Inzenjerski pogled na Djeda Mraza

Na svijetu postoji otprilike 2 milijarde djece (osoba ispod 18 godina). Ipak, posto Djeda Mraz ne posjecuje Muslimane, Hinduse, Zidove i Budiste, kolicina posla za Novu godinu se smanjuje na 15%, odnosno sveukupno 378 miliona djece (prema Saveznom zavodu za statistiku). Prema proseku od 3.5 djece po kuci, Djeda Mraz mora posjetiti 108 miliona domova, ako pretpostavimo da u svakoj datoj kuci postoji barem jedno dobro dijete.

Djeda Mraz ima oko 31 sat Nove godine za rad, zahvaljujuci razlicitim vremenskim zonama i Zemljinoj rotaciji, i ako pretpostavimo da putuje sa istoka na zapad (sto se cini logicnim). Tako dobijamo da Djeda Mraz posjeti 967,7 kuca u sekundi. Prema tome, za svaki dobar hriscanski dom sa dobrim djetetom, Djeda Mraz ima oko hiljaditinu (1/ 1000) sekunde da zaustavi sanke, iskoci, uzme poklone, uskoci u dimnjak, napuni carape, nadje jelku, ostavi ostatak poklona pod jelku, popne se natrag kroz dimnjak, uskoci u sanke i dodje do sledece kuce.

Pretpostavljajuci da je svih 108 miliona stajalista jednako rasporedjeno po Zemlji (samo u svrhe naseg proracuna), govorimo o 1,24 kilometra razmaka od jedne do druge kuce; iz cega proizlazi ukupan put od 120,8 miliona kilometara, ne ukljucujuci Djeda Mrazove odlaske u WC ili pauze za jelo/pice. Iz navedenog proizlazi da je brzina Djeda Mrazovih sanki oko 1080 kilometara u sekundi (3200 puta veca od brzine zvuka!). Za poredjenje, najbrze ikad stvoreno vozilo, svemirska sonda Odisej, ide "svega" 45 kilometara u sekundi (162000 km/h), a normalan jelen najvise 24 km na sat odnosno 0,0066 kilometara u sekundi.

Teret na sankama je takodje jedan vrlo interesantan element. Pretpostavimo da svako dijete ne dobije nista vise nego jednu jedinu kutiju Lego kockica srednje velicine (oko 860 grama). Tada je ukupna masa tereta na Djeda Mrazovim sankama nesto veca od 500 hiljada tona. Na tlu, normalan jelen ne moze vuci vise od oko 138 kg. Ako uzmemo da Deda Mrazov leteci jelen moze vuci 10 puta vise, Djeda Mrazu bi trebalo oko 360 hiljada letecih jelena da povuku sanke. Masa tolikog broja jelena povecava sveukupnu masu sanki za oko 54 hiljade tona, odnosno za oko 7 puta mase Kraljice Elizabete (broda, ne vladarke).

Oko 600 hiljada tona putujuci brzinom od 1080 km/h stvara nezamisliv otpor vazduha - takav otpor kakav bi zagrijao jelene toliko jako koliko se zagreije svemirski brod koji ponovo ulazi u Zemljinu atmosferu. Prednji par jelena apsorbirao bi oko 14,3 kvintilijarde dzula energije u sekundi. Ukratko, taj par bi se, cim krene, pretvorio u nimalo lep prizor zivih baklji, izlazuci jelene iza njih, i dovodeci do lancane reakcije u kojoj bi svih 360-ak hiljada jelena izgorelo za oko 4,26 hiljaditina sekunde, odnosno tacno na vrijeme da Deda Mraz dodje do pete kuce na svom putu.

Djeda Mraz bi, kao rezultat akceleracije (ubrzanja) sa 0 km/h na 1080 km/h u hiljaditini sekunde, bio izlozen akceleracijskoj sili 17,5 hiljada puta vecoj od one malog g, tj. 175000 m/s². Djeda Mraz mase 115 kg (sto je vrlo malo za Djeda Mraza) bio bi prikovan za kraj svojih saonica sa 1984906,9 kilograma sile, sto bi mu trenutno smrvilo kosti i organe pretvarajuci ga u kasastu ljubicasto-crvenkastu tekucinu.

Prema tome, ako je Djeda Mraz ikada i postojao, sada je sigurno mrtav.

Let it enfold you

Either peace or happiness, let it enfold you

when i was a young man I felt these things were dumb, unsophisticated. I had bad blood, a twisted mind, a pecarious up bringing.

I was hard as granite, I leered at the sun. I trusted no man and especially no woman.

