My child is genetically superior to your child and could totally beat him up

With rising health costs and the dramatic loss in public interest in the sciences it has become a concern whether or not our children are living up to their potential. The scary thing I propose is; what if they are? What if our crime rate is due to genetically inferior beings being born to genetically inferior parents? Are you a product of your make-up? Research has an answer to that and the newest details say yes. Yes it is. The solution to this and many other problems should and could be humanitarian Eugenics. By humanitarian Eugenics I mean that we should view this problem not by exterminating undesirables from the gene pool but instead weeding them out through successive generations of selective breeding programs.

            Another way toward this goal would be the abortion of unwanted and genetically inferior fetuses inspected via genome sequencing in utero (Mattei 505). What if, to say, you and your significant other found out that you were having a baby? Mazel tov! After either celebrating or crying over your ruined life you find out that the baby, through non-invasive prenatal testing (Meehan, 87), your unborn bundle of joy, will come out with fully formed Down’s syndrome? Would you want to keep it knowing its quality of life would be hindered and even more important, your quality of life? Would you want to know this before going through with your pregnancy? Unless you are a religious zealot you’d probably opt for an abortion, thus saving your time and money and that of our American healthcare system.

            The problem that comes up most often when the subject of eugenics is that we all supposedly have a right to reproduce and every unborn child deserves a chance. What if you knew your child would not have a fair advantage due to being severely retarded or perhaps is a carrier of a terminal virus? Would you really want that child to live that life?

            My problem with our current society is that we still hold to the motto that every man (and woman) is created equal. If people would just open their eyes, they would realize that this is definitely not true. Take me for example. I’m short and heavy set. I have a predisposition to drugs and alcohol and I encompass a myriad of emotional and mental disorders. Thankfully, I have found the right treatments for my ailments but am I really equal to a taller, more athletic, genius level IQ man or woman with no mental disorders? No. In fact, my reproducing could be harmful for the population at large, seeing as I would be passing my ill-gotten genes onto a poor unknowing little person, dooming them to a life time of mental and physical anguish. Plus, a taller, sexier person is more fun to look at.

            Should I be able to reproduce and burden society with my offspring? The answer is no. That would, in a perfect world, be a crime. However, there have been advancements in the fields of genetic engineering and cell surgery to produce the best our genomes have to offer (Fox 1). However, this is still years away from being a viable option for near do well prospective parents.

            In a chat with a like-minded colleague (Erin Chamblee), we have devised a plan that would cut down on unwanted pregnancies and that of offspring with ill-gotten genetic traits. I propose that we institute a licensing program instituted by the government Board of Health. Just the way you’d get a license to drive, you should be tested and pass a survey of qualities and IQ tests in order to reproduce.

            Far be it from me to ask that all of humanity submit to these sorts of tests, but this is in a perfect world; imagine no disease, cancer, mental illness, or violence. Who knows what the world would have been like if Osama Bin Laden’s mother had to have herself, and her mate, tested prior to producing him? It would have never come to term because we would of, first, denied them the right to make him and second, as a fetus, genetically screen him for aggressive and homicidal traits Based on said homicidal traits, he would be aborted.

            I know that many people would love to become parents, but I should draw a distinction between want and need. People may want to reproduce but it’s almost never taken into consideration whether or not this would be good for humanity at large.

            I bring upon the idea brought on by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, in response to those who oppose abortion, who introduced me to the idea of the Beethoven fallacy (Dawkins, 298). The Beethoven fallacy states that if you abort your baby, you could of just aborted the next Beethoven or Einstein. My problem with this is that for one, what if it became the next Hitler? Another thing would be to reiterate the fact that if your genealogy has no spectacular academics or family with any certain positive trait, then you will most likely produce an average to below average child.

            The idea that everyone is entitled to offspring is outdated in my opinion. Another nail in the pro-life coffin is the fact that we already have so many people on this Earth that there is already a shortage of food and medicinal care for everyone. Sooner or later a quarter of humanity will die out in a Darwinian fashion. We must think Darwinian if we are to progress in this life.

            The majority of humanity may very well oppose the concept of eugenics, but I think the Nazis using it gave it in the way that they did gave it a bad rap. I am not talking about genocide, but instead implementing a licensing program with existing human beings. Those who qualify for reproduction will be able to breed legally and those unfit will not.

