Reality Concepts

Within the sea of possible concepts, there is an island of knowledge, of reality. Vein diagram that. That which is, is surrounded by that which might be. We can make the choice to live within the reality, or without all or some in a mental state of belief without foundation. That too, can be comfortable, but somehow, it is not real. Those who choose to live in non-reality, religion, are well, just off reality. It is difficult for those of us who are living in reality to take, so we may choose to avoid the unreal.  

Knowledge requires for something to be true, to be believable, for there to be evidence for it and no evidence against it.  Living totally within the circle of knowledge is possible, necessary and sufficient to lead the good life. Religion should be abandoned, but ethics, logic, reason maintained and understood.

The good life is comfortable, generally pleasant, and we can acheive that generally under most circumstances of existence. In extremes, added effort may be required.

There are many who will try to push us off the good life from both sides, by their demands, and some by force, it is up to us to learn to deal with them and not disturb our life. They are out for control, and we need not give it to them. We cannot allow ourselves to become or make slaves of anyone. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway. The psychopaths, and extreme altruistic, the altruistic with others money, the bad stewards in government, the egos of government and religions, and all those radicals will just need to look elsewhere.  Cooperation is the foundation of society, and society also has its' fringes and out-layers.

We are into an era of human development when the population has exceeded the carrying capacity of the earth, as is evidenced by the carbon dioxide level in our atmosphere. Our most valuable individual property, life itself, is not as valuable to others anymore, as reduction of population is one of the solutions to this problem. We have gone through a period that keeping everyone alive was seen as a good; this may not last. The unproductive may need to be terminated so that the rest might live. The trolley problem for reals. Oh well, life is fleeting. 

The consolation of religion

 
In the past few days, I have been thrust into two situations of dealing with the religious. In one case the old girl, a few years younger than I, uses religion or god for comfort, and consolation for loss in her life. Living in non-reality can be comforting and provide a great deal of consolation, which I do not wish to take from anyone.

The second was a Facebook encounter. It is time to abandon facebook. It is a time suck, and a make believe world, where any comments that are refuted are just deleted. The US second amendment was created by James Madison before 1800 because he feared that a President would use the army against it's own people, and in less that a lifetime it did, the civil war happened. Oh well, shit happens.

The religious have difficulty dealing with facts, logic, and hence reality.  Pushing faith, prayer, and the like, rather than logic as a method of making potentially large decisions is just bullshit ignorance. Life can be simple logical steps. If there is no logic, there can be no step. If you wish to pay the full price, you can waste your money. Oh well.

Trudeau is an overly altruistic person who has never struggled to pay the bills. He is too willing to give away money to the natives, a conquered race that does not want to do what is necessary to live well in our modern society. Oh well. He also thinks honor killing is barbaric, which makes him somewhat right. It is illegal for savages to kill our citizens, even if it is the parents doing the killing.  That is the big problem with politicians. They are all right some of the time, but not on all issues, and there are no simple solution for dealing with other religions and cultures. It is a series of independent of each other choices.  

Many religious people have a hard time with the truth, and cannot deal with facts. They lash out, and we need to recoil. Many religious have the concept that it is OK to push their religion, but get offended when we truth seeking push back. Oh well, I lived many years with no connection to family.

In God We Trust.

Vox populi vox Dei. From the Latin, the voice of the people is the voice of god. or as Ambrose Bierce put it, " the voice of the people is god. " So with a twisted mind, god becomes the voice of the people, and with such concept of god, even Thomas Paine went along with in god we trust, for it was a republic they sought to create. With a bit of manipulation and substitution we have... "In the voice of the people we trust." What did I miss? It is a different god that is being refereed to, not the Christian god, but that of the original Roman Republic, vox populi.

Have you ever considered the difference between a democracy and a republic? One nominates delegates, the other representatives. One we pick to represent us, to vote and act as a good steward of us, the other to carry out our wishes in the government. And in the US, those party names, carry on the long resolved issues.

