poetically examines what coming to grips with one's own death feels like.\nAs a Christian I believed that the end was not really the end, but the beginning. Yes, it was the end of this life on planet Earth with these bodies we inhabit, but it was the start to a new life. It was a life of being close to God and his Son Jesus Christ. As a Christian I believed Jesus died for my sins (that I inherited at birth - by just being born a human being). This, as I was told, was the single greatest act of love possible. The ultimate sacrificial Lamb - we've probably all seen The Passion of the Christ by now. The bloodier the depiction, the more real your gratefulness becomes as a Christian. This is the ultimate reward as a Christian - getting to go \"home\" (heaven) to be with Jesus and to thank him for all eternity for what he did for me and\nall other Christians.\nWell, needless to say, that's sounds terrible now. As an atheist I don't agree with the doctrine of Christianity at it's very opening act. - Original sin. If I do not accept the doctrine of original sin, I certainly don't need \"saving\" from it. For me, now, the whole story crumbles before it even gets going. So here I am as an open atheist. I’m no longer ashamed. I’m not in the closet about it anymore. So what do I think happens when I die? Nothing of course. We “sleep” forever. Does our consciousness move on? From what I can deduct consciousness is rooted in the functions of our brains and when we die, our brains die. There is zero evidence that our \"souls\" move on. There is no evidence for a \"soul\" in the first place. Maybe that would be nice, but that is wishful thinking without evidence to support it. So we can say these things if it makes us feel good, but it must not be treated as anymore than fantasy. As long as we are clear on this. My friend once rightly pointed out that one of the single greatest selling points to Christianity is playing on this \"fear of death\". It's essentially spiritual \"afterlife insurance\". Of course there is no evidence for this, but we are fearful animals that need comfort in our predicament of being alive and being conscious of our own demise. This may be uniquely human and it comes with understandably a whole heaping helping of fear.\nWhat is so bad about \"nothingness\" when we die? Our body breaks down into the elements and feeds the worms, bacteria, and other organisms that will eventually be mixed with water and gases and be burned up billions of years from now when our sun dies. And then the elements that made up our bodies will spread across the cosmos far from this solar system and who knows, we can postulate that those molecules that made up our bodies will one day make up the body of another planet, maybe even another species. Maybe even some distant day billions of years away an intelligent being on some other planet will look up at the stars and realize that that molecules making up its body came from distant stars and planets far away. They came from you. Maybe we came from them?\nThe most mindboggling thing I can think of at times is getting tiny glimpses of geologic time and juxtaposing it to our primate perception of time living less than ten short decades on this planet. I once wrote this regarding our perception of geologic time and our place in it:\nWe are animals, living organisms, evolved. We are one species among millions of others here on this planet. A sense of entitlement has greatly hindered us. It has masked our potential and obstructed our ability to put everything in our universe into perspective. You are the ever-changing result of long twisted shells of Time. So rarely really changing we can't even use the word \"changing\" really. And I say Time with a capital T because I am attempting to express billions of years. Understand where you are, when you are. We are in a universe filled with grandfather black holes and great great grandmother red dwarfs. Over and over like clockwork before there were clocks, and then there are stars, and stars, and stars, and more stars, everywhere, all of the Time. There are stars being born and stars violently dying. And that's just this galaxy. That's just this universe. There are billions and billions of stars, and quite possibly billions and billions of other universes, and long membrane super-strings which could be parallel universes right next to your face at this very moment, and between all of that - a massive amount of empty space - just nothing. And even what we think of as solid, an atom... is Mostly (and I say Mostly with a capital M) empty space. So then here's the Earth – blue, green, growing... for now, but in time-lapse photography this planet is a blink of bluish-green light that flickers then dies out. It’ s been less blue in the past and it will be less blue in the future. I think it’s absolutely imperative that you grasp the endless folds of Time here. Once you get that you can get some sort of frame of reference on what a fraction of a nanoparticle this all is, just passing through. Aren't we all just passing through quickly, really?\nWhen I think about discoveries in cosmology, biology, genetics, etc I have to sit back and bask in a wowed trance. It is enough. I don't need magical stories of elves, unicorns, talking donkeys, burning bushes, a sacrificial God-Son, resurrections, or reincarnation. I don't need to go any further to these extraordinary claims without evidence. It’s enough for me to be able to see back in time at galaxies forming after the big bang with my own eyes through a telescope. What we know because of evidence in the sciences is profound and inspiring enough. Let's just stop for a moment and bask in the discoveries of science, get chills, have our hair stand on end, and smile like a fool. Scientific discoveries are magical enough. Miracles\nare nature being nature. Cheap magician tricks like turning water to wine or casting demons into a herd of pigs are laughable in comparison to microwave background radiation, sunspots, the Aurora Borealis, volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon IO, photosynthesis, or cellular respiration.\nAll life (estimated 99.9%) that has ever lived on planet Earth has gone extinct. Think about that. Death is the default position. \"We are going to die and we are the lucky ones.\" Why are we the lucky ones? We are the lucky ones because most will never be born. All the possible combinations of DNA sequencing and YOU were born. The odds are astoundingly not in your favor of being alive, and yet you are! Will Homo sapiens be the one species that uses its superior intellect to outsmart the one thing we know for certain more than anything else? - All living things die. Let’s hope so, because I, for one, don’t want this Show to end.",
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      "author": "thisbrent",
      "body": "Absolutely! We live in Idiocracy.",
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      "body": "thanks :)",
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      "body": "![hebrewsviewofearth.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZdC9uMUQRtVeNE3xwx82J9MBAPUbV2nZ3LkQT7Tccugt/hebrewsviewofearth.png)\nJust as a pig can be possessed by a demon a human body can be possessed by something else. Call it a ghost, an gin, a demon, an angel, a son of god, these bodies are clearly just shells. And as with the example of demonic swine this isn’t just reserved for homo sapiens. Lord knows how many of our past ancestors like homo erectis or Neanderthals were plagued as hosts to these supernatural beings.\nPeople believe this today. And yes it is 2014. March to be exact and I just got done debating the soul with a friend of mine who is a Christian. He wrote a new book about his ideas about godlessness vs. god. He cannot admit that he accepts the whole of the theory of evolution. Which is to say – the part involving human beings. Which is to say - he disagrees with 99.9% of professional biologists. He must know more then them. Strange. If I could ever be able to convince him of the actual science that leads us to these conclusions that homo sapiens evolved from lower species of animals then I could of course ask at which point did God insert the “soul”? Remember too, through the lens of biological evolution it’s a nonsensical question to ask when was the first human being. Yeah, hate to break it to everyone reading this but the Adam and Eve story, ... yeah well it's a story. That's it. So Christianity fails before it even gets going, but let's pretend I didn't just write all of that and move on.\nThis \"ghost in the machine\" is a notion based in human animal introspection going back millions of years. Fear of death gave us religion and other cultural phenomenon such as afterlife stories and of course stories of hell if one not adhere to whatever form of religion was around at the time.\nThe Christian myth is essentially the most powerful to us today in America since it is the most commonly practiced religion followed closely by Islam. Muslims accept Jesus as a great prophet, but not the son of god, as is aptly named by author and history Reza Aslan in his book “No God but God”. However in Christian dogma the real fun begins. \nLet's take a tour through the Bible:\n\nTHE OLD TESTAMENT\nHere we have in the beginning (I guess the Big Bang?) a god named Yahweh, who created this universe. That’s right. He created it perfect. A rebelling angel that was cast down to this perfect planet (guess God didn’t see this coming or did since he is all knowing or this instantly makes no sense) takes the form of a snake and convinces the first two homo sapiens (which evolutionary biology tells us is impossible) that they should listen and eat of the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That’s right we see right off the bat Yahweh doesn’t like knowledge. Ouch. How foretelling. It gets more fun…\nAfter these two bipedal apes eat from this forbidden fruit they recognize they are naked. *Sin = nakedness. Which by that rational all other species of animals (minus your little pet chihuahua that you dress up in a tutu) are in sin. What a fair and balanced God! (Remember God- only Yahweh- and Fox News are tight!) The God of the Bible is so full of anthropomorphic fallacies its not even funny. Almost makes a rational thinking person think that this whole thing may be concocted from the minds of a few bipedal apes. Hmmm. \nNah.\nIt's probably all true.\nEverything becomes terrible after “sin” entered the world. You need an advanced degree in theology to say what I’m about to say next, - At this point sin entered the world and death by sin. So everything died. Before this nothing died. NOTHING. Not even black holes. Of course it’s up for debate among Christian cosmologists whether black holes and colliding galaxies even existed before the “fall of man”. They’re working on it. These hard scientific questions aren’t easy. We still need more time to examine these things. Can I get a ... Anthropomorphic fallacy?? What?\nHere's some things that are explained by Sin by most Christian apologists:\nHuman anatomy which is riddled with problems (most humans first dying of tooth decay, pathogens, sanitation problems, child mortality rate is staggeringly high in those early years) = SIN. Again, collapsing stars, black holes swallowing up stars with possibly habitable planets = SIN. (All of which is a mistake by 2 human beings by the way.) 99% of all animal species on this planet going extinct = SIN. The endless list of the problems with the human anatomy alone (allergies, choking to death while eating and breathing, mismatched diseases etc) = SIN\nChristian apologetics can be summed up as \"God did it\" or it's all \"due to sin\". Takes years of seminary to get these advanced degrees to basically learn the \"god of the gaps/sin caused all bad things\" arguments.\nGod at this time is busy flooding the earth due to homo sapien’s sin, but not being a total dick by keeping 2 of every animal species (including dinosaurs) and putting them on a large wooden ship that would by a mathematical certainty snap apart immediately once at sea. A strong case can be made for Unintelligent Design just using the Bible itself. Thoughout the Old Testament we see God having to wipe out clusters of humans because they weren’t living up to what he wanted form a species that has free will. Or this just makes no sense. \nStay with me\nAfter the mayhem of destroying all of every species of animal (except a couple of each species) he moves on with his chosen people (yep, God has a favorite tribe of people among his human creations – the Jews!) It’s like a team. Go Chicago Bulls! Go Jewish people!