source: http://winteryknight.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/20-questions-that-atheists-need-to-be-able-to-answer/
Answers in blue by Stephen L.
20 questions that atheists need to be able to answer
Here are some puzzling phenomena that every person should try to struggle with, and find the answers.
1.What caused the universe to exist?
1. I don’t know, and I don’t need to know in order to dismiss a poor explanation.
2.What explains the fine tuning of the universe?
2. The anthropic principle.
3.Why is the universe rational?
3. An irrational universe could not sustain its own existence.
4.How did DNA and amino acids arise?
4. Read a book on the subject.
5.Where did the genetic code come from?
5. That’s the same question as 4.
6.How do irreducibly complex enzyme chains evolve?
6. Loaded question. Ignored.
I’m leaving out numbers 7 and 8 because they lack specificity.
9.How is independent thought possible in a world ruled by chance and necessity?
9. Thoughts are electrical impulses. Nothing magical about them.
10.How do we account for self-awareness?
10. It’s an inevitable consequence of increased intelligence.
11.How is free will possible in a material universe?
11. It isn’t.
12.How do we account for conscience?
12. Morality (in the most basic sense) is the effort to minimise the suffering of conscious beings.
13.On what basis can we make moral judgements?
13. It is an epiphenomena of complex neurological activity.
14.Why does suffering matter?
14. Because we don’t like it.
15.Why do human beings matter?
15. Because we like them.
16.Why care about justice?
16. Society can’t function without it. We like society.
17.How do we account for the almost universal belief in the supernatural?
17. Humans are pattern seeking animals. The primitive human who sees a bear through the trees when there isn’t one, will live longer than the one who doesn’t see a bear when there is.
18.How do we know the supernatural does not exist?
18.a. The very term “supernatural” suggests so. 18.b. What we might call supernatural, in the sense that it is beyond our understanding of nature, may or may not exist, but each individual claim of such is incredibly unlikely without evidence.
19.How can we know if there is conscious existence after death?
19. By discovering an aspect of conscience that is not dependant on a physical brain for existence.
20.What accounts for the empty tomb, resurrection appearances and growth of the church?
20.a. If such an event really happened, its account would not be limited to a poorly written book with a terrible track record on facts. 20.b. The spread of Christianity is attributable to its instatement as the official religion of the Roman Empire by Constantine.
More answer by Stephen L and others here.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Monday, June 04, 2012
Sam Harris on Death and the Present Moment
source: Thanks Tim Stephenson for sharing.
Draft Transcription of Sam Harris Talk
Sam Harris –
Death and the Present Moment
2012
Australian Atheist Conference.. A celebration of reason
Atheist Foundation
of Australia Inc (established 1970)
Reality of
death is central to religion and its denial to religion. Without death faith
based religion would be unthinkable. From the point of view of the faithful,
atheism is the mere assertion of death. Atheists appear to be a death cult
since we are the only people who admit that death is real. Every other view
leaves the question open or asserts that death is an allusion. The good people,
the people who believe the right things about an iron age war god, get
everything they want after they die. Every thing that is annomoulous or
accidental gets sorted out in the end. There is no reasonable likelihood of
that happening. The gospel of atheism, The essential news, the good news of
Atheism is that nothing happens after death. There is nothing to worry about,
nothing to fear. When after you die you are returned to that nothingness you
were before you were born. This proposition is very hard to understand. Most
people mistake nothing for something. Many have said that my friend Lawrence
Krauss does that! In the case of death many people imagine a case of eternal
silent darkness which does sound a little boring. But if we are right and
nothing happens after death, then every religion every devised, is false. But
if we are right and nothing happens after death, then death is not a problem.
Life is the problem. The problem is without God and without an eternal
existence after death, life appears to be an emergency. It’s a long emergency
for many. You can’t help but notice that things are going very wrong in this
place. No matter how much fun you are having, a glance at a newspaper, will
show you its possible to have no fun at all. Everyone seems to have a run of
bad luck in the end. Religion makes sense of these problems: its my karma, my god will mean that I’m so lucky. God wants me to have a new iPad (halleluyuw), not
be the ones making the iPad for a few $ a day. To not believe in god means its
up to us to make the world a better place. We have barely emerged from
centuries of barbarism. Its not a surprise that that there are inequities in
this world. Its hard work to climb down from the trees and build a global
civilisation when you start with a technology that is made of rock and sticks
and fur. This is the project and progress is difficult. If you talk to your ancestor
100 generations ago you’d meet someone who thought that sacrificing their first
child was a good way to control the weather. Some of you don’t have to go back
that far. You just have to go home for Christmas!
(8.03) Real
progress is a very recent phenomena. Religion keeps its foot on the brake. In
the USA, still have to argue that women have access to birth control.
8.33 –
Abortion. … Child Abuse by Catholic Church … this world will not be a paradise.
