Dedication
~ For Tyler D. Harrington ~
My Boy,
I hope this note finds you healthy, happy, clear-headed, and free from guilt and superstition.
The text below documents my journey out of the intellectual, emotional, and moral enslavement of religion.
I sincerely wish that this chronicle of my experiences and my resulting thoughts on this journey serve you well,
encourage you to find happiness through your ever-advancing intellect, understanding and compassion,
and contribute to the continued improvement of the human race.
The ideas I share are not necessarily original, but they are important.
However you can, pass these ideas on.
More people need to hear them, talk about them, and keep making them better.
I love you so much.
~ Dad
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“And do you [believe] that unto such as you - a maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crew;
God gave a secret, and denied it me?
Well, well—what matters it? Believe that, too!”
― Omar Khayyám, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám
"Religious faith represents so uncompromising a misuse of the power of our minds
that it forms a kind of perverse, cultural singularity -
a vanishing point beyond which rational discourse proves impossible.
When foisted upon each generation anew, it renders us incapable of realizing
just how much of our world has been unnecessarily ceded to a dark and barbarous past."
― Sam Harris, The End of Faith
"...and the final insult that religion does to our system:
It appeals both to our meanness (our self-centeredness, our solipsism), and to our masochism.
In other words, it's sadomasochistic. Put it like this - you're a clot of blood, you're a piece of mud, you're lucky to be alive,
God fashioned you for his convenience and you're born in filth and sin.
...so you're lucky to be here, originally sinful, covered in shame and filth as you are: you're a wretched creature.
BUT, take heart!" (said with an ironic grin)
"The universe is designed with you in mind, and heaven has a plan for you.
Ladies and gentleman, I close by saying - I can't believe there is a thinking person here who does not realize
that our species would begin to grow to something like its full height if it left this childishness behind.
If it emancipated itself from this sinister, childish nonsense."
― Christopher Hitchens, delivered in a speech
"From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of the people,
all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything besides."
― Kong Qiu / aka 'Confucius', The Great Learning
"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face:
now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."
― 1 Corinthians 13:12
The Christian bible, King James Version
"Nullius in verba" - Latin
English translation - "Take nobody's word for it"
― Motto of the Royal Society of London
(Also seen on one of my favorite coffee mugs.)
"To put matters at their simplest, the major reason for the continuance of religious belief in a world which might otherwise
have long moved beyond it, is indoctrination of children before they reach the age of reason, together with all or some combination
of social pressure to conform, social reinforcement of religious institutions and traditions, emotion, and (it has to be said) ignorance - of science, of psychology, of history in general, and of the history and actual doctrines of religions themselves.
This statement doubtless sounds polemical, but that is not the intention; rather, it is a setting out of considered facts, because understanding them is essential
to solving one of the world's greatest problems: how to free the mind of humankind from attitudes and practices which are among the biggest impediments
to peace and human progress, and to adopt in their place the humane outlook that is seriously concerned
to promote both, and has a real chance of doing it."
― A.C. Grayling, The God Argument
"Perhaps though, there is still something to be salvaged [from the Ten Commandments] and if so,
it might be found in the long, vainglorious, menacing throat-clearings of the very first commandment...
We might give some real thought to the prohibition on the making of idols and of images.
We might do well to stop forging manacles with our own minds,
and setting up impressions and images of ourselves as if they were divine and rarefied and supernatural.
We might cease to make whips for our own backs;
we might stop making tyrants and despots in our own image.
We have rights as well as duties in respect to one another, and - as one can intuit from Thomas Paine -
in order to safeguard and enjoy the rights of man, we shall require a new age of reason."
― Christopher Hitchens, delivered in a speech
Sir Isaac Newton, one of the greatest minds who ever lived, invented calculus essentially on a dare
to answer the question of why planets' orbits are elliptical and not circular. However, even his formidable mind couldn't resolve the subtleties of multi-body
dynamics (i.e., figuring out the system of equations to model a stable gravitational system that includes 3 or more planets), and so Newton suggested in several
published works that God must necessarily intervene occasionally to tune up the solar system and preserve its stability.
