Overdue

Talk about bad timing. It turned out to be a very busy weekend.

I had not had time to check Liyana's replies or Facebook posts until today. And I've come to a conclusion of what she's saying.

She's ranting. The same thing I do, but at least I'm honest it's a rant.

Surprisingly she's also prone to taunting, which in my opinion is quite juvenile.

"sure Nietszche did collapse the belief system only to reorganize it again in his later writings, take that nihilism!"

"HAHAHA thats what they say when they dont understand post modernism, when people are SOO ethnocentric "

"I rest my case. :) "

Actually I'm having quite a hard time reading it because I don't know where the sentences begin and where they end. Really. I'm trying hard to read it, but I can't really filter the junk from the points. It's frustrating. Liyana, if you're reading this, I'd be glad to analyse your arguments if they were properly worded, paragraphed and punctuated. I wouldn't be so fussy if it wasn't for the lack of coherence and cohesion.

There are things I managed to pick out:

Apparently I don't have a philosophy. Or at least I don't write my philosophy here.

Well, even the most well-known philosophers can't explain their philosophies in their lifetimes. They wrote numerous books over the course of decades and I bet they still had a lot to say. I've only been blogging for about a year. Do you expect a detailed overview of my views on everything?

You can't dismiss a problem because other religions/countries/culture have it worse. And besides why would I be talking about the USA's policy on abortion. Besides, Bush is known to be a man of faith, someone who is deeply Christian. This influenced his stance on a lot of key policies, such as stem cell research (which he opposed) and of course abortion.

And do I really have to attack every single perpertrator of any of the wrongs I mention? Should I mention the names of every singly sexist priest as well? Or mention all the religions that don't have a female God? Or mention every single case of book-burning? Or list every massacre or infanticide case out there?

Do I really have to mention every single kind of religion there is?

I'm not talking about Islam vs The West here. I never was. I was just talking about Islam.

And by the way, I'm not glamourising the West (which is really too broad a generalisation).

You keep saying I think tribesmen are primitive. I don't. I meant no disrespect when I merely mentioned the phrase 'Bedouin tribesmen.' You gave that definition of Bedouin being the 'lowest of the low.' In fact you implied that I don't know that they're supposedly leat-regarded. How can you accuse me of looking down on them?

Why am I ethnocentric? I'm not promoting my ethnicity or culture as superior. When someone criticises a way of living does not mean he or she is ethnocentric. When someone criticises somebody's beliefs it is not ethnocentric. When someone criticises someone's religion that is not ethnocentric.

I think I've explained why I attack Islam the most. I really don't feel like reiterating this point.

My arguments are based on mass media? What mass media in Brunei?

I'm representing only one side of the argument. Fair enough. That's because I am one side of the argument. I'm expecting other people to be the other side of the argument. This doesn't mean I haven't looked at the other side of the argument. I could argue the same thing against you. This really does not hold.

Maybe I'll write more once I get through that mess of a reply.

Ethnocentricity & Chauvinism

I assumed that Liyana would've been fine for me to put it on this blog since she wrote it on my wall. If you, Liyana, don't think this is appropriate, I'll be glad to take it off the site.

This is continuing the discussion from "To Think About Heaven."

Written on Facebook wall by Liyana Tassim:

ah, u remember that controversy about whether or not the Koran was created or uncreated?
1) the prophet did not ask for the Koran to be made into a book, he is a prophet why did he not ask for it to be made into a book?
2) the Koran was collected by the Sahabah and certain versions which Umar Al Khattab did not like was burnt.
Btw, the Bedouins are not all Muslims, they are considered the lowest of the low, and its kind of an insult for someone like you calling them low when in their society they are already considered low

I wonder why you're always ethnocentric, empirical thought has its problems are already countered by post modernists, one of which is although you disagree with evolutionist thought what you're very much associated with, the idea that organized religion especially monotheistic religions are at the top of the food chain, I dislike such a presumption, after all aren't polytheistic religions part and parcel of organized religion?

