Cosmic Solitude

*************************************************

I heard this expression several years ago, but I didn't remember exactly in what context. It seemed very appropriate, though, to describe the feeling that comes over us when we face the idea that we are alone before the Universe. When we get to the conclusion that there is no supernatural being to protect us, the first sensation is of helplessness, it's scary. The intensity of that fear will vary according to how much the person was involved in the religious thinking, but it always occurs in some degree, except for those who become atheists in a very young age, before they develop the psichological dependence on this "divine entity".

Where did it come from?

The story behind the expression is interesting. It started with an interview a writer (Vides Junior) had with me about five years ago for a book he was writing, yet to be published.

One of the questions was:

8 - Does the search for knowledge necessarily lead to atheism?

My answer: No, but it favours it. It depends a lot on what premise the person starts from. I know people who have a lot of knowledge, but as they start from the premise that there is a god, they only take into consideration the arguments that favour this perspective. For knowledge to lead to atheism, the person has to be very honest, and he has to be able to face very hard truths, among them what I call 'cosmic solitude'.

And in the next answer I took up the subject again:

          9 - What is god?

My answer: That's complicated. I think it comes in part from the need to feel protected, in part because human beings are not able to accept their own finitude. It's hard to face the cosmic solitude.

According to Freud, 'god' is the father figure, and can be protective or punishing, or both. Anyway, extreme religiosity is usually a sign of immaturity, incapability for making decisions.

He got curious and asked me to get deeper into the concept of "Cosmic Solitude"

My answer: Searching the internet, I found that it has to do with Carl Sagan, but it's about the fact that we don't have contact, and neither do we know if there are inhabitants on other planets. I started to use the expression to define the feeling of helplessness that follows when we stop believing in a god. I got the idea from a book of Flávio Gikovate [a Brazilian author], but I don't think he used this expression.

The idea is that before the Universe we are nothing, totally insignificant. As there is no god to protect and guide (and punish) us, we are alone, helpless. We are forced to decide for ourselves, to assume total responsibility for our lives, and that's hard to do. This makes people more important, since they are our only source of support. It also forces us to accept imperfection as something inevitable, to understand that life is not fair and the world isn't good, and will never be.

****************************************************

Later on I developed the concept a little further.

The acquisition of knowledge will never be enough to make someone reconsider his concepts, especially the most cherished and deeprooted ones. You have to resort to an almost brutal honesty, you have to be able to bear the pain of realizing that we are wrong and trying to fool ourselves. Facing ourselves is the most difficult thing to do, and to admit that we are wrong causes a mental distress very hard to bear.

But after the fear passes, after the feeling of helplessness is accepted as the inevitable consequence of our independence, many things change for the better. One of the feelings that arises is an amazing sensation of freedom. Since there is nobody to protect us, neither is there anyone to punish us. The responsibility that is imposed upon us during this process also implies in freeing ourselves from 'imaginary sins', there is no such thing as sinning in our thoughts, the only thing that matters are the concrete results of our actions. We are alone before the Universe, that's true, but we have each other; human solidarity assumes an entirely new meaning.

The idea that we are absolutely insignificant in the great scheme of things, that the Universe wouldn't change a bit if our little planet would cease to exist, is a hard blow on our self-esteem. The paradox of our existence is this: on one hand we are nothing to the Cosmos, on the other hand we are extremely important to the people around us.

Alone in the Universe, but together.

********************************************

[Originally posted on  http://bulevoador.haaan.com/2011/04/17/solidao-cosmica/ - translated by myself]

The Pope Has Hired a Lawyer

From the blog Proud Atheists:
http://proudatheists.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/the-pope-has-hired-a-lawyer/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ProudAtheists+%28Proud+Atheists%29

In Kentucky, the 51-year-old attorney is defending Pope Benedict XVI from a deposition motion in a case involving child abuse by clergy. In a suit pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, Lena is arguing that the Vatican cannot be tried for transferring a predatory priest from Ireland to Oregon. In Mississippi, he is defending the Vatican against accusations that it participated in a money-laundering scheme. In New York, Lena is defending the Holy See in a commercial-licensing dispute about the use of images belonging to the Vatican Museums.
Wherever it is in the United States that the Vatican stands accused, Lena is there to protect it.
“I am counsel for the Holy See,” Lena said.


(The rest of the article from Washington Post)

Is atheism just a negative?

To begin with, for the sake of keeping things simple, atheism is in fact just the non-belief in deities. But does it really end up being "just" that?

I think atheism is a moment of transformation, it's a radical change in focus. It's like when you stop running after the mirage far away in the desert (the one that when you get close you realize there's nothing there) and start paying attention to what's immediately around you, having a good chance to find something that could really give you a means of survival.

