misbeliefs

So when we are growing up we learn from family, friends, teachers. We go to work and learn from bosses, coworkers, etc. We get a bit of education, and work some more, we learn this and that. How much of what we learned was wrong? Or dated in some way, becomes quickly outdated and useless? So what is the process for testing what we think we know to see if it is still valid, still correct if it ever was? How much of what we learned was just wrong, then and now? That is the big problem with cultural learned stuff, there are no absolutes of right, or of wrong. When we test it, it is all wrong or we are unable to demonstrate it to be right. Now what?

Where there are large groups that have mutually exclusive beliefs, they are likely wrong. Consider the Christians, Islam, Buddhist, and Confucianism. That is a big portion of the world population. What is common is likely correct, what is mutually wrong is likely wrong. So what are we left with? A bit of behavior and morals... well sort of... they do not even agree on those.  Add in modern behaviors and morals, common practice and atheism, and a picture begins to emerge. Religion is about control of people and money for the management, not about good, or evil, not about societal advancement, not about improvement. It is about keeping secrets, not knowledge. Religion is misdirection.

Trump University was likewise. It was a plan to sell real-estate seminars. These seminars are opinions about how to make money in development. That can done, and sometimes there is good money, and some times it is a living, and for the inexperienced or the goofy, just a money pit. It just depends on the market. It is more luck and the market trend that knowledge. It is about salesmanship and the consumer with money or access to money more likely. Calling it a university is really overstatement, bullshit. Trump is good at overstatement. You Americans will see that, if you do not already know that. Trump and religions have a lot in common. Bullshit. They are both full of it.

Misbelief is simply believing something that is wrong. In the Evolution of Misbelief, McKay and Danial Dennett chew misbelief apart, but what it comes down to is some of what we believe is just wrong, and it is up to us to figure out what we want to believe and live with that.  What does what we believe matter anyway? It is our behavior that impacts other people anyway. In the end we all just die anyway.

There is a newer word "alief". When we separate our conscious knowledge from our automatic behaviors there is a discrepancy. These aliefs really show up when we are trying to make major changes in our habits, like changing our eating patterns.

It is the testing of our beliefs that is a clarifying moment in life. We can make a conscious decision to follow or explore the unknown on our own or as a group. It is our choice. Oh well, in the end we just die anyway.   

It's Our Culture, Stupid

All is culture, that which is not physical. Well that is what some would lead us to believe, or perhaps not. We are raised in a subset of the mass culture, We learn in a second subset, we work in another, we are entertained by another artificial representation of our culture. We are influenced at every turn toward something that is "our culture." So what then is culture? - the sum of all external influences on our life, so it has tremendous impact.

Truth and real evidence have never been the foundation of any culture until science developed a foothold. So perhaps now we should look at evidence based culture. So each of us is a subset of our culture unto ourselves. Our culture drives us, controls us, provides the insensitive to get up in the morning, to get to work, to work hard perhaps, depending on how we define our work, and how we treat family. It is the result of the way we were raised, and the present environment. How can we escape?

To leave earth we much reach escape velocity, which simply, is the speed we would be traveling in a geosynchronous orbit. Faster, we leave the system, slower, we fall back. To leave our culture, we need to travel to a space where there are no others, but wait, we bring our culture with us. That is the problem with immigrants, they bring there culture with them, and form "ghettos" by not mixing. Oh well, that is there problem. To change our culture, we simply need to start believing or doing something different. It is that simple. We can step back and call Pigshit on anything without evidence of truth.

In Sapien, a book on Bill Gates's Summer reading list, chaos is divided into two categories; that which is somewhat predictable, and that which the prediction effects the outcome, aka is influenced by the prediction. Human culture is the latter. So how does one change human culture? Well we just start by doing differently. Let the religious carry on believing what they may, knowing that it is wrong, but there actions do not hurt me, yet they do hurt others and themselves. Oh well, we all just die in the end. Spread the message of doing good acts because doing good act make us feel good, it is that simple. No after life, no moral imperative, no supernatural power dictated. No bigger reason, no purpose of life. It is just our culture to do good, to be peaceful, and to follow good behavior. We need not react to the push of advertising, movies, tv, etc, toward violence. All religions that call for violence should be abandoned.   In fact the media is contributing to the chaos of our culture. We can abandon the influence of all media and return to predictable chaos, just like the immigrants who cloister themselves away from the public life. Oh well, we all just die in the end.     

