Atheist Meditations

Earlier this week I was roped into helping put up Christmas decorations. For the most part, I just hate putting up decorations in general - I'm not that kind of guy - but religious decorations celebrating the nativity really bug me. I got a bit irritated, maybe I was over caffeinated that morning; whatever. I excused myself for a few minutes, wrote down some angry notes, and then returned to participate with a level of enthusiasm that might have approximated good cheer.

My scribbled note:

It is the moral duty of every young man (and any young women who want to be more than property, but those who don't/can't aren't my concern, just as I don't feel any ethical responsibility for domesticated cows that cannot survive in the wild ) to reject religion in general and their own sect/branch in particular ahead of any other exercise in consciousness. This task must be undertaken before setting out to make one's fortune in the world, and before devoting oneself to the search for a truly meaningful romantic partnership. Failure to do so is a moral failing. One fails themselves, their society, their generation and the future . . .

Indeed, I channel the demon of hyperbole exceptionally well.

Skipping over the rough parenthetical outline of why I do not crusade for Feminism (not my job), I'd like to elaborate on this moral calling. Generation Y, Generation Next, Generation Me - whatever someone wants to call these young kids - they have a unique set of opportunities that sets them apart from any of the groups of young men who have come before them. There is also a unique responsibility, and Atheism is one name for that responsibility.

I'd like to make some grandiose statements here about societies and 'moments in time when young people had to make a choice.' That same demon of hyperbole wants we to weave evocative statements about abolitionists and slave owners, those who wanted to appease fascism and those who wanted to fight it; statements about critical mass and when it was necessary to demand 'no taxation without representation.' I can't do that with Atheism.

Atheism is just obvious.

It is simply a choice between maturity and retardation. In order to be true to anything, one must first be true to themselves. Every young man has to learn to stand up for himself, and in our current time Atheism is how you stand up for your own ability to think.

Let me be clear, this imperative rests upon your shoulders, not that of your parents or grandparents. They grew up in a different world. Even when your parents graduated from high school the exchange of Ideas was nothing like it is today. There was no internet, even ocean of books and periodicals has much less circulation and depth. Sure some pursued an education and the knowledge that naturally leads to Atheism, but to not do so is a different species of failure from the one that lurks over you.

There is a direct correlation between the number of hours of leisure time per day that your generation enjoys and the expectations of learning that are thrust upon you. With the internet you can access works of academia and the diaries of total strangers with equal ease. . .

I accuse anyone who grew to adulthood in the age of the internet and has not embraced Atheism of being a failure. A moral failure and someone who will be a dupe and a tool every day they exist upon this planet.

Just as the young person who witnesses violence in the home, or whose unemployed father drinks and smokes the family into poverty may be unfortunately predestined to be a economic or relationship failure, someone whose parents' utilize the same tactics of brainwashing Chairman Mao used might never escape spiritual failure. Since our society seems to have ceased trying to show empathy for the former, I'm done going out on a limb to the latter.

Labels: anti-ministry, Generation Next, pseudo-inspirational

Over the course of the weekend I've been passing the time as I re-organize my workspace up here by listening to some of the many archived podcasts available at the Skeptic.com website. Under the name Skepticality, co-hosts Derek and Swoopy have interviewed a great many of the big guns in the modern skeptic movement. Sometimes these programs are highly stimulating, other times the full hour of conversation seems to drag just a little.

Last night I finally caught up with one of their most recent interviews, released on October 16.

Daniel Loxton begins the podcast with a reading of his essay, Where Do We Go From Here?, in which he draws from some surprising resources of pop culture (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the spin-off Angel) to make an appeal for the morality of skepticism.

I found his presentation to be both informative and inspirational.

Mr. Loxton describes the sense of burnout that plagues many of the old guard in the skeptical movement as well as really fleshing out just what it is that these individuals are actually doing. Following in the footsteps of Harry Houdini himself, guys like James Randi confront mediums and faith healers who are cynically profiting off of the grief and desperation of some of the less sophisticated amongst us. The motivation is not to 'ruin the fun' in someone's happy fantasy that aliens routinely visit the earth, it lies in protecting the public from charlatans who sell worthless (or even dangerous) goods and services without a scrap of oversight from either the government or the media.

His position spurred me to think about a lot of things, and has been my high point in philosophical stimulation in at least the last few weeks.

I recommend the audio media to everyone. A printed version has also been made available in pdf format. Kudos to Skepticality and all the sentient beings who still strive to extract something of the higher potential of human consciousness for our public sphere.

Labels: Generation Next, Skepticism, Spirituality

(shit is in the title)


This link, be some quality shit. I don't know who 'Human Events' is supposed to be, and I'm as inclined to believe they've 'been leading the conservative movement since 1944' is big joke upon anyone who might take them seriously. That's a pretty stupid statement.

Anyhoo, this site is still important. I'd like to pretend that most of my fellow American's possess a mental regime of skepticism and robust critical thinking that would tear a fish ass website like that right into the emergency room; yet I know I'm wrong. 30 to 40 % of our population has no critical thinking skills. They can't tell the difference between a journalism and propaganda - any society that approaches such a number is fucked. What has been done to this next generation has fucked us.

Look at that fucking website. The only two attacks on Mr. Obama are vague insinuations presented in the passive voice. Subscribe to their email (and further narrow your media intake) and then they will give you 'the ammunition' to blow away your ideological opponents.

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that had a christian cross and a handgun as symbols on the same decal. That's some heavy shit. If you are too stupid to understand how horrific it is to see those two symbols combined by a right wing group anywhere in America; you've just sold off all your shares in America. It is only fucking obvious that fascists in this country would like to see the vast wealth and military power of America diverted to their own petty goals. That's what fucking fascists do, and it is retarded to think that a country with population exceeding 300 million would not have enough of a selfish subculture that idolizes Adolf to be a problem.

Candy asses pretend that problems are going to go away. Fucking American's deal with their problems.

I'm irritated with any American who hasn't spent six months of their adult life studying Hitler's fascist rise to power. Any ten year old must be able to deduce that if bad shit where going to happen in America, it would almost certainly be something more like Hitler than Red Dawn. If one has any duty as a citizen, you'd think it would be understanding how Germany went wrong or how many American corporations thought fascism was totally profitable and groovy.

There is a story from the recent local press that gives some life to this point. A recently returned Iraqi Crusader crashed a party recently, drunk off his ass. A proud Minnesotan stood up to him, asked him to leave a party his was not invited too, and this poor messed up vet pulled a handgun our Governor is so proud to have 'concealed carried' into legality; a struggle ensued and our Minnesotan victim of the Iraqi Occupation ended up on the wrong side of his own gun.

Now the guy who killed someone who brought a gun to a fist fight is looking at serious criminal time.

Fuck all, and I think this is an important message for all my liberal brothers and sisters to catch on too. Conservatives have changed the world from the happy liberal fantasy of the early nineties.

I still hang out in local bars and I still drink. If you are an asshole at my bar I'm going to tell you so. Get physical with me and I even see a hint of a concealed weapon - I'm going to kill you. Fuck you, anyone with an IQ over seventy must realize that the human body is a massive combination of vulnerable targets combined into consciousness; fists can subdue, guns kill.

Bush and his holding company have worked hard to make this country a more dangerous place. 'Liberals' need to wise the fuck up. The strategies we utilized in the past were noble, but not so useful in the current paradigm. You need to 'man up', and enforce your own territory.

Up until Rupert Murdoch started blowing shit bubbles out of his mouth, most liberals understood that their gains were paid for in blood. Corporations don't give you shit, you have to take it.

This next generation, we'll see.

Labels: Generation Next