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Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Stoning Aisha


Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was a 13-year-old Somali girl who committed the 'unforgivable crime' of being gang-raped by three men and then reporting it to the local authorities in the Kiyasmu region, the al-Shabab militia.  Under certain interpretations of Islam, letting oneself be raped is akin to adultery, and the punishment for adultery in Kiyasmu is death by stoning.
On October 27, 2008, Aisha was dragged before a crowd of over 1,000 spectators in a stadium at the southern port of Kiyasmu where she would be buried up to her neck in a hole in the ground while 50 men threw stones at her head until she died.

The full story came from this link if you want to read further, but I strongly urge you not to; you will get the same point by reading the paragraph above, but it will turn your stomach and your head into a spin for the degree of the senseless brutality. .
http://open.salon.com/blog/kemstone/2010/10/26/aisha_and_humanity

These are my comments:

"Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. " - Voltaire
"As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities." - Voltaire

While Islam is part of the problem, the root cause is ourselves for allowing, believing and buying Snake Oil Salesmen's products, without imposing due diligence and responsibility to first double check their statements with sound, reasonable thoughts, and/or verified by impartial/neutral scientifically repeatable tests or by at least repeatable personal experience.

It is even worse when most of us give up completely our autonomy and power of thought to someone else or other groups even when we clearly see the absence of proof, but worse even when we see the proof of their lies. That prolonged event of having given our power, that prolonged ability to NOT think reasonably and allow others to do the thinking for us, that unrealistic, blind obedience to an imaginary being (who somehow need men to write their laws for HIM) is exactly what allows the kind of atrocities we experience and also prevents us from acting to stop it.

And if you think that it is only a problem with "certain" Religions, ie, we Christians don't believe in "that", think again. Not all Muslims believe in "that" either. But both your books are full of atrocities committed in the name of God or by God himself, an imaginary entity conveniently invisible, yet somehow able to create other visible things. A complete contradiction. A Loving God, but also a genocidal maniac. And yet, there you all are, following along like sheep, your wolfs dressed like shepherds, stoning Aishas in one form or another, in many different degrees of cruelty, but still, stoning. When was the last time you degraded (stoned) a Homosexual for looking like one, acting like one, being like one, denying the facts that they are born like that, denying them to have the same rights you have, under our Constitution, and allowing old books written by men more than 2000 years ago to tell you how to think about it now. When was the last time you stared down (stoned) a Muslim entering your store, cafe, restaurant, just for being a Muslim? Before that it was other Americans but according to you, of less denomination, like Black people, Hispanics, Chinese and Japanese origins, etc, before that it was Native Americans, women, and so one.

Every time you allow someone else to command you how and what to think, and/or believe, in the absence of reasonable evidence and thought, you will become slowly but surely an Aisha's stoner directly or indirectly. You too can get to a point where you no longer will have the ability to distinguish Reality from Imaginary.

Rise above sheep status. Fight ignorance. It is your responsibility to learn all you can learn and act accordingly. It is your human responsibility to make informed decisions. The information is available, you have no excuses.

Most people in the World would have tried to protect Aisha, or anyone in a similar situation of less or more severity, although I fear they would have retreated as well, in the presence of bullets and fear of losing their own lives, or much less severe consequences like just "looking bad" in their own religious congregations when they see wrong doing, remaining silent when priests were sexual abusing boys, etc, etc. Let's hope those that thought what happened to Aisha was wrong, chose to remain alive in order to fight the Religion and sub Regimes that they allowed to control their actions and thoughts for so long. I hope they still have the necessary tools to think for themselves and retake their brain and thoughts as their own. 


If you want to help the other thousands of the Aisha's of the World, the most effective way is to start with your own Religion, or Congregation, within your own city, friends, and family. Their disapproval for you acting on what you already know is wrong with the Religion you were born with is nothing compared to bullets and stoning. Have courage. People can and will change. Start in your own backyard. Eventually, it will reach Aisha.


