Atheism is not a religion, nor a belief: Atheism is the missing panacea

Just because someone does not believe in something does not make their not believing a belief. Think back to when you were younger and you saw your mother putting presents under the Xmas tree, you saw her drink Santa’s milk and eat his cookies. How did that make you feel?

Maybe at first you were outraged that she could eat Santa’s cookies. Maybe you were disappointed that something you had been made to believe for so long was a lie, but surely after you saw what was real you were happy.

Maybe you found out that Santa wasn’t real another way but you found out, as we all do, that Santa is not real. Equipped with your awareness you went to school and shared it with Tommy on the playground but he did not want to hear it. He yelled at you and called everyone to argue with you. You were shut down and ridiculed, “How dare you lie,” “My mother says,” and “My dad says,” and there you heard all the arguments as to why all the other kids were sticking to believing in Santa. They had already written their letters and besides last year Tommy asked for an Xbox and he got the exact one he wanted so of course Santa was real to them. You didn’t mind, you knew the truth.

It took Tommy five more years to learn the truth. When parents realise a ten-year-old still believes in Santa they think it is somewhat sweet, peers sympathize and how many find it endearing? When a twenty-year-old still believes in Santa they will usually be homed in an institution somewhere far outside of town.

When Tommy realised Santa does not quite exist and was just a story his parents used to control and bribe him, he too was first shocked and in disbelief, a little outraged, but then he was pleased and given time he too would be using the technique (tradition) on his own offspring.

Did the kids at school tell Tommy he is bad for no longer believing in Santa, accuse him of believing in evil, did they break his pencils, threaten him, beat him… No, and if they did, how would you react?
Did the kids call Tommy names and accuse him of believing in the opposite of Santa, maybe that would be The Grinch, did the kids shout “Grinch lover Grinch lover” and accuse him of believing in The Grinch?
NO
Because Tommy was ten-years-old and he was by far the only ten-year-old to still believe in Santa so his peers welcomed him with open arms to REALITY.

Tommy, like every single Atheist on earth does not believe in anything else. They just don’t believe in Santa (Or god).

They just realised that the book theists’ kill for is a book (PERIOD). It was written by men, it is a STORY and nothing more.
Atheism is the same thing as going from believing in Santa to not believing in Santa. Simple as that. It is not going from good to bad, if anything it is going from brainwashed to rational. Free to buy presents to put under any tree, free to scrap writing letters to Santa or waiting for Xmas, free to accept the real world and free to be good without a bribe.

Calling Atheism a religion is like calling not believing in Santa a religion. Atheists do not need to argue with theists, it is like arguing with a child over Santa. Next time you want to impose your beliefs onto an Atheist, remember that. When your blood boils for fear of insulting Santa (Sorry Jesus, I mean god), you can calm down because Atheists carry no fear (except of theists). Think of yourself as the kid (only you’re an adult) that still believes in Santa (only you have not been conned into it with actual gifts you have been threatened with hell on the premise of faith).

I repeat what I say on my Sceptic page:

“God is to adults, what Santa is to children.”

If a child was beheaded for Santa what would adults do, how would the world react? Dying for mocking Santa’s belly full of jelly, killed in the name of Santa’s beard, wars fought over Santa clause, sounds ridiculous right? Sadly this is what’s happening right now as theists the world over argue over which Santa is the most serious.

Reality check: there is no harm in believing in Santa. There is also no harm in not believing.

Appropriate cartoon: @RichardDawkins book is accurate and compelling, a crucial read for every human on earth. The fight to abolish religion is as paramount and even more pivotal than the fight to combat climate change.

 

I’d like to thank **** and the Oscar (does not quite) go to @LeoDiCaprio

Last year as Oscar Pistorius clung to his bible after killing his girlfriend it was approaching the time that academy award Oscars dominated news channels. The event where celebs give their I’d like to thank speeches and the most frequented thanks goes to the capital G who obviously handpicked them as a recipient of a miniature gold-plated tin statue, the gold star of entertainment’s gold stars. I started to prep a speech:

“I’d like to thank Fuck,” was a possible opener. Fuck is such a descriptive and expressive word. In fact I think it is the most descriptive and expressive word in all languages, certainly the most versatile and the most efficient. I also think it’s high time fuck be promoted from vulgar slang to colloquial. Back to my Oscar speech, as much as I know my reader will appreciate my theoretical speech I thought a speech for a celeb would be more effective, and who better for than environmentalist Leonardo Di Caprio.

