Cannibalism

Below is a debate outline I wrote, which I think you might find to be interesting.

Do you consider cannibalism to be intrinsically immoral? Why?

On occasion I think it's a good idea to play devil's advocate or simply question some things we take to be true, regardless of whether they are actually true. I want you guys to understand I am not arguing for legalization of cannibalism or suggesting you go out and eat people. Re-read the first sentence of this post. It says nothing about legalization or recommendations to eat people.

Here are some things I think are worth thinking about:
-Any arguments against something being unnatural is not a valid argument. Lots of things are unnatural. Like computers. There are also other animals that eat each other.

-It may cause diseases. That's just for the person eating. If he gets fucked, that's his problem. People do unhealthy shit to themselves all the time. 

-Arguments about violation of the rights of the deceased isn't an argument about the intrinsic immorality of cannibalism but the immorality of cannibalism without prior consent. Having sex with a person without consent is immoral but it does not make sex itself immoral. Consequences of actions are situational and must of course be judged for each situation, but they do not make the act itself immoral.

-Obviously cannibalism that follows murder is immoral. But for the sake of argument, that's not what I'm talking about. Assume the person that's dead would be perfectly cool with you eating him or her.

-Arguments about family and friends being sad would be irrelevant given a person has no relatives that know about or care or are still alive. One has to balance the feelings of family members versus personal freedom versus the need for food, ei, is human flesh all that is available as food for the time being? This is a more complex question but one that does not render all of cannibalism regardless of the situation to be immoral.

-Arguments about cannibalism is wrong because it leads to 'universal widespread abhorrence': Are wrong. Some cultures are fine with eating other humans. In fact, in the past humans used to eat humans all the freakin' time. What one particular culture feels about an action isn't an argument. We can also reverse the argument: You may feel child pornography is wrong, child rape is wrong, child marriages are wrong, but past cultures have found it acceptable enough. In short, how people used to or still feel about an issue isn't a valid argument. 

On top of that, the fact that many people have an opinion does not prove anything. This is an argument ad populum, a logical fallacy. You can feel guilty for something you've done that's not necessarily immoral; if I run over a dead cat with a car, I'd feel disgusted and some would feel guilty, saying 'poor cat' even though the cat is already dead. I consider something to be immoral when it unfairly visits suffering to an individual. Dead people can't suffer. If dead people had feelings, how would their bones feel being buried in a wooden box and then stuff under dirt? Or perhaps we cremate bodies, in which case it's worse than eating it, we've utterly obliterated their body. If a person asked to be eaten once dead, how can this possibly go against the wish of the once-alive person?

-This is not an argument for legalization of cannibalism, this is purely an academic, hypothetical discussion. This term has raised some hackles so let me clarify: This is discussing the concept, whether it is moral or inherently immoral and has no bearing on actual changes in policy. I call it 'academic' because instead of convincing you of a change in policy or importance of my message, I'm merely debating to try to glean some new insight, in this case, insight on cannibalism. This means, any argument about how tricky it is to implement legalization of cannibalism is completely irrelevant and attacking this would be a strawman. Saying allowing cannibalism leads to a slippery slope or necessarily leads to issues due to supply/murder for cannibalism/etc is also a strawman.

-In addition, just because something is currently illegal does not mean something is immoral. That's a non-sequitur. 

-The argument isn't that it causes happiness, therefore cannibalism is not immoral. It's that it does not visit unfair suffering to the parties involved. Instead, cannibalism offends our sensibilities, somewhat irrationally. Ensure your argument is not an appeal to emotion, brought about by socialization and conditioning.

-Please do not make personal attacks against me, this is purely a hypothetical, something I think is interesting.

Value of Debating

From my experience in debating religion in an online forum, in every single discussion of this nature there would be at least one person who posts long angry posts about “who cares?!” and about how we should just let people believe what they want to believe. These people are not interested in responding to refutations of their logic because they didn't care in the first place. But I hope the reader cares so I’d like to describe my reasons for debating, apart from the fact that beliefs inform our actions, etc.

First we need to understand that debates should not be contests ideally. How does one “win” a debate? If by winning it means being the person who comes up with the most valid reason and evidence, I think I basically almost take the place of the winner. Is winning the debate being the person that convinces the opponent to side with them? Then let me start by asking, when was the last time any debate of any kind directly changed a person’s beliefs on the spot? Basically never. With that out of the way, let us tear down all debates ever. Let’s start with debates among presidential nominees. Maybe asking the correct questions will start a person on a path where they eventually arrive at a right answer. We don’t know if that’s the case. Now, people can change their minds, just not right away. Rarely is the change ever immediate. There are theists out there who are very isolated from people with differing points of view. There are theists who don’t know the arguments posted by atheists… many don’t even know what atheism is. If I can get people to question their beliefs, then something good is taking place. It doesn’t matter if they change their side. The very act of questioning things, the act of skeptical inquiry, of understanding more clearly what’s going on, that is by itself a good thing. Thinking beats not thinking. And in debates you have to think. If I can get a Christian to turn atheist, kewl. But if I can get them to actually read their own Bible and understand their own religion even if that means they’ll continue to cling onto it, I still find that better than when we started. The act of debating activates people’s wish to win a debate. If you look at places like Europe which now beats America in oh-so-many things, debating isn’t a dick move. Complete strangers would hash out issues over a coffee table instead of sitting alone with their Macbooks pretending to write a book. Because people want to win debates, they need to be informed. To be informed is not enough; developing critical thinking skills is required, and that my friends, is beneficial to not just the person but to society as a whole.

