Sort of a retraction...

So this is sort of embarrassing, but as it turns out I am an atheist, I just didn't know it. Yeah, really. In fact I have been an atheist for a very long time, I just wasn't aware of it. How is this possible? Allow me to quote YouTube user AronRa: "Atheist does not mean that you reject the possibility of a god," and "The only thing that defines an atheist is that you are not convinced that there must be a god." I am not convinced.

What's more amusing to me is that I wrote AronRa an email to thank him for helping me figure this out and he actually responded that it was his intention to share this story at future atheist meetings and conventions. That is, I think, freaking hilarious.

In further researching this it turns out that Greta Christina had something similar to say about atheism. "For me, and for the overwhelming majority of atheists I know, our atheism is a provisional conclusion, based on careful reasoning and on the best available evidence we have. Our atheism is the conclusion that the God hypothesis is unsupported by any good evidence, and that unless we see better evidence, we're going to assume that God does not exist. If we see better evidence, we'll change our minds."

Seems that what I though atheism was isn't what atheism is. I thought that atheism is the belief that there is no god, and that is apparently the general belief. Instead atheism is the lack of a belief in god. A bit of a quibble, but it shoots the "is atheism a belief?" question right in the face. I don't believe there is no god, I lack the belief that there is a god. If you could give me indisputable evidence that god existed tomorrow, I'd change my mind. Even Richard Dawkins, Dark Lord of the Atheists, said that on a scale of 1 being an absolute certainty that there is a god and 7 being absolute certainty that there is not a god that he was at a 6.

Granted, if you did give me that evidence, you'd still have to work to make me care much, so even though my atheism might change, my apatheism probably wouldn't. And, yes, it's possible to be both. It's possible to be an agnostic and an atheist at the same time as well apparently.

So what does this change? In many ways, not much. I think the same things I thought before this revelation. But in some ways, huge changes. I used to be pissed off because the Pledge of Allegiance (yes I will not shut up about this) was an insult to a group I cared about but didn't consider myself to be a part of; now the Pledge is an insult to me. Every time I see "In God we trust" on a coin or dolla bill, it's me that's devalued. I'm as patriotic as the next guy. I'm more patriotic than the next guy. But because I lack a belief that some people have I'm looked down on, considered unelectable, and untrustworthy?

In some ways I'm the same guy. In others I now burn with an anger I didn't feel before. I may be the same shouty, opinionated, arrogant, patriotic, pro underdog guy as before, but it's different now... Now I am the underdog.

Should you be afraid of high fructose corn syrup?

No. No you shouldn't.

...

Yeah, I know, you've heard that HFC causes all kinds of things from obesity, diabeetus, and high blood pressure to heart attacks and cancer! Everyone's heard about how bad HFC is for us. Well, the truth is, HFC is not dangerous and it isn't the cause of modern American obesity.

HFC is a sugar and, chemically speaking, a sugar is a sugar is a sugar. There are lots of sugars: glucose, fructose, sucrose, lactose, and many others. Your body, assuming you aren't a diabetic or lactose intolerant, treats them all generally the same way, that is as a sugar. That means that your table sugar and that "healthier" raw sugar, are just different combinations of the same simple sugars. The flavor may be different, but your body breaks them down easily with no regard to flavor.

So why have you hear SO MUCH BS about HFC? Because somewhere someone reported that ingesting large amounts of HFC can cause cause obesity, which can lead to diabeetus (and then idiots on the Internet lay on the cancer BS). What everyone neglects to mention immediately following that is that EVERY SUGAR CAN DO THAT. If you eat two pounds of table sugar a day, you gonna get fat and are increasing your chances of getting diabeetus. Remember how eating anything to excess is bad for you? That's true here. A diet with HFC in it is not automatically worse than a diet high in honey, which is largely fructose as well.

As our country becomes more and more health obsessed, people continue to look for single bullet causes for obesity. There isn't one. Still, HFC is popular because it is cheap and readily available, so people will try to blame it. But the problem lies not with HFC, but with stupid people who drink the equivalent of two pounds of sugar in soda a day, or have a high calorie diet with a lot of HFC in it in some other form.

So don't avoid HFC as a sweetener. It won't cause cancer, it won't give you diabeetus, and it certainly won't make you fat. Eating like a fatass and not exercising will make you fat.