I was living a hell in small rooms, I broket things, smashed things, walked through glass, cursed. I challenged everything, was

continually being evicted, jailed, in and out of fights, in and a out of my mind. Women were something to screw and rail at, i had no

male freinds,

I changed jobs and cities, I hated holidays, babies, history, newspapers, museums, grandmothers, marriage, movies, spiders,

garbagemen, english accents, spain, france, italy, walnuts and the color orange. algebra angred me, opera sickened me, charlie chaplin

was a fake and flowers were for pansies.

peace an happiness to me were signs of infeority, tenants of the weak and dead mind.

but as I went on with my alley fights, my suicidal years, my passage through any number of women-it gradually began to occur to me

that I wasn't diffrent from the others, I was the same, they were all fulsome with hatred, glossed over with petty greivances, the men

I fought in alleys had hearts of stone. everybody was nudging, inching, cheating for some insignificant advantage, the lie was the

weapon and the plot was emptey, darkness was the dictator.

cautiously, I allowed myself to feel good at times. I found moments of peace in cheap rooms just staring at the knobs of some

dresseror listening to the rain in the dark. the less i needed the better i felt.

maybe the other life had worn me down. I no longer found glamour in topping somebody in conversation. or in mounting the body of some

poor drunken female whose life had slipped away into sorrow.

I could never accept life as it was, i could never gobble down all its poisons but there were parts, tenous magic parts open for the

asking.

I re-formulated I don't know when, date, time, all that but the change occured. something in me relaxed, smoothed out. i no longer had

to prove that i was a man,

I didn't have to prove anything.

I began to see things: coffe cups lined up behind a counter in a cafe. or a dog walking along a sidewalk. or the way the mouse on my

dresser top stopped there with its body, its ears, its nose, it was fixed, a bit of life caught within itself and its eyes looked at

me and they were beautiful. then it was gone.

I began to feel good, I began to feel good in the worst situations and there were plenty of those. like say, the boss behind his desk,

he is going to have to fire me.

I've missed too many days. he is dressed in a suit, necktie, glasses, he says, "i am going to have to let you go"

"it's all-right" i tell him.

He must do what he must do, he has a wife, a house, children, expenses, most probably a girlfreind.

I am sorry for him he is caught.

I walk onto the blazing sunshine. the whole day is mine temporailiy, anyhow.

(the whole world is at thet hroat of the world, everybody feels angry, short-changed, cheated, everybody is despondent,

dissillusioned)

I welcomed shots of peace, tattered shards of happiness.

I embraced that stuff like the hottest number, like high heels, breasts, singing, the works.

(dont get me wrong,there is such a thing as cockeyed optimism that overlooks all basic problems just for the sake of itself-this is a

sheild and a sickness.)

The knife got near my throat again, I almost turned on the gas again but when the good moments arrived again I didn't fight them off

like an alley adversary. I let them take me, i luxuriated in them, I bade them welcome home. I even looked into the mirror once having

thought myself to be ugly ,I now liked what I saw, almost handsome, yes,a bit ripped and ragged, scares,lumps, odd turns, but all in

all, not too bad, almost handsome, better at least than some of those movie star faces like the cheeks of a babys butt.

and finally I discovered real feelings foothers, unhearleded, like latley, like this morning, as I was leaving, for the track,i saw my

wife in bed, just the shape of her head there (not for getting centuries of the living and the dead and the dying, the pyarimids,

Mozart is dead but his music still there in the room, weeds growing,the earth turning, the toteboard waiting for me) I saw the shape

of my wife's head, she so still, i ached for her life, just being ther eunder the covers.

i kissed her in the forehead, got down the stairway, got outside, got into my marvelous car, fixed the seatbelt, backed out the drive.

feeling warm to the fingertips, down to my foot on the gas pedal, I entered the world once more, drove down the hill past the houses

full and emptey of people, i saw the mailman, honked, he waved back at me.

#WarOnChristmas

Interesting phenomenon that occurs around December 25th, or the winter solstice. From the summer solstice to the winter solstice, the days become shorter and colder. From the perspective of the northern hemisphere, the sun appears to move south and get smaller and more scarce. The shortening of the days and the expiration of the crops when approaching the winter solstice symbolized the process of death to the ancients. It was the death of the Sun. By December 22nd, the Sun's demise was fully realized, for the Sun, having moved south continually for 6 months, makes it to it's lowest point in the sky. Here a curious thing occurs: the Sun stops moving south, at least perceivably, for 3 days. During this 3 day pause, the Sun resides in the vicinity of the Southern Cross, or Crux, constellation. And after this time on December 25th, the Sun moves 1 degree, this time north, foreshadowing longer days, warmth, and Spring. And thus it was said: the Sun died on the cross, was dead for 3 days, only to be resurrected or born again. This is why Jesus and numerous other Sun Gods share the crucifixion, 3-day death, and resurrection concept. It is the Sun's transition period before it shifts its direction back into the Northern Hemisphere, bringing Spring, and thus salvation. 

If there is no god, why be good?

