High Standards of Realism and Precision

Not so hidden in the Cave allegory, & Plato’s theory of Ideals lies the “deepest reality”.   From this deep reality comes the Ideal Cat and an Ideal Human, which in part enabled both Greek and Abrahamic Mythology to flourish.  This top-down, idea first, mind’s eye view is ambitious; it is also quite non-precise; that is to say, it is false!

Why did Plato abandon precision?   We could make a guess as to why, but doing so would inherently abandon the point of this post.  Interestingly we can use Plato in an example of precision:

The world, alas, is not made according to the mathematical principles in the way that Plato guessed.

While this sentence is true, the opposite is also true:

The world is made according to mathematical principles, as Plato guessed.

Demanding Precision; that is back to the subject, Plato declared a mutually excluding relationship between Realism and Precision.  In many ways the pre-Newtonian Western world accepted this fragmented perception, priests and philosophers thrived on the separation.  Until, this theory-heavy, data-lite worldview began to give way to the Scientific Revolution (1550-1700).  The historian Alexandre Koyré described this new demand for precision as such:

To abolish the world of the “more or less” the world of qualities and sense perception, the world of appreciation of our daily life, and to replace it by the (Archimedean) universe of precision, of exact measures, of strict determination.

The Scientific Revolution can be looked at as a change in discrimination, and, more importantly, an acceptance of what realism is.  Newton wrote:

To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age . . . ‘Tis much better to do a little with certainty & leave the rest for others that come after you than to explain all things by conjecture without making sure of anything.

Those following Newton in time took to this task, the upheaval spun into electromagnetism, Special and General Relativity, the transistor, and the GPS guiding the Boeing 777 to the runway, which I am currently setting in while writing these words.  We really do stand on the shoulder of giants!

The result of, the product of, this new bottoms-up, theory-lite, data-heavy world is that humans became free to break from the idealism of both Plato and religion.  This break from idealism was evident in a discussion I read last week between a Christian apologist and colleague of mine.  The Christian apologist was ecstatic to declare he has “Amazing answers to probably the single most coming question atheists have [with theism].”  The question he was seeking to answer is “If God is good, then why is there so much evil in the world.”  While the Christian was very excited about sharing his new ideas on the subject with an Atheist audience; he was missing a much larger issue – atheists are no longer looking for an answer to this question, we are no longer bound in the ideal based world Plato provided us (we are free to leave the cave so to speak).  A 21^st-century thinker has the benefit of understanding religion from the viewpoint history provides us; we know why gods were created.  We know when and where the Yahweh god stories developed after the late Bronze Age collapse, and we know why this story line was adopted after Jerusalem’s surrender to the Babylonian Empire.  We also know when, why, and how the Jesus myths were created, and why this particular dying and rising god grew into a new religion.  We no longer have questions for gods; rather our questions are focused on history and human nature; why we do what we do.  Unfortunately for the Christian apologist, he didn’t take the time to understand his audience.

The Realism and Precision presented by the great minds of the Scientific Revolution resulted in the end of a period, the period when philosophical perspectives on reality came from a priest.  Today we all have the ability and the benefit of having no set pre-judgments on reality.  We study realism, and the result is whatever the result it.  We do not have an emotional connection tied to the result because Plato’s Idealism has been replaced by Realism and Precision.

There is a priest one isle over on the plane where I have been writing this blog.  I can’t help but have a curiosity about how he may struggle with the question that the Christian Apologist was providing an answer for.  Should I ask him?  Should I open up issues for him, or just leave him be?  Maybe he is happy in his mind’s eye. . . .  How do believers reconcile reality with the myths they have been taught to believe?  The answer is it takes a lot of philosophy; it takes an institution based on Idealism.  I wonder, how many generations does Plato’s top-down data-lite (data-less) Idealism have left?

