Teapot Theory

Here's a fun factoid that's archaic but for some reason still valid: Atheists shouldn't have to disprove the existence of a god. And yet theists still think that we need to prove to them that there are no gods or benevolent beings. It would make more sense to require people who believe in an omnipotent, invisible and immortal being that bends time, space and fate to their will to explain in elaborate detail why this belief isn't a preposterous waste of time. But you can't because there's no way of proving it, or disproving it for that matter. There's where that belief word comes in. You have to just feel it. It's a clever ruse that works like an intellectual net to capture the more gullible, insecure or otherwise philosophically handicapped.

This is an archaic way of dealing with the religion debate because it was presented in 1952 by Bertrand Russell in an article "Is there a God?". That said, it's still a valid statement and religious scholars are crying in the corners of libraries or wetting their pants because they've been burdened with the intellectually impossible task of proving the existence of something that rejects science.

Betrand Russel writes:

If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.

Russell makes a good point and it's the reason his writing is referenced later by many other atheists and theists alike. Basically what can be presented today as flying spaghetti monster theory: it would be reasonable to say that the existence of a God is as logical as the existence of a giant invisible flying spaghetti monster. This is of course preposterous, but both make fun stories.

Now, why is this argument even important? May theists get frustrated and angry at the questioning of their religion and honestly I don't mind too much what people want to believe but consider this. Suppose this floating teapot around the sun has some tea in it. Now, everyone in Europe thinks that the teapot has earl gray in it, and this is the best earl gray tea. Everyone in the middle east thinks the teapot has jasmine. Who cares? nobody can see the teapot so maybe it's both. You can't prove that wrong. Let's go on to say that if you live in Europe, and you know the teapot has earl gray and anyone that thinks it has anything else in it is wrong, and does not deserve to see the vast expanse of black tea goodness that is in this teapot and that you need to kill everyone who thinks the teapot has anything else. All the people that think the teapot is full of Jasmine, Ooling, White Tea, Green Tea, Mate, or Herbal Tea all need to die. Now, the middle east is angry because they know you're wrong, and there's Jasmine Tea. They'll get to taste a good cupful of that infinite tea if they sacrifice their lives to the cause of the war against the English. It sounds like a downward spiral, right?

When planes are flown into towers, when people and children detonate in crowds, when a genuinely upstart man can casually say in a conversation that another man is going to be punished and tortured eternally, it's about time the human race began to question the need for religion, or at the very least, took it much less literally. If you are religious but don't think this applies because you have not personally detonated in a crowd or done something outwardly appalling like mutilate a child's genitals, jeer at someone about eternal suffering and torture, dehumanized others for differing thoughts, don't you think it's at least odd to feel associated? Don't you think that now might be a good time to admit that it may be out of hand? How many people have to suffer and die because a silent, unquestioning crowd is too comfortable to question the "utopia"?

Let's put this behind us, humanity. Rebuild our economy without things that don't make sense, make peace with each other and stop thoughtlessly killing each other and ourselves and start treating humans like the fragile, beautifully ephemeral things they actually are.

Young Goodman Brown

So a bit of a different update tonight. A short story I would highly recommend to anyone is the story Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Now the story was many things, partly Hawthorne trying to make amends for his ancestor's part in the Salem Witch Trials, Partly a critique of Calvinist and Puritan belief and partly just a beautifully spooky story about humanity. A journey has to be made by Goodman Brown through the forest late at night for unexplained reasons, in which he has to leave his wife, Faith, at home. He meets a man who looks rather similar to himself but is sinister, and ultimately confronts humanity as a depraved disease on the world. The night changes him forever and he can never see a fellow person again without thinking about their own, unspoken madness as well as his own deeds which, by the way are probably taking a second glance at another woman or lying. He loses his love for Faith.

You don't have to be a genius to figure out why she was called Faith. And why Nathaniel Hawthorne chose to send Brown on a quest and leave her behind.

The story can be interpreted two different ways a the end. Either that Browns loss of faith stems from the hopelessness in humanity, and therefore the only thing keeping us sane is the Hobbesian theory of a vital need to be kept at bay and under control, or that without being told what to do or having faith in something greater, the world is cruel and vulgar.

Now I would say that Hawthorne meant for the former point to be the one he wanted to make, but he chose to include the second around the fringe as well. I would say that while yes, it is occasionally difficult to accept, the whole of the world is worth experiencing more of rather than less. Even if it vulgarizes us a little.

I'm a Minister

It has come about that I've entered the cloth.

Not the most expected thing a hardcore atheist would say, but one said it nonetheless.

