The questions:

Agnosticism vs. Atheism
A common debate surrounding the disbelief in a deity revolves around the definitions of atheism and agnosticism. Atheism gets a negative connotation because many people see it as hypocritical. The misconception is that atheism is the belief that there is no god. It is labeled as being hypocritical because it is thought that atheists question the faithful beliefs of the religious while they, themselves. hold the position that there is no god that is based on an unprovable belief. The problem with this is that one can not have a belief in disbelief. The definition of atheism is the lack of belief in a god (theos = god, the prefix a- meaning “not”). Thus, atheism cannot be both a belief and the lack of belief at the same time.
Agnosticism is wrongly thought to be the middle ground between theism and atheism. It is the “nice” version of atheism where you don’t have to state your disbelief but instead state that you don’t know. In fact, agnosticism has nothing to do with belief at all. Belief in a god (theism) or lack of belief in a god (atheism) cover the entire spectrum of belief. You must be one or the other. It is a very black and white concept. Saying “I don’t know” places a firm skepticism in your position, which means that you have not been convinced to believe, so you are, by definition an atheist. Agnosticism deals with “knowing.” One can state that they are agnostic if they answer the question of “Is there a god?” with “I don’t know.” Thus, one can be a theist or an atheist and also be an agnostic.
I am an agnostic atheist. I believe that it is just as hypocritical for an atheist to say for sure that there is no god without any evidence to support this claim. I am an agnostic because I am comfortable enough to acknowledge when I do not know something. At the same time, I am an atheist because disbelief is the default position that we all take in our lives. Outside of religion, we ask for evidence and proof and until we see something that is stated to exist, we do not believe it to be. I always use the example of the purple unicorn. If I stated that there was a purple unicorn standing behind you all the time, but the moment you turned around, it disappeared, you would think I was crazy. You wouldn’t believe me until you could see the purple unicorn. You would try to turn really quickly to see the purple unicorn before it disappeared. You would hold up a mirror to try to catch sight of the purple unicorn, and you would take the position that no such purple unicorn exists until you got that evidence. While this might sound like an absurd example, it is the way that I look at religious claims. If you want me to believe in a god, let me see one. Until I do, I will take the default human position of nonexistence and answer any inquiry into the existence of gods with a firm “I don’t know.”

Pascal’s Wager aka God is a good bet
“”If you believe in God and turn out to be incorrect, you have lost nothing–but if you don’t believe in God and turn out to be incorrect, you will go to hell. Therefore it is foolish to be an atheist.”
This statement is fundamentally flawed. First, which god should I believe in? Any god? If I get a choice then I choose Backlum Chaam, the Mayan god of sex. Talk about best of both worlds… The second flaw in this argument is that it states that if you believe in a god and are wrong, then you’ve lost nothing. I would firmly disagree. It is my lack of belief that drives me to want to do great things. I feel a strong sense of urgency to do great things during THIS life because it’s the only one I have. The belief in a god would destroy that urgency.

How did we get here?
A common argument against atheism is that there HAS to be a god, otherwise, where did we come from? The simple answer to this question is another question: Where did God come from? This inevitably leads to the original questioner telling me about how god is god and he’s all powerful and has always existed. There is an idea called Occam’s Razor that was originally stated as “Do not multiply entities unnecessarily,” but which can basically be modernized to say that we should “Take the simplest solution.” I just wonder why we can’t apply the timeless existence of god to the universe and call it a day. It baffles my mind that these questioners can be taken back when I state that the universe could have always existed but are completely OK with applying the same idea to a god. My answer to the “How did we get here”  question is “I don’t know.” I’m comfortable with that. Most people aren’t.

There are many other questions that I’m sure come up. These are just some of the ones that I heard a lot. Hopefully I’ll touch on the other ones as I continue. Feel free to comment and ask any questions if you have them.

How did I get to be an atheist?