As Einstein said, "If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are sorry indeed." Michael Sherman, in The Sicence of Good and Evil, calls it a debate stopper. If you agree that, in absence of god, you would commit robbery, rape and murder, you reveal yourself as an immoral person and we would be well advised to steer a wide course around you. If, on the other hand you admit that you would continue to be a good person even when not under divine surveillance, you have fatally undermined your claim that god is necessary for us to be good. I suspect that quite a lot of religious people do think religion is what motivates them to be good, especially if they belong to one of those faiths that systematically exploits personal quilt.
It seems to me to require quite a low self-regard to think that, should belief in god suddenly vanish from the world, we would all become callous and selfish hedonist with no kindness, no charity, no generosity, nothing that would deserve the name of goodness.

Review of the 2012

Evolution: It's a thing - crash course biology

The God Delusion

 

Civilization

“Patriotism, weapons, armies, navies, all that is a sign that we’re not civilized yet. Kids will ask their parents… ‘Didn’t you see the necessity of machines? Dad, couldn’t you see that war was inevitable when you produce scarcity? Isn’t it obvious?’ Of course the kid will understand that you were pinheads raised merely to serve the established institutions.


We’re such an abominable, sick society that we won’t make the history books. They’ll just say that large nations took land from smaller nations, used force and violence. You’ll get history talked about as corrupt behavior all the way along until the beginning of the civilized world. That’s when all the nations work together.


World unification, working toward common good for all human beings and without anyone being subservient to anyone else. Without social stratification whether it be technical elitism or any other kind of elitism, eradicated from the face of the earth. The ‘state’ does nothing because there is no ‘state’.


The system I advocate, a resource based global economy is not perfect, it’s just a lot better than what we have. We can never achieve perfection.”

The social values of our society, which has manifested in perpetual warfare, corruption, oppressive laws, social stratification, irrelevant superstitions, environmental destruction, and a despotic socially indifferent profit oriented ruling class; is fundamentally the result of a collective ignorance of two of the most basic insights humans can have about reality. The emergent and symbiotic aspects of natural law.


The emergent nature of reality is that all systems; whether it is knowledge, society, technology, philosophy, or any other creation; will, when uninhibited, undergo fluid perpetual change.


What we consider commonplace today such as modern communication and transportation, would have been unimaginable in ancient times. Likewise, the future will contain technologies, realizations, and social structures that we cannot even fathom in the present.


We have gone from alchemy to chemistry, from a geocentric universe to a heliocentric, from believing that demons were the cause of illness to modern medicine. This development shows no sign of ending, and it is this awareness that aligns us and leads us on a continuous path to growth and progress.


Static empirical knowledge does not exist, rather it is the insight of the emergence of all systems we must recognize. This means we must be open to new information at all times, even if it threatens our current belief system, and hence, identities. Sadly society today has failed to recognize this, and the established institutions continue to paralyze growth by preserving outdated social structures.


Simultaneously, the population suffers from a fear of change. For their conditioning assumes a static identity and challenging ones belief system, usually results in insult and apprehension. For being wrong is erroneously associated with failure. When in fact to be proven wrong should be celebrated. It is elevating someone to a new level of understanding, furthering awareness. The fact is, there is no such thing as a smart human being, for it is merely a matter of time before their ideas are updated, changed, or irradiated.


And this tendency to blindly hold on to a belief system, sheltering it from new possibly transforming information is nothing less than a form of intelectual materialism. The monetary system perpetuates this materialism not only by it’s self-preserving structures, but also throught the countless number of people who have been conditioned into blindly and thoughtlessly upholding these structures, therefore becoming self-appointed guardians of the status quo. Sheep which no longer need a sheep-dog to control them. For they control each other by ostracizing those who step out of the norm.


This tendency to resist change and uphold existing institutions for the sake of identity, comfort, power and profit is completely unsustainable; and will only produce further imbalance, fragmentation, distortion, and very invariably destruction.


It’s time to change.


From hunters and gatherers, to the agricultural revolution, to the industrial revolution, the pattern is clear. It is time for a new social system which reflects the understandings we have today.


The monetary system is a product of a period of time when scarcity was a reality. Now with the age of technology it is no longer relevant to society. Gone with the aberrant behavior it manifests.


Likewise, dominant world views such as theistic religion operate with the same social irrelevancy. Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and all of the others exist as barriers to personal and social growth. For each group perpetuates a closed world view. And this finite understanding that they acknowledge is simply not possible in an emergent universe.


Yet religion has succeeded in shutting down the awareness of this emergence by instilling the psychological distortion of faith upon it’s followers. Where logic and new information is rejected in favor of traditionalized outdated beliefs.


“The concept of god, is really a method of accounting for the nature of things. In the early days people didn’t know enough about how things formed, how nature worked. So they invented their own little stories, and the made god in their own image.


A guy that get’s angry when people don’t behave right. He creates floods, and earthquakes, and they say it’s and act of god.”


