Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man Under Socialism
Objectivism is a religion!
Atheism is not a religion. The term ‘religion’ can properly be applied only to belief systems which include a belief in a god or gods. The term ‘religion’ can properly be applied only to belief systems which include a belief in the supernatural.
Objectivism is explicitly atheistic … but wait! Implicitly, Objectivists believe in a supernatural realm! It’s a cornerstone of the Objectivist philosophy! Surprise, surprise! Objectivism is not, after all, a naturalistic worldview.
Rand wrote an essay called The Metaphysical Versus the Man-Made. In it, she says
Any natural phenomenon, i.e., any event which occurs without human participation, is the metaphysically given, and could not have occurred differently or failed to occur; any phenomenon involving human action is the man-made, and could have been different.
In other words, phenomena involving human action are not natural phenomena. They’re supernatural phenomena! Why? Because Man is a supernatural being! Why is Man a supernatural being? Because He has a supernatural power! And what is Man’s supernatural power? It is the ability to exercise something called libertarian free will.
Unfortunately, Objectivists are at a complete loss to explain how this works, to explain how it is even possible, or to explain how the notion of free will even makes sense according to the atheistic, materialistic worldview to which they profess to subscribe. Nonetheless, Objectivists are adamant that Man possesses free will.
Libertarian free will is a supernatural capacity. One who exercises it is a supernatural being.
Objectivism is a religion, but Objectivists worship Man, not God.
[Cross-posted to SOLO.]
Atheism in the public square
In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams wrote
Twenty times in the course of my late reading have I been on the point of breaking out, “This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!!!”
Positive Atheism tells us
This was not his reasoned opinion. Although John Adams often felt an urge to advocate atheism as a popular world view (because of the sheer abuses perpetrated by religious charlatans), he was of the firm and reasoned opinion (basically undisputed in his day) that religion is essential to the goal of keeping the masses in line.
Clearly, as Adams used the term, ‘atheism’ means “no religion”.
Jefferson famously said that
religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God
What of those who have no God? They have no religion. Jefferson also said
Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person’s life, freedom of religion affects every individual.
Atheism is the belief that there is no God. It implies non-belief that there is a God. Atheism, as understood by Jefferson, is not a religious belief.
John Lennon wrote a song in which he famously asks us to
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for todayImagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace
By religion, Lennon means belief systems which include beliefs in the supernatural—God, Heaven, Hell, etc. His view is that we’d be better off in a world in which there was no God, i.e., one in which atheism was true. In such a world there would be “no religion” and “all the people living life in peace.”
Atheism, as understood by Lennon, is not a religion.
Once every 5 years, New Zealand citizens are required to participate in a census. One of the questions seeks to elicit the respondent’s “religious affiliation”. According to Wikipedia,
In the 2006 Census, 55.6 percent of the population identified themselves as Christians, while another 34.7 percent indicated that they had no religion
That’s right, there is a box to tick labeled ‘No religion’. There are no boxes to tick labeled ‘Atheist’ or ‘Humanist’ or ‘Objectivist’. There’s not even a box labeled ‘Jedi’.
Atheism, as understood by Statistics New Zealand, is not a religion.
Wikipedia’s has an entry titled Irreligion in New Zealand.
Irreligion —the absence of religious belief or affiliation— is an increasing trend in New Zealand. Although New Zealand has no established religion, Christianity has been the majority religious affiliation since European settlement in the 19th century. The trend toward irreligion may indicate increasing secularisation as well as a rise in non-institutional spiritual belief.
Atheism, as understood by (some) Wikipedia authors, is not a religion. It’s an irreligion!
The meaning (or meanings) of a word is determined by the conventions governing its use. What those conventions are is determined by the facts of usage. (See examples above.)
It is not conventional to call atheism a religion.
It is conventional to rebuke those who do. 😉
Lies, damned lies, and ‘religion’
To lie is to bear false witness. It is to make an untruthful statement intended to deceive.