There is an indirect correlation between your actions or lack thereof and what happens in the rest of the World, just like a stone dropped in a tranquil lake produces emanating waves far reaching beyond the spot the stone was dropped. Your words of disapproval or Reasoning today, or questions to long held beliefs that don't make sense to you anymore in your Religion may make others shake the foundations of their Religion clear across the Globe. Start with yourself, move on to your spouse, your children, brothers and sisters, parents, and friends, your Church [Extra Bonus if you don't have one! :-)]. They will do the same in turn. We must each do our part. Start with your turf.


Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, you sweet precious little girl, it wasn't your fault at all honey. It was ultimately our fault. I hope you are in a safe and loving place now, and if your soul returns to Earth, I hope we will have made it a better place for you by then.


For the rest of you, it hardly matters if you believe in reincarnation or the above as a metaphor, because there will surely be many more Aishas coming to this World. Could you please make sure that at least your world is ready for her? 


Is it? Does your world still believe that Gays are an abomination just because some book said so? Do they think most American Muslims are terrorists, and do they treat them as such? Do you allow that? Do you remain silent when you hear your own friends or family talk crap like that? Are you afraid for your life if you stood up to them or just lack the courage to do the right thing? Are you afraid or ready to leave your religious congregation that no longer speaks for you? Are you actively seeking a new one or actively on your own brave path? Well, if you answered NO to courage to any of these questions,  can you see that if you can't even do these simple actions when you have Rights and Protection from the Law AND have a vast amount of unbiased information at your disposal, what do you expect of people born in Somalia? How can THEY change or have the courage to change their well established beliefs, when they have no rights, no protection, and any other information but the one being provided by their "God" ? Do you think that our American Rights, Law and Information we now have came from the Religions around us, or despite their existence? Why do you think our Founding Fathers sought to separate Church from Government? For your own good, fight ignorance, question belief systems, do not give up your Reasoning, your mind, your thoughts to anyone person or group, or sooner or later we won't only be able to help the Somalias of the World, but we will certainly become one.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Arguments about Homosexuality being a choice or not.


It's against God's will.
- God has not said anything about it. So, all that abomination stuff, Adam and Eve people say is simply what people thought more than 2000 years ago which some people now have chosen to believe those that wrote these books as the word of some god, regardless of how silly and contradictory it sounds. It's just an old book ok. That you have chosen to believe it is the word of God is one thing, but that doesn't make it true just because you want to believe it. And, just because they wrote in the book that it is the word of God, it is not proof it is (LOL!). 

Homosexuals choose to have sex.
YES! Of course. So? The argument is not about a choice of having sex. That is a choice. The argument is about not having a choice as to whom they are sexually "attracted" to. You are born with that attraction. If you are a Straight man you will be attracted to women, period. No choice in the matter. Of course, to have sex with a woman you still must have her consent, and she must be an adult (so, no children involved ever). Well, the same must be for Homosexuals for which no choice of their own they happen to be attracted to same sex people. And just like Straight men can have sex with women Gays can also have sex with whoever they were born to be attracted to. That's it. That's the point of the whole thing. And both acts are equally moral. Regardless of what people 3000 years ago thought. Remember that they also thought the Earth was Flat and the center of all the planets and the Sun, Ok? So, it is not a good idea to use the bible as a reasoning tool or proof of anything. it only nulls your arguments. 


Can't talk against Gays now, but it is OK to bash Christians?
Yes. It's two different animals. You can't bash Gays just for being gay. Just like you can't bash Straight people just for being Straight. You could bash them for doing wrong deeds, which brings me to the other animal, sort of speak. People bash Christians for the same reasons Christian bash other Religions (like Islam); both Islam and Christianity (Judaism too) all point at the racism, sexism, genocide, war mongering and contradictions that the other holy books have, which is all true! Then both sides go on the defense, pointing out all the good things they do, and the good things their books say, but all ignoring the atrocities and contradictions in it. Well, you can't have it both ways. You can't play nice with one hand, while with the other hand hold a demonic, insensitive, plain wrong book demeaning other human beings with your own set of morals based on illogical Reasoning. Drop the book. Do good deeds, not words, and no one will bash you. You don't have to belong to a religion or believe in a god(s) to be good. You just have to be good.


