Strength of Reaction

Why do I react so strongly to the "Religious", strongly negative that is.

I wasted years of my life. Believing the bullshit of the religious. I went many years between when I did not believe, but had not yet rejected all that believe, and then I completely rejected belief. I will not waste any more of my time with it. They have no evidence of a god ever, but have a lot evidence that their ancestors believed in gods. That is not evidence of a god. They wasted my time, and caused me untold stress, guilt, goofy thinking all by misleading me. It never occurred to me that my ancestors were dupes, as they had been duped. It is each man for himself, and those who follow him, until they do not.

I will express gratitude for being allowed to live, or toward others for going before; there life was their reward, just as my life is to me. I will not express gratitude to those who mislead me, or those organizations. This leaves me alone, as I actually have always been, without real support, but with mouthed support by a few.

There is a gap between theists and atheists, and since the theists are wrong, it can only be bridged by the theist examining reality. We live is wondrous times, do we not. The truth is the the way out of this, and understanding the problem is the first step. 

Knowing and Doing Divide

  http://atheistethicist.blogspot.ca/2017/12/knowing-right-action.html

Once again, the real problem is skipped over for the easy part. Knowing and getting ourselves to do it it are two separate issues. Some things we know, yet are unable to get our bodies to do. That is the real problem. It is like all those religious who get comfort and fulfillment from religion, yet know that there is no evidence of a god. It appears to me that feelings like fulfillment are just feelings induce by the brain which keeps it's self busy creating our own little imaginary world, and all that speculation, imagination, time using mental exercises creates the mental chemicals, dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, whatever, that provides us with those feelings, but stops short of motivation to action.

Buy low, sell high advice is what so much of this is. Eat less, move more advice, is similarly useless. It is a motivation problem, motivation is driven by desire, and desire is what make us uncomfortable enough to do. Stoicism and Buddhism both have suppression of desires as one of there objective, but both need to be cautioned with a selection system of which desires to suppress, yet neither have this system in place, nor discuss the selection process.

http://modernstoicism.com/buddhist-and-stoic-wisdom-by-antonia-macaro/
is the start of one more comparison of the two, yet there is no suggestion of this external issue that is much more important, yet few take on, and that is the conversion of philosophy into action, which is the major problem in modern society. It is paralyzation by too many choices, or lack of motivation. 
  

getting through christmas

As an atheist, getting through the christmas season, as a time of strange behavior of the devout is an exercise in understanding. They, many of the christians, become highly stressed trying to acheive perfection and do all that they believe is expected of them. Sitting back, becoming the anthropologist, and watch the strange customs of the religious, and the strange dress is an ideal atheist approach to the season.  Christmas is a time for the anthropologist in me to come out to observe the bizarre behaviors. There is no point trying to understand the ritualistic behaviors or the traditions. These are what they are, have developed through an evolution process, with many incremental annual changes, on an oral/memory based, modified by what is available reality. 

In a drop in archery class we have young ladies from immoral modern Japanese skimpy, women in sports bras, see through leggings, bra-less thin shirts, to the full burka of the Muslims. We have seen people in dress formal attire, long nails, high heels so high they are unable to walk. We have seen indulgent parents of bratty youth, youth being pushed into activity by parents, we have seen the young that are driven by their own desires. We see adults that struggle with youth strength bows, and youth that pull experienced adult strength bows with ease. We see adults with the physical coordination of toddlers, and the disabled, to body builders. It is often necessary to just observe, an ideal training for an anthropology like attitude.

Pythagoras, of "the sum of the squares of the two sides of a right triangle is equal to the square of the hypotenuse" fame became a bit strange with age. He became aware that humans could "improve their state mentally by believing in the supernatural." or so translations suggest. So if we live in the Land of Nod, and all nod together, life is wonderful. I can believe that, for I lived that in the religion of my ancestors, and those who still do, think there life is wonderful. All this implies that our values give our life meaning, purpose, and if we never examine our life critically, everything in that life is wonderful, within that frame of reference. So our lives become just illusions until we realize this, and that we are driven by chemicals, and if and when those chemical reactions are running normally, we think we have control. We only think we have control, for if those chemicals change, we are out of control, like it or not. Our mind does not have absolute control. We have a illusion of control only, not control. We are the dog tied to the cart, we go where the chemicals take us. As long as we are going in the right direction, all is good. But our thinking over time also modify the chemicals and the makeup of our brains. It is a vicious circle, and where does it start?

Pythagoras realized that we humans can use this to live in our minds when life gets tough, and draw on the supernatural for strength, comfort, reassurance, companionship, whatever we desired in our lives. All that was necessary was that we became willing to believe in the supernatural and that belief would furnish the feedback proof that it works. When you explore this rabbit hole, you may find it warm and pleasant, and may not wish to return to the real world. That is ok, the christians created a culture of living in such rabbit holes, and have survived well at it for thousands of years. That may be the foundation of the Stoic, "live naturally", as opposed to the Pythagoras "seek the help of the supernatural".

Now that we know the root of these concepts, choose as you wish. Where is this going? I think I should go shoot something. 

Agree to Disagree

This agree to disagree concept that has been pushed by the religious as a means of backing off a discussion that they cannot win has always bothered me. It arose yesterday when I was visited by three ghosts... no the JWs, as a response to evidence of the existence of god. 

After a bit of thinking, I realized that it is an acceptance of conflicting beliefs that cannot be resolved to their satisfaction, and not wanting to resolve those truths to reality. There is no god; at least no physical god. God, beyond space and time leaves the concept realm, and no where else, that the religious will not go near. They just go away, and not challenge their own understanding, for they could not withstand the suggestion that their beliefs are wrong.

Feelings are caused by beliefs, and are underlain by beliefs that suggest something. The religious always believe they are correct; it can be no other way to drive themselves to do what they do. But when one takes the time to lay it all out, at best, god is just a concept, and the religious teachers have been creating a dream/ concept world for you to believe in. Oh well, they are just wrong, there is no other way to say it. The religious cannot deal with those who know, and challenge their beliefs, so they go to this agree to disagree and sulk off.

We each are responsible for ourselves

Why should I care about what other adults do to their bodies. I do not like adults conciliating youth to do dangerous/illegal/unsafe actions, like eating raw eggs. We know that salmonella is lurking, just ready to strike, so why take a chance? Unknowing is one thing, but knowingly take riskes?  What am I no about? Well I do not know how to reference/link to a facebook post, or I would link to it. Some old goof, is suggesting that eating raw cookie dough containing eggs is safe.

We each are responsible for ourselves, but counseling the young/uneducated to eat raw eggs is unwise to dangerous. We each are responsible for ourselves.  But counseling Russian roulette? That is what they are doing, but with long odds. I know of one young lady who will never be the same, and has suffered the last 20 years because of a moment of risk, and a few mouthfuls or raw food. It is just not worth the risk. If an adult wishes to take such a risk, ok, but to suggest that it is ok to others or youth is just abuse of reality. But then she also believes there is a god, so what should we expect.

Stoics, Live by Nature

The Stoics were group of philosopher who claimed we should live by nature, virtues were the highest good, some things are up to us and some are not, we are not troubled by events, but our thoughts about those events, and similar pithy concepts. To understand these concepts, that is what each actually means, takes a bit of time.

To live by nature sounds simple, but what does it really mean. When we live among group who think in supernatural realms, like Christians and Muslims, living by nature is, well, today, atheism. It is staying away from supernatural thinking, hope that is not possible, day dreaming, any religious thinking, after life, or anything that is not physical possible. The simplest way to express this is live by nature. 

Others have different opinions of what this actually means. https://howtobeastoic.wordpress.com/2017/11/29/living-according-to-nature/

Now that we understand that the same reduction outcome could come from many different paths, what are we left with? Pick one and away we go. There is often some truth in almost any statement, but what that truth is is often in question. 

Just thinking, throwing about stuff

I am struggling with the rights of an individual compared to the rights of the society within which they live, and the right of the society to force behaviors and/or beliefs onto others. In the US there is separation of church and state in one of the amendments, but that is being ignored now by many. Not so in Canada. There is no formal separation, but evangelizing just does not fly in politics either. 

There is sexual decorum, which is also being ignored by many, and many in positions of authority. Slavery is still alive being practiced in the halls of power. There is the opioid addiction issue, the GMO labeling issue, early vaccination vs autism, fracking vs water supply, climate change, the religious zealots vs reality, abortion vs religious, and a number of other social issues that have one thing in common; someone is trying to impose a belief or behavior onto others.

The only way to make such choices is to lay out all the statements for and against for all the choices and then to make a rational selection of the best, but also be aware that those against the decision may be quite vocal. Ultimately, the right choice may allow a great deal of personnel choice; force an action onto someone against their will cannot fly without issues; or allowing freedom of choice will arouse those that feel such action is wrong on religious belief system basis. These are not rational people anyway. Some will object, so what.