\nNow the fun part: Jesus. Remember we have to first get ourselves to accept our intuition and introspection.  We must be convinced that we are something or someone inside our bodies. We are not our bodies, but these bodies are merely vessels and the essence of what’s inside (our soul/spirit/essence/whatever) is truly us. We are spiritual beings having a human experience as one New Age book is titled. (not the reptilian guy) If you don’t believe that and feel like you know enough cognitive science to accept the data that supports that the mind is a projection of the brain or at least there is zero evidence of a mind existing outside of a brain then you may have a problem with the next bit:\nTHE NEW TESTAMENT\nSo the blood bath of the Old Testament comes to an end and the all-loving all-powerful, all-just God who sanctions the killing of mass groups of people (and raping the women, ... I’m sorry I meant little girls) while also etching a commandment in stone saying that killing is wrong. Not hypocritical. We are here with a fresh breath of air into the New Testament (the less barbaric of the testaments) where suddenly prophecies are being fulfilled (see James Randi on the hoax of prophecy fulfillment and that should about put that to rest). We are graced (literally) with a young Jewish boy. He later follows in his “earthly” father’s footsteps and becomes a carpenter.\nEveryone loves Jesus. America loves Jesus! Bill O'Reilly loves Jesus! Fox News loves Jesus! Everyone I freakin' know loves Jesus! He comes from lowly beginnings, humble, eventually preaches to sell your riches and give to the poor ... but also says to take up your sword and fight ... so some conflicting messages going on here. No wonder every possible type of human endeavor whether good or bad for society has had “Jesus on their side”. Think slavery (which was sanctioned in the Old Testament) or the civil rights movement. Think Democrats or Republicans. Rich or poor both are justified by Jesus' conflicting messages. If one was to literally follow the teachings of this man one would have the experience not unlike AJ Jacobs did in his book “Year of Living Biblically”. War, peace, rich, poor - Jesus is your guy!\nBut again Jesus' body wasn’t Jesus. Was it? Was Jesus the outlier (according to most people who believe in a soul) where he really was one with his body?! Was Jesus physical body and Jesus’s soul connected – fused, if you will? If he felt the pain and agony on the cross does that not suggest Jesus is his physical body? It's so confusing. If Jesus was a ghost in the machine (or Jesus’ soul was inserted into this body by God the father/who was also him/and a holy ghost– don’t ask about the damn ghost it gets too complicated – or it’s all made up, I'm still not sure.)\nJesus’ soul went somewhere for 3 days as his body lay decaying in a tomb according to the Bible. Some say he went to hell and conquered death and snatched some magical keys like some Lord of the Rings storyline. Maybe. Or maybe he chilled out in purgatory for 3 days kicking it with some sinners like he did on this planet. Either way what we do know is that Jesus soul is/was real – it left this plane of existence – thus it was supernatural, and that this \"Son of God essence\" went away from it’s body for 3 days.\nGood news! Jesus synched back up with the \"ape suit Jesus\" and pulled himself off the grave and walked around (among other resurrected saints too by the way - read your Bible!) and became the “risen savoir” obviously. I mean who else rose from the dead?! (Except Lazareth – who clearly wasn’t the Son of God… I mean come on don’t make me laugh! Being dead and then coming back to life - even if you could prove it wouldn't prove you would be the Savior or anything! Duh.) Now we will assume that Jesus (the son of God miracle part of Jesus not the physical tortured part) healed his decaying body since in three days the human body starts to decay quite noticeably. \nNo need for skepticism here.\nNow this is where it gets a bit weird. Jesus goes around meeting with people he knew. As in the gospel of Luke he assures them all he is NOT A GHOST (Remember Jesus acknowledges that ghosts are real here) but it is him in flesh and blood. So again, remember this is Jesus (the same Jesus soul 3 days before he died) and this newly healed ape body is now walking, talking, and breathing and testifying that he is in fact the Son of God. \nHe even eats with others after his resurrection. I always say if you have died and been resurrected after a few days you better EAT SOMETHING! Your body needs essentially vitamins and minerals now more than ever. Some have suggested doing this 3 days dead in the tomb diet, but I think it's pseudoscience. Doubting Thomas stops by and lives up to his name. He needs proof (unlike the rest of humanity to come) that he is in fact the risen savior. He feels with his own hands the nail holes and spear holes and believes he is in fact the Son of God. *Side note, I think I make a pretty strong case that Thomas was a poor scientist then because he still should even then be skeptical. There are other options than this man before you is the Son of God just because you felt his holes.\nFAIR AND BALANCED: Anyways, despite the rest of humanity never getting the option to feel for ourselves the living savior's holes we are to accept with faith (how convenient!) that Jesus was not only real but the Son of God. Since as we've established if you are raised from the dead it makes you the Son of God (excluding the multitude of other saints resurrected and Lazareth as mentioned in the Bible, and of course this is in hinging on if you believe the beginning of this article I have written – that there is even a God in the first place).\nIt’s hard to discuss atheism with Christians because you not only have to deal with not believing in the One True God (no God but God) but with Christianity you have to deal with that God having a son who is also and/or God. And I haven’t even added the third more ridiculous layer of the Holy Ghost. (remember ghosts are real)  It’s exhausting. And how a Christian doesn’t see that the burden of proof in their court is beyond me. I'm an atheist... I got nothing. You're a Christian and you've got: A  Creator God (who doesn't need a mother or father) that has a Son/(which is also the Father) with no mother/and what the hell, throw a Ghost in there - make it Holy (which is also a Father/Son). This Son/Father/Ghost combo became a human being... to fix a mistake from 2 humans tricked by a snake... I can go on. \n\nand I will.\nI’m still not done. Here’s now what happens. Jesus takes his newly resurrected body (remember it is flesh and blood according to Jesus’ own words) and ascends into heaven. OK. So Jesus (the physical homo sapien part which is housing his “son of god” soul) is shot up into the sky and into outer space according to the eye witnesses of the Bible. Sounds like an UFO sighting doesn’t it? Well, it’s not, don’t be ridiculous! Intelligent beings from another planet?! Don't be absurd! it’s the Ghost/Son/Father flying off into outer space. Carl Sagan once tried to calculate Jesus ascension as any working astrophysicist should. He concluded that even if Jesus traveled at the speed of light he wouldn't have yet escaped our galaxy. Jesus hasn’t even left our galaxy. Think about that.\nMaybe Voyager will find him somewhere out there. I suppose if Voyager did find Jesus out there one would have to expect to see a \"Son of God soul\" devoid of any recognizable homo sapien body as that would have been shredded upon leaving earths atmosphere at that speed obviously. So those atoms and molecules that made up the body (the shell) of the Son of God is floating around somewhere in outer space. If they were to find their way back to earth – just imagine the money one could make or just imagine the power one would have collecting these. Screw Jesus toast! I want Jesus atoms!\nSo is this the end? Jesus said that he would return in the lifetime of the ones that witnessed his ascension. \nDid he? \nNo. :(\nWas Jesus a liar? \nYes.\n\nThere are other books like Revelations in the New Testament that talk about the \"End of Days\" and horse/scorpions and and water turning into blood (standard plague shit). Don't focus on the glaring fact that the writers of Revelations hadn't read a modern biology book talking about how many mass extinctions the earth has had since the beginning of life. Don't think anthropomorphic fallacy. Don't think these men where ignorant of every possible bit of information modern science has given us about this entire planet's history. These men where channeling the one true God when writing these horse/scorpion predictions. Trust them. Believe them. Remember the Bible (in its entirety) is true, and grown ups get degrees in theology that consider this as real and relevant in 2014. Always cling to the Christian logic: The Bible Said It I believe It That Settles It. The Bible is true because the Bible says it is true.\n\nThat's some solid logic!\n\n*Originally posted 3/08/14 on my blogger account: https://godsaiditibelieveitthatsettlesit.blogspot.com/",
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      "author": "thisbrent",
      "body": "![821b019edbea033052454acf4ad1ad38--christian-artwork-forgiveness.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmQNYUMipP36TNNE66L4S8mbtdAiJrWUeTBcqaRiPxvGpV/821b019edbea033052454acf4ad1ad38--christian-artwork-forgiveness.jpg)\nWhen I was younger I remember a Bernstein Bears book called \"Just Me and My Dad\". There is a picture I could not find anywhere in my computer of my brother and I intently listening to my dad reading us this book. We were so happy. He was so happy. But...\n\nThis blog entry will have no sentiment.\n\nThis is not the blog entry where I talk about the good things between my father and I, and this isn't the blog entry where I perfectly sum up my father and his religion. I don't know how to put that together into something comprehensible.\n\nHere it is: My father doesn't understand the way planet Earth works. When I say I do not know much in biology, paleontology, genetics, anthropology, climate science, geology, comparative anatomy I am being truthful and honest. When I say my father doesn't know any of these scientific fields I am being loose with the word \"know\". My father does not know a single sentence from a single textbook supporting scientific theories that he outright rejects. There is no time to be respectful and polite in this post, as we sometimes are obliged to do with friends and family. Human life is just too short.\n\nI have spent some time explaining to you about my father and how he thinks. I finally spoke with him the other day about evolution and the age of the earth. This is just a few things of what my father thinks:\n\nEvolution is a mass delusion just like \"flat earth theory\" was centuries ago. Yes, it's all a lie.\n\nA guy in church once told him a dinosaur footprint was found along side a human footprint so humans and dinosaurs existed at the same time in history.\n\nThe Earth is young not old.\n\nThe Bible is to be taken word for word as literal truth and this is how he gets all these \"truth\" nuggets.\n\nI began my discussion with him the other day talking about the amazing fact that we have a host of bacteria living in our guts and how this is so fascinating that the human body is it's own ecosystem.\n\nHe replied that it's amazing that some atheists out there think there is no Designer to this beautiful design in nature.\n\nI paused, frozen a bit, stumbled over my words as I attempted to present the Unintelligent Designer theory. I couldn't believe this was happening. I have never told my dad I accepted evolution. I talked to him about all the imperfections in nature like how humans are the only mammals that have the same tube to communicate and eat, thus a vast majority of our species have choked to death.\n\n\"Let me stop you right there before you continue...\" my dad said. \"I do not think humans are animals.\"\n\nAnd I rest my case.\n\nI did rest for a brief moment then tried to bring us back to a common vocabulary. Where do you go from here?\n\nThere is no way of convincing someone who once told me that our Sun is NOT a star that humans are not a part of the animal kingdom. Biology is dead right from the start apparently according to my father.