Issue 736 Church of Atheism: Worship January 7, 2016

Do atheists worship anything?  That is the question I attempt to answer in today's issue.

Worship in atheism:  From what I have seen/heard, despite atheists not having a God or religion, they seem to be divided in my observation in beliefs on spirits, otherworldly beings and even ghosts.  Some simply just worship nature itself and can be considered spiritual and they try to attune themselves to the worlds and universes natural order.  However, this group may go further and believe in spirits and even sometimes demons and ghosts.   Now if you abide by creation myths, spirits and potentially demons are all created by God or a set of gods.  So it seems counter intuitive.  However, I think some simply want to believe in something more.  They wish to see beyond as atheists generally believe that aliens can exist, so why not creatures that we generally cannot see.  How does this help them in any way however?  Does it reinforce values or morals?  Depending on what is worshipped and how, it can.  For instance, Chinese atheism which seems to have eaten Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism believes in ancestor worship.  In this, they believe the dead watch over them, and that if they fail in life then they will be forgotten by the family due to their failures.  Basically, if you are not worth remembering, you will be ignored as you did not leave the family anything of note to remember you by. This concept has the individuals trying to improve themselves and be successful while asking their ancestors for guidance, hence maintaining a productive society and a moralistic one at that (families do not want to be stained with the disgrace of a thief or murderer in their families).  Likewise, some atheists believe in karma (with good deeds giving positive energy and bad negative), and additionally reincarnation.  In this, the individuals do not want to be reincarnated as something like a slug.  Of course there are other atheists who I have met that simply believe in nothing.  They do not have spiritualism, or worship nature, and thus go along with society and its whims.  This last category of atheist I perceive as potentially dangerous as they may be in my opinion more prone to groupthink and thus mob mentality. 

Conclusion:  I will not say that atheists are more dangerous than people with religious beliefs.  In fact, I would say in general that believers and non-believers alike are equally dangerous due to ideology, beliefs and mob mentality.  However, believing in nothing or not having a bedrock of ground rules to support morality and strong character poses dangers for future generations.  I have a few atheists say that simply feeling bad (a consciousness) is enough, but a conscience is developed and fostered through life experiences and the people around you.  So if the people around you teach you it is ok to kill, then you would not feel bad about it (extreme example, but you get the point).  To me, atheists need to organize to create a set of bedrock principles, a foundation if you will so as to prevent total non-believers and similar from losing the basic morals and character lessons needed to maintain a society.

Issue 735 Church Of Atheism: Sexuality January 6, 2016

So under Atheism, rules about normal sexuality begin to fall apart.  As such, what would the sexual culture look like without religion?  Let us discuss.

Sex and Atheism:  In atheism (or at least true atheism where judgments and societal stigmas have disappeared as atheists believe that without religion discrimination of peoples would not exist) a person can be any gender, sex, or gender identity.  Issues of people of different races and ages (age of consent would probably be pushed to the lowest possible), having sexual relations would potentially disappear.  So a 40 year old can get it on with a 19 year old or even a 17 year old and there would not be a problem.  Sexual relations between people of the same sex or genders would not be frowned upon.  Even fetishes would be accepted to a degree based on agreed upon societal norms if any with respect to sex.  Truth be told, sex under atheism would resemble that of ancient Greece and Rome where you can pretty much have sex with anyone you want. Even sex for money or some other form of gain would be allowed if society is willing to accept it.  As such, society would be the decider of what is an acceptable sex practice assuming that society even cares about what you do in the bedroom.

Gender roles will also disappear, with men and women's clothes becoming interchangeable.  As such a man can wear a skirt, a woman can bare their chest, or you can be dressed in a diaper for all people care.  In true atheism, there is no gender either. So there is complete sexual freedom and with that gender identity freedom and the way you express that gender and sexuality as well (yes you can even go nude too).  The idea here is that love becomes just that, "LOVE" and nothing else.  No religion (which set the rules of marriage) or even to an extent governmental rules (derived from religious rules) deciding who can love who.  In this instance, there is no marriage either as marriage is a religious institution.  As such couplings (I do not have a better word for it) become the norm.  A coupling is when two people come together who are in love and then agree to be mutually exclusive with one another or this can even be between multiple people as well with respect to people who love more than one single person.  These couplings can also be formed so as to raise children (adopted or naturally born).  Essentially it is a completely new dynamic with respect to relationships, whereas divorce no longer exists and people can simply say they do not love each other anymore and just up and leave their now former significant other behind.  

Conclusion:  With complete and total sexual freedom and also gender and personal identity, people can love people any way they want.  From paternal, and platonic to full on sex addicts and fetishes, all become acceptable (potentially even relations between blood relatives if no rules are set).  Well this is my view on it if we get pure atheism and lose the values imparted to us through religion (I am and will always be Catholic).  I am not really complaining either, as I believe in pure love myself, I just think we need some rules here with respect to blood relatives and children under a certain age (these rules were originally established via religion).  Overall, this sexual freedom fits with libertarianism, but people just need to be ready for it.

Issue 734 Andrew Garfield and Spider Man January 5, 2016

Welcome to first issue of 2016 (well real issue article).  In this article we will discuss Andrew Garfield and his opinion on the leak from Sony about Spiderman remaining a heterosexual white male.  Let us start.