I use "forcing beliefs" as a term, forced as in not reasonable choice, as onto a child, and belief of statements without evidence, anything is a belief. When the evidence goes against our current beliefs, it takes much more evidence. This ties together two concepts, zero choice, and a belief as a concept without a evidence base. Neither is a "good behavior", but both are standard practice in religious indoctrination. Children, who are totally dependent on their parents, do not have the mental or moral/ethical fortitude to resist something without evidence. They have no choice but to accept whatever the parent is shoveling. That is indoctrination, which is not right. It is parental abuse, or some other form of enslavement.

Does the government have the right to decide what the child should learn or be indoctrinated with?  Ultimately, it is the child/young adult that should decide,n when they get old enough, and they should be trained with the tools to make such decisions, in their youth. By the age of reason, say 14, they should be free to choose, and to bear responsibility for their decisions. It is responsibility, clear responsibility, that make a person good.

No parent is going to stand for their child going against the parents wishes, where the parent feels strongly. If the parent is wish-wash on the situation, or even irrationally the other way, there will be less conflict, typically. There in lies part of the problem. Too many people are just not rational.

Too many decisions effecting people are being made for economic reasons, or convenience. not for sound science. We are, as a population consuming too much carbon, but that is not the problem. After we have extracted the energy, we expel Co2, and that is not the problem. We are expelling more Co2 that the earth can fix back as carbon, and as a result, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is rising. That will be a problem soon. As a result of the higher amount carbon dioxide, the amount of solar energy captured is rising, causing rising temperatures in the atmosphere, and the rising temperatures is causing more severe and erratic weather, which is the first problem/issue we see. The heat is improving living conditions in cold areas. But the methane hydrate trapped in cold areas is melting, and that is a major problem; methane hydrate really contributes to warming, and it is not good for humans, mammals, and the like.

So where is this all going? The government is only partly correct, but thinks it is right all the time. That is a problem, unless they are willing to look at there errors, and correct them. But we do not know what is the correct solutions are. 

So what about the areas where we feel that the government has overstepped their authority? Without respect, they cannot govern. Prohibition was one example. Weed is another. Opioids is the next, but that is a belief based issue. It will require a philosophical solution; once you start with chronic pain, you have it for life. Get use to dealing with the pain without mediation, or prepare for addiction and a short life. It is your choice. The medical profession has nothing to offer, long term.

  

lacking motivation vs burnout

For quite some time, I have been lacking motivation, drive, energy, a sense of urgency to do much. So is it lack of motivation, lack of need, lack of desire, complete satisfaction, lack of direction, or am I just lazy?

Lazy is an interesting concept, as it is usually applied to others. Not being lazy is considered a virtue, however, many people I see that are not lazy never seem to accomplish anything. They are just busy doing... doing... doing nothing of value, busy work, as far as I can tell, and when she is done, she starts over, and still there is nothing of value achieved. It is better to have a plan, of some kind, and then do something that has value, to my thinking. But if there is nothing that I want... well then why do anything.

I should be able to sit down and do nothing for the remainder of my life. But can I do that? No. I am thinking, dreaming of doing something, but do not have the motivation yet to actually do it. Well not yet. But reality of my age keeps me from starting. Oh well. It does not matter, in the end all that awaits us is death, but until then... I must do a few things. But then I hurt, and do not want to do anything that makes the hurt worse.

Burned out people lack motivation, and perhaps that is what the real problem is. I have had a series of burnouts, a period of time that I just go into a low, a period of zero motivation. A period low Losada ratio, and along comes depression. Some of us, the anxious, easily stressed, those of us who feel over responsible, when faced with our own human inadequacy, are subject to burnout. It is our nature. We must learn how to recognize and deal with our own burnout. When we suffer a frustration, we are prevented from doing something, rationally, physically, bureaucracy, skill, economics, or other issue, we may suffer a limited burnout; we may be able to recover or not. Some people may not suffer from this type of issue; some people will just not do anything either, hence could never have burnout.

It is likely only a subset of the population who feel responsible enough to ever deal with this. Those who always blame others for there failures could not suffer from burnout. Those who do so little that is beyond there comfort and competence zone, those who need to be trained first before they will undertake anything, even something simple, cannot ever suffer from this issue. Burnout is not part of their makeup.

So I went coaching a few archers. I do not agree with the club objective of teaching anyone; there are some that are just too immature, too young, and too poorly behaved to be safe. It is not until they shoot or do something which is dangerous that we can classify the child as too immature or too young. So what should the rules be? A demonstration of what not to do, and each of you is responsible for your own safety?

Fentanil, Fentanyl, Carfentanil

We have all heard of this latest drug epidemic produced by the big Pharma, and now production has gone off shore, where they will happily produce and ship overseas almost anything. I can see their point. Why should anone stop producing a products when there is a market? We do not use them, only sell them. Why should we care? We are not their keepers. White imperialist dogs. It is no different than those who manufacture guns, bullets, explosives, processed foods, GMO, and all those other goods and services that are killing people today. We produce and sell without great concern to the end user. We need to earn a living today, that means sell a product or service, or beg so
that others may feel good by giving.

Once we see that the world is overpopulated, why should we care if people do not respect themselves enough to not buy and use street drugs? They cannot think that they are harmless. They are addicts, and often doctors and legal drugs caused the addiction; together with our pressured society, and those who do not adapt, suffer. It is up to each us to just stop. We are on our own. It is our responsibility, ours alone. If we chose to gamble with our lives, can we expect others to care for long? Soon we will be dead. It is up to us. So the bleeding hearts do there thing, but they do it for what they get out of it, while they claim to be helping others.

I knew enough about addiction to recognize that I was addicted, and kicked the use early on, while I still had Oxycontin on prescription. There is a urban myth that we can go through life pain free. Life is going to hurt. Oh well, that is life. We need to learn to deal with pain, and do what is necessary to reduce pain to a tolerable level through philosophy, and behavior. If others cause us emotional pain, just stop caring, and do what is necessary, it does not matter in the big picture. Other societies do it: to not care is self protection. Children come to visit, and are free by their fourteenth birthday, when they are expected to start to produce and learn to live separate from the family. Our natives allowed the young girls to go to the adjacent tribes. With the education we need today, this just does not fit well, but we need to free children much earlier. Emancipated minors, yes, and we need to let go of them. The world is overpopulated now.

So is it right to push my opinions onto others? I do not think so. The Islams think they have the right, but that is bullshit. I have the freedom to express, and others, you have the choice to read or not, to listen or not, to do or not. That may be why blogs are an ideal format for me, I can speak, write, and it does not matter, if zero read or a thousand read it. It does not matter. I do am not concerned. There is so much output to the public, it is impossible to intake and sort the valuable from the irrelevant information. Some is false, incomplete, partly true, while other is just irrelevant at this time, and may always be such. It does not matter. I need to write to hear myself, and then I forget. That is my life, with no sharp long term memory. I could not write without a computer, spelling is beyond my memory. Such is the life of a dyslexic. Oh well.

So it is choice to take drugs, and it is individual responsibility that allows us to take, or keeps us from taking drugs. It is not my pace to judge you, nor to help you too much. If I ketch you stealing my stuff, I will terminate you, and bury you in the back yard. Shoot, shovel and shut up, or some such. At least I think I would, now, if I were pissed off, I might, I do not know. I might send a arrow your way. I would not seek to harm you but you are standing where I am about to shoot, and I had to let go as I could not hold it any longer.

Personal responsibility for what happens to us that we have control over, and not for those things we have no control over. But what about those things that we do not have complete control over, only influence, and our biochemistry has ultimate control over? Like our appetite? Do we need to respond to appetite?  

People change and not for the better

How has the internet changed the people who I deal with an how has it changed me?

Should I have any communications with people who are negative toward me? Not likely.

The internet has been the root cause of me becoming more negative toward goofy ideas. At the same time, I see others dismissing sound reasoning and truth as "just something off the internet", without taking the time to examine the case.

There is little real science on the internet, most of the science is sensationalism. The expectations seems to be those areas where the "science is wrong", and the voices crying in the wilderness are all over the internet. Food Science, and some areas of medical treatments, Statins, for example.

And yet the interned is unable to provide a solution for the problems of the world or obesity, which we know is a psychological issue. It stimulates descent, distribution, as we say in the Arab Spring uprisings, and with the US identity politics issue. Be aware if this thing we have created, and the evil it can bring upon us.

