Suicidal Atheists

The folly of many religious people is that they believe, not believe and not know, that us atheists are inherently suicidal. That makes as much sense as saying you are insane for not jumping off a cliff because you don't know how far down it goes. The reality of this is completely backwards, and this works for agnostics as well.

The notion of not knowing something will cause you to fear it, that is one of the instincts that have given humans the advantage over some other species, like lemmings. If we don't know what's after life, we will fear ending that life because of that lack of knowledge, so to those of us willing to admit we don't know, it would be illogical to assume we'd want to end our life. Even our strong curiosity cannot overcome this fear, because it's permanent, as far as we know.

However, that also means the inverse is true, those who know there is life after death would lose that fear, they would be willing to get there as soon as possible, even to the point of being suicidal. We do see this in many religious people, suicide bombers are the best example. They believe they know something so well that they are excited to get to that life after death, so excited that they are willing to blow themselves up. But if they admitted to themselves that they did not really know, they'd be to afraid to end this one chance to live so quickly.

This is one of the primary reasons religious people are so willing to kill, the fanatics at least, they believe they know that there is something after life so they do not see it as robbing a living organism of that life, they see it as a release. The question that comes to mind is: why don't they just end their own life?

The answer is more actually a perfect example of the hypocrisy that religion breeds, the one reason this delusion needs to be addressed more than all others. They have doubts. No matter how vehemently one claims to know there is a life after this, no matter how adamant they are that their god exists, deep down in their subconscious there is a doubt that prevents them from killing themselves. They know that they don't really know, that they are just buying some cookie cutter philosophy spoon-fed to them by someone else.

Deep down, everyone is an agnostic atheist, even those who are anti-religion. The problems arise when you deny that you don't know, that is when you create your own delusion, you have to be deluded to believe something without any supporting evidence that exists outside of your own perceptions. The scientific method has given us a way to test evidence, to ensure that the evidence holds true outside of our own perceptions by allowing others to test that evidence.

This is why religious people tend to hate real science. Yeah, I said "real" science. Anything can be called scientific, and who's to argue, however the scientific method is what separates real science from science fiction. Anything that exists in this reality can be tested, anything, that's a simple fact of the matter, one that cannot be denied by anyone with a functioning brain. That makes so-called miracles vanish, without even testing them, because for it to happen in this reality it would have to be tested.

That does not include things outside of this reality, but those cannot be tested within this reality, another simple, hard, and undeniable fact of the matter. We cannot cross the boundaries between realities to test what is outside of this one. That does not mean that other realities do not exist, nor that other possibilities are never played out, it just means this: What can be tested is reality, what cannot be tested is unknown.

It is that final fact that many of the new religious fanatics are perverting for their own ends, using it as a means to convince people that they know something more than they do. That is dishonest, for if you asked an atheist what's beyond this reality, an honest and true atheist would say: we don't know. But if you ask a religious person that same question, they will dishonestly attempt to convince you that they do know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, making that not only a con, but also an outright lie. They have a doubt, lest they'd have gone there already and not be present to try to convince you of their lies.

That entire line of thought demonstrates the fact that a real atheist could never be suicidal, ever. Even when wracked with pain and suffering, and atheist will still fear the end, because as far as we know it means we cease to exist. Not existing anymore is even more frightening to the human mind than eternal torture, so much in fact that it is the only reason our species has survived long enough to extend our own lifespan.

For many years I did not worry about quitting smoking, to me it was something I'd get around to eventually but was not in any real hurry. I was raised religious, and even after leaving that religion, even after admitting to myself I did not know, I held to the hope that there may be something after this life. That one belief caused more damage than anything I knew. Recently I pondered what was after life, what it would be like to be dead, and I kept drawing a blank, literally. All I could imagine was simply not existing.

That scared me, it frightened me so bad that I actively started resisting the smoking addiction, paying attention to when I smoke, how much I smoke, and reducing it. That fear kept me awake at nights, I still wake with a start sometimes as my dreams will often feed on that fear now. When I think about being dead chills run through my body. The reason for this is that when I went for surgery recently, I got to experience not existing for several hours. When I woke I was in a panic, not because of the surgery itself, but because my mind knew there was something missing, time, sensory input.

The surgery had gone wrong, I was under far longer than I was suppose to have been. Recalling what it felt like, that absence, that moment of knowing that I did not exist for a short period of time, it frightened me. But instead of turning to religious nonsense, instead of running to the arms of some con artist with an easy answer for comfort, I started thinking about the entire matter logically. Now, I not only fear being dead, I also feel remorse for all that we have lost, the people who could have contributed so much to our species, their knowledge and wisdom being gone forever.