I googled to see if I could find any of the Oscar speeches he had given only to find that apparently the golden boy statue has eluded him. Last year he was nominated, but this year, and I know this only because #OscarNom has dominated my twitter feed for days, he has not been. However there is always an honorary award and therefore as he won’t be expecting one he could actually need this speech:

“I would like to thank fuck…” ok I just can’t see him saying that and my google search showed that over the years he has given eloquent compelling speeches on environmental issues that sum up better than I could what the problem is. Maybe he has not had his I’d like to thank for the holy grail of Hollywood awards but he has spoken for decades to the people who need to be spoken to about what would change the world. I can’t find him having thanked god anywhere, who apart from overseeing the killing of cartoonists and providing virgins to mass murderers is orchestrating the lives of the rich and famous. I can’t imagine (Because I don’t know him) that Leonardo would so boldly preface the big G word with the little precursor F word.

I picked Di Caprio as my speech recipient because he raised millions of dollars for conservation with an art auction (deserving more than a gold star for that). Then in his recent UN speech he said exactly what needed to be said, including that the single person choices/lone home solutions are not enough, that the big corporations, the big polluters are the ones that need to evolve… Between his Earth Day speech in 2000, everything said before then and his UN speech in 2014 he has said more than any I’d like to thank ever could. Therefore leaving me with no theoretical speech because I could think of nothing to add. Thanks Obama.

Oscar Pistorius on the other hand did thank the big G after his diet sentence. Observing the comparisons between the delinquent/malefactor mind and the devout/faithful mind would redirect this post from I’d like to thank speeches. So what I will add is that it would be most refreshing to hear any of these at the Oscars:

I’d like to thank the real Sun   /   I’d like to thank Earth
I’d like to thank evolution   /   I’d like to thank Water…

However the audiences are usually not interested in much more than who wore what on the red carpet, and which animal/child/ground suffered to make those outfits/jewels/shoes is beyond their scope of consideration. So while the entertainers entertain and the rest of us are entertained, the environment gives us all that we need. Let us give our I’d like to thanks to that which is real, because fuck it’s good to be alive and in between living nothing beats those genius Hollywood doses of entertainment.

Do all our problems stem from our blood?

Blood is red. All animals have red blood (except the handful whose blood is not red, like lobsters)(And royalty). Incidentally red-blooded people seem to think these blue-blooded lobsters mate for life (or was that just Phoebe), yet I don’t think there have been enough studies on this mate-for-life theory. People claim people mate for life, but do they? Not even royalty do. What people do do, is generalize. (They also evade the notion of the singular and the random).

My blood is considered quite universal (common) and original (old). O is my type and according to D’Adamo I should follow a strict primeval diet that consists solely of eating red-blooded bovines. One universal trait that self-professed green people are meant to have is an inclination to be Vegan. Planet patriots should abhor the carnivore (not admire the bacon). If I were to follow this Eat Right For Your Type diet, I would want my blood type to be A. Then a piece of peanutbutter toast and a coffee would be a highly beneficial meal. A highly beneficial meal for O type is sweetbread and there is nothing sweet about eating the offal of a dead cow. There is also no bread in sweetbread or the O type diet. To think about life without bread is not something I am willing to think about.

That poses the question of the carnivore. Is it completely wrong to eat meat when it is so natural and highly beneficial for certain blood types to do so? Those disgraceful mass production meat farms aside, if you could acquire organic happy meat like our primordial ancestors could, then there would be no problem, right? The problem is finding meat that doesn’t support a chain of disgust and greed.

I have lived most of my life as a quasi-vegetarian purely because I do not like the taste of meat, but considering how badly my O blood needs it I am trying to include it in my diet. Eating a fillet steak (burnt) made me feel like that vampire’s chick from the vampire trilogy where she drinks blood and saves herself from near death. Ok I don’t actually know because I haven’t given it enough effort to see if it would make a difference. I did get the imagery though and thought of the pre-meat-replacement days where all vegetarians used to look pale and near death like that vampire’s chick did. Anyway I just don’t go to an extreme of anything. I am just not extreme. Nor am I extremist.

Is this another trait that runs in our blood or is it another mate-for-life theory that stems from a book (Not a stem cell). Those stories that stem from a prehistoric narrative often make peoples red blood turn the extremist colour. Giving them entitlement and confidence in their imaginary father figure to do unimaginable (mis)deeds. It was atrocious what those islam extremists did to the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo, I was indignant at such a barbaric attack on creative expression. I even posted two tweets about it #JeSuisCharlie. But the universal unity was astounding. It was incredible to see millions march to honour the pen over the sword but what about the book?

Concurrently two thousand people were brutally attacked and killed in the name of the same god, in that dark part of the world where every country goes by the name Africa. Throughout history religion (Christianity) has only ever risen to prominence because of those means. Wars over the same god, murder over the same story, so does our blood still need to be fed like it was prehistorically? While god was orchestrating mass murders in his name I hear he was also busy picking golden globe winners.

