Musings on Friday the 13th

It's late evening and I just realized it's Friday the 13th! If I recall, there is no definitive beginning to this superstition, only some suggestions of how it came about. Suffice it to say, people are superstitious and it doesn't take them long to associate an action or outcome with mundane things and think they are magically connected.

I think about this a lot, probably because I'm often trying to figure things out and make them better (I have a preternatural affection for efficiency, not to mention my desire to understand how things work).

For example, I was trying to set up my new phone (It didn't go well. Don't ask, I might start twitching again. Suffice it to say, a new phone - better, faster and stronger! - is on its way as I type!) Unfortunately every site I went to for information was written by the nerdiest, Asperger's Syndrome afflicted boys who obviously all failed every basic English class they ever had. Nothing was written clearly and the grammar was atrocious, making whole paragraphs meaningless. Everything was in gobbledygook.

I'm not stupid, but I'm only a surface level geek. Basically I know enough to fix common problems and (obviously) get myself into trouble for the bigger issues.

Anyway, suffice it to say, I read a hundred articles and tried a bunch of different walk-throughs. (And it worked, too! I waded into the Android pool and conquered ... briefly. Then I decided to dive in head first, only to find that the water was suddenly infested with piranhas with deadly lasers mounted to their heads! Oh, FAIL, Neece, you damned fool!)

Where was I? Oh, right. So as I was stumbling around trying different things with my phone, every time something went right, I would just keep going (after doing a little victory dance, of course). But if it went wrong, the very first thing that went through my head was, "what was I just doing to cause the problem?"

Wishful Thinking

As an atheist and a skeptic, I am often accused of being cynical, of denying everything. Of course, that's not true at all. I simply require evidence and think that faith is meaningless. If you need faith to believe something, then right there you know it's most likely nonsense.

Quite a few things are up in the air in my life. A lot of irons are in the fire right now. On top of that, I have been feeling under the weather (a cold or bad allergies, I can't tell).

Here's how I know I'm not a cynic or denier. I wish, truly wish, that prayer and magical thinking worked. I wish I had someone looking out for me, a supernatural benevolent being that has my best interests in mind. I wish karma were real. I wish the supernatural existed and that the world is as magical as people claim. I wish I had healing energy that I could tap into from a loving source that would heal me of my cold.

I wish the Secret were true so that I could just say positive affirmations and make everything work out in my favor. Wouldn't it be awesome, if justice existed outside of what we create for ourselves?

I wish I could just pray or meditate or do something to have some control in my life. How cool would it be if people who work harder, and did things for the common good actually fared better? I wish good and moral people were rewarded and bad or immoral people weren't. Imagine that!

Instead, I have to do my best, then just wait with everything out of my control, to see where it all lands. Just like everyone else. The difference is I have no delusions that I have control or someone watching out for me. So when everything settles, I won't be under a false belief that I had something to do with it. I don't have to create a story for why a supreme being treated me as it did.

I know we're on our own. Reality is cold. But at least it's real. I'd rather see things as they really are, not how I wish them to be.

Two Random Thoughts

Here are two random thoughts I've had in the past 24 hours that I thought I'd share with you.

1. How amazing is the human brain and its processing power? I was at the grocery store yesterday and had to decide on a body wash for myself. So I stood there smelling each one. It seemed pretty straightforward, right? But in the background, I was also calculating overall price, looking at price per ounce, comparing moisturizing vs every other thing body washes are supposed to do, and then filtering them all through my bullshit meter to get rid of what seemed like marketing (which is most of it).

Of course, scent was the main factor, but all the rest of that was happening as well. Not to mention all the other things that were happening. I was aware of the woman behind me stocking the shelves and self-conscious of my behavior around her, I was paying attention to everyone else shopping nearby, I was following the unwritten rules for society, etc. AND, I was doing a whole bunch of autonomic functions, everything from keeping my heart beating and my lungs moving in and out, to balancing on two feet (which needs constant micro corrections).

