To look at the abyss of death, the water tower, the cliff...

Two years ago I posted the Water Tower (click)

There have been other times I thought of leaving the mortal coil. The cliff was one of them. I was in a car, I was driving up this mountain area and there is no rail there, nothing to prevent you from driving off it, and I could see myself doing that, just floor the gas and go into the air, fall, fall, end it all.

I was so hurt so angry, so sad, so everything that it just seemed that death would be better then dealing with any of it. Back then I still believed in God and afterlife - but I don't think those things entered my mind in that moment. Those are not the things that kept me from doing it.

Honestly, I guess in the end, I choose to be angry enough to fight more rather then give up, and even though the fighting more was pain, it was my pain to face. Maybe I could win.

So many other times, moments of passionate anger at everything, just wanting everything to shut up. I think that maybe is why men wind up gone more - we tend to be more willing to do the thing in a brutal way.

So, I've kept guns out of my life. I've kept very sharp knives away from myself. I've also just kept going forward. Even though it isn't fun, not existing isn't anything.

I don't always enjoy existing, but when I do enjoy it, well that is the part to enjoy right? You get there, you have that moment. Its worth something.

I'm worth something.

Even if sometimes and somedays I don't feel it.

You, whoever you are - are worth something.

This is true, and if needed I can prove it via logic.

Keep moving forward... you are not alone.

God is losing power!

 God is losing power. It has been losing power from the start, but I just realized this "T"urth.

Okay, so check it out, God started at 100% power it took like, oh at least 50% to start the universe, lets not kid around, he packed that in in a mere 6 days! No wonder he had to rest! Wooooie!

Then he kinda did nothing for awhile until he got tired of the humans again and flooded the whole earth, that's got to take a lot of power, all that water from nowhere?! Yeah that's at least 10% right there.

So every moment God's doing something in the bible (because of course its the god of the bible duh!) then he is losing power, 1% here, 10% there - its all draining.

You get to Jesus and this happens!

Luke 8:44: She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. 'Who touched me?' Jesus asked.

When they all denied it, Peter said, 'Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you."

But Jesus said, 'Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me."

SEE! Jesus FELT the power DRAINING from him! This is clear cut proof that God's power is slowly being drained! Now, you know the story, Jesus dies right - goes to hell (in some versions) and does... bleep all if I know and has to come back to life, well - he has to recharge first, so that's why it took him 2-3 days to return you see?

So now Jesus does a few more minor things after that, really non-impressive things, pretty much he's worn out of power, I dare say God's power by now is like 2% at BEST and Jesus has to go and show off by floating into the sky. Before he goes he leaves like 1% of the power of "Holy Ghost" on earth that blows around in the wind or something.

Anyway, so God's got like, maybe 1% power now, and that was 2000 some years ago, he's got to be really low now - BUT - that's where prayer comes in - its giving him like .00001% power back you see. But that's each person's whole life time worth of prayer. So its not adding up to much even though lots of prayers are being done - its going to take a lot more people praying to get god anywhere near the amount it needs to be 25% the bare min power level needed to make a comeback, but if its going to be Revelation style, that's at least 30% of power. So doing the math that means.... god is coming back... oh no no wait I forgot to carry the one! Ahh man! Well anyway Gods not coming back anytime soon so next time someone says the end is around the corner just tell them, nah man God's power level is not anywhere near high enough for that.

Meanwhile of course LOD has over 9000% power level.

Also I'm pretty sure I made all this up.

Things Theists say (broadly speaking)