I was not always an atheist. I was an atheist when I was born, but my parents decided against that course for my life. I was raised in a Roman Catholic family. I went to church every week for almost 20 years. I spent 9 years getting a Catholic education. I was an altar boy. Even more then all of this outward evidence of my religious background, I was a firm believer. When I was a teenager, I considered an active role in the church as a deacon or a Eucharistic minister of some sort. So what changed? I went to college. Knowledge happened.
Prior to college, I was sheltered. I had never been exposed to anything outside of my religion. I spent 9 years being taught about one religion and the following three years of public school having the subject avoided entirely. My first assignment in my freshmen year English class was to read and write about Martin Luther’s “95 Theses.” This was a list of all of the problems that Luther had with the Church. Reading it hit me like a ton of bricks (or a ton of feathers, either way, it was heavy). Here were 95 problems with my religion when in 18 years I had never heard one. That’ll wake you up. That single moment was the first crack in the dam. During the next few semesters, I took three different classes on religion dealing with all of the religions of the world, the various beliefs about death and the afterlife and one more the evades me right now. Here, it was exposed to me that the Noah flood story was probably not original source material. Neither was Jesus. Ouch. Talk about a big oopsie. These stories made me extremely skeptical about my own religion. I’ll try to give a quick summary of them here:

Noah and the flood
During one of my classes we read a story about a great flood. The story said that all of the people were bitching to a god and that the god couldn’t sleep, so he decided to wipe them all out with a great flood. A god went to some guy and tipped him off and told the guy to build a boat. It rained for a week straight, flooding everything and wiping out all of the annoying people. The guy tried to release a dove to find land but the dove kept coming back, so there was no land. Eventually, the flood waters subsided and the man found land and repopulated the earth with quieter people so that the god could sleep.
Who was this man? His name was Gilgamesh. The story was from a poem from Ancient Mesopotamia and dated to around 2700 BCE. The story of Noah dates to around 2300 BCE, given the chronology of the Bible.

Jesus, the source material
Just like the Noah story, the story of Jesus was predated by other source material that is too similar to be mere coincidence. The most popular of these early gods is Horus, an Egyptian god. Let me try to quickly summarize all of the similarities.
Both were born of virgins, Horus was born to Meri while Jesus was born to Mary. Both had foster fathers who are from a royal line. Horus was born in a cave while Jesus was born in a stable. Both births were preceded by an angelic annunciation to the aforementioned mother. Both were heralded by a star in the sky. The birth of Horus is said to be the winter solstice (typically December 21st) while Jesus’ birthday is December 25th (which oddly enough is the same birthday as Mithra, Dionysus and the Sol Invictus). Both had births that were witnessed by shepherds. Both have no documented history between the ages of 12 and 30. Both were baptized in a river. (Horus by Anup the Baptizer, Jesus by John the Baptizer). Both of the aforementioned baptizers were beheaded. Both were taken from the desert to a mountain and tempted. Both had 12 disciples. Both walked on water, cast out demons, healed the sick, calmed violent waters, and restored sight to the blind. Both also raised their friend from the dead. Both were transfigured. Both were crucified and accompanied by two criminals. Both descended to Hell and were resurrected after three days.
That is a lot of similarity. The story of Horus was found in “The Egyptian Book of the Dead” which was written prior to 3000 BCE. The Bible accounts of Jesus date to between 30 and 100 ACE. Barring blind faith, this has to make even the most committed Christian skeptical.

In the interest of keeping this posting to the size of a short book, I’ll also point you to all of the inconsistencies that exist in the Bible via a convenient web link that you can check out on your own: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/inconsistencies.html

Why bring all of this up?
Why bring all of this up? I have heard complaints that I should just let people believe in their gods. I really think that, while religion does to a wealth of good, it does significantly more harm in both a physical as well as a mental sense and I don’t think its right to stand by and accept this. Religion is filled with hypocrisy and people are either unknowingly ignorant of this hypocrisy or knowingly ignorant and choose not to question. Many religions say you should give to the poor and then spend millions of dollars on the vanity of their houses of worship. Most religions dictate belief and create a system whereby questioning that belief is wrong and that wrongness is backed up with a sense of guilt to stop us from questioning. We should always question. It is by questioning that we move towards a better society and way of life. An inquisitive mind is a mind that will create the next great advances of our civilization and religion muffles this out and calls it evil for the sake of its own survival.
Religion divides us as much as it brings us together. I would make the claim (without actually researching it thoroughly) that religion has caused more wars and the deaths that resulted then from any other single cause. There has been war in the middle east over the same plot of dirt all because it is considered holy. Can’t they just share it?
I recognize all of the good things that come out of religion. Religion is a great tool for conveying morality (not to be confused as a source of morality). Religious groups perform much charitable work in our communities. These things, however, could be done without religion. There are many moral people that are raised without religion. There are plenty of charitable organizations that do the same work as the religious ones and I’m sure that more would spring up into the void if there were no religious charities.
I understand why we have religion. Religion is a placeholder. It is the answer to the questions we can’t answer. Zeus was the god of rain to the Greeks. He existed because the Greeks did not understand where rain came from. Now that we understand how rain occurs, there is no more Zeus. As I’ve stated before, people don’t like to not know. It is uncomfortable. Knowledge is, perhaps, the driving force of all of humanity. Perfect knowledge is what we all strive for. Thus, there is a god to create the universe because we don’t yet have the answer to the question: “Where did we come from?”
Religion is also a comfort tool. People are uncomfortable with death. We don’t like thinking that our loved ones are gone for good. There is comfort in a divine afterlife where we’ll be able to see them again. We are also uncomfortable with the fact of our own demise. Religion gives us this comfort and masks the inevitability of death. It cures our loneliness. When we feel like things are hopeless and there is no one to turn to, religion gives us that person to talk to. This is the reason that they say that there are no atheists in a foxhole. Some people would say “What’s wrong with this?” I think that we’re all stronger then we give ourselves credit for. I think that we can face death, loneliness, and hopelessness and make it to the other side without a god to prop us up. We don’t need the crutch of religion to get us through because we’re strong enough to do it without that help. We’re on our way there but people are afraid to make the leap.
It’s important to remember that religion has been around for several thousand years. Science has just started to explain the world in the last three to four hundred years. It has, however, started to show people how powerful knowledge really is. As of 2001, the group of “non religious” people sits around 16% of the world’s population. This is third behind Christianity and Islam. This category has also seen a huge jump in the US statistics. In 1990, about 14.3 million people categorized themselves as “non religious” and by 2001, that figure was closer to 30 million.