Spiderman and Garfield:  Firstly for those who do not know, Garfield is the actor who played the role of Spiderman/Peter Parker in the second set of Spiderman movies.  Sure, some of you are saying, why do we care about an actor's opinion on a comic book character?  Well this is because he is right in his opinion (in my opinion).  Garfield did not like the fact that Sony wanted Spider Man to remain a heterosexual white male (Sony wants to keep spider man in this formula because it is seen as a money maker especially as Spider Man is the number one most popular superhero in America).  You see, it is not about money or the fact that Spider man is white that Garfield has a problem with (at least this is how I see it based on what I read).  His problem is that Spider Man is an opportunity.  Spiderman can be pansexual, any gender, sex or gender identity.  Under the mask, Spiderman can be any skin color.  Basically, Garfield wants people to see skin color as just skin, love as love etc.  As such, anyone can then picture themselves as the character.  Andrew Garfield wants Spiderman to be the everyman's/women's hero as they can picture themselves as that hero saving the day.  To a certain extent, Marvel comics has done this with their art, comics and I believe their TV shows at times with their multiverse.  Marvel has a Black/hispanic Spiderman, a few women Spiderman's and a couple of other variations.  In truth, many of Marvel's characters are just like Spiderman, nearly all of them wear a mask so that anyone can take up the mantel of that hero (Did you know there was at least two Black Captain America's and now a female Thor).  DC has done this somewhat with Green Lantern as well.  So at least with books, comics and art, what Garfield hopes for is coming true.

Conclusion:  So we now have to wait a little bit for what Garfield hopes to happen to happen in the movies with respect to a major character (FYI, Nick Fury was originally a white guy with an eyepatch, but was changed to black and this was eventually written into the comics as to how we went from one Nick Fury to the current Nick Fury portrayed by Samuel L Jackson).  We may just have to give it time as companies like Marvel, DC, and even Disney fear losing large chunks of their fan base (or at least losing their money as they are a for profit companies after all).  Time will tell, but I do support Garfield's vision (if I am interpreting it right), and there's no reason we cannot have a movie featuring all the Spiderman's meet (girls and non-white Spiderman's included) which is an already published comic.  What do you think?  Want to see a chick in a Spiderman suit, or a cool punk rocker spider man?  I think I am ready for the potential possibilities and the fun.

Iran and Saudi Arabia

Apparently, Saudi Arabia executed a non-violent Shiite Muslim cleric recently and it has created a serious situation between them and Iran.

Backstory:  The cleric in question, Nimr Al-Nimr, had called for the peaceful dissolution of the Saudi royal family back during the Arab Spring.  Additionally, he was a Shiite cleric in a minority Shiite neighborhood (Shiites are generally repressed by the Sunni Muslim majority). He had influence among the Shiite members of the Saudi Arabia community however and thus in 2012 Al-Nimr was arrested and imprisoned.  Al-Nimrs brother called for peaceful protests to have him set free.  These protests were not all peaceful and then after Al-Nimrs execution tensions heightened including attacks on embassies.   The results is that both countries banished each others dignitaries and they have cut all relations.  What is more serious is the resulting saber rattling going on between the two including Iran promising divine retribution.  If this should erupt in violence there is no doubt that ISIS/ISIL will side with Saudi Arabia.  Additionally, the Shiite communities will likely side with Iran and thus cause the middle east to erupt in greater violence with Iraq potentially crushed between the two warring countries.

Final Thought:  This is a serious situation and needs to be paid attention to.  We already have what amounts to a proxy war between the United States and Russia with respect to ISIS/ISIL and the Syrian conflict.  World War III is well in hand in my view and its escalation bodes ill for the world at large.

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2016.  A year that I hope bodes well as opposed to the mistakes and mishaps of last year.  We got terrorists to rout, a society that needs to stop its groupthink and think independently, and an election at the end of the year that will determine the direction the United States will go in for years to come.  I do not know what will become of us, or my country, the United States, but sue me for I keep wishing for a fairy tale ending.  May your start of the new year be bright and productive.

Happy New Year

New Years Eve

Welcome to New Year's Eve.  The day we count down and celebrate the ushering in of a brand new year (yes I know I am pointing out the obvious).  No, I am not going to lecture you about New Year's resolutions or any of that stuff.  Reason being is that if you make a resolution to do something, then it is up to you to decide what to do with that commitment.  Not my place to judge your decision or is it anyone's but your own (I personally do not have a resolution at all for I just try to make myself a better person each and every day, so I do not really require a resolution).  Well enough about that, what I really wanted to say was that the New Year is something to look forward to.  We humbled ourselves on Thanksgiving, learned to give and express love on Christmas, and now New Years is us taking what we learned and running with it.  Progressing personally forward to make ourselves superior to who we were the year before.  It is us the individual celebrating our future selves and who we want to become.  Stay safe and enjoy the fun tonight as we celebrate our New Years.

A quote from Einstein.

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will get you everywhere." By Albert Einstein.  This quote can have a multitude of meanings. But we are going to talk about it in respect to the future and the coming new year.  In this case, there are things we still want to do. Things we have yet to accomplish, but we have no idea how to get there.  We see the rules that logic provides for us to try and get from A to B, and yet we struggle.  Sometimes our path seems blocked.  That is where imagination comes in.  Imagination is our ability to see other methods to getting where we want to go.  It is the ability to imagine things that aids us to creating new ideas and inventions.  As such, without imagination, we would not have cars, skyscrapers or any advanced tech if someone had not stopped using logic and tried to figure out a new way to do something.  With imagination we gained books like "Harry Potter" and "The Hunger Games", and movies like "Up" or "Minions".  Entertainment for our selves, conveniences and more have all been thought up with someone's imagination and then they found a way to bring the imagined into reality.

Final Thought:  If you think your idea is dumb, think again.  It could potentially turn into something that can make life a little easier for people, or to entertain them.  Imagination is a part of our ability to dream, and it aids in making said dreams a reality.  So do not give up on your ideas.  Put the work in and you can potentially go anywhere and be anything you want.