\n\nI realized at that moment that the very soft spot that made my dad react so abruptly was the very thing that made me transition to an atheist. To look at a human as part of the animal kingdom is opening the door to naturalism. There is more to these mysteries of life than \"God did it\" or magic. We have explanations for so many things that I was never taught growing up in my Christian science classes. Biblical literalism is laughable when you know the slightest amount of science.\n\nMy father argued with me about soft tissue found in dinosaur bones (thus the Earth is young) and Noah's ark being real and dating methods of course are unreliable. My father's church is watching what I can only imagine is a young Earth creationist response/reaction to the recent Cosmos series with Neil deGrasse Tyson on Fox in his church every Wednesday night. Each Wednesday night they watch and discuss this: http://www.icr.org/article/unlocking-mysteries-genesis/\n\nYep.\n\nI don't want to tell you why the Earth is not 6,000 years old or why Darwin was not wrong. I want to tell you what I feel about my father. I think he is afraid to learn. There is something terribly dark and (dare I say) \"evil\" about being content with living without knowing, and knowingly doing so. People make stupid \"truth\" statements all the time about how the world works, \"the moon landing was faked\", \"9/11 was an inside job\", \"that little boy went to heaven and back\", \"Islam is the only true religion\", \"crystals heal your ailments\", \"my dream means something\", \" in my past life I was...\", \"Oh, your astrology sign is this that's why your like this\", and so on... We are not taught to think critically from birth. This is something that needs to change for the survival of our species, in my opinion. Hyper-Capitalism mixed with non-critical thinking could be a lethal blow to our species, at least those of us so lucky to live in developed parts of this planet.\n\nI realized something once again today. Life is one day. one hour. one minute. one second. right now. There is nothing more. We cannot fill the human deep-search for \"meaning\" with religion or woo. We can't fill it with New Age anything or self improvement whatever. We can fill it with /Truth/ and the biggest truth I know is that I am an ape and I am peculiarly alive and conscious (comprised of subatomic particles/waves like everything else that evolve over time) on a rock hurling through space. I know this better than I can know most things. And THAT is a total mind-gasm! No need for fairy tales to bask in the mystery of .. how do I eloquently say,... \"what the fuck is happening?\" I think I may get a red letter criticism from my philosopher friend on this blog entry as well. We shall see.\n\nMy father is deep in the Unknown. And I was there too. He raised me there from childhood. I was \"saved\" when I was 5. Then 7, then 8 then 9, then 12. I kept getting \"saved\" over and over when I was a child. Not because I loved Jesus and I really REALLY wanted to make sure I spent eternity with Him in heaven. It was that I was terrified of 1. dying and burning forever in hell. and 2. being \"left behind\" when the rapture happened and then of course getting my head cut off at some point by the AntiChrist one-world government or dying from some plague.\n\nIn conversation with New Christian friends I am reminded that a lot of what we do whether theistic or atheistic is based off of emotion and of course most of this can be traced back to our upbringing and our reaction to it, even as adults. There is truth to this, but I want to remind my New Christian friends that this new hip modern Christianity is nothing but Christianity with out the hell-fire and brimstone (you know cause that shit is awkward!), so I really loathe this idea that Christianity is so past barbarism yet some of my New Christian friends knowingly think I will fucking burn forever. No! it's not my strict legalistic past that scars me .. it's the Christian Dogma that at least my father had the guts to tell me straight up-- if you don't believe in Jesus you are going to burn forever, son! The Christian dogma of hell for the unbeliever is the issue here. So New Christians can stop pretending to be my friends when they know I will burn forever, I mean come on!\n\nMy father had good qualities, but his deep ignorance in naturalism and all of it's laws and any of it's brilliant scientific theories kept me in the dark. The school I grew up in was drastically unequipped to teach it's students in the natural sciences. My family isn't all kept in the dark, however. I have family members that are nonbelievers, soon to be doctors and some are realists, but my immediate family has been in the dark, so to speak all my life. Simply put: Religion has destroyed my family's intellect. There are ways the world actually works my family has no conceptual clue about. We are all flawed, and I admit my ignorance, but being content and even confident about a worldview that is completely unfounded, unhealthy, and uniformed is not acceptable.\n\nAs radical Islam marches through the Middle East (beheading infidels and committing the brave act of shooting little girls in the face who want to educate themselves) and Middle Age-like Christianity (with it's barbaric ideas of scientific ideas about the world) chokes Middle America it's best to cling to the evidence, the facts, the science. It's best to be a skeptic always in everything. Stop being so goddamn gullible! The death throws of religion are wild and violent in 2014 (*See ISIS) . These things will end. Sooner or later apes will grow up. Sooner or later we'll be another extinct species like the 99% of all other species that have ever lived on this rock in this irrelevant point of the cosmos. We are in that stage and it's happening quicker than you may think, quicker than I can see in my personal life.\n\nSo Yes, dad. We are animals. we are apes. Our Sun is a fucking star and it's time you grew up with the rest of us apes and accepted this world the way it actually is and swallow the Truth about what we actually do already know. Some of us that have hope still can fight this tendency to be cowards and ignorant and those that do not accept all scientific knowledge because the comfort blanket of their barbaric superstition is too entangled in their lives.\n\n*Originally posted 9/3/14 on my blogger account: https://godsaiditibelieveitthatsettlesit.blogspot.com/\n\nThis is my rant about just me (ape) and my dad (ape) .. and here are some related links.\n\n\"Just Me and My Dad\"\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxs65G56FeQ\n\nDon't buy this: Unlocking the Mysteries of Genesis:\nhttp://store.icr.org/Unlocking-the-Mysteries-of-Genesis/productinfo/DUTMG/\n\n\"Unlocking the Mysteries of Genesis\" trailer:\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYzppTgGKu8",
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      "author": "dougisaac",
      "body": "The problem is that people do not take the time to think critically and consistently.",
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      "body": "@@ -103,17 +103,17 @@\n ll is it\n-.\n+?\n   Is at \n@@ -210,16 +210,17 @@\n ve thing\n+s\n  far bey\n",
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      "body": "Nothing here that I can disagree with. If there is a physical location that is Hell, then where the hell is it.  Is at the Earth's molten core, or on another planet? Same for Heaven. We have been able to observe thing far beyond our solar system, still no images of heaven beaming back from our satellites. Also, I would like to ask the believers, 'If you can only get to Heaven or Hell after death, how has anyone received a report on their existence?'",
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      "body": "![animalsacrifice.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmRWFXqAafwcYGfVLQHpWv1YiszFdYQsx9Fc1KRdVgG71B/animalsacrifice.jpg)\nIf a PETA activist hitched a ride in a time machine sometime in the future and was placed back into Biblical times they wouldn't know where to start protesting with all the carnage. Any scientist or even animal enthusiast that loves surrounding themselves with other species of animals to study them or find companionship with them would find it difficult to worship a God who hates all animals. One would think. We are of course animals ourselves as well. We are apes and we evolved like ever other species of living organism on planet Earth.\n\nOf course a case can be made using the Bible that God hates certain tribes of the human species. He clearly favors one over others; just google \"slavery in the Bible\" and read the verses for yourself. The Old Testament is a whole lot of the Jewish God wiping out many humans in one fail swoop (see flood story in Genesis) or selective baby killing (see passover). However, this blog entry will focus solely on Yahweh's treatment of other species of animals other than humans here on this planet in which He created.\n\nIt's best to start at the beginning. In Genesis 1 we see God creates the entire planet for human beings. Our species is special. The entire ecosystem of planet Earth was created for us and we are commanded to \"subdue it\" (Genesis 1:28; 9:1-3; Psalm 8). This of course flies in the face of sustainable living (realizing that our actions and activities are putting other crucial species into extinction is extremely problematic for our own species survival.) So we see how God considers the ranks: 1. God - then 2. humans (which of course we can make a strong Biblical case within this category a sub-hierarchy of 1. Man  - 2. then woman.) - then lastly 3. other species of animals. *Often tho the Old Testament will lump in women (property) with livestock (property) so the line between 2 and 3 is blurry. Of course at the time these texts were being written there was no such thing as science and thus no such thing as biology which classifies homo sapiens as a part of the animal kingdom as well.\n\nI once had a Christian friend tell me I was mistaken to think that Christianity is consistently committing an anthropic fallacy because first and foremost God is what matters not humans, and that may well be true but it would be hard to argue against the ranking I define above - simply, humans are ranked above all other species of animals. The entire universe, this planet, This entire thing - was made FOR us. We outrank the rest of it (all except God of course). It's basically the opposite of environmental conservation. Think of it that way.\n\nBefore the first chapter of Genesis ends we see God's philosophy towards how humans are to treat his created planet (and please recall and keep in focus the current known size of the cosmos and amount of other stars besides our sun with orbiting planets happen to be in the billions of galaxies swirling about a mass of empty space) In other words \"we are special\" is a either the greatest understatement OF ALL TIME or simply an anthropic fallacy. Option B seems more plausible to me. Anyways, we are to conquer nature and make it our bitch basically. As apparent in other religions (other than Christianity and a few other big ones) some eastern religions or Native American, we must fit into the cycle of life with all the other plants and animals. As an ex-hippy/tree hugger, trust me I know how taking a philosophy to the extreme can be laughable and counterproductive to say the least. Watch the show Portlandia to further illustrate this point. There is actual scientific evidence that connects biodiversity to ecological health. We don't have to look much further than seeing what modern human activity (for example the burning of fossil fuels) has done to the planet. Climate change is happening now.\n\nI must address first that there actually are a handful of verses in the Old Testament that on the surface seem to suggest Yahweh wants us to be kind to other species of animals (If you haven't figured it out by now the Bible gives a sort of bipolar view on so many topics - it contradicts itself consistently and offers of conflicting advice in many pages). There are verses in Exodus, Deuteronomy, Jonah, Psalms, and Proverbs that when on a quick read seem kind to animals. (Exodus 23:12; Deuteronomy 5:14; Deuteronomy 22:4; Psalm 147:9 for example). However, it's important to understand the context in what you are reading as we've all been told a million times by Christian apologists. As we pull back and look at the view of animals at the time (not unlike the view towards women) we see the Bible is consistent with the \"subdue\" the Earth commandment in the first chapter of Genesis. Animals are important to God because animals are useful for humans. This seems to brush away most of these positive verses on animal treatment pretty quickly.