Atheists & Agnostics

I do identify as an atheist, but I don’t like strong opinions about every damn thing ever (e.g. this science influencer Sabine Hossenfelder).

However, whatever reality is about, I am certain it doesn’t have any connection to the common conception of a deity. That seems to be the root of a lot of fascistic and barbaric human behavior.

I am an atheist since I can conceive of robust systems of morality which not only do not require a deity, but are actively in conflict with such. It is a nightmare to navigate the world of the believer and his/her polar opposite the nihilist.

I have started reading a book by Adam Becker called “What is Real” and it is a really good book, but I winced when I read Einstein’s statement that “God doesn’t play dice”. That one always gave me a negative view of Einstein.

I was relieved to see this just now:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_and_philosophical_views_of_Albert_Einstein

That’s actually pretty close to my worldview. It is why I am not surprised by this alliance between these nihilistic fascists like Musk, those creeps at Google etc and the religious nuts. That’s the combination that gives you a destroyed planet, factory farming, war and other brutalities. It is the reason we are too childish a species for an industrialized world. But unlike our sleazy pseudo elites, I don’t see democracy as the issue so much as overpopulation and the fact that resources don’t scale up indefinitely and clearly these creeps are disingenuous and lousy managers.

Paul Ehrlich was not wrong about overpopulation. He was wrong about how it plays out though and what the real issues are. It’s not lack of food. It’s that complex societies require more resources of the kind that don’t scale up that easily. And chaos is always bad and the most reliable partner fascism has.

I am certainly extremely averse to even the word God. I used to be an atheist with more of a live and let live attitude towards these religious crackpots. And I do mean all of them and all the world over. A tiresome lot with their eternal fights with each other, their fucked up relationship with modernity and technology. Their lack of any sane priorities.

However, the last 14 years have hardened me into an outright hater of all things religious. (My ophthalmologist and 1 therapist aside..but those are both people whose views are probably closer to Einstein’s than not).