            It is supposed that reproduction is a basic human right and obviously those who subscribe to pretty much any religion in existence will oppose the idea. But to them I ask, why let unfit and abusive beings reproduce and bring a child who may be overly aggressive by design into a violent and / or oppressively poor household (I say poor, both in the financial sense as well as emotionally and intellectually).  A child may be doomed to repeat mistakes that his or her parents have previously done and would do so in the sense of nature and nurture.

            The idea that a fetus must not be aborted does not actually appear anywhere in the standard King James Bible, in which most Christian religions take their teachings from. The hypocrisy of the situation is that it does however teach the concept of ‘an eye for an eye’, stating that those who commit certain crimes should not be subject to God’s punishment and mercy (he’s pretty big on that in the New Testament), but instead we as humans dole out his wrath.

            Why must we draw the distinction here? We get rid of those who are undesirable and unfit for civilized society yet we do not give this same distinction toward those who have yet to be produced via the tried and true method of sperm and egg unitization. We have the capability not to do this and it will only gain acceptance as the newer generations accept the sciences as a rock solid fact of life.

            Religion and fundamentalism are on the decline as society begins to think for themselves, but there is still a strong right in this country and it is very vocal despite its declining numbers. Hopeful successes have already come to fruition with a newly elected mostly liberal congress and forward thinking president.

            Again, as I said, I am not stating that we euthanize those less desirable than the top percent, but it would be a good start to sterilize those with a family history of vagrancy and poor living skills. It has been said that your genetics do not determine the person you are. Happily this myth is being debunked little by little every day as science progresses.

You are your genes. Do you really want to pass them on?

 

Dawkins, Richard, The God Delusion, Oxford Press, 2006

Fox, Dave, The Illiberality of ‘Liberal Eugenics’, Journal Compilation 2007, 1-25

Meehan, Mary, Eugenics Triumphant in Prenatal Testing, Human Life Review, Fall 2012, Vol. 35 Issue 4, p87-104

Mattei, Jean Francois, Humanity and Human DNA, European Journal of Medical Genetics, 2012, 503-509

Holland, Brian, Way Down The Line, Ixnay on the Hombre, 1996

Where's your God now?

Why not celebrate this 4^th of July by putting yet another nail into the coffin of Fundamentalist ideals. One common argument for us atheists is usually either “Creation scientists have proof though!” or “If there is no God, then how did everything come to be?” And the answer my friends is literally out of thin air! You see, Scientists believe that at the very spark of the big bang there was nothing but energy and primitive raw particles that would wind up decaying into the original hydrogen. But hydrogen without mass is nothing at all. We now believe that this Higgs Boson particle (AKA: The God Particle) appeared in a trillionth plus more of a second after the big bang and decayed into particles giving mass to everything.

                I’m sure I’m not 100% spot on but I think the general gist is there though.

Everything Evolves

                Why are so many people against evolution? One could say that it is but the small minded majorities who still don’t believe that it is true but a good share of them have to be intelligent enough to think it through for themselves, right? I am one who believes that IQ is no indication of intelligence but merely a number expressed by academics in order to score tail at democratic fundraisers. No, I believe everyone is capable of understanding the wonders of life and all it has to offer in the scientific sense. Some are smarter at certain things than others. I can write a twenty page essay that is coherent and meaningful in less than thirty minutes but give me an Alan wrench and some Duck Tape then expect me to fashion an air conditioning unit out of spare parts and I am completely left in the dark. Surely everyone must agree on one thing, things change.

                I believe that the intellect in all of us has at one point or another has rejected the possibility of evolution at some point or another because it contradicted what is supposed to be the one basic truth, that the Holy Bible and all of its fantastical stories must have happened. To reject this would be at odds with a creator who may or may not exist. Simply betting the odds in this case won’t necessarily take away from life’s glories but it sure does make for a pretty inclusive existence. Then again, if we’re wrong then what’s the harm? We’d be dead anyways. But as the world has progressed and evidence has mounted has there ever been a better time than now to reconsider that the bible may have been wrong or at least interpreted a little too literally?