Hell, even if people don’t change their minds, does it not occur to people that the never-ending search to verify what beliefs they have are true is considered noble? We can do this by discussing ideas with people who disagree. We can categorize, sort, link together information we have in our heads. I have an entire book’s worth of things tied to religion in my head. What better way to ensure your reasoning is sound than to expose them to people who will try to prove you wrong? It’s like proofreading but even better. Wasn’t America founded upon the idea democracy and the informed decision, of a constant clash of ideas and debate? I learn new things as I go along. Trust me, I wrote a book. I’ve got lots of info locked up inside my noggin’ here. But I do get new info that come in from different people with different perspectives on this whole issue. As such I actually have more content I wish to pursue. Further still I wish to defend as often as I can, what atheism is and what agnostic atheism is. I dislike people misusing the term, and people who stereotype atheists, etc.

There was a time, when I lost a debate on religious matters. I didn't admit I was wrong at first but that stayed with me throughout the time I was looking at more and more evidence until I recognized I was wrong. I lost contact with the person who proved me wrong, I never got to tell him I was wrong. But at least I changed my mind with incoming evidence. So there at least, is an exception to your rule. If you wished to argue, at the start, that debates of this sort means changing fundamental belief systems, then sure. But if you wish to argue still, that necessarily means nobody will ever change their opinions, you can't possibly know that. The very fact that fundamental belief systems are deeply rooted and fiercely defended means it takes time to process and recognize what's going on. And even more importantly, it means rarely will the person who realizes they are wrong will openly declare themself a loser.

So in short if you think dialogue is bad, then don't be a part of it. But there are those among us who seek out the dialogue because we find it worthwhile for a multitude of reasons. And if both sides feels the same way, there's no harm in a debate. Are such threads about religion really useless in a forum among random threads such as “rate my outfit”? The very definition of a forum is “a meeting or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged”. Even IF debate is useless, don’t tell me you never do anything useless.

People are more likely to be open to other possibilities or answers in topics they don’t take as seriously. But in an effort to be as rational a person I can be, I need to try to push that emotion aside and stick to reason and evidence. And the things we take seriously are often the things that most need changing if they are wrong, am I correct? Now, we all have our own opinions on matters of religion and some people don't want to take part. That's not a problem. I don't go to random strangers on the street wearing a cross to tell them how misguided I think they are. I discuss this stuff with people who seek out a debate. The flip side is, I don't go to Anime Threads and tell them how boring and useless it is to talk about anime characters. I understand it's not my cup of tea so I leave it be. This is a matter of preference. On the other hand, people drop posts about how they hate religion discussions and how futile they are. If for some reason you found my initial reply to be lacking, so what, if you think they are useless, then leave it for people who enjoy it to get into it. Even if I grant that most religion discussions turn into hatefests, does that mean all of them turn into hate fests? No, it means then, that you have some diamonds in the rough. People debate about politics fiercely. And people have gotten pretty fired up over an Intel vs AMD debate, personal experience. It's not a reason to deny all other people from having debates because some get out of hand... to me that just means I need to look harder for those conversations worth having. And when I find it, all the better. And how do we attempt to fix this? By discussion with people who volunteer to jump into the discussion, not by ducking the issue forever and ever. And to some extent it's also an interest, which is removed from the notion that all debates are only about finding truth. Yes, more investment is often made into religion but not always. There are casual theists who barely understand or care about their own religion, yet rebuke those who challenge beliefs. So a large part of it is due to the culture. Culture has a huge impact on the way we look at things, which we often don't want to admit. The hard topics are harder to talk about but often more rewarding and more important to talk about in the first place. I hope you understand where I'm coming from. I also hope you understand, there are people who think as I do when it comes to debates.

You don’t have to be a painter to enjoy paintings. You don’t have to be an artist to enjoy music. Why do you have to be a scientist to appreciate science? Why must you be an angry atheist to appreciate a debate?

Witchhunts for Pseudo-Intellectuals

Recently I got branded as a pseudo-intellectual. Somebody thinks I'm a pretentious guy, who thinks he is smart but is in fact stupid. I don't want to turn this blog into a dumping ground for my opinions on people who attack me because who wants to read that? I don't even want to read that.

But let's explore this for a moment. Do I use big words when I type? Not really, I don't think. I may whip out a couple of 'argument from ignorance fallacy' or 'ad hominem' phrases. So what? We use these all the time for discussing religion. It's second nature to me, I don't use it because less people are familiar with it. People don't understand it, there's a dictionary. You can ask me, I'll try my best to help.

