Fucking Easter

Every year I forget the shops all close on Easter. I am hungry. Had to have an up and go for breakfast from the service station. We don't have a state religion, there is no need for our shops to all close on this day. Absolutely ridiculous.

People can celebrate all they want, but it shouldn't interfere with my liberty to go out and buy food. Christian oppression!

haha

Funny.

"According to a study by Paul Bell, published in the Mensa Magazine in 2002, there is an inverse correlation between religiosity and intelligence. Analyzing 43 studies carried out since 1927, Bell finds that all but four reported such a connection, and concludes that "the higher one's intelligence or education level, the less one is likely to be religious or hold 'beliefs' of any kind." A survey published in Nature confirms that belief in a personal god or afterlife is at an all time low among the members of the National Academy of Science, only 7.0% of which believed in a personal god as compared to more than 85% of the US general population.^[76] "

My Wager

Ok I am using wikipedia for this, so my sources for everything are from there. However, I will put Pascal to shame through this faith calculator.

I will be working on the (false) assumption that every person has the same capacity for correct reasoning. However, hopefully this false assumption can be balanced out through deducting points for believers of certain faiths from idiot countries, such as South Africa, England, the Koreas and the United States.

Since various religions propose equally infinite rewards, which are exclusive of each other, I am going to have to consider any reward that is infinite to be 'x', as otherwise this is incalculable.

"As of late 2006, the world population reached 6.5 billion."

Christianity

"With an estimated 2.1 billion adherents in 2001, Christianity is the world's largest religion.[3] It is the predominant religion in the Americas, Europe, Philippine Islands, Oceania, and large parts of Africa. It is also growing rapidly in Asia, particularly in China and South Korea. It has also increased in popularity in Northern Africa.[4]"

"Most Christians believe that salvation from "sin and death" is available through faith in Jesus as saviour because of his atoning sacrifice on the cross which paid for sins. Reception of salvation is related to justification and usually understood as the activity of unmerited Divine grace.[18]"

Thus, the percentage of people who believe in christianity is 32.3% (2.1/6.5 for the less mathmatically/logically inclined). The reward I will have to consider as 'x'. However, there are damning statistics that work against this view.

Southern Africa
Christianity in South Africa
79.7%
35,342,330


East Asia
Christianity in Korea, South
30%
15,380,246


North America
Christianity in the United States
80%
236,557,785


Western Europe
Christianity in the United Kingdom
71.6%
43,276,114

The countries listed above all show signs of completely defective rationality systems, and as such work against the statistics. As such I will tally their collective population belief. This amounts to 330, 556, 475. In order to correct the original problem I had regarding the false assumption of equal rationality, I will subtract this total from the original number, giving me about 1.77 billion believers, of an acceptable rational standard. This amounts to 27.23% of the world population.

Now, this means that the figure, adjusted to suit standards of rationality, means that christianity has a (rational) probability of .2723. The rewards from adopting such a belief amount to x, working on the assumption there is an eternal life. The loss amounts to about 0.5, from the assumption that there is no afterlife, as approximately half the fun of life (excessive alcohol consumption, sexing and other activities avoided by your regular jesus lover).

So working this out on the assumption there is a christian afterlife, we have a value of .2723x, where x is equal to infinite reward, exclusive to those who give their faith towards the dude with the beard and the seemingly good moral messages. Working this out on the assumption that there is no afterlife, christians get a life value of 0.5/1. Thus, Christianity results in a gain of .2723x or a loss of 0.5 life. This must then be taken into account on the further assumptions of other faiths, in which Christians do not receive such eternal rewards, and so further calculations are required.

Judaism

"As of 2006, adherents of Judaism numbered around 14 million followers"

This results in a value of .0022x, or a loss of 0.5 life.

