1. Happy Newton Day!

Comment #99665 by chrise on December 17, 2007 at 9:18 am

What I was driving at was that even the most eloquent argument can be based upon an irrational premise...for instance the ancient understanding of our visible universe was based on a false premise: the notion that the Earth was the centre of the Universe.
Many wonderful and ingenious theories to explain planetary "wobble" etc were produced to substantiate this view of the Universe - all, incidentally beyond my own theoretical abilities as a fairly pedestrian scientific thinker....the point I'm making is that, given our current knowledge of "Life, the Universe, and Everything", a believer in doctrinal ideas which have been left behind by modern knowledge have a certain affinity with people who continue to smoke cigarettes despite the knowledge concerning lung cancer etc.....In other words, religious doctrine shelters its believers from the rigours of examination, proofs and, inevitably therefore, advancement.

So, Since the New Testament, for instance, we have learned, through critical thought:

(a) The earth is not the centre of the Universe.

(b) The Universe is older than 9000 years,

(c) The human genome has evolved over a period of time which, until recently, we were unable to comprehend.


Unfortunately, the reference book for Christian religious dogmatists hasn't changed since the last political amendments were made some long time ago.....Of course it's hard for these people.....and many of them are really smart!......much smarter than me....if tehy really have something to contribute then they need to be less "evangelistic" and more "gnostic".

As a 14 yr old, in a final act of frusration, I prayed to God and asked him to turn my Aquarium into a set of Golf Clubs. I promised him that he could just show me....it didn't have to be the really full-on proof in front of my family - he could just change it back without me ever playing a round of golf.....I'd have been a witness to his almighty power right there and then!.....just like he said he wanted in the "good book"....

In the end I bought my own Golf Clubs...and I'm more enthralled by the real mysteries of the Universe than ever.

2. Happy Newton Day!

Comment #99607 by chrise on December 17, 2007 at 7:15 am

Your description of the anticipation and joy of Christmas as a boy certainly resonates with me.....and suggested another idea. We humans aften seem prey to investing great efforts into strange and seemingly unrewarding pursuits....for the sake of brevity, think Christmas for Christians and....smoking cigarettes!!

It just occured to me, a recently reformed smoker, that belief in religious dogma is alot like learning to smoke....it makes no sense at the outset but, what the hell, your friends are all trying it.....it's disgusting at first and completely irrational to keep persevering but, hey, it must be OK...look at the other people who are doing it.

Finally, after years of addiction, any remotely intellectual response to the habit is replaced with well-rehearsed dogma, any discussion is circumvented with almost Shakespearian affront and the only comfort you can find in the habit to which you've, by now, devoted a large portion of your life, is safety in numbers and, "Wills" willing, a new generation of "torch beareres".

Perhaps if religious zealots were viewed as addicts rather than adversaries, their behaviour would make more sense and a sympathetic "withdrawl" policy could be developed, which might then allow them to use their powers of intellect for the first time, unfettered by the "opiate of religion".

3. Keith Olbermann talks about the Romney 'Religion' Speech

Comment #99587 by chrise on December 17, 2007 at 6:15 am

Perhaps loss of reason on religious topics is a common sociological thread with the great empires of World History......