Confirmation and cancellation

Little boy just turned 15, and just did his confirmation. He chose the secular civil confirmation rather than the Christian one. I'm quite happy about that. Apparently, I've done a decent job raising the kids in a atheist and humanist kind of spirit.

The preparation for the civil confirmation includes a course provided by a humanist organization. The course emphasizes ethics and critical thinking. Very good. Critical thinking is what all kids should learn. Don't accept old dogmatic truths.

I think the term coming-of -age ceremony is better than civil confirmation. Unlike the Christian confirmation, there is nothing being conformed. It's rather a kind of cancellation, rejecting all the religious nonsense associated with baptism.

(Picture taken last summer, on a farm with the ruins of an old monastery from the 13th century. The farm has a micro-brewery which makes very good beer. On the wall inside the farm house I read this quote by Martin Luther:  "It's better to think of church in the ale-house (bierstube) than to think of the ale-house in church.")

A-Z Challenge 26: Zero or one

I you asked all the people in world how many Gods they believe in, more than half of them would answer zero or one. That would be the Muslims, the Christians, the Jews and the atheists.

Some statistics indicate that today atheism is the third biggest "religion",  after the Christians and Muslims. The number of atheists is not precisely known, because it depends on how you count and what you include (atheists,  ir-religious,  non-religious, agnostics). Also, many atheists, including me, count as Christians because we never bothered to formally cancel our membership in the church.

Zero or one is not the only option. There are lots of gods  around. Just pick your favorite. Hinduism counts 33 gods, and the ancient Greek, Roman and Norse mythologies offer another 100 or more. My favorite among them is Ullr, the Norse god of skiing.

There are more  than 100 gods that non of us believe in. The atheists believe in only one god less than the Christians and Muslims. That's great. Then we have a lot in common. 

By the way, guess how many blogposts I'm gonna write tomorrow; zero or one? 

Appendix:

In a previous blogpost, written some days ago, I tried to answer the question: Why do people believe in God? A natural follow-up question is: Why do some people not believe in God? My simple answer is this:

Because some don't see the need for a god.

But there's more to be said, to elaborate on this:

Some people have grown up with religion being around, in school or at home. They find religious scriptures and doctrines unlogical and irrational, and in conflict with science and modern understanding of the world. Some find a solution in a more abstract concept of God. Others don't need any replacement.

Some people, or at least one, rejects god on scientific grounds. There's no need for a supernatural creator. This is what he said, the one, Stephen Hawking:

"When people ask me if god created the universe, I tell them that the question makes no sense. Time didn't exist before the big bang, so there is no time to make the universe in"

Science cannot explain every detail of this yet, but we will eventually get there. That's what some believe, and it's as true as the belief in the one and only God; a subjective truth that exists in humans minds >:)

A.Z Challenge 24: X is unknown

This is the equation, 

ax+b=c,

and x is the unknown. Find x; that's easy,

x=(c-b)/a.

Now, let's put in some real numbers, a=2, b=6, c=14, or a=II, b=VI, c=XIV. The answer is x=4 or x=IV, in Arabic and Roman numbers, respectively. Which do you prefer? Today we use the Hindu-Arabic number system, because it's logical and makes it easier  to perform calculations.

There are a few exceptions, in names of popes and kings, and for making the production year unreadable in Hollywood movies.

It wasn't always like that. In earlier times, the Pope's clers did the bookkeeping in Roman numbers. The change from Roman to Arabic numbers did not happen without controversy in the Catholic part of the world.

It was argued that Arabic numbers made it easier to perform fraud. Just add a zero at the end to turn 100 into 1000. Also, it made the clers less exclusive. With Arabic numbers, anyone could do math, at least simple calculations, without being trained on the abacus.

Then there's the religious part. The Arabic numbers came from the Muslim world, the Christian's enemies who conquered the Holy Land. Some Christian scholars even claimed that the Arabic number system was an act of Satan.

In Satan we trust, at least when doing math. >:)

There's an alternative saying regarding math; God made the integers, the rest is Man's work.

Appendix: 

Many years ago I read a cool book called "Number Theory and It's History" (by Øystein Ore). That’s were I learnt most of the stuff above. I also learnt that there's a simple logical reason for our base-10 number system. Many cultures developed their number systems based on the number of fingers on one hand (African tribes), on two hands (modern system), or the total number of fingers and toes  (Mayas). 

The exception is the Babylonians who used base-60. That's why we have 60 minutes in an hour. 60 was a magic number. It's the only number that divide into all the integers from 1 to 6. Also, the Babylonians, who didn't know about Pi, discovered that 6 equal-sided triangles with 60 degree angles fit into a circle. That's why we still count 360 degrees around the full circle.

A-Z Challenge 23: What we worship

So, the Christians and the Muslims and the Jews worship their respective Gods, which may actually be the same God, Abraham's God. But never mind. 

Whatever they worship, it's fine with me, as long as they keep it between themselves. But, they don't, and that's where the trouble starts. Some places in the scriptures there are verses that refer to all or everybody, for instance Corinthians 15:22:

"For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive."

And there is Matthew 28:18-19, the verses we learnt by heart in school:

“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”

So the Christians sent their Knights Templars to conquer the Holy Land, and missionaries to baptize the heathens.

Islam is apparently more pluralistic or relativistic, for instance  Sure 18:29:

“… let those who wish to believe in it do so, and let those who wish to reject it do so.”

But in practice we know that most Islamic regimes are far from tolerant when it comes to criticism of Islam, which is often equivalent to blasphemy, which is heavily punished by Sharia.

There are traditions, views and rules that cannot be disputed, not matter what.  They are valid for everybody and everywhere. This is referred to as universalism (as compared to relativism).

How about us, in the secular part of the world? We have our own twist on it. We have replaced God by other “holy” principles; freedom of speech, human rights, democracy. We sometimes call them our values. That’s what we worship. That’s our universal indisputable truth.

So, what happens when we encounter cultures where the top values are religion, honor and traditions, where freedom of speech and democracy don’t even make it to top-ten?

Then it’s time for war.

Let me close it with this little W-poem:

Worship
Whatever
Weird
Witchcraft you
Wish but
Wrangle in
War 
With
Words >:)

Going to Hell

The Italian mafia bosses will end up in Hell, unless they stop doing crimes. That's what the Pope has told them, according to the news. (Maybe they will share destiny with the Vatican mafia).

It's pretty rediculous with the Catholics, and the Christians in general. You can be as bad as you want to, if you just remember to pray for forgiveness before you die.

I'm just an atheist, blasphemer and God-mocker, and I'm not gonna ask for forgiveness. I wonder where I will end up >:)

(Another post from my cell phone, written while eating lunch in the ski resort. I took the picture half an hour ago. The snow-covered mountains is my cold Heaven, which can quickly turn to Hell if the weather changes into a blizzard.)