A conversation I overheard

This past Friday I overheard a conversation on how a Christian thought atheists were atheists. He said that atheists have problems with their bodies and that's why they don't believe in God. I was just wondering what others think he meant by this. Also, my boyfriend had to stop me from saying anything to the guy.

On another note, I would like to volunteer to go on the exam day.

Final Presentation on Sam Harris

I'm not a very good public speaker, so I'll just be showing a short video of Sam Harris speaking on the incompatibility of free will and conscious experience.

Here is the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXTEmu-jUqA


Here are some links to some other good Sam Harris videos:

Sam's Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj9oB4zpHww

Sam and Richard Dawkins on morality and science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeJrcVhtzYo

Sam on Free Will: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCofmZlC72g

Sam debates Cory Booker on gun control: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv4lxLXoiK4

Sam on death and the present moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITTxTCz4Ums

Daily Quiz

April 24

1. What materialist proposition does Hitch confirm "it's no fun to appreciate" the full truth of?

2. Whose Last Lecture does Hitch say is an example of how not to be an "envoy from Tumortown"?

3. What functional physical loss does he compare to impotence or "amputation of part of the personality"? OR What is his advice to the aspiring writer, "above all"?

4. What cliched Nietzschean slogan did his illness cure him of?

5. Whose illness with "not the wish to die with dignity but the desire to have died"? OR What "realm" does he say "must be escaped before anything else"?

6. Good Book?

1.41   2.43   3.48,50   4.59   5.64-6

Presentation

I plan on discussing meaning and my perspective on it. I will  be using some past questions form daily quizzes and personal experiences to guide my presentation.

Dustin Wells presentation on creating a religion and how it applies to my life.

Final Presentation: Morals/Morality as an Atheist

I don't know when I will present but I am ready whenever we get around to it.

I will be showing a video about a fellow atheist talking about how religious people tend to have this idea that atheists have no morals.

I will then talk about my own personal view on how I live life with morals without looking in the Bible to find them.

Here is the link to the video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5Y9S0OqZnY&list=FL2me12Vab3wbmVK9JqWHQ8Q&index=2

“Do unto others…’ is a good rule of thumb. I live by that. Forgiveness is probably the greatest virtue there is. But that’s exactly what it is - a virtue. Not just a Christian virtue. No one owns being good. I’m good. I just don’t believe I’ll be rewarded for it in heaven. My reward is here and now. It’s knowing that I try to do the right thing. That I lived a good life. And that’s where spirituality really lost its way. When it became a stick to beat people with. ‘Do this or you’ll burn in hell.’ You won’t burn in hell. But be nice anyway.” 
― Ricky Gervais

Final Presentation. Andrew Bird - Imitosis

For my final presentation, if you have the time, look up Andrew Bird's "Imitosis" from his 2007 album Armchair Apocrypha.

Andrew Bird rarely plays the same version of his songs twice, so there are plenty of different versions to look at. Here I'll just post a few.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnXCzFnkxtY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EjaVr20cIg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ3jgDpjhf0



If you don't get a chance to listen, I still plan to perform my own version of the song before discussing it in class.

These lyrics have had a very large impact on my own views on life and how I think to handle myself religiously and philosophically. I'll include the lyrics under here.

He's keeping busy, yeah, he's bleeding stones

With his machinations and his palindromes

It was anything but hear the voice

Anything but hear the voice

It was anything but hear the voice that says that we're all basically alone

Poor Professor Pynchon had only good intentions when he

Put his Bunsen burners all away

And turning to a playground in a Petri dish

Where single cells would swing their fists at anything that looks like easy prey

In this nature show that rages every day

It was then he heard his intuition say

We were all basically alone

And despite what all his studies had shown

That what's mistaken for closeness is just a case of mitosis

And why do some show no mercy while others are painfully shy?

Tell me doctor, can you quantify?

He just wants to know the reason why

The reason why

Why do they congregate in groups of four,

Scatter like a billion spores and let the wind just carry them away?

How can kids be so mean?

Our famous doctor tried to glean as he went home at the end of the day

In this nature show that rages every day

It was then he heard his intuition say

We were all basically alone

Despite what all his studies had shown

That what's mistaken for closeness is just a case of mitosis

Sure fatal doses of malcontent through osmosis

And why do some show no mercy while others are painfully shy?

Tell me doctor, can you quantify

The reason why?

I'll be dissecting the lyrics to how I feel they are meant to be taken. Any other ideas and views on the meaning of these words will be considered in class after I state my own.