What I Believe... (Episode No. 1... for the most part..)

mostly written 1/Jan/2008, mostly.. that this was written seconds after I started blocking christian fundies left right and centre... because I had just been threatened and lied to by christians, so if you think you are being lumped in with them.. well sorry.. but they are blocked because i don't want them apologising for being unchristian because if you know you're being unchristian then why were you unchristian in the first place?

seriously ... i've heard the most pathetic excuses from ''christians'' trying to justify their christianity and received a private "apology" when they've publicly insulted me means they can get fucked because their apology means nothing... (you read the disclaimer up the top right?)

i don't like to offend people over their beliefs about god (really! I don't) and whatever but for some reason they *keep* getting offended no matter what i do. And truly, for nearly twenty years i've given little concern to the religious people in this world, well until this myspaz thing lured me in.. and no religion wasn't what lured me here

but frankly, if you do upset someone with your beliefs (or lack of them) then that person who is getting upset should sit back and ask themselves if they are getting pissed because what they believe might just not actually have any merit!

it is a terrible thing to believe something for years, decades even, and then have that notion suddenly vaporise when you are told or you figure out the truth...

if the answer you have to any question means you go grab for your bible or your koran or torah, then you are indeed not as human as you can be... using scripture to describe the universe is close minded - time to get over yourself and this shrink wrapped universe and move forward - if you can't quietly accept other peoples' religions or lack of them - then you need to shut the fuck up if you are going to have the gall to try and say that your religion is "the best" .. how fucking arrogant are you?

i don't like to offend but people who follow any set of principles so vehemently, that can't really be verified, are not allowing their minds to open up to the universe of possibilities. that is close minded, that is not looking to the future.. it's not... not really... religion is about maintaining the status quo ...

so what do i believe then?

well i'm not sure ... but this is what makes sense... at least to me!

universe:
the universe is infinite
the only thing that can go forever is nothing
you can have an infinite amount of nothing

so the universe - in it's entirety - is probably mostly nothing...


god:
the definition of a god is that they can do anything right? then god can create itself without the need for some other higher being to do it - but how can a conscious being create itself if it didn't already exist? it can't! so it had to be always there and nothing can possibly exist forever, how can it?... so .. does that make god nothing? merely a concept?

so for me, god is in fact the universe - but of course - you sound like a nut case to a religious person if the universe is god, now don't you?... teehee, don't tell them they sound like nut-cases for their belief though... so you either ignore the "god" label altogether or you call the universe "the god", superior to all other (false) gods.. because the christian god... is NOT big enough for this universe.. sheesh - only about two billion people vaguely believe in the christian god... there are more people on earth that don't believe in the christian god, than there are people who do believe and that's not counting the unknown volume of intelligent life in the rest of the universe...

fear:
if i may paraphrase Yoda: fear is the path to the dark side... once you start down that path.. forever will it dominate your destiny...

seriously.. once you have learnt to fear something - especially as a child - it will always be there in your mind even if you have managed to mostly overcome it in your adulthood...

in it's most important context, for my mind at least, the fear of god, once a child has it in their minds that god is all powerful, that if they do something wrong they will be punished, while this may seem like a good idea to keep kids in line - that just speaks volumes to your parenting ability that you have to use the boogey man to keep your kids in line

and this scaring kids is not good, especially to fear things that are never seen, this will stay with them forever...

trust me, *I*KNOW* - there is *always* that nagging doubt about god once the concept is introduced and introducing that concept to a child isn't a good thing, because then the child when the grow up, has to fight god out of their minds, or they capitulate, and succumb to the heavenly lord dude....

it's how rational people approach this notion, that allows them to let go and or carry on with their lives, but not all people are rational and god fears implanted at an early age, I've no doubt, could lead to mental problems as an adult.

teaching children to fear god stagnates learning paths towards the real truth and quite literally brainwashes that child into religious doctrine - this is not good - seriously - brainwashing is the buzz word, but in literal terms here is what you are doing - you are forming synaptic pathways in the part of the child's mind that deal with reasoning of the unknown - by filling it with religion early on, it is setting those pathways in the brain to a close minded way of thinking....

this is called 'laziness' ...

and i don't mean the fat arse lazy sit around on your butt all day sort of laziness, (it could be related though) i'm talking about the inability to think for yourself form of laziness...

by not indoctrinating a child into religion, their reasoning and logic about *all* things will be free of inherent preconceptions that deal with the intangible. what i'm saying is that god is a waste of time and that to teach it to a child is to in fact retard the development of the mind of that child, because they put their minds to things that have never been seen, and what is more useless than that? To be thinking over things that have no bearing in this life is a waste of time, if you can't be good without god, then please feel free to embrace god, but don't let go...

and now that i put it that way - isn't that child abuse? seriously - why don't people be truly lazy and not expose their kids to religion in the first place?

because seriously, a child doesn't truly grasp the concept of god at a young age, it wasn't until i was twelve that i realised god might be a sham, well actually i thought that he hated me, and that allowed me to let him go... eventually!

apathy will kill all religion eventually.... you can only guilt trip people for so long until one of them wakes up, and infects the rest... muahhahahahahhaha

who created evil? god did, that's who...

so, who made evil? surely it must say in the bible whence foreout thoust cometh the evil?

so finally - i find the right verse - by accident whilst looking for something else -

so then there was this serpent character in the garden all evil and wily - so how the hell did he get there if he was so evil?? it seems a bit of an oversight on the part of the author of Genesis how god created everything but skipped the little known fact that it was god who made evil in the first place!!

but that's OK because Isaiah remembered to drill it out of you...

