Religion (and philosophy)

Quotes

1. "Fundamentalism is the blind lunge towards over simplification"

   George Steiner (Philosopher)
   

2. "Hundreds of professional and amateur scientists actually believe that the Bible pretends to teach science. This is a good deal like assuming that there must be authentic religious dogma in the binomial theorem"

   Georges Lemaître (1933) Roman Catholic priest and Scientist
    
   (who first proposed the Big Bang after analyzing the mathematics behind Einstein's General Theory of Relativity)
   

3. "The bible explains how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go"

   Galileo Galilei (1616)

4. "Biblical text should not be interpreted as properly literal, but rather as metaphorical, if it contradicts what we know from science and our God-given reason. While each passage of Scripture has a literal sense, this "literal sense" does not always mean that the Scriptures are mere history; at times they are rather an extended metaphor"

   Saint Augustine

5. "All extreme forms of thinking are a form of insanity"

   Anonymous

6. "An extraordinary claim requires extraordinary proof"

   Carl Sagan

7. "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"

   Voltaire

8. We live in a world shaped by stories. Stories are threads of our lives and the fabric of human cultures. A story can unite or divide people(s), obscure issues, or spotlight new perspectives. A Story can inform or deceive, enlighten or entertain, or even do all of the above. As humans, we are literally hardwired for narrative. Stories are essential to human learning and building relationships in social groups. There is growing consensus in the scientific community that the neurological roots of both storytelling and enjoyment of stories are tied to our social cognition.

   Steven Pinker

My "2 cents" on religious world conflict

Most people of European descent learned during the "30 Years War" (1618-1648)¹ that religion and politics don't mix. In fact, it was the principal of religious freedom² that was the basis for ideas which created the United States of America. So I'm confused when:

1. the US enthusiastically supplies arms to a democratic theocracy (Israel) who is in a war with a group of people trying to become a democratic theocracy (Palestine). On the flip side, Palestine receives and uses arms from Iran and Syria against Israel while their own people starve in the streets dreaming of the after life.
    
2. the US is best friends with a tribal theocracy (Saudi Arabia) who look the other way while their (Saudi) religious police force engages in kidnappings in the name of Sharia Law
    
3. many US citizens reject science and logic while openly embracing religious fundamentalism and political extremism. They even claim that the US was founded on Christian principles when it is clear that the US Founding Fathers (Washington, Adams, Madison, Jefferson, Franklin, etc.) were clearly Deists. The joke gets even better when Ronald Reagan, who gets to power with help from fundamentalist Christian groups organized by people like Jerry Falwell, quotes a few lines from Thomas Paine during his inauguration (many religious people consider Paine an atheist even though he called himself a Deist)

The world will never have peace until there is a protestant-style reformation in all religions which will enable people to take back control of their churches from zealots and extremists. Also, we must all work to ignore any person (religious or otherwise) who instigates war or martyrdom. We must also be wary of any religious person with "political ambitions" or "ties to people with political ambitions" (you probably think I am referring to Islamic Imams and Clerics but American Christians like Jerry Falwell also spring to mind)

1. I do not understand why some Christian have drifted back into the Old Testament. Christianity is the doctrine of the New Testament which replaces the Old Testament leaving it for nothing more than a historical reference.
    
   
   • Today, any westerner involved in "stoning any person" would be arrested for assault. Any westerner involved in "stoning any person to death" would be arrested for first-degree murder. Whether you like the sound of it or not, secular western society has improved beyond "old testament law" even though western society only enforces two (maybe three) commandments of the original ten.
      
   • if you still think the old testament is still relevant today, then please read these ridiculous excerpts from Leviticus
      
2. Many Christian sects today may require a second reformation to abandon many of the intolerant positions of St. Paul which many churches use to keep women out of the pulpit; In Paul's world, only men received educations and I think Paul wanted to keep it that way; Paul never met Jesus and I think it is time to reject some of his interpretations.
    