A special kind of stupid

A special kind of stupid is a Sarah Palin classic statement for someone she disagrees with that is essentially meaningless, yet sound like it might be something. As far as I am concerned, Sarah Palin, is, in her own words, a special kind of stupid. She is a unique individual, a unpredictable animal. Oh well, I am not in the US.

We could apply her statement against anyone we do not agree with; Christians, Muslims, Jews, LGBTQ, or any other group. We could apply it to ourselves as an excuse for doing or not doing any act, error, omission. A meaningless verbal blow against ourselves is often useful for deflection of pigshit.

Humans do not strike me as a "social animal" but rather as an animal that has learned to use social skills to get along, and will revert back to violence for any reason. We may be more social that the Neanderthal was, but we leave a lot to be desired. Perhaps more evolution is required, but will that work. We are overpopulated, more than this earth can support, long term. We are in for a mass die off, a bottle neck in population, an opportunity for evolution change to take hold. Oh well, in the end we all die anyway.

Those who cannot tolerate the crudity that this life offers will be the first to suffer. Life contains suffering; that suffering is caused by our expectations and delusions that life should be better; there is a solution, and that solution is to follow a defined criteria without concern for those who do not follow. Sound familiar? It is the four noble truths of Buddhism, generalized. But wait, those are the four steps in general problem solving in society, aka develop a new belief system, cult, or similar system. Oh well, in the end we die anyway.       

   

What should the penalty be?

What should the penalty be for those who will not live in accordance to our rules of conduct?  In the old days, they would be shunned from their home society. Not our problem any more then. So what should the penalty be now? Death? Shunning? Jail? But there are more who will not live in peaceful society. In the US there is the military, NRA, the Republicans. In Canada we have the natives and the immigrants. Now what?

But that is not the major problem, it is the rules of conduct. Do they extend to our belief systems? We, yes they do. Just try to find help with assisted dying. How about recreational drug use. The thing with drug use is, who will support you if you become a vegetable or a breathing corpse? Overdoses perhaps should be relabelled as suicide by drugs, and their wish honoured. Oh well, we all die in the end.

Today, the police only take action for a erratic scattering of crimes, those against who have political connections, and the easy to solve/get convictions against. Those trouble some people who police threats do not intimidate get away with a great deal for a long time. Oh well, we all die in the end.

The police say that they do not get cooperation; yet they are after me every time I leave the driveway.
Why would I cooperate with them? The just cost me at every turn. Oh well, we all die in the end.

So who's beliefs are wrong?

So who's beliefs are wrong? This week Orlando has had a few problems. We have both so called Christians and Muslims condemning LGBTs. This shows both religions are wrong. Gays are the ends of the normal distribution of sexual attraction normal distribution curve. Don't worry, you are the end of one of those curves as well. The only question is which curve and is that extreme characteristic aiding or detracting your progress in the world.

Any belief system that says it is right and all others are wrong is just wrong. Evidence says all belief systems that put some historical, mythical, supernatural figure on a pedestal is just a belief system. If that belief system also says only we are right, they see the first sentence in this paragraph. That makes Christianity and Islam just wrong, at least on that point. There is no supernatural, no god, no life after death. All is impermanent, subject to change and unsatisfactory to some. The ego, the self is an illusion, and death is final. That is what the physical evidence suggests. There may be other views but there is no evidence. So if anyone says otherwise, it is just smoke talking. A lucid dream. A conjecture. Oh well, we all die in the end.

