What Atheism Means For Me

Atheism is not a "belief system" in the accepted sense of that phrase. There is no "faith" involved in atheism. Faith is defined as:

faith [feyth] noun
1. confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another's ability.
2. belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that he would be healed.
3. belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: the firm faith of the Pilgrims.
4. belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.: to be of the same faith with someone concerning honesty.
5. a system of religious belief: the Christian faith; the Jewish faith.

When atheists speak of "beliefs" or the "faith" of theists, we are referring to definitions 2, 3 and 5. Atheists do not "believe" or have "faith" based on any of those definitions, therefore, atheism is not a religion.

It is NOT "a belief that no god exists". It is a lack of belief in a god or gods. I am an atheist. I would never use the phrase, "I believe no god exists." at least not in the sense that theists believe. That would be a misleading and inaccurate statement. What I would say is that there is no evidence to suggest that a deity exists, therefore I do not believe in god. This means that I, personally, have no "faith" that a deity exists. I do not say, nor can anyone say, that I am absolutely certain that no god exists. What I am saying, is that based on the FACT that no evidence has ever been presented indicating the existence of a deity, it is astronomically unlikely that such a super being exists. I could be wrong, but I truly doubt it.

I have no faith in a magic space daddy or any other mythical being, I do not live my life based on some ancient doctrine, therefore I have no religion.

Atheism is NOT a religion... it's a lack of religion... it is the lack of the belief in a supernatural entity. Atheists don't meet every Sunday and chant, sing and pray to a mythical entity because, frankly, that's just plain idiotic and I have better things to do with my brief life.

Death Toll

I think I am finally fed up with the idiotic notion that more deaths can be attributed to atheists than to theists. Really? Do you really want to go there? Because in all seriousness, you've already lost.

In the beginning... remember that little book called Genesis in your Bible. In that fairy tale, god got pissed off because Adam and Eve gained knowledge and apparently, he wanted to keep his pets stupid. So god blocked the path to the "tree of life" (Genesis 3:23-24) so that Adam and Eve could not eat from it and live forever. This punishment was bestowed upon, not just Adam and Eve, but, all humans forever and ever. Besides punishing everyone for all future generations for something of which they couldn't possibly be held accountable, god also became 100% responsible for the deaths of every human that ever lived and subsequently died.

So according to your own ridiculous archaic beliefs, you, theists win the death toll race by several billion to zero. Just like your answer to every other question... "God did it!" Now STFU!

Ménière's Disease

The Facts on Ménière's Disease

Ménière's disease is a condition that affects the inner ear. It causes attacks of dizziness (vertigo), nausea and vomiting, a feeling of fullness in the ear and/or pressure in the skull, hissing and roaring in the ears, and some hearing loss.

The disease comes on without warning. It may come and go over a person's lifetime. It often leaves no lasting symptoms in between bouts, and people with it can live perfectly normal lives.

Between 2 to 6 out of every 1,000 people will be affected with the disease. The condition affects men and women, and usually begins between the ages of 20 and 50. Usually only one ear is affected, although 10% to 15% of people with Ménière's disease develop it in both ears.

Causes of Ménière's Disease

The cause of Ménière's disease is unknown. The symptoms are believed to be related to having too much fluid in the inner ear. Occasionally, this potassium-rich fluid breaks the inner ear membrane and leaks into the potassium-poor outer fluid. This mixing causes a chemical reaction that paralyses the balance system in the inner ear until the fluid balance becomes normal again.

Symptoms and Complications of Ménière's Disease

Dizziness, nausea, vomiting, ear fullness, ringing in the ears, and some hearing loss are all symptoms of an attack of Ménière's disease. A person with this condition usually has one or more attacks a year, which may come alone or in groups. The individual attacks last from approximately 20 minutes to 24 hours and generally recur over a period of 2 to 3 weeks and go away gradually. During a dizzy spell, the person feels like the world is whirling around them. They stagger from side to side and sometimes even fall down. These falling spells are called drop attacks or Tumarkin spells.

If you have Ménière's disease, you may also experience tinnitus, which is a hissing, ringing, or roaring in the affected ear that may continue, change, or disappear. Tinnitus may worsen during, just before, or just after a dizzy spell. People with Ménière's disease also have trouble hearing voices and music properly. Their hearing often comes back between attacks, but they do lose some hearing permanently over time.

Another symptom of Ménière's disease are frequent migraines. Migraines occur both during an attack and between attacks. The reason for the frequent migraines is unknown. The only known treatment is migraine medication.

While having an attack of Ménière's disease, you may also get a non-migraine headache, grow pale, sweat, develop a slow pulse, and feel nauseous and vomit.