A cursory glance at the suppressed history of religion reveals that even the foundational myths themselves are emergent culminations developed through influence over time. For example a cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith is the death and resurrection of Christ. This notion is so important that the Bible itself states ‘And if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain’ Yet it is very difficult to take this account literally, for not only is there no primary source denoting this supernatural event in secular history, awareness of the enormous number of pre-Christian saviors who also died and were resurrected immediately puts this story in mythological territory by association.


Early church figures such as Tortullian went to great lengths to break these associations, even claiming that the devil caused the similarities to occur. Stating in the second century ‘The devil, whose business is to pervert the truth, mimics the exact circumstances of the Divine Sacraments. He baptizes his believers and promises forgiveness of sins… he celebrates the oblation of bread, and brings in the symbol of the resurrection. Let us therefore acknowledge the craftiness of the devil, who copied certain things of those that be Divine.’


What is truly sad however, is that when we cease the idea that the stories from Christianity, Judaism, Islam and all the others are literal history, and accept them for what they really are, which are purely allegorical expressions derived from many faiths, we see that all religions share a common thread. And it is this unifying imperative that needs to be recognized and appreciated.


Religious belief has caused more fragmentation and conflict than any other ideology. Christianity alone has over 34,000 different subgroups.[/Peter Joseph]


“The Bible is subject to interpretation. When you read it, you say ‘I think Jesus meant this. I think Job meant that. Oh No! He meant this.’ So you have the Lutheran, the Seventh-day Adventist, the Catholic, and a church divided is no church at all.”[/Jacque Fresco]


[Peter Joseph]And this point on division, which is a trademark on all theistic religions brings us to our second failure of awareness. The false assumption of separation through the rejection of the symbiotic relationship of life.


Apart from the understanding that all natural systems are emergent, where all notions of reality will be constantly developed, altered, and even eradicated; we must also understand that all systems are in fact invented fragments merely for sake of conversation. For there is no such thing as independence in nature. The whole of nature is a unified system of interdependent variables, each a cause and a reaction, existing only as a concentrated whole.


“You don’t see the plug to connect to the environment, so it looks like we’re free… wandering around. Take the oxygen away, we all die immediately. Take plant life away, we die. And without the sun, all the plants die. So we are connected.”


“We really must take into account the totality. This isn’t just a human experience on this planet, this is a total experience. And we know we can’t survive without plants and animals. We know we can’t survive without the four elements, ya know? And so, when are we really going to start taking that into account? That’s what it is to be successful. Success depends on how well we relate to everything around us.


I’m very aware of the fact that my grandson cannot possible hope to inherit a sustainable, peaceful, stable, socially just world unless every child today growing up today in Ethiopia, in Indonesia, in Bolivia, in Palestine, in Israel also has that same expectation.


You gotta take care of the whole community or you’re gonna have serious problems. And now we have to see that the whole world is the community. And we must all take care of each other that way. And it’s not just a community of human beings, it’s a community of plants and animals and elements. And we really need to understand that. That’s what’s gonna bring us joy too, and pleasure. That’s what’s missing in our lives right now.


We can call it spirituality, but the fact of the matter is joy comes from that bliss of connectedness. That’s our god spirit. That’s that side of ourselves that really feels it, and you can feel it deep inside you. It’s this amazing wonderful feeling, and you know it when you get it. You don’t get it from money, you get it from connection.”


“Now if that isn’t a hazard to this country. How are we gonna keep building nuclear weapons, you know what I mean? What’s gonna happen to the arms industry, when we realize we’re all one? It’s gonna fuck up the economy. The economy that’s fake anyway. Which would be a real bummer. You can see why the government’s crackin’ down… on the idea of experiencing unconditional love.” – Bill Hicks


“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, 1929-1968


Once we understand that the integrity of our personal existences are completely dependent on the integrity of everything else in our world, we have truly understood the meaning of unconditional love.


For love is extensionality and seeing everything as you and you as everything can have no conditionalities, for in fact, we are all everything at once


“If it’s true that we’re all from the center of a star, every atom on each of us from the center of a star, then we’re all the same thing. Even a Coke machine or a cigarette butt in the street in buffalo is made out of atoms that came from a star. They’ve all been recycled thousands of times, as have you and I. And therefore, it’s only me out there. So what is there to be afraid of? What is there that needs solace seeking? Nothing. There’s nothing to be afraid of because it’s all us.