Amazing, huh? And we do this effortlessly, really. It's mostly automatic. The only part that's noticeable is smelling each soap and deciding if I like it or not, then calculating the rank in which I like them.

And then, I handle the transaction and interaction with the cashier and drive home! Truly astonishing, isn't it? And we take it all for granted. Which is how it should be.

I was listening to the Skeptic's Guide awhile ago and they had a Science or Fiction item (if I recall correctly) that people are actually remembering less now that we have Google (and other search engines, etc). And it's true, we don't have to remember things like we used to. I for one don't remember anyone's phone numbers anymore. But I do remember my mom's because I learned it before I had a phone that remembered for me. I remember some numbers from when I was a kid, like my grandmother's old number, but nothing current.

The thing is, we're not stupider. In fact, IQ has been rising each decade by a small amount, overall. We just use our minds differently. Now we are masters at finding information, and making sure we can find it again when we need it. So we are better Googlers, basically.

I've also noticed that we all seem to still hold vast amounts of data on what we are passionate about. My husband Butch can rattle off huge amounts of stats on cars, for example. He knows so much about them. He remembers it all effortlessly. But there are other things that don't interest him at all and it won't get saved in his memory. We're all like that. My eyes cross when he starts talking about engine size and horsepower - and I don't remember hardly any of it later, but if I'm walking outside, I somehow know different plants and insects that I didn't even realize I had saved in my mind.

It's just fantastic. Imagine what things will be like in 20 years, or 100, or 1,000!

2. I was reading a book last night and it sparked a thought that I had to write down. Do we need language to think deeply? I think we do. For instance, does increased language help people express themselves more? It would seem so. But does it also help you express yourself to yourself? If you don't have words to describe a feeling or a thought, how can you process that thought? Don't you need some form of language?

I guess it matters on what the thoughts are. If they are about physics, I think you need a way to process your thoughts concretely, through math and language. But if it's a feeling, of course we feel it even if we can't explain it. But are we better served by being able to have words to express it? So if you have a simple language with only a few words to express happiness, for example, you'd still feel deeply, but you wouldn't be able to articulate to yourself or others the depth of your happiness.

But you can express yourself with art (is that also a form of language and communication though?)

And if you grow up in a culture with no math, like some cultures in the Amazon, you would never contemplate physics, at least not like Stephen Hawking does. Right? Or if you did, you wouldn't have any way to share it.

So language is extremely important. Of course, you don't need me to tell you that, I guess. But what about how we express ourselves over time, and how language evolves. It seems that some people use more of it and are growing and expanding, like Stephen Hawking or Neil deGrasse Tyson, for example. While other people seem to want to use less language, shorten words, add new words that are lazier, write in shorthand and text speak.

Does it matter? I don't know. These are just thoughts I wanted to share with you. What do you think?

Brains!

Hey everyone, I'm so sorry for the huge delay. I won't go into the sordid details of my silence, mainly because they aren't terribly interesting and not sordid at all. My parents came to visit, and then things just snowballed and the days have sped past. So I apologize.

To make up for it, here are some links to my facebook albums that I've posted of my little vacation:

• A walk in the woods at Valley Falls, WV


• A train ride on the New Tygart Flyer in WV


• Laurel Caverns, PA


• A few pictures from Fort Necessity, PA

Anyway, I realized something last week when my parents were here. When I was young, I was very creative. If you asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, after I realized that vets have to put animals to sleep, I wanted to be an artist, mainly a sculptor. I just loved creating something out of a hunk of clay. I was very right-brained. While I could do math and was good with language, I excelled at most creative endeavors.

But somewhere in my 30's until today, I've lost almost all of my creativity. I've become seemingly much more left-brained. I am much more analytical (I wasn't at all when I was younger). Also, I have come to realize is I just don't really care much about art anymore. I have developed a fondness for exacting and correct information. I love the facts. I don't even enjoy reading fiction anymore. Now I love nonfiction (which I hated in my younger years) and find a book about science to be a most interesting and compelling read.