Skepticism

Once upon a time I believed in the possibility of all sorts of things: gods, ghosts, demons, angels, aliens, yeti, energy flows, ley lines, acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, folk remedies, and so on. Over time I became more skeptical and started questioning things I previously believed. Why is it that photos of alien craft have deceased as the prevalence of camera phones has increased? Why do ghost hunters present laughable evidence and get taken seriously? Why does acupuncture perform no better than a placebo when tested outside of China? Why do soft-style chi masters get massacred by MMA fighters?

Now I consider myself a hard line skeptic. All that shit I mentioned above? Either intensely unlikely (99% probability) or complete bullshit (like homeopathy). Every new claim I see (e.g. "1 tip to a flat belly" ads) is viewed with great distrust. Nothing is free of the question, "How does that work?"

One issue I have run into, as have many skeptics, is that skepticism is viewed pejoratively, that we skeptics are Debbie Downers, the people out to ruin the party. I have run into this with both family and friends and have had arguments over many things. In my experience, people seem less mad about hte topic and more angry that I am objecting at all.

I don't understand this. I think that the general perception is that I am only being skeptical to be annoying, or a know-it-all, or even just to alienate people. I fail to see how going through life credulously believing every stupid idea thrown at me is a bad thing. Despite this, I'm the jerk for pointing out that homeopathy is complete BS.

The reason I am a skeptic is, despite what some seem to believe, is because I value knowledge. I want people to do what works, not fall for an anecdote strong but evidence weak fad. I don't want friends or family wasting money on scams or wasting hope on anything that won't ever work better than a placebo.

So what is a skeptic to do? I'd rather not be seen as a jerk by family and friends, but I'm not going to back down about any quackery or other BS that can hurt people or waste their money. I try to keep an open mind about new ideas, but considering the cavalcade of nonsense I see every day, it's hard to not just assume that everything is a scam, a lie, or worse. Suggestions?

Interesting...

Yesterday my boss sent out an email saying that another team in the company had an opening and was anybody interested. The way the email was framed, it was pretty clearly just an "I sent this email out because someone asked me to, but no one will actually say yes, so there's no danger of losing any people here" email. I thought about it for a few minutes, then responded that I was interested and found a person on that team and talked to her about it just so I was sure they knew I was interested.

This new job would be much more like an actual job in that I would have stuff to do constantly, would actually involve more writing and less actual technology (something I've been interested in for a while now), and would be with a team full of people I generally enjoy, so there aren't many downsides (though there are some big ones, like many more meetings). I have my reservations, but this sounds like a good move for me, so I'm moving forward to see what happens.

I haven't heard anything interesting today and have had some free time to fret about it, but with any luck, I'll have information soon. Maybe I'll be able to move out of my boring stressful and into a busy stressful job! If that sounds dumb to you, I can say with great confidence that I would rather be busy and stressed then bored and stressed. More news as it appears...

An eloquent defense

I don't know who this Stephanie Z chick is but her comment is a very clear and calm explanation why atheists can seem aggressive.

It’s worth remembering where this debate came from. Atheists, only recently starting to stand up and be counted in any number, are seeing the people who have been saying the same things that atheists have been saying for centuries (as noted in comment 5, then largely ignored) being told to hush up because they’re being noticed for once and that’s making trouble. These are frequently also the people who gave your rank-and-file atheist the courage to come out and who provide sympathy when coming out results in the crap it always results in. But hush, because what these other people are doing is really important.

Of course, it is important. But so is being supported and encouraged as an out atheist. So is being able to tell people how religion hurt you or those you love without having to put bows on it. So is being able to tell other people that they have a real choice to get out of abusive religions. So is being able to run for public office. So is being able to keep your job. So is being able to keep your kids.

But hush. And be really nice to the people who are telling you to hush. Be nice to the people who are telling you that you matter less than what they’re doing. Be nice to the people who are doing good work but only talk about why people like you are bad. Be nice to the people who might, someday let you eat at the grown-up table if you stay quiet enough at the children’s table first (and when there are no more grown-up problems you might interfere with). Hush and trust them, despite the fact that they’re calling you the problem.

Yeah, no. Atheists are being aggressive, in part, because they’re being told to go back to being passive. They’re being argumentative because there’s a constant onslaught of messages leveled at them and everyone they have to deal with that becomes the unquestioned social background if they don’t. They’re being rude because everybody is rude sometimes, and they’re not going to be left out if you’re not. They’re being condescending because you’ve been told this before in some form, but you can’t seem to move past the fact that someone insulted you in order to hear it.

Damn straight.

Oh, the sprain!

