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I Had A Dream…

Last night, I had a dream.

It was a beautiful summer morning. The birds were chirping, the sun was just finished rising, and I was standing in a pristine field of green. I looked up at the sky and saw fluffy clouds lazily drifting by.

All of a sudden, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, something red in the sky, and I slowly spun to gaze at it. It seemed to evade my eyes every time I tried to focus on it, and see what it was. It was like a blob of red paint, hanging in the sky, and it was getting bigger. The sky began to get darker, the clouds spun away at frightening speeds as if chased from the sky. The sun reversed it’s course in the sky and began to set, defying all logic. As the red blob slowly got bigger, I could see a sickly patch of black emerge from within it.

I was terrified, rooted to the spot, jaw gaping, barely able to breathe, watching this horrific thing unfold from the sky itself. The form emerging from the sky began to take shape. A ball? A fist? Some fingers? A hand!? An arm was emerging from the sky, as if someone was trying to reach out from some other world into ours. My mind shook with the realisation that this was exactly what was happening. Some…Thing was pulling itself through a hole in the sky! It was impossible! I could not believe what I was seeing, but seeing it I was, and it felt so surreal and yet so wholly real at the same time that I could do nothing but watch in horror as this thing slid another arm through the sky, and forced it open wider, making an awful tearing sound that bore deep inside of you and made you feel like a tin can being ripped apart inside a car as it crashes head-first into a wall.

The ground shook. My heart pounded.  The Thing pulled what could only be described as it’s head through the rent in the sky. It looked like a disgusting mass of tentacles where it’s face should be, but as it shrugged them back they resolved into strands of hair, and it’s face emerged from behind the mass of hair. It looked human, dark-skinned and surprisingly normal, for a being ripping it’s way through the sky. The being laughed, or made a sound that could reasonably be approximated to a laugh, and the ground shook with a vicious tremble, forcing me to the ground.

I gazed up at the sky, and saw it turn blood red in the matter of seconds. Things were beginning to fall from the sky and all of the animals around me in the fields began falling over stone dead. The things resolved into flaming fireballs, and rocketed into the ground, shaking me to the core as I gripped the grass trying to steady myself. The Thing laughed it horrible laugh once more, and as I looked up, I could a vicious evil grin on it’s face.

It then reached it’s enormous hand towards me, and before I knew what was happening, I was enclosed in an enormous fist which was pulling me at an impossible speed towards the sky. I screamed and struggled, trying everything to break free of this being’s grip, but all to no avail. Flames rushed past my head as the fireballs streaked towards the earth. The being lifted me close to it’s face, and I struggled to push all of it’s features into focus, but it was simply too massive for that to work. The being eyed me with it’s evil grin, and spoke in a voice that felt like it could rip the skin from my bones. It seemed to scream past me towards the ground as it said “Here’s Jesus!”. I looked up at one humongous eye in pure terror. It blinked at me. I screamed.

I woke up bolt-upright in my bed, screaming at the ceiling as I slowly realised that the dream was over, and I was alone again. My heart pounded inside my chest, threatening to break free. My breath came in whispery gasps, and I struggled to regain my sanity as the door exploded open in a shower of splinters. A burly, indescribably hairy man burst through the now empty doorway wearing a burnished bronze chest-plate and a horned helmet. He towered over me as I quaked with fear and said, rather casually in an Australian accent, further accented by a severe lisp, “G’day mate. My name if Fhor!”. He blinked at me. I screamed.

I woke up bolt-upright in my bed, screaming at the ceiling as I slowly realised that the dream was over, and I was alone again. My heart pounded inside my chest, threatening to break free. My breath came in whispery gasps, and I struggled to regain my sanity. I stared at the door, willing it to stay complete and splinter-free. Thankfully it complied.

I threw myself against the bed.

Never again will I read the Bible before going to sleep while eating cheese covered chocolate biscuits.

NEVER!!!

James Randi Speaks – Who Gets the Credit

I’ve been meaning to post about the religious response to the successful crash landing of the commercial jet on the Hudson river since it happened, but it seems that James Randi has beat me to it. If you’re just here for the straight-talk – skip to the 2 minute mark.

FORA.tv – From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Kenan Malik is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster, and Senior Visiting Fellow at the Department of Political, International and Policy Studies at the University of Surrey. His main areas of interest are the history of ideas; the history and philosophy of science; philosophy of the mind; theories of human nature; bioethics; political philosophy; and the politics of race, religion and identity.

