Taxing “Christians” as an act of compassion

Let’s tax the “hell” out of “Christians!” We’d be doing them a favor – because doing so would literally tax the “Christians” out of “hell.” Here’s the lowdown on “hell” and “Christians” – according to their very own favorite book most of them are going to burn in “hell” for eternity. And who can stand idly by while that happens? Seems the “inerrant word of God” in their favorite book is quite insistent upon poverty being the way to “heaven.” It is a recurring theme with the following words of “Jesus” himself reiterated no less than three times. “And again I say to thee, a camel may more easily pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man through the gates of heaven.” This theme shows up repeatedly. In another passage a comparison is made with a merchant who finds a pearl of great value. The merchant then trades all his worldly goods for that single pearl of great value. Of course the pearl isn’t actually a pearl. The pearl instead represents everlasting life in “heaven.”

Unfortunately modern “Christians” have become extremely confused about this and have this bizarre idea that “God” is rewarding people for acts of charity and the like in this lifetime. The “inerrant word of God” promises rewards only in an alleged afterlife. But we could easily take care of the problem for all those confused “Christians.” We could tax the confused “Christians” into poverty. Being as poverty apparently removes a barrier to “Heaven” we’d be doing the “Christians” a huge favor. Plus we could then use the tax revenue to do all those good things suggested by the example of “Christ.” All that tax money would surely go a long way toward feeding the hungry, comforting the afflicted, and healing the sick. Who knows, “God” might even count the resulting good deeds in favor of the “Christians” on “Judgment Day” – although I imagine it would count for more if the “Christians” did it of their own free will.

Let’s tax the “hell” out of “Christians” because it looks like a win-win solution for everyone!

There is no god

There is no god and one may be quite secure in the knowledge of that fact. “Christians” and others infected with the evolving thought contagions of religion may say that it is impossible to disprove god. They are correct – to exactly the same extent and for exactly the same reasons that it is not possible to disprove that we are living like the people enslaved in the movie The Matrix.

If I assert that we are enslaved in pod towers to generate electricity for a machine society – just as is portrayed in the movie The Matrix, then it is impossible to disprove my assertion. This is because the machine society proposed in The Matrix is presumed to want to hide itself and is presumed to have the means to mask its existence. The gods proposed by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are similarly presumed to want to hide themselves and are presumed to have the means to mask their existence. Because the gods proposed are presumed to have the will and the means to mask their existence then it impossible to disprove their existence.

Adherents of Abrahamic gods aren’t usually too keen on competition – most likely because their religions have evolved toward those most likely to win in the competition for control of minds. Consequently adherents of Abrahamic gods are likely to try to disprove or at least discredit The Matrix assertion. Their attempts would be very instructive.

The most obvious line of attack is to discredit The Matrix assertion by pointing out the provenance of the mythology. Modern technology makes it simple to learn the provenance of The Matrix. We know The Matrix was written by Andy and Lana Wachowski. We know the story was not widely known before 1999. This line of attack is instructive because it is applies equally to religion. The historical and archaeological records reveal the evolution of religions. We know the approximate dates when certain stories first appear and when particular features were added to those stories.

A marginally more sophisticated line of attack might employ “Occam's razor.” There are several interpretations of “Occam's razor.” It is variously stated as “the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one” or “entities must not be multiplied without necessity.” Let’s see how it might be applied to discredit The Matrix assertion.

In The Matrix each person experienced the world just as we believe we do. They had jobs, homes, families and friends. But it was all just a virtual reality world piped into their heads through a cable connected near their cervical vertebrae. They each believed they moved through and interacted with a real world but in reality they lay motionless in a pod plugged into a worldwide virtual reality game. From the perspective of a denizen of The Matrix there is no evidence or need for the pods, the enslaving machine society, or the worldwide virtual reality game.  For denizens of The Matrix, the proposition of an elaborate pod structure and enslaving machine society is a multiplication of entities and immediately fails the test of “Occam's razor.”

But the assertion fails beyond that. What physics would make it worthwhile for the enslaving machine society to construct and maintain all those pods and all that inefficient human respiration? Why wouldn’t they just employ their energy source directly? There are any number of questions which might be asked regarding the illogical motives of the proposed enslaving machine society.