Isaiah 45:7

I form the light,
and create darkness:
I make peace,
and create evil:
I the LORD do all these [things].

that's right, god created evil... it says so right there in Isaiah 45:7. But now it's Satan who gets blamed for all the evil in the world? Satan is a patsy! god is a bastard!

who tempted adam and eve? (religiorant)

mostly written 25/Dec/2007... mostly.... and I've actually answered a few of the things I've questioned in this blog since then...

you may remember a few days ago i posted the story about when I was a kid and read the bit in the bible where satan is cast out to earth to rule over all he could survey...

seems that was just the twisted interpretation i came up with as a kid... because .. i can't find the bit in the bible where it says he was cast out to rule over all he could survey... perhaps that was just a caption on the illustration or perhaps it wasn't a king james version of the bible...

at any rate i can only find three references to satan falling or being cast out in the bible... hmmmm... that's interesting is it not?

well, to me it is because for my mind, the devil is mentioned on every second page of the bible because of those "preachers" who go on and on about how satan corrupts people... but ... that's not how it is - considering how big the bible is the devil doesn't get mentioned that often let alone the corrupter of the masses - in the bible, "god" is far more belligerent than the devil is...


ah.. here it is the passage that made me think the devil ruled the earth...

Luke 4:6
And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.


to me this says blah blah the devil is tempting jesus blah blah but he then offers him all the power that has been delivered to him and he may give that power to anyone (everyone?) he wishes...

ok so we've established that the devil tempted jesus.. so does that mean the devil has already been cast out of heaven? surely he wouldn't be tempting jesus on a mission from heaven under the instruction of god?

why do i point that out? because in revelation it says...
Revelation 12:9
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

so? well i thought revelations was about the future - that these were things that were yet to happen... cast out into the earth does sort of imply under the earth doesn't it... hmmm... but if satan is cast out of heaven in the future... is that because satan left the earth to mount his final battle with heaven?


Revelations 12:12
Therefore rejoice, [ye] heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

Revelations 20:2
And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

Revelations 20:10
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet [are], and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.


the bible really needs a frikking time line for events .. because i can't tell from any passage in the King James version of the bible that actually says when satan was cast out - because - i always thought that the serpent in the garden of eden was satan... so very early on satan must have been cast out, no?

you would think the bible would mention Satan in genesis if he was cast out during that time, no? but it does not - so the serpent was just evil all by himself, hey? so, for my mind, it wasn't satan, not by my interpretation of genesis.

but if it wasn't satan then why was the serpent so tempting? you'd think that if god created the garden of eden it wouldn't have anything evil in it? so did god accidentally create evil?

or was the serpent in the garden god himself? there is no mention of satan anywhere in genesis.. it merely implies the evil serpent tempted adam and eve but... if god created the garden and all the creatures in it.... uhmmm... if the serpent was god then why was he playing the role of a deceiver?

was the serpent, god, or at least under instruction from god to tempt eve with the fruit of the tree of knowledge? was it god tempting eve with the apple? you'd think that the bible would mention the devil being cast out of heaven sometime in between the time that the earth was made and when eve was tempted... it does not .. i just fucking read it then... it does *not* say evil was present on the earth already...

Genesis doesn't say god created evil as some separate entity, either - it does not say evil came from man - the serpent tempted adam and eve - the serpent was evil for passing along the idea of gaining more knowledge.. a creature created by god tempted adam and eve...

is this why science is "evil" - because to acquire wisdom is to "eat" from the tree of knowledge - and god said don't do that - well news frikking flash - the damage is done - that was the original sin - i think god got pissed off because it happened so quickly - so to seek science is to eat from that tree thing but .. thanks to eve disobeying god that first time are we not free to continue on - now that god has throw his hands in the air and left us to our devices?

is mankind at the point of, "in for a penny, in for a pound"?

so god says don't eat the fruit from the knowledge tree but then he'll tempt people anyway with this serpent character he's created - why did the arsehole put that tree there in the first place? he is god, he knew what was going to happen, or at least what *might* happen, so why do it? what's that called, when you do something - no matter how innocent it starts out as - when you know it's going to snowball into something that's going to blow up?

uhmmm.. is that not the definition of "evil" itself? so god puts the tree in the garden - tempts adam and eve with the evil notion of being smarter - then gets all frikking ticked off when his precious children go and do exactly what he'd been tempting them to do?

so i think my conclusion here is that satan wasn't involved with the evil things that happened in the garden of eden... so why did god do that?

what did satan have to do with anything? did he just get fed up with god being a dick? is satan a frikking patsy because god is too ball-less to accept his own short comings? i mean, god was frikking surprised when he found that Adam and Eve had eaten of the tree, what's that about? some god... all knowing? not likely, all powerful, pfft... oooohhhhh....

so satan is a patsy - and he only got ticked off at god after genesis - so god let the evil serpent corrupt Eve then he gets all ticked-off about it.. then Satan finally gets annoyed and launches a coup, but for some reason god is competent on that day.. well actually it mentions that the archangel Michael does the fighting for god in the bible somewhere, anyway, so this god dude doesn't even fight his own battles??