Ok, I’m done

So what’s the point? Why have this discussion? Why attack religion and attempt to cast doubt? People are afraid to challenge the status quo. I’m sure that more people have doubts then they let on (the “I’m Christian but I don’t practice” people, I’m looking at you.) Doubt is good. Questioning is good. Knowledge is what we need more of. Religion tends to suppress these things. I honestly, truly have faith (irony intended) that we, as a people, will move towards a much more enlightened and prosperous place when religion is gone. I’m not looking for you to shed your religion. For some, it’s as much a family tradition as it is a religion. It’s simply my hope that you’ll doubt, question, seek knowledge, and challenge the status quo. These things are typically counter to religious belief and thus lead to a position like mine.

(check back later this week to read my updated view on the economy)

The song is asking if old friends and old times should be forgotten.   “Auld Lang Syne” literally translates to “old long since” but a better American English definition would be “days of long ago” or “the good old days.”  It’s taking a moment to look back at the past, at the good times that we’ve had and the good friends that we’ve shared them with that may or may not still be in our lives.  The last verse, to me, is the best of it:  And there’s a hand my trusty friend ! And give us a hand o’ thine ! And we’ll take a right good-will draught, for auld lang syne.

So to my friends that read this that I haven’t seen in a long time, I send out a toast to you and to the good old days.

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old times since ?

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

for auld lang syne,

we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,

for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !
And surely I’ll buy mine !
And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine^† ;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

I’m sure the question has crossed a few minds as to why I would hop in my car and just drive for the better part of an entire day to get here. An airplane would have gotten me here in about 4 hours. The other question is why I would do it alone if I was going to do it at all. I wanted to spend this post getting into the reasons behind this and why, if you know me, you know that neither of these are uncommon for me.

Most people find the prospect of driving a car for about 14 hours (closer to 17 going back because I’ll be going to NY instead of DE where I started) to not be a very relaxing vacation. It is, I’ll admit, pretty brutal to drive that far. It was 900 miles driving down and about 1250 miles going back…. but I love it. The drive itself is as important to the vacation as the destination is. Especially doing it alone, the drive gives you a lot of time to think about things. At this time of year, right before the end of 2008, I had about 12 hours alone driving to think about what happened the past year and what is on the way in the next year. I had all of that time to reflect on the decisions that I made and how they effected me and those around me. I was able to look at the good decisions and think about how I could repeat them or make them even better. I was able to reflect upon the bad decisions that I made and figure out how to not repeat them and what I’ve learned because of them. New Years eve is really no big deal to me. It never has been. Last year I stayed at home, ate Chinese food and watched ‘The Wire’ (awesome show by the way). The year before that, I worked. It is, to me, the celebration of an arbitrary point on our man made calendar. There’s really nothing special about it. Call me a party pooper, but that’s just my line of thinking. It does, however, give us all a reference point to stop and reflect on our lives and look towards the future. I think that the most successful people that you’ll find are the ones that do this frequently and honestly. Driving alone in a car for so long gives me a lot of time to really think in ways that a regular day at home wouldn’t.