Jesus says, “Do not bear false witness.” (KJV) Lying is wrong. But why? Jesus explains,
Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! (NIV)
Centuries later, the philosopher Immanuel Kant came up with a secular account of why it is wrong to lie which, it seems, Jesus had prefigured. In his essay On a Supposed Right to Lie from Philanthropy, Kant went so far as to claim that it would be wrong to lie to a would-be murderer even to save an innocent life.
Truthfulness in statements that one cannot avoid is a human being’s duty to everyone, however great the disadvantage to him or to another that may result from it… [I]f I falsify… I… do wrong in the most essential part of duty in general by such falsification… that is, I bring it about, as far as I can, that statements (declarations) in general are not believed, and so too that all rights which are based on contracts come to nothing and lose their force; and this is a wrong inflicted upon humanity generally… For [a lie] always harms another, even if not another individual, nevertheless humanity generally, inasmuch as it makes the source of right unusable.
Kant based his moral philosophy on a maxim he called the Categorical Imperative.
Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.
You cannot will that the maxim, “Bear false witness,” become a universal law! If we all lied, all the time, then soon no one would believe a word that anyone said. After a while, no one would even hear what anyone said.
Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.
Talk would be ignored, like a background noise tuned out. Ultimately, we’d be struck dumb. No one would bother to say anything at all, even the truth, since no one would believe him.
Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!
To lie is not merely to commit a crime against he to whom the lie is told. It is to commit a crime against language itself. St. Augustine said
But every liar says the opposite of what he thinks in his heart, with purpose to deceive. Now it is evident that speech was given to man, not that men might therewith deceive one another, but that one man might make known his thoughts to another. To use speech, then, for the purpose of deception, and not for its appointed end, is a sin. Nor are we to suppose that there is any lie that is not a sin, because it is sometimes possible, by telling a lie, to do service to another.
Which brings me to my final point. Lying is an abuse of language. But it’s not the only one. The Biblical injunction, “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” has its corollary in M. Hare’s maxim, “Say what you mean, and mean what you say.” Words have meanings. To say what you mean, you must find the words that mean what you mean to say, and say them. Mean what you say, and say what you mean. Surreptitious redefinition is a species of pernicious redefinition. It, too, is an abuse of language.
Words and phrases have meanings. For example, Christianity is a belief system, a worldview, a way of life, an institution … and a religion. Secular humanism is a belief system, a worldview, a way of life, an institution … but not a religion. The word ‘religion’ is used to distinguish between creeds whose central doctrines include the reality of a god or gods, and those whose central doctrines do not, or which are explicitly atheistic.
Lie and, ultimately, language ceases to function. Use the term ‘religion’ to encompass secular creeds, customs and ideologies and, ultimately, ‘religion’ ceases to function. Pernicious redefinition is tantamount to lying. Dare I say it’s also akin to theft?! I used to be a “liberal”, until today’s liberals took the term ‘liberal’ unto themselves. Now I’m a libertarian. But for how much longer? How much time do I have before I morph into a traitorous idiot?
Ayn Rand was a libertarian and atheism is not a religion.
“History is a set of lies agreed upon.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
The title is a quote from Napoleon Bonaparte… not a man respected for his honesty, yet this statement is pregnant with truth.
I was moved to blog this after watching a Sky TV show about European activities in America that Pre-dates Columbus. Part of the show talked about ‘The Kensington Rune Stone’
‘…. a simple immigrant farmer discovered what seemed to be an ancient stone with “Viking-style” runes inscribed on it in Minnesota, people said he was crazy or lying. But more than 100 years later, additional discoveries have proved the stele was indeed the real McCoy, although left there by Knights Templar of the Middle Ages rather than Thor-worshipping Norsemen.’
http://www.barnesreview.org/index.php?main_page=document_product_info&cPath=89_101&products_id=459
‘Expert’ Archaeologists wrote it off as a fraud. Why? Because it did not fit into their ‘Learned’ / accepted notions of American history.