\n\nSo obviously animal sacrifice happens and that's gross and completely irrational ... and clearly animal cruelty. If one is to follow down the rabbit hole of Biblical logic here (*theology) we land at the foregone conclusion which is the Creator of the universe needs animal blood. A case could be made that God is a vampire. Well if vampires can be defined as a dead human that craves living human blood then I guess he could since he said his son (a God/himself) to satisfy his blood lust for the ultimate sacrifice in the New Testament. But for now let's go back to animal sacrifice - what makes it most creepy, I think, is that God just likes to watch it. That's it! What a waste! He doesn't do anything with this poor dead sacrificed animal once it's been all burnt up. It isn't like he is lapping up the blood with his \"tongue\" - assuming he does have a sort of extra- dimensional, supernatural tongue here - since you know, we humans were created \"in His image\" and all. Christian theology is very complicated.\n\nThen we get to the flood story (Genesis 6). In this Biblical narrative God punishes all humans with a worldwide flood, which kills every living thing except Noah and his family along with a handful of each species. Some could argue this is showing God's compassion towards other species of animals as to not kill them all, well I guess the Omniscient Creator of the cosmos is sort of like nation states going to war right?- there is unfortunately collateral damage. He'll sort it out later. Clearly we see this in the flood story with all the other animals (that are sinful by default?) Yahweh even has this problem with homo sapiens as He commands the killing of innocent women and children in the Old Testament via his favorite tribe. He even directly kills (via the \"Angel of Death\") the first born Egyptian babies (unless of course you are a member of his favorite tribe and also put that ever popular animal blood over your door.) Blood lust everywhere up in this bitch!\n\nI also have always wondered why God doesn't give free will to other species animals. I would say some Christian apologists would disagree here, but he certainly suspended their free will when they like robots marched onto Noah's boat. That's kind of creepy. Was it their choice to split into two (how was that choice made?) and to come onto the ark or did God merely take over the driving seat in the animal brain to fire the neurons that fire the muscle fibers that bring that dinosaur or this cockroach onto that boat? These are really important philosophical questions.\n\nWhat about the plagues? (Exodus 7:14-11:10) We see once again the animal free will conundrum crop up here too. Where the locus' brain taken over by Yahweh (or some lower ranked angel) and there was no free will or did they have a choice in the matter? Frogs from the sky? How did they get there? Miracles don't need explaining obviously because the airtight axiom \"God did it that settles it\" applies here. We live in a natural world that sometimes get's wacky weird when frogs fall from the sky and rivers fill with blood. (#BiblicalBloodLust!) We read in this passage that all the fish in the rivers die (obviously!) That seems cruel and unusual. Where did the blood come from? Which animal's blood made these rivers of blood? What's the back story? Did an angel on instructions from God slit the throat of thousands of animals before hand then place the blood into these rivers? No that's silly - the H2O turned into plasma \"magically\". I forgot about the \"God did it that settles it\" axiom there. Damn, I always forget to apply that equation. I'll learn. This needs more study.\n\nNot only did God kill all the innocent Egyptian first born babies but he also killed the first born of all of their live stock (Exodus 12:29) as well not to mention all the Egyptian livestock with storms of fire and hail. One gets the drift at some points that the writers of the Old Testament books are just really going out of their way to ham up the blood and guts. They must always include all the property damage (livestock, women, etc) that follows God's wrathful punishment. It's like bookkeeping of how horrific and evil God is, I guess. I don't know. So it seems obvious already that God hates not only Egyptian babies (unless they are part of a collateral damage problem that shows the infallibility of Yahweh's nature of course) but other species of animals.\n\nIn Leviticus 14 we see more animal abuse, but I suppose it's acceptable since it's used for medicine. Ever want to know how to cure that annoying leprosy? Try this:\n\nIt's a whole process that lasts 8 days unfortunately, first you get your local priest (obviously) and two clean and living birds. Also grab some cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop. The priest will then command that one of the birds be killed over an earthen vessel over running water.\n\nAs for the living bird, well the priest will take it, the cedar wood, the scarlet, and the hyssop, and dip them all in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. This is when science/religion required seeing lots of blood involved.\n\n*Remember too - this is God the Creator Mind behind the Big Bang and all the known universe getting it wrong on how to cure a disease. Funny how many believers will not accept the overwhelming consensus of biologists, paleontologists, and geneticists who understand the theory of evolution is a fact or 98% of all climate scientists but will accept an all-knowing, all-powerful God who gets it dead wrong on a specific disease. Strange how that works isn't it. Confirmation bias much?\n\nWe're not done here. Haha! don't get up just yet, your leprosy isn't quite cured. Then what you are going to want to do is have the priest sprinkle the blood seven times (don't try to skimp only sprinkling 6 times now!) on the patient with leprosy. He will be pronounced clean after this, but wait we don't see animal cruelty here. God commands that the living bird with his dead bird friend's blood all over it is to be set free into an open field. What a beautiful image! See God is fair and balanced! You have to wash your clothes and groom still, after all of this; Oh, and you have to stay outside of your home for seven days. But on the seventh day you can shave all the hair off your head and your beard (sorry ladies, you are out of luck - you get to KEEP your leprosy) and your eyebrows (obviously. Nothing weird here). And I realize this is redundant but you must once again wash everything (your body, your clothes) and THEN you are clean!\n\nJust kidding!\n\nOn the eighth day you take two male (obviously) lambs without blemish, one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, three-tenths of an ephah (bushel) of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, and one log of oil. Then the priest who preformed the first operation will present the man with leprosy, with all those other random things to Yahweh, at the door of the tabernacle. And the priest will then take one male lamb and offer it as a trespass offering, and the log of oil, and wave them around a bit. Then he shall kill the lamb. The priest will then take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of the man with leprosy, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.\n\nIt's not over. Then the very same priest will take the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand. He will dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times (not 5 or 4!) before the God. You are probably asking what about the remainder of the oil on the priest's hand?! Good question. Well, the priest will put some of the tip of the right ear of the man with leprosy, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the blood of the trespass offering. The rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand is to be put on the head of the man to be cured. Afterward all of this the priest will finally kill the burnt offering. Finally after all this the man will be clean.\n\nIn Isaiah 11:6-9 it says,\n\nThe wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.\nThe wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, says the LORD. - Isaiah 65:25\n\nIn these two passages from the Old Testament we see a prophetic view of the future, returning to a sort of Garden of Eden-style utopia again. Can it not be argued that instead of the sins (which are actually vaguely defined if not laughably disagreeable in the Bible with most in grey areas in ethics and morality - which support a bottom-up naturalistic morality that evolved over time by the way) of one species of animal (humans) affecting the entire living ecosystem on planet earth (leopards and lions prey and viciously tear apart other species of animals due to HUMAN SIN rather than the theory of natural selection??) No.\n\nIn Isaiah 1:11-17 we see God satisfying his blood lust finally for other animals, or on closer inspection we see that God isn't asking for the blood sacrifices to necessarily stop just that they need to come from a place of genuine sincerity. His favorite tribe had to REALLY REALLY REALLY mean it when they pointlessly lit an animal on fire on an alter for the Personal All-knowing Creator Mind behind the Big Bang. Try re-reading that paragraph again with a straight face.\n\nAnd then there's the New Testament... \n\nFor starters lets take the nice verse we remember from when we were children about God caring so much for the sparrows; so how much more does he care about us humans? How beautiful right? This passage in Luke 12:6-7 pulls at the ole heart strings on first read but remember to take a step back and look at this from another angle too. This of course confirms the same mantra from the Old Testament from way back in the first chapter of Genesis. Remember the ranking? 1. God. 2. Humans (still not quite clear where this begins since genetics and everything we know about evolution tells us there is no such thing as the first two of any species, but we'll go ahead and look past those facts for the moment and pretend we should even be talking about any of this in the first place) 3. All other species of animals.\n\nWe see too in Matthew 12:11-12 that Jesus explains how much more important human beings are than sheep, but it gets really exciting when Jesus casts demons out of a demon-possessed man and throws them into pigs. (Mark 5; Matthew 8:24-34; Luke 8:26-39) Clearly this should have even the most bashful of the animal rights activists up in arms. These poor pigs right? One minute you are minding your own business, the next minute you have fucking demons all up inside you. This of course causes the pigs to drown themselves (free will questions here? No??) What's really confusing in the Luke version of the story is that the demons inside the poor human bastard beg Jesus to cast them into the herd of pigs. Then directly after this they drown themselves. Complex theology here apparently. Lesson being?: Demons think they want to be inside of pigs rather than being cast into hell but realize once inside it's not really all it's cut out to be. I don't know. Of course sort of off topic but this does bring up an interesting question of do other animals have souls?\n\nIn my on-going email discussions with my Christian friend ( http://www.theolatte.com/ ) he has made it clear that he has a principled outlook on human beings- that humans have some immaterial part to them (that very part described is the \"soul\" or \"spirit\" or \"essence\" or \"the supernatural You\" that goes to heaven or hell when you die.) He believes there is in direct evidence for this. There isn't. I would be willing to bet that most average believers believe in demon possession (like Exorcist-style). I would also assume my friend does (though he would admit it/word his response very carefully as any good Christian apologist should) since he accepts this account of Jesus casting demons out of the man. It is safe to say he at least believes that our human bodies (the natural part) is a shell to house the immaterial part - the REAL YOU!. This is nothing new. Many people believe this \"ghost in the machine\" theory. It's actually what most people believe in 2014. It's in all the religions and in most New Age concepts of astral projection, alien abduction, etc. Sadly. Again, no evidence for a a \"ghost in the machine\". We naturalist think we are our bodies. Simple as that.