   
3. I do not understand why many religions use the label "liberal" or "free thinker" to attack someone who might question why religious practices are the way they are. Was not Jesus a liberal as seen by the Sanhedrin? Was not Martin Luther a liberal as seen by the Vatican?

1. in this war Catholics and Protestants fought each other for the bodies, souls and property of the other group. A whole generation passed until the children of the people who started the war put a stop to the madness.
    
2. "religious freedom" can be rephrased as "each citizen being free of the untoward interference of the other person's religion"

What I Believe (2-more cents)

My Childhood Education

• I was raised Lutheran (Missouri Synod) and baptized in 1965 at the age of 13. However, almost everything (science and religion) taught to me by the well-meaning people at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Kitchener was wrong. For example, here are some of the things we were told by our minister after he overheard science-oriented discussion prior to Saturday morning pre-confirmation classes:
  • "there is no scientific proof for radiological dating" Wrong!
  • "that the world is literally ~ 6000 years old" Wrong!
    • this nonsense comes from an Irish scholar by the name of James Usher (1581 – 1656) where he claims the world was created on the night preceding Sunday, 23 October 4004 BC.
    • the bible (Genesis) claims Methuselah was 969 years old. It is more likely that he lived 969 lunar months (~ 80 years). And wouldn't "969 years" conflict with Psalm 90:10 where we read:
      "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."
      caveat: since "one score = 20" then "three score and ten = 70" while "four score = 80"
  • "that Noah's Flood actually happened and it occurred circa 2000 BC" Wrong!
    • this story was popular (e.g. Epic of Gilgamesh) was known to many cultures long before it was ever hijacked by Jews writing Torah and most likely describes the flooding event which occurred when the Mediterranean Sea broke through the Bosporus Strait to create the Black Sea in 5600 BC (Oops, this date is older than 4004 BC).
  • "that the old-testament bible, including the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers are literally true" All Wrong!
    • historical records tell us that much of the old testament was passed down as an oral tradition. It was not written down until the Israelites borrowed the idea from their Babylonian captors ~ 586 BCE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torah). The idea of taking one day off per week (now called the Sabath) was copied from the traditions of Babylon rather than a commandment received by Moses from God.
    • There are many conflicts in the old testament which scholars insist come from two sources which they call "A" and "B".
      1. First off, take a look at the story of Moses receiving the ten commandments from god. In the book of Exodus he is given 10 (or 12, or 13,  depending on how you count). He smashes the tablets on the ground after seeing his people worship false idols then, within a few verses, goes back up the mountain only to come down with "different commandments". Question: do we use the first set, the second set, or both?
      2. Now look at the same story in the book of Deuteronomy (this title literarily means "second law" or "second telling"). This version is different that the one (or two) given in Exodus.
  • "that new-testament books of the bible, are literally true" Wrong!
    • If books of the new testament were presented in chronological order of their writing then the books of Paul (Letters and Chronicles comprising one third of the current new testament) would be presented first.
    • Presenting the gospels of Mathew, Mark, and Luke first encourages the young and naive to believe that these names are the names of the authors and that they were disciples of Jesus. First off, the apostles were illiterate and could not read or write (universal literacy is a modern concept) although I suspect Jesus' tax-collector friend was literate. These books were written down much later (when people noticed the oral stories were changing) and would have been better titled:
      • the oral traditions of Mathew - written ~ 80-90 AD
      • the oral traditions of Mark - written ~ 70 AD
      • the oral traditions of Luke - written ~ 70-100 AD
      • the oral traditions of John - written ~ 90-100 AD
    • most Christians know that Jesus was born somewhere between 4  BC and 7 BC (The Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus was born under the reign of king Herod the Great. Since Herod died in 4 BC, it is likely that Jesus was actually born between 5 BC and 7 BC). If he died at age 33 then the year of his death is somewhere between 27 AD and 29 AD (remembering that there was no year zero). So at least 40 years exist between the end of Jesus' life and these stories, then they could hardly be treated as eye-witness accounts (as many churches present them)
    • a considerable amount of Roman documents exist but there is no record of a Roman censuses ever coinciding with the years purported to be the birth of Jesus as stated only in the gospel of Luke. There is evidence for a Roman census in 6-7 AD and it must be pointed out that once started, these were usually held every 15 years.
    • The concept of Trinity (a word never found in the bible) is most troubling of all. I suppose you could ignore it until you inspect the evolution of the Nicene Creed (what most churches publically recite as as affirmation of what the attendees believe) which first appeared in 325 AD after the urging of the Roman Emperor Constantine who was creating a state religion. The Trinity controversy begins with the insertion of the Filioque in 451 AD at the First Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon making Jesus divine. In a theocratic power play in 1054, the Roman Catholic church excommunicated Christian churches who did not accept Filioque which resulted in a formal spit between Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox. I ask you all now: if the Greek belief is still labeled "orthodoxy" then wouldn't the Roman belief (and everything descended from it) be considered "heretical"?