Philosophers (including religious visionaries) have long employed thought experiments to rationalize their positions. Thought experiments do not have the ability to prove anything.  However, they can create beautiful ideas.  Ideas large populations can follow.  Can Realism and Precision produce the same concepts of beauty that mysticism does?  Frank Wilczek, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, discusses the problem in A Beautiful Question:

Newton’s method of Analysis and Synthesis also goes by another name: reductionism. . . .Reductionism has a bad name, not least because “reductionism” is a bad name.  The word’s plain implication is that when you have understood something, by the method of Analysis and Synthesis, you have somehow reduced it.  Your rich and complex object is “no more” than the sum of its parts.   For that  matter—and here, close to home, is where it gets disturbing—perhaps you yourself, and those you love, are “no more” than collections of molecules just doing their thing, which is behaving according to mathematical rules.

You can see how focusing on realism can leave the romantic quite empty.  John Keats, an English Romantic poet, wrote among other things “In the dull catalogue of common things . . . will clip an Angel’s wings, Conquer all mysteries by rule and line, Empty the haunted air . . . Unweave a rainbow . . .”  While Keats was never a fan of reductionism, other’s such as Carl Sagan took the same information and turned it into beauty.  Keats’ line “Empty the haunted air” is exactly the task Sagan took on in his book The Demon-Haunted World.  While Keats viewed the “catalogue” of realism as clipping an Angel’s wing, Sagan visualized science’s catalogue as a candlestick in the darkness.

Sagan, Frank Wilczek, Brian Cox, Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, Jared Diamond and others have provided a framework in our contemporary to find beauty in the relativity, symmetry, and reductionism of Realism.  An increasing population is embracing Precision of Realism.  However, one cannot deny the fervor that still exists in billions of humans for Plato’s top-down data-less Idealism.  It will be interesting to see which path we choose, and what leaders we choose, in the next year and the next decade.

How about we start by appointing an Atheist to the bench to replace Justice Scalia’s seat?

Have you ever heard the one where the Christian missionary knocks on the door of an Atheist’s house, “Do you have time to talk about Jesus Christ the Savior”, and the Atheist responds: “Sure, come on in, what would you like to know?”.  In the information age of the 21^st century, it is becoming more common for Atheists to know more about Christian history than Christians do. 

In January, I wrote a post suggesting there is a questionable issue in logical deduction among millennials;  in the United States as 87% believe the New Testament stories are factual.   The problem with the deductive reasoning of this 87% is there is a complete loss in inductive reasoning.

    

To review deductive reasoning is:

               Hypothesis -> Theory -> Observation -> Confirmation.

Inductive reasoning is:

               Observation -> Pattern -> Hypothesis -> Theory.

Christians are taught at a young age to know Jesus through deductive reasoning, meaning “Jesus is our Savior,  and you are saved because of him, it says so in The Book.”   Meaning the Hypothesis and Theory are built on the observation of the New Testament writings itself.  The writings in the New Testament are the Observation.  The deduction is confirmation from reading and praying of the text.

Consider the reverse, consider the inductive reasoning of an Atheist – consider you are the Christian missionary knocking on the door of an Adult’s house, not having the advantage of indoctrination of children in a controlled church environment, and you say:

Let me tell you about the popular belief that a celestial Jewish baby, born from a virgin mother, died for three days so that he could ascend to heaven on a cloud and then make you live forever.  But only if you symbolically eat his flesh, drink his blood and telepathically tell him you accept him as lord & master.  So he can remove an evil force from your spiritual being that is present in all humanity because a woman made from a man’s rib was hoodwinked by a talking reptile possessed by a malicious angel to secretly eat forbidden fruit from a magical tree.   .   . 

Sounds perfectly plausible, right?

The problem for Christians today is the growing atheist population understands:

1)      There are no books or writings contemporary to the time of the Jesus stories which survived that mention Jesus or Christianity.  The first writing history gives us is a 93CE paragraph from Josephus, which has been proven a forgery.  There are no other first century writings on the subject.

2)      Surviving books from the first century we have are what the Roman Catholic Church allowed to survive.

3)      Literature of any inductive reasoning was destroyed shortly after Rome adopted Christianity and outlawed all other ideology – i.e. much of history was destroyed at this time in the name of religion, highlighted with the burning of the Library of Alexandria (391CE).