 In the eleven years of doing youtube as a skeptic I've encountered plenty of theists who really believe the things that I do not. I've noted a trend of things that come up in those talks, here are some of those things:

~~~~

0: You believe/think (X)!

Assuming that I believe (or do not believe)/ or feel about things in (X) (Y) or (Z) ways. This is very common and one of the most annoying things I encounter - just ask me. Stop shoving ideas in my head or feelings into my brain! 

1: The universe came from "nothing".

This isn't something I, nor any atheist/skeptic/non-believer that I am aware of believes in. No one that I know of makes this claim. This *click* book has a click-bate name, if you read it you will find its not a "nothing" - just he uses that word. However even if he did think it was "nothing" that would be HIS stance, not mine. I do not KNOW where/how universe "came to" be - or even if those are the right words, cosmology is very hard - you need to deal with complex maths and modeling to even start to do it right, and that is way beyond me, and way beyond most people.

Not knowing does not mean thinking it came from nothing.

"But if it didn't come from God....where did it come from?" that is a loaded question that assumes it came from somewhere - but the answer is... I do not know. I do not pretend to know. Its a mystery that I'm okay with. But - yeah no we don't think the universe came from "nothing" - I'm not sure that a nothing is even possible! No rules? What would that look like? If you had no rules then you wouldn't have anything to stop something coming from nothing would you? If you have a rule then you do not have a nothing.

2: Look at the trees!

I've looked at them. Now what? Oh see we should be amazed at trees I guess. Why? Well because... it was made by GOD. Really? How can ya tell? Well this goes into an analogy about how things are built by people yadada therefor tree is built by god. But - no, trees evolved like all other living things, and so that doesn't need a god at any point to do any of that.

3: It only makes sense if God did it.

That's nice. But that doesn't make it true. Just because something "makes sense" to you does not make that thing TRUE. What matters is if the thing is true, not if it "makes sense" or not. The true nature of reality might seem incoherent to us. Or it might be really silly like the number 42, 69 or 27! Who knows! But your appeal to your own personal limited thinking does not and is not an argument nor is it proof of anything other then you don't know logic. LEARN LOGIC.

4: Atheists have no moral justification.

What is your argument? Who cares? What if it is true? So? This is of course a poisoning of the well and a full misunderstanding of what "atheist" is/means. To be atheist does not tell you anything about morals, ethics, how to vote, where to live, what to put on, etc. It is an answer to the question "Do you believe in god?" If no - then you are an atheist. That's it. It is NOT a worldview. Theists keep thinking that it is, but it isn't. It just is a view that we do not believe in a god. So to say that we have no (X) when that wouldn't even apply is rather clunky. But - yeah.... we do have moral justification in ethics. A lot of ethical systems exist out there to pick from. The atheist can't pick DCT (divine command theory)- but is free to pick from any of the other ones. So we have plenty of grounding. This non-starter of a try at an argument is to suggest that DCT is the BEST ethical system - that no other ethical system grounds morals - because GOD. God somehow (?) grounds morals. Is it good because God said it or because it is good? Euthyphro remains unanswered to this day (at least in a coherent manor to my knowledge).

Saying that God = Good and thus whatever is "Good" is God doesn't ground anything at all, it just asserts. It moves the problem back. We humans made morals including DCT. The problem(s) with DCT are numerous but at the top of the list is that you can't really be sure its GOD that said to do (or not do) the thing. Worse then that, you do not get to question God. Every moral system other then DCT you get to question if the thing is or is not right. You get to ask why/how that action is good. DCT is all about might makes right. God said it, that settles it. Appeal to authority 101. Of course this leads to disaster when two groups of people claim God said to do something - one says hats on Sunday, one god says no hats on Sunday- well... time to kill some hat lovers! Yay! Also of course there are two groups of people who are fighting over a single spot on the earth because God told them both that that spot belongs to them, and not the other people. Yikes. 

More to come....

Pseudologic spotting.

People with zero videos... weird.

So I've noted that three people have all posed insane things about formal logic as of late.

And one person who has videos but none of them are anything to do with logic (a few video games and some home video family-type vids).

In every case I am bewildered at both how they SEEM to know a lot about formal logic, and yet - they don't.

Its odd to me that if they did have the understanding they suggest that they would not also make content - why limit yourself to text?