"What???"

That's probably what you're saying. Listen up.

I received a call a few weeks back from one of my best friends, Peter Yeager. He wants me to marry him and Anna. How can I say no? I already knew you could simply buy a certificate of ordainmanship for $20.00 from a friend of mine now living in New York, Brandon Rivington. Another atheist registered as a minister.

Now, just to sit back as a member of the church and speculate, much like Martin Luther as he questioned the views of the past and formed protestantism. If you can BUY your way into being a minister for $20, then is every ministers chops as a member of the cloth now worth $20? I don't believe in your religion but you can at least take some pride in your craft guys, because it's my craft too now.

So I got ordained and married Peter and Anna Yeager. They're delightfully happy and I'm putting it on my Curriculum Vitae that I married someone. Everybody won and it was a fantastic day. I'm glad I got to do that.

Secondly: THOUGHT QUAKE NOW DOES MARRIAGES.

Wanna get married to someone? Don't respect religious figures? Well now there's one you can. Me. It's even in my family guys, there's a church of St. Sims in England somewhere still. Don't want to pay a preposterous amount? I do it for love, kindness, and the joy of joining two happy people.

Not only am I a minister, I chose to be a Pastafarian minister. For those of you who are not aware, pastafariamism is the belief in a giant invisible flying spaghetti monster. Not really something you can take seriously right? Good, because if you did you'd be stupid. The whole thing is a turn of phrase, much like any other mythology, and it's meant to make a point.

Here's mine: Religion isn't really something to take quite so seriously. It's folklore, a metaphor. Based on something that may or may not have existed, but it's so up in the air it might have also been a giant flying spaghetti monster that rigged the whole thing with magic to test us. The test was to see if you're an idiot or not.

These are your words of wisdom from Reverend Jeremy Sims

Man gouges eyes out during church service

I heard about this one last week, and since thoughtquake is back up and shaking, I had to put in my two sense. This hits me as sad, not because this man lost his ability to see, but because he lost his vision a long time ago.

A man has gouged out his own eyes in the Northern Italian town of Viareggio while attending a religious service at the local San Andrea Cathedral, local police have reported.

According to witnesses, the man, who is originally from England though he has been living in the Tuscan town for the past few years, was attending mass when he suddenly "stood up, started to shout and pulled out his eyes with his bare hands."

According to Police, the man later told staff at the nearby Versilia hospital that "a voice" had told him to "gouge out his eyes". He had been rushed to emergency services but doctors have been unable to save his sight. Source

This is a clear-cut example of how mental illness can be hidden by religion. The scriptures didn't cause this man to rip out his own eyes. It may have contributed, but I have to say that gives FAR too much credit and power to the preacher. The truth of the matter is that this man was obviously mentally ill, and as such, needed psychiatric help.

This is why it gets to me when people can call religious belief "innocuous" or "harmless." even in situations when it doesn't lead to cult-ship or bigotry. This man could have gotten help, he could have been institutionalized, and if that had been the case, he would still have the ability to see. There were probably many red flags where someone could have pointed and said, "I think this man needs help." These now obvious signs I'm sure were dismissed for the excuse of "He's just very religious." If your delusional to the point of mental damage, there is nothing worse than associating with a group of mentally healthy people who are also delusional. This man being in this church was like pouring salt on a wound. Instead of people telling him to be rational or logical, he had an entire congregation that I can only assume did nothing but unintentionally encourage his illness. This idea that religion can somehow be therapy makes me cringe. It would be like if you took a schizophrenic conspiracy theorist and put him in a group of people who look for bigfoot. It's never good to replace one delusion with another. Or I should say, Crazy should be cured, not redirected. That's a pretty good quote. I think I'll write that one down... oh wait...

I may get some flack for this post. It just frustrates me that, without the guise of religion, this man's condition would have been easily recognizable, and this whole gruesome scene could have been avoided. It truly is a tragedy.

~Zach

Ask an Atheist and NO MORE HIATUS!

Alright guys, the gloves are coming off. I don't know if this is going to become a podcast, or if it will stay as written word, but as far as I'm concerned, ThoughtQuake is officially OFF HIATUS!

I just had a great conversation with the folks at Ask an Atheist about Atheist blogs and internet presence and I am convincved I can make this work. I would love to add to the Atheism visibility movement. Me and my fellow writers are going to do as much as we can. Check those guys out, they are a key figure in giving us a voice.

