Up@dawn 2.0

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Debate, Sagan, Muslim Persecution, and Other Stuff

First off, and everything isn't in place yet, I'm pleased to sneak-peak announce that everyones favorite pragmatist, our beloved Oliver will be participating in a debate, nay, discussion with the honorable, and popular, Rabbi Rami, on the topic "Is God Possible in a Dying Environment." Tickets go on sale never, as the event is free, and the event will be right after this class on a tuesday, April 22nd. Bring your wife, kids, unicorns, and gods because it should be a barn burner (or in the least, an insightful and joyous delve into the wisdom of some of our most intelligent contemporaries' views on a poignant and important topic.)

We are also taking up donations for the "buy William a couple new synths" fund. Donations not required and unrrelated.

That said, I've switched over to the Sagan book, and am somewhat enjoying myself, but perhaps 'interesting' myself is a better way to say that. I'll post some questions in advance for such.


FQ: Sagan compare's intelligent design to watchmaking? True. pg. 41
DQ:There lay a quote within the book of Tolstoy's, "without knowing what I am, and why I am here, life is impossible?" Do you believe this is true?

I'd just like to say in chapter 8, Sagan is questioned about the end of days, and the current myths revolving around the reformation of Israel in 1948, and he makes one of the funniest jokes about airplanes I've ever heard. You'll have to read for yourself, but to me the whole book was worth the time just off of that. Its around 249-251


This is still happening BTW.

I get it partially of course, allah is the biggest threat to southern white men since jungle fever, and its in their best interests to kill the muslims. What I don't get is why no cemetery? It'd be ungentlemanly not to bury the wives, children, and fathers you've massacred respectfully. That's just rude.

Also, this exists:

I'd have never thought that the guy I watched as a child, the man who made me fall in love with lab coats and chemistry sets was actually an intelligent scientist! WHO KNEW?!

Despite the turks bias, and the general fuckery of the video, the connection of religion to politics is understated, and thats why atheist arguments tend to do poorly with the general population. To state God is real and the bible is divine is to state a variety of subset propositions. Its to also say that Western European history has followed a linear progressive path, its to say that America is right in all of its puppet governments, its to say that the fundamental way of the majority of western life is permissible and righteous because its foundations lay in the divine.

To state that there is no god is to hurl life into contingency, its to garner the weight of history as a responsibility, its to having to take the wheel of a car out of control in the void and steer it to nowhere.

And thats not nice, nor does it sell gas station t-shirts, Coca-Cola, or War.
It might be true though, and if it is, that Big Mac and Coke should taste an awful lot like slave labor, and it is 100% you and your family's fault for supporting it, and there are no excuses.

But if there is a god, its all good, he's got their back, and they might go to heaven, if they reject their cultural upbringing, or get conquered soon. And thats comforting, that's progress, by god, that's American.
I

1 comment:

  1. It'll be a pleasure and an honor to debate/discuss the significance of "god" in an environmentally degraded world, or anything else that comes up, with Rami. Thanks for inviting me, William!

    We were wondering in class what kind of Rabbi Rami is, and it so happens that he addressed that very question recently on his blog:

    "'What kind of rabbi are you? Seriously, I just don’t understand what you are about. A rabbi is supposed to adhere to the commandments and make Jews Jewish, but I don’t see you doing that at all. Can you explain yourself?'

    This question came through my email this morning, and I am so grateful for it. Let me share my response with you.

    Perhaps this will help: For me, Judaism is a means and not an end, and being a rabbi isn’t about making Jews Jewish, but about using Judaism as a tool for making meaning and discovering wisdom.

    I am interested only in truth as best as I can discern it, and I fashion Judaism as a way of articulating that truth. I don’t believe in a God who created the universe, chose the Jews, gave us Torah, a Promised Land, and 613 mitzvot (commandments). I believe in a nondual reality evolving toward greater levels of complexity and higher levels of consciousness that ultimately gives rise to beings such as ourselves who can begin to understand this reality, and fashion meaning and purpose that promote justice and compassion for all beings.

    The extent to which I can imagine Judaism doing this is the extent to which I feel myself commanded. The extent to which I can’t imagine this, is the extent to which I don’t feel commanded.

    Because my loyalty is to truth rather than Judaism, I see myself as spirituality independent, and thus free to explore and draw from the entirety of human wisdom: religious, artistic, scientific, etc. And I want the Judaism I teach to be of value not only to Jews, but to other spiritually independent seekers as well. Just as Jews borrow from Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism, and Christian mysticism, I want followers of these paths to borrow from Judaism as well.


    So I guess I am what my rebbe told me to be: a rabbi to the world."

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