Metaphysic Storm

At NOSHA’s August meeting we received the OUT handout. It’s an attempt to make atheism supersexy memelicious. The OUT campaign is being organized by Richard Dawkins, author of the “The God Delusion”. I enjoyed the book but found the humor a little dry for an English man. My opinion is that the Brits do best with The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog. The religious make fools of themselves when they do their possessed spirit dances or the pope and his funny wardrobe, but mostly when they try to defend their nonsense with pseudo intellectualism. No one with half a brain buys the holy word argument.

I have no shame in being an atheist but find it an odd thing to be proud of. I actually lived for 16 years without even knowing I was an atheist. I suppose most monotheists might find that difficult to believe until they realize they are an Athorists. For 16 years I lived a pure secular life enjoying food, art, recreation, companionship and the fruits of intellectual pursuit. I didn’t give a thought to the flocks of believers that constitute the fast majority of this nation. I enjoyed conversation with philosophic people which usually revolved around deist and spirit ideas. Non of the arguments I was involved with convinced me of their legitimacy but the mind is a terrible thing to taste.

In Dawkins manifesto he says, “Break OUT of religious conformity and, in celebration of your new found freedom“. I’ve been out since I was able to recognize the bullshit being feed to me as a young adult by my family, priests and nuns. I don’t see the logic in having the adjective in front of conformity though. I think that any conformity outside of team work and civil ethics are good for an individual. There’s plenty of negative conformity in the secular world, it’s just easier to see it in the religious “non-iPod” world, well that’s unless were talking holy underwear. Uh oh, I’m going the way of the antirabbit. Freedom is as strange a word as atheism. I hope that Humankind will someday wonder what both mean, because both depend on bullshit and oppression to be relevant. Freedom should be a modifier, not a noun.

That is why I stopped addressing myself as an atheist, though I do make sure when I’m speaking with someone about issues involving the “big bearded man in the sky”, I point out that he has the legitimacy of The Omnipotent Sourdough Loaf. (Why does The Flying Spaghetti Monster get all the attention?). I’ve embraced the term Naturalist. It’s a positive Identity but even it gets befuddled amongst intellectuals. People tend to think anything from nature lovers to nude enthusiasts. And the Theistic argument inevitably arises that if god exists, he fits perfectly well in the definition of natural. Well, it doesn’t! A Naturalist believes that only matter and energy exist and the metaphysical are dependent on both. Although the acts of murder or organ donation can fit into the modifying form of natural, as in, they happen in the natural world, that is not what Naturalism means. Naturalism is a specific enermaterialistic philosophy. And although I have read very little on the philo, I know the power of a non-holy WORD.

Dawkins furthers his OUTing with, “Atheists are just people with a different interpretation of cosmic origins.” I definitely have a different interpretation of cosmic origin from the average jouliet. I don’t even think I would call it an interpretation. It’s more of a clashing of scientific fact and metaphysical poetry, a strange place indeed. I don’t even believe that “cosmic origins” is a coherent word grouping. Most atheist have to deal with the difficult question: Why is there something instead of nothing. I think the evidence from the First law of thermodynamics does a great job of proving that matter and energy can neither be created or destroyed. How much more evidence does one need to believe that the stuff that makes the cosmos is eternal, thus has no origin? I love the wild and wear cloths, but as a Naturalist I believe that only matter and energy exist, thus in a positive way reject a third supernatural substance.

I obviously don’t reject the metaphysical, though the title of my blog, Metaphysic Storm, is a different reference. Meta adj. beyond : Physic n. a medicine that purges; cathartic; laxative. Our brains are a storm of ideas, emotions, concepts, dreams and imaginations. We are dependent on the atoms that make our brain and the current that waves us to mind our consciousness, but we are not any one single thread in our head. The naturalist knows well, that we can not exist without our body and that no consciousness does, but we don’t reject that the pattern in the sand is not the sand in itself. The campaign should have a big N not a big A. What are 4/5 of the world going to think of us when we wear T-Shirts that say we reject what you hold dear. They were the T around their neck to create unity, not a slashed out A.

Dawkings stated that, “Atheists are not devils with horns and a tail, they are ordinary nice people.” I hate to put a damper on our glorious prison statistics but atheists are not necessarily ordinary or nice people. In fact, I think most of us are who are involved in trying to kill the poison of religion are exceptional people but an atheist can just as easy be a mass murdering ass munch. Harry said that he thought we at NOSHA were generally morally superior to the mass of Faithheads swarming NOLA’s streets. It’s true that Humanist do typically share a respect for human dignity and legitimate reason, but let’s not grow those horns we’re accused of. The Theists are sick. They are suffering from dogma that teaches they are superior to non believers and they have a protoplasmic body waiting to be filled in paradise. I believe the

’s

will harm our cause. If only the Nah were as sexy as the A, we could market a positive campaign.

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