Islam

"There are estimated to be 1.4 billion adherents, making Islam the second-largest religion in the world.[2] "

Ok I can't find this out on wikipedia, and I'm using a 56k computer, So I'm going to work on the assumption that Islamic people don't believe that Christians get salvation (Source : Rob). All the Islam countries are pretty cool, and lots of them have beards, so they all seem pretty rational. Thus, they receive a value of .2154x, and also a loss of 0.5 life on the assumption of a non afterlife. I will slightly adjust, this, rounding up to .25x, as they receive virgins upon arrival.

Hinduism

Ok I found a graph on wiki with all of this on it, so no more need for calculations. Hinduism has 14%, however, unlike the above 3, they dont believe in an eternal reward. However, the wikipedia article is too long, so they can receive an X anyway, because it seems to have a similar equivalent. Thus, they receive a value of .14x. Also, they get an averaged loss of 0.5 life - lots of the believers seem to be living pretty shit lifes, and accepting of it as being their role for a previous bad life.

Non Belief

16% of people have no religious belief. They receive a life value of 0.1. An x value of 0 - they seem pretty fucked if one of the other lottery tickets comes in.

TaLLY

Now, to scientifically evaluate all faith. There are other religions, but this is taking too long on 56k, so I will exclude them.

Christianity - the x value here is .2723 on the assumption there is an afterlife. However, this must be balanced against the other beliefs in afterlifes that exclude Christians from entering. So, the .2723 must be divided by the sum of all x values to receive a value of relative chance of success. This is .2723/.6645, which gives - 0.4098. Thus, christianity has a .41 share of all x. Now, the non-religious view is 16%. As such, I will give the probability of there not being an afterlife a probability of .16, and so the x value must be multiplied by 0.84 to receive its final result. This gives a 34.42% chance of success.

Islam, using the same strat gives .25/.6645 = .3762x. Multiplied by .84 gives a 31.6% chance. Hinduism gets .14/.6645 = .21 x .84 = 17.7% chance.

Non-belief has no x value, we completely lose out here. we believe that we get one life and that we must make the most of it. However, our umbers are only 0.16 strong, and so we must accordingly use the methods of probability to determine we that we have a 0.16 chance of being right, and as such only get a 16% value method. This must further be halved, as all the other religions would receive a life value of 0.5 anyway, so our benefit falls to 0.08.

In the face of all of this scientific theory proving my belief to be irrational, how do I overcome such conclusive, damning evidence? By assuring myself that even taking out the believers from idiot countries, that my rationality is the best :)

wow!

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Exams.

First Exam down. No more Public Law. Ever.
Now learning my Philosophy course in whole before 9am Monday morning.

Here are my notes on the death of God. Really interesting. Lots of stuff I have been thinking about over the last few years are covered by Nietzsche here. He is great.

The Death of God

For the 150 years before Nietzsche, the universe as a whole had been conceived as a large mechanism, and the development of manufacturing was leading to a condition where human beings themselves would be pressed into mechanical labour as part of the social machine that constituted the ‘factory.’ The cultural situation of Christianity was perceived to be spiritually dying, and the hoped-for rejuvenation to be attained by a return to the Greek spirit was becoming undermined by the growing realization that the Greek gods were also dead. There was a growing perception within society that god was ‘dead.’ Hegel’s view is that the loss of all faith involves the loss of all acknowledgement of universal realities, and hence, a complete focus upon the individual, pure and simple. What is at the center of the nihilistic consciousness is a sense of loss, disillusionment, and despair; it is a consciousness stemming from the belief that the ground of one’s spiritual substance has completely dissolved.

There is a general analogy between the emotions involved with the death of a loved one, and the loss of belief in God (the ‘death of God’). With such a death comes initially shock and disbelief, followed by emotional pain and a sense of emptiness. Then, the intensity of the pain slowly subsides as one readjusts and reconstitutes one’s outlook in a constructive way once one has grown to accept the loved one’s non-presence. Involved in this are a severe loss of personal meaning, disorientation and a feeling of fear. However, with the loss of God, such feelings become amplified. Rather than experiencing a ‘severe’ loss of personal meaning, one might experience an ‘absolute’ loss of personal meaning and consequently, suffer from feelings of utter emptiness. It is easy to see how, from the amplification of such emotions, the death of God if experienced by a person of previously deep faith in God, could lead to an attitude of sheer nihilism.