A person with the condition can go for years without having another attack and sometimes they never experience another attack. Between attacks, the person feels fine. However, the hearing in the affected ear (or ears) often declines gradually over time. Since the dizziness is unpredictable, people with Ménière's disease may be constantly concerned about having a dizzy spell and therefore often avoid driving or operating machinery. If attacks have occurred without warning, your doctor is obliged to advise you against driving.

Diagnosing Ménière's Disease

Your doctor will review your symptoms and medical history, and do a physical exam. Hearing tests and other lab tests of ear function will also take place, and a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan may be done to check if there is a brain tumour.

Treating and Preventing Ménière's Disease

Currently, there is no way to cure Ménière's disease. Treatments include acupuncture, herbal remedies, and various medications. Diuretics, vasodilator medications, and a low-salt diet help relieve symptoms by taking fluid away from the head and ear and maintaining the fluid balance in the body.

Anti-nausea medications such as dimenhydrinate or meclizine can be taken in the form of tablets or suppositories.

Listening to music can "mask" the tinnitus or noises in a person's ears. Some people wear a tinnitus masker, which is a little device that makes noise behind their ear to block the awareness of the tinnitus.

If these treatments don't work, surgery may be an option. However, it doesn't always work and can cause ear damage. A type of surgery called labyrinthectomy usually relieves the dizziness but it results in total hearing and balance loss in the affected ear.

Another surgical procedure involves cutting the nerve leading to the organ of balance in the middle ear. Like a labyrinthectomy, this procedure relieves the dizziness. However, unlike a labyinthectomy, it often preserves the hearing in the ear that was operated on. It is a more complex operation and requires a longer hospital stay, and there is a risk of damage to other parts of the ear.

Endolymphatic sac surgery is another type of surgery that is often used for people who have dizziness but good hearing, as it can relieve the dizziness and usually preserves hearing in the ear that is operated on. However, in about 4% of cases, hearing gets worse. It does not usually relieve tinnitus. A "shunt" or plastic tube to drain fluid from the ear isn't usually successful.

Chemicals can also be used to destroy either all or part of the balancing functions of the ear. The medication gentamicin is placed into the middle ear using a tube through the eardrum. It destroys some hearing cells, but it helps make the vertigo attacks less severe and may leave people with enough hearing so that they can function. However, hearing loss is a possibility.

Horse Feathers

Are you a religious person? Do you believe in god? If your answer to either of these questions is "yes", my question to you is, "Why do you believe that?"
There can be only one answer to my question. You believe that because someone told you it was true. It could have been a parent, a friend or a mere acquaintance but somebody at some point in your life told you there was a deity and you believed it. You might not have believed it right away but the stories were spun in such a way that you, at least, grew to believe it.

Have you ever seen god? Have you ever heard god? No, you have not. If you hear voices in your head, that's just you. There are neurons firing in your brain that translate into thoughts... but that's just you.

You might say, "But I have these religious texts that tell of 'miracles' and god speaking to prophets so that proves there is a god." No... it... doesn't. The only real "proof" that you have is that someone (a human someone) or a few 'someones' wrote stories a few thousand years ago. The simple fact that these stories exist does not mean the stories are based on real events. Is "Harry Potter" a true story because it's written in a book and tells of supernatural events? No. It is fiction.

Do you even know who wrote these books or what their motives were for writing the books? Perhaps they were just creative writers attempting to launch a literary career. The books that were written 2000 years ago, were most likely allegories, as this was a common writing style of the time.

There is now a fair amount of evidence to suggest that Jesus might not have ever existed but let's just assume that he did exist for argument's sake and that he lived where the stories claim he lived 2000 years ago. We know, and all theologians agree that the first book to write about Jesus' life was Mark and Mark was written 40 years after Jesus' alleged death. Most people in that region were illiterate. How likely is it that if Mark actually did write down 'word-of-mouth' stories, that these stories were accurate?

Have you ever played the 20 person "tell the story right" game? In one hour long class at university, we played the game (to demonstrate this process). The twenty students leave the classroom. The 2 minute story was told to the rest of us and we were to write it down. The first of the 20 was brought into the room and told the story by the professor. None of the 20 were allowed to take notes. The second student was brought in and was told the story by the first student. The 3rd student was brought in and told the story by the 2nd student and so on. The only story that was quite accurately retold was from student 1 to student 2. After that it went downhill. By the time student 20 was told the story, it didn't even resemble the original story. And that was in the span of one hour. How accurate would the story be after 40 years?

Why do you believe these stories are true? It is because you were told over and over again by some very convincing orators that they are true. You were told you are not permitted to question the validity of these stories because god almighty will punish you with hellfire!

I have one response to that. If there was any conceivable reason for me to believe any of these fantastical stories, you would not have to threaten me to "believe them or else." They would be easy to believe.

