2006 March | Way of the Mind

Monthly Archive for March, 2006

Work, Jobs and Freedom

Published

on March 30, 2006

. 3 Comments

I’ve been writing a lot on my personal blog about this, but that one’s in Portuguese, and I guess most of this blog’s readers won’t understand most of it. Besides, I’ve been wanting to write about this in a less personal way, so this is it.

A couple of days, I was at home, working on a new mini-site (I’m on vacation, for 2 weeks, that’s why I’ve been posting more here and in my other blogs), it was a nice day, and I went for a walk, for about half an hour. It felt really good, and it got me thinking on how this is the proper, natural way to live, instead of spending most of your days in an office, as if in a jail.

A common phenomenon which most people doesn’t realize exists is this: people have very short memories, and little to no sense of history. So, when something is done in a particular way for a couple of generations, people simply stop questioning, accept that way as the way, the only way, the natural way, and forget that it was ever done differently, that it can be done differently.

There are countless examples of this, but the one I want to write about is this: jobs. Continue reading ‘Work, Jobs and Freedom’

Neanderthals and the Bible

Published

Pedro Timóteo

on March 30, 2006

in reality and religion

. 23 Comments

Here’s a question for any Christians who believe everything in the Bible is true (I’d call them “fundamentalists”, which was what they used to call themselves, I believe, but the word has a negative association these days): what about Neanderthals?

If you believe in the Bible, including Genesis, you believe in Creationism, and that means that such a thing as “cavemen” could never have existed; the first men in the Bible, both in Eden (Adam and Eve) and shortly after (Seth, Cain, Noah and so on) are described as civilized, having a society, building cities, and so on.

So, according to Bible-based Creationism, there never was such a thing as Neanderthals (or indeed any of these species), living in caves, being more advanced than apes yet less than men. Not to mention that they are supposed to have lived millions of years ago… hey, isn’t the universe just 6000 years old?

But… where do all these fossils come from?

Logically, a Christian would have to accept one of the following:

the fossils are all fakes, created by scientists and other “enemies of faith”, to discredit Creationism
God created the fossils to “test our faith”, making them appear much older than they really are, to all scientific tests - not to mention the fact that they are from beings that never actually existed
Genesis is, at least in part, a fictional book

So… which is it?
Biblical costumes for Easter Passion Plays and Christmas events.

Liberals and Conservatives, part 2

Published

Pedro Timóteo

on March 28, 2006

in definitions and politics

. 3 Comments

In part 1, I’ve described how both sides seem to view the other one. But what are they, really?

If you go by the meaning of the words, “liberal” comes from liberty, a.k.a. freedom. “conservative” comes from conserve, keep, maintain.

I think most people would agree that, from that definitions, liberals would be “better”, right? Freedom is good (though some would argue against “too much” freedom, as that’s unpatriotic) , and “conserving” usually means “holding back”.

Of course, we’ve seen before that things can be misnamed. Still, we don’t usually see conservatives saying that so-called “liberals” aren’t liberal at all, nor do we see the opposite, so it’s my guess that the terms have mostly been accepted, and that people usually don’t think about what the words actually mean.

Still, my point remains: in my opinion, at least, and in the opinion of any who value freedom and in moving towards a better world, rather than staying as we are (or even as we supposedly were, in some golden age), the meaning of “liberal” is much, much better than the meaning of “conservative”.

Again: I’m talking, here, about the meaning of the words, not about what liberals and conservatives really are.

By the way, I do not consider myself a “liberal”. Or a “conservative”. I’d say I’m mostly a libertarian (with a lot of Ayn Rand influences), though there is no libertarian(ish) party in Portugal (so I tend to vote against people I despise).

More to come…

Theist and Atheist thought; or The God of the Gaps

Published

Pedro Timóteo

on March 27, 2006

in atheism and reason

. 9 Comments

Browsing through Reddit, I found a link to this picture on Flickr, called “The Need for Answers“. Here’s the image:

The comments, both on Reddit and on Flickr, seem to understand the message in different ways. I’ve read some which said that the image was pro-theist, as it meant that “atheists have to explain everything and can’t see beauty”.

But I don’t think that that was the intended meaning. Partly because the “discussion” in the picture is familiar, but also because of a single sentence at the bottom:

Where do you draw the line?

Continue reading ‘Theist and Atheist thought; or The God of the Gaps’

Ahh, religion…

Published

Pedro Timóteo

on March 24, 2006

in fanaticism, religion and violence

. 1 Comment

From Herald Sun:

Muslim clerics are demanding an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity be executed

and:

Clerics have warned that if the Afghan Government caves into Western pressure and frees him, they will urge people to “pull him into pieces”.

and, of course:

“Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die.”

Apparently, George W. Bush is “angered”. It is a start… but would he be angered if the man, instead of moving from one superstition to another (which happens to be the same as his), had become an atheist? I doubt it. I bet he’d believe, instead, that “the godless heathen had it coming for insulting religion”.

Site: StevePavlina.com

Published

Pedro Timóteo

on March 14, 2006

in sites

. 0 Comments

I can’t even begin to praise StevePavlina.com enough. It’s a “personal development” site, very successful, though I have just found about it a couple of days ago. I can see that I’ll be spending many, many hours reading stuff there, in the near future.

It includes (IMO) great, inspiring articles such as The Courage to Live Consciously, a blog, and podcasts - I actually listened to the first podcast in my life yesterday, believe it or not - though I’m a “computer guy”, and I’ve long known what podcasts are, I hadn’t ever been interested in any… but How to Make Money Without a Job, for instance, was very insightful, logical and well argued - and the guy isn’t selling anything.

Liberals and Conservatives, part 1

Published

Pedro Timóteo

on March 7, 2006

in definitions and politics

. 4 Comments

Gee, scary title.

I’ll try to make this post shorter by making it just the first of a series of posts about this theme.

“Liberals” and “conservatives” are two terms used in some of the most intense discussions and flamewars on the Internet. This has happened for decades. But what do they mean, really? I don’t believe that they mean the same to everyone - independently of what one’s own position is.

Let’s start by trying to come to some definitions, then.

Continue reading ‘Liberals and Conservatives, part 1′

Letting the "bad guys" name things

Published

Pedro Timóteo

on March 1, 2006

in definitions and truth

. 5 Comments

On Slashdot, I saw a discussion which, while mostly about other things, at one point mentioned this, and it got me thinking (which, as everyone knows, always means trouble).

The thing is: a lot of things that sane, rational people oppose have names which are absolutely wrong, and which were… skillfully named by its proponents, because, to many people, opposing them means opposing what the names suggest… and what the names suggest always seems “good”.

A few examples:

Continue reading ‘Letting the "bad guys" name things’