Christianity is not plausible; it is a longshot of odds.  If I told you, someone, was hit by a car today in NYC, how much evidence you would require to believe my story?  Not much I suppose, as the story is very plausible.   But, as an adult, if I told you the “Rib -> Magical Tree -> Taking Reptile -> Virgin Birth -> Walk on Water -> Three-day Resurrection -> Eat his flesh and You will Beat Death” story would you not require just a bit of bottom-up reasoning?

  

This is why I suggested an educational problem with 87% of millennials taking the New Testament stories as history.  The other thirteen percent could easily be represented as simply those not brought up in Christian indoctrination.    Meaning the 87% represents almost a 100% success rate of Christian childhood indoctrination program.  If first-century history was taught at all in pre-college history courses in the U.S., at least one-quarter of this percentile would understand via inductive reasoning the Christian story is a human story of an ancient society which could not overcome adversity on their own due to being subjected to considerably superior and culturally dissimilar military force.   Christianity started as a grassroots organization promoting a savior god to allow hope for the subjected people of the time.

Also, a critical modern social studies course would teach the youth; lasting conditions of economic, social, and educational inequality allow for faith in a particular religious system to stay intact:

Consider the political movement and agenda of the evangelical right-wing.   It may or may not be intentional, but right-wing lobbyists fight for the removal of environmental protection laws, keeping the minimum wage low, continue to disallow single payer healthcare, and the fight against welfare programs; all of which play into the favor of promoting inequality, which, keeps religion attractive.   The push against a national minimal science education programs in the school system, and support for vouchers for private schools that can leave out subjects such as evolutionary biology, is a strike against STEM education; allowing religious ideas to be passed on to the next generation.  Laws against legal abortion - Stephen Levitt and Stephen Dubner have published substantial empirical data showing legalized abortion results in lowering crime and poverty rates; continuation of poverty helps to ensure the continuation of religion.  The battle against marriage equality by definition creates inequity.   Arguably, the two utmost important policies to worry about are the religious promotion of larger families and the right-wing’s disregards for environmental protection laws.  The combination of climate change and overpopulation will create resource contentions, which, could prove to be a self-fulfilling Armageddon policy. (http://axialinclination.blogspot.com.es/2015/06/what-does-silverback-gorilla-and-tower.html)

What is the point?  For me the point is to look at where America is today; Atheism is a growing movement that no longer needs to remain in the closet.  Putting reason before faith is the trend, but we have a long way to go.  Where to start?  How about we start by appointing an atheist to the bench to replace Justice Scalia’s seat?  Why not recognize the fastest growing world-view segment of today?  This will not happen unless YOU voice your views and come out of the closet.  Speak up!  And if you consider yourself an Agnostic, ask why – come out with our Atheist self!  Make it clear, Be open and make a difference.

A Human View of History, Time Based on the age of Earth. Welcoming In 2016

Corals and Sponges have been unvarying for 12% of Earth's existence. Beetles have been around for 6% percent of Earth’s history.

The oldest fossil, found to date, common to all apes is 47 million years old.  This time represents 1% of Earth's history.  Hominids and chimps have been on separate evolutionary paths for 0.4% of the time.  Hominids have harnessed fire for 0.02% of history, and Homo sapiens have inhabited North America for 0.0004% of Earth's Time (ET).   

Humans have been consuming wheat for 0.0002% ET, corn, wine, and beer for 0.0001%.   We have shown adoration for gods 0.0001% ET.

The famous battle of Thermopylae (300) has been part of history for 0.000054%.  Hawaii has been known to man for 0.000037% and Jesus has been worshiped for 0.000035% ET.

Gun powder has existed for 0.000025% ET.  The Crusades have been in history 0.0000202%/  Muslims have had Constantinople for 0.000012% of ET.

The Salem Witch Trials, the Bill of Rights, and the end of slavery in the US are separated by 0.0000071% and 0.0000049%, and 0.0000033%.

General Relativity has been published 0.0000022%, and we have been sending objects into space 0.0000012% of ET.