The trouble is we have been separated by being born and given a name and an identity and being individuated. We’ve been separated from the oneness, and that’s what religion exploits. That people have this yearning to be part of the overall one again. So they exploit that. They call it god, they say he has rules, and I think it’s cruel. I think you can do it absent religion.” – George Carlin, 1937-2008


“…an extraterrestrial visitor examining the differences among human societies would find those differences trivial compared to the similarities…Our lives, our past and our future are tied to the sun, the moon and the stars…We humans have seen the atoms which constitute all of nature and the forces that sculpted this work…And we, we who embody the local eyes and ears and thoughts and feelings of the cosmos, we have begun at least to wonder about our origins — star stuff contemplating the stars, organized collections of ten billion billion billion atoms, contemplating the evolution of nature, tracing that long path by which it arrived at consciousness here on the planet earth…Our loyalties are to the species and to the planet. We speak for earth. Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed not just to ourselves but also to that cosmos ancient and vast from which we spring!We are one species. We are star stuff harvesting star light.” – “Who Speaks for Earth?” Carl Sagan, 1934-1996


It’s time to claim the unity our outmoded social systems have broken apart, and work together to create a sustainable global society where everyone is taken care of and everyone is truly free.


Your personal beliefs, whatever they may be are meaningless when it comes to the necessities of life. Every human being was born naked, needing warmth, food, water, shelter. Everything else is auxiliary. Therefore, the most important issue at hand is the intelligent management of the Earth’s resources. This can never be accomplished in a monetary system, for the pursuit of profit is the persuit of self interest and therefore imbalance is inherent.


Simultaneously, politicians are useless. For our true problems in life are technical not political. Furthermore, ideologies that separate humanity such as religion need strong reflection in the community in regards to it’s value, purpose and social relevancy. Hopefully through time religion will loose it’s materialism and basis in superstition and move into the useful field of philosophy.


The fact is, society today is backwards, with politicians constantly talking about protection and security rather than creation, unity and progress. The US alone now spends about $500 billions dollars anually on defense. That is enough to send every high school senior in America to a four year college.


In the 1940's the Manhattan Project produced the first true weapon of mass destruction. This program employed 130,000 people, at an extreme financial cost. Imagine what our life would be like today if that group of scientists, instead of working on a way of killing people, worked on a way to create a self-sustaining abundant world. Life today would be very very different if that was their goal.


Instead of weapons of mass destruction, it is time to unleash something much more powerful. Weapons of Mass Creation (WMCs).


Our true divinity is in our ability to create. And armed with the understanding of the symbiotic connections of life, while being guided by the emergent nature of reality, there is nothing we cannot do or accomplish. Of course, we face strong barriers in the form of established power structures that refuse to change.


At the heart of these structures is the monetary system. As explained earlier, the fractional reserve system is a form of slavery through debt, where it is literally impossible for society to be free. In turn, free market capitalism in the form of free trade, uses debt to imprison the world and manipulate countries into subservience to a handful of large business and political powers. Apart from these obvious amoralities, the system itself is based on competition, which immediately destroys the possibility of large scale collaborations for the common good. Hence paralyzing any attempt at true global sustainability.


These financial and corporate structures are now obsolete, and they must be outgrown. Of course, we can not be naive enough to think that the business and financial elite are going to subscribe to this idea for they will lose power and control. Therefore, peaceful and highly strategic action must be taken. The most powerful course of action is simple. We have to alter our behavior to force the power structure to the will of the people.


WE MUST STOP SUPPORTING THE SYSTEM.


The only way the establishment will change is by our refusal to participate while continuously acknowledging it’s endless flaws and corruptions.

Good Bullshit Story

Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!
But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!

George Carlin

If death is the only certainty, is there then meaning to life

THINK
Sartre was a great novelist but I found his attempt at phenomenology too dry for comfort.
Camus on the other hand, is equally comfortable in both domains. Camus began his thesis by proclaiming that there is one question in life, and that is whether to commit suicide. If life has no meaning, then what is the point of living?
His title is apt. Sisyphus is that tragic figure in Greek mythology who was condemned to eternal toil in Hell.
He was tasked with pushing a huge rock up the slope, and as he reached the peak, the rock would roll down back to its position. Then the same toil repeats itself, for eternity. If you think about it, Sisyphus fate is a little like our daily life.
We were born, protesting and crying, without the right to be consulted. Then we will all die, crying again at leaving our loved ones. In between, there is just a huge blank for us to fill in.
Everyday, we go though the motion of living a life, a routine of going to work, eat, sleep...
We are bound by layers and layers of social norms and obligations that thwart our puny will to be ourselves.
We mortgage our freedom to our business, our family, our nation, and our tribe. We live through an entire life, without knowing who we are as individuals.
You know how modernity is.
It celebrates life, hope for tomorrow, and the greatness of the human spirit, those elements that make Hollywood movies so popular. Rambo and Rocky immediately come to mind. Nobody wants to talk about death and dying.
Yet, death is the only ultimate certainty in life. You can never get out of this life alive. The more you celebrate the human spirit, the joy of life, and the hope for tomorrow, the greater disappointment it will be when you face certain death.
This is the ultimate absurdity of human existence. This is the most fundamental alienation of our being!
The sick feeling in the realisation of this contraction has been variously described as angst or ennui, festering beneath the surface of every person’s facade of a normal life, coming back in the dark depth of night, when he is confronted with himself alone, or when he has just suffered a personal catastrophe.
Sartre used to say that we are all amateurs in this business of feeling lonely, and every man lives in quiet desperation.
For Camus, he provides the answer to his question of suicide in his book The Rebel. Life may or may not have meaning, but it is up to us to create our own meaning.
That is how existentialism got its slogan: existence before essence. For him, the act of rebellion against the absurdity of existence itself, especially through art, is the path for the absurd man to live.
“Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being,” he wrote.
I just wonder: how many people today are closet existentialists, especially among the younger generations. People do not like to discuss such deeply sensitive subjects as the meaning of life with our friends. We do not want to be seen like freaks.
Camus’ question does not bother me any more. Do not ask me my formula, because I have lived a relatively long life to find my own answer, and my answer may not be suitable for you. You have to find your own answer.
So, what is the meaning of your life? Or is it not a relevant question for you?

