I do not myself think that the dependence of morals upon religion is nearly as close as religious people believe it to be. I even think that some very important virtues are more likely to be found among those who reject religious dogmas than among those who accept them. I think this applies especially to the virtue of truthfulness or intellectual integrity. I mean by intellectual integrity the habit of deciding vexed questions in accordance with the evidence, or of leaving them undecided where the evidence is inconclusive. This virtue, although it is underestimated by almost all adherents of any system of dogma, is to my mind of the very greatest social importance and far more likely to benefit the world than Christianity or any other system of organized beliefs.
Djokovic is Not Your Big Problem, Mate
Thirty days ago, Australia had reported a total of 247,000 COVID cases. As of today, the case count has risen to 1.8 million.
And they think their biggest problem is Novak Djokovic?!
Note that Djokovic was not even deported for public health reasons. He’s had a positive COVID test, followed by a negative COVID test, and everyone agreed he was safe via natural immunity.
He was deported because as some point in the past, he expressed skepticism about vaccines and to have him in Australia, well, he might influence others in the country to become skeptical about vaccines.
I’d say what’s more likely to cause Australians to become skeptical about vaccines is the fact that COVID is spiraling out of control while 80 percent of their population is fully vaccinated.
More Words and Phrases I’m Sick Unto Death Of: “Science”
Here’s a meme finding its way around the internet:
If you are not a scientist, and you disagree with scientists about science, it’s actually not a disagreement. You’re just wrong. Science is not truth. Science is finding the truth. When science changes its opinion, it didn’t lie to you. It learned more.
That is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever had the displeasure of reading.
- “Science” doesn’t have an opinion. Scientists have opinions but they often differ.
- When a scientist disagrees with another scientist, which one is wrong?
- If science is not truth, why is it wrong to disagree?
- If “science” can change its opinion, then everyone who previously held the new opinion was right, and “science” was wrong.
Why must people who know nothing about science attempt to give science lessons to the rest of us like we’re all morons?
OK, I know the answer. It’s this COVID thing. For people who share his views, Dr. Anthony Fauci IS “science” and anything he doesn’t like is “misinformation.” But for the record, there are scientists who believe the Fauci strategy to be misguided for one or more reasons. And it would be hard to make an evidence-based case that the strategy has been a great success.
2021: The Year in Books
These are the books I read in 2021, roughly in the order listed. The ratings are mine. They don’t represent a consensus of opinion.
Books of the Year: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (fiction), Zeroville by Steve Erickson (contemporary fiction) and Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects by Bertrand Russell (non-fiction).
Is It Humane to Believe in Everlasting Punishment?
I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment. Christ certainly as depicted in the Gospels did believe in everlasting punishment, and one does find repeatedly a vindictive fury against those who would not listen to His preaching — an attitude which is not uncommon with preachers, but which does somewhat detract from superlative excellence. You do not, for instance find that attitude in Socrates. You find him quite bland and urbane toward the people who would not listen to him; and it is, to my mind, far more worthy of a sage to take that line than to the the line of indignation. You probably all remember the sort of things that Socrates was saying as he was dying, and the sort of things that he generally did say to people who did not agree with him.
You will find that in the Gospels Christ said, “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell.” That was said to people who did not like his preaching. It is not really to my mind the best tone, and there are a great many of these things about hell.
What to Do in a Tsunami
JUST IN: The National Tsunami Warning Center has issued a tsunami advisory is in effect for the entire West Coast and Alaska in the wake of an undersea volcanic eruption near Tonga. https://t.co/6QAUay90w7
— ABC News (@ABC) January 15, 2022
The good news is that on the water side of Ocean Blvd in Santa Monica there is about a 100-ft high bluff, which should be a good tsunami barrier. But a good way to go out of this life would be sitting on the restaurant deck at the end of the pier (in the middle distance below) with a refreshing cocktail and speaking my final words just prior to being crushed by a wall of water: “See you in Hell!” Record the whole thing as a live TikTok. If that doesn’t go viral, I don’t know what will.
Chess Game of the Day: Italian Game Sudden Death
One of my online chess games. Some annotations below . . .