The ability to be outward Atheist: 0.000001%

Mobile phones: 0.0000009%

GPS: 0.0000008%

Human DNA Mapping: 0.0000002%

Dark matter has been known: 0.00000019%

Human machines on Mars: 0.000000066%

High Def pictures of Pluto 0.000000022%

When Christmas was Illegal in America – Rethinking the “War on Christmas” from a Historical Perspective.

The Pilgrims of Massachusetts celebrated the first Thanksgiving in 1621 starting a new American tradition; however, they did not celebrate Christmas.  The Puritans when so far as to outlaw celebrating Christmas in 1659 as a statement to newcomers attempting moved in and push Christmas on to New Englanders.  Christmas was either illegal or simply not observed for nearly the first 240 years of Boston’s founding.   The “Christmas Disavowed” period existed in history almost 100 years longer than Christmas has been a legal holiday in Mass.  Wow.

Why was Christmas off the books for so long in New England?  Puritan Christians viewed the Pagan traditions of Christmas as sacrilegious. Tree decoration, yule, holly, gift giving, mistletoe, and caroling were all Pagan traditions adopted by Christmas.  Puritan Christians wanted nothing to do with this.  Not to mention the gluttony at the dinner table combined with drinking, and worst of all game playing.  

From a polar perspective; people have asked me, “as an Atheist do you celebrate Christmas?”, “what do you say to people who tell you Merry Christmas?”  My response is Dec 25th has been known by many names and has been recognized as a celebration of humanity in the northern hemisphere long before Christianity – Yes I celebrate it, what a wonderful time a year!  Moreover, what do I say when people tell me Merry Christmas?  I say Merry Christmas!  The traditional winter holiday may have been called Yule in Germanic paganism or by other names in Roman paganism, but I live in 21^st century North America, and we call Dec 25^th Christmas.

The traditions of Christmas; taking time out of our busy schedules to spend with our families, to carol, spread the glow, giving gifts, helping others in need, and most of all being humble and thankful – these are all celebrations of humanity.  While the Puritans saw this day as irreverent, the rest of us Christian, Agnostic, and Atheist alike are all enjoying the chestnuts and the shine of lights glittering on the snow.

Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year.

Connecting Sacred Geography to the Human Psyche

We have no history of the first settlers in the hills and valleys around Jerusalem.  We do know people began to build tombs in the area at least 5200 years ago, and we also know this land was not part of Mesopotamia, which marked the beginning of Western civilization.  The entire area was a link between Egypt and Damascus 4000 years ago.  However, the site of ancient Jerusalem was a bit off this path.  Perhaps people settled in this area as it was off the main roads, most likely with little attention to the Egyptian overlords, but why is the city of Jerusalem thought of as sacred geography?

The first worship in the city, as most religions of the time, was cosmic.  A Syrian-influenced evening star god named Shalem was the chosen deity when the city was established.  These first western Semitic settlers believed some places were sacred, and thus, they made settlements in these sites.  The social theory of the time, in this area, was all city sites were sacred; this was the only reason to build a city.  Only sacred sites were fit for human settlement.

Did the Syrian God manifest himself to travelers in the hills of Jerusalem 4000 years ago, or was this place settled simply due to the availability of fresh water in what is a surrounding desert?  Gihon Spring is co-located at the foundation of the very first know city walls.  Occam’s razor?  Very little is known with regards to worship in Jerusalem from 4000 to 3500 years ago; we do not even know if the city was continuously occupied during this segment of time.  About 3600 years before present, evidence points to a new influence in the city from the Hurrian people.  At this time, the entire triangle from Gaza to Damascus and Beirut was referred to as Canaan.  These people were Egyptian and most of what is known about Jerusalem at this time comes from Egyptian archives – cuneiform tablets. During this era the god Baal, the son of El - who can be referenced in the Hebrew Bible - became the protector of the hills and valleys and the city of Jerusalem.  

