An important thing is that people like symmetry and don't like asymmetry, therefore, the monsters in the movies are often asymmetrical. So we will never consider a lopsided human as being beautiful.
Then, we find attractive those people who are in full breeding period, namely adolescents and young people. Generally, we aren't attracted to old people or children. Well, children are considered beautiful, it must be so for survival.
Basically, people are programmed to believe that young and healthy people are beautiful, the reason is obvious: genes and evolution. Females must select a male with good genes for their child to have high chances of survival and reproduction otherwise they consume time and resources for nothing.
Well, it's more complicated than that. If there were females who considered unhealthy males as being beautiful, their genes did not go too far, just because their children inherited the problematic genes, namely, the genes for bad selection and the unhealthy genes from the male. So, genes for selecting healthy partners are more successful than genes for selecting unhealthy partners. Complicated, right? :)
The interesting thing is that they have discovered mathematical formulas for beauty. The most beautiful woman in the world was recently chosen. Unsurprisingly, she respects the mathematical formulas for beauty. Although I prefer brunettes, not blondes, she is beautiful.
From Leonardo da Vinci onwards, they have tried to find the mathematical equations for the ideal body.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091216144141.htm
http://www.intmath.com/blog/is-she-beautiful-the-new-golden-ratio/4149
http://www.intmath.com/numbers/math-of-beauty.php
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Sexual selection
Females are selecting males for slaughter. Of
course, it's not intentionally, it's just that females which are
selecting males for slaughter give their genes better chances of
survival, by combining them with the genes of the best males around. They
can obviously select themselves which male has the best genes, but it's
even better if the selection is automatic, like them dying because of
being conspicuous and predators catching them. You can well imagine that peacocks are very conspicuous.
Imagine that there are two groups of birds from one species. One group is monogamous, in the other there are far more females than males, so they are polygamous. The reason why there are more females than males in the second group is that they have selected conspicuous males and they have mostly died because of predators. Which group would be more successful? It really depends. The first group has the advantage of having more offspring, because the male helps in their rearing, let's say that the first group has two times more offspring than the second group. The second group has the advantage that males are highly selected, so only the best genes survive from males, therefore, their offspring have higher chances of survival. You may imagine that there are ten times more males in the first group than in the second. One male can easily copulate with ten females.
If the female offspring from the polygamous birds have two times more chances of survival than the female offspring from the monogamous birds, than we have an equilibrium, the populations remain stable. If they have three times more chances of survival than the monogamous group, over time they will take over and all their species will be polygamous, with conspicuous males. If they don't have at least two times more chances of survival, then the monogamous group will take over in time, their males being inconspicuous.
In nature we can observe both strategies. The pigeon, for example, is monogamous. Some pigeons may well be colourful, thus, conspicuous, but their ancestor, the rock dove, is pretty inconspicuous. On the other side, we have the famous peafowl, which are polygamous, because the peahens are selecting peacocks for slaughter, so there will obviously be more females than males, therefore, polygamy is necessary. Another lovely example is the mandarin duck, compare the male with the female.
You can well imagine that a conspicuous bird is attacked all the time and if it manages to survive, that's a far more impressive achievement than the survival of an inconspicuous bird. Basically, it needs to be healthy, fast, strong, etc. These are great qualities for females too, this is why they are selecting those males for slaughter, because only the best survive and give them the best genes, thus, the next generation of females has bigger chances of survival than the generation of females from those who select inconspicuous males.
Imagine that there are two groups of birds from one species. One group is monogamous, in the other there are far more females than males, so they are polygamous. The reason why there are more females than males in the second group is that they have selected conspicuous males and they have mostly died because of predators. Which group would be more successful? It really depends. The first group has the advantage of having more offspring, because the male helps in their rearing, let's say that the first group has two times more offspring than the second group. The second group has the advantage that males are highly selected, so only the best genes survive from males, therefore, their offspring have higher chances of survival. You may imagine that there are ten times more males in the first group than in the second. One male can easily copulate with ten females.
