Atheism Is A Non-Prophet Organization

    

Tucson Weather Today
 

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Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Most inclusively, atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which in its most general form is the belief that at least one deity exists.

More about atheism later, including some of my own thoughts on the subject. I am neither an atheist nor a theist.

I am  merely one human being trying to figure it all out.

And not having much luck.

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WORD FOR TODAY
atheism
noun
-  the doctrine or belief that there is no god.
-  disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

 

Rand Paul

 

Born Jan. 7, 1963
Age  49 years old

Randal Howard "Rand" Paul is the junior United States Senator for Kentucky. He is a member of the Republican Party. A member of the Tea Party movement, he describes himself as a "constitutional conservative" and a libertarian. He is the son of former Congressman and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul of Texas. Paul first received national attention in 2008 when making political speeches on behalf of his father. Rand Paul is the first United States Senator in history to serve simultaneously with a parent in the United States House of Representatives.

David Caruso

 

Born Jan. 7, 1956
Age  56 years old

David Stephen Caruso is an American actor and producer. His most prominent role is the portrayal Lieutenant Horatio Caine on the TV series CSI: Miami. He has also appeared as Detective John Kelly on the ABC crime drama NYPD Blue.

Katie Couric

 

Born Jan. 7, 1957
Age: 55 years old

Katherine Anne "Katie" Couric is an American journalist and author. She serves as special correspondent for ABC News, contributing to ABC World News, Nightline, 20/20, Good Morning America, This Week and primetime news specials.

Since September 10, 2012, she has hosted Katie, a syndicated daytime talk show produced by Disney-ABC Domestic Television. Ms Couric has anchored the CBS Evening News, reported for 60 Minutes, and hosted Today and reported for Dateline NBC. She was the first solo female anchor of a weekday evening news program on one of the three traditional USA broadcast networks. Couric's first book, The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons from Extraordinary Lives was a New York Times best-seller.

As of May 2012, Couric also has a web show for ABC News, entitled Katie's Take, airing weekly on Yahoo.

Nicolas Cage

 

Born Jan. 7, 1964
Age: 48 years old

Nicolas Cage (born Nicolas Kim Coppola) is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona (1987), The Rock (1996), Face/Off (1997), Con Air (1997), Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), Adaptation (2002), National Treasure (2004), Lord of War (2005), Ghost Rider (2007), The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009), Kick-Ass (2010), and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012).

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The very idea of carrying my memory into eternity devastated me, and I took refuge in atheism.
--Taylor Caldwell
    

Weather Outside Is Delightful

Tucson Weather Today

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Okay . . . I am back home now from my dog-sitting chores in the desert. Not that keeping company with Eva is a chore; she's a real sweetheart.

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Short Note Regarding Atheism

Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless is a video description of the new book written by Greta Christina -- I know that the announcement was previously posted on quarkscrew but I am repeating the announcement here in case some might have missed it.

Greta Christina is pictured in our own Writers Photo Album (she's not a member) posing alongside BT Murtagh (who is a member) and who, as I am sure all our members know, is an extremely talented fiction writer. The recent 6X6 exercise pretty well proved that.

The picture is HERE.

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Word For Today

procatalepsis

rhetorical figure by which an opponent’s objections are anticipated and answered.

The Grammarphobia blog posted several examples. Here are a couple of them: "Someone who begins by saying No offense, but … or Nothing personal, but … is about to step on your toes, and both parties know it."

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Born On This Day In History

Wernher Von Braun

Born March 23, 1912
Died on Jun 16, 1977

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Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
--Oscar Wilde

Religion Is Like A Penis

Born on this day, January 17, 1706

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

1706 - 1790

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The Atheist Delusion is a much cussed and much discussed article in The University Times attempting to disprove the scientific tenets of Atheism. (A tenet is a principle, belief or doctrine generally held to be true.) The many comments following the article seem to indicate that its not-so-bright author failed miserably in his attempt.

One of the comments following the article caught my eye and tickled my fancy. It was:

"Religion is like a penis. It’s fine to have one and it’s fine to be proud of it, but please don’t whip it out in public and start waving it around… and PLEASE don’t try to shove it down my child’s throat."

The comment was posted by 'Jim' who has a website of his own. I visited the site and found it to be quite interesting.

Here is a link to Jim's site.

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As I have said many times and often (too often?) posted: I am NOT an atheist. Observations throughout my lifetime (so far) lead me to believe that the various gods proposed and described by all organized religions probably do not exist. But I only 'doubt' that gods exist.. I do not know it to be a fact. I suppose you can say that I am a 'doubter' rather that a confirmed atheist.

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This section is not about Religion... or is it? I haven't read the entire offering from edge yet, and since it contains such a great amount of information, I probably never will... finish it, that is. But I wanted to mention it and link to it as soon as possible. The link is immediately below:

The Edge Question 2012: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DEEP, ELEGANT, OR BEAUTIFUL EXPLANATION?

Here is how The Edge Question 2012 starts:

Scientists' greatest pleasure comes from theories that derive the solution to some deep puzzle from a small set of simple principles in a surprising way. These explanations are called "beautiful" or "elegant". Historical examples are Kepler's explanation of complex planetary motions as simple ellipses, Bohr's explanation of the periodic table of the elements in terms of electron shells, and Watson and Crick's double helix. Einstein famously said that he did not need experimental confirmation of his general theory of relativity because it "was so beautiful it had to be true."

I have read only a few of the responses so far, but I am hooked on it.

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“Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”
--Steven Weinberg

Steven Weinberg is an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics.

Can't Think of a Title . . .

From time to time I like to remind folks that I have a personal website (not a blog) using my own domain -- http://www.genechambers.com/ -- It contains a brief bio of myself, some of my unpublished (possibly unpublishable) writing, and odds and ends from my sorely disordered mind.

Also:

I have a list of my favorite websites, most of which I visit almost every day. In case you are curious as to what kind of material I like to read and would like to take a look at this list, below is a link to it.

http://www.genechambers.com/linkpage.htm

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This is Peter Abresch

Check out this author HERE

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Martin S. Pribble has an interesting piece regarding atheists and violence, including a fascinating Youtube video about Bigotry in America today that might just open the eyes of some of you readers who had not considered the subject before.

I thoroughly enjoyed the article and the video... but you might not. Or then again, you just might.

Once again, the link is:

http://www.martinspribble.com/2011/02/14/atheists-and-violence/

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Art Spiegelman was the first graphics novel writer to receive the Pulitzer Prize. His book Maus: A Survivor's Tale, earned Spiegelman fame.


Spiegelman completed the tale in 1991 with Maus II: From Mauschwitz to the Catskills. Art Spiegelman received the Pulitzer Prize in 1992.

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One of my hobbies is proof reading authors' manuscripts and online stories and blogs. But it's a hobby only, and not a vocation. See my information sheet at http://www.genechambers.com/edit.htm for more about this FREE service I offer to writers and authors.

What do you think? Do you have a piece of writing you'd like for me to examine? Let me know.

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A bit of nostalgia . . .

. . . Who Art In Heaven?

Michelangelo's Creation Of Adam

Much of my reading is concerned with the opposing philosophies of Theism and Atheism. There are excellent essays written by seemingly serious thinkers on both sides. Some of them conclude that GOD most definitely exists. Others declare that HE does not. And still others eschew conventional theology while proposing the existence of some undefined HIGHER POWER.

Well, as for me, after seventy years of searching, reading, and quiet contemplation, I have come to believe in that higher power. But not in a God that is vitally concerned with humanity.

More accurately, I believe in the possibility and even the probability of the existence within this vast universe of an entity that is superior to mankind. Or even multiple races of superior and probably undetectable entities. Undetectable because of our lack of sensory organs necessary for such detection and our lack of imaginative powers necessary for even conceiving of such alien (forces?) beings.

Additionally, I believe that we (members of the human race) are probably no more than mere meaningless biological animals that instinctively believe ourselves as having 'importance' or even 'meaning' of some sort.

Although I have honestly tried, I have never been able to believe in the "God" presented to us by organized religious institutions. Their various dogmas are easily recognized when examined dispassionately as being nothing more than a mish-mosh of childish fairy-tales, magical mumbo-jumbo, and fear-inspired superstitious nonsense.

The *higher power* in which I believe is some unknown and perhaps unknowable force that somehow bends the straight line of my rigidly-ruled life into a new (better) direction that I could not accomplish by exertion of my own will alone.

I have experienced this mysterious helper more than once in my life.

To name but two . . .

When I stopped smoking cigarettes (instantly) after 30 years of tobacco addiction.

and . . .

When I stopped drinking (instantly) after many years of alcohol addiction.

There were more.

In the next few days I will attempt to honestly describe some of those times.

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