A Heterosexual man replies that Gays being attracted to another man is a choice.
- If you say being attracted is a choice, then you are saying YOU could CHOOSE to be attracted to another man?
Right, I didn't think so.

You can still choose to have sex with another man, yes. But you can not choose to be attracted to another man. For that, you need to be born with it (unless you are Bi-sexual, but still, they are born with that duality).


A man (Straight) asked what could possibly compel another man to have sex with another man, if it was't choice?
What compels you to have sex with women, is what compels gay men to have sex with men: natural sexual attraction, from birth.

You know, in the end, this whole argument of choice is pointless under a legal point of view of Equality under our Constitution. It doesn't really matter if you are born Gay or Straight or whether it is a choice, because you still have the right to have sex with whoever you want as long as there is adult consent. We already have laws against inappropriate sexual behavior and it applies equally to all genders (Male, Female, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transsexual). 


The only problem is that those with Religious views confuse the issue of Equality under our Constitution, which GLBT people and the rest of us want to bring about, with their personal religious views which are squarely only about having sex with same gender which they want to superimpose on the rest of us, over riding the same Constitution that allows them the freedom of their Religion views. That confusion is the reason we can't come to terms; we are not talking about the same thing. Their religious views prohibit them from Reasoning the Equality issue which the rest of the World is trying to argue with them. Instead, after all the noise they start all their arguments with, which are all shut down with reasonable rebuttals from our side, it always boils down to the same old thing: "Can't have sex with  same sex people because our God says so. That makes it immoral. And to prove that He really said so, it is written in this ancient book; the old folks that wrote it heard Him say it. What more proof do you want?!" :-)

God, the Prime Mover of Creation, Proven?

October 17, 2010
Respond to No apologies #21.