FORA.tv – Eugenie Scott: Bigfoot and Wild Men of the Forest

 

Vodpod videos no longer available.

 

An Atheist’s Guide To Women

This guide is provided as assistance to those of us (believer and heathen alike) who have trouble understanding the fairer sex. Neither I nor this blog take any responsibility for injury or loss resulting from misuse of this guide.

  • If a woman, either on-line or in the real world, tells you they will be right back and inform you that the reason for leaving is an urgent need to urinate, it is a fairly safe bet that this woman either likes you or is at least comfortable around you.
  • If a woman asks you the standard “how does this look on me” question, it is always best to advise her to rely on her own sense of taste, possibly with a remark like: “Look at me. Do you really want fashion advice from this guy?” If this fails, running away is then recommended. If this also fails, remain as non-committal as possible, forcing her hand, and she will most likely be too annoyed with you to buy the item in question and will want to leave. This will however sour relations for the rest of the day, so this is to be avoided at all costs.
  • If a woman begins to tell you something and then suddenly stops, and further probing only results in an irritated “It was nothing”, don’t fall for this simple ruse, it was SOMETHING.
  • If a woman you are getting to know seems more interested in your mother than your discussions on Particle Physics or Star Trek, then it is a clear sign that you should steer the conversation into more open waters as her interest in you is slowly running aground among the rocks of overzealous intellectualism.
  • If a woman shares your interest in Particle Physics and Star Trek, it is STILL a good idea to avoid spending 3-4 hours discussing the latest Laser Optimetric method for examining exotic particles.
  • She does not want to see your collection of Action Figures.
  • If you have to be the one to suggest the possibility of a threesome with your attractive female college friend, it is a good sign that making said suggestion will only result in strained tensions. And no, I did not say “strained tendons”.
  • It is quite okay for a woman to comment favourably upon the physical attributes of others, but it is NOT okay for you to do so. In their presence, at least.

This guide is brought to you by the wonderful folks at Midwest Humanists. Please exercise caution when using this guide.

Enjoy!

Freedom Includes the Freedom to Offend

Geert Wilders is to be tried for making the film Fitna.

A European politician is to be tried for making a film.

I’m tempted to say “Has the world gone mad?” but I don’t want to sound like a Daily Telegraph reader. The most telling line in the judgement handed down by the Dutch court is, “[Wilders’ statements are] so insulting for Muslims that it is in the public interest to prosecute”. This seems to suggest that the reason for the prosecution is fear of a Muslim backlash. Exactly the sort of violent tendencies Fitna criticises.

Don’t get me wrong I understand that Fitna offers a simplistic explanation of a complex problem. Muslim violence isn’t just religious in origin, there are political, economic and historical reasons too. I do think that Islam makes these problems worse though. It makes finding solutions harder and shapes the nature of the violence. The fairy tales of divine sanction and eternal reward make actions like suicide bombing possible.

I don’t want to rhapsodise Western values or to pretend our culture doesn’t have problems but it’s time for the West, in particular Europe, to stop compromising. We need to stand up for what we believe in. With the rapid advance of technology the next 50 years could be a Golden age for mankind but only progressive secular values can make this happen. Isn’t it time to leave the darkness of religion behind?

Edit – I’m not sure how much good these things really do but there is an online petition here.

Social Revolution, anyone?

Hey all,

I recently watched Zeitgeist II (a.k.a. Addendum) and I thought I would share my thoughts with all.

Aside from the rage-inducing piece on the Monetary system (money is created out of thin air!?!? WTF?!?!) the invention of which I’ve always held to be our second mistake after being stupid enough to come down out of the trees, the section on a Resource-Based economy really held my attention, and I’m convinced it may be the way forward for our wayward social structure.

One of the comments that really spoke to me was the fact that the monetary system is based on scarcity, e.g. diamonds are kept scarce to keep their price up, and yet if something is abundant no-one in their right mind would ever accept having to pay for it, something like air or water (yeah, i know about water charges).

The other things that had my jaw dropping in awe (and a twinge of anger) was the 4,000mph mag-train technology (making a trip from L.A. to Beijing a matter of an hour or two) and the fact that there is enough clean, free and, most importantly, self-renewing energy in the earth’s core that we could easily begin to harvest within the next 10years that would power the ENTIRE GLOBE’s energy needs for 4,000 years, eliminating the need to have to pay for an electricity bill ever again.