Pierre Simon de LaPlace built on and refined Newton's work, and eventually solved the multi-body dynamics problem that had so vexed Newton.
Napoleon, upon being presented with a copy of LaPlace's multi-volume masterwork on celestial mechanics that included the solution to this problem, remarked:
‘Monsieur Laplace, they tell me you have written this large book on the system of the universe, and have never even mentioned its Creator.’
LaPlace was reported to have replied to Napoleon, 'Je n’avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là.'
The translation - "I had no need of that hypothesis."
...and neither do we.
"That which is, IS.
Our beliefs and opinions do not affect reality.
Understanding the truth of the non-existence of god lets us understand that we are free.
We are free from predestination, free to find out why we are the way we are, free to understand the truths of the natural world, and free to make our own way in it.
From this freedom we can assume our shared human responsibility to uncover further truths,
and to use these insights to improve ourselves individually and - by extension - improve society.
We are a way for the universe to know itself."
― Dave Harrington, written just now
Last sentence cribbed (with respect) from Carl Sagan
...
Introduction:
Before diving into the below material, keep in mind that I fully appreciate that it is hard to give up either a personal relationship with your god, or a religion. It was certainly not easy for me.
Whether or not it's wishful thinking, a personal relationship with the supreme creator of the universe is something that's deeply rooted in one's sense of self-worth, sense of meaning, value system, expectations that someone else 'has your back', etc. No one really wants to admit they've been wasting their time in supplication to a deity that turned out to never be there, or concede that the foundation of their morals is built upon what a relatively small tribe of of long-dead, ignorant desert-dwellers used to think was 'right', rather than on the code truly handed down by a perfect Being. Arriving at this understanding has certainly been an intense and occasionally troubling experience for me.
My personal belief in religion (Roman Catholicism) and in god didn't fall all at once for me, but in stages. I reasoned how connected every piece in religion is to the other bits, and once part of it started to fall, it tended to pull everything else along with it.
Nevertheless, I do go through this downfall. My own thought process went something like this:
Is there really no god? How do I keep a moral compass? I don't 'get' to suffer divinely-mandated guilt? What about my gift of absolution?
Is there really no divine plan written out for me in advance?! There is no 'most favored culture' or 'most favored country'? We just have to figure it out for ourselves and do the best we can? What the heck do we do now?
Our lives don't have any special significance, besides what we ourselves create? That's not right!
Praying doesn't have any impact on the world? I actually have to do something if I want to have any effect on my life, or on the life of others?
There's no heaven? Wait, I don't live forever?
And so on.
It is hard, occasionally painful work to honestly scrutinize your thoughts, beliefs, and superstitions. However, it is by no means impossible work. I've started it, and so have millions (perhaps billions?) of others. I believe that people begin life as a product of physics, chemistry, personal background, upbringing, and genetic history, but that we do have the freedom to move from this starting point to chose our own path. A lot of people are understandably going to have a harder time letting go of their religious beliefs than I did - because they live in areas in which lack of faith is punished harshly, they have to work so hard they don't have the luxury of time to think about these matters, access to educational materials is more difficult, and so on.
That being said, something needs to be done to help share the 'Good News' of a life without the need for a religion or a personal god. :)
We have to be free to question everything, and to use that freedom to be honest about the evidence that results from our exploration. Otherwise we're fearfully rejecting our main evolutionary advantage over every other species on this planet, and we will spend our time on fruitless praising and circular reasoning and justification without any benefit.
Some of the thoughts presented below are grouped and organized, some are not. Kind of like life, right? 8)
...
"To choose dogma and faith over doubt and experiment is to throw out the ripening vintage and to reach greedily for the Kool-Aid."