I still like to take pictures, but now it's to document nature. Before it was to be artistic and tell a story. I have no desire to do art anymore, and would probably cover my walls in something that was practical (like cork!) so that I could use them more efficiently,  instead of any art or decoration, if Butch, my long-suffering husband would let me.

Butch says I'm still creative, but I looked at the pictures he took last weekend, and the ones I took. His are beautiful, with a great use of lines, and are very artistic. Mine are merely trying to capture the scene to share it, or to record a moment for later. While I know all about the Golden Ratio (the Rule of Thirds) and am still very sensitive to color (I used to restore old photographs), I didn't think to take the kinds of pictures that he did.

I disagree with Butch. I care much more about logic, reason, skepticism, science and the scientific method than I ever did before. It's what I'm passionate about now. Whereas in my youth up to my 20's, I was passionate about creating art, and reveled in the supernatural. I was very emotional, and not rational in the slightest.

What do you think? Is there something to this? Do people change from right-brained to left or vice versa? Is that common? Have you gone through such a transformation or do you know someone who has? Or is this unusual? I have no idea. I'll have to ask around among my friends, but I'd love to hear your thoughts!

A Revelation!

I realized something this morning. As you might know, I have a second blog with a Catholic friend of mine called AtheistCatholic. We have tried to keep the atmosphere friendly, but the comments get a bit heated and get very debate-like which drives me nuts.

I don't like to debate. For someone like me, it makes me incredibly frustrated. Well, I don't mind having arguments with some people. For instance, I can disagree with my husband and many of my friends and we can have a friendly argument where we have different points of view. I usually end up feeling we both hopefully learned something and it seems productive. Awesome.

But there are some people (and some types of people) that I just can't stand arguing with. With them it turns into a debate and I end up feeling extremely frustrated or downright angry. I don't like being frustrated or angry. My revelation is why it's so irritating.

It's because they don't play fair. They use logical fallacies like cats take naps. They play the "offended card" at the slightest disagreement. But the main reason is that their logic is so flawed that it makes me feel crazy just trying to figure out what they said.

My problem is that I can tell that they are doing these things intuitively now, but I can't name the logical fallacy or explain the flawed logic and straighten it out. Sometimes it's because I know the topic well enough to understand it, but not well enough to explain the mistakes of someone else. For this issue, the only solution I see is to learn more deeply about the topics that matter to me.

And I guess I can study the logical fallacies more, right? But the flawed logic, that just boggles my mind. I think I need to study that more. If you have any suggestions for good books that teach logic, let me know! Preferably something that is understandable in everyday language.

Do you have people that you deal with who don't play fair and are really irritating to argue with? How do you deal with them? How do you avoid debating but still get your point across? I can't figure that out either.

 

The Universe Owes Us Nothing

A friend of mine was dumped by his girlfriend recently. Several years ago I would have said, "You'll find someone. There's someone for everyone."

At a holiday party awhile ago, a cousin told us about how she wasn't able to do what she wanted to do, to take a path she had chosen for herself. A family relative who was religious said, "As one door closes, another opens. It will all work out for the best."

Today my friend Jeff realized he had forgotten something. You know how it is. You remember you forgot something, but no matter how you try to jog your memory, it's just out of reach. I used to say, "If it was important, you'll remember." As if the universe knows what's important and what's not and would never let us forget something that we'll need.

But the universe does not owe us anything, and the universe does not have agency. It's easy to fall into these comforting mindsets, but that doesn't make them real.

There isn't someone for everyone. I know people who have been alone most of their lives, or who have never really had successful relationships. It really sucks. As a friend, I want so much to find them someone, but sometimes for whatever reason, they've been alone and there's nothing they can seem to do to get themselves in a happy relationship.