The moment we stop believing in any deity, most people also stop believing in any supernatural fenomenon, soul and afterlife. When we drop these concepts, the focus of our lives end up changing radically. Since we're not going to have a "second chance with the people we love, all that's left is to pay attention to them now, be with them and treat them well while they are here with us.
We become humanists.

Since there are no supernatural fenomena, there's no point in waiting for a "divine intervention", we have to act and make decisions on our own. Since there's no "soul", the idea of "sin" also loses its meaning, and what matters are the concrete consequences of our acts.
We become practical.

We start to understand that we have to act here and now, and that knowledge is fundamental for us to be able to act more effectively. Studying and learning more about the world around us becomes more and more important, and we also want to share our knowledge with other people.
We analyse the evidence and draw conclusions instead of believing.

We start giving more importance to compassion and empathy towards all others, instead of worrying about some rules written in a book.
More humanism.

I have already said this in other occasions, and I will say it again: atheism is not something we decide to adopt, it's a conclusion that we draw after analysing the facts and comparing to what we have been told. Nobody convinces anybody to become an atheist, it's an inner, private process of each person. It might seem something simple and small but, as I tried to show above, it has dramatic consequences on the way we look at our lives.

Pope’s letter protects church, not its victims

Excellent post of Michael Nugent:
http://www.michaelnugent.com/2010/03/21/popes-letter-protects-church-not-its-victims/


Summary:
 
1. The Pope’s main priority is to protect the church, not its victims

2. The Pope wrongly blames secularism for priests raping children

3. The Pope’s apologies are incomplete and his appeals are self-serving

4. The Pope’s “concrete initiatives” are a distraction not a solution

5. The Pope is evading the church’s responsibilities to civic society

With the "best of intentions"...

U.S. Evangelicals’ Role Seen in Uganda Anti-Gay Push
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24012/u-s-evangelicals%E2%80%99-role-seen-in-uganda-anti-gay-push?utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NewsWithConscience+%28News+with+Conscience%29

This article shows that it's not enough to have good intentions, we need to have a very clear notion of the consequences of a our actions. Naively these americans spread their erroneous and prejudiced opinions about homosexuality based on their religious belief, and now they have started a fire they can't put out.

They may become responsible, even if inidrectly, for the deaths of homosexuals in Uganda, simply because they weren't able to evaluate what influence their "information" would have on the backwarded and superstitious mentality of those people.

As they say, "of good intentions...

... hell is full."

An Atheist in a Good Mood - 5 thousand views

A video that I made about 9 months ago, already counts 5 thousand views. That's something I would never have imagined when I made it. Much of the initial success I owe to my friend Vides Junior, who promoted it in several communities on Orkut.

[The video below is a recent version with subtitles in English. Link to the original video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP1XrIamPww]



Actually, I decided to make the video because of  him. He had made a series of videos by the name "An atheist in a bad mood". He's really just playing a role, he's a very fun and pleasant person judging from our many conversations through MSN and in the communities we both take part in. Unfortunately we don't know each other personally, but I intend to correct this as soon as I have an opportunity.

So, one day I thought that I would like to show that the stereotype of the -young-male-rebellious-atheist, always at war with the world, wasn't quite accurate, that there are many kinds of atheists, including older women who are very calm and peaceful atheists. Before you get it wrong, Vides was the first person I showed the video to, and I asked what he thought about my idea of calling myself "an atheist in a good mood". It's a kind of counterpoint to his videos, but not to criticize or put them down. Well, he loved the idea and approved, and only then did I publish it.

The video is amateuristic and unpretentious, I didn't care that much about quality. People tend to be very hard on themselves, thinking they have to be perfect, but that's something I have been able to overcame to a great extent. In fact, people many times like what's not so perfect, because that allows them not to be, too.

I don't know if I'm going to make any more videos, I feel nervous just at the thought of it. But I want to blog more, I think I'm better at that.

Thou shalt respect one another

Realistically speaking, it's not possible to love all mankind. It's not even possible to love the population of a city. Human beings are able to love, in a broad sense, a group of 150 to 200 people with whom they have affective bonds in some way, from friendship and family, to a romantic envolvement. Love is a feeling, and therefore we don't have much control over it. Love is also something very difficult to define, people use the term to justify quite strange behavior sometimes. Some can even kill in the name of "love".

On the other hand I have never seen anybody kill or behave in an irrational way in the name of respect. Respect is an attitude that we can decide to assume in a controlled and conscious way.
I concluded a long time ago that, concerning life in society, respect is infinitely superior to love. Love exhausts us, love demands a lot from us, we can only truly love a quite small number of people.
Respect is something we can have for any person, even if it is only with respect to his physical integrity.

Had somebody said "Thou shalt respect one another" at the right time and in the right place, many tragedies could have been avoided.