In addition matrilineal as well as female Gods and Goddesses of polytheistic religions, such as making the female as a High God are many in different cultures and societies, to mistake that they do not have a right to religion is very insulting. Its so la di da to be accusing mass organized religions which on the one hand are already making small polytheistic religions anyway but adding you to that is just making it even extra ethnocentric. The whole point of some societies creating religion is that it provided a social aspect to it, what you're presenting, the need to be atheistic is in line with evolutionist thought, Sigmund Freud had talked about this in Totems and Taboo and I've talked about this as well, Freud argued that being atheistic is the highest of the high, with monotheistic thought second and polytheistic thought and religion as primitive and lowly. What makes you think that simple societies are in essence actually 'simple'? And that your modern thought is above polytheism? IN addition to that is the multiplicity in which religion manifests itself,

The problem here is you're disallowing people of ALL religions, regardless whether they're polytheistic, animistic, monotheistic and in addition Godless religions such as Buddhism from having A religion in particular. I myself am not an atheist but neither am I a Muslim, but I do know for one thing, to accuse hotentot almighty and chucking in the bin monotheistic religions who have insulted animism and polytheism and philosophical religion as one, is a pretty chauvinistic attempt. Here, here let me point this out to you, religion is a belief in the supernatural, therefore whatever belief in the supernatural including say Buddhism, what is intangible IS religion. To think of tribal peoples and summing them up as primitive and backward is rather insulting, I believe that even the Penan have something to tell us, the Bedouin are a nomadic tribe, some of them have followed their older religions are what one would say 'half' Muslims. Some of them who have settled in Saudi Arabia is ofcourse 'fully' Muslim, whatever Islam means.
Not all organized religions believe in the idea of Heaven
although there has been 'corruptions' from the original ideas proposed by Siddhartha for example Mahayana Buddhism (Greater Cycle - does not mean that it is the better Buddhism haa) however, Theravada BUddhism with its strongly strict scriptural interpretations are more in line with the idea of attaining Nirvana. Thats the part where I found what you said as insulting and chauvinistic, the part when you said 'organized religion', Nirvana is not heaven, the idea of attaining NIrvana is to simply blow out, organized religions are not as simple as you think, there are sociological and anthropological reasons as to why people have religion in the first place, it is after all the root of all technology, science, art and culture, it is not necessarily a completely bad thing. There are several religions that have also amalgamated the idea of Buddhism and traditional religion such as totemism, this also includes Shintoism, to say that ALL organized religion is USELESS is a very as I said, narrow minded conception.
Oh yes, before I end it, I gave some thought to the idea of heaven, you see religions evolve, they continuously from time to time adapt and change according to what the demands of the then contemporary times are. For example, today, Catholicism has already chucked massive bits of heaven out of the window, the problem with Islam is that they have hooked on to orthodox and traditionalist interpretations of Islam, remember certain factions of Islam have thrived during the 15th century and they have claimed that the Koran is 'created'. And I see nothing wrong for a Muslim to not believe in heaven, as I said your conception of religion is pretty narrow, and whoever said jihadists make sense in the first place? Try reading Clifford Geertz when he compares to Islamic societies, to depend on people like Gellner as a source of Islamic thought I think is very one handed. I don't care if you insult Islam, by all means trample on it, but that's because I am part of it, but if you start insulting other religions such as polytheism, animism and philosophical religions and lump it together with monotheism, dear you know nothing about and stick with your monotheistic toys

Reply on Facebook from Jason Biggs

I was impressed with the number you assumptions you made. Though I would appreciate it if you used some appropriate punctuations (like a fullstop) every now and then. It's very hard to read one sentence that's five lines long and with nine commas.

To assume I think tribesmen as backward and primitive, you must be joking. From that single mention, you think I'm ethnocentric. What a big leap.

Anyway, to say that I think all religions are 'useless' is untrue. I would say a large number of them are dangerous. When I say dangerous, I don't just mean jihad-dangerous. I mean science-hindering dangerous. I mean blind-faith dangerous. Homophobic-dangerous. The reason I talk about Islam is it's one of the fastest growing and biggest religion out there, and it's also one seeming to be permanently stuck in its ancient form.

To say I think I'm superior to religious people is an assumption you made without sufficient evidence. I have not said that. The reason I started the blog anyway was because I believe that people, no matter what their beliefs are, will be able to discuss their views intelligently. And I don't see atheists as the 'superior' kind. I don't see the need to categorise how superior people are by what they believe in. I fail to see atheists as a kind or even a group of people. You cite names and attribute their believes onto me. You assume I fit into these philosophies. You don't know what my philosophies are. For example, just because I accept evolution doesn't mean I am a social Darwinist.