I've already written about how I feel I relate to other people in terms of intelligence. I'd LIKE to think I try to be as rational as I possibly can. There's a big difference between thinking you're super smart and thinking one specific person is a complete idiot. It's like not knowing the answer, but knowing a really wrong answer when you see one. Do I get caught up in the moment once in a while in a debate? Yeah. I'm human, but so are you. We're not perfect. Just because I attack somebody for saying stupid stuff doesn't mean I automatically think I'm the best in the world, EVEN IF I use words you think are super academic. It's not like I use big words for the sole purpose of showing off, or even to show off. Do you really want to replace 'argument from ignorance fallacy' with the definition each time you want to use that phrase in effort to run away from being labeled a 'pseudo-intellectual'? I know I don't, that's a pain in the ass is what it all comes down to.

I don't think I'm a pseudo-intellectual and I don't particularly care to call some other people as one either. We're just people. We hold beliefs that may or may not be justified and it's important we try to figure that out together. I know full well I'm not some phd scientist, lol. I'm a teenager that wants a place to collect his thoughts into one place so it is easy to organize. And if other people want to read them, awesome. But I know full well I have an audience of less than 10 people. But that's OK, and it doesn't bother me because being #1 wasn't my intention.

Attack the message, not the person. The person generally has nothing to do with the topic at hand. The other crap is unnecessary. Yes, it is true I have insulted others on different occasions but it is for blatant, racism or prejudice against other people. EG, Americans are honestly the most stupid people on the planet! (Once said in a video featuring an American professor, which ironically the commentor adores) These are things that are obviously just wrong, wrong, wrong. But that was one line, not the entire post. If I wrote an entire post centered on how stupid a person is, that would be pointless. Yet some people find it in them to stalk people to get information on them, in order to tailor their insults to put you down in the worst way they can find.

I get hate on just about every aspect of me as a person that a person could find out on their own. I grow more used to it but by god, people find ways to get their message across, to make it more personal each time. I'll be fine of course, but it can be exhausting at times. You write a book, you get hatemail. That should be a no-brainer anyways.

Challenging Beliefs

To me, the idea that beliefs should be challenged is a very basic and fundamental ideology I subscribe to. First of all let me seperate opinions and claims of truth from merely claims about preference. You can like a band. I can go apeshit and say that's not logical but we all know how subjective music is in its very nature; but more importantly we also know what music one likes is relevant to the listener only. In other words, nobody cares what you feel about music and it will never negatively impact the world in any way.

On the other hand, unjustified beliefs about the nature of the universe, about morality and ethics, that is something else. We all know a truth claim must be held to the highest scrutiny based on its category. Beliefs inform our actions. The very fact that I'm sitting here typing this post out rests on beliefs about my circumstance. If I believe my house will collapse in 60 seconds, I won't be here typing this. What is the likelihood that a person who believes God condemns homosexuality will vote against gay marriage should the person vote? Pretty much 100%.

If our mind is all we have, then basing what we know and understand and think about and believe on realty must be chiefly important. What IF the god of Abraham is real and I've been oblivious to him the whole time? What if he left evidence, but I simply never found it even though it was staring at me? Those could be huge problems. That would change the course of my life forever. And by forever I mean, literally, forever as heaven would last quite a while I'd imagine.

So when people go on Facebook, like a page called 'Rationalist' and dare post homophobic, anti-science, anti-common-sense, anti-evolution posts, people are free to fire at will on those guys. They may THINK they are rational, that they DO INDEED have god on their side. But what are your beliefs worth without justification? Jackshit. Probably less than that. Wasn't the Declaration of Independence written by a bunch of free-thinkers, many of whom were deists or atheists? Wasn't the entire spirit of the country a spirit of debate, of new ideas, maddening ideas, challenging ideas, and then finding the best answer? Now we're all fucking lazy, we don't want to debate, we don't care what is true, or maybe... and for me even worse... we think we are right when we are dead wrong. So if America was founded on the clashing of different ideas... isn't this what it means to have a society of free speech?

You may spew out all the nonsense you want, that is your right. It is my right to refute them one-by-one or just troll you into tomorrow. Why the hell is it ok to say your opinion if it's not ok for me to say my opinion? Your opinion could be, you think gays ought to burn in hell. My opinion is, you're a religious, uneducated, close-minded, homophobe that doesn't know SHIT. That's my opinion. You may disagree. But quit playing the victim, where you say stupid shit and get burned for it. It's free speech. Get used to it. If you don't like it, then shut up, nobody wants to listen to your homophobic rants about how 911 was caused by gay people anyways. Welcome to the new world, it's the same as the old world.

