You make one innocent comment...

...and then tell some interfering douchebag to fuck off...

AND THE WHOLE INTERNET EXPLODES IN YOUR FACE. OK like 4 guys, but it felt pretty... Nope not even that. It was a pointless argument, but it brings up a relevant point.

*Almost no swearing at all!! Some science, in a dumbed down kind of way. Because big words are for other blogs. 

Belief. And Faith actually, but less so because Faith is so much more obvious in it's intransigence. More importantly then, Belief (with a capital B) as it relates to not believing. Atheism and Agnosticism. Of which I am one, it will become obvious WHICH one shortly.

Someone with a huge following made this statement (DISCLAIMER: at the time he was asking people for philosophical discussion so I was not just being a dickbag in bringing up my dissension): "We're ALL agnostic as no one KNOWS any gods exist. The Faithful BELIEVE anyway. Athiests don't believe because there is no evidence" I couldn't entirely agree, or in fact at all really. But my main problem was: Agnosticism is about not believing in any God, for lack of evidence - it's also about not believing that there ISN'T a God for exactly the same reason. Is it part of a system of beliefs? Debatable. I think it is, though as a borderline thing. It's about beliefs rather than being sunk in them like other belief systems. But on the other side of the coin, believing or disbelieving in a God is STRICTLY about belief, so from my perspective if you are a Theist or an Atheist you cannot be an Agnostic. Quod erat demonstrandum. Sort of thing. If you look at it from outside the belief network and judge Agnosticism as SOLELY the 'fact' of the lack of any knowledge to prove or disprove the existence of God, then I can nearly see Quoters point. Nearly. And I only shy away from it because I think it's rubbish. I am an Agnostic (there we go). I have no evidence for the existence or non existence of God. I strongly suspect that there is no God, but I accept that this is quite possibly just a combination of my general skepticism, misanthropy and distrust. I am not built for Faith. I am built for SCIENCE. Science tells me I cannot make a judgement call on this one. And I don't have the bullheadedness to declare that I simply don't believe in God. I'm not a fence sitter because I'm scared it might turn out that there is a God, I'm not a fence sitter to avoid arguments (D'uh). And I'm not a fence sitter out of laziness. I'm a fence sitter because it is the correct place for me to be. Lack of proof either way is sufficient to keep me on the fence. The only point at which I can nearly take up Quoters flag is that, I continue to sit in the middle of the fence despite a slight personal preference for the edge. 

Quoters attitude is that to NOT be an Agnostic requires proof, my problem with this is the assumption that belief has anything at all to do with facts. It just doesn't. Get over the idea that we are ever going to have a logical fact based discussion about religion, because it is NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN. People become far too emotional when you start jerking the chain of their religion. Even Atheists. Even Agnostics, which I find very weird - even as I was getting mad as a cut snake (to be fair I was mad at perceived numbnuttery rather than at an attack on Agnosticism, which didn't exist). The idea being that we are all agnostics (because there is no proof) and then add our own flavour of belief on top of that. Sadly Agnosticism is no more a fact than any of the other ideas people have about religion. I have more than enough of a sciencey brain to understand that a lack of evidence is not strictly a definitive lack of evidence. It's a perceived lack of evidence. In days to come we may find evidence in things that are staring us in the face right now, in days further along we may prove that that evidence is complete rubbish. SCIENCE, IT'S FUCKING GREAT. This is why even the things that we think of as FACTS are still called theories in science. Because we just never know when that bastard Hawking is going to disprove the bloody lot of it. The sun will very likely rise tomorrow. I'm prepared to buy sunscreen on this basis. Will it also one day go boom and make sunscreen an outmoded concept? Also very likely. Do we know when? Not really. We have some educated guesses, but it's mostly shot in the dark material. Chances are the sun is going to continue to rise everyday until long passed the point where man has to worry about it. Or it'll come up tomorrow and then give us all the worst sunburn ever. Or the universe will beat it to the big FOOM and therefore the sun will not technically have died at all but rather have been murdered in the easiest to solve mystery ever. 