Yes, I think religion did (and do) have a social aspect to it. Yes, I know religion was a major part in uniting people. Yes, I know theology is a deep subject, and religion is not a simple make-believe, imaginary friend thing.

But can't I argue that it has become obsolete? Or even harmful? When it forces people to become irrational? Or unable to accept criticism?

I don't have a problem with Muslims who don't believe in heaven. But I do have a problem with Muslims who support fatwas to kill authors. I have a problem with Muslims who advocate mysogyny. And I have a problem with Muslims who want abortions illegal even in cases of rape and incest.

In fact, why I discussed heaven anyway is because the idea doesn't appeal to me. I'm not saying people who believe in heaven are stupid. I'm saying I'm not a Muslim because I don't believe in the idea of the Quranic heaven, amongst other things.

To say empiricism has already been countered by post modernists is preposterous. Empiricism is the foundation of science. Post modernism is too vague a term, blanketing too much while saying very little.

I'm a bit confused as to why you say I'm ethnocentric. I have made no references to ethnicity nor of superiority of any kind. I think superiority is arbitrary anyway. Please do enlighten me.

Not all religions believe in a heaven. Fine. I was specifically discussing the religions that do. Particularly Islam.

Can I try you trick? That is to use one point and to exaggerate it to the point of beyond recognition?

You said I should stick with my monotheistic toys. Just because you think I'm younger than you doesn't mean I know less. Just because you like to use big words and mention names doesn't mean you know more. You're the chauvinist here. To label me as narrow-minded without actually knowing the full extent of my philosophy, and then falsely attributing beliefs from well-known figures just because they have a bare resemblance to what I've said. And what are you asking of me? Do you want me to include or not include polytheistic, animistic and philosophical religion?

Do you see what I've done there? Do you see what is wrong with my approach in that paragraph?

Really. I expected more from you than this.

To Think About Heaven

One of the main reasons I don't believe in organised religion is their concept of heaven. It's mostly quite sexual, materialistic and misogynistic, with no similar sexual pleasures for women offered. Why aren't there 72 celebrity-lookalike male virgins for each women? Why does the Islamic concept of heaven resemble those of oases and palaces? Sounds like a heaven imagined by some bedouin tribesmen to me.

I've heard of the 'beauty' of these angels. They don't seem to be beautiful to me. Everytime the Quranic version of these angelic sexual servants is mentioned, I actually get turned off.

But that's beside the point.

The concept of eternal happiness or everlasting bliss is a flawed and logically impossible. What does it mean to have eternal happiness? Surely a million years in heaven would be boring. Monotonous. I might even turn gay out of boredom.

And what about knowing that the people you love and care about are rotting in hell? How is that supposed to be blissful? How is that supposed to make you happy? Truly the most rewarding thing about being human is the ability to connect with other people, to share your life with others. In the long term that is what matters.

Imagine this situation. You have a partner, who you love very much. You're religious, yet your partner isn't. Your partner is a wonderful human being, charitable and humanitarian. He/She is considerate to other human beings and has contributed to society in many ways. You feel like your partner is your soulmate, but no matter how hard you tried, you can't change your partner's mind about God. But you go on with the relationship anyway, hoping God will forgive him/her or show the way. You have a wonderful sexual relationship that goes beyond its physical pleasures, as well as a healthy romantic relationship that is mutually satisfying.

Both of you die in a car accident. You go to heaven, he/she goes to hell.

Will you be happy in heaven knowing the only human being who knows who you are and loves you more than anything in the world is being tortured because he/she didn't believe in a god who never made Himself clear anyway?

People argue that the pleasures of heaven is so great that you will forget your earthly nature. Isn't that basically changing the way you are? It's erasing a part of you, who is forever in love with a hell-bound human being. If you forget that part of your earthly past, you forget a part of yourself. Was your love meant to be meaningless? Is it supposed to be a test? What kind of considerate, forgiving God would do that? What human being would even think that's right?

Will you enjoy sex with angels/servants who you have no connection with? Would you enjoy your palace knowing that for eternity you would spend it without your partner?