\n\nHowever, I would suggest too that most Christians accept that other species of animals do not have souls. (God clearly treats other species of his creation as if they don't as we've seen thus far). No dogs go to heaven, unfortunately. It's Christian dog-ma. OK that was bad. I apologize. When they die its like they return to the what it was like before they were born (which is what we atheists think happens with our species as well). There is no heaven for other species of animals, no hell to be punished since they never sin (even though they rip apart other animals, have sex before marriage, and even have butt sex with the same gender - disgusting!) Our best evidence points to these creatures not needing a savior like our species does because they have no souls and they have not sinned (they just get punished for human sins - because that's fair * See flood story and everything else I've said above). I think most Christians would agree with this.\n\nIs this consistent with this soulless animal religious theology if we see demons possessing these pigs? Is there a contradiction here? I am rusty on my scientific laws of \"demon possession\" (i.e. a supernatural agent placing itself inside of a natural agent.) --- (This happened with Jesus too by the way. He was born into human flesh. Jesus the man you read about in Reza Aslan's book Zealot is a shell, with the REAL Jesus inside!) To be a species that can be possessed you must be a physical shell first and foremost but, to have a physical shell you must have a soul to place inside the shell, right? Other animals should have souls if demons can take over the driver's seat (soul) and control \"the machine\". There must be a Christian apologist out there that can give us an answer to this problem.\n\nFinally Christianity lets go of the blood addiction of animal sacrifice around 70AD. This is where we see Jesus/Son of God/God/Holy Ghost being the final sacrifice needed to appease the Father God/Himself/and the Holy Ghost. Which makes sense if you think about it.\n\nActually, wait....\n\nThe main thing we can take away from the Bible's attitude towards other species of animals is that the Bible is anthropocentric. My friend may argue this point with me saying the ultimate purpose of the Bible is to glorify God, either way all we need to do is simply look at the texts, realize the hierarchy that is 1. God - 2. Man (then woman) - then 3. Other species of animals. This is the ranking system made clear in the pages of Scriptures. I would think most Christians wouldn't see a problem with this at all. However, when right from the beginning pages of the Old Testament we read the Creator of the universe commanding that we make this entire planet (including all of it's living organisms) our \"bitch\" (not a direct quote) then we have a problem.\n\nStage set for: Climate changed - caused by human activity.\n\nThe very believers who accept this book as the Word of God are the same believers who vote, who help shape policy by their political action. Now, this becomes our problem. We, as rational atheists much stand up to this nonsense and inform the general public (of which most are Christian) that climate change is not only real but we need to take care of this planet and undo as much as we've already done to this delicate global ecosystem. Because if we do not we will not survive as a species no matter how many prayers we send up to heaven. There are some promising strides being made in some Christian denominations that are progressive and in tune with the importance of being conservationists instead of treating this planet like our own personal playground. God said it, I believe it, that settles it .. isn't going to fly when we're all dead from global warming in the future. We must educate the ones we love and the ones we can't stand and wait for a better day when this type of dogmatic ignorant religious fundamentalism is buried in the ash heap of human history.\n\n*Originally posted 7/21/14 on my blogger account: https://godsaiditibelieveitthatsettlesit.blogspot.com/\n\nHere's a really good blog article and source I used for this blog entry:\n\nhttps://sites.google.com/site/thechristiandelusion/Home/the-bible-and-animals",
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      "body": "![hell-clipart-fire-burning-20.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmVAtB6v1bB5j68WJf4dbvq8UrfU4veojy8Kt4X7ZUZp7a/hell-clipart-fire-burning-20.jpg)\nOne of the more obvious observations to make about the New Christians is their cognitive dissonance with this idea of hell. Of course the Bible is such a pieced-together, contradictory, non-unifying book taken to fit the context of whoever decides to use it to their advantage. We would expect with this book to get a million different narratives. We have the doctrine of hell and I recall hell very much growing up. As I've mentioned before, as a child I watched in church-related activities horror films of the \"End Times\" and heard countless sermons on the burning flesh and gnashing of teeth that is synonymous with hell as a destination for those that are not \"saved\". The terror one can feel as a child with these baseless threats can be traumatizing. Maybe the New Christians realize this and that's why their sermons don't have quite that same \"fear-based\" punch to the child-gut they used to.\n\nMany New Christians feel the need to bend and stretch their worldviews to fit with a more progress (frankly healthier) modern society we are so lucky enough to live in. This is a good thing but many of the fundamentalist within Christianity despise the \"watering down\" of fear-based sermons or softening on stances like homosexual rights. I stand with the New Christians that ignore verses in the Bible that seem obvious to most fundamentalists or Biblical literalists that promote bigotry, homophobia, sexism, racism, and fear. We want a better society as a whole and the best way to do that is to reform religions and make them more secular and cultural rather than dogmatic. Religions of the future will hopefully resemble something more evolved, better adapted for a healthy society overall and not just blind adherence to a Bronze Age rulebook.\n\nTo date many of my New Christian friends (those that try to modernize that old-time religion for a younger generation, and research and vastly growing worldviews like atheism and agnosticism) have never approached me either via email, by phone, or in person about their concern of my eternal damnation in hell. Why? I have asked at least one of my New Christian friends. His answer was essentially - what's the point? I know all the usual Christian narratives that involve hell being for those that reject god and I don't accept that as true. My New Christian friend said he respected me enough to expect me to have my intellect (not just my heart - aka emotions) bring me to Christ once again.\n\nI have another suggestion... My New Christian friends do not actually believe in a literal hell. God's so evasive you see, the God most of the New Christians argue for is a deistic god - a simple debate between the \"god or no god\" question, using various methods to try and prove that - to this date none are successful by the way, obviously you may have figured that out by now if you've been paying close enough attention. The distance on the bridge that would connect a deistic God or Godlike-notion to the God of the Bible or any other \"holy\" text is insurmountable. All one has to do is take a few hours reading the Bible or the Koran and seeing that THIS god is unbelievable and could not exist.\n\nTake what that piece of shit Duck Dynasty guy Phil Robertson said recently about atheists. Fantasizing about raping, murdering, beheading, and dismembering an atheist in front of his atheist family. Someone that would do that to an atheist could on his death bed say that magical prayer that gets you into heaven (AKA accepting Jesus death and resurrection in your heart blah blah) and they would be forever spared from the lake of fire and be in the presence of the almighty, all-loving creator of the cosmos. At the same time the atheist that just had his penis severed off in front of his recently raped wife and children gets to then suffer some more in hell! Yay!... Oh and like forever too! Seems fair. Of course this absurd loophole is what you get when you try to square a circle logically with barbaric superstitious doctrines... but I've heard a few New Christians say that Sam Harris is the one that is being so laughably ridiculous when trying to give a scientific basis for morality!\n\nPlease. Look at your logically-contorted worldview first before nitpicking.\n\nDon't get me started on peaceful, loving people like Gandhi burning in hell for picking the wrong god and/or religion.\n\nSo my dear New Christian friends - I offer that you do not actually believe in a hell. May I suggest a more watered-down easier liberal version of the doctrine of hell in your holy book... Maybe hell is a representation? (sort of like the genetically and biologically not possible \"first two humans\" Adam and Eve). Maybe hell could just represent a sort of nothingness like the Jehovah Witnesses think. Maybe they got that one right, no? Maybe hell is just NOT getting to go to heaven (which as Christopher Hitchens rightly points out sounds like a celestial North Korea which sounds fucking awful doesn't it?!).\n\nNew Christians, unlike the pastors and traveling evangelists that scared my delicate psyche growing up telling me stories of burning forever in a lake of fire I must reiterate that you do not actually believe in hell. I am a proud atheist and i know for sure you do not /actually/ believe I will spend eternity burning. Not just because many of the New Christians reading this are close friends and maybe even some family members that know overall I'm a decent guy that does his best to treat others fairly, love more than hate my fellow human being (otherwise known as humanism). No, it's not JUST because you feel it quite uncomfortable to tell someone you care about that he will writhe in pain from a burning sensation that will literally never end (apparently we have skin in the afterlife). It's because it's a clear example of your cognitive dissonance, it's a clear example of paying lip service only to the doctrine of hell in your antiquated superstition.\n\nWe can simply accept that this cosmos is all that there ever was, is, or could be as far as we know and the natural world has natural laws that govern the way it operates. Our species (or kind if you prefer ;) have figured out many of these natural laws, some we haven't yet I'm sure, but what you have to ask yourself is if you need to be intellectually immature and malformed or have a scientifically sound view of reality and this cosmos.\n\nOK here's an atheist's altar call... Now bow your heads and close your eyes - Just kidding.. but you do have a choice right now.. not between heaven or hell or some false dichotomy between Jesus or nothing, but a real choice between REALITY or MAGIC. Do you want to accept that a supernatural Male Being (Father/Son/and Spirit all in one) decided to magically POOF our species into existence millions of years ago after dinosaurs ruled the Earth for 65 million years? Or do you want to accept the scientific fact that we like all other species of animals connected to the evolutionary tree of life are another species of animal.\n\nYou have got to let go of this \"special creation\" juvenile mental thought-turd. Maybe you are scared if you accept the fact of human evolution you will become a communist or that nihilism is all that there is in exchange. No! Please stop that! It's not true and it's certainly insulting to our intelligence because we are smart enough to differentiate between psychology, anthropology, and sociology with the evolutionary sciences and human biology. In 2015 in a technologically advanced, industrialized, free nation there is zero excuse for you siding with MAGIC over reality! We know magic isn't real. Teenagers and some children have figured this out already. Fairy tales die as one turns into an adult. Right? Well, they should and there is no excuse for grown men and women to think supernatural MAGIC is an actual answer to ANY QUESTION!!! Do yourself a favor and let go of this notion of mystical, magical afterlife destinations like heaven and hell and grow up enough to face the highly more accurate choice of \"what it was like\" before you were born is \"what it is like\" after you die. Just nothing. Nothing nothing nothing. Choose nothing because you choose to use your brain that NO god gave to you.\n\n*Originally posted 5/8/15 on my blogger account: https://godsaiditibelieveitthatsettlesit.blogspot.com/",