It's very difficult to put this concept across, which is probably some of where Quoters problem also lay. He's a smart guy whom I have enormous respect for. I can see his point, I can see my point. Write either of them down so I don't sound strange in the head... less easy. I am an agnostic. If you tell me to then add my flavour on top... I AM AN AGNOSTIC FLAVOURED AGNOSTIC. I'm starting to sound weird again. I'm going to phrase this in terms of belief. I am an agnostic. I believe that there are insufficient facts for me to make a decision on the existence or non existence of God. I have many friends who join me on this page. I have quite a few friends that are on the Atheist page, and I'm fine with that. My assumption is that they have decided that the lack of evidence either way inclines them to believe that there is no God. That's cool, I can see that as reasonable. I have a much smaller number of friends who are Theists. I assume they have chosen to see the myriad of wonder in the universe and believe in a higher powers hand behind it. Also cool. I can also see that as reasonable. Saints preserve us I think I didn't do to badly defining that lot. (Sorry.)

Religion; it's what you do with it that matters. It's not inherently a good thing or a bad thing, humans take care of that part. Because quite a few of us are dicks. Atheists and Agnostics are not exempt from being dicks here either, it's still sort of a religion. And dicks are everywhere. Theist Religion currently seems to have a stranglehold on dickishness, but that's really just because it's had a head start. Atheists are catching up on the loud and annoying front. And should any country ever declare itself an Atheist or Agnostic state I'm sure they'll dick it up just as much as everyone else does. (Note; an Atheist or Agnostic state is DIFFERENT from a secular state.) If you ask me what I believe in the most, I'll tell you that it's that humanity is capable of being considerably better than it most often is. There is so much BULLSHIT in this world that could end if humans could put aside their selfish greed. If we let compassion guide our actions in all things. The right thing isn't always the best thing, but the wrong thing never is. 

Peace. Out.

The two sides of a coin can never touch.

Occasionally I rant about intolerance. Which often leads into a rant about religious intolerance. (Because I’m sorry to say that a lot of the most vocal intolerance I see is religiously motivated). Which often leads to some friends of mine being hurt because ‘I hate their beliefs’. Which I don’t. It isn’t religion I dislike, its fanaticism; it’s the uncontrollable desire to force other people to think the same way you do. Only one of my Christian friends even comes close to falling into that category, and she doesn’t quite manage it since she knows when to shut up.

There’s nothing wrong with faith. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to follow the moral code you believe your deity has laid before you. Or the moral code that you have settled upon by any other method. The point at which I start getting upset is when you take your moral set and try to impose it upon others with no consideration for their own moral set. Believing that someone is wrong and knowing they are wrong are two very different kettles of fish. I understand that some of the things I believe go utterly against some of the things other people believe. I believe that I am right. I do not object in the slightest to an intellectual debate of the differences in our beliefs. If your argument is valid you have a chance of swaying me. Please do not be offended if my opinion does not change. I will not be offended if I fail to sway you.

My Christian friends occasionally think that I hate their religion. Because occasionally someone calling themselves a good Christian stands up and says something that I find morally abhorrent, and I feel the need to respond. Because when I see someone hating in the name of their religion it makes me cross. Because the only kind of God I am capable of believing in wouldn’t expect that kind of nastiness from their brethren. So I can only assume that the decision to spout hate about the lifestyles of their fellow man has very little to do with their belief in God.

Whatever happened to the Golden Rule? I’m pretty sure these same people trying to make me conform to their beliefs would be very opposed to me trying to make them conform to mine; would be the first to scream ‘foul’ if I tried to get my government to make laws excluding them or forcing them to do things my way.