We can partially thank religion for pushing this idea... that challenging one's beliefs is something people ought not to do to be polite. What's not polite is thinking a friend is incapable of handling a conversation or possibly even a debate without ruining your friendship. That's quit belittling.  Do I want irrational friends? Probably not. I really don't understand this mentality, that "all answers are ok". No they are not all ok. In math, 1+1 is fucking 2. If you were to answer the question by writing "sausages" in the answer column, GUESS WHAT SON? You'll get the question WRONG. In life some things have a right answer and any other answer is just plain ol' wrong. Some other questions are less linear in this fashion but many are. Did the God of Abraham as describe by the Bible exist? That's a yes or no question about the nature of the universe. And if your answer is not justified, why must I accept it? Would you sincerely accept an answer from anybody no matter how looney it sounds, or even just respect it? What if a mentally ill patient walks up to you and spews out some ridiculous conspiracy theory? Would you accept that as well? If you answered yes, you're fucking insane and you need to follow the guy back to the mental hospital after showing him the way. If the answer is no, then clearly you do not accept all answers. If you don't accept the crazy person's opinion but you accept all other people not officially diagnosed with mental illness' opinions, then you are judging which opinions are worth respecting. Which is what I'm doing.

When you're not sure if you're right or wrong, what do you do? You verify your arguments and facts. You debate and discuss until you're more certain what you think has some sort of basis on reality.

Hey, I ain't saying I know it all. I'm not saying all of my positions are 100% rational 100% of the time. At least I get to say I'm trying, Are you?

Matrix Problem, Snobby Food, and Death

Matrix Problem

The Matrix Problem is a classical example of an unfalsifiable thesis. What if this world isn't real and is simply a simulation? We have no way of knowing until we are unplugged and freed. Sure, it's a possibility but there is no evidence to suggest it. It's meaningless even if the very nature of the idea implies it cannot be provenm... that this is a simulation, means we won't be able to to prove it with any sort of data because we are inside it. The same logic can be applied to any god claim. For example, the very idea of a god necessitates that it is undetectable, hence the idea of a personal god is given with no evidence whatsoever. That's not good enough. I can make an infinite number of claims of this sort.

Snobby Food

I've been perusing videos on Youtube about some fancy food, including the Fat Duck, a very expensive restaurant that employs molecular gastronomy. Some people... many people feel the urge to troll it because it's not cooking in as strict sense as frying potatoes.  People think it's snobby food, that you'd leave hungry. Do you really think a restaurant would survive if its customers left hungry? Think about it for a second, ok? Snobby, overpriced? So is the Mona Lisa and like every single famous painting, ever. Or any expensive precious stone, or expensive computer or car or house or whatever. What is the difference? OH YEAH! You don't care about food as much. So others are snobby elitists who have no life and are pretentious fools because they have different interests than you do? Or is it because food doesn't last forever? In that case, so does sex, movies, and life. Doesn't render pursuing those useless.

Death
These ideas are plucked straight from Sam Harris. But think about it. You will be no more distressed after you die than the billions of years before you were born.

'Most of us do our best not to think about death. But there’s always part of our minds that knows this can’t go on forever. Part of us always knows that we’re just a doctor’s visit away, or a phone call away, from being starkly reminded with the fact of our own mortality, or of those closest to us. Now, I’m sure many of you in this room have experienced this in some form; you must know how uncanny it is to suddenly be thrown out of the normal course of your life and just be given the full time job of not dying, or of caring for someone who is... But the one thing people tend to realize at moments like this is that they wasted a lot of time, when life was normal. And it’s not just what they did with their time — it’s not just that they spent too much time working or compulsively checking email. It’s that they cared about the wrong things. They regret what they cared about. Their attention was bound up in petty concerns, year after year, when life was normal. This is a paradox of course, because we all know this epiphany is coming. Don’t you know this is coming? Don’t you know that there’s going to come a day when you’ll be sick, or someone close to you will die, and you will look back on the kinds of things that captured your attention, and you’ll think ‘What was I doing?’. You know this, and yet if you’re like most people, you’ll spend most of your time in life tacitly presuming you’ll live forever. Like, watching a bad movie for the fourth time, or bickering with your spouse. These things only make sense in light of eternity. There better be a heaven if we’re going to waste our time like this.
There are ways to really live in the present moment. What's the alternative? It is always now. However much you feel you may need to plan for the future, to anticipate it, to mitigate risks, the reality of your life is now. This may sound trite... but it's the truth... As a matter of conscious experience, the reality of your life is always now. I think this is a liberating truth about the human mind. In fact, I think there is nothing more important to understand about your mind than that if you want to be happy in this world. The past is a memory. It's a thought arising in the present. The future is merely anticipated, it is another thought arising now. What we truly have is this moment. And this. And we spend most of our lives forgetting this truth. Repudiating it. Fleeing it. Overlooking it. And the horror is that we succeed. We manage to never really connect with the present moment and find fulfillment there because we are continually hoping to become happy in the future, and the future never arrives.