If the female offspring from the polygamous birds have two times more chances of survival than the female offspring from the monogamous birds, than we have an equilibrium, the populations remain stable. If they have three times more chances of survival than the monogamous group, over time they will take over and all their species will be polygamous, with conspicuous males. If they don't have at least two times more chances of survival, then the monogamous group will take over in time, their males being inconspicuous.
In nature we can observe both strategies. The pigeon, for example, is monogamous. Some pigeons may well be colourful, thus, conspicuous, but their ancestor, the rock dove, is pretty inconspicuous. On the other side, we have the famous peafowl, which are polygamous, because the peahens are selecting peacocks for slaughter, so there will obviously be more females than males, therefore, polygamy is necessary. Another lovely example is the mandarin duck, compare the male with the female.
You can well imagine that a conspicuous bird is attacked all the time and if it manages to survive, that's a far more impressive achievement than the survival of an inconspicuous bird. Basically, it needs to be healthy, fast, strong, etc. These are great qualities for females too, this is why they are selecting those males for slaughter, because only the best survive and give them the best genes, thus, the next generation of females has bigger chances of survival than the generation of females from those who select inconspicuous males.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
The difference between men and women
Women are an interesting subject. Some people say that women cannot be understood and that is probably correct, but I'll try to do that nonetheless. One
big reason why women can't be understood is because they don't know what they want or why they do some things, which is to say,
they don't understand themselves.
I've talked about this in my previous post, but I need to reiterate. Women can have a small number of children, while men can have an unlimited number of children. A woman can know for sure that her child is hers, while men can never know for sure, at least they could not know for sure until the invention of paternity tests and DNA tests. I'm talking about instincts, this is not rational, having DNA tests does not change our instincts. A pregnant woman can't survive in nature by herself, she needs a man or a group of people to take care of her, to protect her from predators and to bring food.
Why am I saying all this? It's because you need to understand how women have evolved to be able to understand some of their actions. First of all, because they can have few children, they are generally more selective than men. You can imagine two women in some remote tribe, one which selects a man with good genes, a healthy and strong man, which can take care of her. The other woman is not so selective and ends up with a man with bad genes, not too bright, not too strong, can't really take care of himself. You can well imagine that the first woman has children with better genes, with bigger chances of survival and reproduction, plus, the man is able to take care of her and her children, therefore, they survive. The second woman has children with bad genes, with less chances of survival, plus, her man is not able to take good care of her and her children, therefore, some children may die of starvation or diseases from malnourishment. So, basically, you only see people descended from the selective women, because their genes for selective behaviour had bigger chances of being spread through the population by way of their descendants. This selection obviously happens each generation. So, this is why women are so selective. Women need to spend a lot of energy and time for their small number of children.
Men, on the other hand, can have an unlimited number of children, so they are not so selective. If there is one man which obviously has the best genes, a lot of women would want him. This is why men are so competitive, they want to show everyone that they are the best, because women tend to select the men with the best genes. Moreover, there would be no problem if all the women had descendants from the man with the best genes. You can see this behaviour in other species too, like stags that fight each other, to show who is the best (who has the best genes).
Men tend to want to have sex with a lot of women. Again, let's imagine that there are two men, one which is faithful to one woman and never cheats on her and one man which has a harem of women and a lot of them will bear his children. Let's presume that their children have the same chances of survival. You may as well imagine the exponential growth. To make it easier, we will presume that the faithful man will have 4 children, 2 of them inherit the faithful gene, the man with the harem will have 20 children, 10 of them inherit the unfaithful gene. If the conditions continue in the next generation, the faithful genes will go into 4 children, the unfaithful genes will go into 100 children, in another generation, the faithful genes will go into 8 children, the unfaithful genes will go into 1000 children. I think you can see where this is going, this is going to the point where the unfaithful genes are far more successful. The calculations take into account the fact that there are 50% chances for one gene to go into one child. Obviously, I've considered those genes to be dominant. This is the reason why men generally want more women, because the unfaithful genes are more successful and there are bigger chances for those genes to be in any man.