- Christopher Hitchens
...
Those who are the most scared/unsure of their beliefs are typically the most unwilling to honestly work through the thought process they used to arrive at their conclusions. They make pronouncements and pass judgement to 'rush to the end' and avoid the logical inconsistencies they may or may not be aware of. They tend to do this to prevent others from going through this process to analyze evidence and reach an honest conclusion. The journey of getting to a conclusion (or even just to take a series of steps in evolving your personal philosophy) is important, and should never be rushed. Otherwise the 'lizard brain' (amygdala) takes over in its scramble for comfort/'survival'. For many, they may justify this 'rush to a conclusion' by saying to themselves "Well, I take so many other things on faith, and there is a significant area of my life which I never spend time scrutinizing, so why should any part of my religion or philosophy be subject to close investigation if I don't want it to be?"
...
My background:
I spent the first half of my life as a fully-indoctrinated Roman Catholic. For the first 20 years of my life, I went to church every Sunday. I've been baptised, circumcised, taken communion, gone through confirmation, marriage in the church, the whole deal. My original moral foundation, my concept of 'salvation', etc. all came from the teachings that were conceived from, controlled by, and delivered by the church.
It's only in my late 30s that I've put some serious thought into why Catholicism (and any religion, or set of deist or theist beliefs) is a bunch of hogwash.
My current position on religion:
There may or may not be a god/God. I haven't seen any proof, and no one has found hard evidence. Based on the evidence, it appears to be a highly unlikely proposition that god exists in any form.
The Bible (and all other fundamental religious texts) were stories conceived and written by men. The Bible is a book, like many others produced in the course of our history. The Bible is not the word of a god, and is highly inconsistent and self-contradictory. The stories in the bible may be valuable for some people purely as a basis for self-reflection, but the bible is a poorer basis for philosophy than many other available sources, since its precepts are false, and its method, reasoning, explanations, and conclusions are - perhaps intentionally? - far less rigorous.
All religious dogma depends on revealed ('gifted') "wisdom", emotion, and wish fulfillment rather than on the more appropriate and noble foundations of doubt, experiment, and reason.
It is a ludicrous proposition that we should take the core elements of our existence - where we came from, what we should do while we're here, and where we're 'going' - purely based on faith. Why choose (either actively or through passivity) to waste what little time we have to live by choosing to live in a blinkered, deluded state?
Why would any rational person - one who has a chance to seek the evidence and form their own opinions - base their personal yardstick for morality, their philosophy, relationships, concept of self, concept of our place on our world and in the universe on a story that was told to them and which they haven't rigorously examined on their own?
There is nothing more important than this for achieving happiness and satisfaction in life - (Tyler - make sure you do this right 8) - I know I may have told you this a few times before, but I love you. This alone isn't reason enough to take my words at face value, and I'm not encouraging you to. But still, I love you. Also, platypus. *8)
All of those things - morality, philosophy, relationships, self and intellect - are (if we live lucky lives and live in a free society) all we have in this one life. Choosing to spend it in unnecessary slavery and ignorance is a foolish, deplorable waste.
Overall thoughts on the genesis of the more popular current religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and their offshoots):
D - I - F - R (can be pronounced 'differ')
Death
Ignorance
Fairness
Responsibility
Death - Humans have always been - and always will be - mortally afraid of death. Religion promises that it has the solution, and can soften that blow.
Ignorance - Religions were developed to try to explain our origins, our world, our cosmos, etc. However, they were fundamentally limited since they were all based on a naturally limited human (not godly) understanding. Religions were founded upon ignorance, and as a result now burn a lot of energy trying to maintain that state of ignorance.
Fairness - We desperately want or need the world to be fair. We want there to be a fundamental force that oversees and maintains the scales of justice in this world, even if we can't directly see it working (or even understand it). It's comforting for us to believe that this force is in place. As described thoroughly by Freud in The Future of An Illusion, this boils down to wish fulfillment, like the 'Death' point above.