Speculation about the motives of people of course, is just that. There is nothing special about this. Plenty of people do not have content. It just "feels weird" - ah - emotion! See there is the first step towards pattern seeking that would be all to easy to go down the rabbit hole with.

These people posting are - I think, using chatgpt or something like it, and/or taking from random webpages ideas about formal logic to make there own. Why? Well - no idea why. I had to call one out for being trollish at this point because they keep digging in deeper with things that are less sensical.

Formal logic is most useful for the abstract world. It works great in maths and on paper but doesn't (always) work with real world objects.

For whatever reason these keyboard warriors have come "at me" for my video on the atheist experience's broken argument to defend that broken argument. Its not REALLY broken you see.... yea well no it is. BUT... no still broken.

BUT. Nope.

However, one person that I'm including in my odd people that talk logic was not about that argument at all, rather he mentioned something I've never heard of or read about!

"S5 logic"

https://philarchive.org/archive/ANDMLT#:~:text=The%20modal%20logic%20system%20S5,logic%20goes%2C%20system%20of%20logic.

https://mally.stanford.edu/S5.html#:~:text=The%20axioms%20of%20S5%20are,p%2C%20then%20p%20is%20true.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S5_(modal_logic)

Example of how it gets "abused"

https://joshualrasmussen.com/s5/

(Former skeptic Joshua Rasmussen left Christianity to pursue truth through reason and philosophy. Over time, his intellectual pursuit led him back to a strong belief in God.)

With abstract objects (X) and (Z) we can do a lot of fun things, and then one can get to strange formulas that then when non-abstract should (one would think) still work... but... it doesn't always work. Oh sometimes it does. But other times - nope.

Why? Well because the real world is not one of the abstract. (mostly) we are dealing with real day objects here.

However, the person(s) that want an abstract world ie: "Spiritual" could abuse formal logic.

Does not matter if it is for or against God - I do not care. I only care that the argument is SOUND. (to be sound it must be valid as well) the SOUND part is really what matters most because that means you have found no logical errors.

Well - how does one look for logical errors? By looking at the real world! Ah - so see, informal (and formal) logic has it limits. Its great to have A=B, B=C, C=D, therefor A=D Sure that works! But... if you turn that to "God is a lobster, lobster can be eaten, eating them can be done by atheists therefor God can be eaten by atheists!" well... that doesn't work anymore! But!?! It worked as abstract...!!! Sure. But not in the real world once we pulled it from the abstract letters to become real objects - or assume they are real objects - then it clearly no longer works.

Logic, has its limits. So with the abstract one can very much play with the notions of "possible" to get to "actual" to say that god is possible therefor is actual and you can indeed put all sorts of logical formulas around that to """prove""" that is true. (Not enough quotes in the universe)

So... people are - I am deeply afraid - abusing formal logic because well - it CAN be abused. They have not bothered with informal logic or simply do not care and/or are trolls and/or .... bleep if I know - all I know is that - they are not using it in ways they should.

However, no where does it say how one "should" use logic of course. Anyone can use it for - well anything. Even to make things appear to be real when they are not.

Pseudoscience is a thing people use! And well... so is pseudologic!

It shouldn't surprise me - I've been telling theists this for years! I guess it comes at a strange angle to see people who might be atheists (I assume they are, no idea) would use pseudologic to make an argument that a broken argument is not broken.

Why? Just use a better argument?!

Well bleep who knows.

People are weird.

Kinda like this theist who I have been typing at who insists that everyone worships something even though I've told him I do not, he insists that I do. He can "see" that I do. So he must be right. Even though he isn't right because I know I do not worship anything.

Its a wacky world we live in.

Learn real logic so you can spot pseudologic.

You are...

You are...

You are the sum total of all the potential of humanity that has existed to this point. You are more than a name, a sexual orientation, your politics, your beliefs or lack thereof; you are more than a father, son, mother, daughter; you are more than any and all labels, and all without any need to add that you have some eternal spirit. Maybe you do, I don't know; I don't believe in such things.

But know this, we humans are so much more than the mere sum of our parts, and woe be to those that dare suggest we are reducible to the lowest thing, more so when they do so because religion drives them – in an effort to win the religious vs. non-religious debate. I've seen, "For the atheist, humans are mere animals, here by chance." Well... we are animals, and we are here in part because of chance, but also because we won. We beat the odds – somehow, we made it, so far. We won the game of life, at least for a moment. So no, we are not JUST anything.

