Birthing a notion

It floats around like swarms of mosquitoes that annoy and annoy. It’s seems like such a minor thing but it just doesn’t go away and to kill it takes a lot of effort. I’m talking about the “birth controversy” regarding Obama.

There is a segment of the population that contends that Obama wasn’t born in the US and therefore can’t be the President. The controversy is fanned various groups all over the internet and on TV by many including Lou Dobbs, who was thought to be a reasonable reporter. Despite the evidence of a live birth certificate issued by Hawaii and newspaper clippings announcing his birth, the "birthers" continue their rant. What we are dealing with here is not that Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii (he was) but that the belief of him not being born in the US is kept alive by those who cling to that belief despite the evidence.

It’s a classic case of intractable belief. You’ve seen cases like this before. There are those who contend that the attacks of 9/11was the work of the US government to get us to go war in Iraq. Or that the crash of TWA flight 800 off Long Island on July 17, 1996 was caused by a missile fired by a military jet or an onboard terrorist. Once a notion or belief is created and held by an individual, no amount of contrary evidence will do.

The same is true of those who hold a religious belief. No amount of discussion will change the mind of the believer. The more you talk to them the more their view gets entrenched. As Carol Tarvis and Elliot Aronson point out in their book “ Mistakes were made (but not by me)”, “the brain comes packaged with other self-serving habits that allow us to justify our own perceptions and beliefs as being accurate, realistic, and unbiased.”

So the “birthers” will continue to rant until they tire but the religious believers go on forever inflicting their nonsense on us. I would say "Jesus help us!" but he seems to be a slacker of late.

Foxy News

I’ve never been a fan of Fox News or the Fox Network. It’s been apparent to me that it leans so far right that it’s not even funny. Except for their tag line - “Fair and Balanced.” Now that’s laughable.

Anyway a video was recently put up on the blog “Pharyngula” by P.Z. Myers that was in response to a piece that Bill O’Reilly did some time ago about the Netherlands. Seems, according to O’Reilly, the Netherlands was shutting down some prostitute houses and curbing pot use. The point O’Reilly and others were making was that all this liberal business by the Dutch was leaving the country in a “cesspool of corruption”(1) according to conservative talking head Monica Crowley, Ph.D. Again according to these Fox Network folks, the Netherlands was where every criminal, crack head and whore were going. However the video countered with some interesting stats like the percentage of people who ever used cannabis in the US is 40.3% while in the Netherlands it’s 22.6% and a more telling stat was that the homicide rate per 100,000 in the US is 5.6 while it’s 1.2 in the Netherlands. Of course remember that America is a good Christian country loaded with guns and while the Dutch are not!

What concerns me with this story is not the blather that O’Reilly and others at Fox News put out but the fact that most who watch this network don’t bother to check the facts or even care about the facts. Fox News and the various programs they broadcast are little more that a bunch of biased right wing yoyos who spout garbage and inanities while their loyal audience just eats it up without question. In my opinion Fox News is developing a group of Americans who buy into what ever is said on their network that supports their beliefs, whether it’s true or not. The fact that most of their viewers see what they say as the “truth” is very worrisome. Fox News is not even journalism – it’s a forum for who ever want to speak their mind regardless of the facts. A case in point is Glenn Beck, another Fox yoyo, who recently said that Obama has a “hatred for white people.”(2) Fox News will say that Glenn Beck is not a journalist but a commentator, but their viewers don’t know the difference.

We need, as a country, to have citizens who that want to dig for the truth, that don’t buy into what one person may say without hearing from others, and who hold belief until they make a careful analysis of all facts. I fear that that’s not going to happen. It’s a lot like the Sunday preacher who tells his sheep, excuse me, congregation to believe even though it doesn’t make sense. Perish the thought that believers would want to question things. That’s heresy!!!

[1] “Well, in the Netherlands their experimentation with social tolerance, free love, free drugs, clearly has backfired. Amsterdam is a cesspool of corruption, crime. Everything is out of control. It's anarchy. And as you point out, you know, one of the great magnets for tourism in Amsterdam was this, except it has now crossed the line and gotten totally out of control.” Monica Crowley on the O’Reilly Report, December 9, 2008

[2] “This president has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people, or the white culture, I don't know what it is.” Glenn Beck on video posted on “Crooks and Liars” July 28, 2009

How stupid can you be!

Ireland has just passed a law that punishes anyone who makes "blasphemous" remarks about a religion that offends a number of adherents. The fine is 25,000 Euros.

First of all, how do you enforce such stupidity? Do you have to read all the newspapers, watch all the TV broadcasts, listen to all the radio programs and read ALL the Internet? Come on!