So we are all in this world and the most peaceful way to survive until we die is in peace with each other, This can only be achieved if we all stop pushing our wrong non evidence based beliefs on others. We can lay out the evidence and let others decide if our explanation could be right or if they have a better one to explain the evidence. Supernatural explanations are just not explanations. If you have no explanation, then it is conjecture and should be disregarded.

There was a story about a fellow who through a propane tank into a fire and walked away from a flat earth girl, his potential daughter in-law. I understand the frustration, and to walk away is the only solution to some people. Oh well, we all die in the end anyway. 

Hatred

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/06/13/speaker-at-orlando-area-mosque-said-gay-people-must-be-killed-out-of-compassion/

Hatred for a group is not a good though for any religion, or atheist either. These are people who are at the extremes of the normal distribution for sexual attraction. Hatred is not the proper response. They should be allowed to live out there lives as any one else should be. You religious could be persecuted because of your idiot beliefs, or we atheist for not believing your idiot belief systems. If we are a free society, all those who promote these radical hatred view should be all locked in a room together with guns, and the last survivor jailed.     

There are Crazies

 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/gunman-opens-fire-orlando-gay-club-report-article-1.2670322

The LGBT are the ends of the normal distribution of the population - sexual attraction curve. They exist, and for no reason. We all exist for no reason, we just do. They are the extremes, should be allowed to live out there lives in peace, just like the religious nuts who have been trained to be idiots and believe blindly that there are god's, that any long dead book on how to live applies today. That is not to say none of them are right; even a stopped watch is right twice a day. We need to sort it all, and throw away all the garbage and that which is not common to most rational books on how to live and be a great human.

The danger from LGBT community is that they glorify the ends of the normal distribution, and draw marginal people on the normal distribution curve into the LGBT fold. Oh well, there are too many people anyway.

It is the strong hatred of a group that is not right, as is the belief that anyone's thoughts and religious beliefs are right and should be imposed on others. There is no gods. There is not after live, no permanent soul. The self is largely an illusion. Free will is limited to those thing in our control and complete ownership, beliefs, opinions, decisions, desires and the like.  We are all just transient organisms doing our alive time on this big rock falling toward the sun. It does not matter, we all die in the end.

  

Evidence

When we look at physical evidence, an explanation for the evidence must be true. There must be at least one explanation, but it is possible to have more than one. "God did it" is not an explanation of anything but a misdirection. Lack of evidence is not proof of "no act" but it is an indication. After a bunch of no evidence, it is time to start looking elsewhere for a explanation.

So there was a opening between the ice shears 13000 years ago, and the buffalo started to move through the north south corridor again.  The corridor was blocked for 1500 years, so man could have walked to North America before the corridor closed before 14500 years ago. Oh well, the bison certainly did, and the Clovis likely followed the buffalo much of the year. (Clovis, New Mexico as the first place evidence was found) So our natives got here the old fashioned way, they walked, possible following a buffalo herd. Faith that that the world would supply what they needed to survive would have stopped them; they need to keep searching for food to keep up to the heard. The crows and ravens led them, a raven can find a dead thing from considerable distance.

The lack of evidence for the existence of god is enough reason to stop even considering the existence, and along with that goes much of what religion is promoting. A soul, aka a life after death, is real poppy cock although it is appealing. Impermanence is one of the foundations of Buddhism, and yet they promote rebirth and karma onto the future rebirths. He said it was not the same, but never explained it. He also said that we each need to make peace with that and the gods, and yet so much of his teachings are obviously true in many forms. If it can be demonstrated but not proven, then it is better than no evidence. Oh well, some things that can be "demonstrated" are not what we think they are but illusions and delusions.

After the inability to develop evidence to prove a concept, science usually moves on. If some contrary evidence is found, often the disproof of a pet theory is just shrugged of with a duh type realization. Of course, it is obvious. It is like time. It is now defined by what we can measure, not what it likely is. Atomic vibration rate is effected by gravity, but is time in reality? So is the red shift really expansion or a low gravity effect on light vibration frequency?