I reject that heaven. I reject any form of 'everlasting happiness,' because it is itself a contradiction. Happiness is relative. If it is everlasting, it loses its meaning. It loses its delights. Happiness will become the new indifference.

Life on Earth for me is enough. I don't need an afterlife. A life without an afterlife makes it infinitely more special. It makes you cherish life more. Heaven is an illusion, a dangerous one.

I remember watching a film called 'What Dreams May Come.' It forced me to re-evaluate my thoughts about heaven, and how troublesome and conceptually flawed such a concept is.

50 Reasons I Reject Evolution

This is just brilliant.

Taken from Bobbie-The-Jean's deviantart.

50 Reasons I Reject Evolution

1.) Because I don’t like the idea that we came from apes… despite that humans are categorically defined and classified as apes.

2.) Because I’m too stupid and/or lazy to open a fucking book or turn on the Discovery Science Channel.

3.) Because if I can’t immediately understand how something works, then it must be bullshit.

4.) Because I don’t care that literally 99.9% of all biologists accept evolution as the unifying theory of biology.

5.) Because I prefer the idea that a (insert god of choice) went ALLA-KADABRA-ZAM MOTHAH-FUCKAHS!!!

6.) Because I can’t get it through my thick logic-proof skull that evolution refers ONLY to the process of speciation, not to abiogenesis, or planet formation, or big bang cosmology, or whether God exists, or where they buried Jimmy Hoffa, or why the sky is blue, or how many licks it takes to get to the center of a fucking Tootsie Pop.

7.) Because the fossil record doesn’t comprise the remains of every single living thing that ever existed on this 4.5 billion year old planet, even though fossilization is a rare process that only occurs under very specific circumstances.

8.) Because science has yet to produce any transitional species… except for the magnitudinous numbers of them found in the fossil record which don’t count because… I uh, OOH LOOK! A SHINY OBJECT!!! *runs away*

9.) Because I know nothing about Darwin except that he had a funny beard.

10.) Because the theory of evolution (which, according to scientists, perfectly explains the richness and diversity of life on Earth) contradicts biblical literalism… ya know, flat Earth with a firmament that keeps out the water, talking snakes, people rising from the dead, bats are birds, flamey talking bushes, virgin births, food appearing out of nowhere, massive bodies of water turning into blood… etc etc.

11.) Because I think the word “theory” actually means: “random stabs in the dark” when it really means: "an explanation of certain phenomena that is well-supported by a large body of facts and often unifies other similarly well-supported hypotheses" i.e. atomic theory, gravitational theory, germ theory, cell theory, some-people-are-dumb-motherfuckers-theory, etc.

12.) Because the fact that science is self-correcting annoys me. Most of my other beliefs are rigidly fixed and uncorrectable.

13.) Because I am under the severely mistaken impression that evolution implies someone in my very recent ancestry was a chimp.

14.) Because everything appears designed to my mind which was expertly tuned by nature to perceive design, probably as a survival mechanism.

15.) Because some secretly fabulous closet-dwelling televangelist (who unironically preaches hate towards gays) told me that evolution is Satan’s way of leading me away from God.

16.) Because that same guy (who was also caught snorting blow off a male hooker’s shiny naked ass) told me that God planted those fossils to test my faith.

17.) Because I’m 100% correct about everything 100% of the time and there is 0% chance that some snooty Oxford educated scientist with numerous honorary doctorates could possibly know something that I don’t.

18.) Because I don’t know that fossils are found in sedimentary strata corresponding to their age as one would expect if evolution were true.

19.) Because I don’t understand why, if we share common ancestry with chimps, there are still chimps. And when someone with more than three brain cells in their head inevitably replies: “for the same reason Americans share common ancestry with Brits but there are still Brits, I can’t follow the logic. It’s just too big a leap. Who am I, Evil Knievel?

20.) Because my mom dropped me on my head when I was a baby.

21.) Multiple times.

22.) On purpose.

23.) Because the idea that life evolved naturally over billions of years is infinitely less believable than the idea that an 800 year old man crammed two of every species into a giant wooden boat when the entire planet flooded, an event for which there is absolutely no geological evidence whatsoever and also makes no fucking sense at all.

24.) Because Jesus totally rode around on a fucking t-rex. He’s just that badassed. And also, did you know that t-rexes were vegetarians? Ken Ham says so and I believe it.