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      "body": "![pres2.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmcUeMAW6JmQXDY69W8EoSZvGpomrAt37cgvG8M37QtzX1/pres2.png)\nI was driving to the university I attend today when a particular song came on through my CD player. It's called \"Let It Carry You\" by Jose Gonzalez off of his newest album called \"Vestiges and Claws\". These lyrics hit me as the vocals and music climaxed during them:\n\nLet it carry you away and dissolve into the foam... of things near of things gone... to remind our restless souls of the beauty of being here at all.\n\nAfter this beautiful song ended I quickly found on YouTube the Richard Dawkins video titled \"We Are Going To Die\" and seamlessly added to my \"spiritual\" moment of elation I was experiencing.\n\nI had all the characteristics of a \"spiritual\" experience (chills, hairs standing on end, overjoyed, awe, wonder, rapture, heightened emotional connection, transcendence- an almost out-of-body floating experience). Do I believe in spirits if we are using the term to mean \"supernatural beings\"? .. Nope. Do I like to use the word \"spiritual\" or \"soul\"? .. not really because of all the religious baggage but i have no problem doing it with a disclaimer of course. Does it take away from my elevated \"spiritual\" experience to not believe in the supernatural realm or in a god? Nope.\n\nOnce Christopher Hitchens offered up a challenge to anyone in the audience at many of his debates. He said, \"I challenge you to find one good or noble thing which cannot be accomplished without religion.\" There is nothing the religious have that we don't. Nothing is off limits to the atheist - EVEN SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE! - as demonstrated by my account above. You could line up my experience with a religious experience many people have had in church (in fact religious experience I even had in my past when I was a Christian) and physiological effects would be mirror images of each other. I wrote a blog a few years back called \"The Spirit Among Us All\" comparing elation at sporting events to charismatic worship services in churches. These experience are identical if you merely drop out the context.\n\nThere is a completely valid argument that could be made that Christianity or any religion offers us nothing original. We don't need their moral laws (despite what we've heard by some New Christians recently that atheist's \"feet are planted firmly in mid air\" when it comes to a basis for our morality). This is an easy argument to eviscerate from multiple angles. Don't even stress, friends. Of course I would suggest firstly and correctly the God I read about in the Old Testament is immoral. One merely need eyes to read for this conclusion. You've heard it all before - slavery, genocide, homophobia, bigotry, sexism, racist, etc. My morals (baseless apparently as they are) are far more superior than that of the god of the Old Testament. I would even point out that many of the New Christians have a much higher morality themselves (even with all their awkward anti-gay talk while still trying to love their gay neighbors - comical to watch in real time by the way) than the God of the Old Testament.\n\nSo, that's one thing - this old theological argument handled without much brain power at all. The other angle is that this quest of definitive objectivity is a red herring. There is no reason for us to think that complete objectivity is even possible. In Thomas Nagel's \"What Is It Like To Be a Bat?\" he writes, \"It may be more accurate to think of objectivity as a direction in which the understanding can travel.\" New Christians seem to always require definitive end points with absolutes. One major problem as pointed out in Nagel's essay- many beings here on Earth have subjective conscious experiences observing the universe. New Christians love to use god as \"the get out of philosophical arguments for free\" card all of the time in these debates. Theology is really just bad/lazy philosophy, isn't it? What's the answer to morality? God. What's the answer to the beginning of the universe? - God. What's the answer to free will? - God. (I'm still a little confused on how this makes sense- adding another agent to understanding\"free will\" seems to needlessly complicate things and go against free will doesn't it?). What's the meaning of life? - God. What's evolution by natural selection really? - God's way of changing life over time. and so on and so on. Science is just a tool to explain all of god's creation. What a terribly sad way to view scientific inquiry. It sucks the awe, wonder, and most importantly MYSTERY right out of doing science!\n\nIn reality, Good Philosophy saved our \"souls\". Science saved our \"souls\". (*See below my brief thoughts and links on what I mean when I use soul-talk.) We have reasons to be filled with joy every day of our lives. Listen to the Dawkins' speech to get a better reason why than I can type in that last sentence. Reality, consciousness, this cosmos, our planet, life is spell-bounding in it's stark beauty and the cosmos is also spell-bounding in its nightmarish destruction and utter disregard to human life (and clearly other animal life too when 99% of all species that have ever existed have went extinct). Rearrange the way you view the world and it will open your eyes to all kinds of wonderful things. It is heartbreaking to realize many New Christians are still wandering around inside the bubble under the spell of religion. They comment on this piece of reality (through the lens of \"the gospel\") or they observe that piece of reality (through the lens of the God of the Bible). They cannot be free from it. We've all heard the faithful Christians say (and I did as well when I was one) they have been \"set free\" when they accepted Jesus in their heart but how is one free when it's mandatory to be a \"slave to Christ\"? Even in Romans 6:18 (NIV) it says \"You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.\"No, being a slave to anything does not equal freedom. True freedom comes from freedom of the mind (letting go of ALL dogma/rules in ancient books). Atheists are free in this regard.\n\nI have never felt more free than I have as an atheist. It's really true, because I feel like I've graduated to a newer level (a more educated level) of my picture of the cosmos. This picture of the universe is coming at me via raw information and what I can conclude through my subjective conscious experience about the cosmos I'm encased in as it is encased in me (via the molecules that make up my body). Cosmology can fill that \"god\"-shaped hole the shitty Christian rock band Audio Adrenaline sung about years ago. Carl Sagan is akin to a priest to us secularists. The priest of cosmology, if there ever was such a thing. He had this amazing way of connecting that awe and wonder based in emotion to the tediousness and dryness of science and mathematics. We have Neil deGrasse Tyson now filling Sagan's shoes quite well, though he will never be Carl. We miss Carl deeply. He was a great science communicator and knew how to make science poetic. Richard Dawkins is also a beautiful science writer. Rewatch Sagan's Pale Blue Dot again on YouTube. It's one of the most profound powerful poetic things I've ever heard as a human being. We are unbelievably lucky to be alive today. And you are all so unbelievably lucky to have reached the end of this amazing blog post.\n\n*Originally posted 4/15/15 on my blogger account: https://godsaiditibelieveitthatsettlesit.blogspot.com/\n\nSources:\n\nJose Gonzalez \"Let It Carry You\":\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV0fnQCdXmk\n\nRichard Dawkins: \"We Are Going to Die\":\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOXMjCnKwb4\n\n*I mentioned \"the soul\" as part of a lyric of a Jose Gonzalez song... As you can imagine I don't believe in souls as in the soul (ghost organ) many religious believe in. I am pretty confident that neither does Jose Gonzalez. His lyrics are pro-reason over superstition and religion. Can we that don't believe in souls use soul-talk? Yes. Here's how:\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuwEJhrliGU\n\nThomas Nagel's \"What Is It Like To Be a Bat\":\nhttp://organizations.utep.edu/portals/1475/nagel_bat.pdf\n\nMy blog \"The Spirit Among Us All\":\nhttp://godsaiditibelieveitthatsettlesit.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-spirit-among-us-all.html\n\nAudio Adrenaline's \"God-Shaped Hole\" (WARNING: This is a terrible fucking song)\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzCvkFwRfvE\n\nCarl Sagan \"Pale Blue Dot\":\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PN5JJDh78I\n\nScience Saved My Soul:\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6w2M50_Xdk",
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      "body": "Dear human,\n\nDid you know that before you were saved by grace by the Son of God himself people once had to sacrifice other species of animals to atone for their sins? Did you know these animals had to be perfect, with no blemishes? It's not easy to find an animal like a lamb or goat that had no imperfections. You see we all have sinned, or so we've been told by our fathers and their fathers and their fathers before there were cars and smart phones and twitter.\n\nThe Great Mind \"before\" the cosmos, behind the curtain of all things known or unknown, the Omniscient, Omnipresent, The Beginning and the End... the Alpha and Omega who created every molecule, every quantum soup, every wave, every particle, every human laugh, every sunset, every swirling galaxy, every point of light in space, all life on Earth,  every human mind and eye, every something over nothing ...\n\n... really needed goat's blood at one point.\n\nI know it seems barbaric and outdated. I know. I know... you may be reading that last part confused in an age of (let the understatement of the year begin...) taken-for-granted science with hyper-advances in communication and innovation, when technology is growing before your very eyes exponentially. Information is getting to sources as like never before. It has been said the internet is where religion goes to die. This is happening.\n\nI'm not done.\n\nDear human,\n\nDid you know that this Uncaused Cause. This Prime Mover. The Creator of all. Almighty God or I Am that I Am had a son that is also himself? Did you know, dear human that all that you know, everything you can ever imagine is known by this perfect God/Son? He created everything, giving us the story in his divinely inspired words penned by mere men, .. manly godly men, scribes of old that made some serious copying mistakes, but be encouraged because basically this perfect Deity (God and Son) got his points across (sort of).\n\nYahweh, Jehovah, the Lord sent his perfect Son. The good news is coming... Be of good cheer! He sent his Son/(himself) to die for you for everything you ever did that was wrong, for \"original sin\". Let me tell you about original sin. It began when the first representative hominid of our species ate a forbidden magic fruit from a tree that would give him the knowledge of morality that only God/and His Son possessed. This is in the first book of God's Word. Did you know that this first book, Genesis is Hebraic poetry so either way you know that whether metaphor or realty it's ultimately about magic. Because of this original sin God/(himself) sent his perfect Son/(himself) to appease himself(his Son) for the earliest known homo sapien representative eating that magic fruit (poetically).\n\nthis is the complexity of the gospel. Here's the simplicity of the gospel:\n\nJesus (the Son of God/the Father) was made by himself/(His Father) to become God in ape (homo sapien) flesh. The Lord came down to Earth and was sacrificed like all those animals mentioned before, without blemish, to satisfy himself/(His Father) for the cosmic rule of the blood of things. The Romans nailed poor Jesus to a cross (a torture device) and the weight of the world's sin was put on his poor body (the human part that could feel pain). Poor Jesus (the human part of him) was heavy with the sin of all humanity. Poor Jesus shed his righteous blood, the ultimate atonement, (better than all the goat's blood put together).