Whatever you can possibly notice in your body, mind or world has only one place to appear: in your conscious experience. I'm not saying this is all just a dream, but as a neurological matter it is like a dream. It is dream that is constrained by inputs from the external world and the dreams we call dreams we call dreams at night are dreams that are not constrained by the external world. That's why you seem to get away with everything. But you mind is all you have. It is all you ever had. It is all you have to offer other people. And this might sound callus to say when there are many other aspects of your life that seems in need of  being addressed when you're struggle to find a career or you're sick, but it's still true. If you are perpetually  angry and depressed and confused and unloving, it doesn't matter how much success or who is in your life, you're not going to enjoy any of it. I suspect we could all make a list of things we want to accomplish, things that really need to be changed in your life. What is the significance of everything on that list? Each thing on that list seems to promise that if you could only do it, you would have reason just to be happy in the present moment. We are all trying to find a path back to the present moment and good enough reason just to be happy here.'

Favorite Poems

First I'll post the poems I wrote then I'll post my favorite poems.

It is currently finals week and I'm busy. I'll post some new content after all is said and done.

3/20/12

These are two poems I wrote in tribute to The Things They Carried, one of my favorite books of all time. I talk about Jimmy Cross, a naive platoon leader unable to withstand the responsibility of being in charge of the lives of his men. He continues to think about a girl despite unrequited love and a man dies while he does, and now he is overwhelmed by guilt. Got inspired earlier today to overachieve on the poems.

I Needed Fixing

Forever ago

Before I knew

I signed up for this war

Forever ago

When life was easy

Before life got hard

I signed up for this war

Now I sit in my foxhole

Forever alone

Encumbered by the weight of men’s lives

Feeling the gravity of war

Feeling the immense guilt of wanting

When you lose something you cannot replace

When you love someone but it goes to waste

I tremble

Wrested, pried from my hands

The innocence lost

The blood shed senseless

There is no hope,

No love,

No catharsis;

You hold the in your hands the two halves of my heart

The void that exists

Nobody can replace it

Not her, nor God, nor all of the treasures of the world

Once upon a time,

I didn’t try

The world was in my hands

The stars were an arm’s reach

The moon, the galaxies, the space too

Now I sleep alone

Just the jungle, the earth, the rest of Nam

Desolate, solitary, forever alone
This is the end

When you try so hard but you don’t succeed

The tears roll down your cheek

When the light at the end of the tunnel is a mirage

The tears stream down your face

A million words will not bring you back

I know, because I tried

Neither would a million tears

I know, because I’ve cried

It’s hard to forget

Somebody that gave you so much to remember

A smile can happen in a flash

But the memory of it can last a lifetime

There is no catharsis

There is no hope;

I tried so hard but life gets so heavy

What else is there to do?

I cry, I mourn, and I die

Goodbye.

Fix You

Jimmy,

Every day I sit outside

I look at the sea

Where the tide meets the rocks

And the seagulls come out to play

I look at the trees

Where the wind blows ever so slightly

And the raven sits on the nest just like so

The other day I walked along the sandy beaches

I found a pebble and it made me think of you

I want to love you

I want you to be happy

But as much as you can’t stop loving me

I cannot love you

I don’t imagine you beside me

Not next to the seagulls or the raven

Nor next to the trees or the beach

When you try your best but you don’t succeed

Maybe it wasn't meant to be

It scarred you but it broke me;
Wounds can be bandaged
But the mind is not as resilient

Everyday
When you feel so tired but you can’t sleep

I stay awake

Staring at the ceiling

I am so sorry Jimmy

I don’t imagine you next to me

I want to love you, but I can’t

Stuck in reverse

Find someone else, Jimmy

If you don’t try you will never look

If you don’t look you will never find

If you never find you will never live

It takes a man to hold on

But it takes a better man to let go

Come home, Jimmy

It’s time

The lights will guide you

And I will find a way

To fix you.

===

My favorite poems:

Heraclitus

They told me Heraclitus; they told me you were dead.

They brought me bitter news to hear, and bitter tears to shed.

I wept when I remembered how often you and I

Had tired the sun with talking, and sent him down the sky.

Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake;

For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take.

-

There Will Come Soft Rains

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,

And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

-

And frogs in the pools singing at night,

And wild plum trees in tremulous white;

 -

Robins will wear their feathery fire,

Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

 -

And not one will know of the war, not one

Will care at last when it is done.

 -

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,

If mankind perished utterly;

-

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn

Would scarcely know that we were gone. 

Dreams

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow. 

Favorite Quotes

For me to like a quote, the quote needs to be new to me. It needs to bring something more to the table than a simple 'feel good' or simple statement. 50 quotes of 'Be all you can be' and leaving at that won't fly because I'm not getting anything out of it.

It is currently finals week and I'm busy. I'll post some new content after all is said and done.

Dreams

"A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world." -Oscar Wilde 

Character/Life

"If you're not failing, you're not even trying. To get something you've never had, you need to do something you've never done." -Denzel Washington

"Debating with a person of inferior logic is like playing chess with a chicken. It doesn't matter how good you are at chess, the chicken will just knock over all the pieces, shit on the board, and strut around like it won."

People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel. 

