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04/14/2012 by friday

The Intersection of Joy and Fear
09/20/2011 by Long Lost Aunt Sandy

The Intersection of Joy and Fear
09/16/2011 by muchgooder

The Intersection of Joy and Fear
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Religulous
09/14/2011 by muchgooder

Religulous
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08/31/2011 by Amy

The Unsexy Truth

Created on Saturday, September 27, 2008

Home -> Blog -> 2008 -> September

I've been working on a few blogs simultaneously in the in the last couple of weeks and as you probably guessed I haven't had great success finishing any of them. I've had quite a few things running through my noggin lately and it has been tough to delineate between them.

I was mulling this over this morning as I made my coffee. I think that I've grown to realize that so many things that were taught as children are just not true and that so many things that are put into our heads as adults really shape our belief system without us even realizing it. As I grow older there is something that seems to be more and more true all of the time:

The truth is simple and it is not at all sexy.

I'm not always sure which comes first: people putting stuff in our head or us looking for something more. I suppose a little of both - nobody finds Jesus when life is good. What always amazes me is that people have this stuff as part of their belief system and they have no idea how it got there.

When it comes to religion, the afterlife, UFO's, pyschics and all of that crap, we have absolutely no reason to believe that there is an ounce of truth to any of it. But if you read the polls that are regularly done on these topics the masses seem to buy into it (even though atheism is growing at a rate that is unprecedented in human history now that people can't be hanged for it, but that's a blog for another day). Sadly, at one point or another I bought into all of this stuff as well.

I think that changed when I realized that my parents weren't right about everything. It probably started with politics - I was raised to think that one side is good and the other was bad. Today I believe that both sides are bad (we'll never win as long as their are "sides") and that great reform is needed. But I needed to logic this out for myself rather than rely on their uninformed beliefs.

That was probably the start of the "show me" phase that I hope will last the rest of my life. I know that I've talked about this before but I remember watching shows about Nostradamus, the JFK assassination and psychics solving murders and being really amazed at what else is out there. Of course, those shows had agendas. You never, ever saw the other side of the equation as it wasn't sexy. The masses are far more interesting in the conspiracy theory than the plain old simple truth. Sure enough, Nostradamus was a fraud (he was really just a politcal writer), JFK was killed by Oswald and nobody has ever demonstrated psychic ability in a controlled environment (despitre the fact that our government has probably spent tens of millions trying to do it).

At some point this just all became common sense to me. If there are ghosts and they could make our tv go on and off, why wouldn't they just write on a chalkboard in the middle of a class or flip up the cameraman's tie on live tv? No, instead they wait for some fat woman in Arkansas to drag out her ouija board on a tuesday night. Shouldn't Miss Cleo have seen her bankruptcy coming? (I know that is cliche but it is oh-so-true) There have been hundreds of religions in the history of the world. How could anyone have the gall to think that theirs is the "real" one? Show me an ounce of proof that there is a god, let alone prophets. When you step back and alalyze this stuff, doesn't it become clearer?

The proof is also in the pudding when it comes to how people react towards being questioned about their beliefs. Since there isn't a shred of empiracle proof to support any of these superstitipns, the old fallbacks are "haven't you just felt something in your soul?" or "haven't you just sensed that something else was there?". Sure, of course I have. We all have. I've always believed that it was the Flying Spaghetti Monster that was behind all of the weirdness. Ok, that might be a bit much so we'll get back to the question at hand. Yeah, there have been a lot of times where I could swear that I was right. And a lot of those times I was proven that I wasn't. I've been creeped out lots of times - why would anyone jump to the conclusion that it is supernatural? Ask any trial lawyer and they'll tell you how accurate human perception is. Think of all of the times you went with something because you felt it in your gut only to have it blow up in your face. That's the neat thing about believing in all of this stuff - it will be impossible to prove that you're wrong even if there isn't a stitch of evidence to believe you are right.

I'll stick with what I can see and touch rather than what I know will always let me down. It may not be the least bit sexy but it never disappoints.

Atheism 101

muchgooder.com

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