Things don't always work out for the best. Sometimes it's obvious that the worst happens instead. But most times there's just no way to know if it's better or worse given a turn of events. It's another platitude that makes us feel better when we've been stung, but it's not true. Of course, in hindsight, we might try to find a way to see a silver lining on a bad event, which is good. Maybe you can learn a lesson, or find a way to turn a bad situation into something positive, or find a way to improve yourself. But believing the universe is looking out for you and making sure that every bad thing that happens to you has a silver lining is delusional. Some things are just bad all around. Should you make the best of it? Absolutely. But do you have to sugar coat it? Hell no. That wouldn't be healthy.

And if you forget something, the universe isn't making sure you'll remember it just because it was important. When you forget, sometimes it will be really important things forever irretrievable. Just look at the tragedy of Alzheimer's and dementia as an example. Or if you write something down that's important, the universe isn't keeping track of that paperwork for you if you misplace it. It could be lost forever, along with some special memento or keepsake that you lost. We like to think that if it's important information, art, music, science, etc, that it can't be lost forever. But it can and does, probably even more often than important things being saved.

I've seen people comment about this on HDC regarding events like the destruction of the Library of Alexandria. We know that thousands and thousands of books were destroyed forever in that fire. We know this partly because other books in other places refer to the destroyed ones. That priceless information can never be retrieved.

Why am I saying all this? It sounds so depressing, doesn't it? But it's not. It's just reality.

And as the wonderful Carl Sagan said, "It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."

So, as we get ready for the Rapture (or if you're like me, the After Rapture Parties on Sunday), let's all embrace reality. Sometimes it sucks, sometimes it hurts, but it's always completely real and honest.

And before you go giving me a hard time, let me just be clear. I am advocating pragmatism and realism. There's no need to be pessimistic, which I think is unhealthy. But in that vein, while it's helpful to have a positive attitude - I recommend it highly - it's actually delusional to be overly optimistic.

Pragmatism/Realism = Good

Optimism/Pessimism/thinking the universe is watching out for you = delusion = unhealthy.

One more thing before I go. I've found that most people are the way they are. In other words, if you're an optimist, you're probably always going to be that way. I can't really help being the way that I am, which is mostly pragmatic, with a tinge of pessimism in some circumstances and a pinch of optimism in others. I do consciously aim to be as pragmatic as possible, though, as I think being realistic is the healthiest approach to life. But I also try to have a positive outlook and perspective.

Have I gone off my medication? Does any of this make sense? I hope so! If not, send all hate mail to philosophicalmumbojumbo@bs.com :P

~

EDIT: here are some definitions to clarify:

Delusion: a mistaken or unfounded opinion or idea; a belief held in the face of evidence to the contrary, that is resistant to all reason

Optimism: a state of mind in which one always hopes or expects that something good will happen; a general disposition to expect the best in all things

Pessimism: A tendency to stress the negative or unfavorable or to take the gloomiest possible view; a general disposition to look on the dark side and to expect the worst in all things

Pragmatism: A practical, matter-of-fact way of approaching or assessing situations or of solving problems; action or policy dictated by consideration of the immediate practical consequences rather than by theory or dogma; a philosophical system stressing practical consequences and values as standards by which the validity of concepts are to be determined

Realism: An inclination toward literal truth and pragmatism; awareness or acceptance of the facts and necessities of life; a practical rather than a moral or dogmatic view of things; Naturalism

Imagination and Creativity

People generally feel they are creative or uncreative. But all of us use our imaginations all the time. So what are these things and can science explain them? Recently I've come to realize that there are things that I take for granted that religious people find completely mysterious, and therefore only God could make them happen. A lot of these mysteries are about the mind. Some examples are morality, love, compassion and imagination, among many others.

(as an aside, and if you're interested, a topic for later could be justice and fairness. I have found a huge difference between how I see them and how religious people see them.)

