Heaving Dead Cats » books

Don’t Give Up!

Neece — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:10:28 +0000

To the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia, don’t give up! Fight the good fight!

I just read an article by Staks Rosch in the Philadelphia Examiner about the FSGP and their Tree of Knowledge. It’s an evergreen tree decorated with book covers (how shocking, how impudent!) from books representing knowledge, education, science, philosophy, morality, diversity and curiosity. (I am so offended! What? No Twilight?! No Dan Brown?!) Here is a complete list of the books represented.

Staks makes some points that I really like: “[The Tree of Knowledge] is not an attack on religion, but rather an expression of an alternative set of values (i.e. knowledge and reason).”

How horrific! Now I understand why the good christians of the area are so up in arms, vandalizing the tree and organizing call campaigns to get it removed. And why the county is bending to the will of one religion on government property. It’s just so hateful to have a tree decorated with thoughtful, intelligent books. What? Oh? It’s not threatening at all? EXACTLY! WTF!

Staks also says, “Many Christians have claimed that the inclusion of humanist values next to the Jesus Crèche is an attempt to “steal” Christmas. It seems that many Christians are of the opinion that Christians own the winter season. They do not.”

Later he says, “Atheists aren’t trying to “steal” Christmas any more than Christians stole Saturnalia… oh wait, never mind.” Again, I agree completely.

This kind of thing makes me so angry. Religious organizations bully their way into having their cake and eating it too. Politicians and the masses alike bend to that will for what reason? Why do they get to own most holidays? My sister in law is offended when I say happy holidays instead of merry christmas. It’s the classic bully at the pulpit who then cries and runs for the government to protect him when someone brings up that he’s breaking the law or that he’s being a bully.

christians and muslims don’t want to play fair. They want to win. Which is why I am an activist atheist. I don’t want to be forced to pray to a man in the sky that doesn’t exist. I am moral and ethical on my own without being forced into the barbaric false ethics of an iron aged society of goat herders from the Middle East.

I suppose here in Morgantown, if such inequities are occurring, we’ll put up an atheist/humanist display soon too. At this time, I am not aware of any. But I haven’t checked every government building lawn for crèches either.

Keep an eye out in your town. If you see religious displays on government property, take action, form a group. You can then turn it into a community of like-minded people like we’ve got here in our sleepy little town. It’s the most wonderful feeling to hang out with a bunch of freethinkers. But don’t just take things lying down. Don’t let the religious people bully us into giving up our freedoms and our constitutional rights just because we are too apathetic to make a stand for those rights.

EDIT: The Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia has helpful hints for setting up your own Tree of Knowledge.

The Greatest Destruction of Knowledge

Johnny — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:41:34 +0000

Cyril of Alexandria was born around 376CE and rose to power as the Pope of Alexandria during the peak of the Roman Empire’s rule there. He is credited with leading the charge against Nestorius in the First Council of Ephesus, where the divinity and caricature of Jesus Christ were debated. The Roman Catholic church eventually bestowed sainthood upon him, counting him among the ‘Church Fathers’ and ‘Doctors of the Church’, and also titling him as a Pillar of Faith and Seal of all the Fathers.

History might credit him with a much darker deed though, not surprisingly one the church usually fails to mention or attempts to brush under the rug. Although not official of course, some have referred to him as the patron saint of arsonists. His leadership possibly brought about what is probably the single most destructive annihilation of knowledge in human history.

The Great Library of Alexandria is thought to have been founded around the beginning of the third century BCE. A museum, a research institute, and a library, it was the first of its kind. Besides attempting to collect all the world’s knowledge, it housed a number of esteemed scholars; and boasted the latest works in mathematics, astronomy, physics, natural sciences and other subjects. It was at the Library of Alexandria that the scientific method was first conceptualized and utilized.

There are several descriptions of the destruction of the Library of Alexandria, all from different periods in time. First in 48BCE by Julius Caesar, then by the attack of Aurelian in the third century CE, by the decree of Theopilus (Cyril’s uncle) in 391CE, by the mob incited by Cyril’s followers around 416CE, and finally by the Muslim conquests around 642CE. Its probable that all of these caused damage to the library in some form or another; but historians have been as-yet unable to say when its complete destruction came about. When it was destroyed though, one of the greatest repositories of knowledge was lost to humankind; somewhere between 600,000 and 1 million volumes of knowledge were lost, many of them forever.

