Current mood:	calm
Current music:	Belle and Sebastien, Lazy Line Painter Jane
Entry tags:	politics

This post is both personal and political. Its about my own observations and a strong call for those who read this to be a shade wiser and a shade shrewder.

I just finished reading a phenominal article, The Christian Nation Myth (thanks paigegirl). I think everyone should read this, if for no other reason than the fact that its really quite interesting. But it has helped me put things in perspective. This is a rationalist nation, first and foremost. Thats one of the things I love about this country. Maybe the biggest thing. But what we have right now is a seperate, usurper government. The real American government is in exile. This is the political content of this post.

But really, I want to give a personal message. More like a declaration. I despise superstition. This is true. I've been accused of being self riteous because I feel this way, but thats not it at all. I don't derive satisfaction from having this position. I just hate (with every fiber of my being) when good, intelligent people throw out reason in favor primitive leaps of logic. God help the poor bastard who points out the inconsistencies in these backwards idiosyncrises. Thats a quick way to lose friends, because for some reason superstitions are also open wounds to most people. Their egos are bound up in points that cannot be defended with argument. Emotion is substituted for logic, and emotion as the basis of argument leads to crude arguments.

Maybe I'm intolerant or even bigotted on this point. I leave that possibility open. I can't say that I've ever walked a mile in the shoes of a practicing Jew or attempted to curse a coworker with voodoo. Of course, I don't brand my genitals with lit cigars either, and I still call that idiotic.

Some of my favorite people on the planet are extremely superstitious. I don't blame them personally. I don't blame anyone, because its not an issue of blame. I just wish they could free themselves from the equivalent of beleiving that the earth is flat and that the sun gets swallowed by a giant celestial serpent every day around 7 pm. Is there a way to show these people that their egos are attached to crutches that prevent them from ever being able to walk? How can you tell a person that their relgion is backwards? How can you tell the cave dwellers from 20,000 years ago that drawing caribou on the walls of their cave does nothing to improve their hunt's chances of success? We obviously don't beleive that one anymore. Why is it so hard for people to accept that Christ, the afterlife, and personal 'life force' will be just as extinct one day as the animism of the cave people?

I like how Thomas Jefferson puts it.

"In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. It is easier to acquire wealth and power by this combination than by deserving them, and to effect this, they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon, unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore the safer for their purposes" (Tell this to the big religions)

"To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, God, are immaterial is to say they are nothings, or that there is no God, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise" (Tell this to the New Agers)

"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter" (Tell this to the American Taliban)

Damn, Thomas Jefferson was one smart guy. He founded the world's greatest government on exactly these principles. Somehow, the descendants of the New England witch-hunters have rested control from the philosopher kings. I don't beleive that all the superstitious people of this age are as bad as the witch-hunters. As I said before, many of them are my friends. However, I don't beleive that rejecting reason is acceptable.

I always thought that the saying "In the sleep of reason, monsters are born." I liked the idea that reason takes a break and allows wonderous beasts to be birthed into the world. I have always been a fan of the monsterous, and damn reason if it gets in the way! The truth of the matter is that I never really understood what this means. The saying could just as easily read "In the sleep of reason, ethnic cleansing is born." Unfortunately, in an age with collosal industrial machines capable of creating machines to send mankind beyond the Earth itself, we also have the capability to turn this vast machine and its power to attrocity. Add into this the limitless power of mass media and you have a fragile system that can, within the shortest blink of time, wipe out entire populations.

It is precisely this reason that we have to reject all the bad arguments and emotional appeals. If we don't use our heads and turn towards reason, humanity will suffer. Do I sound too lofty? Maybe I am. The truth of the matter is that right now we have a country stewing in our own superstitions, causing all sorts of mayhem. "They hate us for our freedom!" they tell us. Aside from having less freedom than quiet, cold places in Europe, the basic elements of this are untrue. This is assigning motives where none exist. This is personifying a threat that doesn't exist. Its useful to those in power, because they can use this to sway opinion quickly and in their favor whenever it is needed. It means that we lose freedoms and love it the whole time.

How can I equate this with little, daily superstitions that most people hold? The net effect isn't the same, which is clear. But when one denial of logic is allowed, it becomes comfortable and acceptable. New Agers often say that all relgious beleifs are acceptable and that everyone ultimately worships the same force in the universe, even if they do it through different ways. I hate to say it, but this is utter bullshit. Don't agree? I don't think female circumcision is acceptable, and its frequently practiced as a religious issue. I don't care what motivations are put on it, female circumcision is unnacceptable. The values are not equal. On the other side, there is no difference between one branch of secular humanism and another. There doesn't need to be an attempt to bring one brand into another. It just requires a focus on reason and a rejection of nonsensicle, ancient customs.

Obviously, I'de think we'de all be better off rejecting religion, petty beleif in the supernatural, and any kind of superstition, no matter how small. I don't beleive this should be forced. I just think that people should wise up. They should stop paying attention to the silly fairy tales about father figures in the sky. This includes people who think that the father figure packed up and moved on. Deism was fine for George Washington and Aristotle, before mankind realized that it really was alone in the universe, but in a world where we send people into outer-friggin-space thats no longer acceptable. Give up on these ego-infused emotion responses. They really aren't doing anything for you. Throw away the backwards animism.

Also, numerous images below the LJ cut. Its been a long time, Livejournal.





























Also, throw a me a comment. I'de like to see where people stand on this.