Religon

Hi Jake,

Religion is a touchy topic. For some reason it's more difficult to disagree with someone's religion that just about anything else. Disagree with their political views or which is the best football team and they may get into a heated debate with you; but disagree with their religion and they may end up not speaking to you ever again. So be careful who you discuss this topic with.

Let's get my views out up front. I am an atheist but even though I am an atheist, I think we need religion.

That may sound bizarre but let me explain.

Lets look at this logically. Pretend you're living in some ancient civilization - let's say you're a Viking living around the 9th century AD. You have no science to speak of, so things like thunder and lightning are so much more scary because you don't know what is making those awful sounds and scary flashes of light.  Human nature is such that if you know why something is happening, then it's suddenly not quite as scary. Thus for the Vikings they made up gods of thunder and lightning and told themselves that the noise and light was just Thor banging around up in the heavens and was no real threat to mere mortals down on earth. Now the guy who came up with this idea was held in awe by the Vikings as he was obviously much smarter than the rest of them. Either that or the Gods spoke to him directly so he was special in an altogether different way that meant that there was even more reason to treat him with respect. Thus a priest is now created. Now again, human nature being what it is, this priest likes this new respect and the fact that he no longer has to build ships, go to war or hunt for his own food so he is going to play it for all that it is worth.

Pretty soon everything that can't be explained with the science of the day becomes the act of god(s) - crops failing, bumper harvests, people getting sick, people recovering from illness, success in battle, failure in battle etc. Now there's even more reason to pay respect to the gods and their earthly representatives so the good things DO happen and the bad things DON'T happen.

This is basically the way EVERY religion out there began and is perpetuated.

Now, in modern times, science can explain thunder and lightening. In fact, science nowadays is explaining most things in our daily lives. Because of this, the "well designed" religions have a healthy dose of explaining what happens when we die. This is perfect, because it is one of people's greatest fears and it is something that science is never going to be able to explain or refute.

Now the really long lasting religions, Catholicism, Islam, Hindu, Buddhism - even Santa Claus - also have an element of "controlling the masses" built into them. The general theme of all of them is "even if no one else is watching, God(or Santa) is ALWAYS watching. And not only is he watching what you do, he knows what you're thinking!". The reason these religions have outlasted other religions is that this Big Brother aspect is actually a stabalising force in societies and helps them thrive.

It does this by counteracting another human condition which can be summed up as follows:

"Even though I live with all of these other people, I'm different and better and the rules of society don't really apply to me. So, if I want to do something that is forbidden and there is no way the powers-that-be will find out (i.e. no consequences)  then I will do it."

This goes for everything from misbehaving in school, to cheating on your income tax to killing your neighbours because they are pissing you off. The problem is, if everyone does this, then it is detrimental to society functioning and flourishing. So, if you can get the majority of people in your society to believe that someone is ALWAYS watching and there is ALWAYS consequences and that those consequences are REALLY BAD (e.g. eternal damnation, being reincarnated as a dung beetle or Santa not brining any presents this year) then that society will be more likely to flourish. And thats why the most successful societies on earth today are controlled by a well established and powerful religion.

Now an intelligent (and empathetic) person, can say to themselves "even though no one is watching, I live in a society that will only function if everybody contributes. So even though I don't want to pay income tax or I really want to punch that jerk in the face, I realise that if everybody behaved that way then all the good things about living in our society - hospitals and being able to walk the streets safely etc - would no longer be viable. So I will behave in such a way because it is the right thing to do not because I am scared that god or Santa will punish me".

So back to my original statement "Even though I am an atheist, I think we need religion". Intelligent people don't need religion to thrive but as per my previous post, most people out there are all kinds of stupid. This means that if we don't want society to crumble around us, the fact that most people believe in some sort of God who is watching their every move is actually beneficial to the rest of us - always assuming of course, that the same God doesn't promote, via some archaic text,  that unbelievers should all be stoned to death. This may sound glib but in some cultures this is actually something atheists have to worry about. You live in a pretty fantastic country but more on Australia in later blog entries.

Let me be clear on a couple of other things. Although stupid people believe in god, just because someone believes in god doesn't mean that they are stupid. There are some people who you will meet who seem quite smart in other aspects of their life but still seem to believe in God. Do not judge them.

Chances are this has been instilled in them since birth and overcoming this kind of social conditioning is very difficult. Admitting that God is not real in this situation is tantamount to admit that their parents or mentors were wrong and that they have all wasted many hours of their lives in worship - which takes a pretty big effort.

Also, there is the chance that they have had some kind of tragedy in their lives and believing in an all-caring God or an afterlife has helped them through this difficult time. Again, forsaking their belief in God would mean that they had to reassess this tragedy from a different point of view and that is also very difficult.

As long as they are not treating you disrespectfully because you are not a believer or not living by their moral code, and they are not trying to convert you, there is no reason people with strong religious beliefs can't be good and true friends to an atheist.

For more coherent and interesting views on Atheism, I suggest you read Richard Dawkins' book "The God Delusion" or if you just want a brief taste first, watch his TED talk on militant atheism

http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_dawkins_on_militant_atheism.html

in which he says:

"An atheist is just somebody who feels about Yahweh the way any decent Christian feels about Thor or Baal or the golden calf. We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.”

