Thread: Teapots in Paradise - Richard Dawkins and my future Kid

We once had a few discussions where (Muslim) religion played a role. A forum member send me some (private) comments on the discussions, and mentioned the atheism "belief" of Richard Dawkins, as opposed to other beliefs, such as Islam.

I had never heard of Richard Dawkins. I looked him up in the Wiki, and from there on I had a great journey discovering where Richard Dawkins was all about. I bought the "God Delusion" (in the Discovery Mall, Kuta), and watched a lot of Youtube and TED material. Even in the dark corners of the internet you can find plenty of material from Richard Dawkins, and you can order DVD's from his website. (I have, all 12)

http://richarddawkins.net/

It has been a breath of fresh air.

I was not brought up with any kind of religion, but I have been confronted and have wrestled with religion and new age kind of stuff for a large part of my life. Amongst others this has resulted in being baptised a catholic about 12 years ago, but already when I was about 8 years old, I found religious people mighty interesting. In my 20s I meditated a lot, and lived together with a female psychologist who "followed" a Guru like aura reader. I also had his hands "laid on me", and tried to believe his "magic powers". I have spoken with Scientologists, and members of Christian sects. And of course once made a website for a Jezuit church in Amsterdam. Had homeopathic "consulting".

You could say, I have been searching for God, or something else that I associated with finding God. But in my search, I found that I needed to cheat on myself, in order "to believe", and I found people cheating on each other. Cheating on the simple facts of reality. I still wonder if some of them cheat consciously or not. Looking at some of the Richard Dawkins material (see also his interview with Derren Brown), it may well be that they are cheating unconsciously. Cheating on common sense and reality. I may doing it too at times but I can't anymore if I notice, or even have a slight suggestion on a possible cheat. I have tried to cheat on myself, I thought I needed to accept "things" how unreasonable they may seem in order to become happy.

Richard Dawkins (and his "friends") confirmed what I already "knew" for a long time, but never really dared to say out loud. Its all make belief; mind games, imaginary friends and ignorance, left-overs from our past as simpler humanoids. Once you know where to look, its surprising how that grey matter is able to bend, assume, stretch or ignore reality to aqcuire certain (un)percieved goals, and even influence our bodies without us "knowing". The vast knowledge we have acquired in the last centuries however generates so much conflict with religion that religion will die out, it must, there is no other option. The rise of "a believe" like homeopathy may suggest otherwise, but its just a matter of time, IMHO. People have suggested to split religion and science since they conflict with each other, and to judge each on their own merits, but its simply not possible.

If you subtract the nonsense from religion however, you are not left with nothing. I think the challenge lies in what is left, what we can and will do with that, without cheating on ourself and on each other. I like a lot of music composed by religious composers, from Bach and Bruckner to Aarvo Part. Subtract God from that music and its just as impressive. Its a matter of terminology.

While some atheists like Sam Harris (The End of Faith) still frolic with drugs, meditation and Buddhism as a means of "understanding" the world from a different state of mind, I think this also once will be understood as a "medical condition", and not as "being a better human". Sitting for years in a cave, or meditating until you start to "feel different" is not really healthy, and has no other use as for understanding sitting in a cave or meditation itself.


"Becoming an atheist" is besides liberating, a bit sad and tiring too. If you look at atheist forums, you see just as much of God or superstition as you see on religious and "spiritual" forums. Discussions about the non-existing Gods and the fights with believers can be boring as well. Even Richard Dawkins in his "God Delusion" seems to know more about Christianity than the average Christian. There are Christian sites more or less dedicated to how you can "win a discussion with an atheist". As an "active atheist" you really need to brush up your debating skills... And atheists, even Richard Dawkins himself, can be nasty. Its needed to review a "muslim book" and wipe the floor with it because of its obvious errors and nonsense, but its sad to make a picture of the book next to a dog to get a few laughs.

But, if I look at some of the responses of fundamentalist religious people, and what fundamentalists do to get their point of view down other (and their "own") peoples throats, I get scared. And the fundamentalists come from all sides, not only Christian, but also Muslim and probably other sides. Very scary and irrational shit. The "Borg" are closer than you think. Maybe its not such a bad idea to take a stand, maybe people SHOULD take a stand. Maybe its nasty to make a comparison of a tele evangelist "show" with a Nazi Nuremberg rally on camera while you guess the evangelist doesn't know where you are talking about. But maybe it needs to be done. Maybe the knowledge and sensitivities of religious movements need to be challenged by provoking. Maybe it helps to open eyes.

There is nothing wrong with the average "member" of a religion. I think most people belonging to a religion of some sort (and non-theists) are peace loving people who don't really care about the precise meaning of this and that or if there is proof of an existing God, evolution or Teapots from Russell. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell's_teapot ) I think we all agree that helping each other is better than beating the shit out of eachother, whatever (un)believe we may have, basically. Basically. Remove the labels and if put together we will help and love. Its our program. We have learned that while living together in small groups, we may only have a bit of a scale problem at the moment.

But just a little beyond "most peace loving people" there is a whole lot of very sad but scary folks, defending their version of the "Great Juju on the bottom of the lake" just like any other scientologist. Scary shit. Very scary shit. And unfortunately they seem to have some influence.

Its too simple to blame the worlds problems and their excesses, like (suicide) terrorism all on religion. But, the believe in an afterlife may push some people over edges they would not have been pushed over in other circumstances. Leaders may use religious symbolism to influence people. And even if during a fight, the followers of the "Great Juju" and the "Allmighty Yaya" believers realised there were no Juju's and Yaya's they still may want to kill or assimilate eachother for other reasons.

But imagine a world without religions, religions that want to dominate in one or another way. Subtract religion from current conflicts and what will be left?

Yes, maybe it takes a while to get used to the idea that "we live in a universe which has no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference", but isn't this is the reason to enjoy life even more? We serve no purpose, lets enjoy the pleasant "accident" we are, and not spoil it by irrational and suppressing believe systems. We have invented the Gods, lets uninvent them and look at ourselves and science for answers.

Richard Dawkins is right to have taken up defense of our volnurable children. They need to be protected from "Great Juju's" of all religions, anywhere. Lets teach them to think for themselves instead of washing their brains with a great Juju. Parents may believe the great Juju is the only one, but their neighbor thinks the same about a miraculous Popo. And the children of the future will be closer to their neighbors as children of yesterday, its the nature of the current game. Show them all "our" Yaya's, Juju's, Popo's and teach science. TEACH SCIENCE. Not the pseudo science that tries desperately to prove that a Juju or Popo is behind it all, the pseudo science that has prejudice as its base, but the real thing. Learn them to make a choice, instead of accepting dogma's. We owe it to them, we don't own them.


So far the personal stuff and the simple presentation of a complex and very human problem, and now back to Bali, the island of the Gods.

In order to marry my Balinese Goddess Dewi, now 6 years ago, I became a Hindu. From non-believer, and catholic to Hindu. In just a few hours I had all necessary life time Hindu rituals administered, including marriage. I am only left the final Ngaben, the ascent to Bali version of heaven. I am a bad Hindu, because I don't know much about it, really. I also, like other Hindu's in Bali, still eat cow meat. I go to ceremonies of which I don't know the true meaning, I smile, donate and raise flowers in prayer. We have daily offerings in our house, in every room, the motorbikes and car, even the stove and watercontainer. I go along, because of respect, and I don't mind. I even enjoy it at times and encourage my wife to offer. Dressed up people, nightly temple visits with gamelan music... I even build "my own" temple in the garden. Being a "Balinese Hindu" means your life is taken up for a part in colorful, joyful social gatherings. There is nothing bad about that.

And now a guess, sort of educated. My knowledge of Balinese religion is not so much worse than the knowledge of the average Balinese. Of course they have been brought up in Bali, learned the daily faith issues, speak the language, and know their prayers. But, most Balinese are like me. They go along. Its more of a social thing, than a religious thing.


But still.


Now we am going to have a baby. My wife is Balinese, a wife of the Gods so to say. I am, you have read above, an atheist. My wife knows me. Some of the things she shares are ended with " believe in Bali", knowing that I will look at "things" in unbelieve. She may even just don't tell me things, because she knows I will not believe.

But, how can I explain my child that he (or she) cannot buy nails in the evening, because it brings bad luck selling them? That her aunt married a banana (sic) under the eyes of many wise man from the village in order to give his (or her) nephew a name? That another aunt spend a lot of money on a temple to cure another nephew instead of saving money for the doctor? That people kill animals in order to give life to a house? That sometimes people do "magical things" to each other if they are jealous? That many poor families spend a lot of their resources on offerings to very non-existing Gods? That burning incense in houses may cause cancer?

How can I explain my kid that there are a lot foreigners in Bali who embrace the non-sense of religion in order to fill their own gaps in (mental) evolution, that those foreigners easily interpret an odd placed monkey as as a sign of moral decay, or a babbling kid as proof of the super natural? That people believe in people with extra-ordinary capabilities such as aura-reading and talking with the dead?

My kid has to learn science, the love for it. And that Bali is maybe a place where the un-science takes a large part of our time (and money), but it seems worth it, because it makes life alive. But beware and stay aware. There are no Gods. We created the Gods.

Listen Kid. Its a big game of make believe. We, we humans, invented it all. And if people start doing things in the name of God, they are liars, for some reason. Beware. The Balinese, half of you, are brought up in in this big game of make believe, be gentle to them, although you may meet Balinese who make use of the game for their own personal gain. If you meet a foreigner who plays a role in the game of Balinese make believe, stay away from him or her. These are dangerous people. People who easily change colors in order to be able to cope with life. And they will easily change their color if they want something from you. Stay away.

Kid, learn about self-deception, why and how we do it. Learn about wishful-thinking, about how we interpret the world, how our senses and our "software" makes us susceptible to illusions.

Learn about false generalizations and anecdotal "evidence". Learn about our (and especially other peoples) confirmation bias, our tendency to interpret information so it confirms our preconceptions and avoids information that contradicts our existing beliefs.

Be aware that there are people who use the "weaknesses" of our species, either unconsciously or consciously and ruthlessly for their own personal gains.

But most of all, learn that life is wonderful as it is, and it doesn't need Gods or the Supernatural to be so. We are aware and alive, and part of "an event" that is already lasting billions of years, let enjoy it to the fullest, lets be what we are in the little time we have, or better, be more.