The hypothesis that Cyril’s followers destroyed the library stems from stories of the murder of Hypatia. Hypatia of Alexandria was a Greek scholar who taught philosophy and astronomy at the library, as well as being a notable contributor in the field of mathematics. And a woman; something completely unheard of at the time. Hypatia came into conflict with Cyril, first because of her friendship to Orestes (the prefect of Alexandria, and stanch resistor of Cyril’s agenda for a church-ruled government); and secondly because of the church’s view of many sciences being heretical or associated with paganism. Hypatia was murdered in 415 at the hands of a Christian mob led by Cyril’s assistant, after being incited by Cyril to oppose Orestes and his allies. Without her leadership to defend the library, it was only a matter of time before Cyril was able to convince and incite his followers that the libraries association with paganism and heresies deemed it an enemy of the church and a target for destruction.

Here is an excerpt from Cosmos where Carl Sagan talks about the Library of Alexandria:

If a story has conflict (especially religious or political), with a fight, a murder, and little intrigue… You know Hollywood is going to take a crack at ruining it. And this story is no exception of course. Agora has already been released in a few locations in Europe; but oddly has no US release date. The movie sets the time in 391CE, with the main character as Hypatia; but also including Theophilus, Cyril, Orestes, and a Muslim invasion. So I would speculate that Hollywood is blending three of the destruction stories.

A last little side note: Some historians speculate that the library may have contained actual writings of Jesus (instead of all the third-hand stories). A little conspiracy theory, I know; but if Jesus existed and he did write, how different might that writing be than what the Catholic church collected and distributed?

Information pulled from here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

How People Tend To Think And Respond

Neece — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:14:31 +0000

In our book club right now, we are reading Nonsense: Red Herrings, Straw Men and Sacred Cows: How We Abuse Logic in Our Everyday Language by Robert J. Gula. It’s very interesting as it goes through emotional language and logical fallacies in several ways that make them easier to understand. Robert Gula wrote the book in the 1970’s which is interesting in its nostalgic examples.

But what I wanted to share with you was something from chapter 1 that I thought was quite valuable:

First, some general principles. Let’s not call them laws; and since they’re not particularly original, I won’t attach my name to them. They are merely a description of patterns that seem to characterize the ways that people tend to respond and think. For example, people:

tend to believe what they want to believe.

tend to project their own biases or experiences upon situations.

tend to generalize from a specific event.

tend to get personally involved in the analysis of an issue and tend to let their feelings overcome a sense of objectivity.

are not good listeners. They hear selectively. They often hear only what they want to hear.

are eager to rationalize.

are often unable to distinguish what is relevant from what is irrelevant.

are easily diverted from the specific issue at hand.

are usually unwilling to explore thoroughly the ramifications of a topic; tend to oversimplify.

often judge from appearances. They observe something, misinterpret what they observe, and make terrible errors in judgment.

often simply don’t know what they are talking about, especially in matters of general discussion. They rarely think carefully before they speak, but they allow their feelings, prejudices, biases, likes, dislikes, hopes and frustrations to supersede careful thinking.

rarely act according to a set of consistent standards. Rarely do they examine the evidence and then form a conclusion. Rather they tend to do whatever they want to do and to believe whatever they want to believe and then find whatever evidence will support their actions or their beliefs. They often think selectively: in evaluating a situation they are eager to find reasons to support what they want to support and they are just as eager to ignore or disregard reasons that don’t support what they want.

often do not say what they mean, and often do not mean what they say.

To these principles, let’s add four observations cited by J.A.C. Brown in his Techniques of Persuasion: “Most people want to feel that issues are simple rather than complex, want to have their prejudices confirmed, want to feel that they “belong” with the implication that others do not, and need to pinpoint an enemy to blame for their frustrations.”

The above comments may seem jaundiced. They are not meant to be. They are not even meant to be critical or judgmental. They merely suggest that it is a natural human tendency to be subjective rather than objective and that the untrained mind will usually take the path of least resistance. The path of least resistance is rarely through reason.