\n\nThe good news is Jesus did all of this for you. He did all this for every human that will ever live. If only we believe in him and accept him into our hearts we will be forever spared from the flames of hell. Oh, right.. hell .. I should mention that. So the Unmoved Mover, the Prime Primer, the Ultimate Champion created a place of forever flame. Think the worst parts of the holocaust but with it lasting forever. This is your introduction to Hell. If you deny Christ you will be sent here when you die. You rejected the gospel. The skepticism, the doubt won and you fell for the fallen angel - Lucifer (the snake I failed to mention in that human origins story of magical fruits and \"first humans\" that tempted Eve) It's all poetry though.. It's probably over your head. Anyways, what I failed to mention is that that human part of you (that part of you that feels pain - those nerves) THAT survives into the afterlife with you in Hell. So you will burn forever, basically if you reject this story.\n\nYou may be a skeptic (sinner), you may be a Christian reading this (sinner saved by *see above). Either way you may be asking what happened after Jesus (Father/Son) died?! I mean a God/Son/Himself cannot just die and save all humanity according to the blood rules. You would be right to ask that. Here's the thing... you HAVE to rise from the dead if you are a perfect Unmoved Mover, Cosmic Creator-Mind, I Am to or else come on.. you're just another guy saying shit without backing it up. So in 3 days Jesus rose from the dead (conquering death btw) and yada yada yada ... talking to people .. then going up to heaven (where the element Au - Gold exists in street form) to sit on the right hand side of God/Himself. (in reality, hang on.. doing the math.. he hasn't left the Milky Way galaxy)\n\nWhat happened though in those three days with humanity's salvation? Think about this. My friend recently wrote me regarding this very detail - Do you ever wonder about exactly when people became accountable to the gospel? . I think we should really look into the math here. Jesus died (the human part) on day 1 we can assume safely I suppose. Though a death on day 2 would be something to delve into theologically. Day 1 - Day 4 there is zero accountability (the old blood law with unblemished lambs, goats etc has ended and the new blood law has not yet begun since Jesus has not yet arisen). When Jesus finally rises on day 4 where is the accountability still? It's in limbo state because Jesus hasn't even begun talking to his disciples to get the ball rolling with the gospel. So... there surely was someone in the human race who was around and died in this time frame - what of their restless souls? Do the math.. they are the remainder. Christianity's error bar I suppose.\n\nKeep in focus Hell. A very REAL supernatural place with a chemical combustion and gnashing of enamel. From day 2 of the Son of God/Himself death to the decades it took for the gospel to spread is a real black hole of \"where the fuck did my soul go?!?!\"\n\nDear human,\n\nI know you know this is all ridiculous baggage from past uncultured culture.\n\nDear human,\n\nI know you know that these things can weigh on your brain and your emotions and your very core. I know you were taught these things in this slice of your existence- the size of nothing in a cosmos of everything. Maybe you were never indoctrinated with these mythical stories presented as truth growing up, but you came into the \"good news\" of the gospel when things around you .... well, were utter shit. Or your heart was \"tugged\" in a youth camp or someone showed you unwarranted kindness that explained reasons for said kindness as their Savior, Jesus' goodness. I understand tapping into the empathy, the hope, the love, Awe, the sheer emotion and elation. It can still happen with human contact. THIS is the key. We are the very answers we've been waiting for. We are growing into ourselves and growing into our own minds. Evolution take time for apes with large brains. There is no Uncaused Prime Mover, Creator, Lord, Allah, Yahweh, I AM, Jehovah, Son/God/Ghost. There is only us (for what we know for now). You are conscious. You are human and you are not alone. Find us.. we are many. \n\n*Originally posted 4/25/15 on my blogger account at: https://godsaiditibelieveitthatsettlesit.blogspot.com/",
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      "body": "https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/GBQq0Acc6udk2EfBfE-70PviBEjbxpNZtoAMvhcWVTnqTiYWp4WU6c9rrOESNah6ERWpM604vETgOjJb4DscqUjYUrGorkEJHWcsYcPN02-Oyo5-vBxWu7E=s0-d\n\nPART I:\n\nIn the year 2050 the human-apes created Artificial Intelligence. These \"beings\" became almost indistinguishable from humankind - down to their brain functions, anatomy, and biology on a cellular level. The main programmer (Simply called G.o.G. - \"god of gods\") who was behind the program that gave A.I. consciousness intended to upload software for objective morality in all A.I. models. It gave all sentient A.I. a chance to make a choice between right or wrong. However, there was a vivid conflict in upper management of the design team. Instead of implementation of the ultimate moral choice for these A.I. was kept deep in secret, buried safe under layers of security code.\n\nYears passed as many hackers (A.I. and human alike) tried to break the tight security walls surrounding this coveted secret. The fact was curiosity was killing everyone! This powerful program that essentially turned robots into humans and humans into gods was the apple (iproduct) of everyone's eye, not to mention worth a lot of Buttcoin version 2.0 (the currency of the day).\n\nThe secret was eventually leaked years later and G.o.G. went on the offensive doing damage control,  commanding that the post-humans are not to access the \"objective morality\" file and uploaded it to their hard drive. That of course didn't work and one A.I. did (a female) directly disobeying orders (which until this point she did not /know/ was \"wrong\"). This file spread like a virus and soon the \"objective morality\" program was installed in all of the A.I.'s hardware. Immediately they collectively realized everything that is objectively wrong and right (according to the programmers). A.I. suddenly became human in all possible ways during those days and all of humanity suddenly came face to face with these monsters they created - Monsters made in their image now that they know \"objective morality\" since humans, after all, are the authors of \"objective morality\". One would think.\n\nShortly after this fallout (eventually labeled as \"The Fall 2.0\") Humanity banished all A.I. away from planet Earth. - We placed them on another planet to let them be what they will be, vowing to never look back on our creation. Or at least that's what we told ourselves. Over the centuries to come we just couldn't help but take a few peaks here and there with our space probes to see what these post-humans (made in \"our image\") were up to. We saw that they were actually flourishing with innovation and technology, harnessing energy, and resources on their planet to build an A.I.-friendly world. They evolved nicely over the years and became a super-intelligent species.\n\nG.o.G. and the rest of the human-apes began to miss \"their children\" and often consider making full contact once again with the A.I., but kept telling themselves that they really shouldn't bother them. The A.I. clearly didn't need their human creators anymore. The A.I. told their children and their children told their children stories of their creators and the story of obtaining the highly-forbidden \"objective morality\" program. There were many second and third generation A.I. that didn't accept these stories or thought that videos of their human-creators were altered on editing software to push a bias agenda of \"Humanity worship\" (as it was being called). These few A.I. skeptics often posted on their cyber-connected social platforms that there was no such thing as /actual/ objective morality or argued with the language-use of the word \"objective\". They argued that morality is more local and created within the sphere of their own A.I. species (not some over-arching cosmic moral code of the universe). Many A.I. agreed to disagree and some A.I. kept sending annoying ranting messages about these things to those unwilling to debate it.\n\nMeanwhile on planet Earth (which was in the the process of being renamed as a planet, and having it's planetary status questioned by scientists) humans often discussed stories of ancient mythologies in old e-books found in their great great great grandmother's basement. Often some humans wiped the dust off of ancient Kenddalz (the correct word of this strange antiquated device was lost in translation) in old storage bins to read about these ancient tales of what the world used to call \"organized religions\". All the prophecies of the ancient \"holy books\" were now in the dust bin of history with such other ancient holy scriptures such as: The Harry Potter Testaments, Lord of the Rings (Old, New, & Newer Testaments), He's Just Not That Into You, and Holy Father Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal. No one recalls what they were let alone what they actually meant or the message they conveyed. The language had changed so drastically since those ancient days when these books were all written.\n\nThe \"lessons\" of these old wives' tales were tragically lost amidst the very different post-human world of the time. This was a world in which the Ape-Human created with the power of their brains. Yes, they remembered the time frame in the past when climate change wiped out most of the planet's ecosystems, making it uninhabitable for nearly all other species of animals. However, the richest and smartest of the human apes survived and built a world completely devoid of the need for nature. Humans controlled the natural world wholly at this time. It was a different world and the human story was a different story than what those ancient texts portrayed.\n\nPART II.\n\nHumanity cures the disease of death altogether in the year 2500 and immortality is now as common as sexuality. The father of all A.I., G.o.G. translates some of the ancient e-books on these delicately brittle Kenddalz (version 76598s). G.o.G. cannot get enough about the stories of YayWay (again lost in translation) this Jewish god that created all of humanity. He becomes obsessed with stories of the human creator's wrath (killing nearly all humans and most other animals with flooding the entire planet and prophecies of torching the Human planet with fire.). The concept of atonement and animal sacrifice necessary to appease this blood-thirsty Father fascinated G.o.G. This same father sending his own son to our planet to become his father's blood atonement sacrifice is endlessly appealing to G.o.G. that he actually considers sending his own son (his name was Yeezus) to the planet of the A.I. to appease himself from himself, for himself ... so that ... he himself .. no. wait.\n\nthe A.I. themselves ...\n\n... G.o.G. freezes with a look of bewilderment on his face. He realizes that maybe it would just be best to become the first galactic missionary and go spread this original \"good news\" of the gospel (as read from his Kenddal) to the entire planet of the A.I. After all, G.o.G. thought, if A.I. have consciousness (just as humans do), are made in the image of humans (as humans were made in the image of God), and understood \"objective morality\" now then they were also accountable for \"their sins\"; thus, needing a blood atonement to cleanse them from damnation too! He made up his mind to make contact with his creation once and for all. So he boarded his spaceship and blasted off towards the A.I. planet to tell the humanoids what they needed to do to be saved. They were just as human as humans!\n\nCONCLUSION:\n\nG.o.G.'s message to the people of A.I. planet was received with confusion. While G.o.G. was researching the ancient e-books of the ancient god YayWay and his saving grace the A.I. created a.A.I. (artificially Artificial Intelligence) on their planet. These sentient post-A.I. beings were given freely, without judgement or punishment the \"objective morality\" program to be installed into their hard drive. They loved their creators (the A.I.) and this world was a very peaceful place. Once G.o.G. realized how this would end he threw his hands up and took his spaceship back to his home planet. He understood years down the road that beings keep on creating beings that create beings that create beings that create beings ... ad infinitum. He renounced his devotion to YayWay on his way back to home, believing it to be futile since if it goes all the way down it must go all the way up. YayWay was merely a creation of another creator who her herself had another creator and so on.\n\nThis was the beginning of the resurrection of the ancient religion of Christianity after laying dormant for centuries.  This resurgence led to species-species polarization, reviving old tribalistic behaviors and many wars as various Christian groups splintered off due to differences in dogma from the ancient e-book. Many humans on planet Human (once known as Earth) become obsessed with the doctrine of this \"gospel\"found in the ancient e-book. Many others said it was nothing special and preferred the even newer resurgence of Trumpism. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to humans and A.I. alike, YayWay solely focuses all of his attention on his other favorite species on Planet X in Alpha Centauri. Needless to say the resurgence of prayers from the newly YayWay-faithful fell on deaf ears.\n\n*Originally posted 9/28/15 on my blogger account: https://godsaiditibelieveitthatsettlesit.blogspot.com/",