The gods proposed by religion fail the test of “Occam's razor” for similar reasons. The laws of evolution and physics are sufficient to explain the world around us. Therefore adding an additional layer with undetectable gods, undetectable angels, undetectable demons, and undetectable souls is simply multiplying entities without necessity.

But the proposition of god fails beyond that. Why would a perfect god capable of creating perfect creatures instead choose to create flawed (sinful) creatures which can never live up to his expectations? Why would he fashion irresistible temptations right into our bodies and then get all uppity when we give in to the temptations? After doing this how could this god imagine himself to be just and loving? If the proposed gods are so perfect then why do they have this need to be constantly told how great they are? That need would seem to reveal deep-seated problems with self esteem.

Conclusion: there is no god and we do not live in a world such as portrayed in The Matrix. A rational mind must be equally certain of the inveracity of god and the inveracity of the enslaving machines of The Matrix.

American Atheists Convention

This has been a rewarding and informative experience in the past. I've purchased my tickets and reserved a room. You should do the same!

Sharia Law coming to America

All these morons griping about Sharia law being brought to America need to seriously get a grip. Sharia law is nothing more – and nothing less – than forcing one’s religion on others through the power of government. Any rational American can clearly see that we already have that. Religious people use the power of government to push abstinence-only curriculums. Religious people use the power of government to enforce second class citizenship on homosexuals. Religious people use the power of government to support religion through manipulation of the tax code. Religious people are sometimes thwarted, but there is a constant pressure to elevate the Decalogue to law-of-the-land. And we are never allowed a break from the constant shrill rhetoric coming from the “pro-life” movement – a movement which would make its religion the law-of-the-land in an instant if given the opportunity. Religious people are able to censor what we can read at the library and exert control through innumerable governmental bodies.

The complaints regarding Sharia law are hugely hypocritical because the real issue with Sharia is which delusional belief system can gain control of the government. Of course I would prefer a 100% rational government in which the “golden rule” was the cornerstone and the oppressive thought contagions of religion played no role. Being as fundamentalist Christianity is losing market share around the world while fundamentalist Islam is gaining market share it is a reasonable assumption that Sharia law will spread – because majority Islam electorates will vote for Theocracy as soon as they can. This is essentially the same as majority Christian electorates having voted for tax-exempt religion in America. If you don’t like Sharia law then be consistent and work against ALL religion in government.

A few words for “‘Doctor’ Laura”

Dr. Laura is right about one thing: Gays and Lesbians are biological errors. And as usual whenever a “conservative” chances upon a correct conclusion, that conclusion was generally reached by illogical means or by no means at all. The question Dr. Laura should have asked is “why doesn't nature seem to be able to correct all these biological errors?”

From a Darwinian perspective, same-sex attraction would seem to be self-limiting genetic defect. That is to say that a person who is attracted only to the same sex is not likely to pass along the genes for the same-sex attraction because passing along genes requires interaction with the opposite sex. This seems to work for most other creatures onboard spaceship Earth. Why not humans?

One of the major things that distinguish humans from all other inhabitants of planet Earth is religion. None of the other inhabitants have it. This difference prevents nature from correcting many “biological errors”, at least in the short term. It is not that difficult to comprehend, but you will need to understand several things first – things that may never appear in a textbook because religion will not tolerate them.

The first thing that you must understand is that the human gene pool is becoming degraded. One of the factors causing this is human technology. For example, a zebra with poor eyesight might fail to identify a predator before the predator identified the zebra as dinner. Dinner does not pass its genes on to the next generation. Therefore only the genes for the greatest visual acuity are likely to survive. In contrast the human with poor eyesight simply acquires a pair of glasses and goes on to reproduce anyway. This is just one example of human technology making exceptions to “natural selection”. However, technology is not the only human characteristic making exceptions to the laws of “natural selection.”