                Even high ranking officials at the Vatican lost their battle with science and conceded that life had to have evolved over time instead of one instance of creation. Although to be fair they still keep the faith that God had a hand in it. But to me I would like to think a creator would try to avoid or at least fix mistakes in the gene code that allowed for such things as gluttony and hatred. Even the fact that a man’s testes has a chord that goes from them, around the midsection and then back into the prostate should be a concern over why didn’t a better plan just be for them to go from the testes to the prostate in a more direct route? As much as I would like to, I will not make this a paper on atheism, although that would be an interesting topic for another discussion, I would like to instead pronounce my enthusiasm for the facts and theories of evolution as an unbiased observer.

                (If I came off as being anti-God please forgive me, I am just an intellectual asshole who has nothing better to do with his time than to pick on the resurrection of Christ.)

                First off let me explain the difference between a theory and a scientific theory. A theory in the contemporary sense is an educated guess on how things work. A scientific theory uses evidence to make an informed hypothesis (also an educated guess, just wordier) meaning that if you had a fossil record that seemed to transition from one thing to another you would use a theory to test your hypothesis, such as using the now standard DNA model of detection. We first saw this theory arise when Darwin conducted his biological studies and found that some newly discovered fossils looked different but slightly less so than current living species. As the century progressed we used his theory model to conduct real time experiments on sexual selection (aka: breeding for certain traits in dogs or racing horses) to and natural selection (putting a group of bacteria in a jar with finite amount of food and saw which strands strived to reproduce over their lesser equipped counterparts). It is to say, that a lot of work goes into gathering facts before a scientific theory can be accepted as truth. And we have the facts for evolution.

                One of the worst things about history deniers to me is that they say there is no proof, that the world’s scientific community is lying to cover up God’s work. My question to them would be how can a million scientist be covering up something without having to first devote their lives to such a grandiose lie? Why on Earth would somebody spend their days pursuing something they didn’t believe in just to spite others who have no direct relation to them? It’s a waste of time and energy, and, just as natural selection has taught us, this would be quickly weeded out of society seeing as it is of no good to the propagation to the greater good.

                But what these people fail to realize is that it has probable saved their lives and made them better to boot at least a million times over by now. If we never had the theory of evolution then we’d be puzzled as to why white lab mice have almost identical immune systems as we do or even why a chimp would act so human. With it though we can see where certain things stack up with our DNA code and then use the similarities in order to produce medicines and treatments that actually work at bettering ourselves. Knowing that a mouse carries the same gene for depression has helped us make prescriptions for anti-depressants. Knowing whether or not bacteria strive under certain conditions due to certain genetic conditions will either help us or hurt us has formed the basis for anti-bacterial and pro-biotic medicines.

                In fact genetics simply would not even work as a science without our understanding of evolution. It is the basis and concept for everything in biology. It is a thing that has stood the test of time and very critical and analytical minds of the past century.

                The idea to me that nothing is simple makes me want to know more about how things work. Doesn’t it you? Saying that a rainbow appears out of nowhere during a rain shower does nothing for me because there is nothing to explore about it. But saying that it is a product of the prism effect of rain drops in proportion to sunlight makes me think that there is more going on in the world. The fact that everything comes from something, and that something comes from something, that comes from something we have yet to discover makes me anticipate the day that we discover it. If only to then turn and try to find out where that something in fact came from.

                Evolution is seen in everything we do. From us divulging from single non-organic molecules into self-replicating non organic molecules to organic and so on, to the fact that technology (in principle) becomes twice as fast and effective every two years is just the start. Why not think of our solar system as having evolved, and why not with the idea of natural selection? The elements were forged in the first stars (which came together from gravity and hydrogen) and through nuclear fusion became all the elements that we know of and then exploding, which released those elements which in turn are seemingly randomly selected to form new stars and now life giving element rich planets? Without those first stars we would not have oxygen or carbon, the two things necessary for us to exist in the first place. And when our star dies it will release more of those same elements and become new stars and planets (Okay so our sun may not go out in an explosion but the birth of new planets and stars are as inevitable as you having to eat something at least some of the time to keep your body going.)