Even after the Stone was forensically examined by a geologist and its veracity deemed credible… Still the ‘Experts’ refused to accept the findings. Why? The geologist was not ‘one of them’ …ie not an archaeologist!
http://barnesreview.org/pdf/TBR2010-no1-5-12.pdf
The Runestone. Rejected by ‘Experts’ because it did not fit their delusions.
On the Sky TV show the geologist said “He was very surprised by their attitude…”
I am not at all surprised! Over many years as a self-educating, Free thinker I have come to realize that despite their white overcoats and names that begin with ‘Dr’… or ‘Sir’…and despite the claim that Archaeology is a scientific disipline’… that in reality Archaeologists must rank right up there with Lawyers and Politicians for dishonesty and possession of an absolute incapacity for objective thinking! Time and time again spectacular archaeological discoveries by ordinary people are dismissed or the finders are declared to be fraudsters, by envy ridden ‘Experts’ whose vain theories are threatened with undoing… because of annoying new discoveries…by novices.
So common is this type of prejudiced ‘Knowledge filter’ that this post marks the first of a new category that I will Blog on in the future. My point being that instead of being a source of light so often what sells as Scientific archaeology is absolutely Bogus… absolutely Lies… Absolute Deception. This is most often done because of ideological predudices.
One of the Areas that concern me is how ‘selective’ many archaeologists are with Dating. Eg They habitually write off any Radio carbon dating that does not fit in nicely with their theories…while latching onto any miniscule ‘Particular’ that suits their purpose to do so… Ie They operate from pure pre-conceptions and impose their own opinion upon the data…rather than letting the data speak for itself.
This raise the specter that the Ideal of an impartial and purely objective ‘scientist’ is as mythical a beast as the Centaur.
The Piltdown man Hoax which bolstered the Bogus theory of Evolution and was unanimously accepted by all the ‘Experts’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piltdown_Man
*That Pseudo-Science is being mass produced and sold to the gullible public as ‘Sacred truth’…and that the public are brainwashed into believing scientists are a society of pure hearted truth seekers, are unquestionably objective, are to be considered the highest authorities in their fields’…when they are in reality nothing of the sort has very serious implications for the Pilgrim in pursuit of truth*
*Knowing this sad reality about the tendency of Man to corrupt the truth ought to make a man skeptical …esp skeptical of the pretentious claims to indifference and objectivity by scientists and ‘experts’!
The honest man will admit he is prejudiced! Ie Bias is the natural condition of Mankind.
When a man admits his bias then you can safely listen to his opinion… knowing that if his story is sloped, you will be able to reason to yourself what side of the truth and to what extreme his deviations are most likely to err …and to make rational allowances and adjustments.
It has been using this method that In the face of a withering storm of accusation, criticism, and so-called historic and scientific ‘facts’ to the contrary… I have been able to maintain my faith in the trustworthiness of The King James Bible, and the veracity of the Christianity.
Indeed even this corrupt tendency towards deception, and incapacity for honest /objective observation and introspection, and the resulting Chaos, lies, and confusion that reigns supreme in the minds of Mankind… vindicates the Biblical conception of Humanity as lost sinners.
My Beautiful 1 year old son Roman. As He grows up he will have to navigate through all the Bullshit that poses at truth. May the Good Lord be his Guide.
I have a 1 year old son named Roman, and by Gods grace I shall live long enough to instill in him the basic principle and wisdom I have learned along my pilgrimage, and this blog post contains one of the most important of them all… “Let God be true, and every man a Liar!” (Rom 3vs 4) ie I will warn him that as he embarks upon his own pilgrimage, that the world is full of lies and deceivers…. Many appearing as ‘Scientists’ and ‘teachers’ whom will ceaselessly attack his Faith in Christ, and faith in the truthfulness and reliability of the Bible…and to be on guard at all times… For Men tend to believe lies they have herd a thousand times than the truth they have herd only once. It is my testimony that The King James Bible stands as an unmovable Rock in the storms of Mankind’s lies and delusion. And that the wise man will build his house upon that rock.
