Category - Atheism

Whoowee. There's nothing like a little late night programming to get the juices flowing. Well, not really. Yesterday after uploading my fourth Greasemonkey user script to userscripts.org, I decided it would be a good idea to make my own little namespace for them all. So I've created a Greasemonkey page that has links to the scripts and an explanation of what Greasemonkey and user scripts are.

All the scripts I've successfully written are really simple. But last night, I got an idea for another one that would take some effort. It would be for MySpace, and it would hide links to bulletins posted by certain friends. I spent two and a half hours working on it. After the first hour or so I got it working on the main home page, or so I thought, but I spent the rest of the time trying to get it to work in the expanded list of bulletins. I learned how to use JavaScript to remove rows from a table, but I couldn't remove the right rows. I know it sounds so simple, but it wasn't... for me. The script would remove the first bulletin successfully, but after that it might leave some that it was supposed to get rid of or vice versa. See, it would count which row the bulletin was in and then remove that row. But after that, the table would have a different number of rows, so if it kept chugging along, the numbers would be all out of whack. I tried everything I could think of to get the counter not to increment after removing a row, but the result was the same.

So, after two and a half hours, it was almost 1:30 in the morning, so I decided to hit the hay. I hadn't given up, though. I woke up a little after 7:30, probably because it was hot and bright and noisy and I was uncomfortable in bed -- not to mention that I had had unsettling dreams about my malfunctioning script. Even after a frustrating session of programming and so little sleep, I thought I could continue. I went back to the computer, which had hit a snag while shutting down and was still on. After spending some time trying different ways to fix the problem, I gave up. Then, because I was so tired, I tried to take a nap, but I never can, so I decided to tackle my problem from the opposite direction by guzzling a can of soda. Maybe I'll read this in a few months and get inspired to give the script another whack. After all, it is potentially useful. Another idea I had was to filter bulletins with certain words in their titles. That would be just as much work, if not more.

Anyway, there's a lesson to be learned here, and that lesson is this: if you try to do something, try really hard until you have no choice but to give up.

Gabbly is a pretty cool site that allows you to have a live chat with other people who are viewing any web page. Go to the site to see what I mean.

How much do you know about atheism and atheists? This YouTube video, "Atheist," challenges the popular notion that atheists are horrible people. I recommend that everyone watch it.

One year ago: "I don't know what beer tastes like."
Two years ago: "In my June 22 post, I talked about the Linux operating system and listed four reasons why I might someday switch to it."

I'm glad this World Cup thing is almost over. I'm probably risking being chastised by readers when I say this -- I can't mention my soccer opinions without getting a verbal lashing from someone -- but I think soccer is boring. Doesn't anyone else think so? I enjoy playing it for fun, but to a spectator, it's a slow, low-scoring game that's void of any excitement. Fans guess what the final score of a game will be. That's how boring it is.

The frivolousness of it all is compounded by the degree to which most of the world goes ga-ga over the sport. And it's all "My country's better than your country." The rabid devotion of fans to their national teams is disgusting. That's how World War I started, by the way. I don't think worldwide sporting events such as the World Cup do anything more than inflame national tensions. Don't believe me? Soccer makes people go crazy.

I'm probably just pushing myself toward further bashing, but I might as well add that I'm glad that Brazil is out of the competition. After the last World Cup (of which I had been blissfully unaware), the Brazilians all went crazy because Brazil's team won. I was in a car at Sample and Dixie, and people were honking their horns, running around, and generally causing a ruckus. I didn't feel safe. I mean, who cares if their team won? What does that prove? It doesn't say anything about them personally. I guess people just want to feel like they're better than everyone else, and that's no good. Try to control yourselves, people of the world. Just wanted to let you know: this soccer thing, it's gone to your heads.

I should probably add that I don't like sports in general. You probably hate me already, so what does it matter?

Yesterday, Independence Day, we had some relatives and relatives' relatives over. We played this game called ladder golf, which is actually fun. After having some all-American fare like corn, some beef thing, and other stuff, we went to see the fireworks show on the beach. It was pretty nice in spite of the fact that a zillion people and Lee Greenwood were there. (Oh, speaking of which, God blessed America yesterday. All those incantations have paid off!) After that, we went back home and burned firework-type things. It was fun.