Ambrose and Ayn Rand have similar ideas on some subjects, just as a stopped clock has the right time twice each day. Individualism. Life is our most valuable asset, all flows from there. But one holds a christian figure as a great leader, the other not so much. Oh well, life goes on for now, but in the end we all just die anyway.

Religion can bring such comfort and consolation late in life. Too bad it is based on an concept with no evidence. For a concept to be knowledge, it must have evidence and no evidence against it, and the evidence needs to be "admissible in court".

So the Sweet Jesus offends the christians. So bloody what!!  There attitude offends me, as does the moors. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway.

The 31 Questions

Just so you can find these 31 questions for atheists, here is a link.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godlessmom/2018/03/31-questions-for-atheists/

It is much important to know what we believe than what we do not believe. Many atheist get stuck at this point. They stop believing what were traditional beliefs, and get hung up there. That is not part of the 31, but is necessary. So here is some additional questions, supplemental (s).

s1. What do I/You believe? Well that has been changing, ratcheting better, or at least changing, cleaning out stuff that is not right. More work is required.

s2. Where do beliefs come from? Traditionally from the previous generation, who often clam divine source, or mystics;  that but the only logical place is reason, derived from what society is or should be. But beware of the 20% or so psychopaths and 20% or so extreme altruistic, both of which will take everything from you. So healthy society is not much of a majority, if it even is a majority when we consider the recluses and similar... so we are left with our own reasoning, and/or our assent to others reasoning. More work is required.

s3. So what do I/You believe now? Within the circle of what might be lies a small circle of that which is. That is necessary and sufficient for life. It must be true, and there must be evidence for and no evidence against. The evidence must be admissible in court, that is physical, first person witness, science opinion, or the lowest form, expert witness. Hearsay, and old books are not admissible. More work is required.

s4. So what metaphysical do I/You believe? Well if it is a physical object, it is real. Consciousness, that skill or ability to understand, to reason, to assent or reject concepts is real, but has no physical existence, hence cannot survive end of life. Consciousness is dependent on life, as is reasoning. Life is therefore the prime value, and those things that support life follow closely as the good, those things that oppose are bad. That is the foundation for morality, along with the concept of equality. Neither be nor make a slave of anyone. More work is required.

s5. So what is your/our epistemology? I think therefore I am. Identity, consciousness, logic/reason, Identification, existence. We have complete control over the power to assent to a concept. Little else. Nothing else, do we have complete control over. Our conscious can generate concepts, or fails to generate, our memory can recall them, or perhaps not, but we have the complete power to assent or reject. More work is required.

s6. So what are your/our ethical foundation? Neither be nor make a slave of anyone, on a foundation of truth, prudence, knowledge, wisdom, production, justice, a virtue based ethics, based on political equality. More work is required.

s7. So what does your/our value hierarchy look like? Well my life is the number one, and it goes on from there. More work is required.

s8. So what do I/You call this belief system?  The working name is realism, but whatever will work.

 

Existentism

Warning: Streak of consciousness, not ordered.

I exist therefore existentism, what a concept! Well not really, but perhaps existentialism. But there is a problem with that word, as it is being used for various different philosophies, some of which are not very logical or very real. Ayn Rand wanted to use the word for what eventually became known as objectivism, but all these are just handles for concepts. I think therefore I am. Identity, consciousness, logic, identity again, existence. So life become our most valuable attribute, and the effect on our live is what all my decisions could be based on. Could, not should nor are. It is just a concept.    

Overeating. What act, though, chemical, transforms what is voluntary in most people into compulsively involuntary act/behavior? Serotonin, Dopamine, Endorphins. So perhaps I need to avoid eating any of those or their precursors. What would that look like? Fasting. Not going to happen. 

space.

Within the great circle of all that might be lies the smaller circle of that which is. There is where we need to reside, in reality.

space. 

William Shakespeare, 1564 - 1616. 

To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?