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” ― John Lennon

"Play fair. Don’t hit people. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. "

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity.” - Albert Einstein

"Faith is the surrender of mind and reason. It is the surrendering of anything that makes us different from any other animal. It's our yearning to believe without evidence, to discard all of our logic and reason and to put all of our trust into somebody that is the most sinister virtue." -Chirstopher Hitchens

"Unless life also gives you water and sugar, your lemonade’s going to suck."

"Think of the haters in your life as sandpaper; they’ll scratch you up time and time again but in the end you’re polished and spotless while they end up useless."

"You're generally not a bad person, but you're a victim. You're a victim of the system which infected your mind. An idea is like a virus, extremely resilient, highly virulent. But until you fix yourself, you're part of the problem." -Eric Lin

"Be confident even if you are not. If you screw up, so what?" - Eric Lin

"You can wait for the storm to pass by or you can dance in the rain. The choice is yours." - Eric Lin

"Power tends to corrupt; Absolute power corrupts absolutely." - Lord Action

"When in doubt, don't. " -Benjamin Franklin

"Relationships are like houses. When a light bulb breaks, you don't throw away the house. You fix it."

"I am not upset that you lied to me. I am upset that I can no longer trust you."

"How terribly sad it was that people are made in such a way that they get used to something as extraordinary as living."

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." - Oscar Wilde

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” - Dr Seuss

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt". - Abraham Lincoln

"Trust is like paper. Once you crumple it, it can't be perfect again." 

“No mortal can keep a secret. If the lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.” -Sigmund Freud

"Do the things you know, and you shall learn the truth you need to know." -Louisa May Alcott

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant." -Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Time heals all wounds, but it leaves a scar and renders one unfeeling. A few get infected and die, but most survive. Not stronger, just more cautious." - Eric Lin

“Life becomes precious and more special to us when we look for the little everyday miracles and get excited about the privileges of simply being human.” - Time Hansel

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” ― Oscar Wilde

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” ― Douglas Adams

"You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching, Love like you'll never be hurt, Sing like there's nobody listening, And live like it's heaven on earth." - William W. Purkey

“Saying 'I notice you're a nerd' is like saying, 'Hey, I notice that you'd rather be intelligent than be stupid, that you'd rather be thoughtful than be vapid, that you believe that there are things that matter more than the arrest record of Lindsay Lohan. Why is that?' In fact, it seems to me that most contemporary insults are pretty lame. Even 'lame' is kind of lame. Saying 'You're lame' is like saying 'You walk with a limp.' Yeah, whatever, so does 50 Cent, and he's done all right for himself.”  - John Green

"The freedom which we're all such big fans of evaporates when our preconceived notions are challenged" - Hope Alexander"

“When adults say, "Teenagers think they are invincible" with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail.” ― John Green

"Hurt me with the truth, but don't satisfy me with a lie."

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let us down, probably will. You'll have your heart broken and you'll break others' hearts. You'll fight with your best friend or maybe even fall in love with them, and you'll cry because time is flying by. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, forgive freely, and love like you've never been hurt. Life comes with no guarantees, no time outs, no second chances. you just have to live life to the fullest, tell someone what they mean to you and tell someone off, speak out, dance in the pouring rain, hold someone's hand, comfort a friend, fall asleep watching the sun come up, stay up late, be a flirt, and smile until your face hurts. 

“I am intrigued by the smile upon your face, and the sadness within your eyes.” ― Jeremy Aldana

"...But we don't get a second chance; we regret, remember, and continue to live our mediocre lives..." - Me

Happiness

“When things go wrong, don't go with them.” - Elvis Presley

"If you see a friend without a smile, give him one of yours."

“It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives.”

Intelligence

"Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish based on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." - Albert Einstein

"Others inspire us, information feeds us, practice improves our performance, but we need quiet time to figure things out, to emerge with new discoveries, to unearth original answers.” ― Ester Buchholz

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. -Albert Einstein

"Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise." -William Shakespeare

Love

"For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, what could have been." - John Greenleaf Whittier

"I don't know whether to smile because we are friends or to cry because that is all we will ever be."

"Meeting you was fate, becoming your friend was a choice but falling in love with you was beyond my control."

"A smile happens in a flash, but the memory of it can last a lifetime."

"A million words wouldn't bring you back, I know, because I've tried. Neither would a million tears. I know, because I've cried."

"I gave up not because I didn't care, but because you never did."

“I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was hurricane.” ― John Green, Looking for Alaska

"Also, I have to disagree about the "High school relationships mean nothing" part. Every relationship means something. They shape you as a person, as a lover, and as a partner. They're important for your emotional development as much as the next thing and mature you as a person. Relationships matter in all ages, because love is the same in all ages (As are lust and infatuations of course). " - Nazgul Killer

"Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never, ever the same."

"Trying to forget someone you love is like trying to remember someone you never knew."

 "You know you are in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams." - Dr. Seuss

"True love stories never have endings." - Richard Bach

"Sometimes your nearness takes my breath away; and all the things I want to say can find no voice. Then, in silence, I can only hope my eyes will speak my heart." - Robert Sexton

"As much as I can't force you to love me, I can't force myself to stop loving you."