Satan appears in job but it's not exactly clear that he has been cast out from heaven, but in Isaiah it says he was been cast out ... and somewhere (Luke?) it says Jesus saw the devil being cast from heaven...

but here's a question... why? what did satan do, that was *so* bad... ?

was Satan smarter than god - handsomer - younger?? is Ezekiel talking about Satan here?

Eze 28:14 Thou [art] the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee [so]: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

Eze 28:15 Thou [wast] perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.

Eze 28:16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

i just don't get it - you sit down and look at this Satan cast out of heaven and it just doesn't add up... god made the evil serpent in the garden of eden... god made evil.. and as far as I can tell.. the devil had to have been cast out of heaven after Genesis and before Job ... but if Jesus saw the devil fall from heaven doesn't that mean that the devil is only responsible for evil after Jesus sees him fall?

#confused

uhmmm... so where did all the evil come from beforehand? it came from god, did it not? so why is god all pissed off over his own mistake? if god hadn't screwed up he would not have had to send Jesus in the first place, no?

so Satan stood up to god once - got kicked out of heaven - now god blames everything on Satan - but it clearly says in genesis that the serpent tempted eve long before there is any mention of the devil / lucifer / satan - go look it up already - so to summarise: god is responsible for all the evil on earth....

do you still like the bible, kiddies?

i hate my christian upbringing...

mostly written, 11/Dec/07 - mostly ....

i hate my "christian" upbringing...

in my mind when something happens, it's always an exclamation like ... "god this sux!" or "thank god!" or "jesus christ!" .. for all my life.. that's what my brain does, then my conscious mind kicks in and qualifies "god" as being "the universe, aka god" ... "god damn it" ..

you know ... fucking funny if it turned out that the people who said the lords' name the most or "thanked god" or made little quips like "god make this pain go away" were the ones who got their prayers answered... I mean god must be frikking busy right? .. he listens to all our prayers does he not? he doesn't make them all come true but some he does...

is this why you're not supposed to say the lord's name in vain? because every time you do it's like ... "oh here comes another prayer!! ... oh... false alarm, another person kicked their toe, god dammit!"

devout christian prayer:

dear god, i give you thanks on this day of my new job that i prayed i would get last month, you remember. right? well, today is my first day and I really need to make a good impression and i can't seem to find my keys and i know i put them somewhere......

meanwhile, here is me with my short curt prayer to god:

god damn it!! I can't find my keys!! where are they?

then god sends that bit of energy that triggers that brain cell to wake up and remember where the keys were.. meanwhile the other guy who procrastinated, didn't get his prayer answered.. well, because he took too frikking long.. god must be pretty busy, he ainst got time to hear all that, he ainst got time to fix shingles, nor to fix no window pane, he's a gunna leave this place he's ...how does that go again?

Ain't got time to fix the shingles
Ain't a-got time to fix the floor
Ain't got time to oil the hinges
Nor to mend no windowpane
Ain't a-gonna need this house no longer
She's a-gettin' ready to meet the saints

tired of politically correct? me too, so MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS!! (offensive, politically incorrect dark humour)

Mr. Garrison - Merry Fucking Christmas

Mr. Garrison: I heard there is no Christmas
In the silly Middle East
No trees, no snow, no Santa Claus
They have different religious beliefs

They believe in Muhammad
And not in our holiday
And so every December
I go to the Middle East and say...

"Hey there Mr. Muslim
Merry fucking Christmas
Put down that book the Koran
And hear some holiday wishes.

In case you haven't noticed
It's Jesus's birthday.
So get off your heathen Muslim ass
and fucking celebrate.

There is no holiday season in India I've heard
They don't hang up their stockings
And that is just absurd!

They've never read a Christmas story.
They don't know what Rudolph is about
And that is why in December
I'll go to India and shout...

Hey there Mr. Hinduist
Merry fucking Christmas
Drink eggnog and eat some beef
And pass it to the missus.

In case you haven't noticed
It's Jesus's birthday
So get off your heathen Hindu ass
and fucking celebrate!

Now I heard that in Japan
Everyone just lives in sin
They pray to several gods
And put needles in their skin.

On December 25th
All they do is eat a cake
And that is why I go to Japan
And walk around and say...

Hey there Mr. Shintoist
Merry fucking Christmas
God is going to kick your ass
You infidelic pagan scum.

In case you haven't noticed
There's festive things to do
So lets all rejoice for Jesus
And Merry fucking Christmas to you.

On Christmas day I travel `round the world and say,
Taoists, Krishnas, Buddhists, and all you atheists too,
Merry Fucking Christmas, To You!