Top Ten Signs You're a Fundamentalist Christian

10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.

9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.

8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.

7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees!

6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.

5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old.

4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs -- though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering.  And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving."

3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.

2 - You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers.  You consider that to be evidence that prayer works.  And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.

1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history - but still call yourself a Christian.

Historical Facts

   58. Man was created after the other animals
Gen 1:25,26,27
Man was created before the other animals
Gen 2:18,19
59. Seed time and harvest were never to cease
Gen 8:22
Seed time and harvest did cease for seven years
Gen 41:54,56/ Gen 45:6
60. God hardened Pharaoh's heart
Ex 4:21/ Ed 9:12
Pharaoh hardened his own heart
Ex 8:15
61. All the cattle and horses in Egypt died
Ex 9:3,6/ 14:9
All the horses of Egypt did not die
Ex 14:9
62. Moses feared Pharaoh
Ex 2:14,15,23; 4:19
Moses did not fear Pharaoh
Heb 11:27
63. There died of the plague twenty-four thousand
Num 25:9
There died of the plague but twenty-three thousand
1 Cor 10:8
64. John the Baptist was Elias
Matt 11:14
John the Baptist was not Elias
John 1:21
65. The father of Joseph, Mary's husband was Jacob
Matt 1:16
The father of Mary's husband was Heli
Luke 3:23
66. The father of Salah was Arphaxad
Gen 11:12
The father of Salah was Cainan
Luke 3:35,36
67. There were fourteen generations from Abraham to David
Matt 1:17
There were but thirteen generations from Abraham to David
Matt 1:2-6
68. There were fourteen generations from the Babylonian captivity
to Christ.
Matt 1:17
There were but thirteen generations from the Babylonian
captivity to Christ
Matt 1:12-16
69. The infant Christ was taken into Egypt
Matt 2:14,15,19,21,23
The infant Christ was not taken into Egypt
Luke 2:22, 39
70. Christ was tempted in the wilderness
Mark 1:12,13
Christ was not tempted in the wilderness
John 2:1,2
71. Christ preached his first sermon on the mount
Matt 5:1,2
Christ preached his first sermon on the plain
Luke 6:17,20
72. John was in prison when Jesus went into Galilee
Mark 1:14
John was not in prison when Jesus went into Galilee
John 1:43/ John 3:22-24
73. Christ's disciples were commanded to go forth with a staff
and sandals
Mark 6:8,9
Christ's disciples were commanded to go forth with neither
staffs nor sandals.
Matt 10:9,10
74. A woman of Canaan besought Jesus
Matt 15:22
It was a Greek woman who besought Him
Mark 7:26
75. Two blind men besought Jesus
Matt 20:30
Only one blind man besought Him
Luke 18:35,38
76. Christ was crucified at the third hour
Mark 15:25
Christ was not crucified until the sixth hour
John 19:14,15
77. The two thieves reviled Christ.
Matt 27:44/ Mark 15:32
Only one of the thieves reviled Christ
Luke 23:39,40
78. Satan entered into Judas while at supper
John 13:27
Satan entered into him before the supper
Luke 22:3,4,7
79. Judas committed suicide by hanging
Matt 27:5
Judas did not hang himself, but died another way
Acts 1:18

If the Bible was divinely inspired, then why would it have so many really obvious contradictions?