My Adult Education

• The age of enlightenment was kicked off by Europeans like Spinoza who laid the groundwork for the 18th century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism (an open minded scholarly "study and investigation of biblical writings that seeks to make discerning judgments about these writings"). For most of Europe this put an end to governments recognizing superstition and the end of acts like "witch burning". Roman Catholics behaved badly with inquisitions until Napoleon put a stop to the last one after he conquered Spain. Spinoza's enlightenment continued in 18th and 19th century Germany where many more original bible manuscripts (scrolls) were acquired then compared with ancient historical records and found to be changed or just plain wrong. (quote: this school reached its apogee with the influential synthesis of Julius Wellhausen (1844–1918) in the 1870s, at which point it seemed to many that the Bible had at last been fully explained as a human document).
   
  Summary: When viewed from this direction, many bible writings seemed political (theocratic) while others changed beyond all recognition from the original documents.
   
• Before 2000, I felt fairly comfortable with the writings from Judaism and Christianity.
   
• After the 9/11 attacks on the US by Islamic extremists I decided to read three books on Quran (one pro, one neutral, and one critical). I came to the conclusion that the origins of Islam ares just as questionable as those of Judaism and Christianity.
   
• The historical facts presented in the three books representing the Abrahamic-religions does not match the overwhelming historical data from archaeological sources. You can either fight about this or just make piece with your neighbor.

My Adult View

• I am a DEIST who is now convinced that all religions are completely man-made. Like literature, music and art, religion is just another human cultural expression and humanity would, most likely, be poorer without it. Since no rational person would ever "torture", "murder" or "go to war" over literature, music or art, then those who believe these activities are permitted in the name of religion need to be educated otherwise. No one will ever be able to prove (or disprove) the existence of god so there is little point in trying. Meanwhile arguing about the inaccuracies found in all religious writings make me think that humanity's only hope is to keep personal religious beliefs private.
  
  
  • Other noteworthy deists include: George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine, and perhaps John Adams
    
    Yes, all the American founding fathers were deists of some kind and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. If you don't believe me then you should start by first taking a look at the Treaty of Tripoli which was ratified unanimously by the U.S. Senate on June 7, 1797 and signed into law by President John Adams on June 10, 1797.
    

    Quote: As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen [Muslims],—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan [Muslim] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

    After this it was published in ~ 200 newspapers and there is no record of any outrage of any kind.
     
  • Although Charles Darwin started out a Christian (he graduated with a degree from Trinity College, Cambridge and was destined to be an Anglican Parson) he became a deist after questioning the premature death of three of his ten children before he published On the Origin of the Species in 1859.
  
  *** you probably do not need to read past this line ***
  
  
• There is only one God and its name is irrelevant and incomprehensible to us. Also, I suspect that God's sexual pronoun (he/she) is also irrelevant and incomprehensible to us. This god is not a personal god but more of a prime mover.
   
