diff --git a/public/images/blog/2024/05/02/beautiful_youtube_homepage.jpg b/public/images/blog/2024/05/02/beautiful_youtube_homepage.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b584611 Binary files /dev/null and b/public/images/blog/2024/05/02/beautiful_youtube_homepage.jpg differ diff --git a/src/content/blog/2024/04/14/god_is_not_great.md b/src/content/blog/2024/04/14/god_is_not_great.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bf47b27 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/blog/2024/04/14/god_is_not_great.md @@ -0,0 +1,253 @@ +--- +title: God Is Not Great, initial thoughts +description: >- + My spark notes on Hitchen's classic 2007 polemic against religion, plus some + initial thoughts on how I want to respond to it. +pubDate: + year: 2024 + month: 04 + day: 14 +--- + +These are my 'spark notes' on _God Is Not Great_, Christopher Hitchen's classic +2007 polemic against religion in all its forms, and call to adopt secular +humanism as its rightful replacement. + +The book can be coherently read as a collection of independent essays. That +said, with a few exceptions, each chapter in _God Is Not Great_ contributes to +one of three main themes, and I think this is a helpful way of summarising the +overall movement of the book. The three themes I've identified are as follows: + +
    +
  1. + Religion is evil +
    2. +
  2. + Religion is untrue +
    3. +
  3. + Secular humanism is a better alternative to religion +
    4. +
+ +As for the exceptions: Chapters 13 and 17 in part contribute to both the first +theme and the third, while Chapters 1, 3, 12 and 14 don't fit into these broad +themes, and are self-standing. + +## 1. Religion is evil + +- Chp 2 + - Religion is violent, because: + - It has to be missionary, because it is insecure in its own beliefs (p17) + - It provokes tribalistic conflict, in a similar manner to racism (pp35-36) +- Chp 4 + - Religion is bad for your health, because: + - Faith in medicine is a threat to religion's thrall (p47) + - Religious doctrines may contradict sound medical advice + - The right to religious freedom may be abused to deflect criticism of + unhealthy practices (p50) + - Religion has a special relationship with child abuse, and is incapable of + accepting open moral criticism of itself for this +- Chp 13 + - Religion tends towards evil, because it requires fanaticism in order to + spread, and fanaticism tends towards evil (p192) +- Chp 16 + - Religion causes child abuse, because: + - Terrifying children with eschatology is child abuse + - Religious education is propaganda and should not be inflicted on children + who are not yet mature enough to respond to it rationally + - Religion consistently mandates cruel genital mutilation of children + - Christians and Muslims have spread misinformation about masturbation, + which leads to dangerously sexually repressed adult men, which in turn + leads to sexual abuse of children by those men (as well as sexual abuse of + women) + - Child abuse in churches is not a case of a few bad eggs, it is + institutional and based on an ideological need to control the minds and + sexual organs of children + - Religion institutionalised torture in medieval Europe + - Religion makes honest and nuanced debate about abortion impossible, because: + - Nuanced debate is pushed out by extreme and implausible religious doctrine + - Religious people would rather use the unborn as objects of doctrine than + human beings in need of protection +- Chp 17 + - Religion is the only reason anti-Semitism is possible + - Religion in its fullest expression is indistinguishable from + totalitarianism, because: + - The defining characteristic of both religion and totalitarianism is the + absolute right to rule of the ruler, even when they rule with caprice + - Religion and totalitarianism are also characterised by the need to + extinguish heresy with violence + - Religion and totalitarianism alike must propose a total solution to all + life's problems, require blind faith from its adherents, and demand all + aspects of life public and private be submitted to total supervision. This + doesn't bring out the best in us + - Religious/totalitarian systems are unable to take accountability and + therefore improve over time, in contrast to secular humanist systems + - History has proven this as fact: + - In the ancient world, religious totalitarianism was the normal form of + government + - Calvin, the inspiration for the Presbyterian Christian tradition, which + included South African apartheid, was the epitome of a totalitarian + dictator, demanding total control on the private lives of his citizens + in Geneva, on the pain of humiliation in this life and eternal torment + in the next + - History has also proven that, rather than standing in opposition to the + supposedly secular totalitarianisms of the twentieth century, religion + actually aided and abetted totalitarianism: + - Rome supported fascist movements throughout Europe, including Italy, + Hungary, Spain, and Ireland + - Rome accommodated Naziism by handing over control of its schools, + permitting the use of parish records to identify those with Jewish + ancestry, disbanding Catholic opposition political parties, declaring + Hitler's birthday a Church holiday, and running the 'rat line' to South + America after the military defeat of Naziism + - Although not quite as arse-licking as the Vatican, Germany's Protestant + churches also mostly capitulated to Nazi totalitarianism + - Japanese soldiers committed enormous atrocities across the Far East in + the name of their god-emperor, Hirohito + - The strategy of the Communists was first, to use religion as a prop to + gain power, and then to replace religion with itself. Notice the + striking commonalities between religion and communist totalitarianism: + - Infallible leaders + - A permanent war on heresy + - Institutionalised torture + - Scapegoating the innocent rather than accepting accountability for + failures + - Justifying any means necessary in order to achieve an ultimate end + +## 2. Religion is untrue + +- Chp 5 + - Religion was a barbaric attempt to explain physical phenomena. Science now + does a much better job, so religion can be discarded as a redundant theory +- Chp 6 + - Religion is 'solipsistic', which is to say: + - Religion divides the world into an in-group and an out-group + - When the in-group receives good fortune, that is interpreted as God's + blessing + - When the in-group receives bad fortune, this is inexplicable + - Whatever happens to the out-group is irrelevant + - This is a redundant theory which explains little, and therefore we should + not believe it +- Chp 7 + - We should believe that the Pentateuch is a fiction, because: + - Exodus is inconsistent with the archaeological evidence + - Textual evidence in Deuteronomy suggests the texts were written much later + than the supposed events were supposed to have taken place + - Throughout the Pentateuch, Moses is referred to in the third person, which + is not consistent with the claim that Moses himself authored it + - The Pentateuch contains events we should _hope_ to be false, such as Moses + ordering multiple massacres, and the Ten Commandments classifying wives as + their husbands' property + - The Pentateuch - indeed, the whole Bible - is limited in scope to a small + corner of the Middle East, which is not consistent with the universal + nature of the supposed God who is supposed to have inspired its authorship + - Chp 8 + - We should not believe the Gospels, because: + - Matthew and Luke disagree on the virgin conception + - Matthew and Luke disagree on the genealogy of Jesus + - Matthew and Luke disagree on when Mary and Jesus escaped to Egypt + - Luke dates the birth of Christ during both the reign of Herod in Judea + and the governorship of Quirinius in Syria, but these two events did not + overlap, so this is impossible + - As far as we know, the Romans did not, and would not, demand that the + people assemble in one place in order to be counted for a census + - The Gospels disagree about the Sermon on the Mount + - The Gospels disagree about the Anointing of Jesus + - The Gospels disagree about the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus + - The Gospels disagree about the betrayal of Judas + - The Gospels disagree about the denial of Peter + - John suggests he thinks Jesus was probably born in Galilee to an + ordinary family with no proven link to King David's genealogy + - Mary's attested behaviour during the ministry of Jesus is not consistent + with the Nativity story + - John 8:3-11 (the stoning of the woman caught in adultery) is a later + insertion to John's Gospel + - Chp 9: the Koran is borrowed from a hotchpotch of Jewish and Christian + myths + - Chp 10 + - Miracles (such as the Resurrection of Jesus) should not be believed, + because: + - See Hume's _On Miracles_ + - Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence + - Believing miracles is comparable to believing reports of aliens (p144) + - Chp 11 + - Religions are founded in credulity + - Chp 15 + - The crucifixion story makes no sense, because: + - I'm supposed to be morally responsible for Adam's sin, but I amn't! + - Even Adam can't be fully blamed for Adam's sin, because he was set up! + - The Jews who crucified Jesus are supposed to be blameworthy for their + crime, even though the crucifixion was allegedly both necessary and + inevitable + - I'm allegedly given the free will to either accept or deny the offer, + even though denying the offer will lead to an eternity of torment: any + sensible God who cared a mite would not have given me the choice + - Religious rules are impossible to follow, and this leads to either + spiritual policing, organised hypocrisy, or both + +## 3. Secular humanism is a better alternative to religion + +- Chp 13 + - Faith has inspired great heroism. But the heroism is better explained by the + heroes' humanism than it is by their faith itself + - For example, Martin Luther King Junior didn't really preach Christianity, + because he preached forgiveness, while Christ preached eternal torment for + the 'inattentive' (pp175-6) +- Chp 17 + - Religion is the only thing sustaining anti-Semitism + - Secular humanist political systems can take accountability, respond to + criticism and improve over time, while religious systems exempt themselves + from legitimate criticism, stifling progress + - The only alternative to totalitarianism is pluralism, which is inherently + secular +- Chp 18 + - Secular humanism has been a powerful positive force throughout history in + face of oppression by religion, as proved by example: + - Socrates proved that conscience is innate, and that a great way to mock + dogma is with satire which pretends to accept that dogma + - Lucretius, Democritus and Epicurus had better explanations for the way the + world worked than religion (which is why their work was suppressed in + Christian Europe