                Evolution is everywhere. We have the facts, and we use those facts to form theories. To me a world without science would be a never ending rut of plague and disease and disaster. Why wait for a God to cure your cancer when you can go to a hospital and receive treatment? To do so is sound and we rarely think of it in this day and age. But there was a time when going to the doctor meant death by contamination and blood-letting to cure your cold. Medical practices have too evolved over time. Evolution is an unavoidable part of life.

                The next time you see a pretty flower, think not that it was just made, but think of it as a wonder of biology that took millions of years of trial and error to become so beautiful and complex. Wouldn’t that be more fulfilling in the end? I think so. And I hope that you will too someday.

Porno

Biblical Porno

1: Mary of Nazareth, thy name is lust and surely be put to death. 2: Her body made of milk offered from our blessed father. 3: With hair so amber and brown (although she was from the middle east) she doth makes thine loins call out to the name of the angel Gabrial. 4: She will be unclean for thirty three days. 5: Hunger doth strikes when wetness is good. 6: Pizza man show up I demand you! She says from the mounts of Sinai. 7: His name be Joseph and he be bearing fruit for the Virgin Mary. 8: Slowly Joseph would soon retire his garments to the offering. 9: Revealing a mighty and unholy beast. 9: Mary doth squirts with the sight of sin and it is good. 10: Joseph is but a fine warrior. 11: Joseph lasts for forty days and forty nights a miracle for the many whom are uncircumcised.  12: Mary’s sin is but a tight vessel from which our savoir came. 13: Joseph does blow a load onto yonder virgin face. 14: God was pleased and it was good.

Shakespearian Porno

Romeo: A light through yonder window breaks, I am the east and Juliet is the sun. For thou art strong and true, with loins that scream for the soft touch from mine milky hands. Woman! I demand me satisfaction of thine love!

Juliet: Romeo, Romeo, where art thou Romeo? I do want to partake in such misgivings yet my fear is that we create a life so unwanted.

Romeo: I be sterile and a beast from afar!

Romeo: My lust, it is but me expressing feelings so deep and my want so strong.

Romeo: I go to war tomorrow… Yeah…

Juliet: Really?

Romeo: Yeah. I might not make it back.

Juliet: You poor thing!

*Romeo nuts on Juliet’s chest*

Catholic Porno

A married man and woman fuck, then they cry about it.

God is totally a contradiction and the bible doesn’t help matters much: Part one

I recently got into a bout of fisticuffs over a discussion that had been brought up. I am not normally confrontational unless it has to do with knowledge and someone not having the logic to receive it properly. Case in point I was talking to a fellow one night stand (a wonderful man addicted to meth and who claimed to have an IQ higher than myself) and he told me that he had faith in the bible because it was pure truth. Now me being high at the time probably didn’t help my standing much but I did have an absurd amount of energy to pursue this statement.

I asked him how did he see it as pure truth when the meaning keeps changing with our own society’s moral zeitgeist? He claimed that the bible as we know it now is the true interpretation, which I countered with the idea that how could the previous ones been wrong when that was their truth? We’re not talking about this book as if it’s all fact here.

Wait… Yes he was? According to him Noah’s flood happened (despite the fact that God ordered Noah to sacrifice all the animals on the arc right after reaching land) and Sodom and Gomorrah  was actually visited by hell stone.

As frustrating as this is it’s even more astounding that many people in the USA think this way who aren’t all smacked out on crystal. I could easily take this man’s attitude as someone who is coming down and needs an imaginary friend but there are plenty of sober people who get defensive when you ask why was it necessary for Jesus to die on the cross when God is super magical and could of just saved us without killing himself in the process?

I suppose I have the heart of a scientist because I want to know how things work. I believe that by finding out these things we can make it better for the rest of us. This man however has the old style thought (from scripture) that we should not meddle with God’s work. I brought up the fact that Galileo was tortured by the church for saying that we revolved around the sun. He told me that we need not have known that to live a happy live. I had to correct him by saying that without that special man then we would either not have cell phones now or would have had them later than we already do.

Unnecessary, he said. When asked how he would have called his dealer he scoffed and said that he could quit anytime.

That is beside the point though.

Back to the idea that this book and it’s subject is infallible we have to examine a few key points of what it is to be all knowing and perfect.