If you haven’t seen it, or its predecessor, I highly recommend it!! I also recommend checking out The Venus Project, which is a plan for a viable, sustainable resource-based economy. It is featured in the documentary and the people behind give interviews about the current state of society and their hopes for the project.

Now, I know I sound like one of those crazy 9/11 theorist wackos talking about a “New World Order” etc… but I’m not. While I realise the makers of the documentary do believe some of this crap, I don’t. I don’t buy that all our problems are caused by the “elite 1% of the population”. They, and the problems they cause, such as blocking global-scale Electric Car development, are merely a symptom of the Monetary system and I do believe that this Monetary-based system we’ve applied to our societies is crippling ourselves, our planet and our growth.

If you haven’t realised, we now have (and have had for quite some time) the technology, the resources and the manpower to house every single family on the planet. And yet we sit around watching people die of AIDS in Africa while the U.S. wastes tens of billions of dollars on “defense”, pharmaceutical companies charge 1500% the actual cost of their medicines and idiots like Edward Current‘s satirical Christian blame Satan for plane crashes.

So, anyone else believe that a social revolution is in order before we destroy ourselves and our planet?

Separating fact from agenda.

I have found myself lately with time on my hands, stuck in a room with nothing to do except read.  I have spent some of this time trying to become informed about what drives the Palestine/Israel conflict (it is topical).  This has proved to be more complicated than i originally foresaw.  Everyone, it seems clear to me now, has a bias.

I realise that this post is not directly on topic for this blog but i think the problems encountered in informing ourselves are reflected in our secular struggle.  The first book i read on the subject was Ilan Pappe‘s The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.  The title of the book captures the attention, and also sets off my internal alarm bells – there can be no doubt on which side of the fence this author sits, but can he defend his position, and how can i arm myself to know if he successfully has?   Ethnic Cleansing is an emotive term with a very clear definition.  The author is Jewish, raised by German Jewish parents in Israel, and served in the IDF, so i thought i would give it a try – with the hope of intellectual integrity from the author.  but with a skeptical mindset.  I found the book both disturbing and compelling – but how can we separate fact from agenda and bias?

I struggled, and continue to struggle,  to find an account of the genesis of the conflict that aims only to inform, and not to promote a political viewpoint.  It is critical to find the relevant facts, and facts can be ignored as required in order to promote and enforce already entrenched views, and a political, or ideological bias.  This is a constant problem and we should be wary of it if we wish to be able to engage in an informed debate.  As an atheist it is all too easy to only follow one side of the story, taking scant regard for potential bias in the sources – we all do it, i listen to lots of atheist/secular/sceptical pod-casts and probably visit the sites and read books that enforce my existing worldview – without checking for available sources.  The danger, of course is that we do not inform ourselves of why the other side believes what they do – and why they do so, just as enthusiastically as ourselves.

Ideally of course, original sources should be scrutinised – and with care.  It is both difficult to know what to look for and how to find it when we know.  A quick trawl of the net will find all kinds of viewpoints, from a measured response, to lunatics on both sides of any debate, and Wikipedia is often less than infallible.  It is an intellectual mine field out there.  I think it’s a journey of discovery that must be taken if we want to seriously defend our positions on issues that matter to us.  Is there a way to navigate this mine-field?

Upcoming Meeting

Our next meeting will be on Sunday 25th at 11 o’clock in the Castletroy Park Hotel.

The agenda is fairly short but there are a few things people may want to think about before the meeting. The group started six months ago as a meet up of local HAI members organised by Larry but I think it’s fair to say we’ve moved beyond that and I think we need to have a more formal structure. Assuming others agree I’d like people to think about how we might go about electing a committee, writing a constitution, registering as a non-profit company etc.

We are also lucky enough to have Michael Nugent the recently elected Chairperson of Atheist Ireland as a guest speaker. I’m hoping AI can make a bit of a splash and revitalise the Atheskeptihumanist movement in Ireland and am looking forward to hearing what he has to say.

Lastly Darwin Day is February 12th and at the December meeting we talked about organising an outing to the Burren. I’m not sure how much enthusiasm there is for this so people may want to think about alternative suggestions, although time is running out at this stage. Details of the HAI event are here.

Friday Music – Roy Zimmerman

This guy does the best unexpected rhymes that I’ve come accross in ages. Who would think of rhyming “survival of the fittest” with “bull shit test”?  Should raise a smile among all rationalists.