Any book that tells someone that "YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ALL OF THIS STUFF IS TRUE OR YOU WILL BE PUNISHED FOR ALL ETERNITY" is obvioysly FULL OF SHIT. And, for that matter, any book that tells me I'm doomed for wearing a cotton/poly blend, is, in my opinion, bat shit crazy, and deserves no more consideration than horse feathers!

In The Beginning

Let's start from the beginning. In the hate-filled misogynistic book of fairy tales, commonly referred to as ‘the bible’, the beginning would be the book of Genesis. Now in the story, there was nothing. Now there wasn't just ‘nothing’ for a small fraction of time; there was ‘nothing’ forever and ever. The tale tells us that "god" had no beginning so he (I’ll call it a “he” to save typing “he/she”) just hung around an eternity of nothingness as far back as we can't imagine. Then suddenly, perhaps because of an eternity of shear boredom, this god character decided to create a planet in a remote section of a remote galaxy in a vast universe and make living creatures on it to use as play things for his amusement. And so I don't forget, this god also made light a day or two before he made the sun (which is actually a star). That was one of the first physically impossible tricks he did. He then made plants and animals and saved making the people for the end.

So he makes Adam out of dirt (another good trick). There was no cell division like we know for a fact exists now at conception. You've got this fertilized egg (single cell deal) which splits in two, then four and so on. I'm sure you catch my drift. Nope... god just "poof", out of dirt made a full grown man. Then he made a woman (not out of dirt like the guy) out of Adam's rib. Wonder if god used anesthesia. If not, that must have hurt like hell. Anyway, she was the same species, just the double X chromosomes instead of an X and a Y (and made out of two completely different materials – dirt and bone). Speaking of “Y”, why did god bother with chromosomes and DNA? Wouldn't it have been easier just to make fully formed parts instead of breaking every living thing down to a cellular level? But I digress.

So now you have a man and a woman running around a garden in the Middle East doing whatever new creatures do and they're told that they can eat whatever they want in the garden except for fruit from the tree of knowledge. Now here is where it gets interesting. Why would an omnipotent, omniscient super-being not want the creatures he created to have knowledge? What is knowledge? Knowledge is general awareness or possession of information, facts, ideas, truths or principles (although, definition #6 does say, “sexual intercourse” and with the obsession of all religions with sex, that could be what they meant). We’ll use the #1 definition as it is the most common definition of the word. One becomes aware of one’s surroundings, how things work, etc. Why would a god not want creatures he made to know anything or be aware of how things work (I’ve offered a hint here)? What kind of sick game is this god playing anyway? That's like me making my children and telling them they can have whatever they want but they can't have a cookie that I baked and put in the cookie jar. Now what is the kid going to do? It's the most ridiculous premise for an incredibly absurd fairy tale but I'll continue.

So then god, who made everything, also made this talking snake (snakes have no vocal cords). But the snake is actually Satan, who god made too. Now why would god make another very powerful creature (angel, so the story goes) who is very bad? One would think that an all knowing, all powerful god would have seen the next part coming. So the talking snake tempts Eve, the woman (yes the woman because men wrote the book and they couldn't blame the bad stuff on the man, Adam), and she eats the fruit. God must have been napping and missed the entire scene. It’s weird though, because the Xtians will tell you that god knows everything. How’d he miss that? If he was watching, why wouldn’t he stop it? And if he chose not to stop it, what kind of twisted fuck is this guy? He’s playing some pretty brutal head games with everyone involved.

OK, so now, Eve gets Adam to eat the fruit too and they suddenly realize they have no clothes on because, I don’t know, they were blind or something before that. God gets royally pissed off and decides to punish them by making them not live forever (thank “god” because that would be boring as hell) and to make Eve have pain during child birth (misogynistic bastard – Adam ate the damn fruit too).

So, yada yada yada, they end up with two boys, Cain and Abel and Cain kills his brother over jealousy (now the bible tells us later on that “god is a jealous god” and if god is completely good then this means jealousy is good… so why was Cain bad again? Anyway…). Cain is punished and sent out of the Garden of Eden where he meets a woman and they get married. NOW… hold the fuck on! Where did this other woman come from if Adam and Eve started the human race on planet Earth? If the woman was the daughter of Adam and Eve: 1. How did she manage to be outside of the garden of Eden? and 2. That would mean Cain and mystery lady number 1 are brother and sister and… well… incest… and eewwww!