Page 4-5 of Nonsense: Red Herrings, Straw Men and Sacred Cows: How We Abuse Logic in Our Everyday Language by Robert J. Gula.

When I first read the list and kept agreeing with it, I thought it was cynical and jaded. I thought I was the same. But I agree with Mr. Gula. It isn’t meant in a nasty way at all. It seems it’s just the way our minds work. If we understand that, it gives us an advantage for working with our own thoughts and brains, as well as insight into how others form beliefs, rationales, ethics and much more.

I have quite a few friends who are humanists. My good friend Jenny believes that people try to be the best they can be. My experience of humanity has not been so rosy. I think I agree with Mr. Gula. Most people take the path of least resistance, and that path rarely has anything to do with reason. Or aspiring to the greater good of humanity.

Feel free to comment below with how jaded and cynical I am. But I also wouldn’t mind hearing from you if you agree.

Dawkins on the Colbert Report

Neece — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:34:54 +0000

Here is a video clip from the Colbert Report the other night (Sept 30). Stephen Colbert interviews Richard Dawkins. It’s almost 6 minutes long:

The Colbert Report	Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Richard Dawkins
www.colbertnation.com

Oh, and take note of Dawkin’s tie! It’s Crocoduck tiled! LOL!

Codex Sinaiticus: The Oldest Bible Holds Surprises

Neece — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:18:03 +0000

The Codex Sinaiticus, which means ‘the Sinai Book’ holds a special place in history. And now the whole world has access to it for free. Here, let the website explain. This is from their about page:

Codex Sinaiticus, a manuscript of the Christian Bible written in the middle of the fourth century, contains the earliest complete copy of the Christian New Testament. The hand-written text is in Greek. The New Testament appears in the original vernacular language (koine) and the Old Testament in the version, known as the Septuagint, that was adopted by early Greek-speaking Christians. In the Codex, the text of both the Septuagint and the New Testament has been heavily annotated by a series of early correctors.

The significance of Codex Sinaiticus for the reconstruction of the Christian Bible’s original text, the history of the Bible and the history of Western book-making is immense.

First, the many corrections are quite telling, spanning the centuries. Letters, words and whole sentences are added or removed. The books are in a different order, and there are some books in there that have since been removed. The codex is dated to the middle of the 4th century. This is one of the earliest manuscripts. The only other is at the vatican, so therefore out of the reach of the public.

What is contained in the codex as described by the Codex Sinaiticus website:

As it survives today, Codex Sinaiticus comprises just over 400 large leaves of prepared animal skin, each of which measures 380mm high by 345mm wide. On these parchment leaves is written around half of the Old Testament and Apocrypha (the Septuagint), the whole of the New Testament, and two early Christian texts not found in modern Bibles. Most of the first part of the manuscript (containing most of the so-called historical books, from Genesis to 1 Chronicles) is now missing and presumed to be lost.

The Septuagint includes books which many Protestant Christian denominations place in the Apocrypha. Those present in the surviving part of the Septuagint in Codex Sinaiticus are 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 1 & 4 Maccabees, Wisdom and Sirach.

The number of the books in the New Testament in Codex Sinaiticus is the same as that in modern Bibles in the West, but the order is different. The Letter to the Hebrews is placed after Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians, and the Acts of the Apostles between the Pastoral and Catholic Epistles.

The two other early Christian texts are an Epistle by an unknown writer claiming to be the Apostle Barnabas, and ‘The Shepherd’, written by the early second-century Roman writer, Hermas.

I think this will prove extremely useful to the debate of the legitimacy of christianity. With this online resource, you can see the original manuscript and the transcription in one of several languages. For the first time, we are all able to access this historical work for ourselves. It’s amazing and awesome.

If you spend some time with the codex and find anything interesting, please feel free to share it with us. You can comment or email us at heavingdeadcats@gmail.com and we’ll share it with the rest of the class.

(Your brain on religion picture submitted by groovecat, thanks!)

Conversations with Craig the Christian 3: More Cherry-Picking

Neece — Sun, 03 May 2009 15:55:00 +0000

I have a bunch of stuff I want to wrap up into one post.