Top Ten Stock Photography Clichés. You probably know them all too well.

Look Around You is a British show that parodies old educational programs programmes. The first season, which aired in 2002, poked fun at cheesy science films/videos of the 1970s and '80s. Each episode was about 9 minutes long. Now, thanks to the miracle of YouTube, you can watch them all: Maths, Water, Germs, Ghosts, Sulphur, Music, Iron, and The Brain.

One year ago: "I have a good mind to marry into Irving Berlin's family."
Two years ago: "It's not even really funny, but it might claim the title."

Yesterday I was invited by my friend Andrew to go to the local drive-in for his birthday, like last year. Only a few other people went along. Luckily, the owner didn't get Tasered by the police this time, so there was little to keep us from getting there early. We had some food -- Fritos, chicken wings, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, shrimp, Bagel Bites -- and then relaxed and watched The Da Vinci Code.

I thought I would bring a small radio to add to the sound of the movie -- they broadcast it on the FM band, so you don't need to hook some box up to your car like the Flintstones did. Anyway, it seemed that the radio, which is small, cheap, and old, couldn't pick up the station no matter, though I fiddled with the dial quite a bit. I could still hear the movie (the car stereos were tuned in too) but not as well as I would have liked to. Come to think of it, I should have brought my portable CD player (with digital tuning) and headphones. Oh well.

Anyway, I don't really have much to say about the movie itself. I haven't read the book, so I can't compare it to that. The movie was pretty engaging and enjoyable. I don't think anybody should fuss over the ideas presented in the film. It's just fiction, after all. In fact, it's metafiction. If you're that insecure about your beliefs, you should probably reevaluate them. Also: I didn't like Tom Hanks's hair.

Today I'm going to my friend Mark's house so we can start that band we've been meaning to start. It's about time. I just (as I was writing this) got a call from Mark saying that we'd also be doing the whole pizza/movie thing. It should be cool. If we manage to play some music, it'd be a good opportunity to use my relatively new and now totally working digital recorder.

The Lake Peigneur disaster of 1980 wreaked environmental havoc and drastically changed the ecology of that Louisiana lake. The lesson learned: don't drill for oil in a lake that sits above a salt mine. For this item, a tip o' the hat to Damn Interesting, a blog whose name doesn't seem to lie. This probably won't be the last link of theirs that I post.

According to these atheist/agnostic statistics, nearly 27,000,000 Americans don't believe in gods. Similarly, here are a ton of maps showing the prevalence of some major religions by U.S. county.

One year ago: "I hadn't really known her before, so we sort of met for the first time."
Two years ago: "The upperclassman said to him, 'Here at Harvard, we don't end sentences with prepositions.'"

You can wish me a happy Easter. Just because I don't believe in the existence of god-men who died and came back to life doesn't change the fact that today is Easter (in Western Christianity, at least). Many Easter traditions have much more to do with the fact that it's spring. After all, it's no accident that Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring. When you've got the bunnies and the eggs and stuff, you're just carrying down pagan traditions. Even the English word "Easter" is based on the name of Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility whose feast was celebrated in early spring. If Christmas can be about "happiness" or "family" or "giving" (as the TV specials tell us), then certainly Easter can be about spring, and for me, that's what it is. Besides that, the rest of my family is observing Easter, so that itself is a pretty good reason to join in (or, rather, to be included). So happy Easter to you (and Passover, while we're at it). Also: today is Militiamen Day in Cuba and Queen Margrethe's Birthday in Denmark.

I reported a few months ago about a scandal at my old church/school. It involved the principal being fired for meddling with funds and the pastor refusing to provide evidence that she did. I didn't take either side, though it seemed that everyone else did. Some longtime churchgoers even left because they believed that the principal was innocent. Well, it turns out that the foul play was on the side of the principal after all, and she's issued a vague apology. It looks like she's going to have to repay for the money she "misappropriated," and she'll be barred from working at schools in the archdiocese. The end.

