Religion and Freedom

Gentle reader,

Religious adherents should distribute according to the laws of thermodynamics. The degree to which they don't is a measure of their lack of freedom.

Let me elaborate.

Given that there is no verifiable proof of the correctness of any religion, one could make the naive assumption that they are equally likely to be true (or false).

If you accept that premise and given the easy spread of information via books, news and now the internet, if all things were equal it is not unreasonable to expect the number of adherents to the 3 major religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) to be somewhat equal in any given country. In a truly free country people should be free to switch between one and the other or abandon religion completely. So freedom also would lead to a significant population of atheists.


Again, very naively, you might expect the following (in alphabetical order):

Atheism: 25%
Christianity: 25%
Islam: 25%
Judaism: 25%

Three things that would prevent this process of equalization are:

1) Once you are in a religion, it is unlikely that you will leave it due to being told that it is "bad" to do so. So religion is basically a "land grab" situation, the one that picks up the most adherents ultimately wins. All 3 or the "major" religions have this element to them. In the case of Islam, it seems that this is punishable by death. In the case of Christianity, you are threatened with eternal damnation.

2) People already in a religion tend to try to "convert" others. To not be part of a religion is to be ostracized to some degree. If you don't think this is true, try being an atheist in a small town in the Southern United States.

3) The state sponsors a religion - so there are direct benefits to be derived from adhering to that religion.

All three of these items reduce the influence of free thought on a person's choice of whether or not to follow a particular religion. If a person does not have the mental capacity to question their religious upbringing, does not want to give up the social acceptance and group reinforcement of a religion or is simply coerced by the government of their country, they will remain in a given religion.

The existence of an East-West divide in terms of religion (Christianity/Judaism in the West, Islam in the East) bears witness to the influence of these three thought-stifling factors.

To me, a decrease in the religious polarization and an increase in the number of atheists (such as has happened in the United Kingdom and other Western European countries) is evidence that people in those countries are thinking for themselves and are not being unduly influenced by their government.

However, the fact that the United States and many Arab countries still remain religiously polarized seems, to me, to provide evidence of thought-suppression. The inherent need of a particular religion to be self-continuing has been allowed to take root and not be challenged vigorously. These countries may be guilty, each in in their own way, of providing an environment that does not allow people to make a truly free choice between the religions, or for no religion. The fact that a majority of people in a country believe in a given religion is not evidence that the religion is true. Conversely, it raises a red flag - these countries probably have less freedom than others.

Time for today's quote:

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do
because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.
-Susan B. Anthony

Until the next time, gentle reader, I remain,

Your friend,

Buford Twain

High School Football Team Name Translations

Gentle reader,

Coming from the UK, where "team spirit" means going to the pub after a game, I have always found the names of school football teams over here in the USA a bit odd. The reason is that in my head I like to translate the team names to see what they really mean. For example:

1) The Lake Central Native American Victims of Genocide by European Colonialists

(The Lake Central Indians)

2) The Clearwater Localized and Violently Destructive Windstorms that Kill Hundreds of People Every Year and Leave Thousands more Homeless.

(The Clearwater Tornadoes)

3) Fitzgerald High School Bluish-Red Storm System Characterized by a Low Pressure Center Sometimes Flooding Entire Cities and Leaving Thousands of People Dead or Homeless

(The Fitzgerald High School Purple Hurricanes)

4) The Verrado High School Venonous Snakes Found throughout Africa, Eurasia and the Americas

(Verrado High School Vipers)

5) Vernon Hills Large Cat Whose Population has Dropped Drastically Due to Persecution as a Dangerous Pest Animal Following the European Colonization of the Americas

(Vernon Hills Cougars)

6) Queensbury extremely warlike people from a city in southern Greece which existed from about the 10th century BC until the time of the Byzantine Empire.

(Queensbury Spartans)

It's a fun exercise. I wonder if you can think of any more amusing examples?

Time for today's quote:

"Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious."
-Oscar Wilde

Until the next time, gentle reader, I remain,

Your friend,

Buford Twain

xx

Deep Down, You Already Know That Your Religion is False

Gentle reader,

When push comes to shove, there aren't many religious people who truly believe in their religion. The litmus test is how your feel about death itself. Assuming you are a religious person, allow me to ask you a few questions:

Firstly, how do you feel about your own death? Are you afraid of dying or are you looking forward to it? Does death seem like a wonderful journey? Or are you scared shitless?

How about any friends and family that you currently have that are dying? Are you happy for them? Do you think of that person lying at home or in a hospital bed, and smile to yourself? Or are you filled with a sense of dread and impending loss?

If you are sick, are you currently going to a doctor to get treatment? Or are you hoping to die as quickly as possible?

If you are religious, you should be happy to be getting sick, and happy for any of your friends
and family that are currently dying. It is God's plan. They will soon be nearer to "paradise".

Are you happy about death? If not, ask yourself, why not?

Please take a few minutes to think about this. It's serious stuff.

...

If you are in fact not looking forward to taking a dirt nap, could it be that deep down, you realize that you aren't really going to "heaven"? You realize that your religion won't really save you from death.

You are in good company. When Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago had cancer some years ago he went to the hospital for some (sadly unsuccessful) treatment. Was the Cardinal trying to give God a little bit of a hand with his master plan? "Oh, God must really want me to live longer, but just doesn't have the time to cure my cancer. Poor old overscheduled God."

Or perhaps the Cardinal was just terrified of dying - just like most of the rest of us.
A religious person going to a doctor - that tells me that their faith isn't quite as rock solid as they might have hoped.