Invasions from the Aegean and Anatolian people followed the Hurrian effect, and in this mixture, people north of Jerusalem began to refer to themselves as Hebrews.  The Bible tells the story that these people came out of Egypt; the extra-biblical evidence suggests these people were not foreigners; rather the Hebrews represented an evolutionary mix of many people who came to the region.  Archaeology suggests these people were native Canaanites, genetically linked with new foreigners; who developed a unique culture with a myth of foreign descent to keep them bound together - apart from other groups of Canaanites.  In the fundamental sense, they were the tribe who survived.  Moreover, it is here, in this tribe, the first stories of the Bible, and the God named Yahweh emerged in the human journey – as a common myth among one grouping of people.

Since that time many gods were developed and worshiped in Jerusalem.  The mixture of people was a time of polytheism in the city – A city of central location between what became the Israelite people in the north, and the people of Judea who lived south of the city.  This is until the city was flattened by the Babylonians 2600 years ago.  The people of Jerusalem, for the most part, took residency with their victors in Babylon.  The Canaanite people lost their home but kept their culture in developing the Jewish faith; based on the myths from the older Canaanite writings we refer to today as Genesis and Exodus.  Oppression and occupation are essential ingredients in the recipe of worship.  

When the Persians defeated Babylon the Hebrew people migrated back to the region and rebuilt Jerusalem as a Jewish city.  However, occupation was to return to this land, this time, powered by the Greek empire.  The Greek occupation is referred to as the Hellination of Jerusalem. Unrecognized by many Christians, the Greek occupation is the root cause of the messiah myths that were to follow, including Jesus.  The messiah myths began in the Jewish texts such as the book of Daniel – written as a “why & how” to keep the Jewish people together during Greek occupation; stories which grew out of someone simply telling someone else: “don’t be threatened, our god will protect us and send us a savior.”  It is human nature; religion is a product of the human condition. 

The Romans replaced the Greeks; the occupation continued.  Eventually, some of the Jewish people took to the words in Daniel and began to tell their occupiers that the Jewish Messiah is real.  ~1970 years ago a man known as Paul the Preacher, and many others said to the people, the Messiah is here.  Among these messiah stories, there was one which won over;  Jesus.  A new fledgling faith had begun.  Then the sludge hammer hit, Rome flattened Jerusalem once again – 1945 years before present day.  Within the next four decades, a group of Jewish people completed the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John.  The Jesus Myth flourished 1900 years ago as a political revolt by a subjected people, in relative poverty, powerless, effectively dominated by an economic and military capacity so staggering it could not be overcome. They turned Paul’s visions of cosmic Jesus into a physical person.  We must remember the Gospel author predicted the second fall of Jerusalem after it had fallen.

The people of this new faith, for the first time, were teaching the connection to God does not require a connection to sacred geography; as they did not have a sacred place, Jerusalem was destroyed.  The Roman occupation scattered the people, thus, geography was no longer relevant – this is until Christianity became the religion of Rome.  Christians are inherently Jewish, and as any Jewish person would; now that the Christians had the power, they rebuilt the city, and found their sacred geography in Jerusalem.  The idea of God being in a particular physical space is deep-rooted in the human psyche; this is why humans build temples, houses of gods are all over the world.  When the Christians could not control the land, they scorned it.  Once they had power; they found value in the land once again.  The ‘new to power’ Christians went so far as to remove the Jewish people from the city as they did not choose to believe in their messiah.  When the Christians rebuilt Jerusalem, the Jews were once again exciled.  I admire the Jewish people for their tenacity.

Then came the fall of Rome.  Christians lost power in the region; the Islamic religion was created, and Muslims took over the “third Jerusalem” built by the Romans.  As the Christians nations began to recover from the fall of Rome, the Crusades were funded to take back the holy land.  The human tragedy of this story is astonishing.  It all started 4000 years ago due to a spring in the desert. 

We must ask ourselves, why is faith based in a physical space?  Why do we build temples to connect us with the gods?  The answer may be that faith is the expression of our needs, our desires, and most of all our security.  The mind has evolved to find security in physical spaces.