(Clapping)

Thank you Mr. hat

from
www.stlyrics.com

who gives a rats arse what people say at christmas time!! i personally say "happy christmas" and "merry new year" just to be difficult...

Australian society is very similar to the USA in that we have a lot of ethnic groups but we tend not to tolerate people being stupid - if you don't like having a merry christmas then shut up or we'll more than likely rub it in your face even more - which is the Aussie way after all!!

"So Ahmed! what did santa bring you? oopss! Sorry forgot that you are a Jewish person! ... what! oh?? oh sorry!! a muslim? .... how's that working out for you? so, when do you think Muhammad is coming back anyway? is he supposed to return? I wonder if he and Jesus aren't going to show up at the same time and it'll be a double bill! or maybe they'll duke it out?? oh? there's a jihad out on me?? when did *that* happen?? I mean i know there's a generic one out for every christian and jew on the planet but... heh?... where did he go?" ..

but really it's all in good fun - and you should hear the crap we give to the poms, the kiwis.. and we used to hang shit on the Pakistanis and the Indians like it was normal.. it's a cricket colonial thing, but not anymore......

the world became less of a fun place to live in after 9/11 .. which i am certain was the idea, heh Mr Bush? get people all scared so you can invade a country on a lie and get away with it because everyone in the USA hates them Muslims now? hey, Mr Bush?

in australia we still put up christmas decorations in the office regardless of there being people of different faiths - either they accept the culture of the country that they are NOT from or they can get out... seriously i know that's not very tolerant but we *are* very tolerant in australia.. just don't push your fucking luck trying to inflict your religious "values" on us though..

if somebody complained, i'm sure there would be people who would go out of their ways to be christian to the faces of the people who complained.. seriously if i was being nice to someone by saying "Merry Christmas" and they complained about that .. i wouldn't let them hear the end of it - i'd probably wish them merry christmas all year... or the appropriate thing for the season...

I mean saying "Merry Christmas" is a time honoured tradition in oztraylia - and we don't give a rats if you are christian or not - we like Christmas - it's summer - it's hot - the beer is cold - we love it - either join in the christmas spirit of mateship and comradery - or just nod and smile - because damnit if i was in your country i'd say, "thanks mate!!" if you were to wish me "Happy Muhammed day!" - even if some muslim in australia were to wish me a day of peace on June 8 (anniversary of muhammed dying in 632) - i would smile and say thanks! I really would - why can't people of other faiths just go with the flow? why is christianity the lesser of the three evils?

when i was a kid there was no such thing as islam or judaism or any other religion, at least, not to me - in fact all i knew was that i was roman catholic and that there was a church of england or some such - it never really occurred to me that there were other religions - but when i found out there were other religions - it kind of cheapened christianity for me - to the point where i hated it. i hated the movie "The Mission" not because it was crap - it was brilliant - but just the whole spreading of christianity like that... and suffering for your sins .. and nup, it never occurred to me to be an atheist either.. i just wasn't catholic anymore... if I *ever* was, that is...

but now all this petty bickering about respecting a culture that says if you are raped, you have actually committed adultery if you don't have four witnesses to back up your story....

but in saying that - if i went to some muslim country and they had some stupid custom of saying "Peace be unto the Prophet" every time i referred to muhammed (or whatever) - i would say it no questions asked - i would not be trying to convince the people around me that i don't really believe in muhammed and that i'm offended that i have to say something stupid every time i said his name - no! i would do whatever the culture wanted! I WOULD RESPECT YOUR CULTURE - i wouldn't like it but i *would* conform!

so why the fuck in "western" countries should the 95% majority who are content with the christian based society, aka, the status quo - even if they aren't active christians - have to change their ways for fear of butthurting the 5% minority?

WHY??

if you don't like it go back to Islamistan or to Jewtonia or back to the jungle with the other head hunter cannibals where ever it is that you are from - yes, go back to your wars and your famines and your sectarian religious hatred - and don't fucking bring it here, thank you! things are were fine before you started whinging about religious equality..

people of different faiths should respect the cultures that they are entering .. so either assimilate; or don't bother coming here in the first place; or shut the fuck up...

one day they'll accept my application to join the Foreign Relations office!


--edit--

to be fair - i hate all religion - i think it's stupid - but it doesn't mean that i have a problem with other people having religion - and it doesn't mean i'm going to ram it in your face to give up your faith - it's sweet that you can believe in something that has no proof what-so-ever... but don't go trying to inflict your unwanted religious values on us - because you know damn well that those values are outdated and while they may be good for you and the culture you can from, have a look around you, our "inferior" values have given us this totally awesome peaceful way of life that we more the generously have a portion of here in Australia - your complaining about "merry christmas" is a petty thing but it is indicative that you want to bring the things that you think are "good" into our society and you want us to change our society to accept you -- NO -- you do NOT get to do that - that is FUCKING rude

i said it before and i'll say it again - if i ever went to your country and you had stupid customs i would attempt to fit in and i wouldn't dream in hell of making you change them at all - EVER! .. and you know .. those things you think are "good" in your country could be very well be why your home land is in turmoil in the first place that made it so fucked up that you left to come here - so keep your religion to yourself or FUCK OFF - that's the same for all religions - put it in my face and i consider it assault - so expect to be treated with contempt if you walk up to me and say "Accept Christ?" or Buddha or Krishna or Muhammad or even The fucking Flying Spaghetti Monster ...