Such feelings of nihilism were becoming ever present during Nietzsche’s lifetime. From this, it is easy to understand why Nietzsche was motivated to discover a new source for spiritual strength. However, Nietzsche judged that ultimately the ‘death of God’ was not the core problem, but rather the very belief in the Christian God was the source of spiritual sickness. He judged the Christian culture to be in an unhealthy condition, not because it had lost its fundamental inspiration, but because such a belief in this inspiration – an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good God – was itself unhealthy, or ‘life-negating’.

Nietzsche views himself as a Physician for modern humanity. The nihilistic condition of mankind can be viewed as a reaction of grief to the ‘death of God.’ Nietzsche’s specific diagnosis is that the belief in the Christian God is making people spiritually ill. His negative prescription to the spiritually ill people is, therefore, that this God must be ‘killed,’ if they are to recover their health. This God must be killed in a way such that people experience the grief process and live through the nihilistic outlook in full force. After all of the earlier spiritual and emotional dependence on the Christian God is put behind, then he believes that people will be in the position to adopt life-affirming interpretations of the world that can remain with them.

Nietzsche maintains that the conception of the Christian God is an inversion of the way one ought to interpret the world, because he believes that this conception draws our attention away from the very world we live in. God, as defined within the Christian conception Nietzsche has in mind, is fundamentally a spaceless and timeless being, and insofar as our lives center around the timeless realm of God, they are not centering around the world in space and in time – the realm where life actually takes place. Thus, such a conception of God is life-negating, or world-negating, and amounts to a ‘deification of nothingness’, because it is completely distracting us from the world we live in, and hence from life itself.

The Christian God is not only life-negating in this sense, but also in the sense that it undermines our life-energies directly. The Christian God is seen as an absolute moral judge, who condemns people for expressing their purely animal urges. Since a significant aspect of these animal urges involves the instinct to reproduce the species, it would seem that the Christian conception of God significantly constricts the expression of sexual energies. This restriction is expressed by the imposition of overwhelming guilt – a guilt that he believes is so extensive, that it becomes impossible ever to be in a condition where one is not guilty. The Christian conception of God, in essence, is regarded by Nietzsche as a concept that drives people mad, partly because living according to this conception has the effect of suppressing instinctual energies whose expression is a condition for the organism’s health and mental balance.

Nietzsche’s reaction to the general condition of the Christian culture is reminiscent of Schopenhauer’s adverse reaction to the qualities he perceived in the human condition in general. However, Nietzsche does not attribute this sad state of affairs to the human condition as a whole, but allows room for some hope. However, Nietzsche does perceive the human society surrounding him to be in a deeply diseased spiritual condition, and that something needs to be done, lest the entire species waste away. Thus, he takes it upon himself to spread the word that there is a prevailing sickness in society, because he is convinced that even if people do not realise they are spiritually ill at present, the time will come when they will realise it.

Part of the sickness Nietzsche associates with belief in God involves the sense of overwhelming guilt such a belief generates. This is expressed through the guilt of the ‘ugliest man’, who is the murder of God. An analogy here can be made between God and one’s Father. The wish to murder one’s Father (as expressed by Freud) signifies a drive for personal autonomy. Once one is free from the dominating forces of one’s parents, one is then free to create one’s own values and regard oneself as a unique person. The ‘murder of God’ is intended to have such an effect, but globally. Without God – so it is thought – there is no single, true interpretation of the world; without God, there is no single, true set of moral values; without God, there is no cosmic judge who determines one’s ultimate reward and/or punishment; without God, reality itself no longer can make one feel guilty and psychologically stressed from over-surveillance, as if one were living in a cosmic prison with and all-powerful warden.