• God could create miracles and answer prayers but does neither. And when you think about it, believing in prayer is like believing in telepathy (Hey, look at me, I am sending a mental message to the creator of the universe). On the other hand, the world we live in already seems a wonderful place, and science provides us with more evidence of both beauty and complexity than is possible from religion.
   
• All humans "feel" as if we are physical containers supporting a spiritual soul. (spirits in the material world)
  1. Science will eventually tell us everything there is to know about the physical world including our bodies
  2. Science will never be able to tells us about anything beyond the physical world. This will always remain a mystery.
  3. Therefore science has nothing to say about religion and religion has nothing to say about science
  4. Therefore science classes should never mention anything about religion -and- religion classes should never mention anything about science (or when life begins, how the world was created, when the world was created, etc.)
      
• God could have created the world 6,000 years ago like some cheap Las Vegas magic trick, but this did not happen. Creating us through physical processes like "the big bang" and biological processes like "evolution" is much more awe inspiring. (I am not talking "intelligent design" here but am referring to a self organizing property that seems to be built into the fabric of our universe)
   
• Our creation:
  • The universe was created in an event called "the big bang" approximately 13.7 Billion years ago.
  • The big bang only created the elements Hydrogen, Helium, and Lithium which later coalesced via gravitational attraction into galaxies of small and large stars.
  • In a process known as stellar fusion, stars begin to create heavier elements like Carbon, Oxygen, and Nitrogen.
  • Small stars usually burn out as white dwarfs while large stars first create all the elements "heavier than iron" before exploding as a super nova.
  • Star ash coalesces again into second and third generation stars but this time with planets.
  • Our sun and earth system began forming approximately 6 billion years ago. So when the bible states that the world is 6,000 years old (by adding "the begats" in Genesis, it is off by a factor of one million)
  • "Life"began on earth approximately 3.5 to 3.9 billion years ago as chemicals were constantly exposed to solar and cosmic radiation. Since I call myself a DEIST/Naturalist, I believe that our creator inserted a self-organizing force into the fabric of our universe although there is no science to support this belief.
  • There have been five major extinction events so far where more than 90% of all life was wiped out. The first four were due to global warming while the last one was due to an astronomical impact (see next item)
  • 65 million years ago, the dominant form of life on Earth (dinosaurs) was wiped out after a 10 Km wide asteroid impacted the Earth in an area just north of Yucatan, Mexico. Mammals would not have successfully competed against dinosaurs had this not happened. In fact, there were no humanoid mammals living at the time of the dinosaurs which means the artistic exhibitions by some (One Million Years B.C. by the movie industry or The Creation Museum by fundamentalist Christians) are totally wrong.
  • Pre-humans and chimps split away from gorillas and orangutans about 6 million years ago. We know this through the sciences of: comparative biology, molecular analysis, molecular clocks, and genetic drift.
  • Pre-humans split away from other primate lines about 3 million years ago.
  • Modern humans (homo sapiens) appeared 200,000 years ago. Click Timeline of Life for more details.
  • Humanity really begins to explode 11,700 years ago with the end of the previous ice age
     
• When I die, the constituents of my physical body will be recycled by Earth's biosphere. Recycling seems to be a property built into the universe. Even if my mortal remains are destroyed by fire, 100% of the atoms including oxygen, carbon, nitrogen will live again in other forms. What I have just described is based upon science. If something like a supernatural soul is present, than science has nothing to say about this and never will.
   
• If it is true that we are spirits in the material world, I can only assume that if our work here is not yet finished then my spirit will also be recycled back into this world after I die. There will be no "eternal reward", or "eternal rest", only "eternal work".
   
• There was no garden of Eden where humans was fully created. We are still in the process of creation. Women were not made from the rib of a man. Women are not inferior to men. In fact, since women have two X chromosomes and only need one, they are perhaps biologically superior to men.
   
• There was no world-wide flood which placed fish fossils on mountain tops
  1. What appeared to be a world-wide flood was actually a deluge of Mediterranean breaking through the Bosporus to the Black Sea. This occurred between 5600 BCE and 8000 BCE (both dates older that 4004 BC) and dating of archeological artifacts from underneath the Black Sea support this explanation.
  2. Fossils of fish can be found on mountain tops because these mountain tops used to be under the sea. Sea floors become mountain tops due to Geological Uplift which is a consequence of Continental Drift.
     
   

Human spiritual categories:

Hey, I Just Created A New Religion/Philosophy

Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics lay out the relationship between humans and robots as well as robots and each other. A fourth law, known as the zeroth law, was later developed by R. Daneel Olivaw and R. Giskard Reventlov

0. A robot must not harm humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

If humans were bound by similar laws then the world would be a much better place.

The Asmovian religion will only have three commandments:

1. A human must not injure another human, or, through inaction, allow another human to come to harm.
   • People must never be put to death with one exception: if they are in extreme physical pain and request the help of a doctor to end their misery
2. Do not steal from each other.
3. Do not bear false witness against each other.

Note: perhaps a zeroth law should be included: Do not harm humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

The Asmovian religion will only have three directives:

1. Take care of humanity (and humanity's home, the environment)
2. Take care of each other
   • includes nutrients and exercise for the body
   • includes nutrients and exercise for the mind (education)
3. Take care of yourself
   • includes nutrients and exercise for the body
   • includes nutrients and exercise for the mind (education)

Humanity's Coming Dark Age (a warning for all of us)

1. Download a free PDF copy of the 418-page 2002 publication: The Phoenix Principle and the Coming Dark Age by Marc Widdowson (British military analyst and educator) 
   • subtitled: Social catastrophes – human progress 3000 BC to AD 3000
   • PDF: https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=A578E86D89199CB9&id=A578E86D89199CB9!186
   • Marc Widdowson's original web site at www.darkage.fsnet.co.uk appears to have fallen into the bit-bucket sometime after 2008. But you can still access much of the original material (including charts and diagrams which are not in the current PDF) via the Way Back Machine: 
     • 2008-10-27: http://web.archive.org/web/20081027105939/http://www.darkage.fsnet.co.uk/index.htm
     • partial index: http://classic-web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.darkage.fsnet.co.uk
   • The chart above (also seen here) illustrates the rise-and-fall of six major empires. Notice the amplitude and period are decreasing.
   • These tables, which were published 5-years before the 2007-2008 American-caused world-wide financial debacle, seem shockingly accurate.
      
2. Download ($10) an eBook of The Coming Dark Age by Roberto Vacca - 153 pages in PDF format
   • This book was first published in 1973 then updated in 2000
   • Click here for a free view "Contents, Foreword, Introduction and the First Chapter"
   • "I read this book in a palsied fascination of horror. I have never read a book that was at the same time so convincing and so frightening." - Isaac Asimov
      
3. Purchase ($10) the 2005 book Dark Age Ahead by Jane Jacobs
    
4. Business Week - Coming Dark Age for Innovation?
    
5. New Scientist - Entering a dark age of innovation
    
6. While there are many complicated and interacting reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire, I am now convinced that Edward Gibbon was correct when he stated that the primary reason was due to the the effects of organized religion. Today's world might collapse for nothing more that the reasons of religious intolerance or greed (materialism is another form of religion)
    
7. Religious Method (dogma): Fiction, Assertion, Suppression
   Scientific Method (pragma): Observation, Hypothesis, Experiment (test), Debate. Then publish and repeat.
   Galileo's Defense Against Catholic Persecution: The bible tells you "how to go to heaven", not "how the heavens go".
   (Therefore the bible cannot be relied upon to tell you when: life begins, how the world was created, how old the world is, etc. On the flip side, science will never be able to prove, or disprove, the existence of God. Like music and art, science and religion are just two human cultural expressions. They must never be allowed to merge or you will exchange democracy for theocracy)

1. General Motors employed over 400,000 North American employees in 1970. (this is the same peak employment number of the people who worked on Apollo). GM got rid of those pesky technical workers while the number of white collar workers sky rocketed to over to over 40,000 by the mid 2000s. Before 2004, GM paid more money per car to advertisers than they did to hourly workers.
    