Secondly, religion it's self will be in trouble with this law. How many time have you heard Muslims calling for the death of Christians and Jews? Every time a Christian preacher states that Muslims are going to hell because they don't have the "right" religion, would they be subject to this law?

Now granted this law is an Irish law and doesn't affect other countries but it is a trend that is very worrisome.

Recently the UN tried to pass a resolution calling on countries to try and prevent people from speaking ill of people who hold religious views. In other words if you say that Christians are nuts for believing in a space daddy who rewards and punishes them after they die, are you guilty of blasphemy?

For centuries, religious individuals have blasted non-believers in nasty ways. Just look at the nutty believers at the Westboro Baptist Church in the news that carry signs saying that "God hates Fags." Believers can be very nasty, even violent especially around abortion.

Religion needs to be always questioned. Religion continually makes assertions about many things that affect us all especially science. You only have to look at Christians who are pushing for the teaching of Intelligent Design in science courses under the guise of "Teach the Controversy" and other such nonsense.

It's apparent in Europe and some Far East countries that religion is loosing it's grip on the population but they continue to use every tool available to maintain some sort of influence for as long as they can. Even in the U.S. more and more people are indicating that they are non-religious or at least do not proscribe to any particular religion. At the same time you see the very vocal Christian opposition to things like abortion, stem cell research and evolution. The only way to call Christians on their claims is to speak up. It's not blasphemy, it's telling it like it is.

Sarah, we hardly knew ya...

Not that I really cared about Sarah Palin but her quitting as Alaska's Governor doesn't surprise me in the least. I never could understand why the GOP gushed all over her except that maybe the GOP, being a party of middle aged horny white guys and she being a hot chick, aroused them.... you know.. down there! But all this spinning of her resignation is funny to watch because the political right is trying their darnedest to show her as smart and cagey. Listen GOP, maybe she just doesn't have the stomach to handle all the pressure of political life.

Can you imagine her running for national office now, of any kind, and the first question to her is going to be "How long do you intend to stay in office?"

If Sarah was the new GOP, boy are they in trouble! Democrats, don't get cocky. You got to get your act together too.

Christian nation?

I got an email from a person I knew in the Service many, many years ago. The email was about Obama saying at some point that "America is not a Christian nation." As you can imagine this upset my friend, who is, I guess, a devout Christian now. The email was basically a chain email for folks to send to others.

I was going to respond to him directly but since it's been many years since I've known him I decided to respond in my blog.

I think Obama was right in saying that the U.S. is not a Christian nation. I know many Christians who want to force their religion on others but we are not a Christian nation. More correctly, in my view, we are a nation OF Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, AND non-believers. The government of the the U.S. must be secular, taking no position on any religion. Hence the separation of church and state. I do not want to be a Christian nor do I want our government to run at the will of Christians. In fact, if the U.S. government were to favor one religion, which it seems to be sliding towards, then it will be to the detriment of all religions and all Americans.

We had eight years of Bush siding with the religious right and see what it got us! Let's move towards the other direction!

My aching back!

There's an article in the Boston Globe that caught my attention. It's about a man, Jack Sullivan, from Marshfield Massachusetts who in August 2001 prayed to some dead Cardinal to cure him of the terrible back pain he was having. This piqued my interest because I too have experienced very bad back pain that over time eased up and went away. But the curious part of this story was that when he did this prayer thing to Cardinal John Newman from England, it was AFTER surgery on his back at New England Baptist Hospital in Boston. Gee makes you wonder!

The story goes that in June of 2000, Jack Sullivan had some vertebrae squeezing on his spinal cord. He apparently had some surgery then (the story isn't too clear on that) and he prayed to Cardinal Newman at that time. According to the story he was then pain free for eight months before the pain returned (prayer cure timed out?). He again had back surgery and again he prayed. Now he's been pain free since (according to him).

Now having had back issues for many, many years and knowing that if it isn't serious, most back pain eases with rest and mild exercise. Yes in some cases surgery is needed and the outcome to back surgeries is not good in many cases. But sometimes it works.

So my question is, what really caused the cessation of back pain? Prayer or surgery? How many times had Jack been praying to Cardinal Newman or to God and nothing happened? How serious was the back issue and what do doctors say about this? Given what we know about back problems and how they sometimes respond to treatment/surgery and how they sometimes get better on their own, it makes you at least question as to the efficacy of prayer in this case.

Of course the faithful will tout this as proof that God answers prayers - sometimes! It's a case of how we are quick to jump to some conclusion that supports our beliefs while ignoring the obvious. It's also interesting that Jack had opted for back surgery. He could of saved a lot of money if he had prayed first to cure his back problem before going in for surgery. I guess believers like it both ways!