You are obviously able to do whatever you want with your life and your mother and I will still love you. It's just my opinion in these blogs. You're not obliged to believe what I believe (unlike the hundreds of millions of other kids in the world, who are forced to live by their parents religious, political and moral beliefs). However if you do decide to believe in a religion, expect some healthy debate from your old man as to the logic behind the tenets and "truths" of whatever it is you believe :)

love you

- Your Dad.

Stupid people

Hi Jake.

It's been a week or 2 since my last post. Time flies when you so busy you cant think straight :)

I have been giving some thought as to where to start. There are so many topics I want to cover off with you.

Politics, Religion, Society, Love, Australia, how to deal with stupid people, Optimism etc etc.

In fact looking back over this list, you will need to know "how to deal with stupid people" to have a head start on at least the first 3 of these. Probably the first 4 when you consider that you will likely be the stupid one when it comes to love at least once in your life. So "Stupid People" it is.

To start with, "Stupid" in this sense is not necessarily just based on IQ. I have met quite a few people who have high IQ's but still fall fair-and-square in the "stupid" camp when it comes to everyday life and common sense.

For example, I was working onsite in a client's building a few years back. I had never been in the building before but I was hired to work there for a about a week. The second day I got in the lift heading up to the 17th floor and as it stops on level 5 and one of the GMs gets in. Now although this was not the first time I met her. I had had meetings with her at our own offices and had a few conference calls. This was (on paper) a very smart person. She was in charge of a multi-million dollar revenue arm of the business and she had an MBA. But once the lift doors closed and the lift continued on, she looked up at the numbers with an annoyed look and said "Oh damn! I wanted to go down". I suspect she must have got a few "duh" looks from a few people in the lift, because then she said as if explaining her mistake "I was reading and didn't look up at the arrows". I was just trying to be helpful and so I said "If it helps you in future the bell rings twice for up and once for down when the lift arrives" - I figured maybe this is her first time in this building so I was kindly sharing the knowledge that I had picked up in my last couple of days.

Now everyone has a bad day and makes mistakes from time to time and getting on the wrong lift is not what makes her stupid. Her response to me was what landed her in the "stupid people" category. She said "Wow! You know I've worked in this building for 5 years and I never noticed that". Now I had ridden the lift maybe 5 times in the 48 hours since coming to the building for the first time and I had spotted it. In 5 years she must have taken a lift maybe 5 thousand times and never noticed that it goes "ding" when it's going down and "ding ding" when it's going up.

Another example that I see all the time is people waiting for the traffic light to turn green who obviously want to take off in a hurry. You can clearly see that the light going the other way is still green and yet they edge forward as if their light is going to go green any second.

Do they think that this is a special traffic light that can magically let cars go from all directions at once without causing traffic accidents? Now some of these people may have high IQs and some may have low IQs but they have their drivers license so they obviously have the mental capacity to understand how traffic lights work i.e. traffic going opposing ways take it in turns.....

Both of these examples come down to the same thing: people take no notice of their surroundings and give no thought to how basic machines and systems work in their day to day lives.

Your IQ is what you are dealt and there is little you can do to change it (short of studying harder or working harder and this doesn’t increase you IQ it just lets you do the same amount/quality of work as someone with a higher IQ who isn’t trying as hard).

At age 3 you are currently giving me mixed signals as to how bright you are going to be. You seem to have a higher than average vocab compared to the other kids in your daycare group which is good but you also keep squeezing balloons until they pop and then being surprised/scared :)

I am sure you'll turn out fine in the IQ department, but the “take away thought” from this entry is that no matter how smart you are on paper, you also need to question how things work and take notice of your surroundings if you are going to make it in life without being stuck in stupid camp.

Now the bad news. The vast majority of people you will meet and interact with in your life will be stupid. We are - as a species - getting dumber.

Dawrinian selection for our branch of the tree of life used to be survival of the “fittest” which in early man meant “strongest”. Then we started developing bigger brains and had to be born earlier in our development cycle so we didn't kill our mothers during childbirth with our enormous heads and therefore needed to evolve social groups like family and clan and village to look after us until we had developed to a point where we could look after ourselves.

Gradually “fittest” shifted meaning to become survival of the smartest. This is because it was no longer brute strength that increased our chance of survival to an age where we could pass on our genes, it depended on who could make the best spear, who could determine where game would gather based on logic and who had developed enough smarts to not shit where they get their food.

However, now days being smart may increase your chance of living longer but it wont increase the number of babies you are likely to sire. The smartest are having fewer and fewer kids later in life and the most likely to pass on their genes are the low income "welfare state". Now, whilst I am certain there are smart folks in this group, when we are talking averages, it's not looking like this is the best group to be populating the future from a brains point of view.