2. Detroit-headquartered manufacturers claimed that Asian products were garbage while Detroit produced crappy products like the Chevy Vega, Ford Pinto, and the AMC Gremlin. Detroit then claimed that American products were superior to Asian  products even though Detroit was already manufacturing in places like Mexico and Brazil. (this obfuscation could be better described by the phrase "Jedi hand wave" which only works on the weak minded)
    
3. In the 1980's, big newspaper publishers started calling paid advertising "copy" while the news content was referred to as "noise". Around this time, newspaper started to acquire each other. Publishers started by getting rid of those pesky reporters while reaping 30-35% annual ROI (return-on-investment) on their acquisitions. We know this now because newspapers have had to open their books during recent bankruptcies. So the internet didn't kill newspapers, newspaper owners and managers just sucked out all the money until it wasn't worth paying for.
    
4. The stupidity of the Iraq War is comparable to the Vietnam war. I am tempted to say that Americans don't learn from history but I would be partly wrong: The American public was mostly against the War in Vietnam because of the draft even though it partly destroyed their economy. Bush-Cheney knew about the draft so were careful to never invoke one for their Iraq War. This means that many Americans are still under the deluded belief that the Vietnam War could have been won. So are American politicians stupid or just political ideologues?
    
5. Between 1927 and 1999 the human population tripled from 2 billion to 6 billion and this was only possible due to the industrialization of farms. Since the majority of farms get water from rivers that begin in glaciers, and global warming is destroying them, rivers will begin to run dry in the summer months which means that people will die. Six large rivers begin in the Tibetan plateau eventually feed India, Pakistan, and China. When these nuclear powers run out of food there will be war.

Useful Links (and a few departing points)

• Deism
  • www.deism.com - God gave us reason, not religion.
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism
  • www.positivedeism.com
  • www.moderndeism.com
• www.skeptic.com - promoting science and critical thinking
• Development of the Canon of the New Testament
  • Christian bible scholars like Bart Ehrman tell us that half of the books of the 27 books of the New Testament are Pseudepigraphs (forgeries). It does not matter how well intentioned the authors were, if you are serious about religion then you had better not teach from the forgeries especially where they knowingly conflict with other teachings.
• The Gospel of Matthew (then follow links elsewhere)
• Four Document Hypothesis @wikipedia
• Synoptic Problem @wikipedia
• The Nicene Creed is a verbal affirmation of what a congregation believes the New Testament says.
  • It first appears in 325 AD under the first council of Nicaea (when Constantine was attempting to make Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire)
  • In the late sixth century, the Latin-speaking churches added the words "and from the Son" (Filioque) to the description of the procession of the Holy Spirit, in what Eastern churches have argued is a violation of Canon VII of the Third Ecumenical Council, since the words were not included in the text by either the Council of Nicaea or that of Constantinople
  • Translation:
    • Roman Catholics, as well as the followers of all Christian sects derived from it, including protestants, are heretics.
    • If you ever "prayed to Mary or any other saint" then you are a heretic
    • If you ever "prayed to Jesus" then you are a heretic
• Northrup Fry
  • Northrop Frye on The Shape of the Bible.
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXECOXhzdI4
  • Northrop Frye on An Approach to the Bible.
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc2Q6YMB6E8
• The Gutenberg Project - which includes some neat free stuff like:
  • The King James Bible
  • The Declaration of Independence
  • The U.S. Bill of Rights
  • The U.S. Constitution
  • Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
  • Lincoln's 1st Inaugural Address
  • Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address
  • Kennedy's Inaugural Address
  • Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death
  • The Mayflower Compact
  • Ben Hur by Lew Wallace (much more interesting than any of the movies)
  • The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
  • The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
  • The Scarlet Letter
  • Aesop's Fables
  • Paradise Lost

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Neil Rieck
Kitchener - Waterloo - Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.