Cure ageing itself, upload on Ai, Singularity,
10.32: if
you live long enough – you will lose everyone you know. A memory is a thought
arising in the present.
12.16:
Atheism is a necessary corrective of bad ideas, but it puts nothing in its
place. What fills the void is science and art and philosophy. Atheism is just a
way of clearing the space for better conversations. The problem we face is
convincing majority of humanity to have those better conversations and this is
a political problem. It’s a scientific problem, it’s an interpersonal problem, It’s
a problem of education. The problem is that most people most of the time are desparate
to belive ridiculous ideas for repeatedly emotional reasons. Whilst rarely
explicit what they are really worried about is death. When we are arguing about
teaching evolution in schools we are really arguing about death. The only
reason the religious care about Evolution is that If religion are wrong about
origins then they fear they are wrong about our destiny after death. If you say
to the religious that they are a fool to not believe in Evolution or a fool to
believe the universe is 6000 years old then that gets translated into saying
they are a fool to believe that their daughter that died in a car crash is in
heaven with god (this is consoling). How can people close to tragedies make
sense of that – religion provides an answer to that - but it's an unjustified answer,
a bad answer. Grief is not so necessary if you believe in heaven cos you will
be re-joined with your daughter in heaven in
a twinkling of an eye. Atheism does not offer real consolation on this
point. When you are open to new evidence there is not guarantee that your
revisions in your world view are consoling. When you loose Santa Claus what you
get in his place is not so much fun.
17.58: most
of us do our best not to think about death. But we know we are only a doctors
phone call away from being reminded of our own mortality or of those closest to
us. Hitch wrote brilliantly about death in is his Vanity Fair articles (go read them).
20.08. Most
people tacitly think they will live on forever. There better be a
heaven if we are going to waste our time bickering with our spouses etc etc! Unlike religious people we atheists have a real good reason to make the most of
life. To make the most in the present moment. Even if you live to 100 there are
not that many days in life. So what is the point in life. Is anything sacred?
Does that question make sense? There are ways to live in the present moment.
The reality of life is always NOW. This is a liberating truth about the human
mind. This is the most important thing to know if you want to be happy in this
world.
23.40 The
past is a memory it’s a thought arising in the present. The future is merely a
thought arising now. What we truly have is this moment .. and this moment.
25.20 I don’t
want to stand in front of 4000 atheists and talk about Lao Tzu. Not more
information but requires a change of attitude, change in attentiveness in the
present moment.
26.01
Consciousness just arrives dependant on the brain, consc indepent of the body.
No.
28.59
Conceptual lens
29.50 to
37.10: 7 minute Mindfulness Meditation in the present (you are now all Buddhists!)
41.56
constantly ruminating – you will miss your life. Be in the present. Voice in
the head keeps saying things. Conversation that you have with yourself every
minute of the day has a cost. Mechanism of self doubt - the fear of death. Hostage
to thoughts is not useful. Purpose of life is obvious – we try to create and repair
a world that our minds want to be in. We Atheists alone among humanity realise
that, religion is a bad way to do that, we have to start a new conversation.
46: Douglas
Hofsteder – memory is an emulation of them.
50.20 – 56.30
Question on suffering when can see death in the world. When you are suffering you
are lost in thought. Some things are
worth suffering over? If your child dies can you stop suffering if you break
the spell of thought? Yes to some degree but its damn hard to do when the bar
is set that high when you dealing with the death of someone so close to you.
The experience of the 7 minute meditation (I’ve gone on retreats for weeks or
months at a time) and in silence for 18 hours a day just did that exercise. It
takes a lot of time to realise how much thought is clouding your experience of
the present moment. Under current of thought – memory of how much you loved her
– buffeted to thoughts, hostage to thoughts. Relief of death and suffering is
by bearing down on the present moment, erodes the pain of the pain. The framing is the
issue, it’s the difference between the pain in your arm because you are getting
good at lifting weights or the pain of bone cancer. We give a lot of thought to
gaining more information or getting healthy. We give very little thought to
training the mind, training attention itself. Lot of neuroscientific research
on Mindfulness Meditation. Many good things happen when you can just drop your
stress and the automaticity of thinking. Just be aware of current moment, the next
sensation, the next thought. Experience of flow in the present moment. There is
relief to found there but it takes training, a commitment to not merely
brooding and thinking. Not discounting the utility of thought.Not discounting
the importance of sorting out the world. There is a quiestic bias amongst meditators
that I think is completely dysfunctional. We don’t want a culture of people not
being engaged and not improving the world. But if there is any kernel of truth in
the religions we so deplore and they are just a carnival of errors the truth is
it possible to sink into the present moment in such a way to find it sacred and
to cease to have a problem. Most of the testimony for this is contaminated with
religious bullshit.
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