First I need to deal with myself. as my biases have changed which tints my view of everything. I am still abrupt, and will not associate with those who's views are different than mine much of the time. This leaves me alone, but not isolated, as I once was. I do not wish to be around people who criticize, condemn me for stating the obvious; obvious to me anyway. I am a nasty person, oh well, you will just need to live with that. The evil internet allow us to rub shoulders with many more people, at least with the ideas that they are promoting.

Facebook is not for me, (not to say that I do not occasionally look) but it is the only way to keep track of the relatives; but do I need to track them; it does not feel right; it is more like stocking; they do not contact me; why should I care to track them. Any of my comments seem to draw flack, so it may be time to stop all outgoing relative contact, after all I am atheist and they are mostly raving religious or have other goofy ideas.

I think I should go shoot something.

More Reality

The internet is an evil thing much of the time. It allows much communications, but it is always one sided, expressing the opinion of the author. Incomplete information is normal. It leaves many users ill informed and biased. Others of us it leaves unsatisfied and frustrated.

GMO is not all bad, but it has its wrongs. Informed consent is a concept that legal persons are using in relationship to consent for sex, in which a wined up lady is unable to give informed consent. So with GMO, it should be labeled so that we can make informed decisions. Some of there products caused damage, and these "products" have been modified or withdrawn. This will happen again. We need the ability to make informed decisions.

Fracking has a bad reputation for water well damage; which does happen. Usually it is aquifer communications, often through the borehole aurora not being adequately cemented. That is being overlooked so often. Also let us not forget all those open shot holes and testholes that we leave around the country with just surface caps.

When I see You-tube videos proclaiming these as myths, it pisses me off. No satisfaction. No contentment. Perhaps one should just abandon the internet?

Reality

Monday morning and reality after the time change has set in. We have five months of winter to go through, and two months of unpredictable sledding. That is reality. It will be milder than the winters of my youth, due to man made climate change, higher Co2 and methane in the atmosphere, with greater retained heat from the sun than in my youth. Reality.

Reality. There is no god; therefore, all religions based on god are bogus; we need to life morally well, live by virtue, anyway. That is the only way the overpopulated mass of people can get along. Stoics call it cosmopolitanism. The Buddhist foundation virtue is compassion for all living creatures, but that is needed to be cautioned as some animals are needed as food, but a good life and quick death is the humane way, unlike the Muslim bleeding to death. It may have been quick in its day, but not now.

Reality is cruel for sure. We grow old, become in pain, and in the end we die. Modern medicine allows us to maintain life often, but not necessarily quality of life. At some point we may wish to stop care and even hasten our end. That is our natural right. Many of the issues of the past are no longer a common issue around here. Slavery sill exists in the third world, and in corners of the old world, perhaps in the deprived parts of the new second world.

The worst issue we have today is the religious pushing there sick values onto others. The world is overpopulated; human life has little value until there is a living wanted child. Abortion to one third term should be allowed without question, and to half term with reasons, most any reasons. The third or other/neither sex must be allowed to live unencumbered. Wishing to marry and the like creates animosity, but if they wish to legalizes there relationships, what is the harm. I have concerns of them raising children, but no more than with perverted natural parents. There will always be some child abuse... there is no way to avoid it. Government run rearing is not the answer, just look at the abuse of residential schools that took in children from remote areas, both native and immigrant children, and English boarding schools. They were bad but perhaps better than the enslavement that many of us suffered at the hands of our own parents.

Reality, our current public food system is purchaser choice driven. There are at least four decision modes, energy/nutrition, taste/pleasure/enjoyment, comfort/habit/emotions, and mind driven addiction satisfying. If any beyond the first enters the picture, weight could be a problem. In reality is is often preferred to control our eating at the store stage, do not bring crap home and it will not be eaten.

Reality, we need activity to provide the motivation and movement, especially for seniors. We need to keep our mind sharp and stay in reality, keep our morals high, and not succumb to the lour of easy money, pleasure, instant gratification dopamine fixes, but develop long term serotonin satisfaction. The young will need to come to know this, and the sex hormones will make that difficult. The population needs to be stabilized at a level that the earth Co2 handling keeps the value reasonable, < 300 ppm, or < 400 ppm, but that is not likely to happen. We will struggle on until the next mass extinction occurs.    

Reality, if our family are assholes or gooffiess, or nogoodnicks, we need not associate with them. Negative people are downers, so it is fair game to "there are no gods so your whole religion is based on bullshit."  We are each alone in our own heads. That is reality, some follow the traditions of the ancestors,  and some set out to modernize or rationalize our way of thinking.  Onward is our best decision today.   

Govener General shit storm

http://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/governor-general-speech-julie-payette-climate-change-1.4384481

So now the truth creates a shit storm. What a bunch of pussy's. We cannot tell it like it is because, well we might offend an idiot. Man has created faster climate change as a result of the population producing more carbon dioxide than the earth can absorb, and as a result, ocean acidification is occurring, along with climate warming, and all that comes with. People do not want to live in reality, it is nicer to live in a dream fiction state. Some idiots find it offencive. Well, get over it. anything is offensive to somebody. There is no evidence of a god, but lots of people believe in gods.

 https://youtu.be/t2o4Q7M5cBY  


so softly said, the meaning could slide by. Random vs governed processes. the process of becoming alive is not random, it is almost automatic under the right conditions. It is only random when these conditions occur. And the creation of life was not a single event, but a series of lives, and the best few survived. Parallel paths, and each form branched...some merged... and now we look around us and see...  the array that is today.

Some will be "offended ". So what. We need to live in reality of today.

Belief Cleaning

Our beliefs are screwing us over. Our beliefs are things we learned as children, as youths, as adults that we never test or evaluate in detail, but we continue to believe them, live by them, even when they are wrong.These are our first response to any situation that arises. These can be issues from over felt responsibility to pity for the belief riddled religious. It extends from ignoring the obvious (as trump and climate change) to the violence that is Islam fall back position, to kill, if they do not get there way.

We have life choices to make, which we make and live by them or the result of the path chosen. Some times it turns our well, sometimes much less so. Oh well, we just get one kick at the cat, and sometimes we just miss. But that is not the issue of this post. The issues is there are four loci of change: behavior, thoughts, emotions and beliefs. Our beliefs lie at the bottom, the foundation for all thoughts. If these are wrong, all thinking is less than pristine. Yet we do not go through and verify our beliefs. We just ignore them, except for the shallow superficial stuff. We never question the why of religions, that is taboo, yet so evidently wrong.

There is no clear right and wrong in so many areas. The drug companies create money by selling drugs legally that cause addiction; Oxycontin, and once one is addicted, the government cuts off the supply of safe clean Oxycontin, and the addicts reach for street drugs or realize they are addicted and kick the addiction. At the bottom is a wrong belief, that life should be pain free. We trust the medical system, and the government, two of the most depraved organizations possible. We are each on our own, there is little real help with the vicissitudes of life.

Now, let us get on with cleaning of our belief system. It is not the domain of most psychologists, as it can quickly be come messy. Those that do undertake such do so on a very superficial level, or that is what is suggested on the internet websites that breach the subject. Several sights suggest partial reloads, of their selection of beliefs... evangelizing whatever they are selling. No one that I have yet found has a systematic look at all those food/eating related beliefs that are causing the problem.

I suggest that the following needs to become my view:

• that we should eat three times each day with a bit more protein/fat before retiring
• all meals should be small and contain mainly fats and protein but enough carbohydrates to remove cravings as my liver does not seem to be able to produce enough glycogen on low carb diet.
• Those who do not agree can just fuck off or I will.

How much is buyers remorse

https://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2017/10/13/the-methods-used-by-powerful-sexual-predators/

So back when they were young these ladies used there bodies to get ahead, and now they have buyers remorse. They did not complain at the time, for only those who put out got ahead. That was the way of the time, there were many qualified and capable people, how was the choice to be made. Now that everyone is old, and the moral backbone of the world has changed, and we, the public, will not tolerate such behavior, all this becomes public.

Such behavior has long been the way. It was trained in behavior for some, others of us saw such behavior, and were trapped, being wage slaves at the time. The rich get the girls, it has always been that way. Why should we care? Now there is this scream that looks like buyers remorse. It does not involve me, but I say such behavior when I was young. I feel only apathy now.

Our natives are doing the same thing. Back in the day when the public thinking was only good Indian is a dead Indian, there were no big outcries. Now that the public are bleeding hearts, the Indians are harvesting profits from some of the attitudes we feel guilty over. But how long is that attitude going to continue? We boomers are reaching the stage that half of us are dead, and the next wave are taking over. We have let in so many immigrants... and they have no loyalty to our past. They will start saying ... We are not responsible for the wrongs of the past... We came here with nothing... get over it, get on with your life or die off. These are the good years.

