Whatever, man...

You're the true winner. Everyone watched the fight. You won. Keep your head up.

Religiosity and Morality

Gregory S. Paul, in the Journal of Religion and Society (2005), systematically compared seventeen economically developed nations, and reached the devastating conclusion that 'higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies'. Dan Dennett, in Breaking the Spell, sardonically comments on such studies generally: "Needless to say, these results strike so hard at the standard claims of greater moral virtue among the religious that there has been a considerable surge of further research initiated by religious organizations attempting to refute them... one thing we can be sure of is that if there is a significant positive relationship between moral behaviour and religious affiliation, practice, or belief, it will soon be discovered, since so many religious organizations are eager to confirm their traditional beliefs about this scientifically. (They are quite impressed with the truth-finding power of science when it supports what they already believe.) Every month that passes without such a demonstration underlines the suspicion that it just isn't so."

"... maybe at the very bottom of it... I really don't like god. It's silly to say I don't like god because I don't believe in god... but in the same sense that I don't like lago or I don't like the Reverend Slope or any of the other villians of literature. The god of traditional Judaism and Christianity and Islam seems to be a terrible character. He's a god who's obsessed with the degree to which people worship him and anxious to punish with the most awful torments those who don't worship him in the right way. Now I realize that many people don't believe in that anymore who call themselves Muslims or Jews or Christians but that is the traditional god and he's a terrible character. I don't like him. I had a friend, now dead, Abdus Salam, a very devout Muslim, who was trying to bring science into the universities in the Gulf states. And he told me that he had a terrible time because although they were very receptive to technology, they felt that science would be a corrosive to religious belief and they were worried about it. Damn it, I think they were right. It is corrosive of religious belief... and it's a good thing, too." -Steven Weinberg, Nobel laureate in Physics

Highway to Hell

From the Torah

I always liked this story. Tanhuma, Noah 13 When Noah began planting, Satan came, stationed him self before him, and asked, "What are you planting?" Noah: "A vineyard." Satan: "What is its nature?" Noah: "Its fruit, whether fresh or dried, is sweet, and from it one makes wine, which gladdens a man's heart." Satan: "Will you agree to let both of us plant it together?" Noah: "Very well." What did Satan do? He brought a ewe lamb and slaughtered it over a vine. After that, he brought a lion, which he likewise slaughtered. Then a monkey, which he also slaughtered over it. Finally a pig, which he again slaughtered over that vine. And with the blood that dripped from them, he watered the vineyard. The charade was Satan's way of saying that when a man drinks one cup of wine, he acts like a ewe lamb, humble and meek. When he drinks two, he immediately believes himself to be as strong as a lion and proceeds to brag mightily, saying, "Who is like me?" When he drinks three or four cups, he immediately becomes like a monkey, hopping about and giggling, and uttering obscenities in public, without realizing what he is doing. Finally, when he becomes blind drunk, he is like a pig, wallowing in mire and coming to rest among refuse. All above befell Noah. Genesis 9:20-21 Noah, the tiller of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk…