1. Religion 'linked to happy life'

Comment #146283 by neilcreek on March 18, 2008 at 9:46 pm

I posted this comment to the thread on Digg discussing the same story:

I don't believe this result for an instant. From my own personal experience, being aware of the world as it REALLY is makes me happier. Appreciating a HUGE and majestic universe and an intricately beautuful world far grander than any dreamed by any iron-age superstitions makes me happier. Knowing that the great things that I achieve are due to my own talent and hard work, and the mistakes I make are my own to learn from makes me happy. Knowing that the universe ISN'T fair and that the innocnt who suffer from disease and misfortune don't deserve it and aren't being punished by some diety, makes me happy.

I recall reading not that long ago that there were studies that show the opposite, that believers are less happy. The divorce rate among believers is significantly greater than among non-believers. The prison population of the US is 2% atheist, while the atheist population of the rest of the nation is more like 10-15%. I can't recall sources right now, but there's no shortage of stories mentioning stats like these on digg.

I'm willing to call it and say non believers are happier than believers, and the study is simply wrong.



Also - regarding the comment that more intelligent people are more pessimistic, I couldn't disagree more. Pessimism and optimisim are a seperate spectrum to intelligence, and I don't see that there's a lot of cross-over. An intelligent person can be an optimist because they can be confident that human nature is fundamentally altrusistic and the continual improvement of the quiality of life around the world, due to the efforts of people, is evidence of this. And that's not the only argument an intelligent person could offer to justify their optimism.

And I think I should mention that I'm a Major in Psychology to give my opinion a little more credibility.

2. Canadian fossil makes waves in Huckabee's presidential run

Comment #112179 by neilcreek on January 16, 2008 at 1:57 pm

This fossil is Huckabee's "three-eyed fish" served up to him during the campaign in front of the world's media. Will he take a bite, or will he choke on it?

3. Anger at Malaysia 'Jesus cartoon'

Comment #65975 by neilcreek on August 27, 2007 at 4:17 pm

Is anyone else reminded of the brilliant "Cartoon Wars" double episode on South Park? All you have do do is get one episode (newspaper) pulled, and pretty soon everyone will be wanting an episode pulled because it offends them, and soon the series (all newspapers) will be pulled.

"It's what happened to Laverne and Shirley"

4. The Out Campaign

Comment #59821 by neilcreek on July 30, 2007 at 6:34 pm

I support this idea 100% and I think it's long overdue.

I am starting to do my bit with this post to my blog: http://neil.creek.name/blog/2007/07/30/out-campaign

By its very nature, the commonality of disbelief is so vague that it is practically impossible to unify all who share this opinion under a single banner. Like most people here I think some tweaks could improve the image of the campaign, but such a diverse 'membership' will never reach agreement, and it's time to put aside the small differences and unite as one.

We are many notes, but together we can become a symphony.