Jason's Notes About Stuff

I wrote most of this a few months ago, but a recent watching of the movie Agora prompted me to edit and post it. Consider this quotation, attributed to Seneca, a Roman senator who was born around the year 4 B.C.: "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." There is a tendency to believe that religious extremism is a recent phenomenon, but if you look carefully, it seems to date back to the beginnings of civilization itself. The first ancient tribes had their gods and superstitious beliefs.  I'm willing to bet you didn't get very far in native tribal society if you started expressing doubts about the Great Wolf Spirit. It must have been around that time when rulers realized the power of controlling one's beliefs from a young age. If you can convince an entire population that their fate is controlled by some deity in the sky, you can get away with horrid behaviour and not worry about them turn...

People often argue that science is actually a religion in itself, so it's no better or worse than other religions. Thing is, there's a crucial difference between the two. In mathematical terms, science is all about variables , whereas religion is all constants . Religion says, "We believe X is true, and we only acknowledge supporting evidence. Any evidence showing X to be false is wrong." Science , on the other hand, says, "Evidence to date suggests that X is true. However, if new data shows us that X is actually false, we will update our theories accordingly." This cartoon I found sums it up pretty well: Scientists (good ones anyways) are willing to rewrite their textbooks in light of new data. On the other hand, I don't think a church would ever issue a statement saying, "New evidence suggests that the world was actually created in 5 days, as opposed to 7. We will be releasing an updated edition of the Bible with the appropriate corrections....

Feel like nothing is going right for you lately? Let me assure you: God is not punishing you for missing church last week. Allah is not angry about you sneaking that cookie during fasting time. Zeus is not being vengeful since you missed your last goat sacrifice. The stars are not mis-aligned. It's not a big conspiracy. There is no "secret." It's you. Seriously. Don't get me wrong: There are unexpected situations (good and bad) that come up periodically. It's a little something called life . But in the end, you are the one in control of your destiny. No matter what comes your way, you always have options. Don't sit there hoping, wishing, or praying.  Don't "try" to do something.   Do it! Want a better life? Make better choices and take action ! It's really as simple as that.

Logic can be a tricky thing.  Consider the following example from the ChangingMinds website : Statement 1: All men are animals Statement 2: Some animals are aggressive Conclusion: Some men are aggressive Seems perfectly reasonable at first glance, doesn't it? Except it's not.   Here's the same reasoning, with one word changed: Statement 1: All men are animals Statement 2: Some animals are female Conclusion: Some men are female Which is clearly not true.  As the site explains, The conclusion of the example falls into the traps of making the assumption that the 'aggressive animals' and 'men' subsets necessarily overlap, whereas there is no necessity for this in statements one and two. Although the conclusion could be true it does not have to be true. As they suggest, drawing a Venn diagram can make things more clear: In this case, the inner circles may or may not overlap, and we don't have enough information to make a definitive conc...

Since arriving in New Zealand, I have now twice been the target of attempted religious conversion. I found this surprising, as I had understood the country to be one of the more progressive in the world. In fact, New Zealand has far more non-religious (38%*) than Canada (16%*) or the US (16%*). Perhaps that's why the churches are more active at recruiting here. I was raised in a Christian family, and I know a good deal about the Bible.  I've researched the basics of other major world religions, and have learned some ancient mythology. I also have a very strong education in, and inclination towards mathematics and logic. Some aspects of religion are great.  Values like sharing , caring for others, and not killing people are of great benefit to society. On the other hand, the related crusades , intolerance , and holy wars are... not so great. Even more dangerous, in my opinion, is the concept of absolute faith .  This is the phenomenon where people choos...