A follow up, imspired by my wonderous woman.

This is in no way about changing anyone. To say that you believe in a higher power, in the form that you believe that there are things out there in the universe that we will never understand, and weren't meant to is agnostic in the classical sense. There are people in this world who believe that vaccinating your children is a sin. A sin. The bible says so. The belief in the bible, that it is a tool, to learn from and not a verbatim word of god is healthy. Every story we read or hear since birth is something we can learn from. Every movie, book, short story, campfire tale, true false and in between. I'm not out to "change" anybody. I'm not trying to murder the children. I'm not trying to say you can believe in your own personal god. I'm not saying you cant do, whatever the fuck you want to do, when you want to do it... I'm saying you cant do that when it interferes with what other people want to do. You MUST vaccinate your children because if you don’t, they will infect other children. An example of when personal choice, not only impacts others, but greatly so. http://sethmnookin.com/2011/04/06/todays-lesson-alternative-virginia-school-closes-after-half-of-its-students-infected-with-pertussis-all-of-them-were-unvaccinated/
You can do a quick google search and find tons of stories just like this. Children unvaccinated due to religious purposes spreading disease to others unintentionally and putting others in danger. Are those other kids sick and dying because that kid believes in god? No. Because his parents do? No. They are sick and dying because his parents believe so feverishly, they cannot question it. At all. "It is the word. It is the truth. God must have wanted their son to die. To be sick. Its not my fault, I am not to blame. God did it. "
THAT IS NOT WHAT FAITH IS ABOUT.
Faith is not to be about blaming things on someone, or something that cannot be seen or prosecuted. Faith is not a blanket to hide under. Faith is a highly personal choice, and should be so.
Belief in god, to explain that which you do not know is fine. That feeling in your stomach, when you know something bad has happened, and cant explain why. That moment that seems to last forever just before you almost get in a car accident. The amazingly ungraspable depth and distance and wonderment of our universe. Millions of forces all intricately in constant sway and cohesion, balance and unrest, coexisting with an almost unfathomable sublimity. The atoms in your eyes, vibrating at just the right frequency to combat the small amount of magnetism and gravitation influence that holds them together, in varying states and clusters of millions to form cells. Specialized for processing of visual stimuli in the visible spectrum of light. Light which travels at 700 million miles an hour to bombard these clusters with BILLIONS of photons a millisecond. Light which is being emitted from a artificial source. You computer, harnessing the same electric and magnetic energy that is found in the heart of stars, to precise timing, through an incredibly intricate network of silicon carbonate particulate boards, and the very speed of light. Just so you can read this. Lets not even get into the central nervous system. Its incredible. Every minute detail of it. I can go on in incredible depth about the things that are going on. All at the same time. All with incredible precision. It seems strange to assume this all happened by chance. That through nothing, there became not only something, but something so outstandingly complex. It suits many to imagine a designer for this.
A designer of impeccable skills. In this manner, the word God is nothing more that a word, for a thing we cannot understand. A word that could be replaced by anything, and yet the meaning would not change. This driving force that created everything, as it was, through millennia's uncountable, in precise order up until this very moment, would be no less wondrous if we called it gibilty gook. A little more cumbersome in conversation yes, but if we agree that we are talking about the same thing, then what's in a name? Does a rose not smell as sweet if called by another name? This form of belief is fine, for if we admit the name is not what matters, what difference if you call the creative force behind the universe god, and I call it chance? The universe will be no less splendid. The events that formed it, no different. The wonder, no less wondrous.
This belief is fine. Believing, that no matter what, nobody could ever change your mind, about any part of your belief, at any time, for any reason, is insane. If you will not change your mind, then there is not even a point of discussion, and I would not speak with such a person. I don’t care about that person EXCEPT that they will infect others. That kid who infected his school with disease, a by product of the parents beliefs and choices. He will grow one day to have his own children, who he will teach to believe. This is the passing of faith. Not the choice of faith. If you change your mind, and willingly choose to believe when you did not, then so be it. If you were born into slavery and just accepted it, then you may yet live with that happily, but I know it is wrong, That there is better out there for you.
Make no mistake, those born into religion, without the freedom of questioning it are slaves all the same. Freedom is not only a way of life, but also a mindset.

Battle stations, Battle stations! All hands to Battle stations!

I was going to start this off by saying that this is increasingly becoming my sailor diary, and then I remembered that it’s been that since its inception. Simply put, that’s all it may ever be, but that’s enough. It’s at a minimum a place I can toss all my digital stuff so I can access it easier. Haha, its something.

Onwards and upwards as they say.

One of my closest friends has been on a “militant atheist” kick for a bit, and it’s got me thinking. Now I was raised catholic, and while I can recall being a young child and praying for childrenesque things, I cannot actually recall believing in god. It’s always been a subject that I have not understood really. Not to say I don’t know anything about it, quite the contrary really, I was an alter boy, and took bible study classes until I was 14. What I do not understand is how people bought into it. I guess those priest were right for never giving me the wedding or funeral ceremonies (the ones that paid, 10 dollars!). I understand the concept, and how people would want to believe, but not the actual believers. Much alike childhood me, wishing I was adopted, and that my real parents were going to come rescue me from a life where ramen was considered a delicacy. I knew how great it would be for there to be a “god” but knew there was not. To this day I still wonder if anyone truly believes, or is just having a lapsed episode of faith remorse. They must, no body would go out and kill someone in the name of some wizard they didn’t TRULY believe existed right?

Well, maybe not…

I myself could not see myself wanting to murder someone. Sure, self defense, of course. In defense of those I love? No problem. Defense of an innocent? Yeah, I guess. Defense of someone I don’t know? Mmmm… Maybe… Someone for any other reason? Unlikely. Not everyone out there shares this moral objection I have. It serves to me to label those who would do such a thing as crazy. You can see the point in trying to make here. Those who would do such a thing, without a reason that is rational, are by definition are irrational. Irrationality is but one handful of shit away from full on asshat insane.

So this got me to thinking, that sure, there are those who would believe in a god without a rational reason, just as those who believe in murder without a rational reason. Is that to say all religious people are crazy? Yes... With all things, with exception of mathematics, there are levels here. Not all religious people are “EAT ALL THE SQUIRRELS, THEY HAVE WMD’S!!!” tinfoil hat, room full of containers of their own excrement crazy. For that level to even exist, there must be something contrasted to it. Perhaps lady who owns 10 cats who all have sweaters crazy. Sure, I won’t let her watch my kids, but she’s not hurting anyone right?

We can be too sure about that really… But we do know we can’t put both those people under the same level of care, and expect any real results. That’s to say, there is no universal cure. Some people will be born into this insane asylum of religion, other will be put their on their own accord… The end result is the same… Just a bunch of nut jobs in one place that we don’t really know what to do with. We don’t know how to handle it. Some can be treated, but those are the ones who weren’t really sick to begin with. The problem won’t go away on its own, and we can’t just throw them from a cliff like their defective babies in Sparta. How do we realistically solve this dilemma? I propose, that like all great dilemmas of our time, we do nothing. Nothing at all, hope the problem either disappears on its own, and hope someone in the future generations to come will solve it. We all know this is not a real solution, and that something needs to be done, here, now, TODAY. But what? And who will do it?

Think im wrong? Either your just ignoring the issue in your own right, or your part of the institution. Either way, you must agree… Asking the dangerous lunatic in restraints how to “fix” him is not going to have a result that anyone (save the lunatic) can consider favorable.

What do you think?