Life, as we know it will end. Co2 levels, with methane hydrate melt, some volcano or meteorite strike, super bugs, nuclear war, what ever, will end life as we know it, or we each get terminated separately. It does not matter, it will come.

In the mean time we will continue. We will impose our imaginary life overlay on the reality that we do not look at... we will continue to live in our dream world that only we see. Trump will continue to see himself as perfect, and decimate those who do not bow to him. Un will do similar. Ref: http://blog.dilbert.com/post/166361617121/affirmations-positive-thinking-trump-and-norman#_



 
    

The fuzzy future

Jack Vance got me thinking. What does the future look like for me? In the end there will be death but before that is the real question.

I do believe that the criteria that I make life choices on have changed; they are not typical of religious peoples choices.

As the world is over populated, using Co2 as a "full indicator", I do not value the human life as much as do Christians, more at the level of the North American Indian, pre-whiteman. It was common to walk away from those who could not keep up; the old, the sick, and the young. Extra children were exposed, however I would not go that far. Other, beyond there tribe... beyond there family did not matter. The family tie beyond youth age was weak, the girls were allowed to run off to join other tribes. The boys could hunt, produce or were driven off, except for the medicine man's sons... They had a higher survival rate, and that may explain why so many claim linage to a "medicine man". Now native lives matter... to the natives.

Overpopulation removes guilt over not helping refugees, those who there people have declared unwanted or excess, useless, or unwilling to work at the available work to survive. The natives may wish to have southern services in the north, but other than having been their home for generations through government welfare, there is no reason to be there. Oh well. Most people born on farms for the last 60 years also faced this decision. Ireland, for the 400 years, has lost at least one son and daughter, in each generation, to the new world. Oh well.

It is wrong to impose my opinions on others. This, with overpopulation, clears the way for abortion, medical testing of fetus's and abortion of the defective, withholding of medical services from the enviable, assisted self termination, self termination directives, DNR's, etc. Life of a underdeveloped child just is not that valuable, and also of the old, beyond retirement, have lost much value to society. 

There is no god, no afterlife. Those who believe are simply like flat earth types, just simply wrong. Oh well. Get over it.

Overpopulation and minding my own business are the first two rules of existence, followed by living a virtuous life, and living according to nature, more or less, in this massive cosmos, are the first and including the prime directive.

Lab Rats

http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/u-s-secretly-tested-carcinogen-in-western-canada-during-the-cold-war-researcher-discovers

Is the story true or false? I have know idea.

If true, we were lab rats. The US should be banned. No US citizen should be allowed into Canada. Boycott the US.

Historical Whitewash

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/04/canada-childrens-book-recalled-whitewashing-history

So what should it have said? Remember this all started at a time when it was acceptable to shoot the natives, as they were trying to drive us off the the land we took from them. They had a choice; go to the reserves or be eliminated. The last few went to reserves.

The native were considered a worthless people, as they could not be enslaved. They had so little value of there own lives that they would die before being enslaved. So then about a hundred years later, we tried to integrate them into society, and that failed. All they are good at is reproducing, and the arts. What should we do, eliminate them, or let them come to rule us? Those are the two choices we are headed for.

Saskatchewan has a major problem in northern towns. The communities are dyeing as the whites leave. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway. As the Co2 level continues to rise, as the overpopulation problem continues, as climate change continues, why should I care? 

All Religion is not Rational.

Islam is a religion of hatred of all those who are not Islam. Just read the Quran if you doubt what I am saying.  But then there are the moderates that have not read or do not follow the Quran, so what is Islam? Violence? Or was it violent conversion, with death to all who try to openly leave. It is not freedom, but neither is Christianity.

The Christian bible is no better. These are both stone age religions, well perhaps iron age fabrications, or perhaps just historical documentation of stories. Both were written long after the alleged events, and we know how reliable word of mouth over time is; it is all about story, controlling of the people.

So today in Edmonton we have a mad moore with a couple of vehicles running down people and in Las Wages a mass shooter, possible a new convert to Islam as ISIS claims... how does anyone know, unless evidence is found of a visit by an Islam or a visit to some Islam center.

How quick is conversion Islam? My conversion to no god atheism was a few minutes, but then I was pushed back onto the fence for many years by survival first, then later lack of time to study the question. But what do I know? In the end we all just die anyway, and in a good environment should be allowed to rot in shallow graves, so that the carbon is sequestered in the root zone for recycling.  

Reality Wakeup Call

https://youtu.be/ydPZRoLzu-E

Justifing a Bad Decisions

There are time that all the known choices are bad or have at least one bad component or criteria outcome.

Typical decision theory generates alternatives, generates criteria and importance of the criteria, applies some form of evaluation, and pronounces the best choice. It is not uncommon to stumble across another criteria part way through the evaluation process, but beware, some computer evaluation process do not handle this, and well manual process can be work.

Now there are all sorts of criteria process; maximum reward, minimum regret, maximum profit, maximum sales, best quarter... next year may suffer, but I will have my bonus, what ever.

But if there are no clear good choice, now what. You want someone to blame, or to pass the decision on to. Is that what "god's will" is used for? Often it is to keep a historical decision in place, long after the reason is evaporated.

We live in an overpopulated world, not necessary in an overpopulated region or community. We have exceeded the viable earth population by two, but oh well... It is the Co2 level that indicates overpopulation, not water or food, fish health, climate change or something else. So should we hold to the same traditional value of human life... or should we allow Myanmar to eliminate a million radical Muslims... or should we promote reality... no god, or allow and even protect belief in god and historical belief in god, with attached idiotic beliefs and behaviors. It is the other side of the planet, and I am not going to get off my ass on this question, so it does not matter anyway, I cannot do anything anyway.

So the reality is to sit back and watch as the lives of the uneducated refugees are wasted. And that allow me to sit back and watch as the natives here destroy Canada by economic drain on our federal government. We should not let them starve, but we do not need to make the elders rich... well not really rich... rich implies retention of wealth... but they spend it all in a great high social life style, while there people languish is poverty. Many of the young that decide to leave do not survive. Oh well.

Conforming to standards has it place as long as the standards have reason. When the standards become just silly control freak issues, then it is the standard that should be questioned. So historically there are often more than one way to spell a word, and more than one meaning for the same word. Confusion, yes. There are concepts what we English speaking have no words for, like improvement to a artifact that improve one aspect and reduce another aspect. Oh well, all this generation need to do is to leave offspring behind and that is happening... but the offspring are not learning well and to many of the sick are reproducing. We are going through a evolutional wide period; the choke point will come.    

   

A belief in god is a delusion since there is no god...

We believe much of what we were taught, but should we? It reminds me of a story: a doctor told a story about his first day in medical school: a professor told the students, “Over the next twenty years or so, we’ll learn that half of what we’re teaching you today is wrong. Trouble is, we don’t know which half.”  In engineering, when I was a student, it was similar but without the half; it was just some. In life, what we learned as children is riddled with wrongs, and that depends on what we use to test against. Is it wrong to be biased against religions, cultures, breeds or races, people with specific behaviors, people with specific beliefs? Given that we live in an overpopulated world, no matter how we try, we will be biased, for or against, and if we try, we will be biases against ourselves. Since we live in a overpopulated world, taking action to resist genocide can be seen as biases against ourselves.

If we are not already overpopulated, we will soon be.  I use a maximum viable population long term at which the earth can no longer keep up with absorption of Co2 as a definition.  At that point, we cannot continue to value human life as we have in the past. That is a moral tipping point, and we are at that point.

Many people have a strong belief in a gods, yet there are no gods, no supernatural, no souls, life after death, no reincarnation. So these people have a test book delusions, the belief in something that does not exist. The sure way to break the spell is to inflict the knowledge that a god, any god, does not exist. But that delusion is self protecting, and the believer builds this tremendous bias against reality. So the question is, how does one penetrate this bias against the single most important truth? Reality is the truth. And we should always tell the truth, right?

Once we accept reality, there is no god, we see religion as frauds, they do some good, or promote the doing of good, but have little or no money after building their structure and paying the priest for the doing of there intended good works. It all goes for support and wages. So why do we, the people, allow no taxed structures?

So we can divide humans into two groups, those who believe in gods, and those who know there are no gods. So which group will be better off?  At some point the world will need to understand the new reality of overpopulation and just stop reproducing. Then comes the question, do we save the overproducing savages or do we let them die? Myanmar is that time for me. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway. We can chose to look at the problem or not. 