About a year ago I mentioned that I had gotten Adblock, a Firefox extension. Since then, Adblock has largely been superseded by Adblock Plus, which I just downloaded the other day to replace the old Adblock. Adblock Plus 0.7 offers all of the features of the original Adblock: the ability to remove particular images, scripts, objects, and iframes, with options for whitelisting certain sites. You can even write regular expressions to help you out. Adblock Plus also allows you to subscribe to periodically updated lists of filters, the most popular of which is Filterset.G, which has its own updater.

Even more impressive, however, is the extent to which you can remove items from web pages. With the old Adblock I noticed that not all ads are images, scripts, iframes, or objects. Some are boxes of text and images, incorporated rather well into the contents of a web page. Some are simply text links. Thanks to the element hiding features in Adblock Plus 0.7, you can block any HTML tag based on its attributes; therefore, you can block a <div> with a particular id, a <span> with a particular class, a <table> of a particular width, or even -- get this -- an <a> with a particular href. Partial matches are also allowed, but not full regular expression syntax. Obviously, a knowledge of HTML comes in handy for element hiding, but I've found that the View Formatted Source extension makes it easy to identify certain block-type elements for removal.

Find some tips for singing the blues at BluesGuide.com.

One year ago: "Google Maps is making a splash across the Internet for the ability to view color satellite photos of lots of places."

The other day, if you'll recall, I found out from the school's Guidance Department that I was being considered for the Florida American Legion's Boys State program, which is "a comprehensive one-week leadership course in state and local government, developed to offer youth a better perspective of the practical operation of government and to show that the individual is responsible for the character and success of government." I was told that the interviews would be Wednesday -- today -- and that I would need to wear at least a dress shirt and dress slacks.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it, but I figured I should give it a try, even though I felt that I wouldn't make the cut. I didn't think it would be a problem that I'm an atheist because the Boys State home page assures that "there is no attempt to impose any beliefs on anyone.... If someone does not wish to participate in any religious or patriotic ceremony, that is his privilege, as long as he does not prevent anyone else from participating." Another consideration was that I had to make a resume. I started working on that, but I figured it wouldn't be that important. So this morning, wearing the proper attire (plus a tie), I submitted the application to the Guidance Department.

After one o'clock rolled around, while I was in AP European History, I received a note saying to go down to Guidance. I was pretty nervous, but I tried to calm myself. When it came time for my interview, I went in to find not one person, as I had been expecting, but three: an old man, a younger man, and a middle-aged woman -- plus the woman from Guidance who had told me about my nomination two days ago. I sat at the table with the three people from the American Legion, and after I told them my name, they began with the questions.

The first question was, "Do you have any qualms about saying the Pledge of Allegiance?" I admitted that I did. I added that though I'm not religious, I simply would not say the words "under God" because I'm proud of my country; furthermore, I said that I would respect the right of others to say the full Pledge. The next question was, "Would you swear on the Bible?" I said I would not. After that, they asked if I accepted the motto "In God we trust." I said that I did not. Then the woman said to someone else, "I think we can let this one go." She said to me that the American Legion was a Christian organization and that they would not accept me. I politely bade them good day and went out the door. The interview was over.

Inside I was furious, but I kept my cool as I returned to class. When some people asked me how it went, I broke the news. They had rejected me after three questions, without even asking about my other qualifications (which, admittedly, were few). The general reaction of my classmates was one of support. The whole thing seemed pretty ridiculous to them too. Seeing no reason to continue wearing my tie, I took it off. After a class discussion about the affair, Mr. Miller walked to my desk and did something I will never forget. He shook my hand and said, "Let me be the first to congratulate you."

Here's an account of using the Socratic method to teach an ordinary third-grade class. It's a remarkable read.

The Scanner Photography Project: "Building homemade digital cameras from low-end flatbed scanners." Yes, really, Check out the pictures.

One year ago: "In the best schools, boys and girls, the worst fights are about milk!"

Toward the end of the day today, T.J. and I got called down from class to the Guidance Department. T.J., of course, is probably the brightest mind in the junior class, as far as grade point average goes. I think the lady we talked to said that I was ranked #3, which means that the school board's online stats are wrong (they had put me as #1 in the class, and unlike last time, it seemed to be legitimate).

Numbers aside, the matter at hand was that we were being considered for the Florida American Legion's Boys State program, in which we would spend a week in the state capital and learn about government or something. We'd also take some college classes or something like that. But since the #1 concern of these sorts of programs is that the students have positions and qualities of leadership, I'm pretty much guaranteed to fail the interview. I've never had a leadership position in anything, except handling duties on lead vocals or lead guitar.