I'm all for different cultures having holidays and stuff - that's the way to the Aussie heart - get your religious days made into public holidays! "What did you do for Ramadan?" "We went snorkelling up near Townsville" "Sweet! I stayed in town and got smashed every night!" - which is probably not in the spirit of Ramadan now is it? but still.... it's a sharing of the cultures

and yes while christianity has stopped being so invasive in the last 100years or so - christianity invaded pretty much the entire world... north and central and south america, africa, australia.. cripes pakistan and india are part of the commonwealth so they were part of the British empire at one stage, no doubt that somebody tried to inflict christianity on them, hello Mother Theresa.. i don't approve of all the christian invasions but i wasn't there - but i think i'd prefer the more tolerant christianity to the strictness of some of the other religions...

frankly i was open to tolerating people's religions but when they start to whinge that they can't have such and such or they are offended by our customs - it's like, i'm sorry, but why are you here again? is it because your country is crappy? could your country be crappy because of the wars fought between different religions? so what is it that you are doing now? are you trying to lay the seeds of war and conflict here by trying to get us to be "tolerant" of your religion and respect your values so that you can start up your religious fucktarded wars over here? because that is where we are heading if we tolerate your fucking bullshit, so when are you going to stop asking us to tolerate more and more of your shit?

I've seen plenty of news reports where foreigners haven't followed your customs and they've been carted off to the desert and tortured over what? for not being understanding of your customs? do we torture you for days on end and dump your body in the desert when you don't like us being good hearted and wishing you a merry christmas???

WELL? DO WE? ...

another purpose of this blog was people playing the race card, to what end? to piss people off? deliberately? where i was working once some lecturer complained about our office door having merry christmas on it one year.. why? it was in a hall that was solely there to get access to our offices so it wasn't a thoroughfare where people were walking past all the time, in other words, he shouldn't not have even been there - anyway, that sign stayed there for about two years and no-one complained again, because that is what we do when you complain about petty stuff here, we go and do it more and more and for longer and longer... that merry christmas sign could still be there, actually..

--edit--

oh i didn't think about the aborigines in the above and i'm sorry but if i was there i would have objected to their treatment - my first best friend was an aborigine so it never really occurred to me that people could be treated differently because their skin colour was different

also above when i said 95% or people i meant that surely 95% of people are happy with the way things are - regardless of their religion - i mean it is why they are here - in fact that number would be about 99% of people who actually wanted to live and let live and have all of us get along

i don't mind what religion people follow - but keep it away from me - i mean, how can somebody say to me that "such and such" is the word of god, then twenty minutes later someone else says that what he is saying is the word of god... the arrogance of these people to both think they are right.. i don't know what's right so i don't believe in anything - but then if they claim that their god is one and the same - then it's like well why don't you convert to his religion or vice versa?

oh!! perish the thought!!

if you are from another country - great!! hello!! welcome to australia! merry fucking christmas

mostly written, 2nd December 2007, mostly ....

some perspective as to how big the universe is.... (astronomy, religiorant)

This should give some perspective about the hugeness of the universe and it should give you some idea about how big some stars can get. The sun is barely a pin prick of light compared to the largest stars...

So given the hugeness of the size of the universe - is it not arrogant to assume the universe was created *just* for us? did god wake up one morning and make a great big bubble 78billion light years across 6000 to 10000 years ago and make one planet alone out of potentially trillions *just* for us to live on?

This video demonstrates just how big the universe is and just how small our little bit of it is.

We live on a small planet - around a star that is a dwarf - yep, at 1.4million kms in diameter, our sun it's a dwarf, and in our solar system, the sun makes up 99% of the mass of our Solar System! We live in a very sparsely populated section of the Orion arm (named as such after the famous constellation) of the milky way galaxy, amongst a half a billion other stars, in a small local group of a few dozen galaxies, most of which are tiny dwarf galaxies with only two other galaxies similar in size to the Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy M31 and the Triangulum galaxy M33. This local group is part of the Virgo cluster of galaxies, which is part of a super cluster of galaxies, which is just one sizable chunk of the universe... and that is *just* the local area of our universe, say within a range of a billion light years.

So who is the more arrogant, the atheist who simply believes that the universe just "is"? or is it somebody claiming that some magical figure blinked a bubble 78 billion light years across into existence one morning? why? because he was bored? it sounds like a lot of trouble to go to just for us, and if god was all powerful - as is claimed - he could see the future and how it would all turn out - so what was the point, what was the challenge, why did god make such a huge universe?

I'm seriously - if god only made this planet for us to live on - why did he bother making the rest of the universe?? - we aren't leaving this planet any time soon - let alone the galaxy! so why go to all that effort, is god a show off? did he just do too much too soon and now everyone expects him to continue his miracles?

no i don't think so ... a person thought up god because he couldn't explain why the sun rose everyday - instead of making observations and collecting empirical data - that person just dreamt up some mythical creature in the sky that made everything fall into place in just the right way.