To illustrate get the latest copy of the Darwin Awards and see what the stupid folks in your time are up to. Here's an example from my time:

Police were called to an Austrian apartment, which appeared to have the legs of a corpse sticking out of the window; on entering the apartment they found the dead man's head soaking in a sink full of hot water. The deceased man, after a night of drinking, decided to slip back into his apartment by sneaking through the kitchen window. Being a fixed window it would only open so far so he got stuck with his head at the sink. While thrashing about trying to get free he turned on the tap and drowned in the sink. Police were puzzled why he simply didn't turn off the tap, pull the plug to the sink or even just enter his apartment through the front door as he had the key in his pocket. A man that stupid should not be drinking, or left unsupervised...ever! 

Great example of stupid combined with no idea how everyday things work.

Finally, what to do about it? You can beat 'em - there’s just too many. Please don't join them that would break my heart (or make me turn in my grave) depending on my current status at your time of reading this. There's no point getting angry with them because you will spend tour whole life angry.

You just have to make allowance in your day (because they are going to waste a lot of your time) and try to work around them. But being aware of the Stupid People will save you a lot of anger and disappointment in the human race.

Try to remember for every 100 stupid people you see there is someone like Albert Einstein or Marie Curie or the person who invented Bluetooth headsets or what ever wonder gadget has just come out for you (probably thought activated restaurant bookings or the iPhone 25 or personal jetpacks or something cool like that).

So armed with a basic understanding of Stupid people, we should be able to take a stab at politics or religion for my next post. 

Take care. Love you son.

Getting Started

Hi Jake.

This is for you. For anyone else who happens to stumble on to this, firstly... get a life, why are you reading random blogs? =)

Secondly, Jake is my 3 year old son - to whom I would like to impart some wisdom but currently one or both of us lack the understanding of the other's mindset to make this the right time to have this conversation. For example how do I explain to a three year old that the title of this blog "shit happens the you die" is not meant as the negative summation of a pointless life - as the original author of the phase assumedly meant - but instead a matter-of-fact statement that sums up my life outlook and - with the right explanation - can be an optimistic view of the time we have available to us.  We have a number of years between us Jake. Thirty eight in fact. This means that by the time you are ready to hear what i have to say now, i will have moved on to a more bitter and twisted world view that will be equally out of reach for your young optimistic view of life. Better for me to get this down now and "freeze it in time" so to speak and give you a chance to catch up to a point where this might actually be helpful to something that is happening in you life. 

Before we start, let me address a couple of small points.

1. You are three years old - what took me so long to get started on this? Well a couple of things really.  Firstly this is the first chance I have had to draw breath since you were born(which is slightly bizarre because this is about the most tired I have been since you joined us because I haven't slept more than an hour or two a night for the last week). The first year was a blur. The second year i was just getting the hang of being a father....and in the third year you changed it all again so everything I had learned up to this point was effectively now useless again. I was just starting to get my head around the idea that I would always be a little bit behind what was required to be your dad - but in my hubris decided that I would compensate for this in some zen-like manner and still be somewhat on top of things - and you went and threw an enormous spanner in the works and broke your right femur by falling off a climbing frame at day-care. As I sit here writing this first entry we are one week into what is likely to be six weeks of you in a cast from your armpits to you ankle and I am thinking that I will never actually work this shit out.  Secondly, I am lazy. Just like the title of this blog, my meaning here is probably different from the negative use of the word "lazy" that you have likely encountered until this point in your life by teachers or movies etc. I detest wasted effort. I don't mind working hard at something but I don't like doing it twice if there is a way of doing it once. I don't like wasting time repeating myself or waiting for idiots. Because of this, I notice (perhaps more than the average person) how often in life you do have to end up doing things twice because you screwed up the first time or repeating yourself for the sake of some idiot who didn't get it the first (or tenth) time around. Lastly, despite being lazy, I do work long hours. Also, due to my laziness I do like to spend my down time "veg-ing out" either watching TV or playing on my iPad or reading a book. Actually, now-days reading a book is also on my iPad but I make the distinction because reading a book is considered slightly more highbrow than playing on your iPad although I suspect that this will make little sense to you by the time you read this. Suffice to say that my spare time (which was even precious to me prior to becoming a parent) was even less likely to be used in something other than personal relaxation after you were born. As such, it has taken until now for the parenting instinct to eek its way into this aspect of my life and cause me to spend my precious relaxation time on passing on what are sure to be priceless pearls of wisdom.

2. Why now ? Well as I have mentioned above you have just broken your leg and I find myself taking some time off work to look after you (with your mother whom I love dearly and have been married to since 1996). I am not sleeping at all during this period but that is not particularly unusual. I am a crappy sleeper. Some people brag about how little sleep they need - as if this somehow makes them stronger or better - but let me tell you insomnia is a curse. By the way, if genetics is an indicator one you may have to battle with as well as my mother and her father were both dreadful sleepers. I hope this skips you or you take after your mothers side and often know the joy of 8 hours sleep in a row. Anyway, I have been away from work for a week (which is about how much time I need to stop thinking about it constantly) and I cant sleep. So this seemed like as good a time as any. So, reading back over this it seems like a bit of a long-winded scary start to this and I don't want freak you out so I am going to leave it there for the first entry. Go and have a lie down an think whether you really want to keep reading this ramble from your old man. I will try and make subsequent entries more upbeat and funny (or at least informative) so I hope you stick with it a little longer.

Love Your Dad.