Carlos L. Sutter says:
Interesting. So, you agree on a Prime Mover at the beginning which set the whole thing in motion. What is the difference between the Big Bang and your Prime Mover then? None, just a name. Because that is the theory of the Big Bang, a Prime Mover that set the whole thing in motion, but Billions of years ago.
So, you only proved by your logic that there must to have been a Prime Mover initially, but you did NOT prove by that logic that your God exists. Those are two different things. It is illogic to think that just because there was a Prime Mover, or a Big Bang, or The Source, The Force, The Initiator, whatever you want to call it, which all of them make sense to that point, that therefore this Prime Mover is ALSO what YOU call God. NOW, this outrageous concluding jump, you have, NOT, proved. A Prime Mover is one thing. Quite another is an invisible entity (incapable of becoming visible now btw) that although he could created an entire Universe in only 6 days couldn’t put together a book by himself to the world he created but instead needed regular folks to write it for him. That has no logic. That is absurd. If the Prime Mover was also your God he would have put together the book himself, and not only to a bunch of people, who they themselves called each other the “Chosen” people, but he would have put it together for everyone, in their own language, no translation errors, and with regular updates as languages change their meanings. But that is not the case, is it?
The reality is people 3000 years ago created out of their imagination [an ancient, ignorant imagination], a God, said about Him all kinds of unverified events, impossible events, contradictory events and some right out lies. But that makes sense actually. After all, these were ignorant people, that wrote what they thought must to have made sense to them at that time, and their stories are very much like other stories told by other civilizations, and their books of the same period. We call those now mythologies. Legends and stories like a God creating the Universe in 6 days, stopping the Sun (from turning around the Earth) in order to give extra daylight to someone named Joshua so he could finish off his enemy’s army. Because as you know (actually I don’t know, maybe you don’t know), the Universe, and the Earth itself was formed at least BILLIONS of years ago, and the Sun is put, not moving (relative to the Solar System that is). The Earth is the one that moves around the Sun, not vice versa. But you knew this right? It is absurd that your God didn’t know this facts 3000 years ago. But, the people the wrote the Bible surely didn’t know this fact. They had in their head a lot of erroneous ideas like most people of that time. So, that they created their book with erroneous ideas of that time makes sense. What doesn’t makes sense is that you today believe, 3000 years later, that the Prime Mover is the same one that “inspired” that nonsense to these people. There is NO LOGIC in that, and you have offered no proof to that effect either.
If you however continue with your idea of a Prime Mover who just started the Universe in motion, billions and billions of years ago and that is it, NO other intervention, then you can arrive PERFECTLY to today’s date. It explains the small changes from the elements of the Universe (Oxigen, Hydrogen, carbon etc) at the beginning, and the small evolution taking billions of years to today’s vast amount of peoples, animals, insects and plants. It explains dinosaurs, other humanoids before Homo Sapiens, the incredible forces of the planet in forging itself by its tectonic plates, from horrendous earthquakes and ocean currents/waves (when our Moon was so much closer to the Earth than it is now, moving an inch away from us every year), the fury destruction of volcanoes, comets and other asteroids hitting the Earth, great Ice Ages, tsunamis, hurricanes, animals, and plants being wiped out completely, to human’s epic wars and destruction as well as construction, and beauty in certain parts of our World. All by the forces of nature and our own. Your God’s divine hand no where to be found. It would be illogical to have all this beauty and great unnecessary destruction with a thoughtful, “merciful” God, an invisible one that can’t show up himself when needed, only to be spoken of him in ancient books, through other “deducting” symbols and 2nd hand stories. No logic in that.
We have been existing without God from Billions of years and will continue to do so for some more Billions, and like other planets and stars ours will die down eventually, and other planets will spring life in another cluster of billions of years from now. Those that use Reason will fair better than those that follow ancient books written by sexist, racist, genocidal, war mongering men, even if sometimes you manage to do some good deeds, ignoring however the very destructive nature of certain parts of your Bible, and other similar books. It doesn’t make sense that if you believe in one hand that that silly book is the word of God, that then you choose to ignore and accept at random only the parts that make sense to you and at the same time be forced to propagate and do those very stupid and hurtful sayings and deeds that you know deep in your heart are wrong, to “leave no stone unturned” does NOT jive with mercifulness, not at all. You can't say that a book comes from a divine intervention if it has ONE error, not to mention a whole bunch, plus contradictions, sections removed, sections added after it was said it was the word of God. You then must conclude, but must have courage to do so, that the Bible is NOT the word of God, it simply can not be. And simply move on with just doing things that make sense, like doing good deeds as yo have better chances of being reciprocated.
There will be more Peace on Earth if you would only focus in doing good deeds than following some one else’s books and dogma. You don’t have to be of any religion in order to be good and do good deeds. You just have to do good.

What is FAITH?

October 18th, 2010

I like Voltaire's idea on Faith: “Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.” However it could also fit the definition of Miracle for me. I like very much your thought that "the strength of the belief comes from the strength of the wish rather than the strength of evidence". Having been born Catholic, although I think this is true for most Christian religions, it was very clever for them to have made us believe that Faith was actually a "good" thing to have, something that you should pursue, something very hard to attain, so hard in fact that you had to ask God for it, that only the most righteous and best people could actually receive this most gracious state of mind. So, now it turns out that the actual dumbness of Reason, i.e, Faith, has actually become a good thing for Christians. I mean, imagine if they would actually take their Faith to work. It would go something like this: Imagine if you will a Christian car dealer explaining to his irritated boss why he gave a car loan to a borrower who had the following history: in the last 20 years he had owned 10 cars, only the 5th one he re-paid successfully, the other 9 were repossessed because he didn't make the payments. Non-Christian Clue: Horrible Borrower-Do not give him the Loan. Christian answer: I had Faith he was going to make the payments based on that one time he had made them successfully (I ignored the 90% of the borrower's history). This scenario reminds me of all Christians who have Faith in God because that one time they "believed" God helped them get something after they prayed, but quickly ignore the vast majority of times when he completely ignored them. NOW, that's Faith, the complete lack of Reasoning, finally achieved after many years of going against his better judgment, finally achieving and receiving God's Grace. But to this Christian's boss, he would  just be one dumb unemployed MF :-) Of course Christians do not apply the same lack of Reasoning to their daily lives, although I would argue that eventually this lack of Reasoning in religion does deteriorate their ability to Reason well in other non-religious settings, but it sure is ironic as hell that they do not notice this double standard, or why won’t they apply the same reasoning tools they use at work and apply them at Church?