Going in circles, will I be present in 2015?

Congratulations earth, you orbited the Sun again (Keep it up).
The new year is synonymous with an overrated party hangover, and giving something up to make yourself look or feel better. Resolutions I might add, I gave up a few new year resolutions ago. I also gave up giving anything up. I have never been one to diet and just because at new year I gave up popcorn does not mean I suddenly crave broccoli instead. So at new year I just like to reflect on the year gone by and contemplate life. Although after 2014 I opted for the overrated party hangover.

This year I had no real contemplations because I turned 30 at the end of last year and I contemplated the life out of contemplation. Last new year I decided that in 2014 I would not take anything personally. I am not going to lie here: that did not last, I take sh#t personally.
Throughout the year though I learned that there is No Thing Wrong. Nothing. A delightful realization I came to through a dream, well many dreams. I was watching a boy being eaten by an orca and I did not care, nor have any desire to help him, I also did not see any blood where blood should have been spewing; there was nothing wrong with what I was witnessing. I realised that there never is. In my dreams there is never blood and gore or that feeling that determines whether you think something is right or wrong. Like why does wrong have a W but right does not, it doesn’t make sense. I digress, back to there being nothing wrong. There is nothing wrong, and this I will write about more this year because I see that while it angers me the waste and destruction of all that I love, maybe we the human race are merely some bacteria or disease on this earth and actually doing nothing wrong.

While I deal with nothing being wrong I have also tried to be present. So this year, a gentle progression from last year I have nothing new to resolve but I will reinforce those dispositions. There is nothing wrong but in 2015 I aim to be present.
When I am, I marvel at the moment… so for the duration of the earth’s next orbit of the sun I will keep trying to be present, maybe even catch a few sunrises.

Merry everything and a happy always

As much as I don’t condone consumerism or support religion, I love Xmas. I’m a gift girl. Thought that counts, all about the wrapping, presents for everyone, I love it all! I love gifts! However Xmas has been reduced to a secret-santa game of swapping the only good gift.

I thought ‘What would Santa do?’ So instead last year we went to Khayalitsha township and visited an orphanage. It was remarkable, not just the sheer size of the township, but the awesome kids we got to meet. Before going, I had gone to an animal shelters gift shop, and bought all their toys. Giving them out was a pleasure.

Xmas and kids go hand in hand. Does Santa care about adults? I wanted to do something similar this year but for big people. However I happened to have a pile of books I wanted to donate to the same animal shelters gift shop but it turned out they were selling all their books for next to nothing. So instead of giving them my books I bought more than double what I had at home, wrapped them up and took them to a homeless shelter.

Books from home

On Xmas Eve to be visiting a homeless shelter was humbling to say the least. When you think of all the unwanted gifts, the boxing day exchanges, the things you worry that you did not get. Nothing puts into perspective what you have more than a homeless shelter or orphanage.

There is so much need yet also so much to go around. So much love. So much left-over. May the gifts you receive only be loved for the gift they are. If not pass them on to someone who would. When in doubt of what to buy, opt for a book. You can never have enough books. If you do, you can start a library at a homeless shelter.

The day the pigeon came

I’d never thought of a pigeon as a ticket to riches. I never pay much attention to pigeons. They are so universally commonplace. The world’s city bird. Never thought about their million dollar racing industry or their history.
I found myself sitting with a pigeon in my living room, contemplating what I knew about pigeons but never thought of. Waiting for his owner to collect him, yet wishing I could save him from life as a racing pigeon.
Cris, the pigeon I was sitting with, appeared in my life the day before. We were decorating a christmas tree at the local police station (We being the Crisis Team volunteers), when a well-intentioned citizen informed us of a timid, tagged racing pigeon in the parking lot. On his tag was a website, and as he was relatively easy to catch, we took him inside and looked it up.
Lost pigeons and what to do if you find one was prominent on the site. I also thus learned that the South African pigeon racing community is mostly Afrikaans. While the team continued decorating the christmas tree, I sat with Cris.
After no luck contacting an owner, I decided to leave Cris outside, but in a safe bush nearby. Three hours later, he was exactly where I left him, and still no word from an owner. I took Cris home.

 

Then I heard from a friend, who had himself once found a racing pigeon and had been told to keep him because “A lost pigeon is a worthless pigeon.” Accordingly if a pigeon gets lost his senses are therefore off and he can’t race so is deemed useless.
There has also been recent media attention on the ban and then unban of pigeon racing. The NSPCA prohibited it under terms of the Invasive and Alien Species list and conditions. The ban on pigeon racing was not implemented. However it does make sense that now it is imperative pigeon societies should at least look like they ensure not “losing” any pigeons.
I then looked into the life of a racing pigeon. It seems pretty brutal. No fancier has one or two pigeons, most have thousands (Enough said). They are trained hard and throughout training should a pigeon not fly or get lost it is deemed worth/useless. Racing pigeons are kept in lofts and only let outdoors to race/run. Should they face any troubles or inclement weather in a race/run they are left to their own devices, after having been brought up without any training to survive al fresco. They are thus doomed.
I made a little home for Cris in my garden. He clearly wasn’t going to fly anywhere and he was used to being kept in, so I offered him the freedom a bird deserves. He stayed in the tree all night and seemed to be getting along with the resident turtle-doves in the morning. I decided that I would keep Cris.

Cris the Crisis Team Xmas Tree Pigeon

 

Then his owner called. He lives across the road from the station where I found him. I didn’t want to give him back but I really had no argument. The owner arrived, he snatched Cris (I would gently pick him up) and checked for injury. He said Cris was a baby girl, and hadn’t yet started training. He said Hawks attacked his loft and a number of his pigeons scattered. How many he did not know. How many pigeons he owned he also did not know. He took Cris. Next time I find a timid, tagged racing pigeon, I’m keeping him.

Who shat in the pool?

Maybe if we could see what we were actually doing we would rapidly change what we are actually doing? Too many of our systems blind us from seeing the preposterousness of our actions. Fishing, binning, and eating aside, it is time to deal with our shit.

In this developed world of ours, it is pretty much a given that crystal clear culinary water is used to flush toilets, and we’ve been doing it for so long that few dare question why. The reality is that there is really no good reason to use crystal clear culinary water to flush toilets. Furthermore there is no good reason that, once flushed with crystal clear culinary water, our shit should end up in the sea.

What are our options? It is almost impossible to find an alternative, our choices are so limited. We spend more on trying to cure every single disease than on cleaning our water. Trying desperately to keep every single human from ever dying, while shitting in the water we cannot live without.
Roman engineers, who short of blaming for shitting in the pool, actually understood some of the important aspects of basic sanitation, including efforts to keep human excrement away from sources of drinking water. We really should not mix our shit with our water, so why do we?

If you could see it, as clearly as if someone shat in your pool, you would demand a better system, right? Unless you are the culprit and did actually shit in the pool? Be honest, did you?
In the meantime, while the system is what it is, what we can do is not use crystal clear culinary water and instead use grey water or rainwater collected from roofs or wastewater from our showers and washing machines and so on and so forth.

Technically we all shit in the pool. Pee in the bath. Shit in the bath. Deplorable right? The very thought is disgusting, who would want to bathe in their own urine, swim in their own faeces… exactly?
We just can’t see it… yet.

Dogs and gods… logic and #nologic

This is an open letter in response to a Sunday Times article titled:
Durban to unleash beach ban on pooing dogs.
The title says it all. The letter was sent to the people involved, and several newspapers. The satire was lost on some readers, who used their #nologic and read it as scorn. This letters support is facetious and quite brilliantly highlights the #nologic of the article:

To the civilized Brian and Thembinkosi

Finally something constructive is coming out of the Head of Parks and Umhlanga’s very own UIP. In their immensely busy schedules they are discussing how to solve the dilemma of the doggie doo-doo. Apologies for the term, it makes this very important and pressing matter sound juvenile, trivial even, and it is not. In fact I am surprised there are not more departments throughout the world fighting together for this bylaw that would quite categorically please at least one octogenarian in the village.
I think why stop at dogs. Once you ban all pooing dogs from beaches, take the next conclusive step. Ban all pooing animals. Did you know that monkeys also defecate? Yes those pestilent vervets also excrete virulent waste, AND, did you know it looks exactly the same as toxic dog doodoo? To think all the fuss over Ebola when right here in our very midst we have DOGS AND MONKEYS poisoning us all with this abuse of doodooing on our prim promenade and beaches. A ban is actually not quite enough, one should have an armed guard shoot these perpetrators of toxic waste right on the spot!
Now here is where your plan needs tweaking, because it gets even worse, did you know mongooses, birds, and even babies have ALL been known and even seen excreting their toxic doodoo both on the beach, and the promenade. FILTH! They should all be FINED, BANNED, or alternatively as previously mentioned, shot on the spot!
Thanks to Brian and Thembinkosi this massive catastrophic problem might finally be averted, considering it has been at least a number of months since the last sewage outburst on Umhlanga beach. I have signed myself up to the UIP newsletter to ensure that I will attend the next committee meeting so I can commend Brian on this practical prioritization. Parks must also be congratulated on this venerable plan. It is likely then, of course, that we must ban all pooing dogs from all parks too. Wouldn’t that be equally practical? While security and municipal cleaners ensure that our beaches and parks are consistently litter strewn at least the possibility of toxic doggie poo irking the bottom of someone’s sole will be eliminated. At least we can sleep at night knowing the heads of departments are saving the planet!
Speaking of, while the UIP and Parks are busy making the world a better place, I know of a group of women who openly admit to peeing in the sea! How disgusting, this is possibly more offensive than pooing dogs. I reckon we invent that famed chemical claimed to turn urine in pools purple and use it in our waters. If anyone so much as dare pee in the sea or lagoon they will be banned from the beach, and from Durban, damned and shamed along with all those pooing animals.
I reckon sea creatures also use the sea to defecate AND urinate, it is a disgrace to society and we should join Japan and start our own little cove! Dogs and dolphins must be hacked to death should they dare doodoo on or near our clean beaches. Especially those dolphins, did you know they are so riddled with mercury their urine will make the toxic dog poo seem pristine? Once we rid our beaches of all dolphins and dogs then investor confidence will be at an all time high. I bet that grumbling octogenarian will leave all her jewels to the dog and dolphin free beaches and peace will reign.
I am so proud to be a South African as we lead the world forward. All those environmentalists trying to save species so they can doodoo on our land, what imbeciles they are. The mark of a truly great city is one with no pooing dogs!
Long may Durban have crime, litter, broken facilities, and no pooing dogs!
Yours faithfully for this constructive fight against toxic abuse of our beaches,
Vincent Vidal

After a lot of discussions with department heads I was told the real reason a ban on pooing dogs was being considered:

CERTAIN CULTURES DO NOT ACCEPT DOGS

It is for this reason that they are being asked to ban dogs from beaches. Dogs only, you can bring your cat, Allah apparently loved his cat so that certain culture do accept cats. Dogs are considered… I don’t care, not getting into it, why are we considering cultures that don’t accept certain cultures? Why do we consider cultures that base their beliefs off outdated stories? How many people and animals must die and suffer because of something taken out of the bible or quran, some word that is in it or not in it? They are stories, written by people, in a very old novel.

As for my heading: Dogs and gods; they have nothing in common more than a semi-palindrome. However I wish people did worship dogs so that they could gain some insight, compassion and common sense by doing so.

To conspire to inspire

I swam next to a man with no legs at the gym today. He had only torso and arms but did laps right alongside me. I was frightened and suddenly overwhelmingly appreciative of my limbs. In that moment they were absolute perfection. I began to swim for the simple reason that I was able to, with all my limbs and all my strength I kicked not to exercise but to move.

I have a friend who is a quadriplegic, and he recently wrote a piece for a blog about his condition, cerebral palsy, and how he is opposed to people calling him inspiring. This man is smart, an extremely talented writer, his piece is refreshing (see link below) and it got me thinking. In it he says he did not choose his condition and says that he is not an inspiration, pointing out just how much pressure that statement carries. Does it though, what does it really mean to inspire or be inspiring? All the things on my list of what inspires me (if I were to make a list) are inanimate or wild.
When you see a disability either you feel pity or inspired (among possible other emotions), and pity is, well pitiful. This legless man did nothing to inspire me, but his creepy situation made me grateful for mine. Therefore, as much as I know he did nothing inspiring, he just got on with his life, I was inspired.

How many people have the ability to do something but do nothing? How many of us use what we have and make the absolute most of it? It is not often you a see a perfect physique, yet we all have the ability to sculpt our own. It is not often you meet someone who uses all of their brain, do you? Of everyone who can walk, how many wake up beaming with joy purely because they have that ability?
Sometimes when we see someone in a situation a lot worse than ours, doing something with their lives it inspires us, mostly because we think we couldn’t handle their situation. Most of us do not fully use what we have and appreciate our bodies, our health, our minds and our mundane abilities until we are reminded that some people have to cope without them. Although quadriplegic and not trying to inspire, he inspires just by reminding others to appreciate what they do have.

We all deal with our share of abilities and disabilities in our own right. Those that do something are inevitably inspiring. Rather inspire than create envy. A tanned hot chick with a perfect body and photographic memory doesn’t make many feel inspired, they often make you feel inadequate and reach for the cookies.
I never thought a legless man would inspire me. It is usually just the sea that does that. Life, the two sided, up and down, hot and cold life we lead, is made by all the things we wish we could do without.

Link to blog as mentioned just click here