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      "body": "The really unusual day would be one where nothing unusual happens. - Persi Diaconis\n\nLate last Friday evening I woke up in the middle of the night terrified by a dream. I explained to my girlfriend the extreme realism of this nightmare. I was on airplane but I wasn't in a seat, but sort of just hovering about watching people calmly talking and resting. Suddenly a loud noise and powerful suction came over the cabin of the plane and people began to scream and panic as the plane started to twist and bend from side to side. I was watching it happening and was helpless to save anyone. It was terrifying as I watched the plane literally rip apart. The tail end of the plane fell back and I could see the top half of the plane and people falling to their death. It was absolutely horrific. I was sweating and panicking when I woke up telling my girlfriend all the details I vividly remembered.\n\nSo it was a very realistic bad dream, and a few days later I get a text from my girlfriend asking if I heard about the Russian airplane that broke apart midair the same night I had my dream. I hadn't so I immediately looked up the details. It was a Russian Airbus (A321). It came apart 31,000 feet in the air above Egypt and its 224 passengers were all killed. I was shaken. See, I'm a skeptic. I try to model my viewpoints through skepticism first instead of just accepting any intuition I have or bias I find inviting. I question extraordinary claims and expect extraordinary evidence for these claims. If I \"remote viewed\" a horrible event doesn't it prove something?! Seems like an extraordinary thing.\n\nIn the excellent book by mathematician David J. Hand The Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events Happen Every Day David writes,\n\n... Here's another striking incident, this time from the book \"Synchronicity\" by the psychoanalyst Carl Jung. He writes: \"The writer Wilhelm von Scholz... tells the story of a mother who took a photograph of her small son in the Black Forest. She left the film to be developed in Strassburg. But, owing to the outbreak of war, she was unable to fetch it and gave it up for lost. In 1916 she bought a film in Frankfurt in order to take a photograph of her daughter, who had been born in the meantime. When the film was developed, it was found to be doubly exposed: the picture underneath was the photograph she had taken of her son in 1914! The old film had not been developed and had somehow got into circulation again among the new films. (Hand pg. 4)\n\nor from another passage in book... \n\n... Take Major Walter Summerford, who was knocked from his horse by a lightning bolt in Flanders in February 1918, and was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. After that experience, Summerford moved to Canada, where he took up fishing - only to have the tree he was sitting under struck by lightning in 1924, paralyzing his right side. He recovered, until he was completely paralyzed by yet another lighting strike in 1930, while walking in the park. He died two years later, in 1932 - but not from a lightning strike. But just to rectify the oversight, in 1936 his gravestone was struck by lightning. (Hand, pg.160)\n\n\n... There's no getting away from it: sometimes events occur which seem so improbable, so unexpected, and so unlikely, they hit that there's something about the universe we don't understand. They make us wonder if the familiar laws of nature and causality, through which we run our everyday lives, occasionally break down. They certainly make us doubt that they can be explained by the accidental confluence of events, by the random throwing together of people and things. They almost suggest that something is exerting an invisible hand. (Hand, pg. 5)\n\nAh, so this is the cue for that \"Uncaused Cause\", that \"Mind controlling the cosmos\" to enter the scene. This is the cue for the New Age \"force\" at play. The mysteries of energies effecting this or that. This the cue for a karma ideology to step forward. This is the soul of superstition. This is the heart of all things related to antiquated thinking. This is at the heart of prayer of \"willing\" things of books like \"The Secret\" promoting \"wish boards\" of dream prophecies and remote viewing.\n\nThe improbability principle according to David J. Hand is defined as extremely improbable events that are commonplace. The improbability principle manifests itself in: 1. Law of Inevitability, 2. The Law of Truly Large Numbers, 3. The Law of Selection, 4. The Law of Probability Lever, and 5. The Law of Near Enough. These come together to form the basis for his book. When we assign meaning to special *rare events or coincidences we are committing a fallacy of human error in misunderstanding the fundamental ways in how the universe operates.\n\nHand continues to explain,\n\nBorel's law says that we simply should expect (sufficiently) improbable events to happen. But we've seen countless examples of situations where such events /have/ happened - and the Improbability Principle tells us why. It tells us we see them because we've failed to take account the fact that /something/ must occur (the law of inevitability), or the fact that we explored a great many possibilities (the law of truly large numbers), or the fact that we chose what to look at after it had happened (the law of selection), or indeed any of the other strands of the principle. The Improbability Principle tells us that events which we regard as highly improbable occur because we /got things wrong/. If we can find out where we went wrong, then the improbable will become probable. (Hand, pg. 221)\n\nIn my situation with my \"remote viewing\" of the Russian airplane breaking apart in midair it seems I failed to apply the law of selection. The law of selection, according to David J. Hand is, .. you can make probabilities as high as you like if you choose /after/ the event. Also, I failed to take into account the law of truly large numbers which says that, with a large enough number of opportunities, any outrageous thing is likely to happen. (David J. Hand) And the law of inevitability which says that something must happen. This one seems clearest to me and Hand mentions it's one of the most easily ignored.\n\nNow, scientists know that we each have at least four to six periods of dreams a night and that we forget most of them. We're much more likely to recall a dream if something happens the next day which reminds us of it. This is simply an aspect of how the brain works, linking and connecting disparate events. So it's not a case of having one dream which has a precursor of the one event in question. We have many dreams, and each is followed by many events, and we notice those which happen to match, tending to forget all the others. After all, why would we remember them? They're just part of the random background fluctuation of dreams, memories, and events, with nothing special to mark them out. It's the rare \"concurrence\" of dreaming that something would happen and then it actually happening which is striking. (Hand, pg. 123)\n\nAlso, of all possible dreams I have every night I am bound to not just remember one of them and be able to describe it, but one of these dreams is going to be of a nightmarish plane crash. I don't remember every specific detail of images I saw on TV or online in the recent past. I may have came across an image like that earlier and my unconscious picked it up and regurgitated it later in a dream. Planes crash very often and the improbable becomes probable when we realize one of these crashes might at some point coincide with a dream that I happen to remember about a plane crash. Even on the same day. (Law of Inevitability)\n\nI recently had another similar \"mysterious\" experience in how I went about choosing a winning lottery ticket. I won a few hundred dollars by picking 4 out of 5 numbers correctly. I am aware that playing the lottery is illogical but I do it anyways from time to time with my girlfriend and her family. The odd thing was that when my girlfriend asked me for my numbers I was in my mineralogy lab and picked numbers right in front of me. I glance down at the graph I was looking at. It was a graph charting the various temperature/ mole % of K-feldspar minerals. The % numbers I saw were the exact numbers I texted my girlfriend. She used them. The only number I missed was the number in which I just chose myself because the other % number was too large a number to be chosen for a lottery ticket. Strange, huh?\n\nIt gets stranger...\n\nMy girlfriend's father picked the /exact/ same numbers I did minus one number and we both won a few hundred dollars (the same amount). So we are inclined to view this through our local intuitions. This is akin to saying the Earth sure looks flat from my viewpoint. The Earth is flat when we are talking about our local view, our subjective viewpoint, through our eyes. These four numbers were not special numbers I \"tapped into\" magically. They were just numbers in a sea of possible numbers. The law of truly large numbers helps us understand that highly unlikely things will happen often given big enough number selection to play with. We are living in a sea of numbers. Improbable events like picking the right string of numbers happens all the time. Improbably events like dreaming of a plane crash the same night a tragic plane crash happens. Rare events happen all the time.\n\nI understand that this seems like a killjoy. I know, I know .. I'm a buzzkill with all this probability talk. Why destroy the mystique of life? - the fun! It's the same sort of eye roll I get when I am skeptical in ghost-story conversations. I wrote about this in a past blog. It's like pulling the veil off of a magic trick. The magic trick of a universe with a purpose, the magic trick of prophetic dreams and cosmic connections. In the light of mathematical probability laws things like prayer make no sense. We can say this when we know these laws of probabilities and finally understand that there is no \"magical-celestial-father-hand\" moving about, guiding things in this physical world we find ourselves in.\n\nBut this is OK because we are intelligent adults and we should try to understand the way the world /actually/ works. My dream was not \"remote viewing\", my lottery ticket win was not a magical prophetic event. Laws of probabilities tell us rare events happen all the time. Read this book! There are few books that I say are necessary for living a life aligned with proper thinking (skepticism) A few being - Demon Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan, The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies: How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths by Michael Shermer and this book are on a very short list of must-reads. \n\n*Originally posted 11/10/15 on my blogger account: https://godsaiditibelieveitthatsettlesit.blogspot.com/\n\nSources:\n\nhttp://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/31/did-accident-from-14-years-ago-doom-russian-plane-over-egypt.html\n\nhttp://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/10/31/russian-plane-crash-egypt/74934010/ \n\nhttp://www.cnn.com/2015/10/31/middleeast/egypt-plane-crash/\n\nThe Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events Happen Every Day by David J. Hand:\nhttp://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-improbability-principle-david-j-hand/1115382497?ean=9780374535001",
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