Atheism and Death (A Reply)

Since I spent the time to write a script for my latest video, i figure I might as well make the most of it and post it here as well.


In his latest video, Theatheistantidote, hence forth referred to as Brock, said that the problem with atheism is that it does not promise life after death. He then went on to state that there is no point in living if we are without purpose, individually or collectively. All of this is nothing new, and it is also all largely irrelevant to the truth of atheism. Atheism is not about coddling people with a raft of promises, that’s the job of religion. Really this amounts to nothing more than an appeal to consequences.
None the less, I see there are several issues with what he said that I was to address anyway.
1) No god is needed for the afterlife
Simply put, it possible to conceive of an afterlife that does not involve a THEOS, a personal god. Reality could be infinite, or there could be an infinite number of universes, in which case there would have to be one in which you “survived death” all be it in some bizarre fashion. It is also possible that there is a personal god, but one that is far more reasonable that the Christian god and judges you on how well you lived your life and not what you believed or if you knew the secret password (the secret password is: JESUS!). We could all be just thought in the mind of an impersonal super-consciousness. The list simply goes on and on, and that’s not to say that any of these things are true or even likely, but they are possible and as far as I can tell, at the least they are just as likely as any religious conception of the afterlife.
2) No one knows what happens after death
No one knows for sure what happens after death. More and more I see the need as person to stress my own believe in the virtue of Socratic ignorance, because all too often, because I am an atheist, I am mistaken by people like Broke as having a definitive answer on subjects such as death. NO ONE knows from whence the universe came and NO ONE knows what happens when we die. PERIOD! I will even admit that perhaps, as Hamlet says, there is enough suffering in this life to seriously contemplate ending it all if not for “that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveller returns”, but I will also say that part of what makes life worthwhile is the fact that I don’t know everything, that there is still a journey of discovery to be made. Religion would only serve to rob me of that.

3) Objective purpose is conceptually impossible
Sorry Brock, that’s just the way it is. Purpose implies intention, intention implies mind, and mind = subjectivity. Objective purpose is conceptually impossible. Now I know you may try to argue that god gives us something like “ultimate purpose” but really Brock, all that amounts to is say “atheists don’t have someone with enough authority to dictate to everyone what to do”. Also, I should add that having eternal life is not the same as purpose. You could live forever purposelessly. Likewise, and perhaps more importantly, having purpose is in no way a guarantee of satisfaction, contentment, happiness, or anything else for that matter, Nor is not have purpose necessarily an impediment to any of those things. Really, the reality of religious purpose, at least nearest I can tell of the Christian world view, is that you must fulfill what God wants you to do and you have to TEACH yourself to be happy submitting to HIS plan. Living your life for a purpose someone else dictates to you hardly seems like something the religious should go out of their way to brag about.
4) This is purely an ego problem
This whole issue constitutes a problem with the Ego. Unwilling to accept that we are finite being on a small rock circling (and yes I know it is actually an ellipse) an average star which is merely one of SEXTILLIONS of stars. Unable to bare the fact that we are yet another animal destined to parish like all others, the ego of man stands up and revolts. Screaming and shaking its fist at the uncaring sky saying “I cannot continue to live if the whole universe was not created for me! How can I be just another animal?!”. The response to this is GET THE FUCK OVER OURSELF! What have you done what’s so great? Why this sense of entitlement?
5) Christianity is nihilistic to the core

In reality, if you are to take the Christian worldview seriously, and what is yet to come in the hereafter will eclipse all that is in this world, then why should you not wish for death on a daily basis and actively place yourself in situations where you are likely to be martyred? Certainly Christianity contains more than enough scriptural basis for you to “take up your cross and follow Jesus” into life endangering peril. At the least you should actually take seriously Jesus’ commands to “behold the lilies of the field”. Really, according to Christianity and the words of Jesus, the shorter your life, the better; the deeper into poverty you are, the better, because greater will your place be in the kingdom of heaven. The message of Jesus was not “Carpe Diem” it was grit your teeth and bare this life in order to gain the hereafter. It is a denial of life, not an affirmation.

6) How we should face death and life without purpose? By living the best we can here and now.
What is comes down to is that all that any of us are really able to do is make the best of what little time we have in this life. If there is any meaning to life, it can only be found through actually living it. If you live your life to the fullest and are annihilated after death, then what have lost? Well you may have wasted a few decades, but there will be nothing there of you to care or regret this lost time. If there is more after death, whatever that may be, at least you can go out with the knowledge that you lived your life the best you could, and really that all any of us really can do in the end.