I’ll admit, even as an Atheist, I was excited to see the sacred geography of Jerusalem.  However I found a tourist trap, a Disneyland of an ancient faith.  Today the city is a bazaar – the commercialization of outdated ideas which requires a heavily armed police force to keep the peace.  I would encourage every American to visit Jerusalem, our Israeli friends are on guard, and safety is not the issue.  Rather the importance is, once visiting Jerusalem, upon returning to Tel Aviv; one can realize the preciosity of modern life; how lucky we are to live in 2015.  

The Abolition of the Caliphate 2016 - Introduction

We should all make an effort to recognize ideas and the cultures of our world.  In that spirit, how many know what the Caliphate is?  The caliph is the office at the top of the Islamic government, which as a whole is the Caliphate.  The caliph is the religious, political, and military leader; he is the successor to the Islamic Prophet.  His name is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and he ordered the attack in Paris (according to AP reports).  In medieval times, even Kings had to share power with the Popes and other religious leaders.  This man, however, is absolute.

We have known of the Caliphate for centuries, but we don’t talk about it.  “. .  . the Caliphate carries a message of salvation through an international Muslim solidarity.” to the Muslims in India, Russia, China, Africa, and the West who are “dispersed abroad: among the Gentiles”.  Taken from a 91-year-old publication - The abolition of the Caliphate, From The Economist March 8th, 1924.

If you are not a church-goer you may not know what defines a Gentile.  Many would say the Atheist population represents the Gentile.  By definition if you are not a Muslim, you are a Gentile according to the Caliphate, as all non-Muslims are unbelievers.  The Caliphate followers are dispersed among all of us, waiting for the message of salvation from the caliph.

How do we develop an understanding of the end-game directive contained in the caliph's salvation message? Reading about the belief system from the source is a best place to start.  In this series of writings, I'll read from the Quran with an attempt to extrapolate the directive, and post the product of under the subject "The Abolition of the Caliphate; 2016" - If you want to understand your adversary, it is a good idea to know the book they read, the book they read every day, over and over.

Recognizing an idea, is not accepting an idea.  But before one can rightly criticize an idea it must be both acknowledged and understood.  Please keep in mind attacking an idea, is not attacking a person.  I have, in the past, criticized OT, Christian, and Mormon Doctrine.  However, I am not attacking the people; I am assaulting the dogma, which, seeds the group behavior in the professed.

  

How Bacterium saved the Jalapeño and cost Big Pharma Millions

 If you recall, in the 1980’s it was common knowledge stress, and spicy foods were the cause of our painful ulcers.  The cure was also known, that being - lay off the Mexican food, relax and take a Zantac. 

It turns out our prevailing familiarity with the cause and the cure was based on a story that was simply told over and over again.   This story was told to us for maybe a hundred years, and Big Pharma built up a 8 billion dollar industry based on folklore.

In 1982, a young Australian scientist named Barry Marshall discovered ulcers were not caused by the capsaicin based chili, rather the true cause was the bacterium H. pylori.  Instead of surgery and a Zantac every day for the rest of one life, an ulcer can be cured by naturally replacing the bodies’ microbes.  This changed everything, right?  Wrong.  Common knowledge does not die overnight and typically the higher educated, such as the doctor prescribing the pill, will hold on to their concepts longer than their non-doctor citizens because they are confident, they are accustomed to being right.   The longer we have held an idea, and the more emotional it is, our level of confidence in that idea grows; with this so does the degree of difficulty in changing our thinking.  The evidence is not always the best tool to persuade someone’s mind, leading with evidence to a person who is emotionally committed to a story is equivalent of name calling.  One must lead with emotion, and close with evidence, even, and maybe especially, if the opponent has a Ph.D. in her title.

Marshall was ridiculed, mocked, and held in contempt of the medical community – however, he did not give up, and eventually he persuaded the medical community.  In 2005, 23 years later, he won a Nobel Prize for his research.

The unlikely benefactor of Marshall's work was Chihuahua Mexico and the Jalapeño.   Jalapeño exports the United States tripled overnight.   Moreover, Zantac sales fell by $24 million three years after he took home the Nobel Prize (even with the Noble Prize in hand there was a lag in giving up the medical ulcer religion – A.K.A folklore).