So, hopefully you now see why women are so selective and men are not so selective. You may see why men are more competitive than women. In my previous post, I talked about the reasons why women don't like to be considered whores. I will not reiterate that part. What is important is the behaviour of women. If a woman likes a man, she will not tell him that (generally). There are a lot of subtleties to flirting. Usually, the sign that someone likes you is that he/she is staring at you. Men usually take the first step, I think it's because they don't really have a reputation to uphold. Nobody likes to be rejected, but someone's got to do it. Anyway, with women it's very strange, as someone said it, when a woman says "no" it means "maybe" and when she says "maybe" it means "yes".
So, what do women want? They generally want a handsome, rich, famous man, because these men are a sort of alpha males, it signifies to women that they have the best genes. This is why a lot of women would like to be with famous actors or singers.
What do men want? Well, I think that if it would be possible, most men would want a harem full of beautiful women. The fact that Muslims dream of a paradise with 72 virgins is not that strange. But why do men want virgins? It's simple, really, because men can't be sure their children are theirs (instincts), but selecting a virgin gives men better chances for their future child to be theirs. In nature, suspicion is selected, because if you raise only children that are not your own, your genes are not perpetuated. This is why, for example, if a male lion suspects that some cubs are not his, he will kill them.
I've talked about this in my previous post, but I need to reiterate. Women can have a small number of children, while men can have an unlimited number of children. A woman can know for sure that her child is hers, while men can never know for sure, at least they could not know for sure until the invention of paternity tests and DNA tests. I'm talking about instincts, this is not rational, having DNA tests does not change our instincts. A pregnant woman can't survive in nature by herself, she needs a man or a group of people to take care of her, to protect her from predators and to bring food.
Why am I saying all this? It's because you need to understand how women have evolved to be able to understand some of their actions. First of all, because they can have few children, they are generally more selective than men. You can imagine two women in some remote tribe, one which selects a man with good genes, a healthy and strong man, which can take care of her. The other woman is not so selective and ends up with a man with bad genes, not too bright, not too strong, can't really take care of himself. You can well imagine that the first woman has children with better genes, with bigger chances of survival and reproduction, plus, the man is able to take care of her and her children, therefore, they survive. The second woman has children with bad genes, with less chances of survival, plus, her man is not able to take good care of her and her children, therefore, some children may die of starvation or diseases from malnourishment. So, basically, you only see people descended from the selective women, because their genes for selective behaviour had bigger chances of being spread through the population by way of their descendants. This selection obviously happens each generation. So, this is why women are so selective. Women need to spend a lot of energy and time for their small number of children.
Men, on the other hand, can have an unlimited number of children, so they are not so selective. If there is one man which obviously has the best genes, a lot of women would want him. This is why men are so competitive, they want to show everyone that they are the best, because women tend to select the men with the best genes. Moreover, there would be no problem if all the women had descendants from the man with the best genes. You can see this behaviour in other species too, like stags that fight each other, to show who is the best (who has the best genes).
Men tend to want to have sex with a lot of women. Again, let's imagine that there are two men, one which is faithful to one woman and never cheats on her and one man which has a harem of women and a lot of them will bear his children. Let's presume that their children have the same chances of survival. You may as well imagine the exponential growth. To make it easier, we will presume that the faithful man will have 4 children, 2 of them inherit the faithful gene, the man with the harem will have 20 children, 10 of them inherit the unfaithful gene. If the conditions continue in the next generation, the faithful genes will go into 4 children, the unfaithful genes will go into 100 children, in another generation, the faithful genes will go into 8 children, the unfaithful genes will go into 1000 children. I think you can see where this is going, this is going to the point where the unfaithful genes are far more successful. The calculations take into account the fact that there are 50% chances for one gene to go into one child. Obviously, I've considered those genes to be dominant. This is the reason why men generally want more women, because the unfaithful genes are more successful and there are bigger chances for those genes to be in any man.