And me of no faith.

I have just finished reading "Me of little faith" by Lewis Black. For those who do not know him, he is a comic that had made a movie or two, been on television notably HBO and The Daily Show on the Comedy Channel. He minces no words about various topics and speaks his mind when it comes to religion.

One thing he said in his book struck a cord with me --
"In a land that should take great joy in the differences of its people -- and in the knowledge that those differences are what make us strong -- we generally choose to fear diversity while wallowing in our own stupidity. For a country where so many believe in some sort of God, we seem, as a whole, to have more faith in our ignorance. We seem to find a shared comfort in our fear of those who don't share our beliefs."

I think that's true. I find that Christians tend to talk of love and accepting but when the rubber hits the road, if you don't believe as they do, they will come down on you like a ton of bricks. Next to being gay, if you say you are an Atheist, then you are the scum of the Earth. You are evil, immoral and not a nice person. I think it would really surprise most Christians that, according to Adherents.com in 2000, the nonreligious/secular made up more than 13.2% of the U.S. population. More than the Jews (1.3%) and Muslims (.5%). If you add the agnostics (.5%) and declared atheists (.4%), that gives you 14.1% of the U.S. population that's not religious. And even more interesting is the nonreligious group is up over 110% from the previous survey. So more and more folks aren't buying Christianity.

Anyway it would be better for all of us if the Christians would back off and let people run their life as they see fit. That doesn't mean we run naked in the streets and forget right and wrong. I think our society has figured that out already and we don't need someone shoving a 2000 year old book down our throat. But Christians backing off? Not a chance!

Mr. "I'm Angry"

It’s been awhile since I blogged. Life goes on and the DOW goes down.

I recently thought of a few things that distinguish John McCain from Barrack Obama.

First McCain sees things as black and white. His speeches to his rabid fans paint a “you’re either with us or against us” view of the world. His comment to Rick Warren about evil - “defeat it”- indicates to me that he doesn’t delve deeply into subjects. Obama, I think, sees things in gray shades. Again his response to the same question from Warren was deeper and more thoughtful.

Lately there is this “anger” thing that McCain foments. Others have indicated that McCain has a temper and you need to watch out! Obama has impressed me with his steadiness and his thoughtful responses to questions and events.

So the question is, would you rather have an angry, erratic McCain or a steady, thoughtful Obama in the White House? Think about it.

Who's knocking?

I have a cousin that I would classify as an evangelical Christian. She frequently forwards to me Christian theme emails that I generally delete without opening. Recently I got one that I did open (God talking to me?) and it was basically a picture of a Jesus-like figure knocking on a door. (The picture is in this blog.) I noticed that one of the comments from one of the other recipients was something like “I would love to have Jesus knocking on my door.” The whole concept of a Jesus-like person knocking on a door intrigued me.

First of all we don’t know what this Jesus person looked like or if he really existed despite what the evangelicals say. All the paintings and statues of Jesus are idealized and romantic depictions. They are simply the figment of the artist’s imaginations. So Jesus could have been a short, dumpy, balding, ugly guy as well as the viral, young bearded stud we seemed to be accustomed to. So if a short dumpy guy in a robe of some sort comes up to you and says “I’m Jesus” how many people would take him to be Jesus? Even evangelicals might not embrace him.

I was thinking this might be a good stunt for one of those “Candid Camera” shows. I, however, would not want to be the person playing the Jesus role. He might be looking down at the barrel of a .22 by some offended evangelical. You know how loving and accepting they can be!

Nonsensical Supernatural

According to Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, nature is defined as “the sum of all things in time and space; the entire universe.” If nature is the entire universe, how do we define supernatural? Back to Webster – supernatural is “existing or occurring outside the normal experience or knowledge of man.” Definition 2 states that supernatural is “attributed to hypothetical forces beyond nature; miraculous; divine.”

If nature is all that we are aware of or have experience of, how can something like “supernatural” exist? What we have is knowledge of the universe. What we experience is the universe. We have no knowledge or experience with anything outside the universe. Really! True we don’t know all there is about the universe but so far our experiences and explorations have shown that what we have discovered locally seem to hold throughout the known universe. So what is this thing called supernatural?

I contend that supernatural does not exist. It’s nonsensical word. If supernatural did exist, then we would have knowledge of it and therefore it would be part of nature, i.e. the universe. The question of the existence of a supernatural god is a good example. The claim is made that a god or gods exists but so far there has been no definitive, testable proof or evidence of its/their existence. As long as there is no solid evidence of the existence of a god, then the whole question of god remains a hypothesis.