Religion also creates exceptions to “natural selection.” One reason for this is religion's demand for maximum reproduction of those having the religion. We won't go into the ugly details of why this should be – I'll just ask that you look at the evidence. The evidence of religious pressure to reproduce is all around: Look at the religious rules that limit sexual contact to procreation, strictures against abortion, strictures against birth-control, and all the rules that say we can't even touch our own bodies in non-approved ways. The purpose of all these rules is to ensure lots of procreative sex and lots of new brains to indoctrinate with the religion of the parents.

The trouble with religion's emphasis on procreation is that people with no biological drive to reproduce are forced into reproduction. Genes that would not have been passed on get propagated along with everything else. Unfortunately, gays and lesbians are not the only result. I think we are seeing more and more evidence of what I call genes for defective motherhood. We hear of more and more incidents where mothers are dropping newborns in the nearest dumpster, strapping their sons into lake-bound automobiles, and drugging and burning their sons in order to collect insurance money. A bear has more reliable and consistent maternal instincts because a bear that does not provide the best possible food and protection for her cubs is likely to find her genes filtered out of the gene pool. In contrast, the woman without good maternal instincts may have her child raised by the state or adoptive parents – her genes continue when she doesn't provide food and protection herself.

In short, human technology and religion allow or cause many exceptions to “natural selection.” The effect is proliferation of genes which are not biologically fit from a strictly Darwinian perspective. Once you comprehend all this, you should be able to see the truth in the following statement: The rise and spread of homosexuality is a completely natural and predictable consequence of the rise and spread of Judeo-Christian culture. As an Orthodox Jew, Dr. Laura would undoubtedly find this statement utterly offensive. And that, my friends, would be a very good thing. Then perhaps she could understand the hurt which she causes people when she says those people are nothing more than “biological errors”.

Doomsday Fertility Cults

What do you get when you cross a quantity of parenthood memeplex with the thought contagion of a holy judgment day? Answer: A doomsday fertility cult. Judaism is best understood as a quantity of parenthood memeplex – a collection of memes emphasizing maximum fertility. Messianic Judaism added doomsday memes. All the religions which branched from Messianic Judaism include memes for maximum fertility and a day of judgment. This reveals the fundamentally disordered “thinking” upon which both Christianity and Islam are based. As observed in Mormonism, Christianity and Islam are similarly obsessed with forcing maximum fertility – so that all the resulting progeny may then be accused of sin and toyed with in the ultimate kangaroo court. It is a mind game of extraordinary cruelty. Even the most Machiavellian thinkers must be appalled at the scale and depth of the deceit and duplicity. Imagine a mad professor in his lab – brilliant enough to create perfect creatures – but instead purposefully choosing to create flawed creatures which are predisposed to fail the diabolical experiments which the mad professor has devised for them. This is analogous to the story told in relevant religious texts. Take your pick of a deity - Elohim, Jehovah, or Allah. Each is reported to have created us – complete with sinful lusts for earthly pleasures and weak against the lure of loot or sparkling baubles. Each deity is then reported to get into a total snit when the hordes of hapless creations fail to correctly navigate the maze of existence with all its distracting cheeses, dead-end corridors, and booby traps. If Elohim, Jehovah, or Allah actually existed then they would surely have a lot of explaining to do!

So these deities – Elohim, Jehovah, and Allah – are imagined to need lots of lesser beings toward which the deity might feel smugly superior. They – or their earthly authors – must have some deep-seated insecurity or mental problems causing the need for many inferior beings to punish on “judgment day.”

Joe Camel and Friends

I found the accompanying image on the Internet. It was an illustration of the animals which were supposedly gathered for the ark in the familiar fairytale of Noah and the flood. Look closely and you’ll see Joe Camel. Joe Camel was created as part of a marketing campaign meant to hook children on an addictive habit. If one examines this image then certain similarities are apparent.

It has friendly looking animals and bright colors. But the similarity goes much deeper than that. The retail nicotine industry has a financial incentive to hook young people. The retail religion industry also has a financial interest in hooking young people. The retail nicotine industry sells an addictive product which has an overall detrimental effect on society. The retail religion industry peddles fairytales and hits of self righteousness. Like retail nicotine, those products have an overall detrimental effect on society. The cure for both would be amazingly similar – if laws required truth in advertizing then both the nicotine and religion industries would have a much tougher time marketing their wares.