The Scientific Liberal Atheist Philosophy and Political Position
Table of Contents for this Section
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The Modern World View-Atheism
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Serious World Problems
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Leadership
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Political Action
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The Crimes of Christianity
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A Plan for Living
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Book Reviews
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Rejection of Specific christian Arguments
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Dialog
1. The Modern World View Atheism
The scientific way of thinking is taught in every university in the nation
and it is essentially atheistic. There is not a single piece of scientific
evidence for spirit, soul, supernatural, or aliens of any kind. The bible
is rejected as merely the work of savages.
The scientific position is that the universe is an accident and the
existence of humanity is an accident. There was a time before which life
was not possible. There will come another time after which life is no longer
possible. It is probable that all evidence of life will eventually be erased.
Truth is not a matter of preference. It is a matter of evidence. Since
religion involves faith and worship both of which are rejected by the scientific
method, it has become obsolete. The correlation of fundamentalism and violence
shows that religion is bankrupt in promoting ethical character.
Scientific/Atheist Position on Origins
The present scientific conclusion on the origins of Homo Sapiens and the
Cosmos is sufficiently comprehensive and reliable that it can be depended
upon for any personal or national decision. The Big Bang theory and Evolution
are as certain compared to the account in the bible as the round Earth
theory is compared to the flat Earth theory. And this has been agreed upon
by scientific authorities world wide.
Learn about atheism, American
Atheists and The Freethinker Community.
Or read my Atheist Philosophy.
2. Serious World Problems
a. Overpopulation
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The earth is finite. With a fixed technology it can only support a fixed
number of folk at a fixed living standard.
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Human activities already threaten the biosphere. International governing
bodies meet regularly to impose restrictions on chloroflurocarbons, sulfur
and particle emission, and CO2 emission.
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The population continues to increase exponentially.
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Each technical advance can only improve the living standard by a fixed
factor. A population increase by that factor will undo the improvement.
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Technical advances are slowing in magnitude in a negative exponential fashion.
This is a result of the sciences becoming mature (which means the easy
discoveries have already been made).
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Social inequality results in a fixed factor of living standard reduction
(for the poor). Its alleviation has the same limited effect as a technical
improvement.
Numerous famous scientists and others have warned us that the planetary
carrying capacity is about to be exceeded. The world population is going
to be cut down one way or another. We can only decide if it will be by
planning or disaster. The population rise is an exponential function which
will exceed all resources with mathematical certainty unless it is halted.
We are cheating ourselves of our future, unless we end the population explosion.
Approach:
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Ultimately if necessary the Chinese method could be adopted. That means
strict laws mandating one child only. However long before considering such
drastic measures it would behoove the politicians to speak out and demonstrate
a little leadership. They could call for less motherhood and Federally
fund abortions.
b. Environment
The destruction of the environment is proceeding faster than ever. We will
soon live in a very bleak world unless something is done to halt unneeded
development and wilderness loss.
Approach:
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I support the environmental programs of the Sierra Club, Wilderness Society,
Greens, Friends of the Earth and others. We all know what to do. It is
only certain Right Wing organizations that stand in the way of progress.
c. Inequality
This means economic justice too. The legal privilege of the rich and corporations
is not equality. The United States is breaking up into two classes-the
rich and the poor.
Approach:
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For information on the latest scams see Citizens for Tax Justice www.ctj.org.
Here is where real politics is needed. We need to help elect liberal candidates.
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My paper US Foreign Policy Abuse, is fast becoming old history.
d. Corruption
Dishonesty is rampant in business and government. This includes the media
hypocrisy. They make like they report news, but hide most of it. The media
bias is exposed by
FAIR -- Fairness & Accuracy
In Reporting
Approach:
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A dual effort is needed here. First bypass the failed media using the Internet
and organizations like Media Watch and Vote Smart. This is an easy networking
effort. Second once again the vote counts.
e. Military Spending
The US could get by with a tenth of its present spending. The extra B2s
and Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarines are among the biggest wastes.
Approach:
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As before, elect liberal candidates.
3. Leadership
Historically the most important requirement for leadership has always been
the ability to lie with a straight face. The Republicans are a lot
worse in this respect than the Democrats because they control the media.
