The Warfare Is Mental

Religious Shortcomings Can Warrant Skepticism

November 7, 2008

Particularly in the context of the atheism/theism debate, there are valid reasons skepticism is usually justifiable. Here are just two quick ones:

1. Many religions permit only a top-down transfer of information, with extra-churchicular programs devoted to 'deeper understanding of the faith' for those with further questions. Contrast this to the Bereans described in the book of Acts, who are described as "more noble" for their habit of "checking the scriptures" to see if what was being preached to them was supported or not. This is a sort of "skepticism" prevalent amongst believers; not as much a skepticism over whether God exists or not as a skepticism over the statements from religious authorities. Essentially, the habit of questioning and fact-checking the pronouncements of religious authorities is applauded in scripture. (Acts 17:11)

2. Many individual adherents of the various faiths either do not, can not, or will not defend most or even any of their beliefs. Contrast this to Peter who admonishes believers to "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." (1 Peter 3:15) Or the more obscure New Testament writer Jude: "Be merciful to those who doubt." (Jude 1:22) Not everyone can say their pastor or church conforms to these requirements, but these are requirements the Bible plainly states.

Since the shortcomings of so many religious institutions and believers fall into these and many other categories, is it any wonder people fond of reason often look upon the whole enterprise with an eye of suspicion?

An Atheist Paralell To God Of The Gaps Thinking

August 21, 2008

Lately I've noticed an atheist parallel to God of the Gaps thinking. I was in the blogosphere the other day when I stumbled on a piece called CSI Deuteronomy where the author takes the fifth book of the Bible to task. The reason was an awkward phenomenon the ancient Israelites were supposed to undertake for unsolved murders occurring outside of city boundaries.

The passage from the Revised Standard Version reads:

Are We Alone In The Universe?

June 20, 2008

In general, I take a non-committal stance on the question of extraterrestrial life. Like nearly every other question entangled in religion and metaphysics, the question of humanity’s role in the universe is inevitably muddied by pop culture, mass ignorance of science and ulterior motive. It’s fine if UFO enthusiasts and little green men supporters want to believe that carbon-based biogenetics also happened to evolve metazoa capable of traveling to Earth in mechanical craft ala Newtonian means, but don’t say the facts of astronomy, physics or statistics support it!

Extraterrestrials Exist

June 19, 2008

Well, so says Bob Lazar and countless thousands of others at least. I’d like to discuss a few claims from Mr. Lazar as well as a few claims made about him in the following short video. If you’re at all the type of person interested in the ET question, then this article is for you, but first I ask that you observe the evidence for yourself (the video associated with this post can no longer be found.

False Argument #15: The Telepathy Tropes

June 17, 2008

There are two opposite polarities of misinformation surrounding the phenomenon of telepathy. The first erroneously dismisses the entire gamut of legitimate evidence, and the second erroneously bolsters what little legitimate evidence actually exists. That no scientifically acceptable, persuasive evidence exists and that telepathy is a scientifically proven phenomenon are both equally false arguments. Although the phenomenon is inherently difficult to test systematically and is by no means proven, significant telepathic experiments have been conducted resulting in published works and peer-reviewed papers.

Psychic Kids: Children Of The Paranormal

As I was writing yesterday, I overheard a trailer for this show about kids experiencing paranormal phenomena. Since I've had more than my fair share of interesting phenomena occur throughout my life and have dedicated a substantial amount of time to reading and independent thought about the subject, I anticipated its 10:00pm debut on A&E. The show turned out to be both about as good and also a lot worse than I expected, and I do not mean to eschew or denigrate the families or producers. Contrary, I side with the parents in their estimation that what is happening to their children represents an authentic phenomena, but I think the methods used by the producers to present such a controversial subject to the general public are subjective, confounded and devoid of any substantive scientific value.

Atheism And Theism – Both Logically Flawed

June 16, 2008

Many and possibly all traditional expressions of theism and atheism suffer from inherent logical flaws. The idea is in general accord with a debate I’m currently re-hashing with myself over whether a successful ontological argument exists, or whether one is even capable of existing, and if yes or no, then also on what grounds. My area of expertise is not philosophy or logic, and the presupposition in this particular argument is that I correctly understand the terms I use to support my thesis.

Hello Intuition, Meet Empiricism: My Response To “A Different Way Of Knowing”

June 11, 2008

In A Different Way Of Knowing, the author begins with slamming insights about the value of the intuitive-creative processes, arguing persuasively that irrational decision-making processes can be valuable. Love, art and music all reject empiricism and involve listening subjectively to our hearts, feelings and intuitions, and nobody would argue that they lack value just because they aren’t arrived at through empiricism. Conceding that some aspects of life are better left to the intuitive method of gathering information, the author proceeds to argue that "the God hypothesis" is not one of them, and is better evaluated via empiricism and the scientific method. I object to the piece on several grounds, five of which follow.

An Important Point In My Religious History

June 4, 2008

When I was younger, I had a watch. Not a fancy watch, just your average, run-of-the-mill wristwatch that a kid who didn’t know any better might purchase from a department store for not more than say, twenty dollars. It was comparable to a cheap Swatch knockoff, but nothing like my very favorite watch I ever owned, a low-key G-Shock WaterSport with all sorts of timers and even a legit compass. Either way, I liked the Swatch knockoff, so I was of course ultra-bummed when it stopped one day without warning.

Post #213

June 3, 2008

I just noticed that I’ve made 212 post to date on my blogs. That makes this the 213th. Why even mention it?

For a long time, this number has haunted me. I can’t explain it in any way I expect you to accept logically, but I’ve seen this arrangement of numbers time and time again over the past three years or so, albeit to a lessening degree of late it seems. I look at my score on Millipede, it ends in 213. Count the money I found in the couch, $2.13. I arrive at some address for some reason, it’s 213 such-and-such boulevard. Not always, but much more often than seems accountable by chance, and FAR more often than occurs with any other arrangement of numbers. I’m not alleging that it means anything, and I’m not alleging that it doesn’t mean anything, but it sure feels like it does. I look at the clock, and it’s 2:13, or 12:13, and it feels more like those numbers somehow saw me, somehow proactively grabbed the attention of my sight. In other words, when I say that I look at the clock and it’s 2:13, it’s not usually an arbitrary glance. It’s like I subconsciously identify the numbers prior to laying eyes upon them, if that makes sense.

I once asked somebody about it, another writer friend of mine named Jeri. Her response was something to the extent of 6 being a number represented by the need for decision, and that if you add 2+1+3 you get 6.

I’m just putting this out there in the event that anybody familiar with numerology or weird fixations on numerical arrangements might have some insight..

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