"I dropped a tear in the ocean. Whenever they find it, I will stop loving you."

"To be your friend was all I ever wanted; to be your lover was all I ever dreamed." - Valerie Lombardo

"If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever." -Alfred Lord Tennyson

"Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your heart or burn down your house, you can never tell." -Joan Crawford

"I only thought of you once today. I never stopped." 

"Don't cry because it is over; smile because it happened."

"Bad excuses are worse than none."

"Somewhere there's someone who dreams of your smile, and finds in your presence that life is worth while, so when you are lonely, remember it's true: Somebody, somewhere is thinking of you."

Success

"A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits." -Richard M. Nixon

"I have also noticed that when a rider who had confidence in his ability was defeated, after doing his level best to win, always received an ovation from the gathering." -Major Taylor

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." -Mark Twain 

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." - Wayne Gretsky

Mortality

"Everything passes, everything perishes, everything palls."

“There will come a time when all of us are dead. All of us. There will come a time when there are no human beings remaining to remember that anyone ever existed or that our species ever did anything. There will be no one left to remember Aristotle or Cleopatra, let alone you. Everything that we did and built and wrote and thought and discovered will be forgotten and all of this will have been for naught. Maybe that time is coming soon and maybe it is millions of years away, but even if we survive the collapse of our sun, we will not survive forever. There was time before organisms experienced consciousness, and there will be time after. And if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. God knows that’s what everyone else does.”  John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“What is an "instant" death anyway? How long is an instant? Is it one second? Ten? The pain of those seconds must have been awful as her heart burst and her lungs collapsed and there was no air and no blood to her brain and only raw panic. What the hell is instant? Nothing is instant. Instant rice takes five minutes, instant pudding an hour. I doubt that an instant of blinding pain feels particularly instantaneous.”  -John Green

Fun Quotes

"How to be $500 Richer at Prom Night" by Skip It out on Barnes and Nobles, trending now. ;) Hehe. Haters gonna hate." -Eric Lin

"Marriage has no guarantees. If that's what you're looking for, go live with a car battery." - Erma Bombeck

"Once upon a time there was a statue. It stood in the same place since the beginning of time. This made the statue very lonely, except the statue wasn't lonely. This is because statues don't have feelings." -Ryan Minoc

"Roses are red. Violets are blue. No mutual friends, who the hell are you?"

"Vote for Obama, because you are voting for Blackhood and Black Rights and Gay Rights and Rights in general and just the Bill of Rights with the Ten Commandments of Rights and the Rights of mankind, and of Womanhood." - Eric Lin

"Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die." 

"Girls are from Venus and men are from Mars. We're both too lazy to walk to each other so we settle for Earth. True story." -Eric Lin

"I'm in favor of it as long as it's multiple choice." -Kurt Rambis, on drug testing

Other

"Nobody is perfect. I am nobody."

"Everybody is special. Just like everybody."

"But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?" -Mark Twain

"Tell a lie. Make it big, and make it clear. Repeat it over and over and eventually people will believe it." - Joseph Goebbels

"She locked away a secret, deep inside herself, something she once knew to be true... but chose to forget. " - Cobb, Inception

"An idea is like a virus. Very resilient, highly contagious." - Cobb, Inception

"Don't you want to take a leap of faith? Or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone!" - Saito, Inception

Religion Deconstructed Second Version

Hey people of the interwebs,

After a lot of work (and over 75 typos and lots of new content and whatnot) later, the second edition of the book, Religion Deconstructed is finally out. I won't be making a new version any time soon, so rest assured the book won't be "obsolete" tomorrow. I've deleted the old post on the first version of the book. It has an updated cover too. :) As I said the first time, all of my old religion blog posts are obsolete because this book covers all of that and then some.

https://www.facebook.com/EricLin0/posts/10200709713219633

The link above features a post with a link to download the book for free. It's in a 7z archive with PDF and Docx archive. The other link inside that link takes you to the Lulu page where the book is published. The physical copy costs $7.50 to print so I don't expect any orders except from me. :)

Brain Droppings

Well hello there, my non-existent audience. Sorry for my long hiatus as I'm sure you're all aware. Welcome to my brain droppings blog post, where I list random thoughts I've had during my time away. A few may already be covered in my second edition of my book, which is currently unreleased.

Friendship Over Logic?
It makes no sense to me that friends back each other up even when they obviously wronged another person. 'Because he's my friend' means 'because I refuse to think rationally and wish to side with the person that would return the most benefit from my allegiance'. It's putting personal gain and feelings ahead of what is morally correct. Say there are three friends, A, B, and C. A and B get into a fight because B does something that is objectively positively immoral. Person C refuses to take sides, saying how being neutral is good. Person C is being very irrational and selfish. This is because person C doesn't give a rat's ass about what is right or wrong, only what allows him to have more friends, which basically means he is taking the highway which gives him the most benefit. What is moral and immoral is none of his concern.