So, hopefully you now see why women are so selective and men are not so selective. You may see why men are more competitive than women. In my previous post, I talked about the reasons why women don't like to be considered whores. I will not reiterate that part. What is important is the behaviour of women. If a woman likes a man, she will not tell him that (generally). There are a lot of subtleties to flirting. Usually, the sign that someone likes you is that he/she is staring at you. Men usually take the first step, I think it's because they don't really have a reputation to uphold. Nobody likes to be rejected, but someone's got to do it. Anyway, with women it's very strange, as someone said it, when a woman says "no" it means "maybe" and when she says "maybe" it means "yes".
So, what do women want? They generally want a handsome, rich, famous man, because these men are a sort of alpha males, it signifies to women that they have the best genes. This is why a lot of women would like to be with famous actors or singers.
What do men want? Well, I think that if it would be possible, most men would want a harem full of beautiful women. The fact that Muslims dream of a paradise with 72 virgins is not that strange. But why do men want virgins? It's simple, really, because men can't be sure their children are theirs (instincts), but selecting a virgin gives men better chances for their future child to be theirs. In nature, suspicion is selected, because if you raise only children that are not your own, your genes are not perpetuated. This is why, for example, if a male lion suspects that some cubs are not his, he will kill them.
Friday, July 13, 2012
whores
I saw an interesting question one day: why is it that when women have sex with a lot of men they are considered whores but when men have sex with lots of women they are considered virile?
I think it's a matter of instinct, namely, of natural programming and evolution. A woman knows for sure that her baby is hers, a man can never know for sure that the child is his, that's why men don't like to be married to women who have been with many men. Well, now there are DNA and paternity tests, but we still have instincts.
On the other hand, men like to have many women, again evolution, it's the perpetuation of genes, the alpha male thing, this is why harems existed in ancient times, those men who had a harem were envied by everyone and the harem was well guarded with eunuchs.
There have never been, to my knowledge, women with harems of men. In the case of women it's simpler, women tend to want a male with good genes, quality is important to them, not quantity, this is the reason why they are so selective, they can have a small number of children, which cost a lot of energy. Men can have an unlimited number of children, so they are not very selective, many men would hump anything that moves.
This question follows: why do women consider other women with multiple partners as being sluts? I think it's because of the possibility that their men will go to the promiscuous women. Women are also naturally programmed to be jealous, like men, the reason is that women needed men to guard them against predators, to bring food, etc. Remember that humans have evolved under natural conditions, where a single pregnant woman had no chance of survival.
I think it's a matter of instinct, namely, of natural programming and evolution. A woman knows for sure that her baby is hers, a man can never know for sure that the child is his, that's why men don't like to be married to women who have been with many men. Well, now there are DNA and paternity tests, but we still have instincts.
On the other hand, men like to have many women, again evolution, it's the perpetuation of genes, the alpha male thing, this is why harems existed in ancient times, those men who had a harem were envied by everyone and the harem was well guarded with eunuchs.
There have never been, to my knowledge, women with harems of men. In the case of women it's simpler, women tend to want a male with good genes, quality is important to them, not quantity, this is the reason why they are so selective, they can have a small number of children, which cost a lot of energy. Men can have an unlimited number of children, so they are not very selective, many men would hump anything that moves.
This question follows: why do women consider other women with multiple partners as being sluts? I think it's because of the possibility that their men will go to the promiscuous women. Women are also naturally programmed to be jealous, like men, the reason is that women needed men to guard them against predators, to bring food, etc. Remember that humans have evolved under natural conditions, where a single pregnant woman had no chance of survival.