According to the catholic church the earth only started to revolving around the sun a few hundred years ago, previous to that the sun revolved around the earth .. thanks for being such a pain in the arse Galileo.. oh and some of us weren't even sure that the world was round or flat until a few hundred years ago as well... thanks for screwing that up too Ferdinand Magellan, because i really wanted to see those dragons.. you know.. "beyond this place there be dragons..." ??

mostly written 30/11/07, mostly ....

even if god *actually* exists....

even if god *actually* exists.... wouldn't we be doing the old guy a huge favour if we stopped believing in him?? woudln't the big guy be up there going "pheww!! another atheist!! that's 5,026,320,360 left to go before i can retire!!... oh.. did i say that out loud? not a word, Gabriel!"


if i was god - i'd be embarrassed at my policy of non-intervention - i mean if i was god i'd be tempted to bless the Ghandis and the Galileos with extraordinarily long life to allow their minds to evolve endlessly.. or i'd give them the choice .. "you know guys, when you've had enough - i can just vaporise you .. you wouldn't feel a thing .. but i want you guys to keep on teaching these dumbasses for as long as possible.. !!"

Saudi court ups punishment for gang-rape victim (religiorant)

mostly written 17/11/07, mostly ....

this is the code of "ethics" that muslims want to install all over the world.. thank you for losing at the Battle of Tours, thank you for losing the first World War, thank you Spanish and other inquisitions, without these crappy christian events, it is very likely that islame's "morals" would be even more widespread... i mean, i hated christianity for spreading itself into the cultures where it wasn't wanted, all over the world (North and South America, Africa, Australia), but essentially christians have a tolerant modus operandi - but if islam had been spread so fervently i think the world would be a lot less fun to live in ..... a lot less... imagine if australia was predominantly muslim? what fun would *that* be?

in this story from Saudi Arabia we see how the victims of crimes are punished in one of the strictest islamic states - essentially Saudi Arabia holds to a strict form of islame called "Wahhabism" .. look it up, Al-Qaeda base their values on this SAME strict adherence to islame... why is that? Bin Laden is a family name in Saudi Arabia, not that it really matters, but could that be why?

hmm... and we're allies with the Saudi's??

ahemmm ... why ?? ... oh that's right ... OIL!

again i don't understand why we associate so closely with cultures that have values and attitudes that we have extreme problems with *regardless* of what resources they have to offer... i would love to be alive in 200 years time when the oil is gone... death and disease and war will overcome those countries as the oil runs out... so, yeah, a more extreme version of what is happening now is in store for the middle east eventually, I've no doubt that they will *beg* the "West" to bail them out ...

and they will get what they deserve if they continue with this attitude of theirs:

a woman was raped by a gang of seven men.. yet when her lawyer appealed the lenient sentence the rapists had been given - the rapists had their sentences increased but the woman also had **her** sentence doubled for speaking to the media ... excuse me? that is a suppression of basic human rights - religion of peace and understanding my arse...

Saudi court ups punishment for gang-rape victim November 17, 2007 -- Updated 1619 GMT (0019 HKT) * Story Highlights * Woman, 19, gets six months prison, 200 lashes for meeting with unrelated man * Group of seven raped her and the man, from whom she was retrieving photos * After lawyer protests light sentences, rapists' sentences increased * Victim's punishment doubled for talking to the media (CNN) -- A court in Saudi Arabia increased the punishment for a gang-rape victim after her lawyer won an appeal of the sentence for the rapists, the lawyer told CNN. The 19-year-old victim was sentenced last year to 90 lashes for meeting with an unrelated male, a former friend from whom she was retrieving photographs. The seven rapists, who abducted the pair and raped both, received sentences ranging from 10 months to five years in prison. The victim's attorney, Abdulrahman al-Lahim, contested the rapists' sentence, contending there is a fatwa, or edict under Islamic law, that considers such crimes Hiraba (sinful violent crime) and the punishment should be death. "After a year, the preliminary court changed the punishment and made it two to nine years for the defendants," al-Lahim said of the new decision handed down Wednesday. "However, we were shocked that they also changed the victim's sentence to be six months in prison and 200 lashes." The judges more than doubled the punishment for the victim because of "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media," according to a source quoted by Arab News, an English-language Middle Eastern daily newspaper. Judge Saad al-Muhanna from the Qatif General Court also barred al-Lahim from defending his client and revoked his law license, al-Lahim said. The attorney has been ordered to attend a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Justice next month. Al-Lahim said he is appealing the decision to bar him from representing the victim and has a meeting with Justice Minister Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Ibrahim Al Al-Sheikh on Monday. "Currently she doesn't have a lawyer, and I feel they're doing this to isolate her and deprive her from her basic rights," al-Lahim said. "We will not accept this judgment and I'll do my best to continue representing her because justice needs to take place." Al-Lahim said he wanted the Justice Ministry to take "a very clear standing" on the case, saying the decision is "judicial mutiny against reform that King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz started and against Saudi women who are being victimized because of such decisions." Women are subject to numerous restrictions in Saudi Arabia, including a strict dress code, a prohibition against driving and the need for a man's permission to travel or have surgery. Women are also not allowed to testify in court unless it is about a private matter that was not observed by a man, and they are not allowed to vote. The Saudi government recently has taken some steps toward bettering the situation of women in the kingdom, including the establishment earlier this year of special courts to handle domestic abuse cases, adoption of a new labor law that addresses working women's rights, and creation of a human rights commission. CNN was unable to reach government officials for comment. CNN's Saad Abedine and Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.