Musical Genius - Life Genius

We know what makes a scientist a genius. We know what makes an artist a genius. We know what makes a politician a genius, or a military leader, or even a business owner. But what makes a musician a genius?

This question is one that I have discovered to have implications in much of our lives. Music is one part science, one part shock, and three parts wisdom. The wisdom that is required is knowing your audience, knowing yourself, and knowing the culture. Many musicians fail, they fail because they don't get to know their audience at all, then make the fatal error of forgetting themselves.

They lose themselves in their message, becoming too inundated with what should be, they forget to address what is. Many people will argue that the lyrics are less important than the tones, they are wrong, it's not even debatable. They are wrong because even music with no singer has lyrics, the lyrics are in the tones and perceptible only to those sensitive to such things.

My tastes in music are often called eclectic, I move from sounds of the forest to Akira the Don, then to Marilyn Manson, in one day. I hear the lyrics from both the singer and the tones, the instruments cascading around my ears, flooding my head with images. Those images are the lyrics of the tones, the lyrics of the music itself. This is where the genius can be found, the lyrics of the singer and those of the tones must dance in your mind, painting a picture.

The music is the landscape, the stage, the singers are the actors. They must work together or the song is grating on the ears. Only a few musicians with sung lyrics have accomplished this, and most are not even well known, others are only well known in very specific cultures. Now what does all this have to do with life?

As we go through life, we experience the world, reality, learning from it and being altered by it. The end result is the "me," it's what and who you are. That is our sung lyrics, what's in front, what everyone sees immediately when we come into their lives. But what we leave behind, as we move through life, that is our tone's lyrics, the landscape we are seen in when we are remembered. The footsteps we leave behind, the remains of our actions or inaction, the smells and sounds people will remember with our words.

A life genius leaves a lasting impression, where their tones are in line, matched to their singing, their impressions match their words. A life genius will remain forever in the minds of those they encounter, just like a musical genius, because it all just fits so perfectly. I often work to remember those who don't have that synchronization, either their words are wrong or their landscape is off somehow. I do this mostly out of pity, they will never be remembered by many, but also because then I hope I can learn from their mistakes to help teach others not to make them.

I know I leave an impression, often people will approach me on the street, people I cannot remember for the life of me, and they will call me by name and try to discuss things I have done. No, nothing that I have done wrong, often they reminisce about things I had helped them with. That is why I am now sharing my wisdom, the things I have seen, so more people can be life geniuses.

One could call this handing out free help a way to make up for past wrongs I had committed, you'd not be far from the truth. When I was young my mother, and church leaders, discovered I had this knack, this ability, to capture the attention of people. I could speak to large groups, even when I was really young, and sway them, manipulate their thinking. My tones, my voice, my appearance, it all worked together, so well that none could ignore my words, and they could not forget them either.

So I was placed before these groups, told how they should be swayed, I was used as a tool, and did not fight back. I should have fought back, but at the time I did not understand what it was. I was brainwashing these poor people into following a religion that even I knew was completely made up. So now you are wondering what my secret is, how can you do what I do? You want to know how to capture people's attention, to become a lasting memory in their minds. Everyone wants to know this.

The first thing, make sure your voice matches your personality. Not talking about pitch, that is difficult to control for most people, but your accent, how you speak the words. If your personality is one of prudence, commanding and in charge then your words should be sharp, short, and precisely spoken, for example. Do not be afraid to experiment, and ask perfect strangers if they will remember you tomorrow.

That's the second step, you must not fear talking, share your ideas, your thoughts, your opinions. Talk to people, even talk to yourself. As you walk through life, try it, speak your thought processes aloud, the reaction of those around you will tell you how well you can make an impression. Try to think of the last person you remember talking to themselves in public, you'd likely be hard pressed to do so, but there may be that one you do remember, the one who's voice, appearance, and personality just stuck in your head. That is the person you want to be.

Style is also important, your personal style should match, clothing and other artifacts, you. If you are perky, cute clothing with adorable characters will set the stage, let people know who you are, it defines their first impression, building the stage for you to act on. If you are brooding, dark, with an air of strangeness, dark clothing and makeup is perfect, but your voice and speech pattern must match as well. Try to recall the one person, dressed in all black, that spoke with a rapid, high pitched, excited voice. The ones that remain in your head are those who speak with an angry pattern, or one of doom and gloom, deep, dark, foreboding.

Anyone can become a life genius, but very few of us are naturals. Those who turn it into a profession often work long and hard at it, testing, changing, adapting, and often failing before they succeed. Naturals like me, we tend to shy away from people in real life when we grow older, resenting the damage we had done as youth, trying to avoid doing more damage. So I invite you, the wise and experienced people of today's generation, become a life genius, make people remember you, sway their minds to a healthier society.