You are so much more than I can even hope to begin to write about.

Of course, that's the good news.

The bad news is that we will not reach all the things – because even though we do have the potential to do it, that does not mean we WILL do it. Our bodies are limited, our minds are limited, and our desires restrain us.

Oh sure, I could work out every day starting tomorrow and get nice muscles for my effort – but I don't want to do that! I just do not want to! But maybe you have that desire in you! Great! Then you go get it! The worst thing we can do is not do the thing we CAN do – it's one thing to not be able to do (X), it's a whole other thing to not do it when you COULD do it, and more so if you want to. Nothing should stop you then – well... but reasonability – bills, chores, requirements, whatever... maybe.

But still, but still – you can maybe sort all that out and do the thing. That's what makes you great, that's what makes us great! We need to know that. You need to know that.

Well, maybe you did, but here is a reminder, that you are. 

The bible is super mega moral!

Psalms 137:9 Blessed the one who seizes your children and smashes them against the rock: the children represent the future generations, and so must be destroyed if the enemy is truly to be eradicated.

1 Samuel 15:3 

Hosea 13:1 

Isaiah 13:16 

Numbers 31:17 

Deuteronomy 21:18

Exodus 21:15 

Exodus 22:19 

Death! Kill!! War! Stuff!! Glad no one (by no one I mean lots of people) take this out of context!

So yeah, the bible says that killing people is fine under some conditions and also seems to be fine with genocide. That doesn't seem good to me. 

One example of a chrich doing things in or not in the bible that I can point to is the CoC:

The Chirch of Christ (click) thinks that you can't use mechanical intraments even though Psalm 33:2 says otherwise! (click)

One example of a church doing things in or not in the Bible that I can point to is the CoC:

The Church of Christ thinks that you can't use mechanical instruments, even though Psalm 33:2 says otherwise!

Maybe there are no modern churches (thank goodness!) that follow the laws of the Bible, but my point is, it doesn't say these things are bad; rather, it says they are good. That is bad. How can you make good ethics with bad morals? No idea!

Ah well, maybe someone will explain it to me one day in a logical way...

"Nark"

NARK!

Tonight we smelled smoke, and looked outside, the people across from us were buring something in the front yard, this is of course, against fire relguations and the managment's rules.

We looked at the fire it was pretty small, but still it could spread - the windows were dark, no porchlight on - was there anyone home over there? Should we check? Just as we were pondering all this, two people came out to attend to the fire - ah good, someone is watching it.

I overheard them bitterly complaining about how people should `mind there own busness" and said something about someone being fat (perhaps directed at me or my brother) and that `this is what's wrong with America' and of course, "Why do people got to Nark?"

Ah yes, the imature mentality of the anti-nark. Don't be a tattletale! The word "nark" is the `grownup' (ha!) version of this. A number of years ago, somone was shot in this area, and I recall one person talking to the news people, talking to whomever was out there "please come forward, your not a nark..."

Today we have the saying "see something, say something". Yet, this old mentality still exists. Don't "tell" on someone.

Well - why the bleep shouldn't you? If you see someone doing something illegal - shouldn't you report it?

Minding your own busness - well great but a FIRE isn't the time to do that - because fire spreads! FIRE BAD but if your doing something you shouldn't - well maybe someone is going to say something about that, and perhaps, they are doing so for protection of others.

See someone go in a house that you've never seen before? Ah well - its fine, don't NARK. Oh someone looks like they are breaking into a car? Not my problem.

Its never your problem and never your busness until it effects you and you wish someone would call for help on your behalf. 

But this - mentality that people shouldn't "nark" where did it come from? How do we get rid of it? 

Looking at the web - you can see some sad answers from people that dislike `snitching' or `narking' - these low brow, not well thought out ideas of that its betraying a trust or something of that sort, how about its doing what is right? If someone breaks a rule - a law, and so on - shouldn't you say something?

"Stand up for yourself" - oh well... that could lead to problems of all kinds. The whole point of cops and lawers and judges is to make us cival - right?

Yet, what I fear is perhaps that THEY think I am a Nark - they BELEVE that, and might seek to do me, my properity, or my friends/family harm. Because they FEEL that I did something - and that is the sort of mentality that I fear.

Is being a nark good/bad/depends? Shouldn't we try to do what is right, and in the end, if we see something - shouldn't we say something?