There has been much written about some of the characteristics of a supernatural entity such as omniscience, omnipresent and omnipotent. But what about location? According to the Bible, god created the world. Most of the story of the creation concerns its self with the creation of the Earth and living things. Mentioned also is the creation of the universe, e.g. “let there be light!” (Genesis 1:22) So following the line of logic that says, if god created the universe that presumes that the universe did not exist at a particular point and then god brought it into existence. That further supposes that god must exist in some realm “outside” our known universe. Or does he?

Some have proposed that god is the universe. In other words god is the sum total of all that is. I prefer to look at the question another way. If a god exists, where does he/she/it exists? Again location. To me, the answer has to be either in the universe (as part of it or it as a whole) or outside of the universe in some other realm. Either answer poses problems.

Consider the proposition that god exists outside the known universe. By the way, I am assuming that a supernatural god exists for purposes of this discussion. If god exists outside of the known universe then that presumes that “something” outside our universe exists. Therefore god must reside in this “something”. That immediately begs the question of what is this “something” that god resides in? If there is something beyond our universe, could there not be other universes? Cosmology delves into the multiverse theory as something that is plausible but as of yet, no evidence exists to support the theory.

But assuming that god exists outside our known universe and that there is the possibility of other universes that he/she/it deals with, are we his favorite or just one of many? Maybe we are just an experiment. Since the Bible states that god has always existed, maybe we are just one of many universes that he/she/it puts together just for the fun of it.

Now think of the other possibility, that god exists in our universe. That presumes there is nothing outside of what we know or see of our universe. Since we have pretty good evidence that the laws of physics operate the same in the observable universe, it can be assumed that god must be subject to the same laws. But wait, theologians maintain that god can do what he pleases, regardless of the laws of nature, for example Jesus stilling the waters by his words. That leads to two other lines of questions. If god exists in the universe and is bound by the laws of nature, as we know them, is god just a real smart entity who knows more than we do about the universe? Is this god just a super alien with knowledge about the universe we haven’t come to know?

Or is god operating under his own rules, laws, etc.? How can he/she/it operate in the universe and not run into conflict with the laws of nature as we know them? It’s like having a bonfire in a solid ice cave. The fire would eventually melt the ice and the melting ice would put out the fire unless there was a trick involved.

So if supernatural is a nonsense word, maybe we should hold off on declaring that a god like entity exists until we have definite evidence. But then Christians and others have always said that having faith is belief in something in the face of NO evidence. Remember just believing that something exists doesn’t make it exist.

A National Malaise

For sometime now I’ve felt that the American public is in some sort of malaise. Of course it started with the shock of the attacks of September 11, 2001. Ever since then we, as a country, have been just going through the motions. We bought into the rhetoric of Bush and company that we have to strike someone, so we went along with the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Even the congress, first the Republicans and now the Democrats seem to go along with the flow. What ever Bush wanted we went along.

Now the crises are mounting. The mortgage mess was caused in part by the Republican attitude to let the free market do its thing. Now the housing market is in the toilet and credit is tightening. Oil and gas prices are hitting the roof. We complain but still we saddle up our big SUV to the pump and suck the gas down. Healthcare is a looming crisis if not already. Our population is getting older and health costs are spiraling. What’s the plan? Well, let everyone buy health insurance, says McCain.

Food prices are next. We decided to divert some food production to making biofuel. Now with higher gas prices, just getting the biofuel to a station will cost more. Great idea!

Now Bush wants to start a fight with Iran. Is he dense? The military is stretched to the breaking point, we can’t pay for the mess in Iraq and now we want to start another war?

And the media have themselves in a snit because Obama said some people are “bitter.” Maybe angry is a better word.

This little guy decided to perch on our pergola and taunt our little dog. It was neat that he decided to just sit there while I zoomed in for this tight shot! (Click to enlarge)

The genesis of this blog was all the great blogs I saw in my surfing on the internet. I tend to focus on the science blogs, the politically liberal blogs, and atheistic blogs as a rule. I am a pragmatic, nuts and bolts type of guy who likes to know how things work.

After an eight year stint in the Air Force working on electronics, I went into computers, servicing them and then into management of computer service groups. After the shake out of the computer industry in the early nineties, I eventually decided to get my pilot’s license. After accomplishing that I proceeded to get my instructors license and to focus on teaching. I’ve been doing flight instructing for some time now. Not making much money but the view is nice.

My postings will be random and probably chaotic. So don’t expect frequent updates. But I do hope to spark some interest.

Here is a pic of a dragonfly taken on summer. Amazing they can fly! (Click to enlarge)

This blog is under construction. Pay no attention to the silly stuff posted. Still trying to figure out the whole blog thing!

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