  

Morals aka Zuckers, what is right to do

So what are good morals founded on? Logic? Greek cosmopolitanism? Stoicism? Christian? Buddhism? Science, aka modern psychology? Philosophy? Science, the physics of the world? Economic considerations? Notice Islam is not on the list. They have too little to offer. Yes, all have some input, but that is not the problem of morals. The problem is others imposing there morals onto others who have a slightly different set. That is the real problem of trying to control others. If you over control, and do not provide real reasons, you lose the moral reason, moral authority, for the statement, and you lose respect, and the willingness of the underlings to follow. We see volunteer  organizations that go through the same thing, fail and collapse.

Religions belief systems are a poisonous infliction on the world, but they do occasionally have good points but... the world is over populated now... if we use Co2 level as a indicator. Population growth must be slowed, and all religions try to grow new members. This is morally wrong now. Birth control must be promoted by all for all, to help limit the earth population. There is no longer a moral imperative to try to save all people... some must die. This may be the kindest thing to do. The population must decline to something less than 4 billion, based on our current Co2 production. This number is contested, and is a soft number, depending on how we are willing to live, and what condition we allow the earth to get into. Our population is effecting the environment in a big way.

Our outlook on this changes our morals quite a bit. I recognize that those who do not accept human driven climate change... and all the lesser effects will be upset, but oh well. But for those of us who recognize the changes we have made on this world, we humans bear the guilt, and responsibility once we recognized this, and have spoken out against abusing the earth, but few have listened.   

Once we see that we are already overpopulated, the value of human life decreases. We are the too many. To this end, unviable children should be allowed to expire, and we should assist voluntary terminations. Abortion is then not an issue. Only the strong physically will survive, as it was before the modern age. And still we overpopulated the planet. It is easy to understand the resistance to allowing in the refugees. We, in Canada, have enough population, for we in Canada need much winter heat to survive, and that produces much Co2. Everywhere else is already much over populated.

Carbon capture should be given priority, where practical. Forest is good, we should be burred, not burned. A one child policy is needed to allow everyone to carry on their genes if they so wish. Some of us have found youth to be joyless, and would not inflict life onto another human, and thus remained childless. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway.

Gays and other lifestyles we would not chose should be allowed to live out their lives quietly, but if they get uppity or to much in our faces, they will be beaten down. Same goes for the natives, as they were a concurred race which we have supported in recovery to the point of being in a position of influence. Now they want a free ride in our society. My suggestion is it will not happen... Trudeau needs to have the natives account for the money, for the chiefs are becoming rich, and the natives... not so much.  

          

So where do we find ourselves

Yesterday I heard a Gretta Vosper talk that was a call for action, to follow her... more or less. But I am an atheist, not a United plus atheist; Her call is not my way.  

We are all searching for our path forward, and that becomes the issue. We start where we are, not in terms of years of atheism, but in terms of where we are at in our head space, our psyche, for the lack of a better descriptor. Some are searching for community where they can grow, and some of us have enough community, but need spiritual or conceptual growth, confidence building, or concept development to define what we now know/believe. Some of us need action, projects; works of "faith". Faith is not the right word... works of virtue, humanism, or of community development... as AA says, "faith, without works, is dead" sort of concept. Some of see our role as converting others to atheism, while others of us see our role as defining what we actually think more clearly first, and then we will decide what our "work" should be.

I am at the stage of indecision; or perhaps possibility development. After coming to understand that religions, all religions are false, just fanatics, It take a bit of time to gather up a suitable world view; there is no evidence of a god, a soul, afterlife, and for some of us, no tribe, not much like minded local community, but groups of specific interest community.

So now to a world view, where there are two logical choices, a) create my own, or b) adopt in whole or in part. There are two which are suitable for adoption: Stoicism and Buddhism. In actual fact, there is so little conflict between them, one could adopt both, but each emphasize different parts of what could be a well rounded plan, one would need to choose emphases. So where does this leave one; having abandoned the past drags and anchors, free to go into the new world unencumbered.

Much of the lifestyles and mythology of other humans is just irrelevant, as is their religions and their belief systems. It does not matter to me what they believe, even if it is wrong, it is just none of my business. But they had better not impinge on my freedoms, else look out. David Silverman explains why here.    

Along the way, I realized that my thinking quite matches some of the concept is Object Oriented Programming, all thoughts are objects (nouns), or methods (verbs). Stitches on those objects take the form of modifiers, and away we go. The mental objects reference real world objects, and if the real world object is just a concept, the mental object exist, while the real world object does not, it is just a concept. So that explains how so many people can be fooled, the mental god object is real, but the real world object does not; there is no evidence of it`s existence; in this case I speak of god. 

Reverse Engineering

Danial Dennett, in his book "Breaking the Spell" does a job on reverse engineering parts of religion. In his book he makes the point that there is no physical evidence for a god, but there is a preponderance of evidence for a "belief in a god." This is like the SantaClaus of childhood. the mythical unicorn. Well, perhaps, less people believe in unicorns, but the existence and belief of those who belief is the same thing as with a god that there is no physical evidence of existing.


It is the belief in the concept of a god, without realizing that it is just the belief of a concept of an imaginary thing that is offering the comfort. It is the certainty of though, the community of like believers, and the constant reinforcement that provides the confidence necessary for a peaceful life without knowing the truth; there is no god, only belief in a concept of god. This is the confidence trick of religion.

And that is where I leave Dan... and go on my own. The Buddha claimed that delusions were the cause of suffering. I think this is not quite right, and it should be the belief of the delusion is the root of the suffering, or is that what was said and lost in translation.

I have come to understand religion as just a confidence trick. I feel sorry for those who do not see through the trick, and are so deluded by the illusions into believing. Saving of a non-existing eternal soul or life after death, well... these to are imaginary. Forgiveness for imaginary sins against the religion is just fine, but what about abuse or crimes against humanity? Lying, misleading... these are serious events of life... going half way through life, believing false stuff... wasting lives keeping this religious hocus pocus alive. Religion is the greatest conspiracy ever perpetrated on mankind. It was a system of thinking that got us through the stone age, iron age, but we are now into the information age, and it is time to learn truths, not fiction.

We need a great sorting and purging of wrong information. Only the science can do this. Know truths, recongnise myths as myths, and abandon fiction as fiction. Fiction can also be entertainment, but how much entertainment should the human have? How much of religion was just entertainment? Or is all of religion just entertainment and fill a social need? Are the entertainment and social need enough redeeming value to make some religion useful or at least benign? Once we know there is no god, and only belief in belief of a god, can religion still function? Only for those so inclined. 

It's All About Belief, Belief, Belief.

The science is quite clear, there is no physical god, and no physical evidence of one of any kind. Religion is all about belief in a god that does not exist. When we do not acknowledge that no god exists, but stick to a belief in one, the actions and cognitive function can be consistent. Reverse engineering of religion makes this quite clear. All religion is based on a falsehood, and as such is a form of fraud. Now, what moral high ground do they have? I do believe that the concept of gods exist, in the mine of believers. So there is a lot of belief in the "belief in god." But that does not change there is no god, no physical god.

Moral action is a basis base description of action. The word moral is a concept opposite to sin, that is religion based. It is a religion based term for right actions, right behavior, but is religion based. As an atheist, "moral" is just a concept, so to be atheist and to be moral is a UME, use meaning error, to miss use an English grammar term. It is our behavior that must be judged, yet not with religious based terms.

In Iceland almost all Down Syndrome fetuses are aborted, because there is a reliable test, and to test and appropriate action to be taken is the right thing to do. It is the society that must be accepted, and to bring a Down Syndrome child into life is a burden on the society. Now watch all the Christians get up about that. Religions like to reproduce and spread their fraud downstream to the next generations. It is a more sure spread that laterally, where reason can prevent the spread. We could eliminate a tremendous burden on the medical system by eliminating all nonviable children. It is a mater of defining what is right for our society.

There is more peace in homogeneous culture than in multiculturalism. Canada and the US are headed for ongoing strife, just like Israel, and now Europe. Africa is so badly overpopulated and starving. Oh well, the whole world is over populated when we use Co2 level as the indicator. The human population is in for a rough ride the next while. The earth will survive but will humans?         

What defines a "Quality Life"

A quality life for all is a fine guide, but what exactly is a quality life? This is reminiscent of the Stoic guide to live virtuously and naturally or by nature. Sounds good, but what exactly does it mean? Actually, when we unpack the Stoic virtuous life, it is a quality life, and would also be approximately what Buddha would have recommended or allowed. Buddha did not address seventeen issues, as the proper answer would violate other directions, necessities of life, or prevailing society believes in his time and location. These are only the issues that he refused to address.

No life is without drama; however, some people just create needless drama. Drama that is the result of an long list of thins, delusions of how life of the world should be, delusions of how others should act, our expatiation's, our unfulfilled desires, and our aversions all cause us emotional misery, and that is up to us to let go of. We may, at the same time need to let some people also go, or detach from them.  The Mangala Sutra defines what a good life is, looking from the tail end. Having reached retirement, I can say that I have lived a quality life, with a few exceptions each way. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway.