Nietzsche becomes frustrated at his attempts to communicate the death of God to his patient. Like a psychiatrist, Nietzsche tries to inform the patient that there is something wrong with him, however the mental disease that the patient has prevents him from absorbing such a message. Nietzsche also becomes frustrated at the lack of awareness and spiritual depth within his culture: On the one hand, everyone is accepting the traditional moral values that are linked with the belief in God, and on the other hand, not many people are thinking very deeply about what it means to be a Christian or an atheist.

In light of the frustrations in communication Nietzsche was expressing, we can regard him as comparable to a doctor who first discovers a debilitating epidemic, who tries to inform the society at large, but who is then confronted with disbelief, denial and mockery. Confident, however, in his diagnosis, he then proceeds to develop a cure, knowing that the disease will eventually manifest itself and his assistance will be called upon. Nietzsche is concerned that the society around him is operating in accord with a religious outlook that is weakening everyone’s life energies. In response to this life-negating condition, Nietzsche develops a positive cure: an array of alternative interpretations of the world that he regards, in contrast, as life-affirming. These include such doctrines as the Will to power, the Superhuman, Eternal Recurrence and a conception of life that is ‘beyond good and evil.’ At the core of such thought is Nietzsche’s concern with the overall health of humanity.

I hate Law

"The Christian conception of God - God as god of the sick, God as a spider, God as spirit - is one of the most corrupt conceptions of the divine ever attained on Earth. It may even represent the utter low-water mark in the descending development of divine types. God degenerated into the contradiction of life, instead of bei ng its transfiguration and eternal Yes! God as the declaration of war against life, against nature, against the will to live! God - the forumla for every slander against "this world," for every lie about the "beyond"! God - the deification of nothingness, the will to nothingness pronounced holy!"

3:20

it's 3:20am. I am awake watching cricket. stopped studying at about 1. We are beating South Africa. I hate South Africa. As much as I hate England. Maybe more.

I don't even know why I am writing here. It is late, and seems to be a pointless thing to do, yet I am continuing to do it.

Slowly becoming more and more aware of how close law exams are. I can't believe Arts students who I hear complaining of their workload. I am doubting whether I will have time do actually commit a day's study to my arts exam, or whether I'll have to go in completely unprepared just do aid my law...

It is hilarious.

I can't believe I thought Uni last year was a decent workload. I have no idea how I am going to fit all the study I need to do in. I have only been drunk twice in the last 3 weeks. This is very strange for me. I can sense the 'B' letter coming my way for law results. Depressing.

Stacey is coming back to New Zealand for good at the end of this year. I had certainly allowed myself to think she wouldn't be back for years. The fact that she is coming back is the worst news I have heard since she i was informed that no longer would we be going out, as she was off.

Other people are probably happy at the fact she is coming back.

I had hoped I would never have to see her again.

Hm.

Such a jovial mood.

Now 3:30am, South Africa are 55/4 chasing 196. 17 overs gone. The Indians are chanting "kiwi". They obviously hate South Africa too. I now rate India as one of my favourite countries.

I have a lecture at 9. Cricket probably won't be done till 5. I could be studying, but my notes are a good 2-3 feet away from me.

Interesting things I learnt today through Human Sexuality study...

A theory of Plato's regarding homosexuality - Each person was originally a double person, some were male/male, some male/female and some female/female. Each double was cut in half by an angry God, and the expression of sexuality comes from a desire to be reunited with our other half. Very creative. It beats Freud's theories hands down. Failure to break the Oedipal phase.... pfft.

The pink triangle symbol, used by homosexuals the world over, was adopted from homosexuals sent to concentration camps who were made to wear such a symbol. Surprising origins. Rob's theory had been that "pink = gay, and nobody likes triangles."

Hmm. I don't give blood. I don't like needles. I also worked hard for my blood. I don't want it wasted on some person who I do not know, and in all probability would not like. This is a very selfish motivation. That does not worry me.