As a naturalist/atheist/skeptic/science lover, while I don't understand the physics, mechanics, biochemistry and biology of the workings of the brain, I understand that the mind is what is active in the brain. That's not the best wording, but basically the mind is just  the brain, but I think of it as RAM whereas the physical structure of the brain is more like the Hard Drive. If you have a better analogy, please share it. They are one and the same, essentially. Your mind is not separate from your brain.

Imagination: the ability of forming mental images, sensations and concepts, in a moment when they are not perceived through sight, hearing or other senses. Imagination is the work of the mind that helps create. Imagination helps provide meaning to experience and understanding to knowledge; it is a fundamental facility through which people make sense of the world, and it also plays a key role in the learning process.

Creativity: 1. having the ability to create. 2. characterized by originality of thought; having or showing imagination. 3. designed to or tending to stimulate the imagination.

So we all use our imaginations every time we have a thought that creates something in our minds that is not perceived through our senses. Like pink elephants with emerald green polka dots. If you can see them standing on top of each other in your head right now, you are using your imagination.

Resisting Woo

As you know, I've been an atheist for about 10 years or so, and a skeptic for about 2 or 3 years. While I found it easy to give up religion (in fact it was a relief once I realized I wasn't going to literally be struck by lightning for calling myself an atheist), I found it took longer to realize I needed to be skeptical about other things as well.

The hardest thing for me to give up was superstition. Deep down, I was afraid something bad would happen if I didn't knock on wood when I said certain things, or that I would be jinxed if I said something positive at the wrong time. It was crazy! I finally had to just force myself to do a basic experiment. I made myself not do the superstitious action and waited to see if there were negative consequences. Rinse, Repeat, Repeat, Repeat. Look at the results. Shabam, no ill effects!

I still have the urge to knock on wood though. But I never do anymore. Thank g... Science!

It's funny how ingrained  superstitions are. I recently messed up my neck and back. Instead of going to the doctor I tried everything I could think of to fix it myself. It only got worse. I finally went today and will start physical therapy on Monday along with some mild medications.

Why was it so hard to go, though? Why did I wait 3 weeks, in which I was completely miserable? Ok, so I have an irrational fear of doctors and dentists. That's probably a big part of it. But also because I thought I could do it on my own. When I started thinking about turning to woo, I realized I was really desperate and finally went to the doctor. That's progress, isn't it? Three years ago I definitely would have been popping every supplement I could think of and going to a chiropractor, or even an acupuncturist.

Thanks to all the skeptics in my life, I now know about the lack of scientific evidence of those practices. Now, knowing that acupuncture is equivalent to a placebo isn't good enough for me. I'd rather just go straight for real medicine, based on real scientific evidence.

What I Stand For and What I Believe

One of my Facebook friends, Mark, wrote a note the other day about what he believes and what he stands for. He inspired me and I decided to do the same:

I don't believe in nothing. I believe in grand concepts like the pursuit of love and happiness. I believe in finding simple joys in everyday things.

I embrace knowledge and growth through learning as much as possible. I love science and the scientific method, which although flawed, is still the best tool we've got to understand our fantastic universe and our place in it. I am a citizen scientist.

I require evidence for claims and refuse to accept things on faith or authority. I am a skeptic.

But I am a true skeptic. Many times in the past I've changed my views based on evidence that showed that my old thinking was wrong. I constantly work on detaching my ego from my world view.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and since there is zero credible evidence for any gods or the supernatural, I don't believe in them. I don't believe in the supernatural in any sense. No gods, no heaven, no hell, no demons, no ghosts, no psychic powers. I am a skeptical atheist.

Is Being A Martyr A Good Thing?

I love my husband's cousin. She's 18, bright, full of life and has the whole world in front of her. We'll call her Leah. She wrote the following on Facebook yesterday:
'The tortured's love for the torturer. This is God's love. It conquers the world.'
I felt I had to keep my mouth shut. She's very religious, idealistic and young. Her mother is religious but in a quiet way. Her mother accepts Butch and I as atheists without open judgment and we never talk about religion out of respect for each other. The relationship is more important than fighting over differing world views. By default we have the same relationship with Leah, but lately she has started putting uncomfortable, self-sacrificing, mindless bible verses on Facebook. This is really hard to take. I want to say something but I want to be courteous of my relationship with her.