Responsibility - Many of us are happy to take day-to-day responsibility; 'transactional' responsibility for the smaller matters in life. However, very few want to take full responsibility for their own actions, thoughts, obligations, etc.. Many religions cleanly relieve us of this burden by putting ultimate responsibility (for sins, for taking care of each other and our world) on another's shoulders - divine shoulders - to try and make us feel better. Wish fulfillment again. Wouldn't it be great not to have to take all this responsibility on?
On reviewing this list, it's pretty clear that my overall impression of the motivations for the formation of religions is deeply cynical. These are all negative human traits that retard our mental advancement. However, I stand by these. The resulting viewpoint is that all religions do - as Christopher Hitchens put it - 'poison everything'. They started out with negativity as their foundation, and it's no surprise that their fruits are mostly negative as a result.
Religions are like Amway/Scientology. Join so you can make more money for the church! Become a lifetime fee-paying member!
Religions prey on adolescents, who they know are vulnerable and seeking answers.
I want to live while I'm actually alive, taking full advantage of my time on Earth to enjoy myself and contribute to my friends, family, and society, and not wait as a martyr for an imaginary heaven.
Once you're dead, the only thing that remains are memories of you, the work you produced, and the people you affected (for good or ill).
Religions have evolved over the last 100k years or so, and started with cavemen playing connect-the-dots with stars in the sky. Meteorite? Solar flare? Eclipse? The gods are angry! Something changes? Come up with a new story that fits! Man has invented thousands of different gods throughout the course of our history. Many of them had huge numbers of followers, were sacrificed to, had wars fought over them, and so on. None of them is any more believable (if taken in the appropriate context of history and circumstances) than any other, and all have the same thing in common - they never existed outside of their devotees' minds.
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Being rock-solid in your religious faith means ignoring mountains of internally consistent evidence for how everything in the universe fits into the same harmonious context, and for how each part relates to the others.
Examples of 'missing/misunderstanding the context' which are required beliefs in order to adopt any of the world's major religions:
All other gods that ever were or ever will be are dead, or never existed (except for mine)
All other human religions based on these dead/nonexistent gods are false and wicked (except for mine)
All other books ever written were written by humans, and were the product of their time, and the perspectives, trends, and biases that prevailed when they were written (except for my One True Book, the Bible/Koran/Torah/etc.)
All other parts of our unfathomably immense, beautiful, and complex universe which generated life on our planet, and seems to follow a consistent set of rules, are unimportant and devoid of life (except for mine)
All other species of life on this planet are just animals, and no other species has a 'soul', consciousness, or a conscience (except for mine)
All other forms of life on this planet die, and of course no form of life lives forever (except for part of mine - that is, my 'soul')
And so on.
As a result of willfully strengthening the ability to ignore evidence and disregard the context for our lives that almost all evidence suggests, it's easy to arrive at the following erroneous conclusions:
I'm the personal creation of a divine being, and this creation was accomplished in an instant, apart from the rest of the universe. (As opposed to; we're made of the same chemicals as the rest of the universe, in essentially the same proportions, but I choose to ignore this. )
All evidence supports the evolution of life through natural selection, but I choose to ignore it.
Most evidence supports the conclusion that man made gods, not the other way around, but I choose to ignore it.
Medical research supports the understanding that we want to believe in agency, justice/fairness, and so, and we can and will make things up to assuage our fears and satisfy these fundamental needs, but I choose to ignore it.
Sure, there are many abhorrent practices prescribed in the bible, but we can safely ignore those bits nowadays.
Sure, there are people that commit atrocities nowadays based on what their religious books tell them - but they're crazy, not religious!
And so on.
...
Religion stifles curiosity, honesty, reasonableness. It does this both intentionally and unintentionally. For many, it closes off a huge portion of their life to critical analysis, and thus reduces opportunities for meaningful personal discoveries. It prevents people from doing the hard, individual, personal, not off-the-shelf, one-size-fits-all work that is required for honest self-discovery. Religion may still be a valid path to partial understanding, but a large part of it is intentionally fictitious, and people who use religion for self-discovery are building upon a false foundation. It seems like this is a poorer basis for building a meaningful life than other approaches that start from each person's unique genetic makeup and personal history, along with the best evidence and most reasonable and tested theories, which would tend to have a higher success rate. At least you're starting from 'what's real', and applicable now, versus 'a made-up story that you now have to mold yourself to fit to'.
Prayer doesn't have any greater effect than meditation. Nothing in your brain is projected into the world until you change your choices and actions. Self-change/self-improvement is valuable, but if that's as far as it extends and it's not manifested, it doesn't benefit the world.
Do we really need religion to help keep people behaving 'morally'? Doesn't have a great success rate.
People need to explore themselves - their minds, bodies, passions - to figure out how they can contribute to society. Religion stifles that impulse (or at least artificially alters the course of the exploration).
The next step - what do I do with this better understanding?
What steps do I take to improve myself, my world, and my life? What do I want for Monique and Tyler, and future descendants? How do I start discussing with others, and how do I use those opportunities for self-improvement?
What are the primary implications of an atheist perspective?
We (humans) are responsible for our world, it resources, and all the creatures which live there. No-one else is going to swoop in and bail us out if we make too many bad decisions. There will be no magical 'undos' or escape ladders that will absolve us of final responsibility. If we blow it up, pollute it, or make it otherwise unlivable, it's all due to our choices. This directly opposes the core dogmas of messianic religions, which tend to believe that we want this world to come to an end, and sooner rather than later, because the mythical 'life to come' will be better than this one in every way.
Any improvement in our fate can only come from ourselves or through coordination with others, and can only come through actions; not prayers, thoughts, or wishes
Any knowledge or skills we develop will come only as a result of our persistence and force of will, not through divine inspiration
We have the freedom to choose and implement our decisions - whether they be excellent or terrible.
We are individuals. We are not made in the image of any god. The commonalities we share with man and other animals are the products of our shared evolution.
We will not be judged in the afterlife for our actions. There is no afterlife which we should scheme for or fear. The only judgement will be done by humans, and will be based on the results of the actions themselves - either to help or to hurt our society and our planet.
The documentary 'Manufactured Landscapes' refers to man being of nature. When we lose our connection to nature, we risk losing a fundamental part of what it means to be human.
Seeing the Chinese workers in the factories assembling thousands of the same part day after day gave me a powerful feeling of sadness and an understanding of why the arts and crafts movement had such attraction.
On evolution of belief...religion's role and benefits have changed over time. When we needed to tame nature (build a dam, fight a pack of peckish wolves) or fight a neighboring tribe, it was useful to have a group that would all work together, as these efforts benefited more the larger the group. One of the principal benefits of organized religion was organization. It also likely has to do with physical proximity...in the old days, your network was governed by how loud you could yell or how fast you could run. Our networks are more fragmented as well. We don't always socialize the most with our neighbors, and we get different parts of our emotional needs satisfied by a wider group, each part typically serving a narrower role.
Now, we have greater control over nature, broader access to a remote network of life 'helpers', and people to which we can give our help. We've organized governments and specialized jobs to help control those aspects of nature which threaten us. We have advanced our society where the organizational benefits of religion are being satisfied by other means.
My personal journey to atheism was a gradual one. Kind of like realizing that there is no Easter Bunny, then the realization gradually expanding to Santa Claus, et al. Not sure exactly which fell first, but I believed in evolution from very early on, and that seemed like a great big clue that the young-earth creationist crowd was full of shit, since they refused to accept any evidence (of which there is a mountain, all of it internally consistent). The other thing that freaked me out was that there was so little analysis of reality, morality, 'heaven', and so on. All of these matters of fundamental, eternity-defining importance were taken on faith, and you were made to feel shameful if you questioned and explored.
Organized religion has the potential to be hugely damaging...
The idea of a personal relationship with a god isolates man from his family, his neighbor, nation from nation, and a man from his own rationality.
Religion creates artificial philosophical and cultural boundaries between people and countries. We ascribe so much of our sense of self to >this< or >that< religion, and these differences become more and more rigid over time. We feel like when we are threatened by another group of people, when we all, fundamentally, should want the same thing: freedom, enough to live on, comfort, health, family, and friends. Spending energy figuring out which other groups of the world are destined for hell (and bending our energies to get them their faster) is a tremendous waste of time.
Another way of putting it...Religion is dangerous because it creates artificial boundaries between groups of people. Many people think that because somebody is a different religion, they are a different person or lesser person. However it is an important point of evolutionary thinking to consider that if I was born in the same circumstances that I would have a large probability of thinking or doing exact same thing as anyone else in those same circumstances. We are not totally individual, unique, or predestined. We are all part of the same species, we are all of the same nature, our community and upbringing has a tremendous impact on shaping us, and we must understand that central truth.
The madness comes when we try to force that biology and evolution into a mythology that somehow tries to explain everything in one neat package.
As individual creatures of nature, we are free to think about, discuss, and explore everything.
We should make the most of this freedom. The only alternative is to waste it.
How should we 'not waste it'? We need to expend a concerted effort to figure out how to live an enjoyable life, and how to share that enjoyment with others (my personal philosophy speaking strongly at this point).
Much excellent thinking has been done on these subjects, and they should be researched as the starting point. The best part is that we can adopt and adapt the contributions of other humans into our personal philosophy, and are not bound by a single path (not that there really is a 'single' religious path that is at all internally consistent). We don't need to find 'the one perfect path' - there is no single path. Everyone's path will be slightly different depending on their circumstances. There are a multitude of paths to self-fulfilment, and it's not important that my path is not the same as your path.
This is in contrast to religion, which offers one road only and one possible destination only. (Or, if they're feeling 'generous', two possible destinations. :) ). (Ed. - Three, if you count purgatory.)
Therefore, we should search, analyze, and explore until we find a best-fit worldview, and always be open to adapting it as your life situation changes.
Have the confidence in your own mind to be comfortable with a bit of contradiction and flux. There is no shame about a lack of certainty. There should be shame about sheepishly repeating a bedtime story just to achieve 1) cultural control, 2) keeping the thought of mortality at bay, 3) avoiding doing your own legwork to figure out where you fit it, why you exist, and the freedom you really have.
Totally random thought for the day...
The work you need to perform to maintain faith in a theistic god is similar to chewing on cotton candy. You take a bit, and it tastes awesome. Immediate hit of sugar, nostalgia, and comfort. If you start to chew on it, it begins to disappear with alarming ease. So you have to take another bite. Lather, rinse, and repeat. By the end you may feel a bit ill.
Growth of the Self over the course of one's life, and how Religion stifles (or at the very least, doesn't acknowledge) that growth
Quote from another secular humanist philosopher: "Religion is nothing more than petrified philosophy, or philosophy with all the questions left out."
Another big issue with religion is that it doesn't offer any flexibility to adapt to an individual. When you're first introduced to religion (typically as a child), it is what it is. You grow older, mature, and die, and if you stay with that religion, the religion itself rarely changes or adapts during that process. If it does, it's with relatively minor changes overall.
However, each human most certainly adapts as matures as they grow older. Why shouldn't their worldview, ethics, and goals adapt as well? Why be stuck with a single goal, and only be offered a single way to accomplish that goal?