Can we refute religion without science?
I wondered if I had lived thousands of years ago when science was very primitive, would I have been able to refute religion logically? Obviously, I would not have heard about evolution, the Big Bang, perhaps I would have
thought that the Earth is flat, after the tradition of the time, I would
not know what causes lightning and other natural phenomena. Obviously
science fights religion, because religion arises from ignorance and
knowledge fights ignorance, but was it possible to do that without
science?
I think I could have been an atheist in antiquity, if I had used logic. Epicurus, who lived 2300 years ago, showed very clearly and easily that the god of the bible contradicts itself, with the phrase "if God is omnipotent and benevolent, then why is there evil". Buddha, using observation and logic, understood that all things are impermanent, that everything is ephemeral. The idea of eternity is absurd and self-contradictory, it's just an avoidance of answers, nothing is eternal.
If I were asked "who created everything?" I suppose I would have said that something must exist without a cause, the universe exists, therefore the universe does not have a cause, why would I postulate something else without evidence? Of course, I would not know about the Big Bang.
If I were asked "how can complex beings exist without a creator?" I would not have known the answer, but I would have known that a creator does not solve the problem at all, it complicates it even more, because the creator is itself a complex being, and if all complex beings need a creator, then the creator needs another creator which leads to infinite regression. Speaking of infinite regression, eternity is similar to it.
If I were asked "what causes natural phenomena?" I would also not have had an answer, but I think I would have realized that to attribute them to supernatural forces is superstition. For example, why isn't there lightning in winter? What stops the lightning gods from doing their work in cold weather? Or the rainbow, why is it always in the direction opposite to the Sun? Why is the Sun predictable? You can predict the seasons, day and night, etc. A god would be more unpredictable, so there isn't a Sun god.
Of course, it's difficult to know if I would have been an atheist at that time, but I think it was possible, the only requirement would be to use my brain and think logically.
I think I could have been an atheist in antiquity, if I had used logic. Epicurus, who lived 2300 years ago, showed very clearly and easily that the god of the bible contradicts itself, with the phrase "if God is omnipotent and benevolent, then why is there evil". Buddha, using observation and logic, understood that all things are impermanent, that everything is ephemeral. The idea of eternity is absurd and self-contradictory, it's just an avoidance of answers, nothing is eternal.
If I were asked "who created everything?" I suppose I would have said that something must exist without a cause, the universe exists, therefore the universe does not have a cause, why would I postulate something else without evidence? Of course, I would not know about the Big Bang.
If I were asked "how can complex beings exist without a creator?" I would not have known the answer, but I would have known that a creator does not solve the problem at all, it complicates it even more, because the creator is itself a complex being, and if all complex beings need a creator, then the creator needs another creator which leads to infinite regression. Speaking of infinite regression, eternity is similar to it.
If I were asked "what causes natural phenomena?" I would also not have had an answer, but I think I would have realized that to attribute them to supernatural forces is superstition. For example, why isn't there lightning in winter? What stops the lightning gods from doing their work in cold weather? Or the rainbow, why is it always in the direction opposite to the Sun? Why is the Sun predictable? You can predict the seasons, day and night, etc. A god would be more unpredictable, so there isn't a Sun god.
Of course, it's difficult to know if I would have been an atheist at that time, but I think it was possible, the only requirement would be to use my brain and think logically.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Who really created the Universe?
I had a revelation last night. The Invisible Pink Unicorn showed itself to me and we had a nice chat. First of all, I will call him/her "it", because I have not checked its sexual organs and I don't want to discriminate anyone.
Obviously, I asked a lot of questions. I asked if it created the Universe and it said "of course". It told me that the god of the bible and all the other gods don't exist. I asked it why doesn't it show itself to everyone and it told me that it's shy. Plus, it told me that it doesn't want to be venerated, it's not vain, it told me that usually beings with an inferiority complex want to be venerated.