So on Heaving Dead Cats' Facebook page I put the following:
‎'The tortured's love for the torturer. This is God's love. It conquers the world.' (someone I know wrote that as their status update. What does it mean to you? If you were a religious person, would YOU find comfort in that?)
I got several responses. No one liked it. Barbara was kind enough to Google it, though, and commented with the quote in context:
"And then there is the love for the enemy- love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured’s love for the torturer. This is God’s love. It conquers the world.’”

Leah eventually told me she read the quote in a book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan. "Crazy, relentless all-powerful, radical love." Eek. I feel queasy now. A self help book about how to fall in love with God.  I won't even go there with how insane it is to fall in love with an invisible, intangible nothingness. My love of coffee is more meaningful.

Atheists: Have You Ever Had A Mystical Experience?

I'm reading a book called The God Part of the Brain by Matthew Alper. Mostly, I think it's a pretty interesting book. (there's one thing that really bugs me about it, but otherwise it's a good read). Anyway, he talks about how mystical experiences are found across cultures, which implies that there is a genetic component to them. In other words, every culture in recorded history talks about having mystical experiences so it must be something happening in the brain that is genetic. There must be genes associated with the way the brain works in certain circumstances that cause that phenomenon in people around the world.

Let's define a mystical experience first. Dan Merkur, author of Gnosis: An Esoteric Tradition of Mystical Visions and Unions, lists the five most common symptoms of a mystical experience (from The God Part of the Brain, pg 134)

• a sense of unity or totality


• a sense of timelessness


• a sense of having encountered ultimate reality


• a sense of sacredness


• a sense that one can not adequately describe the richness of their experience

I was deeply religious as a child, from about age 4 to 12. I was so terrified of burning in hell that I was baptized 3 times in 3 different churches. I went to Sunday school, church, bible camp, I sang hymns, I prayed, I studied and read my bible, and had bible lessons for a short while. But in all those years, I never once had a mystical experience. I never felt god. I never felt the touch of the divine.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

All day long I've been thinking about you. I wanted to write a nice post for you for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately I am feeling a bit frustrated and unable to focus on anything.

So, I thought I'd use this space to share some Lolcat love and also what I'm thankful for.

One thing I'm really grateful for is you, the people who read my thoughts and musings. It means a lot to me, so thanks!

I'm really grateful to science and scientists who have done such amazing work over the ages to observe and research the world around us. I am especially grateful to the science of medicines that make my life better, like allergy relievers, eye drops, ibuprofen and acetaminophen, acid reducers, just to name a few. Also hand cream makes my life better too. And eyeglasses, thanks Ben Franklin (...oh, he invented bifocals. Well, thanks to Ben Franklin anyway. He's a founding father. But thanks to whoever invented eyeglasses!)

Thanks to Tempur Pedic, and big TV's, the inventor of the personal computer and the internet. Thanks to whoever came up with ergonomic stuff like keyboards and trackballs, and comfy office chairs! And dual monitors, too. :)

Thanks to my awesome longsuffering husband Butch, who lets me do basically whatever I like (don't worry, he gets treated well in return!) and who loves me and makes me happy everyday, and to my awesome dogs that drive me crazy. I love my little family!

Thanks to my awesome friends and the people that are or have become like family to me. You know who you are. I love you.

Thanks to our founding fathers for the Bill of Rights, and making sure we had freedom of religion, and from religion in there, as well as freedom of speech, and the right to bear arms.

Thank you so much to the all rats and bonobos and monkeys and chimps and e. coli that die in the name of science every day. Thanks for research (oh, yeah.. see above.. obviously I really love science!)

By god, he's a Bad Designer!

