Jackson and Cheney

Wow, my updates are off. Two separate sentiments today.

Michael Jackson:

Is it just me, or is it sickeningly depressing how much the public feels the need to intrude on this ordeal. He hasn't had a private funeral. His right to be mourned by those he cared about, has been torn away. Churchill, who until the death of Pope John Paul II held the record for largest funeral, had a private ceremony. but Jackson doesn't get that. Maybe not a good comparison of the caliber of person, but the general idea is still there.

Cheney and secretes:

I find it immoral and offensive that this guy had the gale to call atheists, liberals, and gays unpatriotic for holding beliefs that the constitution says they can hold, while this guy snaps the scroll in half, and burns it. Government needs more morality, and not the Christian right's facsimile of morals, but genuine morals. That includes staying the fuck out of other's business when it doesn't hurt or affect anyone else.

I quote From The West Wing:

"

Major Tate: Sir, we're not prejudiced toward homosexuals.

Admiral Percy Fitzwallace: You just don't want to see them serving in the Armed Forces?

Major Tate: No sir, I don't.

Admiral Percy Fitzwallace: 'Cause they impose a threat to unit discipline and cohesion.

Major Tate: Yes, sir.

Admiral Percy Fitzwallace: That's what I think, too. I also think the military wasn't designed to be an instrument of social change.

Major Tate: Yes, sir.

Admiral Percy Fitzwallace: The problem with that is that's what they were saying about me 50 years ago - blacks shouldn't serve with whites. It would disrupt the unit. You know what? It did disrupt the unit. The unit got over it. The unit changed. I'm an admiral in the U.S. Navy and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff... Beat that with a stick.

"

Sexual Education

Sex-ed, why is it so controversial?

Its simple. You understand the systems, and it'll reduce pre-marital sex, because the intrigue will disappear! Beyond that and more importantly, it'll reduce teenage pregnancy, increasing over all intelligence and social well being in society.

Moral Evolution

I long ago decided that all morals are derived fro preset genetic guide lines: IE Don't kill (your fellow man) because it'll weaken the herd, the gene pool, and reduce the food you have because one less hand is hunting. Well, I concluded that as populations grow, they get closer to these moral pre-sets, a bit like when you drop a rock in a pond, the further from center and greater the circumference, the closer to the mean level of the water the waves' crests get.

So, as our planet's population (I should say contiguous population, or population with the ability to communicate with the rest of the world) grows, so our moral average meets a genetic pre-set mean.

Short Review: the God Delusion

I recently completed Richard Dawkins "God Delusion"

An excellent book. As ever Dawkins' writing is solid, grammatically correct, and with crisp spelling (you'd think for a book that is no high praise, but most every book you'll read has a paragraph with broken syntax, and numerous typos), it also conveys a calm tone of voice, never being angry at the reader, or the religions them selfs, but angry at the mistreatment of human minds. He lays down a solid argument for the lack of need of god, and also provides plenty of examples for the lack of existence of god.

Atheism and Media

In the recent weeks, either because I've become more aware of religious bigotry or because I've increased my daily dose of media psychobabble or because it is an actual trend, I've noted a growth in the idiosyncratic ocean of drivel has taken over the air waves.

It is of interest for me that, as the small snow ball of rationalism and atheism rolls down the snow laden mountain, it is gaining more momentum and growing faster by the minute.

Given these two facts (A positive trend in rationality in society, and a negative trend in reason in media) I can only conclude that as the Atheist population grows, that Media's portrayal of the Nation (I live in America) as a religious Christian state grows. I can only hope this is like the uncanny valley, a temporary plummet into the unreasonable before the rapid climb to well reasoned actuality.

The Moral Divide

What is The Moral Divide? It is a chronicle of my thoughts on religion and morality, posted on a daily basis. Most will be small pondering, but a few will be big tirades. Enjoy