Disclaimer: Please do not assume that My Bible believing position compels me to be ‘a young Earth-er’. The Bible does not set a date for the Creation of the Universe or the Earth. It wii surprise many to hear that Genesis 1 is not the Creation of the Universe, or the Planet Earth, but a restoration of an already pre-existing Earth for Mankind after an unknown length of time when it sat in ‘darkness and void’ after suffering a cataclysmic judgment of God following Lucifer’s Rebellion. The Real Beginning of the Universe is mentioned in the first chapter of the Gospel of John. Thus Noahs flood was the second time the world was flooded in judgement.
Tim Wikiriwhi
1st Timothy 6:20 — “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.”
Ecclesiastes 9:7-10
Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom. (NIV)
Is Objectivism a religion?
According to Wikipedia, a religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe.
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life or the universe. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos and human nature.
Objectivism is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Objectivism has narratives (The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged), symbols (the dollar sign, the New York skyline), traditions (psycho-epistemology, Concepts in a Hat) and sacred histories (the blemish-free life of Ayn Rand) that are intended to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life or the universe. Objectivists try to derive morality, ethics, religious laws or a preferred lifestyle (smoking cigarettes, listening to Rachmaninoff) from Rand’s ideas about the cosmos (“the Metaphysical”) and human nature (“the Man-Made”).
Is Objectivism a religion? According to (some) Wikipedia authors, the answer is yes.
But wait!
Surely, that can’t be right. Recently, thousands of copies of the DVD of Atlas Shrugged were recalled because the cover inadvertently described the story as one of “courage and self-sacrifice”. Shouldn’t Wikipedia’s definition of religion likewise be recalled? After all, Objectivists are implacably opposed to religion, or “mysticism,” as they like to call it.
Wikipedia’s definition of religion is too broad. Loosely speaking, yes, Objectivism is a religion. But loose talk can cost lives. Wikipedia’s definition omits mention of belief in a supernatural entity or entities, worthy of worship. Belief in a god or gods is not incidental to religion. It is essential to it. But Objectivism is atheistic. So, properly speaking, no, Objectivism is not a religion. Objectivism is a philosophical system, a worldview, a way of life, an institution … but not a religion.
Properly speaking, Objectivism is not a religion … the term ‘religion’ can properly be applied only to belief systems which include a belief in a god or gods.
‘Dear Leader’ kicks the Bucket!
“And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was no place found for them.
and I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works… And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Rev20vs11,12,15)
Justice shall prevail.
Kim Jong-il, the leader of North Korea, has died at the age of 69 after suffering a heart attack, North Korean state media has announced.
Kim, known in the communist country as the “Dear Leader”, died on Saturday aboard a train during a trip out of Pyongyang, a tearful presenter for the official KCNA news agency said on Monday.
Its been a Hellofa Year for Scumbags and Tyrants!
Bin Laden, Gadaffi, and now ‘Dear leader’…Gone burger!
“\\//”… That’s me dancing a little jig.
Now if Mugabe would get shot by one of his body guards… 🙂
Time for a Homebrew Porter!
That this Evil Bastard Succeeded his Daddy to the North Korean ‘Throne’ and will probably be succeeded by his own Son (3rd) is a sick joke! It just goes to show what an absolute failure Communism is as it was supposed to put an end to Monarchy, yet that is exactly what this Kim Dynasty is in all but name..
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-19/north-korean-dynastic-succession-tested-in-tapping-kim-s-son.html
Check out this Propaganda Video!
Happy Mithra Pagan festival Season!
Christ was not born on the 25th of December folks. December 25 is the birthday of a Pagan God Mithra.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraic_mysteries
Oh and The Xmas Tree is Pagan Too.