The other day I was pondering how our bodies have features that are poorly designed. Not to get too personal, but I have a hard time with coughing over the least little thing. Sometimes if I inhale wrong, my uvula freaks out and I start to cough like crazy. It's horrible.

So I wanted to write down some goofy examples to share with you, as if there were a god, he's pretty bad at designing. Then my mind kind of fizzled out, so I thought, hell, I'm not the first person to come up with this brilliant idea. I'll Google it. That's when I found the following video, which sums it up in about 6 minutes rather perfectly.

Neil deGrasse Tyson did a talk back in late 2006 where he ended with the following: (I have reproduced most of his slides below for your convenience)

How Far I've Come!

Last week, I ran some errands with Butch. One of them involved me waiting for him to take a test which he thought was going to be a half hour. It turned out that it was an hour and a half, which was actually good considering they had 3 hours allotted.

I was bored out of my mind after about 12 minutes of sitting in the car, and started to find ways to occupy myself. I got out and wandered around to look at all the different lichens on the trees, but I didn't have enough light to get any decent pictures. I paced , looking at ants, then sat in the car and read my book for awhile, tried not to think about how much Monster energy drink I had consumed on the way there, and let my mind generally wander around. It was excruciating. :P

At one point I noticed that there was a decorative wall that had the top knocked off, around a little flower garden near the front doors (which were locked so I couldn't go in and get rid of the huge amount of Monster now making me miserable). Next to it were lots of bits of broken concrete, but among them, like a shining miracle, was a smooth brown river stone. I picked it up and thought how lucky I was to find something so wonderful in all that chaos.

Miracle: An event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin or an act of god.

[caption id="attachment_1867" align="alignleft" width="331" caption="Neece holding the Miracle Rock"][/caption]

Of course, I was just being silly. It was just a misplaced stone from another flower bed, but I was thinking how easily it is to see something that stands out as somehow special or miraculous. I slipped it in my pocket with a smirk. My sacred touch with the divine (NOT!). It reminded me of the way people see patterns in randomness and claim it to be divine, such as the magical stump and the magical bird shit. It's really nothing more than pareidolia.

Back in the car, waiting patiently, I glanced up at the rear view mirror and saw a sticker that I had put there probably 10 years ago. Now, in the 10 years that we've had this car, this is the only sticker I've ever put on it that was not practical. We have the registration stickers, and the oil change one, but no bumper stickers except this one, which I had placed there because it meant so much to me back then. I wanted to see it every time I got in the car. I wanted to be reminded of this message, which was:

The Universe arranges itself to accommodate your picture of reality!

Now, if you read HDC regularly, I'm sure you are aware that this is utter pseudoscience bullshit. It is completely and totally wrong and anyone who holds this as truth is crazy. I was crazy back then. I believed that thoughts were powerful and could help shape the universe. I was wrapped up in a lot of "spiritual" thinking that was completely bogus.

It was easy to selectively enforce those beliefs back then though. To me, this statement was accurate. It never occurred to me how ridiculous and nonsensical it was. I was a believer in "energy" and a conscious universe (even though I was an agnostic).

So as I sat there, I was amazed at how far I've come over the years. I now embrace science, reason, skepticism and logic, which to me, is much more rewarding, and certainly more consistent and satisfying than the desperate beliefs that were based on nothing more substantial than wishful thinking.

The Nicest Compliment Ever

So, I got an email from a nice man yesterday. He read my de-conversion story and told me something I have never been told before, at least not this way. He told me I need to reconsider and have a child! Now, I'm 40, so I really don't see that happening for a myriad of reasons, but the sentiment was so honest and forthright that I was taken aback.

This nice man found HDC and my story and just thought that atheists like me and my husband should have more children. You know, he's right, in a way. I mean, if you can do it, and you're a freethinking atheist, then yes, you should consider having a kid or two. Like he said, it would bring a bit more sanity into the world.

