Litter

I was walking the beach today and came across an ugly example of human idiocy. Empty containers from a fast food joint that at one time contained burgers, fries and cokes. Well, maybe tacos, nachos and a root beer; who knows, didn't examine too closely.

I've read here and there others who have had a distaste for people who seem to enjoy leaving their garbage for others to clean up. It's an odd habit, one I don't understand. Even though I don't have the immaculate home that others have, I don't walk out into the world throwing my shit around.

Do people that have clean homes throw their garbage in the street?

It is not a problem in most places I'm at. Sometimes high traffic areas get messy, but if it's high traffic someone is probably going to get paid to clean it up. I guess the mess hits harder when it is an isolated incident. Those that inhabit the beach usually like it clean themselves.

Doesn't matter I guess, probably upbringing.

What came to mind while walking, walking, walking; was that religion is a special kind of litter itself. As life comes into the world minds are pristine. Perfect creatures to be imprinted with the best that mankind can offer. Instead, at an early age, the waste starts building up.

Religion litters the thought process. Where reason is fairly straight forward and shows almost immediate results, religion wanders around the synapses fucking up all our thoughts. Instead of a child studying a blade of grass and wondering, "how does it grow," he walks on it not caring. If he sees a bird flying through the clouds, he can easily accept that birds fly, and that clouds form, without needing to understand why.

God crushes the desire to know. The answer is already there; magic.

As children go through school, some will want to know why things happen as they do, others will not because they believe they already have the answer. Those that grow up wondering "why" invent and explain what information our senses gather. Those that grow up content in the knowledge that there is no other solution to the world than god, do not. Though good schools, whether religious or not, do turn out thinkers; what a challenge to overcome. What if a child never had the litter of religion to clean up before they could move into the realm of reality? How much greater would the world's knowledge be?

Religion turns the minds of our children into a wasteland.

Is Rational Thought a Bias?

Well, no. Rational thought is what everyone ought to partake in. Reason is a drink that instead of weakening cognitive processes like alcohol, promotes clarity of thought.

Is that the same to a theist?

No, it is not. Theists maintain their beliefs by repeating this mantra over and over. Smart people suck. It's just that easy! Smart people take away from supernatural imagination, from fictional thoughts of joy.

Well, I wouldn't go as far as saying they think smart people suck at all times, just when it suits their needs. There is a continual pattern of denial theists display when taken to task. Usually it comes in the form of dismissal. Say what you want, but when a theist sees the road of reason ahead, he backs out. He has to. It is the fear of being led astray.

Yet, a theist could make the claim that you are biased. You are biased because of your lack of faith. If you had faith, you would not question certain parts of life. The answers are there, written in their favorite book.

At this and many other life happenings, atheists really do hold the high ground. The tables turn. The theist is the person of bias. He is the one that will not, or cannot, open his mind to the world that he lives in. The bias is centuries old and has been instilled with pain and suffering.

There are times when I think this is the only problem; no matter how many different ways you may state the thought, the bias is the problem. The bible is never very fair when it comes to unbelievers, in fact all writers despise those who lack faith.

I would think that if you could get the imagination, the wonder, the joy of discovery that you may feel when a new idea plants itself in your world, that bias can be changed.

The religious can of course be in awe of the universe, but most only in a superstitious manner. There's always the exception, but your run of the mill theist just doesn't look at the reasoned world in wonder, he saves that awe for ideas that have no base in reality.

I think it's as simple as this. If you can express a scientific or reasoned thought with the same intensity that a priest or pastor can whip up, you will get their attention. If, by inflection and purpose and intensity you can explain a simple scientific thought and excite someone's imagination of where that thought may lead, you've basically set them on a path that gives them the same wonder that religion's slight of hand conjuring does.

Go for it.