from http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/11/17/saudi.rape.victim/index.html

the whole concept of god itself is flawed..

the whole concept of god itself is flawed..

why? imagine this..

if god is so high and mighty and is the most powerful being in the universe - as is often implied - how can evil exist at all if god is omnipotent? if god is the most powerful being in the universe - then he chooses to let evil exist - because if he is all powerful he could destroy all the evil at a whim!

If you were a loving god, would you not do the same?

so since this god lets suffering happen, then this god is a sicko bastard - a truly belligerent god at the very least would kill off billions of humans to improve the life of those remaining (which is probably why my application to be god was denied - boo hoo)

but no - god does nothing - in spite of the thousand or so years when it "spoke" to the prophets during biblical times

now imagine this....

eventually we will run out of resources on this planet and if we don't start mining the solar system for iron and whatever else we need to build on this planet to accommodate the ever burgeoning population, then we are screwed, big time, the only way we could truly house the population if the growth continues at some projections is to turn the planet into one big city - like Coruscant in Star Wars

i searched for "future world population projections 2300" in google - this was from the top hit


10. Future population size is highly sensitive to small but sustained deviations of fertility from replacement level. The low scenario results in a declining population that reaches 2.3 billion in 2300 and the high scenario leads to a growing population that rises to 36.4 billion by 2300. If, for the sake of illustration, the fertility of countries is kept constant at 1995-2000 levels, the world population would soar to 244 billion by 2150 and 134 trillion in 2300.

there is no way the earth can house that many people but still i have read some articles where people think the world can sustain a trillion people!?! maybe if the asteroid belt is mined and if the moon was transformed into one big green house to grow food for the planet... i don't think so!!

so i guess my point is if we don't get our butts off this planet eventually there'll be some out of control result of over population - probably a new plague or nuclear war - which could turn the remaining population into mutants!

we've only got one chance at getting off this planet - if we use up all the resources before we can do that, we'll be stuck here forever and we'll just inbreed ourselves into oblivion or kill each other over the precious last fragments of gold and oil or whatever.. because there is no way the earth alone can sustain us for another ten thousand years ...



but yeah .. some beerified thoughts for you :)

mostly written 25th October 2007 ... mostly....

hehe ... this was a message i sent off... thought it was good enough for a blog -- with some slight edits.. .. and "no", at this point I had not heard of a dude called Epicurus :)

A.D.D. or is it just evolution?

i have read many news stories and blogs and what-not over the two years since I originally written this article that have talked about A.D.D. and similar illnesses, and it would seem that many kids these days have it...

mostly written 10th june 2007, mostly... wait.. was it written 6th of the October 2007?!? DAMN U AMERICA AND YOUR STUPID DATE FORMAT!

imagine if the fact that kids these days are so "hyper" is because our minds are evolving to keep pace with the world around us? maybe with all the technology around that kids are exposed to everyday, the brain is kicking-on trying to understand it all ... we all know kids are better with figuring out the VCR and the DVD player and such .. but think of all the technology there is today .. perhaps kids brains being exposed to so many different forms of technology at a young age is kicking their brains into overdrive... maybe the brain is finally kicking into gear and this is the first step in the next evolutionary step for our brains, and being "hyper", is actually *normal* given the amount of technology we are exposed to everyday ...

the funny thing, is that it makes sense.. i read an article where it speculates that seeing how we do so many time saving tasks these days, we are actually able to get more things done in a day than we would have done ten years ago, so much so, that we are now "living" in excess of 30 hours a day, or whatever the exact figure was.

not counting the last ten thousand years, but humans haven't really done anything spectacular in the past hundred thousand years - not really - basically our brains are as smart as they are today, as they were ten of thousands of years ago.. there isn't much evolution could do in merely ten thousand years, right?

except today our brains are exposed to all this technology - computers - microwave ovens - iPods etc etc... today we pretty much live in gadget city .. maybe all these hyper kids are just bringing their brains into line with the required level of brain activity that is required to process all of this sensory input these new technologies are exposing us to everyday?

So it would stand to reason that if ADD and similar "problems" were caused by the mind adapting to technology, then isn't this suppressing the brain with drugs tantamount to inhibiting the entire progress of the human race?

are we playing god by not allowing our brains to go and develop naturally?


5-10% of our brains hey?

supposedly we use 5-10% of our brains, and I'm sure there's a whole lot of our brains that we wouldn't want direct control over anyway (say 50%), but imagine if we doubled the use of our brains to 20%?

Maybe ADD is the brain hitting that first next percentile upwards?

Perhaps you use 10% of your brain, and your kid's brain starts off at 10% as well, but later on, the little munchkin's brain starts kicking into 10.1% every so often and that's what we are seeing as being ADD?