To be means doing, without the doing, there is no being. That is our first choice, and having made that choice, we are responsible. Cool. Yet only some things are up to us, others are not. What a knot! To realize that the only thing we have complete control over our is our thoughts, and that this I is only consciousness, and yet thoughts just come, or not, and that is not in our control, it is easy to see that control is just a illusion... We, the consciousness,... only have influence over our self, not real control. We do seem to have control over the power of assent, that is to agree with or reject the agreement with the thought... well some of the time only. At other times the assent just happens, not by choice, but by failure to reject and replace the unwanted thought with a action that prevents the what the mind says is the desired action. I am talking about eating. One solution is to keep on doing something, but the body gets tired. and hence to sleep, and perchance dream of food...likely dream of food.  

Living and thinking within the small circle of that which is, within knowledge and evidence, within necessary and sufficient, without any contraindicating evidence is not simple. We live in a sea of evil people, of psychopaths, and altruistics changing the rules. Do gooders, collecting, helping those who do not want to do anything productive, and expecting us to support them. I pay taxes, that meets any perceived obligation to help others. In fact there is no obligation.  Somehow, to live this way, we must make our way through this mass of humanity without running over any, and not crashing into any or as few as possible. Are the rewards worth the battle? Why should I care how many I just run over? Aristotle stated that virtue, the correct choice lies between the extremes, but provides no guides to how to make the choice. This could be taken that any choice between the extremes id virtue, even oscillating. We are individuals, brought to life by others, without regard to our desires. It is up to us to take advantage of this opportunity or not, nobody cares after a while. It does not matter.

There are people who live there life's without knowing the dividing line between that which is and that which might be. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway. It does not matter.    

Limit our Exposure

It is practical and necessary for each of us to limit our involvement in life to those things that we value and consider important. Each of us do these things, but some people do not seem to be able to mind only there own affairs. Those who keep sticking there nose in where it does not belong can find that there time goes, and they miss out on other things because they were minding others affairs, not there own. It is a bad habit of some people, and a bad ethical concept for others. They seem to think it is a virtue to be concerned with others, and what is going on in the lives of others, all while ignoring there own life. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway.

[Aside.  "Sticking your nose in where it does not belong" was/is a archery fault, a bit of bad form, of struggling to aim, where one is using arrow aiming methods. The archers head is turned into the string, and the result is a the string brushes the nose. The expression has found other uses elsewhere in the modern lexicon.] 

In the Christian Mythology there is a "ethical principal" that says something like "Do not judge lest you be judged." That is likely bullshit or out of context, for judging is an essential of rational thinking and or rational living. Every action, though, contemplated action, and concept need to be evaluated and judged. Some thing are wrong but necessary to do, as defense of our country, jailing people for bad or unsocial behavior, but there is little choice. The world is overpopulated when we look at the Co2 curve as a measurement of the earth's carrying capacity, but such judgement are necessary in a rational life. If you wish to live and die "as the lilies of field", that is another matter. Judging is one of the cardinal virtues, and deserves much more attention as a skill than it typically gets.

[ Aside: I use the term bullshit in its formal definition here, the author does not know or even care it the fact expressed is true of false, fact or fiction.]

Altruism is another bullshit christian principal. We have no duty or obligation toward support of others in this mixed society. We have a duty to allow others to work and do legal things to support themselves within our planned society, and not harm or abuse them, but if they choose to not work, they have the right to starve or to be shot, if they choose to rob. We have a duty to help support our family, and to help them along, provided they are trying. We have no duty to help along an alcoholic, drug addict, gambler, the abusive or those of other deviant or foolish behaviors. They are on there own, but we may have a duty to provide guidance, if they wish to change.

[ Aside: without the right to protect the property that we have obtained by our efforts, our human rights, our individual right to our property is undermined. Without identity, we have no human rights. I think the Canadian government is not correct in this matter. ]

Growing up in a christian community is not a good thing, if you wish to live in a ethical atheist community as an adult. Sound atheist ethics requires a lot of study to develop, much more that the sloppy christian concepts that one is to "just take on faith". Christians are not much for explaining, likely because there is not logic to support many of there claims. Atheist ethics requires that we understand that "truth must have evidence, logic and reason", not just be written in some old book. Knowledge and truth requires evidence, and religions are judged to be short on evidence and truth. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway.