by Chase Langdon
In a nutshell nihilism is the philosophy that existence is meaningless or nothing. I myself have always found this philosophy to be pretty bogus and irrational. It seems that it is not applicable to the real world, or is it?
I recently have been thinking a lot on this idea of nihilism. It may not be all that irrational. I have an (most likely not original) idea of Nihilism that makes a lot of sense to me, and guess what fellers... 'ol Chasey-poo is gonna share wicha!
My hypothesis is existence has no meaningless within itself. It has no pure meaning alone. Just being alive in in this world has no sanctity. There is no sanctity of life itself but its the goals, desires, and consciousness of a person that has meaning, not merely existing.
This comes a lot from the idea that a fetus is not a person and there for has no right to life. A person that desires not to live anymore has no right to life, unless those desires come back and give the being meaning again. My idea of nihilism is one that can be changed from situation to situation or person to person or being to being. If there is no meaning, existence doesn't give it any, its just there.
Existence has no meaningless within itself. Only the desires and self-consciousness of a person can give it such meaning but without that it would be nothing but dead air. In this sense, nihilism works and is applicable to real life. In this sense, nihilism makes a lot of sense... to me anyway.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Is God really all that moral?
by Chase Langdon
The first thing I find confusing is when I see fundamentalist Christians say that they live their life directly to the bible and announce that the entire bible is truth to the last letter, I don't think they read at all much less the bible! There are things that are preached in the bible mostly in the old testament that are upright disgusting, the the kind of things I would not find as moral teachings. Then on the other hand I see liberal Christians and educated theologians that know the bible and discard what they feel is immoral and embrace what is moral to them. If our morality really came from that religion then why would you have to discard what you feel is immoral from the book that you base your religion on? Why not just discard the bible completely for ethical teaching if you already know that rape, murder and genocide are bad and keeping promises, giving blood, not raping, and caring for ones elderly mom is good. Why not just accept that humanity is naturally good?
Why? I feel that our morality is a product of natural selection. A society that ran rampant killing, raping, stealing, and engaging in cannibalism most likely didn't last very long and if they embrace those ideals now most likely will not stand the test of time. Killing doesn't do wonders for procreation either. Plus isn't it an insult on humanity to say that the only reason we are good is because of fear of god? That insults me! I feel that our species is rather advanced and is capable of thinking and having educated thought processes. I am here to say that you are not born unto 'sin' and you are born unto innocence. You are capable of making critical decisions about morality and you are part of an ethically advanced species that thrives on those standards. Thats the positive thinking of a humanist atheist. Not the negative thinking thats in root for a totalitarian slave driver known as Yahweh.
Ethics are not a set of rules. The 10 commandments are immoral in their selves. No one needs to make decisions based on a set of ancient rules that if broken will end in certain death. Decisions should be made after much thought and critical thinking. Think of a decision that will create the most happiness and the least amount of suffering, plus take into the account the desires and potential happiness of others. Of course in a regular days time you will not want to or have the time think about every possible outcome of every decision that can be made in a given situation. Thats why you should keep in mind a standard moral principle that can be applied to most situations in your daily life. Listen to your intuitive thinking, i.e. killing is wrong most of the time, lying is wrong most of the time. If you find a situation that tests these principles then apply your critical thinking skills and act accordingly. There is no room for religious influence.
Therefor religion is not needed in moral thinking nor is it recommended. Use your human intuitive thinking for your daily moral principle and your critical thinking for every thing else. Faith leaves no room for critical thinking and therefore not be practiced.
The first thing I find confusing is when I see fundamentalist Christians say that they live their life directly to the bible and announce that the entire bible is truth to the last letter, I don't think they read at all much less the bible! There are things that are preached in the bible mostly in the old testament that are upright disgusting, the the kind of things I would not find as moral teachings. Then on the other hand I see liberal Christians and educated theologians that know the bible and discard what they feel is immoral and embrace what is moral to them. If our morality really came from that religion then why would you have to discard what you feel is immoral from the book that you base your religion on? Why not just discard the bible completely for ethical teaching if you already know that rape, murder and genocide are bad and keeping promises, giving blood, not raping, and caring for ones elderly mom is good. Why not just accept that humanity is naturally good?
Why? I feel that our morality is a product of natural selection. A society that ran rampant killing, raping, stealing, and engaging in cannibalism most likely didn't last very long and if they embrace those ideals now most likely will not stand the test of time. Killing doesn't do wonders for procreation either. Plus isn't it an insult on humanity to say that the only reason we are good is because of fear of god? That insults me! I feel that our species is rather advanced and is capable of thinking and having educated thought processes. I am here to say that you are not born unto 'sin' and you are born unto innocence. You are capable of making critical decisions about morality and you are part of an ethically advanced species that thrives on those standards. Thats the positive thinking of a humanist atheist. Not the negative thinking thats in root for a totalitarian slave driver known as Yahweh.
Ethics are not a set of rules. The 10 commandments are immoral in their selves. No one needs to make decisions based on a set of ancient rules that if broken will end in certain death. Decisions should be made after much thought and critical thinking. Think of a decision that will create the most happiness and the least amount of suffering, plus take into the account the desires and potential happiness of others. Of course in a regular days time you will not want to or have the time think about every possible outcome of every decision that can be made in a given situation. Thats why you should keep in mind a standard moral principle that can be applied to most situations in your daily life. Listen to your intuitive thinking, i.e. killing is wrong most of the time, lying is wrong most of the time. If you find a situation that tests these principles then apply your critical thinking skills and act accordingly. There is no room for religious influence.
Therefor religion is not needed in moral thinking nor is it recommended. Use your human intuitive thinking for your daily moral principle and your critical thinking for every thing else. Faith leaves no room for critical thinking and therefore not be practiced.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The Out Campaign
by: Chase Langdon
Richard Dawkins is a widely known Scientist and self proclaimed Atheist. The OUT campaign is a campaign on his site about the words atheists "coming out." I find this to be a wonderful thing to do but easier said than done. This is for one reason in one word: family. Growing up in the bible belt of North Carolina its hard to let people know I'm an atheist, because I just want to live my life with as little drama as possible. I'm not going to pressure anyone in Atheism if that's not what they want. I'm let them know why I'm an atheist and hope they will accept that as my opion and well I will accept their religious views as theirs. That's not the case, Christians set out in life hoping to make everyone Christians, I know this first hand because I grew in a Christian household. This process is called witnessing. My family would disown me if they knew I do not believe in the idea of a personal God. Its something I will have to face on my own I guess and when I'm ready, I know that sparks will fly and they may stop sending me money every now and then too :-p Who knows, it may go over well. I will do it when I'm ready.
Richard Dawkins is a widely known Scientist and self proclaimed Atheist. The OUT campaign is a campaign on his site about the words atheists "coming out." I find this to be a wonderful thing to do but easier said than done. This is for one reason in one word: family. Growing up in the bible belt of North Carolina its hard to let people know I'm an atheist, because I just want to live my life with as little drama as possible. I'm not going to pressure anyone in Atheism if that's not what they want. I'm let them know why I'm an atheist and hope they will accept that as my opion and well I will accept their religious views as theirs. That's not the case, Christians set out in life hoping to make everyone Christians, I know this first hand because I grew in a Christian household. This process is called witnessing. My family would disown me if they knew I do not believe in the idea of a personal God. Its something I will have to face on my own I guess and when I'm ready, I know that sparks will fly and they may stop sending me money every now and then too :-p Who knows, it may go over well. I will do it when I'm ready.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
The God Delusion
I have not had the the time nor energy to actually think and write a personally written essay about anything I feel should be on this site. But I do feel fit to use this site to relay information and sites I find while researching for my own personal knowledge. I can't actually copy and paste anything without written consent from the authors or creators of bodies of work, but I can give you links to sites and essays I find are great reads. Here is one right now. This is the first chapter of Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion." I am going to buy this wonderful once I get the money and I think after reading this wonderful first chapter you will too. Enjoy!
First Chapter of Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion"
First Chapter of Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion"
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