One more question: Have you ever been to a funeral? If so, was it a happy or sad affair?
If it was a religious funeral, shouldn't it be a happy occasion - a time for rejoicing?
Funerals that I have attended have been sad. Naturally, we all know, deep down, that the person has died. They aren't coming back, and we aren't ever going to see them again as we remembered them.

In our hearts, if we are honest, I think almost all of us know the truth.


Time for today's quote:

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."
--Aldous Huxley


Until the next time, gentle reader, I remain,

Your friend,

Buford Twain

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (at work)

The idea of men discriminating against women to prevent them from pursuing certain jobs or from reaching higher-level positions such as senior management in America is a myth.

Women can and will do the jobs that they are capable of and that they want to do.

I make these statements on the basis of one observation:

American corporate life is driven almost completely by greed.

So, if a male hiring manager can hire a woman that will make him look good, he will.
That greedy manager wants a bigger bonus and if she can get him that bonus he will hire her.

Let me add this: Men are pigs and will lust after women, demean them, try to hit on them, and so on, at work and outside work. That seems to be an unfortunate part of male DNA.

But, when it comes down to getting the job done, a man tends to hire the best person for the job. If the applicate is a woman I would even bet money that she has an advantage over a male applicant with the same qualifications (the eye-candy factor).

So, why are there so few women scientists and computer engineers in the USA?

I would counter that with the following questions:

Why are there so few women plumbers in the USA?
Why are there so few women electricians in the USA?
Why are there so few women dry-wallers in the USA?
Why are there so few women auto mechanics in the USA?
Why are there so few women participating on volunteer open source software projects like linux and firefox?
Why are there so few women on the John Deere tractor repair forums?
Why are there so few women that work on their cars on weekends?
Why is it mostly the men who do the mechanical repair work around the house?

Here's the reason: In general, women don't like to be plumbers, electricians or dry-wallers,
they don't enjoy mechanical or dirty work, and they don't like writing software. Extrapolating this slightly, I claim that women don't enjoy senior management either.

At some point, we need to wake up and smell the stale coffee that has spent all day simmering in the office kitchen-area: there are some things that women just don't want to do, and they won't do those things even if they pay pretty well.

Cindi Lauper put it best: Girls just wanna have fun.

Women do the jobs that they like to do, and are less influenced by money and power than men are. So, if we stopped trying to lure them into doing the other jobs that they don't really enjoy, and won't be happy in, maybe we'd all be happier.

Time for today's quote, that is not surprisingly by a woman:

Never work just for money or for power. They won't save your soul or help you sleep at night.
-Marian Wright Edelman:

Until the next time, gentle reader, I remain as always

Your Friend,

-Buford Twain

A Few Things I Don't Get About America - On penis-chopping, and other oddities

Gentle reader,

I love America. However, there are a few things that make me wonder. As a non-native (but long-time resident) I'm calling 'em as I see 'em. Free speech is free speech, right?

First of all, let's get one out of the way that curiously, most people here in the US don't seem to think twice about. I am talking about circumcision, the extaordinarily savage practice of cutting off part of a baby's penis shortly after birth. I get the strange impression that most folks don't think that the baby feels the pain of this pointless operation. Let me assure you, babies feel pain. They are acutely aware of pain just like you or I. Also the oft-quoted excuse "they won't remember it" rings hollow to me. By that logic, is it OK to rape a woman because she is drunk and "won't remember it"? Also, there is little justification for the procedure on medical grounds. I won't belabor this point but allow me to address one common justification: "there is less chance that the baby will get penis cancer". Yeah, and if you chop off my arm I can guarantee you that I won't get cancer in that arm. If you chop off my head I guess it will reduce my chances of getting brain cancer too. I hope that 50 years from now, we will look back and laugh at this practice because it doesn't make any sense. By the way, it also causes desensitization of the head of the penis, which changes sex. For better or worse? Debatable (comments?) but usually nature gets things right and it seems presumptuous to try to change it for no particular reason. I'll leave you with one last thought on this one: how do you feel about female genital mutilation (or the removal of a chunk of the clitoris)? OK, why not apply this same reasoning to male circumcision?

Next, what's with the ritualistic recital of the pledge of allegiance in school? To a person born outside this country, this seems very curious and cult-like. I find mindless recital of anything to be an early indicator of problems ahead. Worship of a country or a flag seems like a type of brain-washing to me. Yeah, we are all living in America, that's great but let's all think for ourselves instead of behaving like mindless sheep.

Moving on, what is the deal with the nudity-phobia? It is strangely incongruous that extreme and senseless violence is shown on TV at all hours of the day, but we're not allowed to see a breast or an ass or a penis. Look folks, we all have these things under our clothing. We are not all just floating heads with nothing but pretty clothing from the neck down. Let's become slightly more comfortable with our bodies and not freak out quite so much. A friend of mine often regales me with a story from when he was at a beach somewhere in France . He was just walking along the beach, and many of the girls were topless. No big deal. Until somewhere from the side, a loud Texas-drawl shouts out "LOOK AT THEYEM TEEYATS!!". Yeah, get over it buddy.

OK, another thing that makes no sense to me: you have to be 21 to be able to get an alcoholic drink. If you're 18 years old it's OK to become a soldier and die in Iraq. But sorry, ya can't have a drink. Enough said on that.

Finally, why is it a big problem to be an atheist in the US? Live and let live. This country loves freedom, right? Then let people believe what they like, or nothing. If they are not hurting you, then leave them alone. It is plain to me that atheists don't feel comfortable admitting that they are atheists in the US. As Richard Dawkins points out, it's like being a gay person in America in the 1950's. That is just plain wrong. In the UK and most of Europe, it's just not a big deal and it shouldn't be in the USA either.

Time for today's quote:

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots. -Barbara Ehrenreich

Until the next time gentle reader I remain, as always,

Your friend,

Buford Twain