Is Religion a natural necessity?

My response is below [otherwise known also as "calesuar" :-)]


October 19, 2010

Hopeful_Optimism
To give some context, I am an atheist.
In an evolutionary sense, the reason why memes like the Bible or Koran have survived is because they are successful in propagating themselves. They've attached themselves onto us humans and into our society. You might almost say that it's a sort of symbiosis. If it were a detriment to our species and reduced our biological fitness, humans should have shed the notion of any religion a millenia ago. However, it keeps popping up in various forms throughout the times.
I understand that you, Dr. Dawkins, have a problem with religion as a whole. According to you, it affects society negatively. Can you elucidate your concerns about why? If religion (in one form or another) has occurred in many different populations independently of one another and does not reduce our biological fitness, might one say that it is a natural... almost necessary aspect of humanity?
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calesuar 1 point 178 milliseconds ago[-]
Trust on Divinity comes from collective fear and ignorance of external forces and also irresponsibility of one own's life, that is, you'd rather give the reins of your inexplicable out of your control life to someone else who seems more capable or at least gives you some soothing answers to that ignorance and fear: Religions. This behavior is Natural for human beings, and perhaps other animals (they seem to always be following a leader). But something being Natural does not mean it is also "Necessary", not at all. It is Natural to feel hunger, but not Necessary to eat McDonalds, those with bigger brains will eat a balanced meal with healthy wholesome foods instead. What is necessary for the survival of human beings is the formation of larger groups than just himself/herself for comfort, protection, and all those benefits that groups provide. However, group mentality has its negative effects. The degree to which a group has more benefits than detriments will determine its overall survival over the long term

Juan Williams Fired from NPR. Spreading Fear

Was it ok for Juan Williams to pray on the fear on simple folk, to equate people dressed, as some Middle Easterns do, with Terrorists? Well, it isn't ok for a high caliber, educated journalist/commentator that also represents NPR to continue to promote and pray on the uneducated fear of some Americans that he too is "nervous" by simply being with people that look like Muslims, just so that he can receive a paycheck from Fox News. He knew better, but I think he knows he sold his integrity for a fistful of silver coins. Do you know why most Americans are NOT "nervous" or afraid of Catholics bombing FBI buildings? Because Timothy McVeigh was a White Catholic, a White Christian. If you are any of the two groups, you won't fear them, get nervous, and won't generalize either from singular events. However, some of us are still afraid of ANY group we are not part of, or are not familiar with, ignorant, or can't or don't want to understand. But that and out of itself is not enough reason to fear them (put them in prison, concentrated camps, cast them away, degrade them, treat them unequal, etc).

WE were suppose to leave that fear behind when we matured, learned the simple fact that not knowing a group doesn't mean we should fear it (degrade it, kill it, etc; we continue to do this with inoffensive spiders for example). It is an understandable and expected behavior of children and ignorant people. But not of Juan Williams, or any figure in High position with NPR or any mature News Organization. That is the point. Not ok to add fuel to ignorance and fear, not for money, not for any reason.

Obviously there are enough people that don't mature even well into adulthood; they can't still leave behind their security blanket, pacifier, baseball cap, dark sunglasses, Guardian Angels and/or other similar "powerful" but conveniently invisible beings in order to "feel" protected from ignorant, unrealistic fear. These are the very people Fox News caters to, and now it appears Juan Williams will too.