I asked it why did it create the Universe and it told me that it was bored and wanted to play. I asked if it created us and it said no, it said that we evolved by a gradual process of evolution by natural selection. It also said that only an incompetent creator would intervene in its creation, like a mechanic who needs to repair a car all the time. When the Invisible Pink Unicorn created the Universe by the Big Bang, it knew that intelligent beings would eventually arise, it did not need to interfere at all. I asked it who or what created it and it told me that it's eternal and I obviously asked why did it wait an eternity before creating our Universe and it told me that it did not wait, it has created innumerable universes before ours and has played a lot during all this time.
I asked why do diseases exist and evil and it told me that it made a few mistakes, but it's trying to improve the process of creation of universes, it will continue to create universes until it gets it right. I asked why doesn't it help us get rid of diseases and evil and it said that it tries not to interfere with the experiment, but it has occasionally given advice to improve the world, as it's sad to see what's happening, but people don't seem to be listening to its advice.
I asked it if there is life after death and it said that there is, after death all people and other animals will live in peace on an infinite plain with lots of grass, flowers, butterflies and especially oat and barley, it said it loves to eat oat and barley, and we will all eat grass, oat and barley, no more eating each other, no more violence. So I asked what will happen to evil people and it said that it will spank their naked ass in front of everyone for every bad deed, it also said that an eternity of torture is cruel and mindless and punishment exists to improve behaviour, not for revenge. I also asked if we won't get bored after some billions of years and it said that it has invented an infinite number of games for us to play the rest of eternity.
Obviously, I wanted some real proof and I asked it for that and it told me to go on a field of grass and in the middle of it, it will give me recommendations to improve the world, but I have to be alone. Plus, a candle has mysteriously lit up, I can show it to everyone as proof that the Invisible Pink Unicorn exists. Even more, a poster with a pink unicorn has magically appeared on my wall and the unicorn cries when I do bad deeds and smiles when I do good deeds, but this behaviour occurs only when nobody is around, except me.
So, today I went on a field and it gave me the recommendations on a piece of paper. The recommendations are as follows:
1. Do not provoke unnecessary suffering to other people or other animals, try to bring them joy.
2. Do not multiply like rabbits, because you are not rabbits, use contraception.
3. Do not destroy the environment, nature is sacred.
4. Be reasonable.
5. "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. "- Buddha (inspired by the Invisible Pink Unicorn)
6. Do not consume more than you need, do not eat more than you need, live modestly. The greatest wealth is knowledge, understanding and wisdom.
7. Do not be racist, homophobic, misogynist, nationalist, namely, do not discriminate. The differences between people are insignificant compared to the similarities between them.
8. Be curious, try to discover how everything works in the universe.
9. Be humble, you are insignificant, you live for a moment on a speck of dust in a vast Universe.
10. Enjoy life.
This is a joke, in case you have not guessed it already. I have not lost my mind (yet), but I believe that this shows the absurdity of religion quite nicely.
Obviously, I asked a lot of questions. I asked if it created the Universe and it said "of course". It told me that the god of the bible and all the other gods don't exist. I asked it why doesn't it show itself to everyone and it told me that it's shy. Plus, it told me that it doesn't want to be venerated, it's not vain, it told me that usually beings with an inferiority complex want to be venerated.
I asked it why did it create the Universe and it told me that it was bored and wanted to play. I asked if it created us and it said no, it said that we evolved by a gradual process of evolution by natural selection. It also said that only an incompetent creator would intervene in its creation, like a mechanic who needs to repair a car all the time. When the Invisible Pink Unicorn created the Universe by the Big Bang, it knew that intelligent beings would eventually arise, it did not need to interfere at all. I asked it who or what created it and it told me that it's eternal and I obviously asked why did it wait an eternity before creating our Universe and it told me that it did not wait, it has created innumerable universes before ours and has played a lot during all this time.