Theological doctrines:

1. God is satisfied with his works
Gen 1:31
God is dissatisfied with his works.
Gen 6:6
2. God dwells in chosen temples
2 Chron 7:12,16
God dwells not in temples
Acts 7:48
3. God dwells in light
Tim 6:16
God dwells in darkness
1 Kings 8:12/ Ps 18:11/ Ps 97:2
4. God is seen and heard
Ex 33:23/ Ex 33:11/ Gen 3:9,10/ Gen 32:30/ Is 6:1/
Ex 24:9-11
God is invisible and cannot be heard
John 1:18/ John 5:37/ Ex 33:20/ 1 Tim 6:16
5. God is tired and rests
Ex 31:17
God is never tired and never rests
Is 40:28
6. God is everywhere present, sees and knows all things
Prov 15:3/ Ps 139:7-10/ Job 34:22,21
God is not everywhere present, neither sees nor knows all
things
Gen 11:5/ Gen 18:20,21/ Gen 3:8
7. God knows the hearts of men
Acts 1:24/ Ps 139:2,3
God tries men to find out what is in their heart
Deut 13:3/ Deut 8:2/ Gen 22:12
8. God is all powerful
Jer 32:27/ Matt 19:26
God is not all powerful
Judg 1:19
9. God is unchangeable
James 1:17/ Mal 3:6/ Ezek 24:14/ Num 23:19
God is changeable
Gen 6:6/ Jonah 3:10/ 1 Sam 2:30,31/ 2 Kings 20:1,4,5,6/
Ex 33:1,3,17,14
10. God is just and impartial
Ps 92:15/ Gen 18:25/ Deut 32:4/ Rom 2:11/ Ezek 18:25
God is unjust and partial
Gen 9:25/ Ex 20:5/ Rom 9:11-13/ Matt 13:12
11. God is the author of evil
Lam 3:38/ Jer 18:11/ Is 45:7/ Amos 3:6/ Ezek 20:25
God is not the author of evil
1 Cor 14:33/ Deut 32:4/ James 1:13
12. God gives freely to those who ask
James 1:5/ Luke 11:10
God withholds his blessings and prevents men from receiving
them
John 12:40/ Josh 11:20/ Is 63:17
13. God is to be found by those who seek him
Matt 7:8/ Prov 8:17
God is not to be found by those who seek him
Prov 1:28
14. God is warlike
Ex 15:3/ Is 51:15
God is peaceful
Rom 15:33/ 1 Cor 14:33
15. God is cruel, unmerciful, destructive, and ferocious
Jer 13:14/ Deut 7:16/ 1 Sam 15:2,3/ 1 Sam 6:19
God is kind, merciful, and good
James 5:11/ Lam 3:33/ 1 Chron 16:34/ Ezek 18:32/ Ps 145:9/
1 Tim 2:4/ 1 John 4:16/ Ps 25:8
16. God's anger is fierce and endures long
Num 32:13/ Num 25:4/ Jer 17:4
God's anger is slow and endures but for a minute
Ps 103:8/ Ps 30:5
17. God commands, approves of, and delights in burnt offerings,
sacrifices ,and holy days
Ex 29:36/ Lev 23:27/ Ex 29:18/ Lev 1:9
God disapproves of and has no pleasure in burnt offerings,
sacrifices, and holy days.
Jer 7:22/ Jer 6:20/ Ps 50:13,4/ Is 1:13,11,12
18. God accepts human sacrifices
2 Sam 21:8,9,14/ Gen 22:2/ Judg 11:30-32,34,38,39
God forbids human sacrifice
Deut 12:30,31
19. God tempts men
Gen 22:1/ 2 Sam 24:1/ Jer 20:7/ Matt 6:13
God tempts no man
James 1:13
20. God cannot lie
Heb 6:18
God lies by proxy; he sends forth lying spirits t deceive
2 Thes 2:11/ 1 Kings 22:23/ Ezek 14:9
21. Because of man's wickedness God destroys him
Gen 6:5,7
Because of man's wickedness God will not destroy him
Gen 8:21
22. God's attributes are revealed in his works.
Rom 1:20
God's attributes cannot be discovered
Job 11:7/ Is 40:28
23. There is but one God
Deut 6:4
There is a plurality of gods
Gen 1:26/ Gen 3:22/ Gen 18:1-3/ 1 John 5:7

Letter to a Christian Nation

Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply an admission of the obvious. In fact, 'atheist' is a term that should not ever exist. No one ever needs to identify himself as a 'non astrologer' or a 'non-alchemist'. We do not have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens traversed the galaxy only to molest ranchers and their cattle. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs. An atheist is simply a person who believes that the 260 million Americans (87 percent of the population) claiming to 'never doubt the existence of God' should be obliged to present evidence for his existence-and, indeed, for his BENEVOLENCE, given the relentless destruction of innocent human beings we witness in the world each day



Sam Harris

The role of doubt in science and religion

One of the best examples that explain why science and religion are two incompatible doctrines, is doubt. In science and scientific progress, doubt has an essential role, it is a value, a necessity, a basic foundation, that without it science cannot advance. When a scientist conducts an experiment and gets results, the first thing he / she must do is to question these results, to repeat the experiment, to try and refute their own conclusions. Maybe a factor that was not considered before created a bias? Maybe the initial data was biased? Perhaps there is another explanation for the results? These and many more questions are constantly being asked by the scientist, as well as by his peers that judge the scientific work. In fact, in order to publish a scientific paper, the manuscript must go through a process of peer review, in which the reviewers, who are experts in the field of the study, try to doubt everything in the manuscript; from the initial hypothesis and data collection, to the methods, the results and the conclusions. This is their job - to doubt. And even when they all agree that the results are valid and accept the conclusion, it must be always kept in mind that yet, there could be an alternative explanation.