Still, I might as well try, because I have nothing to lose. I have to have the application in by Wednesday, which is also the day of the interviews. (I love how much notice they gave.) I'm sure it would be a good experience -- after all, Colleges Like It™, so it has to be good. I can see myself, among all the smart people in distant Tallahassee, having no idea what's going on (as usual). I already know about something I'll have to deal with. From the Boys State web site:

Here's that idea that only religious people can be good. Wow, I'm having déjà vu or something. "Congress shall make no law," indeed, but prestigious community service groups can discriminate however they want. At least they don't make you pray, but it would be better if they didn't alienate some of the eager young minds they're trying to foster.

So, I'm going to go for the interview. If I recall from years past, the school chooses several boys for this, and so there can't be that many high-ranking boys in the junior class to choose from. T.J., with his routine garb of a polo shirt, a crucifix, and an American flag pin (clothes make the man, they say), and his extensive (I'm sure) experience with leadership positions and even things such as this in the past, is a shoo-in. But I'll probably end up kicking myself if I don't give it a shot.

Do you love the music that the Weather Channel plays during their local forecasts? Here are their monthly/quarterly/seasonal playlists dating all the way back to 1998.

For those who can't get enough of Dinosaur Comics, the online comic that uses the same artwork every day, there's Dadasaurus Rex, which assembles panels from random strips, and NewsRex, which offers "news delivered... Cretaceously!"

Two years ago: "Curse you, Windows!!"

On Tuesday, a teacher came up to the group I was hanging out with at lunch. He wanted to let us know that he was starting a chapter of a service club called the National Exchange Club. I thought it was a pretty interesting idea; I had just been thinking about starting or joining a club, and Colleges Like It™ when you're in clubs. More importantly, I've been feeling like a lousy sluggard the past something-teen weeks because I honestly don't do much. I figured joining this club would give me a sense of accomplishment and other nice stuff.

I decided to go to the first meeting, which was yesterday afternoon. There was a smallish group of people there, many of whom I knew. The teacher sounded like a fun guy to be around, and I sounded like I was going to have a pretty decent time doing service projects and things of that nature. He happened to mention that Exchange Club luncheons, to which our school chapter would be invited once in a while, begin with prayer. This got me a bit suspicious. He then passed out an information sheet about the National Exchange Club. Included was their "Covenant of Service," which had been "adopted as the philosophy which characterizes an Exchangite." It begins like this (emphasis added):

This I cannot accept. As an atheist, I accept no divine privileges, nor will I consecrate my energy to uplifting religious ideals. If those are things that characterize an Exchangite, there is no way I can be one. This club is one that promotes religion, and promoting religion flies in the face of my personally held principles. By putting religion on the same plane as good citizenship, the Exchange Club holds the regrettably widespread belief that If You're Religious You're Good And If You're Not You're Bad. Religion has given us the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Holocaust, to name but a few atrocities. An atheist isn't the kind of person who would slaughter his fellow men for having different imaginary friends in the sky.

Secondarily, the club urges its members to be blindly patriotic at all times. Though promoting religion is the deal-breaker, I don't like this much either. I'll be patriotic when I feel my country deserves it. I have right to feel patriotic whenever I want, and you can't forget that dissent is patriotic. Needless to say, I won't be joining the Exchange Club. A theist might ask why I'm making such a big deal out of it, but I'm sure theists wouldn't join a club that promotes atheism, even as a secondary goal. I'm going to show everyone that you can be a good person without believing in gods.

I wish there was something I could do about this club effectively discriminating against atheists, but I think it's been established that a private club can discriminate against whoever it wants, especially atheists -- the last group that it's socially acceptable (and often encouraged) to hate. Ironically, the day I was introduced to the Exchange Club, I had been considering starting an atheism club, so I just might go through with it eventually. Hey, I know: we could do community service projects.

