"A Universe from Nothing" by Lawrence M. Krauss

i'm reading sam harris' The Moral Landscape right now (a fascinating albeit difficult to grasp at times read) and in checking in at mr. harris' website i found this recent interview with scholar lawrence m. krauss about his new book A Universe from Nothing.

I

GOTZTA

READ IT!!!

santa may not visit for another year, but zelig claus has a pocketful of hamiltons that'll do the trick.

A sam harris inspired thought

i don't believe in astrology. people with fully functional brains tend to not believe in that sorta horseshit make-believe. but that doesn't make it necessary for me to DEFINE myself as a non-astrologer.

same with magic. we all know there is no such thing as "MAGIC" but that doesn't mean i have to define myself as a NON-MAGICIAN.

which is why i don't like having to be labeled as an "atheist". i simply refuse to believe in an unprovable lie.

(inspired by the archived sam harris article tipped by j2)

More pressure from familial delusionoids

family is supposed to love you. no matter what. unconditionally. right?

right.

unless you're a fucking christian crazyface, like most of my family.

they prefer to judge, to ridicule, to gossip, to pressure, to... threaten...

in fact, what was an otherwise miraculously pleasant birthday party for my 8 year old nephew at a skating rink this past summer became an all-out war for my soul once a couple of my elders cornered me like the inquisition, asking me why i wouldn't take jesus as my lord and savior.

"because it's a fucking scam. a ludicrous, asinine, scam."

okay, i didn't say "fucking", but i should have.

anyway, based on the sheer tone and displeasure in my speech, i walked away from that discussion satisfied and confident that they would never bother me about it again.

wrong.

now i'm getting jesus cards and sermons burned to cd and bibles and shit sent to my house. all of it... goes in the trash.

why can't they just leave me the fuck alone? why? WHY? WHY!?!?!??!

i don't corner you fucking idiots at family functions or clog up the mail by sending you the works of dawkins, hitchens and harris ad nauseum!!!!

and ya wanna know why i don't? because i respect you and your human right to be left the fuck alone, to do whatever you want, without some outside person imposing his agenda on you, just because he wants to.

get. over. your fucking selves. and just love me for who i am: an angry (yet charismatic and sometimes charming) non-believer who's been around the fucking block and cusses too much.

fuck.

Let sam say it

"the problem that religious moderation poses for all of us is that it does not permit anything very critical to be said about religious literalism. we cannot say that fundamentalists are crazy, because they are merely practicing their freedom of belief."

-- sam harris

- - -
sometimes i have a problem communicating the above tenet... so i post it here so it's easy to find in the future.

i'm being selfish.

:-)

We can't help that we're smarter than you

one of the problems i face throughout my unfettered campaign to educate the masses on what is and isn't logical in terms of religion (read: religion is not logical, at all) is that i come across as "mean"... as a "bully"... that i'm "arrogant" and i don't "respect" the values and belief systems of others.

if i walked into a room full of math scholars and told them that 100 divided by 10 is actually 5, not 10 like they think it is, they would all laugh at me. i could then plead my correctness by saying the answer is 5, because i have faith that it is, despite my inability to prove my theory.

still, they would laugh at me. as they should.

because such behavior is idiotic.

we wouldn't allow such foolery to exist in other discourses, like topography, medicine, geology... but for some reason we have to allow it in religion because it wouldn't be polite otherwise.

FUCK... THAT... SHIT.

i'm arrogant? i'm being mean? i'm a bully?

sorry, but i don't recall ever killing someone over something as stupid and unfounded as religion. i also don't recall ever demanding others respect my belief in fairy tales, or hijacking intelligent conversation with bronze age stories of talking snakes and authoritative bushes.

give me.

a fucking.

break.

If only the world was made of sam harris(es)

my libertarian advisor passed these vid links to me some time ago.

they are brilliant.

and they are exactly the sort of thing we need to spread around.

so spread it around yo.

You wanna know why? here's why...

lots of people ask me why i am so outspoken against religion, why i attack it relentlessly, why i say mean things about it.

well, to that i say: do you even listen to what i'm saying?

religion has caused widespread psychological damage not just to me, but to my family and others i care about. some have recovered, most have not, and it pains me to see people i love so lost in hallucination.

it fucking pains me.

oh, and here's another reason... via sam harris:

"unreason is now ascendant in the united states -- in our schools, in our courts, and in each branch of the federal government. only 28 percent of americans believe in evolution; 68 percent believe in satan. ignorance in this degree, concentrated in both the head and belly of a lumbering superpower, is now a problem for the entire world." 
-- The End of Faith

uh... yeah.

and it ain't just the USA, it's the UK, it's india, it's pakistan, it's saudi arabia, it's iran, it's scary as shit. that's what it is. knowing that the people whose fingers hover over the little red buttons of the world are deeply committed to ghosts and goblins and sky daddys and magical prophets that exist only in the collective minds of the delusional SCARES THE FUCKING SHIT OUT OF ME.

so yeah. that's why.