Therefore, a scientist does not “believe” in something, he “accepts” it, always keeping in mind that there might be an alternative explanation. Sometimes the evidence is so overwhelming that the chances that there is another explanation are very close to zero, but it is always there, doubt.


In religion, it is exactly the opposite. Doubt is not encouraged, and whenever doubt comes to one’s mind, it should be suppressed. Actually, the opposite of belief is doubt. If you doubt, you don’t believe. If you doubt God, you don’t believe in God. Therefore, this very basic human behavior of doubting is highly discouraged by religious leaders, religious parents, religious schools etc.


I urge you – doubt. Study, explore, don’t just take what you have been told for granted. There are millions of Christians convinced that their religion and their god are true, and everything else is not, they don’t doubt it for a minute. There are millions of Muslims who think exactly the same, without doubting it even a bit. The religious Jews are convinced that they are the chosen people and that their religion, and nothing else, is true, without a doubt. From those who believe in black magic in Africa to the Hindu, everyone puts aside their doubt when it comes to their religion. Again, because doubt is the opposite of belief, doubt is the greatest enemy of religion.




source: http://www.facebook.com/ScienceXReligion

Christopher Hitchens On Not Staying At Home

Hitchens vs.Turek debate

...So when I say, as the subtitle of my book, that I think religion poisons everything, I’m not just doing what publishers like and coming up with a provocative subtitle, I mean to say it infects us in our most basic integrity. It says we can’t be moral without Big Brother, without a totalitarian permission. It means we can’t be good to one another, it means we can't think without this. We must be afraid, we must also be forced to love someone who we fear, the essence of sado-masochism and the essence of abjection, the essence of the master-slave relationship and that knows that death is coming and can’t wait to bring it on. I say this is evil. And though I do, some nights, stay at home, I enjoy more the nights when I go out and fight against this ultimate wickedness and ultimate stupidity.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqK4TM97ZCE

10 Montenegrin Commandments

1. Man is born tired and lives to get a rest.

2. Love thy bed as you love thyself.

3. Rest during the day, so you can sleep at night.

4. Do not work – work kills.

5. If you see someone resting, help him out.

6. Work as little as you can, and convey all the work you can to another.

7. In shade is salvation – nobody died from resting.

8. Work earns illness – do not pass away young.

9. If you have an urge to work, sit down, wait and you’ll see it will pass.

10.When you see people eat and drink, approach them.When you see them work withdraw yourself not to trouble them.

Stupid Gospel Tricks

The Fig Tree Enigma
The next day..., Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." ... In the morning..., they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter ... said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree ... has withered!"--
Mark 11:12-14, 20-21 (NIV)

Points to remember

• Jesus was hungry.
• He looked for figs on a tree.
• But it was not fig season.

Questions to ponder

If it wasn't fig season, why would even a moron look for figs?
Is killing a tree for not bearing fruit out of season a reasonable response by any standard?

Considering God As Bullshit

You can never get out of your life alive!
Oh, what a circus we all gonna die... That alone should make us love each other more, and we should spend less time in worshiping some imaginary beings which is normaly responsible for all bullshit in the world.
Back in older days religion was introduces to normal people just because someone, somewhere needed something to control them. Now in the 21st century when science has answer for everything the main purpose of religion and religious institution is to keep people dumb as much as possible. Their policy is: the more dumb you are, the better follower you are, and in same time the more follower they have, more money they make. There is nothing holy about religion, all is money all is busniess.
The things are very simple. All you need to do is to open your eyes!
Try to pray and ask god to feed you, your family, your kids... they will die of hunger... you need money!
Try to pray and ask god to heal you, ask him to heal someone you love... he wont be able to do that! You will need to visit doctor for help. In this case doctor is someone who has more knowlege than you, so we can consider that: knowlege is good and ignorance is evil, and god, god is useless or we can cosider him as bullshit! Doctors are nothing more than human beings, same as the rest of us, and guess what you need to make him help you... ofcourse, MONEY! Prayer wont help you once again...
Ohhh god, please help me to finish my job, I'm so tired and I didn't sleep for the last 2 days... He wont help you, he will not do your job, you need to do that by yourself, you need to use your own power and energy. So in this case we consider power and energy as good, and lack of same as evil, and god again we consider as bullshit, consider him as double bullshit! He wont help you and he will not give you your salary, he will not pay your bills. You will be paid by company which is controled not by god, it's controled by people (human beings)...
In the world we have good and bad (evil) there is no White, Black, Yellow... Catolic, Ortodox, Muslim, Budist, Hindu... people are people good or bad and that's it! Religion is invented by human same as political party are!