My friends from the church youth group I was in before I became an atheist have called on me to participate in another improvised "Comedy Nite" like the one we had last year. I thought it would be awkward coming back to my Catholic friends as a nonbeliever, but I've been assured that they won't think much of it. (My friend Mandi is still a nominal member of the group even though she has converted to Judaism.) I'm pretty sure there won't be much religious discussion or anything, so I think it will be okay. I've been helping my sister organize the project. We have to have everything set up in time for the show on Sunday night, and I think we can manage like last time. In fact, I think it'll be even better.

The $39 Experiment is exploring the question, "Can you get free stuff from companies these days?" Apparently some companies will give you free samples of their products if you but ask.

Here's why diamonds aren't a girl's best friend. To summarize: you have been psychologically conditioned to want diamonds, which are essentially worthless but whose prices are kept artificially high, making miners subject to war and disease.

One year ago: "It was a good way to get out of class, that's for sure."
Two years ago: "It's official: the human race as we know it is spiraling downward to an end."

Yesterday my aunt came to visit from upstate. On the kitchen table last night, I noticed a book that I had remembered seeing at her house: an old book called "Man's Religions." Overnight that book has crept next to my computer desk. Now, how and why is it here, I wonder, and not back at my aunt's house a number of hours away?

I tend to suspect things of people (almost to the point of paranoia), and I've been wrong about suspicions before, but there's no alternate explanation for how this one book from a loaded bookshelf in a small house outside an obscure town far, far away from here landed within my eyesight just days after I avowed my atheism. The idea is that I'm supposed to pick up the book out of curiosity and wind up picking a new religion for myself.

See, there's a prevailing belief in the United States that if you adhere to some religion (except for paganism/Wicca, Satanism, and possibly Islam), then you're an okay guy/gal. Otherwise, you supposedly can't be a good person. After "coming out" about my atheism, I've met with this reaction from a few friends (okay, one), and the argument was something like this: "You need to have some religion because otherwise, everyone would go around doing immoral things with no fear of punishment."

I'll ask my religious readers to consider the following: would you rather do good things for the hope of spiritual reward or simply for the sake of doing good things? Obviously, the humbler and more sensible choice is the latter. If you say, "I hope I get into heaven now that I've helped that person, 'cause it wouldn't be in my best interest to burn for all eternity," then you're not being good for the right reasons. In order to be a truly good person, you should make common-sense morals, which can exist independently of religion, a part of your natural thought process: "Ah, I feel better knowing that that person has benefited from my help. I've done what I had to offer, and I've made someone else happy."

You still may be thinking that it can't possibly work, that people can't be good without religion. To that I reply: look around you! Your friends, family members, classmates, or co-workers may have been raised atheists, and you might not know it. In fact, 15% of Americans were atheists in 2001 (1), and there are likely more than that who are afraid to admit it to anyone. Why would they be afraid? Because prejudice against atheists (as determined by approval of a hypothetical "well-qualified presidential candidate who happened to be...") was as widespread in 1999 as that against blacks in 1959, and it was more prevalent in 1999 than that against Jews and women in 1937 (2).

And still, these American atheists, closeted or outspoken, recent "converts" or lifelong nonbelievers, are all around you, and the majority fit perfectly well into mainstream society so as to pass by unnoticed. They and I can live morally, without needing to appease some higher power, by exercising self-improvement and compassion toward others. It's a logical course of action because it makes the world a better place for us all. So, as for that old book sitting near my desk, I'm not going to pick it up because I know that I don't need it.

I've been continuing to try out more Firefox extensions. I've tried out a few, and here are the new ones I'm using now:

• Fasterfox can speed up browsing using several methods. It can preload links on a page so that they're already cached when you click on them. I haven't really noticed a difference in speed, but it puts a timer in the status bar, so maybe I could do some empirical comparisons.
• IE Tab can load Internet Explorer inside Firefox. This could be useful for me when I'm designing web pages, so that I don't need to have two browser windows open. You can also have it automatically load certain sites (such as Windows Update) in IE.
• Restart Firefox creates a menu item that closes and restarts the browser, so you only need to do it with one click. You need to restart Firefox for any extensions and themes to take effect, so this came in handy quickly.
• Sort Extensions and Themes alphabetizes the lists of extensions and themes you have installed. (Kind of sad how I now have extensions for managing extensions, huh?)
• ViewMyCurrency dynamically converts currency on web pages to the currency of your choice, and it allows for you to plug in numbers for manual conversion if you need to.