I asked why do diseases exist and evil and it told me that it made a few mistakes, but it's trying to improve the process of creation of universes, it will continue to create universes until it gets it right. I asked why doesn't it help us get rid of diseases and evil and it said that it tries not to interfere with the experiment, but it has occasionally given advice to improve the world, as it's sad to see what's happening, but people don't seem to be listening to its advice.
I asked it if there is life after death and it said that there is, after death all people and other animals will live in peace on an infinite plain with lots of grass, flowers, butterflies and especially oat and barley, it said it loves to eat oat and barley, and we will all eat grass, oat and barley, no more eating each other, no more violence. So I asked what will happen to evil people and it said that it will spank their naked ass in front of everyone for every bad deed, it also said that an eternity of torture is cruel and mindless and punishment exists to improve behaviour, not for revenge. I also asked if we won't get bored after some billions of years and it said that it has invented an infinite number of games for us to play the rest of eternity.
Obviously, I wanted some real proof and I asked it for that and it told me to go on a field of grass and in the middle of it, it will give me recommendations to improve the world, but I have to be alone. Plus, a candle has mysteriously lit up, I can show it to everyone as proof that the Invisible Pink Unicorn exists. Even more, a poster with a pink unicorn has magically appeared on my wall and the unicorn cries when I do bad deeds and smiles when I do good deeds, but this behaviour occurs only when nobody is around, except me.
So, today I went on a field and it gave me the recommendations on a piece of paper. The recommendations are as follows:
1. Do not provoke unnecessary suffering to other people or other animals, try to bring them joy.
2. Do not multiply like rabbits, because you are not rabbits, use contraception.
3. Do not destroy the environment, nature is sacred.
4. Be reasonable.
5. "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. "- Buddha (inspired by the Invisible Pink Unicorn)
6. Do not consume more than you need, do not eat more than you need, live modestly. The greatest wealth is knowledge, understanding and wisdom.
7. Do not be racist, homophobic, misogynist, nationalist, namely, do not discriminate. The differences between people are insignificant compared to the similarities between them.
8. Be curious, try to discover how everything works in the universe.
9. Be humble, you are insignificant, you live for a moment on a speck of dust in a vast Universe.
10. Enjoy life.
This is a joke, in case you have not guessed it already. I have not lost my mind (yet), but I believe that this shows the absurdity of religion quite nicely.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Religious arguments
I've seen a few debates between theists
and atheists and I would like to add my replies to the main
theistic arguments for the existence of a god, multiple gods or
whatever. The arguments are always the same and I will present some
of them.
1. The cosmological argument.
This argument
states that the Universe must have a cause and that cause is a god.
I've seen a nice way of dismissing this argument with Occam's razor:
“God created the Universe, God
just exists.”. Yes, it's that easy, the simplest explanation is
better, that the Universe just exists.
Even if the
Universe has a cause, why would that cause be intelligent? Even if
the Universe has an intelligent cause, why would it be interested in
us, humans? These questions can go on forever.
I talk more about
the beginning of the Universe in this post.
2. The argument from design.
The argument from
design states that the Universe or what it contains is too complex to
exist by chance, therefore, a god designed everything. Before the
theory of evolution, this argument was about biological beings and
some people still use it. Nowadays it's mostly about the fine-tuning
of our Universe, so as to sustain life and most importantly human
life.
My first reaction
to the fine-tuning argument was that it's an awful waste of space,
matter and energy to create an entire Universe with billions of
billions of stars and planets, all just for us. Another obvious
problem with this argument is that life is rare in the Universe, so
if it is fine-tuned to sustain life, it's incompetently done. Life
occupies a tiny portion of even the Earth, only the surface area and
humans are not well adapted to live in the oceans, which cover most
of the Earth. There is no need to mention other planets. So, it
really is a sloppy job if it is the work of a creator.
