Afraid of Religious People

You probably hear often that atheists are inherently immoral, but this has already been proven false. It’s the religious, god-fearing people we should really be afraid of. Just think about what happens to people who, at times, question their religious belief.

You start out with an upright religious citizen who follows a moral code according to god every day of his life. During a particularly trying time in his life, he feels abandoned by god and stops believing. All of a sudden he’s left without any guidance or moral code to follow. He thinks “There’s no god or objective morality, so I can do whatever I want.” He then goes on to murder, rape, and steal because there are no far reaching consequences.

I wouldn’t ever want to be around religious people for this reason. You never know when they might stop believing and lose their morality. Your own neighbor may be one hair away from snapping and going on a killing spree, but you’d never know until it’s too late.

If you have any sense whatsoever, you’d realize that this is nonsense. People don’t just lose their morality when they stop believing in god(s), temporarily or for life. It’s ludicrous to think like that.

When you realize how foolish the earlier argument was, you’ll realize why it’s easy for atheists to be moral.

God, the Imaginary Friend

I love the comics that show adults with shirts showing their faiths and then a child pointing at them and asking “Aren’t you a little old to have an imaginary friend?” Priceless

I always wonder about how our logic works as we grow older. As children, it’s perfectly normal to have an imaginary friend. It’s very healthy.

In fact, it’s a sign that a child is intelligent and creative because such imagination requires abstract thought. It’s also a good sign if you are able to play two sides of a conversation, unless you do it compulsively…

But it begs the question: When does our imagination stifle our creativity rather than encourage it? I think it’s when we limit ourselves to only one imaginary friend.

It’s the most uncreative friend ever because everyone’s already thought of him. It’s hard to believe we put up with adults having imaginary friends. Belief in god might explain why some parents chide their children for having strong imaginations, but that’s besides the point.

The point is that while having an imaginary friend of your own shows good imagination and is a sign of intelligence and creativity, it’s a sign of stupidity and a marked lack of creativity when you believe in other people’s imaginary friend.

Angry Oklahoma Man Turns Killer in Pharmacy

OK so he’s not your typical murderer. In fact, many are standing behind him. Click here to read about the incident and see the video. Briefly, two robbers with guns entered a store and are seen on the store camera. The clerk, James Ersland gets his pistol and shoots and hits one of the robbers in the head who then goes down and is incapacitated. The other one gets away and the clerk chases him out of the store. He soon returns and pumps four rounds into the first robber, killing him.

I read the comments and so many people are supporting this guy because he killed a criminal and the world will be better without him. It’s not surprising to see people rallying behind him since he killed someone who had beenweilding a gun but I disagree.

This guy should definitely be convicted of murder.

I understand that his adrenaline must have been pumping after chasing the first guy out but seriously? He had some time to cool down and he walks leisurely into the store and sees the guy on the ground. If he were worried about the guy getting up and fighting, he’d have shot him from a distance or he’d have run up to the robber.  There’s no reason why he should have shot him four extra times.

It’s obvious what happened here.

It’s always enjoyable to get revenge on people who have wronged you, especially with escalation because you can say “Take that, fool!” in a triumphant manner. But it wasn’t a case of a heat in the moment shooting or a fight over the gun. This was a cold blooded execution.

What makes most of us good people all of the time is that we  have the self control to not let our desires get the better of us. This man lost his control for his desire of payback. While I’m not shedding a tear for the person he killed, I’d like to think someone of Ersland’s  experience would know when to stop and have an injured person arrested and jailed rather than execute him. We don’t need vigilantes like this. The robber would have been jailed since he was caught on video.

Don’t send any help to this murderer, no matter how you feel about the robbing teen. Incapacitated people should never be executed like this. It’s illegal for soldiers, illegal for police, and it’s illegal for us.

No Gays In Our Club?

Let’s expose the whole anti-gay marriage movement for what it really is: a bunch of people showing off their own insecurities about their relationships while trying to be elitist. It seems analogous to country clubs not allowing non-whites or non-Asians. Remember when blacks could never get into any country clubs (as if it doesn’t still happen)? How is this any different? What’s going on here is that heterosexual couples white Christian couples belonged to a group with strictly controlled membership. Then blacks were allowed in but not interracially. Then interracial and interreligious marriages were legalized. Now any man and any woman can get married. The WASPs must be furious to have their exclusive club be opened up so widely. Every step of the way to crack open this exclusive club was difficult. The moment a group of people make it into the club, they want to exclude everyone else who didn’t make it in. Not every married couple feels threatened by homosexual marriage, but those who do must feel violated by having outsiders allowed into their group. The “sanctity” of marriage is really “exclusivity” that people don’t want given to others.

The solution: Everyone who wants to get “married” just gets a civil union which is allowed for everyone. If you want to get married, go to a religious institution for the ceremony. It’s a simple and elegant solution that should satisfy everyone except those with so much pride that they can’t let go of being part of an exclusive club.

I particularly like  video as a good example of the religious hypocrisy of the anti-gay marriage movement.

Conversion Aversion

I never used to question the motivation some people have to convert others to their religion. I always thought it was just the natural order of the world. You embrace the truth as you see it and try to get everyone else on board. The same goes with other issues like abortion, gay rights, drug policy reform. People usually come up with a set of evidence, present their arguments and convince some people that they’re right. But at some point I started to question the reasoning behind some people’s desire to convert others. Jehovah’s witnesses have an excuse that the only way they can get into heaven is if they recruit you and then the only way you can go to heaven is to recruit more people into what is likely the most zealous and self-righteous pyramid scheme movement ever conceived. That aside, most religions do not have a prerequisite that you are required to convert people to get into heaven. It’ll earn some points unless you’re a Calvinist but it’s not required. In Islam, you get earn points based on the actions of people you’ve taught, again

Since there’s no requirement to convert other people, we have to wonder about why some people are so adamant in their attempts. I’ve read that these people are insecure in their beliefs and need validation. The best way to get validation is see everyone around you agreeing with you (and ignoring those who disagree, as is only human).  This is why it’s so discomforting to have someone close to you who disagrees with your beliefs. It’s scary that someone whose opinion matters thinks you’re wrong. Another reason is that it looks good in front of other religious brethren to bring salvation to the masses. It’s certainly a great way to get noticed as a pillar of faith in the religious community except that such public displays are pompous and motivated by the worldly desire to be admired. God knows this of course, so if he existed, those hypocrites would burn in the flames. Another reason which is more obvious to religious people is that they want to get others into heaven, particularly their close friends. This sounds very nice and noble of them to want to help you out. I imagine my friends would be sad to not see me in heaven.

But hold on a minute there. What did I just say? My friends would be sad to not see me in heaven? How is that possible? Heaven is supposed to be an amazing place where we feel nothing but happiness, joy and satisfaction as an eternal reward for abstaining from worldly desires. If I were sure that I could get into heaven with just a baseline amount of worship, why would I bother doing anything more? Even if I thought there were multiple levels of heaven, what does it matter? Am I going to enjoy my first level less because there are higher levels? It’s not like there’s anything to gain in the grand scheme of it all. Envy and jealousy are human character flaws that we wouldn’t have in heaven since we are perfectly content. It’s silly to think that those of greater piety would be more perfectly content than others.

Forgetting about the absurdity of levels, even if there were heaven, where’s the motivation to do more than the bare minimum? In real life, it doesn’t always pay to put in 100% but it often does, especially when it’s revealed later that you worked hard. In life, how much you do and how hard you work often correlate with how well you do. This is ideal, but the heavenly scheme is far from ideal. Infinite punishment or reward for finite sin or merit, respectively, is not only unfair, but irrational. There is actually no real motivation to try to be more religious than is absolutely necessary to ensure a spot in heaven. People say that it’s not really being religious if you’re only doing it to get into heaven, but what else is there? The betterment of this world is meaningless in the scope of the situation, so you may as well enjoy what you can while you can and still skate by the guard at the gate.

If you say that it’s for the love of god, I challenge anyone to believe in and worship a god that they believe will definitely send them to hell anyway. There’s no way in the world that anyone would submit to a god or give up worldly pleasures in order to worship a god who banishes him/her to hell anyway without any chance for redemption. What would be the point? No one worships and loves god unconditionally. It’s based on the hope that god will let followers into heaven. That’s why preachers always toe the “seek salvation and you shall be saved” line and it’s also why Calvinism isn’t very popular. It’s a quid pro quo that has nothing to do with love or reverence. It’s just business.

Do Ya Wanna Marijuana?

As the debate to legalize marijuana gains more and more attention, more and more people are expressing their opinions about it. I think we should legalize and regulate it just like we do with  so many other drugs. Every counter argument has either been proven wrong or is irrelevant. Research may have shown that heavy drug users did use marijuana but it also also shows that most marijuana users, a significant portion of Americans in fact, do not upgrade to other drugs. It was a lie by anti-drug campaigns. Cannabis sativa, the common form of marijuana, may or may not be more potent than it was twenty years ago. I’m not sure if our ability to assay the marijuana has improved or our ability to find it has instead. Maybe it has actually become more potent due to hydroponic growing techniques. I’d always thought that the potency change was a myth. I doubt home-growers would be able to grow the potent form without a lot of equipment either.

Regardless though, it doesn’t really matter whether it was more potent or not because we understand its potency today. Contrary to popular myth, marijuana hasn’t been shown to cause cancer. Studies that purport this were unable to distinguish whether it was the marijuana or the tobacco that the subjects were smoking. It has been shown to have anti-tumorigenic properties as well. A study conducted with pregnant Jamaicans as subjects showed that neonates of heavy marijuana using mothers had better outcomes than the non-smoking counterparts. This study was limited, however, to a small sample size and cultural differences meaning that the results of this study were only initial findings that warrant further study ( http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/medical/can-babies.htm).  I would not be  surprised if smoking did cause lung irritation, however, since one is inhaling solid particles.

Anti drug-reform supporters point out that using marijuana decreases motivation, motor and cognitive functions, and is dangerous to use while driving or operating machinery. Studies have shown, however, that low doses of THC do not significantly affect these areas. High doses, however, have been shown to alter executive decision making and motor control, though this was funded by the German Society against Alcohol Drugs and Driving and German Federal Police Academy. (http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v31/n10/full/1301068a.html)  It’s always good to follow the funding of a study as it can be significant. Does it really matter, though, that smokers of strong marijuana may be somewhat impaired? A reasonable person wouldn’t be doing anything that requires their full cognitive and motor function. It’s a method of relaxation.

It is also proven that marijuana is not addictive in the same sense that tobacco and alcohol are addictive. There is no physical dependency, even in heavy users, and there are no withdrawal symptoms. People are able to smoke for months on a regular basis and then just stop for extended periods without any adverse effects. Using marijuana might be addictive in the same way that eating fried food or having sex are addictive. They are all enjoyable acts that make you feel better, albeit only temporarily with fried foods.

The number of marijuana users in need of rehabilitation clinics is heavily inflated. Our legal system forces users to choose between prison and rehab. Only 15% of users entered into rehab entered willingly, and many had not used marijuana for days or even weeks prior to entering. It’s not fair to force people into rehab and use those numbers to say that they need it. People try to correlate marijuana use with car accidents as well since you can test positive for marijuana 30 days after use, even longer if it gets stored in fatty adipose tissue. This means that marijuana tests are essentially meaningless because you don’t have to be high, unlike with alcohol breathalyzers that require you to have been drinking fairly recently. Therefore, it’s close to impossible to correlate positive marijuana testing to anything time sensitive.

So why is marijuana illegal? In short, paper companies wanted to make more money. Hemp can be used to make an assortment of material including clothing, rope, and paper. This didn’t sit well with wood pulp paper companies since their process is not only environmentally unfriendly, but it’s also expensive. It requires a lot of equipment, land, and manpower to harvest trees and process them into wood. It’s also incredibly wasteful. Hemp, on the other hand, is much more renewable, cheaper to cultivate, and easier to harvest. It’s a crop, so it takes less land to grow. We had been using it for paper and clothing up until the early 20th century, when all of this anti-marijuana sentiment started. Due to vested interests, the government made marijuana illegal, spread lies and propaganda against it, and encouraged parents and schools to brainwash their children. Did you know that you can’t overdose by smoking marijuana? You can’t get the THC into your body fast enough because you’d be mellow enough. You don’t chain smoke it because it doesn’t add to the enjoyment. Even if you tried, you’d have to smoke some hundreds of marijuana cigarettes in a short period of time but you’d probably be too relaxed to do anything. But that’s the point isn’t it?

All of this has been said before but it bears repeating in every form of media. Myths still persist so it’s up to everyone to think critically and spread the truth to quash the lies. I have been thinking about other motivations for why marijuana is still illegal outside of the realm of persistent myths. This goes along with nicotine being addictive. Why would the government keep a drug legal and in the market when it’s been proven to be dangerous while it simultaneously denies legitimacy for a drug that has been shown to be safe? I face-palmed when I thought of a reason. Tobacco is addictive and is a great source of revenue. This means that tobacco companies can jack up their prices and the government can tax it to high heaven and people will be stuck smoking because it’s so hard to stop. A study did show that even though slight increases in cost would decrease the number of cigarettes bought, it’s an ineffective way to curb smoking in the population (http://www.ajph.org/cgi/reprint/90/5/746.pdf) People would be less likely to start smoking when looking at the prices, but long term smokers would either get stuck paying more for tobacco or try to quit. We already know how difficult it is to quit so many would just foot the bill.

Let’s compare what would happen if marijuana were legalized and available in the way that tobacco is available (obviously with some restrictions as to when and where since it’s psychoactive). People would use it to relax, enjoy it at home or deal with the pain and nausea of illness and treatments. I’m sure no one would mind some of it as a post-operative pain medication. It’s not addictive unlike morphine and other opiate pain medications, although a patient might need it for pain relief like any other pain reliever. When marijuana companies try to raise the price or when the government wants to increase a tax on it, people would be able to stop immediately or reduce their use in order to save money. They would wait until it became affordable to use as they like it. The beneficial outcomes for patients would rise dramatically as they wouldn’t be addicted or nearly as addicted to traditional pain meds as they used to be. This means less money for pharmaceutical companies. People can easily grow they’re own marijuana safely and economically. Like almost anything else, DIY is better than paying someone to do it for you. Marinol, the medication that has THC and is supposed to mimic the benefits of marijuana use, is expensive to make. People can’t grow their own opium very easily (can they?) but they can grown their own marijuana and use it as needed instead of buying it, or at least they can supplement their supply to save money.

Basically it all means that, were marijuana made legal, the growing company and the government couldn’t price gouge much or tax it like crazy and when we start to use it for fabric, paper and rope, paper and logging companies would lose money. I smell vested interests abound. But what can we do besides spreading the word?

Go to NORML.org and Change.org and sign up. Send emails to your representatives using the templates provided and add you’re own personal message if you feel like it. I included information about suppression of studies, tax revenue, crime attenuation, public health and public safety. Let them know how you feel by signing the petitionand even calling representatives to leave messages.

http://www.change.org/ideas/116/view_action/legalize_marijuana

(If anyone wants me to cite sources for information, I can link to all of the studies and informative sites. Chances are that you can independently verify it all anyway. As a critical thinker, you definitely will. If you find any factual errors, please let me know so I can fix them.)