So my instructor sprained my ankle two weeks ago today. What, I didn't do it? No, it's legitimately his fault. I was doing a leg kick, he caught my leg with both of his legs and twisted, and with a resounding pop my ankle was sprained. Now, I've had sprains before, and they've been usually painful and annoying but short lived. This situation was quite different as there was no pain. That's right, sprained ankle, no pain whatsoever. It led me to wonder if it was actually sprained, but as it swelled up like a wee balloon, yes I'm now sure it was sprained. However, the lack of pain really confused me. Anyway, the usual response to a sprain is RICE:

Rest
Ice
Compression
Elevation

So did I rest it? No. It didn't hurt, so I kept working out on it, not just immediately following but in the past two weeks as well. Did I ice it? Not initially, but when the swelling didn't go down I iced it some to no avail. Elevation I tried, but again lack of results. Eventually I decided to try compression, and that seems to have worked to some degree, as my ankle now actually hurts sometimes. However, the swelling is still there, so I'm going back to mostly apathy.

I'll ice it and compress it some more tonight, but I doubt it will make a difference. Besides, since I'll only be working on the ankle after Capoeira tonight I'll be at a disadvantage anyway. You'd think my trip to FL this weekend might force me to rest it, but as I'm already hunting down a Capoeira school to play at while I'm out of town, I don't see that happening.

If my foot rots off or something equally horrifying, I give you full rights to call me an idiot.

Attempt eight...

Religion, the lack, and everything else, is a difficult subject to tackle. The problem here is that I have friends on all sides of this argument. I have atheist friends. I have friends who range from casually to devoutly held faith. What's important to me is that I keep these friends. Unfortunately it's also important that I speak my mind. This is a post I've been unable to finish several times, but I'm having another stab at it. I may even post this one.

What I am is apathetic, an apatheist to be precise. Basically I don't care if there is or isn't a god. God or not god has had no meaningful or relevant affect on my life other than to be something to argue about, so fuck it. I have better things to do with my time, like stare at walls, chew gum, or get in pointless arguments on the Internet. I don't agree with atheists or theists, so once again I'm in a tiny corner where few others bother to tread. So what do I think about everyone else?

Atheists first. The following is why I'm not an atheist courtesy of Carl Sagan: "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." I actually agree with atheists for the most part. However, there are New Atheists, or Gnu Atheists, who basically called open season on religion and are attacking religion at every step. They are rational thinkers and back up their assertions on typically good evidence, but they don't care who they offend at the end of the day calling the religious deluded and worse. While I appreciate the sentiment, being dicks about it isn't really helping as I see it, so I find them annoying even as I agree with much of what they say. But there are plenty of atheists with a live and let live attitude, so fine.

Now religion. Religion is based on faith; that means that you can't prove what you believe but you believe it nonethless. I do not discount that it takes strength to have this faith; I respect that it's difficult. However, what I don't respect is when the faithful viciously attack atheists for daring to dissent or even just for asking questions. Still, there are plenty of religious people with a live and let live attitude, so also fine.

Then we get to politics. Who are the people who hold political offices? Christians. Sure there's the occasional Jewish or Muslim person, but 99% of the time Christians. Most people wouldn't vote for an atheist no matter his qualifications. That attitude is so un-American it makes me want to punch babies. When politicians start bitching about being persecuted by the atheists, secularists, or anything else like that, I want to punch their infant children. That's like republicans AND democrats complaining about being persecuted by libertarians! Like atheists, we libertarians aren't even invited to the party. However, I've never heard anyone say they wouldn't consider voting for a libertarian based on his party alone (just because we're crazy). I can say that I've heard, many times, that people wouldn't vote for an atheist entirely because that person was an atheist. That, in a nutshell, is why I'm so aggressively pro-atheist. If you hate blacks you're a racist and that's not ok; if you hate jewish people you're anti-Semitic and that's not ok; if you hate gay people, you're a homophobe and that's increasingly not ok; if you hate fat people, you're an asshole and that's not ok; if you hate atheists, well, that's just fine? Fucking no.

We are guaranteed religious freedom by the Constitution, all of us, every single American. Choosing to not follow a religion, while unpopular, is something that, as Americans, we should be defending. Unpopular views, even those we find extremely distasteful, are the right of all Americans. I may hate what the Westboro Baptist Church is and says, but they have a right to say it, just as I have the right to revile their existence.

So what's my point? Whatever you believe, so long as you accept the glaring flaws of your belief and don't force it upon others, is fine by me. Whatever you believe, so long as you agree that people who completely disagree with you have the right to believe what they want, then we're good. Fortunately, I think this includes nearly everyone I count as a friend. I am a lucky man.