This isn't a blog about what Atheists believe, because trust me, Atheists have the largest gambit of all. We very from VERY conservative to VERY liberal. It will mostly be about religious skepticism. But worry not, as you can see from our previous posts, we will be writing content about political issues, and multimedia, and anything having to do with religion. I don't plan on being impartial. This is an opinion blog, and as such, the writers here will be doing our best to bring you compelling writing, slightly angry rants, and other fun reads. and maybe even a PODCAST!

Me, Jeremy and others will be giving you fresh perspectives, and our opinions on critical issues. We hope you'll join us!

Fractal Wrongness

I have a paper to write, and the creative juices aren't flowing, so i figure a good rant might get me back on track. This happened a few days ago, and I'm still seething about it quite a bit. I don't think this will come out quite as thought-out as a Jeremy entry, but I'll give it a stab.

I was called stupid for believing that the fact of evolution is a thing.

I never thought I'd see the day, but apparently these things do actually happen. I always thought of the blissfully ignorant theist was somehow detached from my world. Still there but, somehow not a part of my daily life.

Like Canada...

But this guy was a piece of work. My brother moves boxes at a local liquor store and called me at the end of his shift. He had gotten into a discussion with a man I simply had to meet to believe. After an hour and a half of heated debate, the man had
-Called me stupid for believing in evolution
-said that homosexuals have a mental disorder
-condescended on me for not having read the entire bible
-contradicted himself more times than I can count.

This man suffers from an illness that's been circling around the internet. It's called "Fractal Wrongness" It is something that happens when someone's world view is so wrong, you can't begin to tackle any point of their argument, because the wrongness is a never ending circle of ignorance fueled bullshit. This man was so sure of himself that he dismissed me on simply "not knowing shit", the smug little look on his face just screaming "I don't have to provide a compelling argument because I know I'm right." This guy was so set in his hateful bigotry, I don't think he heard a word I said. All of my arguments bounced off his little force-field, and no matter how much I spoke of homosexual teen suicide, or text book evidence of evolution, or how taking rights away from people is largely considered a bad thing, none of it mattered in the slightest.

This is what gets to me. I truly believe that in cases like these, Religion can be a virus. It takes root in someone's brain and eats away at what is right and wrong. These things, these VERY morally obvious things, are somehow damaged on such a dangerous level, the person's sense of morals gets twisted. They think their entitled to have things their way, and if a different way makes them uncomfortable, they shouldn't have to be exposed to it. What scares me is that these people aren't evil, and they aren't stupid. Yet somehow they have these evil opinions instilled in them. This man truly doesn't care that opinions like his are the reason that teens are killing themselves. This guilt bating and hate mongering has to stop.

Of course, I don't speak of all religious people. I know many people that don't think that gay people are mentally ill, and believe that evolution is responsible for diversity on this planet, but there are those that have sat in a pew and been spoon-fed their worldview by a priest or pastor, and I think that honestly, closed mindedness is killing this country.

This man decided he would quiz me with trivial facts, and when I didn't know them, he definitely felt justified in his, "your young and you don't know shit" argument. I know from speaking to this man that his "intensive research" on evolution involved a night looking at creationists attempts at debunking evolution. Googeling "Why Evolution is wrong" and researching it are two different fucking things. There where so many logical fallacies that I don't think I could even name them all.

The worst part of this is, this man simply has a fundamentally damaged moral compass. He is wrong on so many levels, and yet,

He is still more moral than the monster depicted in his holy book

I'm Zach, and thanks for reading. (I'm just kidding, we have no readers! XD)

Passover

Just a short one tonight but I should post in the spirit of things.

I went to a Jewish passover with my girlfriend Monday. The most prominent thing I noticed is that the focus, at least for the one I was invited to, was more on upholding Jewish culture and understanding Jewish society than being in touch with God. At the very most extreme it could be said that there was a slightly agnostic undertone, or at least a very spiritually open one. I was very relieved to feel welcome for once.

And one of the other things I'd like to applaud the Jewish religion for: they don't work to convert. The closest the Jewish religion gets to converting is raising awareness of Jewish culture and heritage, which is important outside of any religion, right? This is a religion that I think get's their fundamentals right without a dogmatic overtone. I approve.

Now, I have no desire to begin following Jewish religion and I don't think their god or afterlife exist either. But as I've said before, atheism for me is partly about living because it's kindof a one-shot. As far as life goes I think they're on the right track by focusing on what religion fundamentally revolves around which is customs and philosophy.

This is Jeremy the Atheist saying that while I think the Jewish religion, like any other that has a belief or afterlife system is misguided the customs are worth preserving and cherishing.

-Sims