1: God knows the future yet we have free will – This one plagued me since I was about ten years old. I can never get a good answer from anyone about this one. Apparently God gave us a free will so that we could love him without ever being forced to. God wants us to love him because we do instead of it being his will.

God also knows what lies in store for us.

Wait a bit? If he already knows that we are going to be bad then why allow us to go that way? Isn’t he supposed to be all loving and all knowing? Where do you figure that we are born with his love when he knows even before conception that we are going to hell? Doesn’t that imply something of a thought that we are born destined for suffering and he is the one who created us?

Even the whole concept of hell brings us to question his love. By simply allowing Satan to exist (I’ve been told that he made him but did not know he was going to be bad, yet he knows the future) he is punishing people for things they did not know was even a sin yet. There is no other explanation for Satan other than he wants someone to argue with, at our expense.

Does this sound logical? He wants us all to go to heaven yet he demands that we repent verbally (sometimes psychically) to him. Would God really need our approval if he was perfect? Wouldn’t his self-esteem be inhuman to begin with? Apparently not.

This brings me to another contradiction that boggles my mind to no end.

2: God is not human – Being God should set him to a higher standard than we as humans could ever achieve, yet he is angry most of the time, sad others, and just completely irrational the rest of the time. A good example would be Noah’s flood (I swear I have more examples but this is just one of the more appalling stories when you think of it) because he lays waste to all of humanity and animals sans what is on that boat.

God doesn’t make mistakes yet he tells humanity (a small family which we are to believe repopulated the Earth within the span of a few hundred years) that he would never again flood the Earth in fury. If he has to make a statement like that would it mean that he felt bad about what he did? When we feel bad it’s because we know we did something wrong. How could God of been wrong if he is perfect?

Everything in the bible seems to point to the fact that God appears to be learning from his mistakes. Learning anything means you are far from perfect. Everything has a learning curve whether or not it’s alive.

Take physics for example. The universe after the big bang was chaotic but with time it fell into place. I know this isn’t exactly learning but I believe that in the sense that it was trial and error for many, many eons until the things fit is part of what I’m saying. I just like romanticizing words so get over it.

But that brings me to another point entirely

3: If God is not human, then why do we think of him as having human characteristics? – I know that one may argue that we are made in his image and all, but that would still not make much sense if you wanted to believe he was beyond all of our petty emotions. More than once I was told that he has a plan and that he is understanding and ya-da-da. If he was then why did he start so many wars in the bible? You don’t start a fight unless you are mad. Again I come back to the thought that it is impossible to get truly angry at another village if you knew when creating them that you would want to rip their heads off in a little while.

The only way I can view God at all is that I think of him as a scientist. He by nature cannot be simple, what simpleton can set the laws of gravity up and give us a nervous system that works well? No, he has to be constantly testing the waters to see what works. That is the only way his actions can even start to make sense to us. Again this nullifies his perfectness.

But the bible tells us to try and not understand him. This is a contradiction because many of the books in that thing tell us to do exactly that. It constantly mentions his emotions in order for us to think his actions were justified.

I think the big giveaway about heaven is the fact that when we go we should be beyond our humanly wants and needs. Then why is it appealing to us Earthlings in the first place? Sure the bible says we’ll be happy but the descriptions are very materialistic in nature. Why have streets of gold when that is a human want? Shouldn’t we be beyond that in heaven?

Or is heaven what we want to believe in? I honestly think it’s the latter because the spiritual fulfillment is but a small part of what we know about it. Everyone wants to live forever so why not believe that we do? Better yet, put it in a book that no one would ever question because we are afraid of God getting angry at us. After all, we know that if we make him angry then he could possibly make all of humanity suffer, again which makes sense if you are a drunken mentally handicapped frat boy seeking revenge on anything that moves because your girl broke up with you.

I will give the bible a point for not mentioning that envy is a sin. That didn’t come until the fourth century when a monk decided to make up reasons for us to go to hell. But it’s the fact that we hold onto these additions that makes a nonsensical book even more so. Thou shalt worship no other Gods but God makes it sound like God gets pretty jealous at us looking at other dudes and duddettes. The contradiction here is that he is God, therefore he’s allowed to sin but we aren’t. Should he be setting an example?

