Updates & Rants

I have been neglecting the blog because I’ve been knee deep in other stuff. Time for an update and couple of rants!

The Bionic Ear

My left ear has had problems ever since I was a kid. About 8 years ago I had a surgery to repair a minor birth defect in the formation of the ear canal that was causing all of the problems. Thank you science for the MRI! The only reason that the doctor discovered the birth defect was because an MRI showed it. It was sort of like a “Oh, no wonder his ear has been having problems. We can fix that!” moment, but I was told that I might need a second surgery as many people eventually do following the first procedure.

Well I’m having that second surgery on March 19th. My left ear drum will be reinforced with cartilage to help it maintain the proper shape and one of the bones in my ear will be replaced with a titanium implant. This combined with a nose job I got at the age of 15 to fix my nose after a bad break (ironic that I got a nose job in order to get back my original nose) will make me about 0.00085% cyborg.

Consider yourselves warned…

GM’s Cookbook

Lots of good stuff has been created for this project, but real life has forced it to the side. Besides the surgery on my ear I also have some other concerns that I need to address. Nothing health or family related, but it does concern my career. I will not go into detail here, but it is time to assess what the next step is for my professional development.

Everyone should do this every few years. There is no reason to assume that your current profession, role, employer, or path is going to be the same for the rest of your life. What will change? Maybe nothing, but it is still time to assess the situation. Life is too short to be on the wrong path.

If one more person challenges my being an atheist…

If you are a person of faith, any type of faith, I will never ask you “Why?” Why you practice your faith is none of my business. Believe what you will, and I will not challenge you to believe something else.

The reason I will not challenge your faith is because I believe that it is rude to do so. That is my only reason for not challenging your faith. Who am I to tell you what you should or should not believe?

And I also believe that you have no right to challenge my atheism. I am an atheist. There is no God. Case closed. If you believe in God and then challenge my atheism I am going to start challenging your faith. I am well prepared to challenge faith because I once challenged my own, and I realized that I had none.

Some people consider that I lost my faith to be a sad moment, but while it was difficult for me at the time I am now much happier than I ever was before in my life lasting for many years now. I also feel more empowered, and I know that upon accepting the truth that there is no god(s) that I am a much more moral person.

The reason for all of this has nothing to do with my atheism. My happiness increased because I no longer worry about “God’s wrath” for having doubts about the Bible (it is just a book). I feel more empowered because I am now questioning beliefs that before I dared not to (no evil has befallen me for doing so). I am now a more moral person because I do the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do (instead of doing it because I feared a supernatural entity’s judgment).

Yet for some reason people have a tendency to ask “Are you a Christian?” at various occasions and events. I want to be clear that the people who ask me this question are self-proclaimed Christians, but I am not saying that Christians do this to me. Some people who happen to be Christians ask me this question, and not all Christians that I have met. I am guessing that the reason for this is because the various denominations of Christianity combined are the most popular form of faith here in the United States where I live.

When someone tries to “save my soul” I do appreciate what they think that they are doing for me, but trying to convert me from being an atheist is the exact same thing as my trying to convince another person to abandon their faith. It is rude, it is downright arrogant, and it is immoral.

Yes, I do not care what a person’s faith decrees, if you try to convert another person to your personal beliefs you are acting immorally. If someone approaches you and says “Tell me about your faith. Teach me about it. I want to believe.” then that is fine, but when someone does not come to you with such a request and you then attempt to impose your beliefs upon them you are wrong in your actions. What right do you have to ask me to abandon atheism and then claim that your beliefs are what I should be following? The answer is simple – you do not have any such right.

And if you respond with “I not only have the right, but I also have the responsibility to do so because God commands it!” (yes, I have been told that by people seeking to convert me to their form of Christianity) I will then challenge your faith. It is not pretty. It often results in that Christian advocate behaving very badly. It reveals the ugliness of their hypocrisy. I end up feeling very sorry for them, and my atheism is always reinforced by this example of blind faith twisting a good intention into an ugly example of human anger.

Anyhow, that is all for now! Later!