While Clinton is berated for his "moral breakdown" no one remembers the
mass murder in Panama committed by Bush or the million children who died
in Iraq, just to name a few.
4. Political Action
The answer to these problems is proper education. Whoever reaches the young
will win.
5. The Crimes of Christianity
It is easy to list the crimes of the past in which millions of innocent
folk were executed in the name of gawd. Even today the christian
community is guilty of serious abuse. These folk are determined to force
their way of life on the rest of us.
The list of church sponsored evil is long:
The Catholic church sponsors tough abortion laws.
The church pushes porno laws are based on a perverted definition of
pornography.
The Westboro Baptist church hates gays. Their web site says "God hates
gays."
Christians shoot at Atheist signs and regularly beat up Atheists.
Forcing christian slogans on US coins is one more way christians have
of forcing their way of life on the rest of us. Another is the recently
added words "under God" added by Eisenhower to the Pledge of Allegiance
to the Flag.
The Religious Right pushes laws designed to force their idea of morality
on the rest of us.
The Religious Right is at war with good science and has intimidated
the Scientific community into silence on religious issues.
There is an ongoing battle at most universities where they want world
class professors. They hire world leaders who practice a world class life
style and approve of such things as atheism, communism, anti Americanism
and homosexuality. When the Religious Right in the community hear about
that they want the professors fired. You can't have world class people
if you insist on a retarded life style.
And More from Americans United for Separation of Church and State:
The Religious Right is out to destroy public education.
The Religious Right is trying to censor library books.
The Religious Right is wants government to promote its version of Christianity.
They argue that the First Amendment gives freedom of religion not from
religion. What they fail to see is that it gives freedom of each religion
from all the others thus there is no religion or combination of religions
that we are not guaranteed freedom from.
The Religious Right is wages hateful campaigns against gays.
The Religious Right wants to use your tax money for their ministries.
6. A Plan for Living
There is not a whole lot I can say about morals. The "Golden Rule" has
been derived through mathematical models that parallel life sometimes.
Another way to put it is "If you bother folks sooner or later they will
bother you. If you don't want to have to worry about problems then don't
start them in the first place." There is another way of handling problem
folks. In Greek mythology one famous warrior said "As you have done unto
others so shall I do unto you." Social responsibility mandates standing
up to the bad guys or they will get out of hand. As the saying goes "All
that is necessary for the bad guys to triumph is for the good guys to do
nothing."
A lot of folks want everything and they want it easy. Life is not made
to be easy. The human body is made to work. Those who do not work long
and hard will get fat and die young. Each person should strive to contribute
more to society than is taken from society. It pays to save, especially
for old age. The exponential growth of investments in sufficient time can
meet every need. Each generation should leave the world a slightly better
place. Einstein said go out and make an honest living. Don't expect the
government to pay you to play at your hobby.
People are machines. There are tremendous individual differences. Don't
judge other folks when you don't know how they are made.
Government is like a fire, it needs to be constantly watched. The secret
to good government is diluting power. Every organization has its own pet
lies. They are easy to find. Talking about them will get you in trouble.
Throughout history the rich and powerful have taken advantage of less fortunate
folk.
In the market place the difference between a fair trade and slavery
is the price. Einstein said one should not expect to be paid by the government
to pursue one's own hobby. You have to do honest work to earn a living.
Beware of untried high tech. Most technology is low tech. There are
many cases where old low tech is the best way.
7. Book reviews
I have reviewed a number of Christian books. Take your pick of Old
Catholic or Fanatical Protestant.
8. Rejection of Specific christian Arguments
a. Rejection of Scientific assumptions. The assumptions of science are
often criticized in religious literature. However they seem to forget that
these same assumptions are necessary plus more to get anywhere with their
bible arguments. If the assumptions of science are wrong then we can establish
no facts. If there are no facts then why do we have educational institutions?
b. The supposed improbability of the physical conditions for Earth
This study includes the "Formation of the Laws of physics."