25.) Because I don’t realize that saying “microevolution is possible but macroevolution isn’t” is as stupid as saying “I can pick my nose for one second but I cannot pick it for 10 seconds.”

26.) Because the education system failed me miserably.

27.) …and then took a big wet dump on my face.

28.) Because I think that knowing how nature works magically obliterates all of its beauty.

29.) Because I didn’t know that evolution has been tested and observed in laboratories.

30.) Because when confronted with that, I refuse to believe it. It’s obviously a scientific conspiracy aimed at turning everyone on the planet into atheists... even though evolution says nothing about god's nature nor whether he, she, it, or they exist.

31.) Because I’m too stupid to realize that Social Darwinism has nothing to do with evolution and is actually a pseudo-scientific bastardization that real science largely rejects.

32.) Because the planet and all the life on it was designed for humans… kinda like how the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY was designed specifically for the dust-bunnies that may accumulate on the floors.

33.) Because I don’t realize that if we actually found croco-ducks in the fossil record, it would falsify evolution.

34.) Because plenty of respectable people like Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee (who are not scientists) don’t accept evolution, and that somehow validates my opinion.

35.) Because my mother didn’t know not to drink while she was pregnant. She also didn’t know not to repeatedly throw herself down a flight of stairs in an attempt to undo the accident of screwing someone who voted for Bush both times.

36.) Because I don’t know that “irreducible complexity” has been debunked a frazillion times by a frazillion different people and is no more credible an argument than “NEEN-er NEEN-er NEEN-er, I’m right and you’re wrong.”

37.) Because I have never seen a duck evolve into a cat over night, despite the fact that such a thing would be contrary to all known scientific disciplines.

38.) Because I have no imagination, learning is too much effort, I don’t like proven facts, change scares me, and I think deoxyribonucleic acid is something I’m supposed to clean my bathroom floors with.

39.) Because evolution means that I absolutely MUST reject everything else I know, abandon all my beliefs, and start aping around my house like a fucking monkey. OOOh-ooohh-ooohohh -OOOOOOHHHHHH!!!!!

40.) Because I haven’t put my cave on the market and moved into the 21st century yet. I’m waiting for the cave market to rebound from the recent financial meltdown.

41.) Because I don’t know what an atavism is and if you told me, I still wouldn't believe it. Too weird.

42.) Because I don’t know that evolution explains methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and also provides the answer in preventing it from turning into a superbug and killing massive numbers of people.

43.) Because I don’t know that evolution is routinely used in medicine to diagnose and treat certain illnesses such as genetic ailments, bacterial infections, and viral infections.

44.) Because I believe there is a strong comparison between designed inanimate objects such as buildings, paintings, and watches (which we know were pieced together from identifiable components by human beings) and living organisms (which reproduce with genetic variation under the effects of environmental attrition).

45.) Because I see no significant similarities between humans and apes. *scratches my ass-crack then smells my fingers*

46.) Because I think I’m too special to have been crafted by any natural process and the entire planet, solar system, galaxy, and universe were created with me especially in mind.

47.) Because I unquestioningly swallow the ignorant anti-science bullshit spewed directly from the fraudulent stupid asses of people like Ken Ham, Ted Haggard, Fred Phelps, and Kent Hovind.

48.) Because I’m a freethinker and freethinking really means ignoring anything that contradicts what I already believe.

49.) Because I don’t know what confirmation bias is.

50.) Because despite the fact that in all my years of life, I have never seen any magic, I still believe magic is the answer to anything I don’t immediately comprehend.

Ladies and gentlemen, I rest my case. Quod erat demonstrandum, I fucking win. Take that you EVILutionists!

Facebook

Hey. This is going to be short. A proper update is coming soon.

I've just recently (yesterday to be exact) made a Facebook account. Why, you ask? I know, Jason Biggs isn't my real name, and my alter-ego is also somewhere on Facebook.

I'm using Facebook as a mirror to this blog, so if anything happens to this blog I'll still have everything on Facebook (as notes). If that fails, I've also got everything backed up.

My name on Facebook is Jason Biggskills, as FB didn't allow the name Jason Biggs Kills. I'm guessing it sounds too violent. Oh well. JB on FB it is.