Three Thoughts on a Dead Friend

One.

A good friend of mine died this week, so I’ve been thinking a lot about grief. It is a surprisingly selfish process. I don’t feel bad for my friend. I feel bad for me. I guess this should be true for anyone who believes there is no afterlife or that their loved one is in a pleasant afterlife--heaven, most commonly. In the first case, like with me, there is no longer any friend to feel bad for. In the second, the friend is now better off than those he left behind. Unless one expect’s that their dead friend is in hades, no worries.

Two.

Atheists, who obviously don't offer prayers or comforts of the beyond, generally offer condolences by saying that the passed lives on in our memories. This should make me feel better, but it kinda bums me out. I know how flawed memory recall is. I know that some of what I remember of him has faded or has been altered and that this will only get worse the more I think back on him. This seems to be one of those cases where being informed backfires. Ignorance is, occasionally, bliss.

Three.

So is there any chance my friend still exists? The only comfort I can come to is that it's possible that there is a multiverse and my friend has duplicates still kicking, perhaps infinitely so. In some universes he didn't die. In others he survived and is wildly successful. In others still he died younger or was never born, but let's not dwell on those. This notion isn't so much supported by evidence as it is speculation based on interpretations of theoretical physics, but it's a hell of a lot more likely then, well, hell.

The service is Sunday and it will be Hindu in nature, which should be interesting. Thanks for reading.

Merry (Early) Christmas

I may or may not post again over the holidays, so I thought I'd go ahead and share my favorite Christmas song with you guys. I think you'll find it atheist friendly.



Have a happy holiday if that's your thing. If not, have a good week.

Trust Less That Which You Agree

I was listening to the Geologic Podcast’s Religious Morons of the Week segment in which host George Hrab highlights the most ridiculous or hypocritical stories involving people of faith. There was a reported moron a couple weeks ago who convinced followers that his semen was holy and a divine benefit would come from swallowing it. If you have listened to the segment as long as I have, you’d know that this moron isn’t completely unbelievable. There have been many folks who have leveaged their religious authority to trick their followers into sex, especially those from fring cults. This moron was less subtle in it’s connection to specifically blowjobs, enough so that I should have questioned it more than I did. This particular moron didn't exist.

The following week, George admitted that he misreported the story. In fact, it was made up by an Onion-like satirical website. Generally, listeners email Hrab stories to read and he reads them. He bought the lie just as I did because it fell in line with our biases. George, like myself, prides himself as a skeptic, so this is a slap in the face to both of us.

But, hey, good lesson to learn. If a theist said something unusual about atheists that reinforced his view of us, my skepicism would’ve probably been working just fine. If an atheist says something unusual about the religious that reinforces my view that some of them are mainipulative with their beliefs, I have to try to be even more skeptical than I normally would to adjust for my bias.

Holy blowjobs, yeah.

Music Shmusic: God Is Not Great

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Pretty Much How I Feel

by the great George Hrab.

The Geologic Podcast, A Podcast Not About Rocks

If you have ears, stop reading this post and download any episode of The Geologic Podcast. (iTunes link)

Welcome back. Awesome right? You’re welcome.
or
Still need convincing? Okay, if you must, read on.

I can’t give this show a big enough endorsement. After sampling fifty or so different podcasts, I’ve narrowed down my regular listening lineup to six shows. The Geologic Podcast is first among them. I’ve been wanting to spread the word for some time, but the skeptical nature of the show hasn’t meshed with the other sites I write for. It is, however, perfect for you nonbelievers!

George Hrab is the Geo in Geologic. He is part musician, part comedian and all atheist. It should be no surprise that my favorite bit on his show is The Religious Morons of the Week in which he highlights faith-based hypocrisy and stupidity. Other bits include Interesting Fauna in which he discusses crazy cool animals, Ask George in which he answers questions usually related to religion or music, and Geo’s Mom Read Jay-Z Lyrics which is self explanatory.

Using religion to teach morals is like licking a self-adhesive stamp. You're just gonna mess up the way it should stick. ~ a tweet by @georgehrab

There are other regular segments and various skits where Geo plays multiple characters. It’s amazing what this one-man-show can do. As an added bonus, he releases music on his podcast. If you haven’t heard of Hrab as a podcaster, you probably haven’t heard of him as a musician, but you should have. He is a singer and drummer of a funk band and a solo artist with a few albums of skeptical and atheist friendly songs. My favorites are Think for Yourself and Small Comfort, a song about losing someone knowing they won’t have an afterlife. It’s surprisingly comforting. Other songs include God Is Not Great inspired by the Hitchens book and Death From The Skies performed with fellow skeptic and Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait. You can check them out on iTunes or Pandora.

The secret service guys figured they didn't need to use condoms because they have diplomatic immunity. ~ a tweet by @georgehrab

Please, give him a listen. I’ve heard all 260 shows and there aren’t any stinkers. Show #159 is a particularly interesting jumping on point. Hrab does something cool with the format that may be confusing at first, but if stick with it you’ll learn a lot about him.

Here is a video of Geo performing Brains Body Both I found on YouTube