Thou shalt not kill is another gem. Never mind that it refers to the fact that when it was written it was meant to be “thou shalt not kill other Jews” but it’s the very cold truth that anyone takes it literally to begin with.

Our morals certainly do not come from God do they? If they did then we’d have been screwed a long time ago. Why do we look at God and the Bible and praise the good parts while totally ignoring the bad? I think that it’s because if we did then we’d be a lot less impressed with God than we want to be. We want him to be perfect and infallible because it makes us feel like something is in control. I believe the basis of fear is the lack of control. And if we feel he has it then we can make sense of the world.

Then again, wouldn’t that be like trying to understand him in a small way?

Ugh… My head hurts.  As I said things that make no sense shouldn’t be viewed as truth. Plus he seems no better than anyone else so why should I look up to him?

We lived millions of years without him, why start now?

Maybe if I take more drugs God will make sense.

Post two of two; Why I am not afraid of death.

I remember being around nine years old. I had asked the question whether or not cats went to heaven. The Sunday school teacher said that it was only a place reserved for God's chosen. I then asked why on Earth did God create animals if he didn't care about them? I was then told that the reason for animals being on Earth was for man's enjoyment. I think my faith wavered a little at that point. Something had shifted. I loved my cat. Why didn't God love him the way that I did?

Fast forward to my first suicide, I remember being in the psych ward and having a chaplain explain to me that if you committed suicide then you were committing a sin. I asked him why would God make me suicidal and she told me that this was a choice, not a determination. From there I started to investigate the human mind. I must remind you that I am in no way a trained psychologist, so my musings are purely of my own accord. Mind you that I've been in the mental health system since I was about ten, so I feel I've gathered enough info to make an informed opinion.

The first of the falters was learning that there was such things as chemical imbalances. My initial thought was "Why would God make people have problems that he himself deplored?" It was beyond my grasp, and the start of my atheism.

I went on unadulterated though. I still went to church and took communion like a good little boy. Even thought my intellect was starting to far outreach that of my Sunday school teacher. Things like "Why don't we have genetic defects if we came from two people, and then from one family after the flood?" Oh man... They didn't like that. Another one I remember was asking whether or not it was OK to kill a lot of people when the bible said not to kill. When the Sunday school teacher said that it was not I kindly pointed out that Judges is nothing but Genocide. I was then referred to talk with my parents, who did not approve of me undermining the class.

During my teen years I was enthralled with my depression, so much that I deplored God for letting me get this way. I prayed to him every day to lift it, was I not good enough for him to heed my calls? Apparently not. I was told that God made everyone for a reason. Was mine to be made purely for suffering? I couldn't understand why a loving God would let somebody fall like that.

I tried religion again when I was in my twenties. I went to this youth group called The Edge and I was taken aback by the niceness of the crowd. They seemed to accept me. That is of course until I tried to sing for them. Mind you I was not a good singer before training. Instead of telling me that I should receive lessons these people told me to stop trying at all. What was God like in that? When I did learn how to sing they changed their tune and told me I was brilliant. What a contradiction there is there....

I remember my first suicide attempt in Colorado. I did it and was completely alone by the time I was admitted. In fact the only friends who visited me were atheists. I wondered to myself why would people who did not believe in God want to visit somebody who was trying to kill themself? I was told that since our time is short, we should value life. And thus was the beginning of my true atheism. I still remember Wendy giving me a copy of the first Harry Potter book and kissing me on the forehead.

I started thinking. Why couldn't I control these impulses? Shouldn't a creature of God be able to distinguish between right and perceived wrong? I was repulsed by the idea that God knew the past, present, and future. Therefore he knew what I was going to be even before I was born. Did we really have free will then? Did we really choose our own destiny? If we chose to kill ourselves then why would we be sentenced to hell if he already knew of our fate? Wouldn't a loving God intervene? I asked him many times to, but he listened as well as one of my previous counselors. I never got so much as a sign when I took said bottle of Tylenol.