Also, I was getting bored with Firefox's default theme, so I decided to delve into the world of themes. I was looking for something sleek and silvery with a splash of color. After trying out several themes and finding one thing wrong with each of them, I came across Noia eXtreme, which is apparently the most popular theme (besides the default one). It looks really slick and feels very comfortable to use. If you're looking for a good theme, I recommend it.

In case you somehow missed this story yesterday, a whale was spotted swimming down the Thames through London.

In other news, it's been discovered that one in twelve Irishmen are descendents of a medieval Irish warlord. I've got some Irish in me, so it's possible that I could be a descendent of "Niall of the Nine Hostages" as well.

There's something I need to say. It's something I've been hiding to many people for fear of rejection. But I can't keep it in any longer, because doing so would hurt others and myself. So here it is: I am a nonreligious atheist. The nonreligious part means that I don't subscribe to any religious or supernatural belief. The atheist part means that I believe that gods don't exist.

Why would I come to this decision? I have many reasons, but the main one is this: Many religions have existed to explain the unknown. Most are incompatible with each other, and all are unprovable. It makes sense to conclude that science, an alternate answer to "Why?" that, by definition, can be proved, is right. I'd rather find a meaning to life on earth using logic, critical thinking, rationality, and knowledge, than have people hand me a mythological answer, written by guys in tents in a desert thousands of years ago, that no longer holds itself up.

This is obviously a far cry from my Roman Catholic upbringing, but it didn't happen overnight. After I left a Catholic school and started high school, I gained a few more freedoms. I immediately realized that at a public school, I had the legal right not to say the Pledge of Allegiance, which acknowledges that the United States is a "nation under God." I felt that people who didn't believe in God shouldn't have to acknowledge his existence, so I myself didn't say the Pledge.

Over a year ago, in Programming I, my friends and I would discuss such weighty issues as the existence of God. Justin and David would say he existed. Gilbert and Brian would say he didn't. Believing that both views had merit, I would defend the side that was losing. Although I had no qualms about praying or going to church, the dominoes of my faith were set up to fall.

Last year on Palm Sunday (March 20) I was asked to do a reading or something at the mass. When I was done and I had gotten back to my seat, someone -- it doesn't matter who -- said to me, "You forgot to reverence the altar." I thought to myself, "Why would I do that?" It started the chain reaction: it got me thinking about the seemingly strange things that religious people do. After a lot of consideration, I had serious doubts about the rationality of religion in general.

Then, at the youth group mass on April 24, a guest priest was going on about how great Catholics were, in his opinion. "We Catholics are the best," he kept saying. His main bit of evidence, I think, was that Catholic relief organizations get to disasters before any others. Not only did I doubt that, but I noted his haughtiness. That experience knocked down the last domino. From that moment I decided that I could not believe in any religion.

After that I hid my decision from almost everyone. But I became increasingly agitated and I didn't like going to church anymore. I couldn't get anything out of it, and I could no longer live a lie. So the truth has now been told. In fact, I told my parents last night. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life. As I was uttering the words, I actually felt like I was trapped in a nightmare. They took it calmly, but I think they were distressed, and rightly so. They say it's just a phase, but it's been a number of months already. Anyway, it's better than being kicked out of the house.

Let me make some more things clear. I am not going to be evil; I'm still going to apply the morals I've learned in life because I know that what is harmful to society is bad, and what is not is okay. I have no ill will against any individuals in my former religious sphere, namely my former schoolmates, members of my family's church, or friends from the youth group. I respect people who adhere to religious beliefs; I just don't think highly of the beliefs to which they cling. I agree to disagree. If more religious people come to understand more nonreligious people, then atheists may finally get a break from being the most openly hated group in America, and that can only be a good thing.

People who will talk about this might say, "Jordon has quite literally lost his religion." But now, having liberated my mind from the confines of a religion, I am free. So I'd prefer to say that I've gained the freedom to think. I can wonder about things. I can accept new ideas. And hopefully, this fresh degree of open-mindedness will make me a better person. If we're going to make the world a better place, then it's living on earth, not an afterlife, that we have to be concerned about. Let's have fun, be good to each other, and live like this is all we've got.