and nearly lost forever as a result). Once rediscovered, + their ideas kick-started the Scientific Revolution in Europe + - Spinoza's deistic ideas had a huge influence despite Jews collaborating + with their Christian oppressors to try and ban his writing out of + existence + - Boyle and Voltaire may have been closet atheists, agnostics or deists + - Kant 'overthrew' the cosmological and ontological arguments for the + existence of God, and proved (by means of the Categorical Imperative) that + human decency does not require any theological assumptions + - Let's chuck some more names in the ring: Gibbon, Hume, Paine, Franklin, + Darwin, Einstein + - Jews were once doubly ghettoed: on the outside by oppressive Christians, + and on the inside by oppressive self-racialisation. Secular humanism freed + Jews from both these ghettoes, which in turn led to an outpouring of + secular Jewish brilliance + - Ancient Jews were on the road to a quasi-secular Hellenism, before that + was ruined forever by the tyrannical and fanatical Judas Maccabeus, with + disastrous consequences for the history of Western civilisation. The + Abrahamic religions we know today were not inevitable, and it is possible + to imagine what Western history would have been like without it +- Chp 19 + - Secular humanism is a better alternative to religion, because: + - Religion requires clinging to immovable dogma and being unwilling to + change your mind + - Seeking truth requires being willing to change your mind + - Secular humanism is therefore on the side of seeking truth, and religion + is on the side of wilful ignorance + - Secular humanism is on the side of progress, because it is what enables the + expansion of scientific knowledge and the development of new technology + +## The odds and ends + +- Chp 1: an introduction to the themes of the book with little substantial +- Chp 3: titled 'A Short Digression on the Pig', it does what it says on the tin +- Chp 12: titled 'A Coda: How Religions End', it does what it says on the tin +- Chp 14: contrary to the hopes of some Westerners disillusioned with organised + Western religion, Eastern religions like Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism are not + a solution to the problems of religion + +I would be interested to try writing apologetic and/or evangelistic responses to +these ideas. But it's not a priority for me right now. Anyway, if I ever want to +come back to it, I'll probably come back to these spark notes to give me a head +start. diff --git a/src/content/blog/2024/05/02/no_more_youtube.md b/src/content/blog/2024/05/02/no_more_youtube.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d696936 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/blog/2024/05/02/no_more_youtube.md @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ +--- +title: How I made YouTube work for me +description: >- + I just learned YouTube channels have an RSS feed. This is terrific news. +pubDate: + year: 2024 + month: 05 + day: 02 +--- + +One of my bad habits in life is wandering through YouTube. I've always had +AutoPlay turned off, but I still found myself switching off and sleepwalking +from one 'recommendation' to the next. + +A lot of what I watch in these times is crap. It's often when I'm tired and just +want to switch off, so naturally enough, longer, more emotionally or +intellectually material – in other words, exactly the kind of videos I actually +**do** want to watch – I ignore. (For me, it's often mediocre sketch comedy +videos. That's my poison, it turns out.) + +Now, there is a time for switching off and doing something light. But I don't +want watching junk videos to be my answer. Any more than when I'm hungry after +a long day of work, I don't want to be resorting to junk food all the time. I +really want to get out of this bad habit, and though it's not a huge problem, +I've still not been able to fully kick it, either. + +Still, there are YouTube channels I really _want_ to keep up with. Musicians. +Short film channels. Video essayists. And, yes, even one or two sketch channels: +though YouTube is a bit flooded with sketch comedy, some it is really good and +brings me joy, and that's a good thing! + +This is where RSS comes in. + +So if you don't know, an RSS file is a file someone puts on their website which +tells you, in a standard format, what pages are on their website. It's a pretty +old standard in Web terms, and it's very stable. There are a wide range of apps +out there, called 'feed readers', which you can use to keep track of RSS feeds, +notifying you when something new gets published in your website and putting it +in a feed for you to review. + +It turns out YouTube channels have RSS feeds. + +This is terrific news. + +It means I can use my RSS feed reader to subscribe to YouTube channels, instead +of YouTube's own subscription system. + +And that means I don't need any of YouTube's personalisation features. I can +delete all my search history, all my watch history, and stop them from +collecting any more. This means YouTube is now incapable of providing +recommendations that I'm actually likely to click on. Which is exactly what I +want. + +This is what my YouTube homepage looks like right now: + +![My YouTube homepage with a blank space where the recommendations used to be](/images/blog/2024/05/02/beautiful_youtube_homepage.jpg) + +So I can both subscribe to the channels I'm genuinely interested in, and not +get sucked into watching junk. + +Awesome!