Your government is supposed to make its decisions without bias. To show no favouritism to any group. Of course it seldom works this way. Because people are greedy, self absorbed and insensitive. We all want it our way. But we cannot all have it our way. So wherever possible we should be aiming to make laws that include everyone; that allow everyone to have their own beliefs. Beliefs should only be a legal issue when they impose themselves on people’s wellbeing. If you believe that God wants you to run around shooting people, it’s definitely time for the law to tell you that’s not ok. Anything that isn’t hurting anyone is no one’s business but yours. Before you say something stupid let me point out that removing someone’s rights counts as hurting them. If in doubt; DON’T BE A DICK.

It’s time, and long past, for people to put aside their malice. To accept that others have the same right to their beliefs as you do. Time to understand that to make others live by your beliefs is to strip them of their free will. 

Peace. Out.

Dismissal.

Today I started writing on long rant on one premise. I abandoned it in favour of a similar one. I'm going to talk about MY beliefs. I avoid this like the plague usually, and in fact I'm not going to go into specifics I'm just going to say out loud more or less where I stand. Or sit. On the fence.

I am an AGNOSTIC. Not because I'm wishy washy and can't make up my mind, but because I honestly cannot be sure that there is or isn't a God, though I strongly suspect (and almost hope) that there isn't. This feeling is not based on empirical evidence but more that if there is a God I'm not particularly thrilled with his/her/their/whatever part in the universe. On just empirical evidence I am an utter fence sitter. Because I CAN see both sides of the fence. There are some things that happen that have the scent of the unknowable on them, but that may simply be because we don't KNOW enough yet.

I'm not one of those people who's going to say "I want to believe" if I wanted to believe then I just would, simple as that - that IS what faith is about right? But I don't want to believe. I also don't not want to believe. It's not even that I don't care, I simply require some real evidence to push me one way or the other. From an emotive position I lean towards Atheism sure. But I remove that from the equation when I decide my actual position. You could probably intuit that the emotive position comes from deep seated anger, you might not even be too far from the truth.

Way back there I said I almost hope there isn't a God. True I do, almost. Because if there is a God then I have to say 'He' seems to be a bit crap. Life blows goats for an awful lot of people, in a way that seems hardly reasonable. I've said in previous 'benders' of mine that I don't follow any organised religion because I simply haven't found one that actually fits with my image of what both God and the Church should be. More or less true, except of course there's that whole doubt issue. I can't in good conscience join a religion if I don't actually believe in God right? And in fact why would I want to?

I go to a Church funded craft group most Wednesdays. It's not technically Church run, though as it is run by members of the Church in question, that's probably a moot distinction. Every week before we start our craft project one of the members takes a turn speaking about something that has moved them for whatever reason. I decline to take part in this since, I'm not a member of their Church (or any other) and don't want to cause a fuss by getting up and not mentioning God in my praising of the universe in general (because they invariable talk about God in whatever they choose to bring up. Sometimes I question the relevance...) But maybe I should. Maybe it is time that I got up and spoke about mans capacity to be morally upright, kind and generous WITHOUT benefit of a religious faith. Because I'm actually sick of the implication from so many 'faithful' people that I am somehow less able to be a decent human being because I don't actively believe in God. There are ways in which I think my inherent decency (blows own horn) is worth more BECAUSE I'm not a 'believer'. I don't have the hand of God hanging over me making me feel I have to behave. I do it because it's right. I don't lend a hand wherever I can so that when I die I get to go to some imagined Paradise. I do it because it's right. I don't even do it just in case it turns out there is a God. Rofl. Which is not to belittle the truly decent amongst Church goers, there is decency everywhere. Kudos to everyone who did something 'Good' today. I do wish there was a touch MORE decency everywhere.

Being nice is actually quite good for the soul. Even if I don't technically have one.

What I specifically believe is no ones business but mine. And those extremely few people who both want to hear about it AND I am willing to tell. Short list, with people on it that might surprise you. Also probably some people are not on it who would be surprised. LOL, I'm complicated like that.

Peace. Out.