Craig the Christian has started his own blog, based on his conversations with me. You can visit it at Simul Eustis et Pecator. On that note, he had emailed me several days ago and I finally replied. So I’ll post that conversation down below.
On Friday, I posted my story to de-conversion. It’s basically the same as here, but they invited me and I thought I’d cross post over there to give support to others de-converting.
I finished The City of Ember, the book. I know a couple of you commented and said you were going to get it. Well, I have to say the movie was better in several ways and the book was a bit disappointing. I don’t want to ruin it for you, but if you’re interested I’ll give you a review. Let me know.
I’ve basically made the change to this new theme for the blog. I hope you like it and find that it looks and works better. If you see anything that needs fixing, please let me know and I’ll do my best to get it working even better.

Conversations with Craig the Christian 3

The other day, I wrote about Bible Quotes and Craig didn’t like it. He said:

“…it was taking pop shots at Christianity. What came to my mind was “If you can’t beat them, join them. ….I interpreted it as since Christians tend to cherry pick and logic doesn’t work on them, we’ll do the exact same thing.”

Here is my response:
I have to say no, that is the opposite of what I was trying to express with that post. I was basically saying this:

If you Believe and have Faith that the bible is the true and faithful word of god, then you must take the bible in its entirety, with all the hate, jealousy, killing, wars, murder, sacrifice and horror that it encompasses. You don’t get to cherry-pick just the happy, touchy-feely verses and sweep the rest under the rug, pretending they don’t exist.

No. In fact, you might want to look at the bible’s uglier side (which is much larger than the nice bits) and really contemplate if this god you worship faithfully is really who you think he is. Are you sure he’s even a god? He sounds pretty much like a very angry jealous mythical creature. That’s what I meant.

Entertainment That Enlightens 1

Neece — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:13:26 +0000

Today I thought I’d share some books, movies and podcasts with you. Like anyone else, I love being entertained. I go through phases where I only read textbooks, then sometimes I only want fiction. I’ve noticed that even when I’m only reading fiction I still seem to always get something more from the book, though. Right now I’m in a fiction phase, pointedly ignoring the dozens of textbooks I have piling up. Yet I still want to share the good ones with you because they are much deeper than just a light read. I also thought it was high time to share my favorite podcasts and some great movies with you. What all these things have in common, aside from being entertaining, is that they are all enlightening too. Bonus!

So let’s start with podcasts. A couple years ago I finally realized that even though most people love music, I don’t care for it much. I prefer listening to people talk about interesting or funny things. Most of the time when I’m working on the computer, I like it quiet. If I’m designing t-shirts, I listen to Ricky Gervais’ podcasts which are really funny and quirky. But whenever I clean or cook I like to have people talk to me. So I am always looking for great podcasts. I love learning interesting things, so most of these are science oriented.

My Favorite Podcasts:

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe: Intelligent, witty, always interesting. My favorite podcast. I look forward to the new episode every week. Great stuff!
The Skeptics’ Guide 5×5: Only 5 minutes long, it briefly covers one topic. A good companion to the SGU.
The Naked Scientists: British, intelligent and always chock full of science and interesting stuff.
Ask the Naked Scientists: This is a podcast dedicated to answering any kind of science questions. They know just about everything. I always learn cool stuff here.
Freethought Radio: I have taken a break from this one, but I still get them. I find them a bit overbearing sometimes, but when it comes to religion, it’s usually good to know what’s going on in the world. They are always talking about their billboard campaign though, which personally I think isn’t nearly as amazing as they do.
Quirks & Quarks: A Canadian podcast about science. I find they have good interviews on new science before most other podcasts, but that might just be the schedule or something.
Reasonable Doubts: I’m new to this podcast which a friend just told me about a month ago. He said, it’s the SGU but about religion instead of science. These three guys know their stuff and I get a lot out of each episode. It’s for people who don’t just take things on faith.
Science Talk: Scientific American’s podcast. Quite enjoyable and educational.
Ricky Gervais: His podcasts are pretty funny. He has an infectious laugh. I love his Guides To stuff. He and his friends Steve Merchant and the irrepressible Karl Pilkington are just perfect together. I literally laugh out loud sometimes.
Breaking Science: I am just downloading all of the episodes of this podcast right this very minute. I found it while getting links for the other podcasts. It’s from the Naked Scientists, so I am sure I’ll like it.