Now, what we’ve all been waiting for… my point! This “creation” story is completely irreconcilable even if we had zero scientific evidence for the theory of evolution. There is (and can be) only one explanation for why a “god” would not want us to have “knowledge”. Because if we acquire knowledge we will realize that this entire “creation” story and every other theological story is pure and utter bullshit. Secondly, if a “god” were omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and omnibenevolent he would, first of all make a perfect universe (not a hostile one), make perfect beings, never make an evil being, know everything that was ever going to happen (no need for head games or trickery) and not create a tiny little planet (in the middle of nowhere) where every living thing on it eventually dies. It does not matter at what angle you come at these tales. They defy every pattern of logic conceivable. Why is that? How can that be? I’ll tell you why/how. Men – superstitious, bronze age, racist, misogynistic, bigoted men – wrote these tales to explain their world and create a moral code which would satisfy their individual biases (bigotry, misogyny, etc.). In an ancient world where celestial events and natural disasters occurred they craved some measure of control over their environment. These tales would validate their fear and loathing of other tribes and give them control over their women (by demonizing them). Men never really knew for sure if the children were actually theirs. By inventing a god who said that women must “obey” and be completely subservient to their husbands, they were able to establish almost unmitigated control over their wives and ensure their own “immortality” through their offspring.

DNA can now verify paternity. The big bang theory is a solid explanation for why the universe is here. Evolution is a theory (with oodles of evidence) of why we humans are here. It is no longer necessary to invent fairy tales to explain our world. Every human being regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation, deserves to be treated well based on a system of altruism, not on an ancient system of superstition.

With our current scientific, testable, provable knowledge of our world, all religions in this third millennium are rendered moot.

The Misogyny of Religion

The Superstition

Revelation 14:1- And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. 2. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. 4. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

The Logic

It never ceases to amaze me that so many fundamentalists think that several groups of people are going to hell yet they never fail to assume that they are among the very limited group of men going to heaven. It clearly states in their mythology that of the 7 billion people currently inhabiting the Earth, only 144,000 virgin males are going to heaven where they will sing all the time and follow a lamb around (sounds like fun?... not to me but whatever floats your boat). And any man who has ever touched a woman is not eligible for "eternal bliss". The 144,000 dudes entering the "kingdom" are all virgins. I suspect the guys who wrote the "fabulous work of fiction" were rather homely boys who never got a date in high school.

I also encounter female fundies frequently who go on and on about gender roles and how they are so devoted to god/Jesus. But not a single one of them seems to acknowledge that they don't have a "hope in hell" (pardon the expression) of entering the pearly gates. First and foremost, they are of the wrong gender (according to the pagan book of misogynistic fables commonly referred to as “the bible”). It is so very clear in "Revelation" that heaven is an exclusive male club. And we hear in the letters of Paul (who I am convinced was, himself, a closeted homosexual) so often that he really did not care for women at all. They were to be barely seen and not heard at all (1 Corinthians 14:33-35) and be forever obedient to their husbands who were free to abuse their wives and daughters at will. I find myself particularly thrilled (not) that the idea of selling one's "daughters" into slavery (Exodus 21:7-11) is a very acceptable practice in the, what I like to call, book of hatred (the bible). How any woman can actually bring herself to "believe" in this obviously sexist nonsense is beyond me. Several people in her life must have had a great deal of success in brainwashing her into believing these ridiculous “morales”.

There is a great deal of anthropological evidence to suggest that early civilizations were matriarchal. Women were revered in primitive cultures as they were "the givers of life". Women carried and bore children and men felt quite useless "back in the day". Unfortunately, human males are larger and physically stronger than females. This is likely because males needed to be the hunters/providers of food and lodging while females cared for the young and so evolution (natural selection to be specific) took care of the larger, stronger and faster physical aspects of male humans. As time went on, it is quite likely that men became jealous of the important roles of women and so developed "religions" where males were superior and females were to be owned (property) and obedient. This is how males elevated their status in societies. Because these ancient societies were superstitious and knew nothing of physics, chemistry and biology, they were quick to believe that a "god" had communicated with a particularly charismatic male member of the tribe. Religions were born and as different tribes wanted superior status to other tribes, new religions were born which were “the only true religion and only true god”. What a load of crap.

It is very likely there is no god – no prime mover, no force of the heavens and earth, no divine daddy in the sky. It is phenomenally unlikely that there is a deity who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent. In fact, I can say with confidence that such a being does not exist. I could be wrong, but I truly doubt it. I believe our existence is a natural one. We are here simply because of physical, chemical and biological events that occurred over billions of years. I believe we evolved to be loving and caring simply as an insurance that our species would continue on our tiny planet in the universe for as long as it is able to. Nothing in nature is perfect – NOTHING. Humans are capable of great altruism and incredible evil. It is the altruism that ensures the survival of our species and this is the reason I think we should be good to each other.

Religious beliefs that promote hatred of large groups of people are detrimental to the progress of humanity and life on Earth. It’s time we all started caring for each other and the environment before superstitious nonsense succeeds in destroying the only planet in this vast universe where we KNOW life exists.

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