Unfortunately people who are more educated, intelligent and rational might think it's a bad idea. But the movie Idiocracy does make a good point. Mostly people who are sheep, who follow the crowd, who think having unprotected sex is ok because, if they get pregnant it was "meant to be"! (my idiot neighbors told me this... they can't afford their meager bills and the wife told me she doesn't even like her husband, but he is "hers" so they might as well have a kid.. OMFG don't even get me started on those two idiots... they believe drinking Mountain Dew is a good method of birth control! Seriously, WTF!)

I don't have any specific numbers, but it seems that educated, intelligent people are having less children in Europe and America. While less educated, (more religious?),  lower income people (I don't know a politically correct term that would be better to use. So try not to be offended, ok?) are having more kids. I know that Europe has been dwindling in population, especially in Germany, Italy and other countries. And muslim people are filling up the ghost towns, then immediately going on the Dole over there. That's what I've heard, but I don't have hard data. (that's from NPR, from a year ago, so maybe things are different now. But I don't listen to NPR anymore). Pat Condell is always talking about such things too.

I never saw the movie, Idiocracy. It looked really dumb, but the concept is what I'm talking about. It's more about I.Q. though, and I'm also talking about education and belief systems. If more atheists raise their children to be freethinkers and critical thinkers, imagine what the next generation would be like instead of what I see when we go out these days?

Since when did it become "cool" to be ignorant? That makes me stark raving crazy mad. I know of only 2 teenagers who seem to value intelligence and they are in my family. Maybe I sound old and crotchety, I don't know. It just seems that teenagers are having babies, and that everyone is purposefully embracing ignorance and mindlessness.

In my day... (just kidding... but seriously, in my day, it wasn't like this!)

Ok, it's getting a bit late, the weekend has been really long, and I'm tired. But I wanted to thank the man for thinking I'd make a good parent. I know I'd raise my kids to be freethinking individuals, even though it's not very cool.

Maybe you out there can chime in. Are you raising your children to be critical thinkers? How is that going? I imagine with the societal influences and poor education system it must be tough. Then again, am I just out of touch since I'm not a parent? Or did you do what my husband and I did? Did you decide for whatever reason that it would be best not to have kids? As always, I look forward to your thoughts!

Random Thoughts About Human Impact On Evolution

Charles Darwin celebrated his 200th birthday February 12 of this year. So of course many of the science podcasts I listen to, as well as many of the science and skeptic sites I visit, have been talking about evolution and Darwin and all that good stuff. Evolution is often paraphrased as the term, survival of the fittest, which is inaccurate. Here is how Dictionary.com defines it, as well as some other terms, just so we're all on the same page:

• Survival of the Fittest
  a 19th-century concept of human society, inspired by the principle of natural selection, postulating that those who are eliminated in the struggle for existence are the unfit.


• Natural Selection
  n. The process in nature by which, according to Darwin's theory of evolution, only the organisms best adapted to their environment tend to survive and transmit their genetic characteristics in increasing numbers to succeeding generations while those less adapted tend to be eliminated.


• Evolution
  Biology. change in the gene pool of a population from generation to generation by such processes as mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift.

I've been slowly forming some random thoughts regarding the human population and evolution and I thought I'd write them down. Your input would be most welcome, as usual.

Hypocrisy

Why is it that people who put on such a show of high moral character and fine virtues are usually the dirtiest fighters, the biggest bullies, and the first to whine and cry when something might possibly be a little less than fair? Hypocrisy. That's why. And I hate it. To me it's one of the REAL 7 Deadly Sins.

Hypocrisy: noun- a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess.

I watch several different sports. I have a passion for Formula One racing, MMA, boxing, College football and NFL football. I've noticed parallels between sports, religion and politics.

While I love these sports, I do watch them differently than my husband does. I get interested in different players or drivers or fighters while he is more interested in other things that are beyond my poor female brain. I'm explaining how I watch them because I think that's how I've noticed this thing about hypocrisy.