Got the time?

"The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it."
Henry David Thoreau

This is my 100th blog post in 100 days.
I have many other things I could be doing.
As the post count suggests, I love to write. I love the process, the choosing of the correct word, the rhythm and flow, the message, the gained self knowledge...
But I also love other things.
I'm also a writer of fiction, a woodworker, and a kiltmaker with many people who would love me to start making kilts again.
What pastime is it on which I would like to spend my time?

"Spend my time."

Yes, time is a commodity. We have only so much time to spend. I always appreciate it when someone chooses me as the person with which they would like to spend time, because it isn't a limitless commodity.
So, for my 100th blog post, I will give you my favourite quote, then go consider how best to spend my life.

Got the time?

Religion forbids doubt.

Doubt is one of the prime factors in human education.

Without doubt, there is no skepticism.
Without doubt we do not question.
Without doubt, all ideas are permanent.

Take away doubt... purposely and systematically strip a child of the ability to question, to wonder, to see more than only one side of any question... allow that child only faith and belief and you create a slave to what that child is taught.

Too often this is religion, this is violence, this is racism, this is misogyny, this is hatred.

We must doubt everything, question everything, learn as much as we can, because only in education and scientific progression can we become more than just an overpopulated, albeit somewhat clever, species of mammal.

Religion forbids doubt.

Treason!

Any person who puts religious laws before the laws of a free society is guilty of treason and should be sentenced to serve the poor and homeless for ten years.

Any police officer who kills the citizens he has sworn to serve and protect should be tried, and if found guilty, subjected to twice the usual sentence for murder.

Any politician who takes campaign donations from billionaires with the promise of doing their bidding instead of serving the people is guilty of treason and should be jailed for life, in a cell next to the billionaire.

Any military officer who commands his men to point their weapons on the citizens of his own country is guilty of treason and should be summarily shot by his own troops.

All faith healers should be tested and if their claims found to be false, should be stripped of their wealth and made to serve the terminally ill for ten years.

Pattern recognition

Pattern recognition may have started as a predator's tool, a way to know what the prey was going to do and to plan for that action.
We can see this in wolves running down a deer in turns. Deer are fast but wolves can turn a deer in circles and tire it with tag team running. They can chase hooved prey into a rocky riverbed where the hooves will slip on the stones. Or in winter they might panic a herd to cause them their hooves to break through the snow, which the wolves and their large footpads can easily traverse.

Pattern recognition in humans has grown into part of our intelligence. It is one of the means we use to understand the universe.
It is even a standard by which we judge intelligence.
Whether we're watching a player across the poker table for patterns when he wins or loses a hand, or knowing that your spouse will want that last cup of coffee in the pot, we use pattern recognition in every part of our lives.

There are patterns in religions, too.
The miraculous birth, the virgin mother, the death and resurrection... the recognition of patterns in religion are one of the reasons atheists do not believe in gods.

Any religion is just one more religion with similar patterns, born of previous religions, followed by the scared and the stupid, and run by the unscrupulous and the immoral.

Religion is as predictable as war for profit and governments turning against their people for greed.

Recognise the pattern?

Why Bernie and not Hillary

The two biggest enemies of freedom are religion and the 1%.

Religion is slowly dying.
The 1% are daily acquiring more of everything.

Bernie Sanders is taking on the 1%. He can only do this if he is elected POTUS.
And only he can do this. Hillary Clinton is a puppet of corporations. Just look at her donors.
http://freebeacon.com/blog/hillary-clintons-top-corporate-donors-are-among-the-most-hated-companies-in-america/

People, ordinary citizens, are Bernie's donors.

The question is whether the citizens of the USA will elect him, or decide they want to be further enslaved.

This election could be freedom vs religion and the 1%.
If Bernie Sanders isn't the Democratic nominee, then it's going to be the 1% for the win.

Adapt or die

Science is not a religion; it is a process.
From the first human who created fire some million and a half years ago, we have been building a base of knowledge that is ever more rapidly increasing.
Fire makes food taste better and kills harmful bacteria.
It was discovered that burnt spear tips are harder and make sharper points. Then we found that fired flint can be bifacially knapped, allowing a thrown spear to fly straighter.
And fire is light; it allowed us to see at night or in a dark cave.

Such discoveries enhanced our chances of survival and this is no different today.
Modern medicine allows for longer lives.
We are beginning to understand quantum physics, which is leading us to answers about the building blocks of life and the universe.
As we once left Africa, now we are leaving Earth.

The acquisition of knowledge is not religion, or faith, or a belief; its core is about the survival and advancement of the human species.

This is why religion must be spoken against. Religion would hold back knowledge that disproves its superstitions and this must never again be allowed. It demands irrational behaviour in life to attain a better, unproven, after-life.

Science is learning about life.
Religion is a death cult.

I choose knowledge and reason and beauty and happiness in nature - over blind belief in a non-existent god who demands misery and servitude for a worthless promise in death.

Knowledge enhanced life in the past and continues to do so today. Our current level of knowledge will be built upon by science and will enhance the future of humanity.

I choose reality.

The passing of religion

It never fails to amaze me that while some people fight desperately for their freedom, others will fight just as hard to remain enslaved.

To willingly surrender your freedom, your reasoning mind... even your life... to a belief that has not been proved by Christians to be true in spite of 2000 years of desperate searching... is beyond my scope of understanding.

I value freedom and free speech and reason because these are the things that have advanced us as humans, and there is no greater good that that of advancing humanity with those three ideals.

Gone are the primitive days of wondering who made the lights in the sky. We are a young species but we are outgrowing such nonsense.
There are religious powers that would once again hold back humanity's advancement.
But they are too late. They no longer have the power to terrorise a world into submissive acceptance through fear.

Religion is dying as the combined forces of reason and evidence continue to disprove religious holy books.

So, some will fight to retain their slavery, but the time is coming when the religious will have to learn be their own masters and accept responsibility for their own actions. I expect great things from the coming generations.

But religion?
It's all over but the crying.