The other reason that I did this is because of my constant desire to learn and experience the things that I’ve never experienced. If I had of taken a plane, I would have missed driving through Norfolk, visiting Santee, SC (population 740) and eating at a Waffle House. They may all seem like peculiar things to want to experience, but they’re really way more interesting then visiting a resort town like Daytona. That’s the real America that I want to see and experience. On my way home, I’m going to avoid the marathon drive and give myself two full days to drive back and use the stops to try to visit one city or town in each state that I drive through up to Virginia.( I’ve seen DC, MD, NJ, DE, and NY enough already). I’m probably going to stop in Jacksonville, FL and Augusta, GA. The other states I’ll have to look into but I might opt to just pick an exit and experience some of the small town America that exists in SC and NC.

People always wonder why I do stuff like this… I always wonder why more people don’t. I have a week off before I go back to work again. I don’t want to spend it sitting around my house doing something that I could do the rest of the year.

The other thing that I’m sure a lot of people wonder is why I would want to go on vacation alone. This is something that I do quite frequently. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy vacations with other people as well, but it’s a vacation with an entirely different purpose. When I’m with people on vacations it’s to live it up. It’s for going out to party or doing other social activities like gambling. This solo vacation is more about the reflection that I talked about earlier. It’s also about stepping away from my day to day and clearing my head out. I rarely find that trips with other people are relaxing. Usually there’s some kind of itinerary and you’re constantly busy and out until all hours of the night. It’s usually a great time but not all that relaxing or rejuvenating. When I take these solo trips, it’s about being able to do what I want, when I want. I can spend a few hours at a poker room or go fishing without having to clear it with the group. I can leave the beach after an hour if I don’t feel like being at the beach. I can go to bed at 11:30 if I feel tired and don’t want to stay out. That kind of freedom allows you to do things on your terms and enjoying your vacation for different reasons.

A lot of people have a stigma about taking vacations alone. In reality, I don’t know anyone that is even off this week to come along with me even if I wanted to have some kind of companion for the trip. Traveling alone is really something that I think everyone should try. You’ll find that it’s an entirely different vacation experience.

I am a big supporter of the Constitution. I know that sounds silly to say, but a lot of people that I know either know too little about the document itself and what it says to form an opinion or they directly support ideas that go against the Constitution itself. To me, the Constitution is an amazing piece of innovation in government for just one document. We got some of the smartest individuals of the time together and had them create a system of government that embraced the ideals that our ancestors yearned for when they left their own countries and immigrated to the colonies. I thought I’d dedicate a little time turning this 200 year old document into something that people today can easily understand.

I’ll be doing it in bits and pieces, here is Article I about the Congress.

The Preamble

Hey world! We’re looking for a form of government that embraces justice, peace, national security, and generally awesome times for all of our people. Here’s how we plan to do it.

Article I – What’s the job of Congress?

Section 1

The king was an asshole so we don’t trust this much power to one person so we’re going to give it to a group. Actually, he was enough of an asshole that we’re going to make two – the House and the Senate.

Section 2

The House will have members that are elected every two years. To be eligible, you must be 25 (It’s 1776, you’ll probably be dead by the time you’re 50 so we can’t make it TOO late), be a citizen for at least 7 years, and live where you are elected (duh). The amount of representatives will be based on the population and we’ll just it every 10^th year (we’re too lazy to do it any more frequently). You get 1 representative per 30,000 citizens but if you’re below 30,000, you get at least 1.

The House can impeach the President if he has an affair with an intern or other such crimes. (but not like secret detainment or wire tapping or anything like that)

Section 3

The Senate will have 2 representatives from each state and will serve for six years, with it staggered into 3 groups that are elected every 2 years. You have to be 30, be a resident for 9 years, and live in the state where you’re elected. This is a much more exclusive club. Cool people only.

The Vice President is the President of the Senate but can only vote if there is a tie. Otherwise he just sits around and looks old.

The Senators are the people that hold the trial for the impeachment of said presidential adulterers or other such crimes. Two thirds of the people have to agree that “if the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit” (Oh wait, that was OJ)

Section 4

Boring stuff about when they should meet. Friday is Hawaiian shirt day, newest senator brings the beer.

Section 5

You can get rid of a member of Congress with 2/3 agreeing. That’s 66.66 Senators. That means 66 and then one that’s asleep or something.

The Congress will make its own rules about how to run the meeting.

Hey, write this stuff down. It’s probably important.