Again - there is no single path, and one single, communal enlightenment. Everyone's path can - and should be - slightly different due to different backgrounds, life experiences, and biology. Why do we all need to be molded into a one-size-fits-all solution? That is somehow presented as the 'comforting' path, or the easier path, when in truth forcing ourselves to match the expectations of this religious narrative is the cause of tremendous self-loathing, doubt, anxiety (when focusing on oneself), and fear/hatred (when focusing on others that may not match the expectations of the church).
It's a matter of choice and activity/active exploration and questioning rather than passivity. Everyone should ask themselves the 'hard' questions - Is this real? Is it logical? Is it supported? Does it apply to me, and is it beneficial for me and those I care for?
Connections to everyone - All humans are connected at the basic genetic level, and religion/ethnicity/etc. are ridiculous bases for thinking we have any fundamental difference. If I was born in another's circumstances - their family, their socioeconomic group, their nation, their religion, their body - how could I choose to do other than they have done?
What really made me start to question the truth of a theistic worldview?
One thing that sticks in my mind is the madness surrounding the book The da Vinci Code. People got all up in arms over a book. Some believed it entirely, some lambasted it, some people believed parts of it. It borrowed from a lot of sources, retold many stories that people were already familiar with in a slightly different light, and seemed like it was plausible. Very similar to how the bible is treated. All this over a bit of scribbling that a random author decided to jot down to make some more money. It seemed like pretty much anyone could do it - and they have. Again and again throughout human history.
A related finding was reading HL Mencken's piece which delivered a funeral ode to the thousands of historical dead gods. Developing an understanding of a more complete history of these gods (and their countless similarities) gave me the vital context to understand that man's entire history included the wishing up and worship of one deity after another.
Once you're outside of your former religion, you tend to look back and wonder if all those people back there in the church are actually crazy. It's hard, though, because only a short while ago I was sitting there amongst them, kneeling, singing, eating the wafer...
More random thoughts to be explored further...
One of the biggest things that bugs me is that many people who remain part of religion choose to ignore (or remain ignorant of) context. Earth is a dust mote floating through the universe. Humans have existed for about 250,000 years out of the 3,000,000,000 years of biological life's history on this planet. This represents approximately 0.0000833 or 0.0001 %. Why would God limit himself to this fraction of time and space?
Religion as a personal brand. The comfort of belonging and conformity. Hipsterism as one way of expressing nonconformity (although an admittedly tortuous way).
Thoughts about the parallel between Islam philosopher Al-Ghazali declaring manipulation of numbers to be the work of the devil, resulting in the decline of scientific exploration and resulting impoverishment (material and intellectual) in the Muslim countries, and how that relates to the current fundamentalist aversion to materialism and acceptance of evolution. That aversion prevents the understanding of our true origins and true human nature, which we must include in the discussion if we are to come up with ethical systems which are reality-based. (Put that intro up top - what are we seeking now? We've advanced far technologically, but a global ethics has escaped us. What do we need to include in the discussion if we're going to have a chance at coming up with reasonable answers?)
Note that there is some dispute about what Al-Ghazali taught, and its specific impact. Some frame his argument as ' manipulating numbers is the work of the devil', others frame it more specifically that his impact was to support the rejection of the neoplatonists which were encouraging doubt and skepticism, and to renew the force of mysticism and sufism in Islam, narrowing the focus of inquiry specifically to the sole pleasing and worship of Allah rather than understanding the world and universe in all its diversity.
I'm deeply grateful that I have been given a position on the socioeconomic ladder that makes it easy to make good choices. I don't have to steal to feed my family. I don't have to commit violence out of fear that I'm not safe. It's relatively easy for me and my community to be a good example for Tyler.
Parallels between using a helter-skelter accretion of units (imperial system) and a hodgepodge of myths as a basis for a system of morality. Contrast with methodically working your way through facts and a scientific approach for an ethical system (similar to the development of the metric system of units).
Difference between developing a personal ethic (the positive root/font) and adopting an imposed set of morals. Ethics are personal and within, morals are communal and are imposed from outside.