I began to seek out alternatives to religion. The one that made the most sense was Atheism. I can't tell you why it made me feel better. By all intense and purposes it should make you feel worse. Evolution happened and God played no part in creation, at least no God we could comprehend. The more I read up about science the more at ease I felt. I was comforted in the idea that we are not special. That we shared almost ninety percent of our DNA with every living life form on Earth. That if we were to arisen spontaneously, then what about the trillions of other planets in the universe? A trillion is almost too much for a computer to comprehend, let alone the human mind. What made us so special? It was that that made me feel unique. I was the result of a sperm and egg, out of thousands, to have made me into a human.

Who knows? Anti abortionists talk about the potential of a zygote, but what about the guy who jacks off and wastes millions of sperm on a tissue? What about the girl who menstruates and ejects a valuable egg? It doesn't make sense! Why stop there? Why not outlaw masturbation? Why not outlaw menstruation? You can't. I doubt that many creationist fundamentalists ever think about this. Who can outlaw a normal human process?

I think the thing that has stopped me from committing suicide better than any "God loves you!" rhetoric has to have been the idea that this is our only stop. Once you die, that's it. No light, no afterlife, no nothing. I found solace in Richard Dawkins' book "The God Delusion" when I could find none in the bible. Believe me, I've tried. I remember being in jail and reading it page for page. My thing was that if God made us who we are, then why was I a junky? He knew before hand when making me that my life would end up this way, then why would he have even given me life knowing it would be so fucked up?

I am not set out to convert people. This is only my personal revelation (Ha!) on the subject. I no longer fear death because while I do not believe in God I do believe in fate. When and if I die it shall be of death's own time and not God's. If God truly cared about everyone then why would he administer such suffering as part of our existence? If we suffered already then why allow a place like Hell to exist? He certainly has the power then why not the chutzpah?  If he loved us so much then why would he allow an entity like Satan to exist? He is all knowing and all powerful, why allow such a thing to corrupt us men and women?

The universe is indifferent. Once you let go of God and realize this then you will harbor no ill will towards life in itself. It doesn't care about who you are or who you are born to. Many of the royals were born into a life that was plagued by inadequacies resulting from inbreeding. Did they ask to be hemophiliacs? No. They may have been born privileged but they certainly didn't ask to die if they got a minor cut. Such things are arguments for God's existence.

I believe that when I die I will feel nothing. I've been through a coma. It was like blinking one minute and opening my eyes the second. Only thing was that a week had passed and I felt nothing. It was a blink to me. Death to me is like this blink, only it never ends. You won't know you are dead. It's been proven that even the light in the tunnel you experience is that of your brain shutting down. I've experienced this and thought nothing more of it than what it was. A brain defect.

I'm sorry if I don't offer consolation to those who have died. I want nothing more than for people to be happy. My only offering is that the dead felt nothing. They are in peace because they feel nothing. Death is a part of life and only an idealist would consider the idea of somebody living past their bodies. Is that so bad? I mean, you wouldn't even know! You'd be dead!

In closing, is it really so horrible to die? The dead feel nothing. You will always have your memories, so will the people who come after you. When you think of it you have been dead billions of years before you came into existence, why would it bother you that you wouldn't exist for a billion more? We are only on this Earth for a little bit of time. Make the most of it because it's the only life we have.

I will leave now just saying this. If we are truly autonomous in this life, then why waste it on thinking that a man upstairs (It in of itself is egocentric thinking that it would be a he) would care about what you do in your bedroom? I am homosexual and I honestly can't help the way I feel. I've tried to sleep with girls but it really felt like the pieces didn't fit. I remember my first consensual homosexual experience as being one of dread and fear. Why did it feel so damn right if it was so horribly wrong in God's eyes? This was before I learned of the hormone Adrogen that was introduced during the embryos first stages. This was before I learned of the psychological factors that played a role in it. I was a scared young twenty one year old who only knew that it felt right. Why would God make me feel so right doing something that he himself deplored? Later I learned about how most of the mammal species exhibited the same behavior. Why would God give no free will to animals yet allow them to fuck another one of their own gender? Animals know no different. Why would he condemn such an act if he himself gave them no right to do so?

I am not afraid of death because I am not afraid of God's judgment. It's as simple as that. When you let go of him then you let go of centuries of being told what to do. Do what feels right, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone. After all, we only have a short time on this Earth. Why not make it pleasant for everyone around us? :-)

~David McGhee