And Then This Happened

Student Faces Major Trouble Over Knife Found In What He Says Is His Father's Old Car

I found this story in my Twitter feed, was bored and monitoring it for whatever caught my eye. As I read it, it is a very short article so take the time to do so now, I found so many examples of what's wrong with our cultures today.

The first clue to one of our biggest problems is the "random search" of a car driven by a high school student. Have we really reach the level of paranoia in which this is considered acceptable by society? To invade a child's privacy in such a manner does not give them much reason to respect the privacy, or lives, of anyone else. We are teaching them that people don't matter, is that what we really want them to learn?

They once tried to propose this in my school once, and my school was pretty violent at the time, the 80s were really violent compared to today. The student body, with the support of parents and many teachers, protested this notion so strongly that the board had no choice, they didn't employ such an archaic policy for us. Today the students have been beaten down by the authorities as to accept this policy, and that scares me more than the kids with knives. This scares me even more than kids with knives who intend to actually harm someone, because that's so rare now I haven't encountered one in more than a decade.

The implications of this are made worse by the fact that society does not question it, at all. A long time ago someone famous once said something very profound, if we are willing to sacrifice even our basic liberties for an illusion of security, we deserve neither. Of course I added my touch to the phrase, because security is truly an illusion, no government agency can really effectively protect it's people, that's just not possible. This is because our biggest threats are ourselves, no one else. No one can protect you from yourself. So giving these agencies the power to do what they want simply so we can pretend they are protecting us is ludicrous.

Okay, so back to the story before I go on and on. The next part that stands out was that it was not even his property, he was borrowing it. So not only was his privacy infringed on, his father's privacy was also trampled under the boot of an obviously authoritarian party. The reason for them being authoritarian is that they are taking what is unlikely to occur as justification for enforcing their authority. The reasons for the tool being present are perfectly valid on their own, however, even without those reasons, a knife is a tool far more than a weapon. If you want to get technical, retractable pens are more useful as weapons, those can be turned into dangerous projectiles with only simple modifications.

This entire situation only demonstrates why paranoia is so bad for us. Originally, in the 90s, they made a claim that violence was on the rise, which it was actually on a steep decline in that era. They attempted to blame video games for this, Super Mario was convincing kids to kill everyone around them, after they grew up and did a ton of drugs and alcohol of course. But we now know this was all nothing more than alarmists seeking a way to attack something they just didn't understand.

Today violence, the world over actually, is at an all time low. Mind you, we still have a lot of work to do, but not in the USA. Our violent crimes have been in check for a very long time now, I can remember when you had to carry a weapon at night, in rural Washington, just because us kids would rob you blind .... for fun. Now, I can walk down the streets of downtown Seattle without seeing any crime at all. We need to take back our paranoia, and focus on important matters, like helping other countries who do still have problems with serious violence.

Now here is where the story really takes a turn for WTF. They are considering punishing this student for something their father did, which was completely innocent and practically expected. This means he's guilty until proven innocent. Now remind me, what is it our justice system is based on? Oh, that's right, innocent until proven guilty. This is one of many stories that show our culture has completely discarded the basic foundation of our justice, the one thing that made the USA better than most other countries, the only saving grace in our government, and we are discarding it for a false sense of security from threats that don't even exist.

Parents, teachers, authorities in the USA, you are all wrong. Stop ignoring that fact, you are wrong, we have lost our soul here, the one thing that made this country great, the only reason I even liked the USA, you are destroying. This is not my country, my country had a sense of justice, equality, and freedom, not authoritarian dictators who want to tell you what to do.

Gender - The Damage Done By Religion

About 400 years ago, gender was considered as nothing more than "what you're attracted too." A phrase we commonly used when discussing that era was "the time when women were women, and so were the men." The reason this phrase was so apt was because of the fashions and styles of the time, everyone wanted to wear lace and ruffles, the fancier and prettier, the better your status was. That meant that the men and women looked alike, so alike that if you accidentally slept with someone of the same gender, no one batted an eye.

That was also the time that religion had just began taking hold of the masses, a specific religious ideology actually, and people began to buy into the nonsense, people who couldn't afford the lace and ruffles. Now I am not one to deny a poor person their right to be jealous, I am always jealous of things other people have that I don't, however, what made this particular era so sinister was that this jealousy was used as a means to trick people into following a specific religion. This particular religion said it was "bad" or "evil" to be like everyone was at the time, giving the poor masses a false sense of superiority.

I am, of course, talking about the first of the christian religions. The odd thing was that it was not being "gay" or the cross-dressing that the religion stated as evil, at least not the part that the masses at that time were told about, they were told it was being wealthy or successful. But why tell them that? To keep the control, actually. The priests and religious leaders were all milking the poor people of their money, and status, just like all other eras, and all other religions.