Make sure that you let some one know if you’re going to go out. Old people tend to wander off.

Section 6

Sure, we’ll pay you a little bit of money for doing this for us.

You can’t be arrested for stuff you do on the Congressional floor or in traveling to or from work. How awesome is that?

Don’t take any other jobs while you’re working for us. That’s not cool.

Section 7

We need to make some money for this sum bitch. The House will be in charge of this stuff but we’ll let the Senate give some advice too.

If we want to make a law, both the Senate and House have to pass it and then it has to be signed by the President. He can veto it if he doesn’t like it but if 2/3 of the House says that they want it, they can override him. Take that Mr. President, take that. If the President is on vacation and doesn’t return the bill after 10 days, then screw him… it’s a law. Was fly fishing really worth it?

Section 8

Hey Congress, you can do these things and nothing else:

1) Collect taxes (we’ll hate you for this)

2) Borrow money and pay debts on behalf of the US (we’re sure you’ll be like a teenage with a credit card)

3) Regulate trade (don’t let everything get made by China. We can really make our own cutting boards… seriously, it’s just a block of wood with a handle.)

4) Figure out how and when people can become citizens

5) Make and distribute money (bling bling mother fucker)

6) Establish a post office (how else will we put Elvis on a stamp in 2 hundred years)

7) Dealing with copyright (bet you’ll never see Napster coming)

8 ) establish lower federal court (like Judge Judy)

9) Declaring war

10) Raising and supporting an army, navy and a militia

11) Making laws (duh)

Section 9

Here’s what you can’t do:

1) You can’t suspend the rights of people to not be detained without a trial. Lawyers need love too

2) You can’t enact any law that is retroactively in effect.

3) Don’t play favorites with states. Except Idaho, you can forget about Idaho if you want

4) Don’t tax interstate commerce

5) Don’t take any money from the Treasury unless it’s for a law. Plan ahead if you need beer money.

6) Don’t give out any special titles of nobility. Nobody cares about the Duke of Yorkshire anyway.

7) Don’t take any money or gifts from kings. We pay well enough.

One side of me enjoyed the peace and serenity of the woods without my cell phone near by. On this day, I was able to enjoy the little things with some ignorance of the outside world and just take in the lake, the woods, the burning fire place. I didn’t have to care about the shootout at the Waldorf-Astoria or the impending deep recession. It was nice to be focused on life’s simple pleasures. I was able to read a book without being interrupted by an instant message or the thought that How I Met Your Mother was coming on soon. I was able to enjoy a conversation with the people that I was eating with instead of constantly checking my email. After about a day without my connection to the outside world, I was able to adjust and I kind of enjoyed getting away from it all, even just for 36 hours.

At the same time, part of me likes being connected. I was recently standing at the train station listening to some music when I saw a group of pigeons walking along the train platform and all of their heads were bobbing as they walked. I randomly wondered why they bobbed their head when they walked and was able to look it up online right away from my phone. (In case you’re wondering, it’s to stabilize their visual surroundings. We move our eyes to do this as we walk, many birds move their head instead) Sure, this is useless information, but it was randomly interesting and I was able to get my questions answered right away. I can say that I read the New York Times every day because it downloads to my phone in the morning. I would never do this with a regular newspaper. I stay in touch with my family because I am connected. I regularly email or Facebook with them and keep in touch. I probably wouldn’t do this as frequently if I wasn’t constantly connected to Facebook and my email. Being constantly connected has afforded me many opportunities for both knowledge and the opportunity to continue relationships with people that 10 years ago would have faded with time.

My students have lived all of their lives being wired. They’ve always had 500 channels and access to cell phones and the Internet. Many of them struggled with not having these things for two days. One girl, in particular, told me that she didn’t enjoy the trip because she’d much rather be watching TV or being on the computer then being outside. She got dirty and this was not acceptable. Being constantly wired has blinded us to simple pleasures of life like building a campfire and roasting marshmallows or running around in the pouring rain. (I did run around in the rain this weekend. It was fun!) Rain is an excuse to sit on the computer all day.

I don’t know the answer to this question. What I do know is that all of the positives of the exponential growth of technology and our dependence on it does have negative effects on us. I know that I am too connected or maybe just connected too frequently. The breaks are nice and, I’m finding, necessary to enjoy life to its fullest potential. I don’t know where, when, or how frequently I need to unplug from this constantly wired culture, but two days away from it all has shown me that sometimes we should be stopping to smell the roses instead of stopping to check your email.