3. Bc4 Italian Game
3. …Nf6 Two Knights Defense
5. …Na5 Polerio Defense
6. Bb5+ Bishop Check Line
8. …Qd5?! More speculative than 8. …Nd5
15. Qf2? I thought White had the advantage had he played 15. Nh3, blocking the Black rook from pinning the White h-pawn.
17. Re2?? White has a playable position by covering the rook with 17. Kg1 (probably best) or one of several knight moves, but any effort at saving the rook by moving it results in . . .
17. …Ng3#
What Really Moves People to Believe in God
What really moves people to believe in God is not any intellectual argument at all. Most people believe in God because they have been taught to do so from early infancy to do it, and that is the main reason.
Then I think that the next most powerful reason is the wish for safety, a sort of feeling thath there is a big brother who will look after you. That plays a very profound part in influencing people’s desire for a belief in God.
There Has Been a Rumor
There has been a rumor in recent years to the effect that I have become less opposed to religious orthodoxy than I formerly was. This rumor is totally without foundation. I think all the great religions of the world — Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and Communism — both untrue and harmful.
We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations. — Charles Swindoll
More Words and Phrases I’m Sick Unto Death Of: “Insurrection”
What is an “insurrection”? I guess I could look it up. Have any of the arrested protestors been charged with insurrection? If not, why do we keep saying it?
The Revolutionary War was definitely an insurrection, which suggests that insurrection is not always a bad thing.
This Day in History: January 6
On Jan. 6, 2021, a group of unarmed citizens frustrated by their inability to date Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez walked into a building.
This Day in History: Aretha Franklin
On Jan. 3, 1987, Aretha Franklin became the first (biological) woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
This may be an opportunity for someone inducted before 1987 to put on a dress and say “Wait a minute, I identify as a woman” and knock Aretha out of the history books.
It worked for Amy Schneider.
Betty White, 1922-2021
Enough is enough.
RIP Betty White
Love One Another Or Die
We must love one another or die. — W.H. Auden
Since we have to die anyway, shouldn’t the quote be “We must love one another and die” or “We must love one another then die”?
It reminds me of another famous quote: “Go big or go home.” But again, I have to go home eventually so . . . well, you get the picture . . .
What’s the Plan B?
This has not aged well. Is there a Plan B? As always, it’s easier to promise things than it is to actually deliver them.
To beat COVID-19, we need a coordinated national response from the federal government — but Donald Trump refuses to do his job. I've laid out exactly what I would do, and I encourage this president to adopt the plan in its entirety: https://t.co/SOVOPL7uPy
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 7, 2020
There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us. We suffer more often in imagination than in reality. — Seneca
Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man. — Benjamin Franklin
Who Should Decide What’s Being Taught in Schools?
Nikole Hannah-Jones: Parents shouldn't be in charge of their kids' schooling: "I don't really understand this idea that parents should decide what's being taught. I'm not a professional educator. I don't have a degree in social studies." Yet she wants the 1619 Project in schools. pic.twitter.com/UAjFTCvVmg
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) December 26, 2021
You don’t understand the idea? OK, the stupidest way to make decisions is to put them in the hands of people with no skin in the game, who don’t pay any price for being wrong. “Educators” don’t lose one dime or one hour’s sleep if their bright ideas turn out to be disastrous for the child.
The Beginning of the End
Sometime just over 2,000 years ago, contrary to the song, it was not a silent night. In Bethlehem, a young woman gave birth to a baby in a stable. The story went exactly as one would tell a story if one did not want the story taken seriously.
The first witnesses were shepherds, men so unreliable that their testimony was inadmissible in court. Key eyewitnesses were women, also seen as unreliable. The father of the child fell out of the historic record.
This essay is probably worth a read even though I disagree with pretty much everything in it, starting with the fact that the main reason the story can’t be taken seriously is the woman giving birth while claiming to have never been intimate with a man.
I’ve asked my dad about this. He’s a true believer. “If a young woman right now told you she was pregnant but had never been intimate with a man, would you believe that?”
He won’t even talk about it. He just believes it. I don’t even get into the fact that if God in fact fathered the child, it sounds disturbingly like a rape.
I’ve heard of this kind of thing happening in mythology, humans being impregnated by gods, but still, in all the cases I can think of, it happens via a physical act. Can the woman still claim to be a virgin?