The whole point about science is that it finds out the truth. If the truth is bleak TOUGH. If the truth is that there is no meaning to your life then that is what it is, the universe doesn't care whether or not you approve of the plan. So many people are scared of the truth. They think there might be a monster under the bed but they won't look. In my universe not looking for monsters or screwing up your eyes doesn't change reality. Those people who are finding out the truth are finding out that there is no place for God or fate or destiny or any of that stuff.

-- Martin Willett http://mwillett.org/atheism/xtian2.htm

Not-so-good-ideas: Actheism

http://community.livejournal.com/atheism/1044576.html

I would like to coin a new (?) word: Actheism. Actheists are atheists who think that we are all atheists, and religious people are only acting that they are believers. Faith is just a mask. When a believer goes to sleep, he drops his mask and we can see his true atheist face. His dreams are not religious. When he wakes up, he puts his mask on again and becomes an actor. Maybe he uses his mask because he is afraid, maybe it gives him a sense of security, or maybe someone forced him to wear a mask. But deep down, we can see that he is just an ordinary atheist in a gorilla suit.

In the future we can prove this. We can record your atheist dreams. You are just acting and we actheists knew it all along. If you really believe that you really believe, drop your mask and show us your dreams.

"In our dreams, we are all atheists."
- Actheist proverb

"Vizikahn's Paradox"

http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/forum/index.php?topic=3199.0

For some christians, Hell means the absence of god. Or in other words, if you are not god's friend, you are in hell already. To make things complicated, god has given you free will, so that you can choose what you do. If you choose god, you are in heaven; if you don't choose god, you are in hell.

Here's the problem. I toss a coin and say: "If it's tails, I choose hell. If it's heads, I choose heaven. God, if you exist, use this coin to tell me what you want me to do."

I toss the coin and the coin tells me to choose hell. So, I will choose hell and I believe god told me to choose it. I believe that it is my fate to go to hell and I am happy. Am I in hell or not? Did I choose god or not?

To make things more complicated, let's assume I have a neurological condiction called aboulia, which means that I am unable to make decisions. In other words, god has given me a disease that means I can't choose god. Am I in hell now?

How christians answer to this?

The christian assumption is that god exists and there is no doubt about it. Therefore, the only choices I have are: be god's friend or not be his friend. The first assumption is not questioned at all from a christian perspective.

The first assumption is wrong, of course, but that is not the point here. It's all about if I choose to be his friend or not, when I say: "If you exist, make me your friend."

When I flip a coin, I don't choose what I do myself. Does that make me god's "real" friend?
When I flip a coin, I let fate decide if I am his friend or not. Is god the same as fate?
When I flip a coin, god has to make a decision. Is he fate or is he not?
When I flip a coin and it says "don't be gods friend", is it god who tells me not to be his friend?
If I MUST flip a coin because of aboulia, is it god who told me to test him?

It's all very confusing... if you are a christian, that is. :)

Quote from: kcrady on November 18, 2006, 11:05:14 PM
2. The ninth chapter of the Book of Romans clearly states that God creates some people specifically to hate (e.g. Esau) and to punish so he can show off his wrath and his power. In answer to the question of how this can be just, the Apostle Paul replies, "Who are you, a human, to argue with God?" Therefore, a negative answer could just prove you're one of God's punching bags. Thus, Vizikahn's Paradox only applies to Christians who think God loves everybody and wants to save them all.

Yeah, god creates his own enemies, so he has also created all the logical impossibilities that disprove him. This also means that it does not matter what we do, because god has created everything this way. "I'm an atheist? It's in god's plan! He wants me to be his enemy! He wants me to go to hell, blame him!"

Sense of purpose

http://community.livejournal.com/atheism/1074713.html

This is what I answer if someone asks about the purpose of my life without religion: if you must follow the purpose that Big Religion gives you, you are Defective By Design, because you can't make your own purpose anymore.

We Oppose GOD!

DefectiveByDesign.org is a broad-based anti-GOD campaign that is targeting Big Religion, unhelpful evangelists and GOD distributors. The campaign aims to make all evangelists wary about bringing their GOD-enabled purposes to market. GOD purposes have features built-in that restrict what jobs they can do. These purposes have been intentionally crippled from the users' perspective, and are therefore "defective by design". This campaign will identify these “defective” purposes, and target them for elimination. Our aim is the abolition of GOD as a social practice.

What is GOD?

Big Religion describe GOD as God's Original Design. However, since its purpose is to restrict you the user, it is more accurate to describe GOD as Government's Organized Deception. GOD religion can restricts users’ access to movies, music, literature and software, indeed all forms of digital data. Unfree philosophy implementing GOD religion is simply a prison in which users can be put to deprive them of the rights that the law would otherwise allow them.

From Richard Stallman, President of the FSF:
”The motive for GOD schemes is to increase profits for those who impose them, but their profit is a side issue when millions of people’s freedom is at stake; desire for profit, though not wrong in itself, cannot justify denying the public control over its purpose. Defending freedom means thwarting GOD.”

We oppose Treacherous Commandments!

Who should your brains take its orders from? Most people think their brains should obey them. With a plan they call "Trusted Commandments", the Big Religion corporations, together with commandment companies such as Christianity, Hinduism and Islam, have decided that your brains should obey them instead of you. Treacherous Commandments is now inside most new brains and books, and is the bedrock upon which GOD is being built.


Original: http://www.defectivebydesign.org/en/about

To get answers turn the bible upside down.

I have previously told the story of a respected elder statesman of the Zoology Department at Oxford when I was an undergraduate. For years he had passionately believed, and taught, that the Golgi Apparatus (a microscopic feature of the interior of cells) was not real: an artifact, an illusion. Every Monday afternoon it was the custom for the whole department to listen to a research talk by a visiting lecturer. One Monday, the visitor was an American cell biologist who presented completely convincing evidence that the Golgi Apparatus was real. At the end of the lecture, the old man strode to the front of the hall, shook the American by the hand and said--with passion--"My dear fellow, I wish to thank you. I have been wrong these fifteen years." We clapped our hands red. No fundamentalist would ever say that.
- Why I Am Hostile Toward Religion

Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you.
- Ghost In The Shell

Shiduri said, "Gilgamesh, where are you roaming?
You will never find the eternal life
that you seek. When the gods created mankind,
they also created death, and they held back
eternal life for themselves alone.
Humans are born, they live, then they die,
this is the order that the gods have decreed.
But until the end comes, enjoy your life,
spend it in happiness, not despair.
Savor your food, make each of your days
a delight, bathe and annoint yourself,
wear bright clothes that are sparkling clean,
let music and dancing fill your house,
love the child who holds you by the hand,
and give your wife pleasure in your embrace.
That is the best way for a man to live."
- Epic of Gilgamesh, Book X, translated by Stephen Mitchell.

The Wisdom of Warren Buffett

Imagine that you were selected as the one person (out of 6 Billion) to create the systems of the world. This includes the type of government, social programs, tax systems, military systems, job markets, laws, regulations, etc.

The only catch was this: You had to come up with systems that you believed were fair and that you wanted to live with, before you were allowed to look at your ticket.
--
A friend of hers told Warren at one point that the way she evaluated people was simple: She simply asked herself, "Would they hide me?" What a great way to judge your instincts about whether to trust someone or not.

Were the colonists geniuses? No, the truth is that reading, writing, and arithmetic only take about one hundred hours to transmit as long as the audience is eager and willing to learn. The trick is to wait until someone asks and then move fast while the mood is on. Millions of people teach themselves these things, it really isn't very hard. Pick up a fifth-grade math or rhetoric textbook from 1850 and you'll see that the texts were pitched then on what would today be considered college level. The continuing cry for "basic skills" practice is a smoke screen behind which schools preempt the time of children for twelve years and teach them the seven lessons I've just described to you.
- The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher

Now for the good news. Once you understand the logic behind modern schooling, its tricks and traps are fairly easy to avoid. School trains children to be employees and consumers; teach your own to be leaders and adventurers. School trains children to obey reflexively; teach your own to think critically and independently. Well-schooled kids have a low threshold for boredom; help your own to develop an inner life so that they'll never be bored. Urge them to take on the serious material, the grown-up material, in history, literature, philosophy, music, art, economics, theology - all the stuff schoolteachers know well enough to avoid. Challenge your kids with plenty of solitude so that they can learn to enjoy their own company, to conduct inner dialogues. Well-schooled people are conditioned to dread being alone, and they seek constant companionship through the TV, the computer, the cell phone, and through shallow friendships quickly acquired and quickly abandoned. Your children should have a more meaningful life, and they can.
- John Taylor Gatto, Against School

What’s life? Life’s easy. A quirk of matter. Nature’s way of keeping meat fresh.
- Doctor Who

Most people ask more questions when buying a used car than when deciding whether or not they should follow a religous belief.

The dissonance between this upbeat philosophy and the abysmal terror of his films is not lost on him. “You can understand depression much more when you’re not depressed,” he said.
- David Lynch Returns: Expect Moody Conditions, With Surreal Gusts

Teach In - The Robot

My friend of steel has has a heart of gold
more than that he will never grow old
atomic batteries will keep him fine
he is the best and he is mine.

God is dead

But remember - that dark world of fungoid gardens and windowless cities isn't really terrible. It is only to us that it would seem so.
- H. P. Lovecraft, Whisperer in Darkness