'To decide to do nothing is itself a policy and a decision.' -Christopher Hitchens

Teaching Creationism
Teach intelligent design in schools to represent 'both' opinions? Storks carrying babies is not a competing school of thought for where babies come from in medical school. We shouldn't teach both and we shouldn't equate both. To do so is to imply there are two truths or that each are equally valid. Because sometimes in science there is only one right answer.

Challenging Beliefs
We are told to respect other's beliefs on the origination of our species. But when was the last time you heard somebody ask you to please respect their beliefs in chemistry or geography? If I believed China was in middle of USA, you are under no obligation to respect me for it and it would do me well if you set me straight.

Speech and Debate?
I'm not too keen on speech and debate. You're put to a side without knowing what side you're going to be on. It's about who argues best. But I debate to try to figure out what is true. You can take your time to gather your thoughts without fear of a clock.

Meditation: Irrational?
There is nothing inherently irrational about meditation, not that I partake in it. But it stands to reason blocking out the external noise from our hectic day-to-day lives, from being bombarded with stimulus, may improve our state of mind. A bit of a time out. It's not bullshit until one starts bringing in "being one with the universe" or "unlocking transcendental energy" that it starts to become bullshit. That's my opinion, anyways.

Ad Hominems:
The validity of my arguments have nothing to do with whether I'm being nice or rude to you.

Regarding Fox Hysteria Over Boston Bombings:
Great job, Fox. In over-reacting to the Boston Bombing, you called it an attack on our constitution, freedom, and way of life. Then you quickly brand the suspect as an enemy combatant and terrorist in order to forgo our Miranda rights. He's not a terrorist, he's just crazy. But if he were, you lost because um... the point of terrorism is to instil terror.

Progress of Science:
A single human lifetime ago, the world was considered to be only one eternal, static galaxy that has been around forever, surrounded by eternal empty space. Do you know how amazing this is and how far we've come?

I am Not Amazing:
Now, you may have a different opinion on my intelligence, and that's fine, but it's quite curious why you, the reader, would bother reading this if you thought I was an idiot. If I refer to my intelligence as if I had above-average intelligence, it is not to be arrogant. It is to calmly and rationally refer to something I believe I've recognized and you are allowed to disagree with. Because let's face it. Every single smart person in the world had to say they are not smart, just 'average', then who the hell are the smart people? That's right, the ignorant, dumb people who think they are all amazing. Humbleness is good, but realism is also good.

And intelligence doesn't really measure my success. In fact, the very opposite could occur. Despite my perceived 'intelligence', a dumb person could easily beat me in terms of knowledge and professional success simply by trying harder. Trying harder often outweighs any extra intelligence another person may have. Once we get into college, things change and people cannot simply ace classes based on intelligence and erudition alone.

But take heart. I'm smart? Compared to what? The average population? I don't even know what the intelligence level of the average population necessarily is. And how do I easily test for intelligence instead of knowledge? But what I do know is this: There is so much to learn in this world. The amount stands to make all I know turn into nothingness in comparison. This is not bullshit I say so I sound humble, and since knowing the extent of your own ignorance, I ironically become seen as wiser. No, it's more than that. We have experts in this world for a reason. We are a specialized society, where each person masters their craft. I find there to be an intrinsic noble-ness in trying to master your craft. But even in the field of science-no, narrow it down-physics, cosmology, black holes, say. There is too much to learn. We don't even know what we don't know. And yet, these leading experts know so much. In researching about the Big Bang theory, I went across Wikipedia. The information there is overwhelming. Just the general ideas is amazing and complex, let alone the calculations (which is where the hard part actually is). If I knew so much, we wouldn't need these experts.

Y U Hatin'?
I had some person criticize me for apparently not knowing something, where I promptly got downvoted on Youtube followed by snide comments about my 'American education'. Here is my response:

"Don't get me started on American education bullshit. We're still amazing if not leading college and higher because we still have the most prestigious schools in this country. We still attract the brightest minds here. We still make more 'things' than China in terms of value, but only due to quality, not quantity. Now if you're going to piss on us because our high school and middle school education sucks, then you're obligated to piss on the education of all the countries below us. Lots of 'education' is about knowledge, not intelligence, so don't put my intelligence on the line, either. But let's forget all that. Let's ignore all the educated people and look at the uneducated people when you're doing our comparisons. And ALL our youth knows OBVIOUSLY only and solely comes from school, right? Our attitudes towards school ONLY and SOLELY comes from school, right? Therefore it is perfectly reasonable to consider what you think is ignorance on a specific matter the result of a horrible educational system?

Are you hating on something because it's popular to hate it or because you actually have good reason to? Is this like Walmart, where everybody hates it but shop there anyway? Or are you simply prejudiced against those who happen to be born in America or had their families move there?

With matters of religion, I am considered strident, intolerant, and prejudiced if I simply ask a question with no strings attached. Yet people find it socially acceptable to question my fundamental ability to process information. This does not contribute to a discussion, this is a one-dimensional insult. But most of all, I hope you're more educated and better in every way that matters compared to the people you so openly and easily insult without further investigation, as if one comment which YOU perceive as ignorant defines my ENTIRE capability."