Another problem
with this argument is that a god needs to be a very complex being, it
cannot be as simple as a boulder. This god needs to be far more
complex than the Universe, so, basically, they want to explain the
complexity of something by postulating something even more complex,
without evidence. I talk more about this in this post.
3. The argument from morality
This argument
states that there is objective morality and the source of that
morality is a god. I disagree with this, I don't believe there is
objective morality. Morality has changed a lot over time. In ancient
times it was moral to kill a sinner with stones, slavery was moral
and even religious war was moral.
We can't take our
morality from the bible and thankfully, we don't. We don't kill
people because they work on Sunday, we don't kill homosexuals as the
bible tells us to do, we don't kill witches and so on.
In ancient Rome
people used to go and watch gladiators fight till the death. In the Dark Ages, people used to gather and watch the burning of witches. We
don't do this anymore and some of us are even revolted by animal cruelty. What changed? Did religion change? Has the bible been
modified since then? No, religion is not the cause of our morality
improvements. The cause is civilization, we are becoming more civilized.
4. The argument from miracles.
This argument
states that miracles occur (or have occurred) and that they are
created by a god. I have never seen something I would call a miracle
and even if I did see something like that, it might be just trickery,
I've seen a magic show once, and some people would call those tricks miracles if
they did not know it was just a magic show. There are a lot of cases
of charlatans, so I won't go into that.
Medical miracles
always fall within what is possible. There has never been a case where
someone who lost a limb grew it back, no matter how much he/she
prayed. That would be no problem for an all-powerful god, but it
never happens.
The miracles
presented in the bible should not be believed more than you believe
in Harry Potter. They are just books and believing that those stories
are real makes you naive. A lot of people cannot discern reality from
fantasy. You should read this post.
You might say that
people don't believe in Harry Potter, well, that story is not meant
to be a religion, it's not meant to be believed. The Iliad is a
better example, because people did believe in the gods of mount
Olympus. You can take any religious book. All religious books are
fairy tales, and I don't need to read all of them to know this.
By the way,
“extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” - Carl
Sagan.
5. The argument from religious
experience
This argument
states that some people have had religious experiences and that
proves that at least one god exists. The problem I see here is that
people from different religions, even contradictory religions have
had religious experiences, so who is right? Which religion is
correct? I believe that all religions are wrong.
I do believe that
some people have religious experiences and I don't believe they are
necessarily crazy. Lots of things can cause religious experiences,
but I believe they are just hallucinations.
I was laughing one
day, when I read this: “religion is a result of malnutrition”. I
can't remember who said this, but it's probably true. In the bible,
some jews went into the desert for long periods of time, they had
little to eat, some got close to starvation. Hallucinations are known
to be caused by malnutrition and isolation, so it was the perfect
recipe, religious people going into the desert to find god and
finding hallucinations because of malnutrition and isolation. Even
Jesus went into the desert for 40 days, where satan appears to him
and tempts him in various ways, another hallucination, I believe.
6. Pascal's wager
It goes like this:
“If you believe
in God and God does not exist, you lose nothing.
If you believe in
God and God exists, you gain everything.
If you do not
believe in God and God does not exist, you gain nothing.
If you do not
believe in God and God exists, you lose everything.”
This
wager has never impressed me because it's based on fear and fear is
the mind killer. But, imagine that this wager was available for every
god, like Zeus, Thor, Bumba, Chinigchinix, Allah, Brahma or
any other. This should be the case, as no god has more proof than any
other. But you can't believe in all the gods for fear of the
consequences of disbelief. Furthermore, christianity and islam don't
accept belief in other gods, so if you believe in Jesus and Vishnu
you will still go to hell, according to christianity.
So, there is no way to get out of it,
there are no valid arguments for the existence of any god. Usually,
people try to squeeze their gods in the gaps of our knowledge, like
the beginning of the Universe, the laws of nature and any other place
where we are still ignorant. This is why I call it “the god of
ignorance”, whatever we can't explain, we attribute to him.
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