The Stoics do likewise, but they also define it by characteristics to practice, which they hold as virtues, but do not get around to defining what they think those named virtues consist of. Justice for example changes with society and with time. So in the end we have a list of conflicting concepts which we can pick from, which gives us enough room to be disgusting people, and be within there definition of leading a good life. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway.

The US has its Alt Right, which would likely not be tolerated in Canada; with our in-sighting hatred laws. We, Canada, are not any longer a "christian" country, but a multicultural one, which implies multi-religion. The rights of others to impose there beliefs on others has not been tested in a big way, but is coming. We have just seen those uppity natives object to some road names, building names, and a few historical monuments. These needs to be resolved, otherwise our society will continue to fragment further, rapidly.              

Quality Life for All

What is the ultimate objective? A quality life for all is the likely answer in general. This does not say government handouts, but gives the opportunity for effort, not money.

So we all have delusions, and it is not what happens that bothers us, but what we think about those things. Human misery is caused by our thinking. Now there are many people who just want to live quietly, not demanding great amount of support, just enough to live. That is not right while the the rest of us work to support the services that those who just wish to live draw on those services.

The only solution is for all to "just live a quiet life" and pile onto the system, until it breaks. We can demand medical services for every acne and pain, or we can get on living until we die. It does not matter, for in the end we all just die anyway.

It is tough to live around people who live in a delusional state, it is difficult to associate with them in any form. Of course that is all in our head, as it is not what they think that bothers us, but rather what we think about their beliefs. Ok, so they are ignorant of reality, and why should that bother me? I have been forced to learn and struggle all my life, alone, and these ignorant groups of my relatives live off each other, on historical family lands, and get by happily.

Here is one area that I do not agree with Richard Dawkins. Much if not all of the kinship bond is learned behavior in human, not genetic. Richard claims it is genetic for the animals, and it may be for animals, but I see no evidence for that among humans. There is no reason for humans to hang with kin that are dissimilar in attitudes, beliefs, values, or the like. Abusive and ignorant relatives can go fuck themselves.      

When their culture is the problem

https://freethoughtblogs.com/anjuli/2017/08/11/criticising-muslims/

So what is our responsibility when it is their culture that is the problem. Islam is a delusion, as is the historical native way of life. Living those delusions condemns the people of those societies the problems that they have, and insures conflict with others of different delusions. Religions are delusions, cultures are largely delusions. What is not a delusion is real life, living reality. 

Trump-Un battle is about to start, and those two both need a taste of reality. Ideology is also delusion. As the Buddha said, the cause of all misery is delusion. It is not the things, but our thinking about those things.

So we humans are allowing those two people with grand delusions of their own self worth, to dictate the future; one of which is so deluded that he denigrates climate science. People and there activities are producing more carbon dioxide than the world is capable of dealing with; hence, Co2 concentration is rising. We are now doomed to severe climate change, polar ice melt, and similar issues. It is coming. The earth will survive, but will humanity?

Personality like Trump

Personality like Trump?

http://www.businessinsider.com/kim-jong-un-life-2017-8

Are there personalities similar? Should they both be just ignored? Twitter has become trump's flagpole. Rum something up it, and see if anyone salutes. Ignoring the bombastic trump is one option. 

And then once we realize that they are living in a delusion of personal grandeur, how should they be perceived? 

What is the proper greeting to those who insist that there is a god? There is no god man!!! Man, are you deluded. I need some of what you are smoking. I do not know.

Trump has divided the media into what he accepts and what he does not. So to him anything he does not want to here is fake news. It has nothing to do with reality, just his opinion of reality. And that is what the US has for a President. Oh well, they got the government that they elected. He was a vote for change, a vote for shake up, a vote for living in a world where the rose classes are always on, for a life of reality TV, where life is lived in a delusion.

Trump has removed any semblance of  the US being a great nation, and has turned the US into a flailing nation without a sound foundation and living a delusion of grandeur. Living the dream, like so many of us (you) do, but what do I know. There is no god, no absolute guide to right and wrong; however, that which most agree is wrong, is likely wrong. We are all equals.  

Climate Science

Climate Science makes several things clear; it is an iterative process of learning. Not only is it iterative, but it is step-wise. Too much population, using too much carbon has produce more carbon dioxide than the earth can handle, the co2 has effected the oceans turning them into acid, which the fish cannot live in; reducing the oceans capacity to absorb Co2, and we humans are screwed unless we get off carbon very soon. We are just through one more iteration. Changes need to be made for the next generations. Religions and political systems need to be replaced with big group values, and the like. The values must be frequently stated so that understanding for the efforts can be developed. It will be interesting time ahead.

As the Co2 rises, the climate warms, with the extreme storms, and rising seas. Food will become an issue, but so will other things, like clean water. We will need to store sufficient water for one year. Sky burial will become common. It is the most environmentally friendly. Or shallow, no formaldehyde, no box burial. No long term respect for the dead.    

Storage of energy will be the big thing soon. Refrigerators that freeze ice over daytime when power is available from solar arrays, and operate as ice boxes at night. Deep freezes that do likewise, but well enough insulated to remain cold all night. Gas for cooking and heat, short term. Perhaps daylight electric cooking, from solar arrays. Transportation, short distances... electric. Long distance trains, boats, all electric.

And most important, population control. The medical industry may need permission to provide services to any but the select groups. Life will not be worth much. Civilization will go into rapid decline. Communist, well socialism at least, will rise. It is going to become survival of the fittest, the richest, the political astute. Not a nice place at all. Oh, well, in the end we all just die anyway. We will be beyond reach, beyond caring. All this for not listening to the science soon enough.

Religion must be abandoned for reality based decision processes. It should be fun times ahead.       

What was the Purpose

What was the purpose of religious tests? Were they just a effort to educated the next generation? There is two ways to learn, one is by experience, the second and faster, more economical in both time and money is to read, and learn from written works. This has been known for a long time, since Alexander the Great, and his great library in Alexandria to educate the world. Oh well, it is nearly underwater now. Perhaps the oceans rose and the delta sank.

Johannes Stobaeus complied great works to "educate his sons" in the 5 century CE. Much of the old Greeks and Roman stuff came to us through Stobaeus, he has kept education alive, not just for his sons, but for many generations of humans. Was the bible also an attempt at recording and hence preserving history and stories for the purpose of teaching? and if so, we know that each generation learns more, so perhaps it is time to update and revise what is important enough and correct enough to teach the next generation. In that case, it is our duty to update all these books, or to produce new books for the same purpose. It becomes "what should be taught?" type of question.

The required information, aka knowledge, changes with each generation, and for each person. This is one of the missing bits, and what information we should have is also a problem. This might be useful is an easy way out; but it overloads each following generation with too much information, more than they can properly handle. Now we are left with too much, and yet too little. Consider critical thinking, and can you name all eight components? Without knowing all eight components, what you call critical thinking is not what I call critical thinking; so we have miss communications. That is the basics of the problem, no one has the time and effort to do in depth examinations of others ideas, because we have different foundations. If we are evidence based, without supernatural or magical  thinking, we are not willing to spend the time to learn what others think about the supernatural.

So what is this ranting all about? I do not have the patience to argue reality with the religious. They can do as they please, but forcing there religion on me is not acceptable. At the same time, having no or poor ethics is not right either, yet there is no need for ethics, morals, and our cultural values to tied to our religions of lack there of, yet these seam to be handles together. It is easier to adopt values that to reason what these values should be. To learn what are good values and why they should be followed is important for society to survive, but understanding what good values are has become a problem for all of us. It is not just what is possible, but there is the economy of life as well to consider, and the economy of the system. We cannot overspend to save something that cannot return value to the system. It has become that simple.






 

Religious Abuse

Religions have some right and take others that are not theirs.

Consider the Islamic who get offended at someone drawing Mohamed. It is not the right of a Islamic idiot to strike back or even to ask us to not draw the idiot Mohamed. It is not their right to impose their views on others.

Now consider the Catholic hospitals. They can choose to not provide abortion and assisted end of life services. But yet the government says we, the people have those right. This is the religious abusing there position as they are the service providers, and we the people, often have little choice. They withhold service that can reduce suffering.

And then you ask why we do not respect religions people.

natural vs supernatural

The geological forces that are going on today have always gone on at the same sort of range of speeds, and with the same sort of results. All natural actions, and results, no supernatural. For anyone to say that something happened by god will require extremely good proof, as extraordinary results require extraordinary proof. Consider the biblical flood. How big was the known world, that is know to the survivors in the days of walking on foot, perhaps horses, where long distance travel was limited to the sort of distances horses could travel, day after day in pre-road days. Perhaps 7 days wide, perhaps 300 miles. So when the Black Sea flooded after the ice age ended... some 8000 to 9000 years ago, and a barn may have floated, and perhaps someone had seen the ice damn, and realized it would melt and built a float-able barn for the farm animals, and no one was recording time in a meaningful way... what happened?  So what ever happened must match the geological record. A big part of story telling is making it seam more interesting than it actually is.

So the geological record must be physically true, and the supernatural explanation is just wrong hypothesis. Is any thing else logical? So then the 6000 year old earth, is just bullshit. Bullshit has a definition; the author does not know and does not care if the statement is true or not. That is the best expression of the probable outcome.

The Dark Force and Other Uncertainties

The Canadian Science Council has decreed that dark energy or the dark force is likely centrifugal force created by this sphere, with a radius of at least 13.8 million light years wide, spinning in three directions or rolling through space. As we cannot see beyond this dimension, we have no reference points to measure from, so we are unable to determine the rate of spin other than from the forces created by the centrifugal force. This is as logical as we can get from the information available. This can be amended with any additional physical evidence.

The Canadian Science Council has decreed there are no god or gods, rather these are concept hypothesis of such being passed down through the generation as an explanations uncertainties of the mind. Some would rather have a false explanation than deal with an unknown. This is as logical as we can get from the information available. This can be amended with any additional physical evidence.

The Canadian Science Council has decreed that the human does not have a soul or spirit. It just seems like it to the human mind, another simple but wrong explanation for consciousness. We are what we are, a thinking organism in an animal body. The Greeks and Romans explained this as we were the decedents of animal humans and intelligent gods, which is another wrong explanation, as yet unknown in detail method that we developed intelligence and self awareness. As there is nothing that survives death of the physical body, there is no afterlife or reincarnation. These concepts are supernatural and do not exist in the physical world. If you wish to live in a fantasy world, just do that on your own nickle. This is as logical as we can get from the information available. This can be amended with any additional physical evidence.

The Canadian Science Council has decreed dark matter is likely neutron cloud, or similar unattached particles that have no charge, similar to hydrogen atoms that the positron has be annihilate by low energy electrons or electron collision. This is as logical as we can get from the information available. This can be amended with any additional physical evidence.

The Canadian Science Council has decreed that all religions are feeble attempts of our ancestors to control future generations, or to give them a quick start into education. As what is taught is wrong, it is actually a handicap. We can do better by eliminating all the supernatural concepts and admit that there is much we do not yet know, and some of what we profess to know is actually wrong. But which? We can define how we should live or at least basic principles fairly easily by taking that which is common to most religions. This is as logical as we can get from the information available. This can be amended with any additional physical evidence.

Religion is Irrational,

Religion is irrational, there can be little debate about that. Well, there can be little rational debate over that. There is no physical god. God's that exist in the mind of the religious person exist in the realm if concepts, ideas, and fairies. These are just not rational. So why do nations trust the direction of their country to people who are not rational?

http://freethinker.co.uk/2017/07/06/artefacts-for-museum-of-the-bible-were-looted-from-iraq/ reminds us that they hold dollars and conviction to their cause higher than the law. Oh well, law is just rigid application of a principal, not logic. There are always exceptions, but really Omar Kandr. They should have awarded a apology for violating his civil rights, and taken his citizenship away or a one dollar award.

Having said once again that there is no physical god, anyone who is bothered by that is the equivalent to sticking there head into the sand, if any bird actually does that. Oh well. But so many people insist that there is a god, and when opposed, just physically attack. It is not rational to try to govern through fear, but trump and others try to.

It is not rational to think that the natives can hold this country ransom much longer. We are seeing the start of civil unrest, and the police are taking what action they see fit, given the situation. The native culture does not handle reality well either. When the Governor General reminded them that they too were immigrants, he was forced to retract his statement, likely under threat of firing. At that point it says money talks, truth walks out the door with integrity.

Immigration is often not understood. It is not a decision toward something, but rather a survival method, to leave a bad situation, and to go elsewhere. The decision becomes 'pick the best of the choices', not pick the best. It is more governed by the push away than the pull toward. Canada has a reputation for allowing people in, not as an attraction. It becomes running from something, not to something. Oh well, we go through life making the best available choices as decisions.  The zero alternative, the do nothing choice, must also be considered.

So the big question is how do we promote critical thinking, abcdefg's. How do we get people back to reality? How do we get people, how can live comfortably in their heads, back to face the barbs of reality? But it is not my place to say how people should live. How do I get myself back to reality, and the world can go screw itself.

 

Terrorism Pays

Terrorism Pays

 http://thechronicleherald.ca/canada/1483277-word-that-feds-set-to-pay-omar-khadr-10.5-million-apologize-sparks-anger

Who says we do not pay ransom?

Omar was a terrorist, terrorist sympathizer, or terrorist in training, for he was with the terrorists.  

trump is just another american asshole

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/laughingindisbelief/2017/06/president-trump-trashes-canada-day/

Reconciliation

Reconciliation yay sure.

rec·on·cil·i·a·tion

ˌrekənˌsilēˈāSH(ə)n/

noun

noun: reconciliation; plural noun: reconciliations

1. 1.

   the restoration of friendly relations.

   "his reconciliation with your uncle"

   synonyms:

   reuniting, reunion, bringing together (again), conciliation, reconcilement, rapprochement, fence-mending; More pacification, appeasement, placating, mollification "the reconciliation of the disputants" resolution, settlement, settling, resolving, mending, remedying "a reconciliation of their differences" agreement, compromise, understanding, peace; formalconcord "there was little hope of reconciliation" harmonizing, harmonization, squaring, balancing "the reconciliation of theory with practice"

2. 2.

   the action of making one view or belief compatible with another.

   "he aims to bring about a reconciliation between art and technology"

    

   
   

   So who are the natives trying to reconcile with? Themselves? The natives do not get along with themselves. They attack the hands that feed them. See "the rabid squaw", just google it and know that the AHS lost two of there diversity group.

    

   There must be discussion with the two parties to reconcile. The government does not really speak for the people, and does not know how we feel. We have never been asked on this subject. They are not reconciling with the population. 

    

   As long as they live on reserves and reproduce like rabbits, they cannot reconcile with the economy, nor with those who are forced off the reservations due to the inter-native bigotry. 

    

   Their preference, well of many of them, is to not prepare themselves for work. Education is often ignored, and they want top dollar for poor work attitude. So they cannot reconcile with the working world. 

    

   In order to reconcile with anything, they must change, for the world outside of them is not going to change for them. Reconciliation means changing themselves. They do not yet seem to be aware of this yet. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway. 

   
   

    

The Season of Discontent

At what point do societies become ungovernable? Most of the people are discontent, and when something more than 50% become discontent, is the country really governable anymore? The condition of trump's USA, where money control really lies with the elected Congress, well control of the major flow of the money at least, requires some agreement. But is this enough for a country to run smoothly? Not likely.

Here in Canada we have a liberal government spending like drunken sailors, much of it aimed at appeasing the natives and to buy the native and new immigrant votes in the next election. No amount of money will ever do it due to economic adaptation by the chiefs, little trickles down to the lower natives. That is a no win situation, but they are not happy; the young females keep running of and screwing themselves into poverty, drugs, alcohol, and/or the predators get them.

The young are not interested in much beyond alcohol, drugs, money, cars and the like. They want big money, but without training. Oh well, they stay unemployed, and so often cannot keep jobs due to such poor attitudes toward work do not fit the industrial needs for employees.  Oh well, we have immigrants to do the work anyway.

As a retired person, I can see the struggle with and against the government. The government lays out a grandiose plan, but it is not supported by the people, yet we are forced to conform... well conform may be too strong of word, tolerate more like. We go along because it is easier that resisting. It just does not matter any more. We are not held together by government, it is just easier to go along that to do what is right. It is that old silent majority issue, those under light stress do not think there is a real choice, just more of the same. We are not hurting bad enough to do anything, but there is discomfort, and more to come likely.

The population is becoming segregated by cultures into ghettos, or enclaves of separate cultures. Not a good situation. Unless something is done, we are going to have a country that is ungovernable. Those that get elected by popularity are not able to run the country, those civil servants that know how to run the country, based on the existing regulation may need to do what they can to improve the situation, not just keep changing the situation. Based on the background of too much population of the world, and continued population growth, the solution will be a big population die off, hopefully in other areas first. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway. 

Herding Cats

Working with volunteers or being a volunteer in an organization is like herding cats. We need to know what each individual wants and needs to be able to influence them in a direction. There is no control. If the master driver is also a volunteer, now what? Can he or she maintain direction and not become a controller? A little authority goes to the head too often. There also must be communications at a level that the receiver can recognize and utilize. Texting is not applicable to seniors. Computer is not suitable for many seniors. Changing things on a web site and considering that notice is complete bullshit as communications. Without volunteers, what is the organization?

Seniors do not do well in scramble systems, at least this senior does not. Oh well. But working with volunteers can degrade into a scramble system easily.  Now I know that I am not good at dealing with people in general, and especially where I am the "expert" and they are know nothings or young people. The obvious to me is new and foreign to some. As a geotechnical engineer, I ran into a few "the earth is only 6000 year old types. Reality says otherwise.

Only dead men have no biases and no opinions. We all have large biases: by what we are, our education, would like to be and mostly what we believe. Some of our biases are known by us; some are not, but are obvious to everyone around us. It is those unknown to us biases and opinions that cause issues for us and others.

Our organization exists to serve the desires and needs of it's members. If it no longer serves the needs and desires we just go away or just stop. Our needs stop being fulfilled, or we go elsewhere to fulfill those needs. It is that simple. Problems start when biases and opinions start effecting the group, or activity. Problems really start when personalities get in the way, and the biases get in the way. What now?  

Note to self

Eliminate all that we do not know by"science is difficult therefore god did it" is just faking reality.

Critical thinking depends on who is defining critical thinking. Understanding and eliminating all our own basis is the key to deeper understanding.

Critical Thinking

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/06/10/texas-will-now-require-women-to-bury-or-cremate-abortion-remains/

Christians got us this far. Now what? The above article demonstrates how unthinking, brutal, lacking compassion, lacking understanding some christians can be. Small c christians, they do not deserve any respect. Any young person is struggling to resist the hormonal drive we humans have. That drive is why the human species has prospered and our population has grown out of control and is currently beyond that which out planet can support, when combined with our energy use. The young are not at fault, it is a hormonal drive. Some manage to learn to resist, some do not. It is no different than addiction; it is or becomes a physical drive to do something. Some can resist, some cannot.

It is no different than being overweight, which is caused by overeating, which is caused by a hormonal drive to eat more than we need. If we humans could resist, there would not be 60% of the population overweight. Some people do not have the desire to eat; they are the normal weight people now; they cannot be compared to the those with the desire. It is all well and good, but unless those are perfect in all ways, they are hypocrites and/or ignorant.

After going through the critical thinking process on this subject, young people find themselves in the position of abortion or condemned for a child out of wedlock, to give up or try to raise, and with no income to support the child. There is no good solution. It is a choice of two bad choices. A choice of two lives destroyed or just one. So where is the christian compassion, the understanding, that christians claim? Not there. They talk a good story, but do not offer solution. Sex abstinence lecture after a pregnancy does no good. They were only doing what nature demands. So where is the compassion? Where is the understanding? Where is the good choice? Christians are a bunch of self righteous hypocrites that criticize and abuse but do not offer any solutions.

So which is more important: to criticize and abuse others for bad choices or to provide solutions for those bad choices? Found homes to support the mothers and take the children to raise as your own vs abuse the wood be mothers? Are you someone who will be respected or just another abuser?

This raises the need for a G in critical thinking, the good. Simply, a plan defining the virtues we are striving for free of bullshit of supernatural thinking. (see Pain in the Ass, Christopher W. DiCarlo) Even the Stoic, Epictetus had a plan.    

So what is my future in archery?

I retook-up archery a few years ago. Back in 69 to 71 I shot regularly, and even to lessons for two winters. It was fun, and I acquired a fiberglass bow and made wood arrows. Well fiberglass bows do not work well in the winter, and I exploded that bow. I got busy working and did not shoot regularly but only occasionally, when the opportunity presented. The wife had a brother who shot, and the husband of one of her friends shot, so I got perhaps a dozen afternoons over the next forty years. After I retired, I bought a couple of bows, now I have five and use carbon fiber arrows, and shoot twice a week usually. I have read a "few" books about the subject, and watched numerous videos, and have considered making bows.

Along the way I tried teaching enter level archery and found I like that also.

Archery, as a sport can be divided into three categories: competitive, hunting, and recreational. Each has its own styles, equipment, and emphasis. I am a recreational shooter by nature; I do not care about competition, and do not care to hunt or to take lives of animals just struggling to survive. It is just something to learn about and to do.

There are at least seven different styles of modern archery as well; instinctive, modern traditional, authentic traditional or reenactment, FITA Barebow, Olympic recurve, Hunter compound, Olympic Compound. The first three categories are my main interests; the remainder are where most people are at. Currently the club does not offer much in the way of courses or information in these three. That I would like to do, and develop a bit more in that direction. One of the big issues I struggle with is how much material to put into one lesson. The time dictates how far we will get. The next issue is selling this to the club.

Passive resistance or passive aggressive procrastination by the executive is apparent and is driving the activities of the club. They are against anything that they do not want. It          

Tolerance

Tolerance is what has been lost that is so critical in the inter-meshing of cultures. We tolerate the natives by paying for the old treaties so that we can have near ideal Indians, living in great quantities on some reserves. Here is an example of native intolerance: http://oathursdaynightgroup.blogspot.ca/2017/05/special-privilege.html

We tolerate the uneducated ideas of some religions. Muslims are also a multi sect religion, and some portions have lost tolerance for other sections and other religions. All conflict can be seen as loss of tolerance. Some time groups need to be stopped, if not stomped out, but then that is lack of tolerance combined with aggression.

The Muslims need to learn tolerance of others, and not go unhinged when we depict Mohamed as a violent general, for that is what he was. Oh well, shit happens.

I was at a talk, really a begging secession for teaching critical thinking to the third world, at a time that the US of Assholes is moving to a stupid position on climate change, to that of climate change deniers. Since 1974, we have know that human activities is driving up Co2 levels, and that is driving climate change. It is science, a mater of logic, proof with sound evidence, and it comes down to world population is too great. The US government is deigning all this. It is not taking the logical path, accepting climate change and making an economic decision to not address the effects of population. In this one move, the US has gone from a leading nation to a nation in decline, flailing about with a massive ego. We must tolerate this flailing, but it may be best to step back and let them flail as the world fails

This group of critical thinking promoters has created a recipe for critical thinking that works, just like the scientific method. It spends considerable time at understanding our biases, which once we identify them, we can apply critical thinking to each, and start to dismantle the supernatural thinking, the "witch craft and shay-men, spirit world, the learning by memorization, and the like. Oh well.

The recipe is; argument (assumption, precepts, conclusions), biases, context, diagram, evidence, fallacies. The emotional and spirit world will just need to learn to tolerate critical thinking as we continue to evolve down the path to pure logical people, or to well balanced emotional/logical people. Emotions are what drive us forward, we need those along with logic to lay the course. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway.           

Halal

 Well is this not just a fine pickle? Is it Kosher?

http://www.wgrz.com/news/muslim-man-sues-little-caesars-claiming-halal-was-a-lie-in-dearborn/443254858

Muslims have some good ideas, just as the stopped clock is right time twice a day. They have a concept of right and wrong that is different. Depending on who is writing about it, it is more of a five point scale: required, permitted, neutral, wrong, absolutely forbidden. so Halal are permitted.

So the food rules are essentially the same as the old testament, and in a hot dirty country are about what is necessary to stay healthy. Now we have cleaner conditions, refrigeration, we generally understand disease, bacteria, blood borne parasites, and similar disease agents, these rules are just well archaic and followed out of blind faith.

So I will leave it to you to look up those rules if you like; Leviticus 11, Deuteronomy, Torah, and or Quran.
Now let us consider pizza; first you have crust, grain; then cheese, dairy, then meat. In what alternate reality would these be acceptable in one dish? He was only concerned about the meat. Pizza, with halal meat violates about four other rules. With such a ignorant question as "is it halal?", the answer to such ignorance must always be yes, for you do not know the rules, why should I, an atheist or christian for that matter.

In one rule set it is not permissible to mix grain, dairy or meat. Even a sandwich with butter and meat is not halal, you idiots. Pizza, is a vegetable according to a US senator. Pizza is a mix of all three also.

For meat to be halal, the animal (not pig or rabbit) must die from a slashed throat, which is not legal in either the US nor Canada for humanity rules. No commercially produced, government inspected meat is halal. So imagine the outcry when this is recognized. On one side there is the animal right, on the other the Muslims.  Oh well. The Kosher Rabbis know this and look the other way in the slaughter houses, for the animal is just stunned then the throat is slit, as the rabbis pray.

Halal pizza and halal meat is like a bank looking after the customers interests. Just does not happen. You can think that if you like, but you need to get hold of something solid and give your head a real good shake. It is like believing that there is an all knowing, all wise old man in the sky to call god.