I'm sure there are actual legit reasons for many kids to be on these A.D.D. type medications but, I'm thinking it's not really *necessary* for every kid as often as it seems to be!

by prescribing these drugs, are these doctors in fact retarding the development of the entire human race? what happens in a 100 years from now when every child in the western world is "hyper" from all the technology and things they have to learn?

perhaps 1000 years ago all a kid had to do was learn the trade of his father .. then perhaps 500 years ago it was acceptable to break away from the family traditions and do something different to what "Father" wanted and do that thing that they wanted to do... but it hasn't been until the last 50 years or so, that we have had to *learn* such a plethora of new devices to make our lives more convenient and without these devices these tasks would be left to specialists ... eg. the phone. today we pick up the phone and give someone a message in seconds ... hundreds of years ago that would have been left to couriers and the like... but today we handle that task simply ourselves...

so if all these kids weren't given all these drugs ... would we be expanding to the rest of the galaxy a hell of a lot sooner? are we suppressing the brain power of the young geniuses among us?

at least it would get us to whatever kind of hell it is we are going to and get it over and done with so that at least when the monkeys evolve into "civilised" beings in another five million years there is something left to build their monkey society.

religion sux ass .... (rant)

imagine if science hadn't been held back by the dark ages..

imagine if instead of spending all our efforts in improving ways to kill each other we discovered splitting the atom centuries ago..

imagine if every house had its own generator that worked on hydrogen, with the by product being water?

imagine if all this surplus energy could be used to create massive plasma weapons that could defend us from the aliens that the nutters say are coming... the Reptilians of the New World Order, that is ... *face-palms* .. oh wait, forget i said that ...

like that weapon in Doctor Who with David Tennant... where those five points of energy around London blew up that asteroid thing .. that would require massive amounts of power to achieve...

but imagine that if we don't strive to improve ourselves and our way of life...

life on earth will be over...


unless there is some massive plague again or bird (or swine) flu really does end up mutating into something that can kill humans en-masse - if there is no "culling" of humans, the resources on this earth will run out.. that is a FACT..

it's a sad fact but it's true.

whether it be oil, metals, or even space to put people or the space it takes to grow crops to feed these people, all of that is running out, what will we run out of first?


in order to put more people into a smaller space we need to build upwards into multi-story buildings and skyscrapers and that requires iron, now i'm sure we aren't going to run out of iron any time soon, but eventually something critical to the flow of daily life will run out...


maybe that's what the bible meant, when it said to go forth and multiply and subdue the earth, because once the earth is subdued ...

bye bye humanity...

maybe that was the point?

Maybe that bible was written by some nefarious character who realised humans were so fucking stupid that they'd dig themselves into a hole, the whole time saying, god loves me, god loves me, god loves me....

fear is a very powerful motivator...

Maybe the idea of the bible, was to reject it, and that once we collectively have rejected the bible, taking what little was actually useful, then we'd have earned the right to expand out to the rest of the universe, and if we don't reject it, and instead follow its suggestion that we subdue the earth into a state that can not sustain our lives, so we fail...

which would probably be a good thing, because as we are at the moment, I wouldn't want us to be out there in the wider galaxy making ourselves a nuisance, with sentient species from other planets...

and what about fuel, eventually the only things on the road will be buses and trucks and maybe taxis to make the fuel last as long as possible...

what's my point again? .... hmmm ..

religion sux arse and its closed mindedness has held back the entire world and it may have held us back so much so and for so long that we might hit a point in the future where we run out of resources and the only way to get more resources is to go off planet or conquer your neighbouring country and take their resources...

the latter seems more likely as the space age is still yet to have taken off as it's very much still in its infancy...

we first flew in air planes just over a century ago, we went to the moon forty years ago, at that rate we should have been checking out Jupiter in person by now.

are we god?

are we not all gods if we attempt to manipulate our environment to make ourselves more comfortable at the expense of "lower" creatures or the environment itself?..

wouldn't the "lower" creatures look upon us with fear and/or with awe, would they not worship us, cringe away from us and consider that if we could do such a terrible things that we may - if appeased - enact an incredible feat that would bring joy instead of sorrow and pain?

is that what and why people look to gods?

that they would bring happiness to our lives if we suck up to them?

but how is this possible? we do nothing and we are brought pain.. we do good and we are still brought pain...

the only good we are given .. is the good we give unto ourselves ..

the truly good things in our lives are the things we sought after and chased, and even coveted.. love, career, friendship, family - nothing that we do is designed to deliberately bring about our own sorrow, not really... and those who do, are often mentally ill.

so i ask you - sentient creature - how can you believe in a god that brings you sorrow when everything that is good in your life is brought about by yourself?

If you pray to god and give credit to god for your own achievements then good for you - you are truly special to have that much faith, but do not be surprised if someone tells you to stay the fuck away from them if you don't want your feelings hurt because some people will have no problem telling you that you are your own god and worst enemy if you haven't realised that all the good in your life was brought to you by yourself...

and if you are a horrible person and good still comes your way, then enjoy it while it lasts, as all good things must come to an end ...


mostly written 20th July 2007 ... mostly ....