Enlightening Movies I’ve Seen Recently:

The Day of the Triffids: Ok, stick with me. Back in the early 80’s the BBC did a mini-series based on the book of the same name. I read it when I was young but my nearly perfect husband Butch wanted to watch this for some reason, so I sighed dramatically, expecting to hate it. The special effects are pretty awful, but they are used sparingly. The Triffids are actually not half bad. But the acting is quite good. I recently got the book and will read it when Butch is done with it. Why I recommend it is because it’s one of those movies that makes you think about how we do things and what would happen if almost everyone were struck blind. I found the way people reacted was fascinating. Most people wanted to wait for help to come. They just knew it would be there soon. Anyway, it’s a very good social commentary.

City of Ember: This was another strange choice by Butch. Again, when I saw the cover and read the description, I sighed dramatically and figured it was going to be pretty sucky. Well, wasn’t I surprised! The acting is great, the story is different and interesting, and the deeper messages are excellent. While it’s for young adults, I found it to be a hidden gem. It’s based on a book by the same name, which I just started reading today. The social commentary is subtle, but if you decide to watch it, just pay attention to how people react and what they say. That’s the real meat of this movie. I won’t say much else. I hope you’ll like it if you give it a chance.

Great Books I’ve Read Recently:

The Heathen’s Guide to World Religions: This is the last text I’ve read. It’s a short book but quite comprehensive and interesting. You can get this from Amazon but if you get it directly from the author it’s much more affordable, probably because the writer gets to keep more of the profit, which is a good thing. This book irreverently looks at all of the major world religions in just the right amount of detail and wit. The only thing that I can complain about is the book should have gone through another proofreader before printing. That kind of stuff is really irritating, but even so, it’s totally worth reading if you want to know the history and some very good information about each world religion. I learned a lot and laughed out loud several times while doing so.

His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass): Wow, wow and wow. We saw the movie awhile ago and it was very good. I decided I wanted to read the book and found out it was a trilogy. While the movie was interesting and well done, the books were excellent. I just finished the last one yesterday. I have to say I’m glad I watched the movie first, because it helped me flesh out the books. But now I want to see the movie again so that it will make it even better. The movie is pretty faithful to the first book. But the book is much richer and deeper, and goes further than where the movie leaves off. I went to Philip Pullman’s website yesterday (the author) and he says it doesn’t look like they’ll make the other 2 movies which is a huge disappointment to me. While the first book touches on some interesting subjects, the 2 following books tackle everything from quantum physics and parallel worlds to the world of god, angels, the world of the dead, the church and so much more. I originally watched the movie because of the controversy. I heard that Philip Pullman wrote the books because he felt the Chronicles of Narnia were shallow attempts at indoctrinating children into christianity. (that’s my wording, not his). And they are. I remember when I read them in my 20’s I was totally disgusted when it suddenly became clear that Aslan was god or jesus or whatever. It seemed like a shallow and shameless attempt to sucker children into the church. Mr. Pullman is an atheist. Which makes reading the Dark Materials trilogy even more interesting. I won’t tell you any specifics but trust me, these books are excellent and well worth the read. Fascinating, thought provoking, page turning excellence.

What I’m Reading Now:

The City of Ember:This is a young adult novel that I just started reading today. So far it’s very good. It’s an easy read, but interesting. It seems that the movie is quite faithful to the book, which I always appreciate. This is the first in a series of 4 books. I read the reviews in the front, and one in particular was helpful. The book (and the movie) basically give a very minimal explanation for why the City of Ember was created over 200 years ago. The movie never really explains, but the review of the book says that the reader finds out as the characters start to learn it themselves. So there is a mystery that will unfold, I gather. Part of the deeper message is that the people of Ember seem to have lost their curiosity, or maybe their circumstances forced them to give it up, I’m not sure yet. Anyway, I didn’t want to put the book down, so that’s a good sign.

Ok, so that’s what I’ve been reading, watching and listening to. Do you have any suggestions you’d like to share? I look forward to your comments, as always!

Heaving Dead Cats » books

Don’t Give Up!

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