According to the many worlds concept, nature had to make a lot of tries
creating universes before our universe came out of the fray. The
number can be estimated given the ongoing random creation statistics for
virtual particles. Roughly there are 10^23 virtual particles per cc per
sec and 10^60 cc in the known universe and the universe is 10^10 years
old. And there are 10^7 seconds per year. That gives 10^100 tries available
just to get the laws of physics right. So the probability associated with
this factor is near 1.
c. Now the factor for the Earth itself given the above probability
assigned to the known laws of physics. There are planets around half the
stars. One in a hundred solar systems will have a planet like the Earth.
Since there are billions of stars there should be at least hundreds of
millions of planets like the Earth. In our galaxy there should be thousands.
Once again a probability near 1.
d. The supposed improbability of the formations of the chemical organization
of life
We know that life formed within just a few hundred million years after
conditions became livable here so the probability of life is considered
to be between .1 and .99.
e. The supposed improbability of the evolution of Man.
Given the start of life the probability of animals is quite high near
.8.
The probability of you is enormously tiny yet you are here. The probability
of someone who eventually became you was of course much higher namely .9.
Similarly the chance of evolution ever remaking humanity is very tiny,
but the chance of intelligent life of some sort given the mammals is more
like 0.01.
f. How many tries?
Thus the total chance of intelligent life in the universe is near 1.0,
however the number of "tries" is enormous considering the size of the universe.
g. The Second Law of Thermodynamics and "Upward Evolution"
The second law of thermodynamics has been brought up by creationists
as a law that forbids evolutionary "improvement" because it allows entropy
to only increase. The chaos in entropy however refers to heat not life.
Living things decrease their entropy by rejecting entropy into the environment
just like engines. If the second law proscripted life in this way it would
also not allow engines to run.
h. Evolution is a random unguided diffusion in genetic space.
There is no reason why a particular creature should gain any special traits,
especially ones that humans prefer. However any change that favors survival
will be favored. Consequently, and this has been demonstrated in the laboratory,
populations of animals can improve their ability to tolerate stress and
perform tasks that enhance survivability.
i. The "gawd did it" cop out
Once you make such a wild clim then when do you draw the line and say
gawd could not have done it? There is no scientific way to answer this
question without not allowing it at alleles gawd appears and provides real
proof.
j. Pascal's silly wager
Everyone knows about the four possibilities in Pascal's wager and what
you gain or loose:
Gawd exists and you believe, Gawd exists and you don't believe, Gawd
does not exist and you believe, Gawd does not exist and you don't believe.
What makes his wager so lopsided is the probability of gawd existing being
extremely small, say one i a million. With that correct probability assigned,
religion looses the wager.
k. The futility of faith
I have faith in the big turtle. The indians have faith in the eagle.
You have faith in gawd. Only one truth is possible, so at most one faith
is correct. There being no way to discriminate, science has decided that
all are wrong. Logically speaking if no prohibition is applied to faith
it will quickly produce contradictory beliefs.
l. The fact of evolution
The fossil evidence and the DNA evidence are sufficient to prove evolution
happened beyond the shadow of a doubt. The only discussion in scientific
circles is about the details of the theory of Darwin which itself is in
very high esteem. Numerous experiments have demonstrated agreement with
Darwin's theory.
m. The many contradictory gods in gawd
The christian community tries to sell the idea that gawd is a monolithic
idea and all religious communities have the same concept. It is false.
Each group has its own unique superstition.
n. The Genesis Flood
About seven thousand years ago the rising Mediterranean cut through
the Bosporus and the Dardanelles to fill the area occupied by the Black
Sea. The rising water moved sufficiently slow that a walking person could
out run it. However this event enormously impressed the folk of the
time and gave rise to the flood of mythology. This was Noah's flood.
o. Snake oil peddlers
San Diego: Institute for Creation Research Henry
M. Morris, Duane T. Gish
Atlanta: William Lane Craig
p. See my links to Bible errors
9. Dialog
I have argued with religious nuts until I was blue in the face and they
did not hear a single word. They defy logic and reason so bad, I wonder
how they stay alive. Read one fanatic
after another .
A number of people have contributed articles and leads. If you
send useful material I may add it.
E-mail the author
Charles
Last modified: September 2010