The religious leaders did not stop there, to ensure that their power was secure they berated women holding any position of authority, undermining the authority of the queen, treason, essentially. To accomplish that the religious leaders had to convince the masses that women were inferior, incapable of making good decisions, and weaker. This was also to make the better dressed noblemen look weaker as well, they were, after all, dressing like women.

Throughout history this tactic is the most effective method of overturning a regime of any sort, paint the small group in power as something "evil" and the masses will agree, without realizing they are only giving that power to a different minority group, like preachers, for example. Ancient Egypt had a solution to this, though it was on intentional, their religious leaders were akin to political parties, each god representing an ideal. In turn, the party with the most willing followers was considered the will of the people, ultimately giving the people the real power.

The system is great, but as we have seen countless times, even today, it had the flaw of being too close to Anarchy to remain organized for long. However, the theocracies that we see in the more modern eras, and today, are worse because of the damage they do to the societies and cultures. Even today women are thought of as weaker, less capable, all because some preachers wanted to wrest power from one woman in the past.

This notion has been manipulated further by the modern religious leaders so that it attacks everyone who is not a straight, white, religious male. I use the word "white" because the notion of "race" has been decimated by too much misinformation, I will address that specific topic another time. This new trend of attacking anything that's different from what one person has labeled as acceptable has also corrupted the medical industry, financial industry, almost every government, and most of the cultures.

Ironically, even as we begin to open up, our cultures mend this damage caused by religious leaders, the progress is very slow. Mostly because we still allow the delusion that we call "religion" a free pass. Religion still has a free pass to do what it wants, people can still claim their beliefs trump even reality, allowing or even causing harm to others as a result. Today the medical industry will accept that the extremes exist, but continually ignore and deny the "in-betweens."

Now, I am not saying we should go out and jail, or worse, all religious people. That would make everyone else just like them. Instead we need to simply stop accepting their excuse of "it's my beliefs" and hold them accountable for all their actions, or inaction. We also should find treatment for those who are delusional enough to think their god talks to them directly, medical treatment, like how we treat all people who are delusional.

The trick is getting the professionals who do not have the same delusion to treat them.

Life, Death - Why

Scientific research has allowed us to answer many of the questions in our reality, allowed us to begin to explore this cave we live in and see it with clarity no religion can offer. But there is one question no living thing has an answer too, the question of "why?"

I recently contemplated death, and life, the difference between living and existing. As I thought about death I came to a better understanding of why religion was invented, the sheer terror of thinking about just ceasing to exist sent me into a panic. For the first time in my nearly four decades of existence I was afraid of something, but it wasn't death, it was ceasing to exist.

So I pondered a bit, there is something unique about the human species, something that did change. Scientific research indicates that all our qualities and abilities exist in other species, so I had to dig for a difference between us and the other animals. That difference was not an easy thing to find, but it dawned on me, we ask "why?"

Whether the other species are capable of asking that one question, or they are simply unwilling too ask it, we cannot tell at this time. Though it's probably the single most important question in the universe. Eventually I came to the one question I cannot figure out an answer too, why am I aware?

Awareness is common, many species are aware of the self, but it dawned on me that we are the only ones who appear to have asked why we are aware. The discovery that I have made is that not all humans have, or are even willing too ask that question. Instead they take whatever promise they are handed and accept their fates. So maybe it's not all humans who are unique in this manner, perhaps it's only a few of us that are truly unique.

The problem with this line of thinking is the long list of implications that could, potentially, destroy the very fabric of society. In fact, it has several times in the past. Someone asked these questions, dreamed up some answer that they hoped was correct, and someone else, who was unwilling to ask these questions, saw the answers as fuel to placate the masses, to control the masses. We call these dreams "religion" now.

So here, as an atheist, I propose the new religion of the masses, the one with no invented answers, with only your own hopes to consider in place of a mass produced placebo. There has to be more than this life, not a continual life, or some form or reincarnation, but simply something more. How we live is not an issue, but consider that helping humanity progress and survive does help you to forgo death a bit longer, as well as ensure you at least have a chance to live on after your body dies in the memories of others.

Instead of accepting the dreams and hopes of someone else, keep asking the question, for if there is any hope of something beyond this, it's the questions that cannot be answered that will be the keys to gate. Instead of making decisions based on some ancient texts written to drive the masses into wars, make decisions based on well thought out logic.

The more you look at the universe with logic, the more sense all the simple answers make, like "how" or "when." Logic for these answers will also help you to make better decisions than some ancient texts filled with pipe dreams of barbarians and troglodytes. The most important question to ask is why you are.