Survey

035: Heavy Survey
Do humans carry souls?
Not likely

2. What about animals? .
Also not likely

3. Was September 11th a government conspiracy?
It was a conspiracy of 19 Muslim hijackers.

4. Do you believe a plane actually hit the pentagon?
all evidence points to YES

5. Are the methods the U.S. is using to handle illegal immigration satisfactory?
No

6. Do you think that John F. Kennedy's assasination was a government conspiracy?
No

7. Do you believe that the moon landing in 1969 actually happened?
Yes

8. Do you believe in ghosts?
No

9. Can subjection to violence in media lead to violence in the real world?
rarely

10. Did O.J. Simpson murder his wife?
All the evidence and statistics point to yes.

11. Do you believe going to war in Iraq was the right thing to do?
We went in on bad evidence, which due diligence would have expose as bad. however, once we were in, leaving would have done more harm than good.

12. Can we as people ever co-exist with each other peacefully?
On what scale? People do all the time, they just draw arbitrary distinction of “otherness”

13. Do you believe the course of our lives are pre-determined by unseen/unknown forces?
Yes, but not in any sort of supernatural way.

14. Has democracy made the world a better place?
Yes and no

15. Was the governments reaction to Hurricane Katrina acceptable?
No. they should have had plans to deal with a cat 5 DECADES in advance.

16. Are celebrities punished justly for crimes they commit?
rarely

17. Can we ever win the war on terror?
Wars on ideas tend to fail. The definition of terrorism is so vague WE are terrorists as well.

18. Are professional athletes over-compensated for their abilities?
Yes.
19. Did the fabled people of Atlantis ever exist?
No.

20. Are there other intelligent beings in the universe?
Seems fairly likely statistically speaking given that there are 72 sextillion stars in the visible universe and who knows how many planets.

21. Should the 1st Amendment protect all forms of expression, including those that may be offensive or harmful to others?
Yes on offensive, no on harmful.

22. Is it better for one innocent man to be sent to death or 5 murderers to be pardoned?
No.
23. In the case of homosexuality, do you believe it's sin?
Don’t believe in the concept of sin and cannot thing of any good reason to condemn it under any other moral model.

24. Can the human race ever help the planet Earth to recover from the ecological damage it has suffered?
Not totally

25. Will race/ethnicity always be an issue amongst differing peoples?
I think race is not actually the real problem. People are scared of difference and race just happens to be one of the more tangible differences between people.

26. Are you for or against abortion?
Pro-choice is not “for abortion” it is for choice.

27. Are you for or against capital punishment (i.e. the death penalty)?
I don’t think it works to deter crime and I don’t believe the state should be in the revenge business, but I am not crying for the people that get killed either.

28. Do you practice any form of religion? Why?
No. because all reason and evidence points to them being human fabrications.

29. Do you believe that the writings in the bible can still apply to today's world?
So of it can, but that’s not saying too much really. There is plenty of wisdom from all over the world and people really need to broaden their horizons beyond the bible.

30. Has religion made the world a better or worse place?
The effects of religion are manifold and likely incalculable.

I will...

eventually get off my lazy ass and make a video and write new blogs and all that jazz soon. I swear!

Summer Classes are over

Now only 20 more days till fall class. I hope to get a lot of reading, writing and other projects done in the meantime.

Idea For An Internet Show

More and more I have been thinking of creating an internet show that uses live action, action figures, Legos (with green screens to scale them to each other’s size) and picture cut outs as well as 3D animation combined together with programs like 3Ds max and After Effects to create one giant, crazy show. Part of me wishes I could make it into something serious, but in reality I know that comedy is about the only direction one can really go with such as thing. I have some action figures collecting dust in a box in a closet, as well as some Legos. I have seen a couple of things like it on YouTube, but nothing quite like I have in mind.
I am certain though that it will mainly fall into the sci-fi/fantasy genre.
My cousin and I used to make parodies of the X-Files with action figures when we were kids. I am still going over ideas in my head, but I think this is a good way to get practical practice using a whole host of programs in an integrated fashion which I may do as a side or full time job in the future.
Also, I think I could recruit people from YouTube to do the voices and even some script writing and music.

Coining a New Phrase

I am Coining a phrase, It is “transformers 2 bad” which is when a movie is so bad that it is actually great because its entertainment values comes from bashing the movie or listening to other bash it.

Fox On A Tombstone

I was out taking pictures when I spotted what I thought was a cat at first. it was in fact the fox that lives in the wooden area between this cemetery and the river. i have seen him/her at the river a couple times on my daily walk. sadly, i went to slap a mosquito and scared it away. i wish I could have got a better shot of it. I have never seen a wild animal ask in a manor I am accustomed to seeing a domesticated one act. come to think of it, I don't think I have ever seen a dog lay on top of something like this, only cats.