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More on (A)Theism and Morals

I quote Bad Astronomy

If I do think the Universe is accidental, that does not mean there is no rhyme or reason– all of science depends on the Universe obeying a set of rules (even if the rules are hidden, or hard to understand, or involve seemingly random events as quantum mechanics does). So right away, even if I do think the Universe is accidental, I would say that quotation is going too far and is wrongheaded, but not in the way the quiz means.

I also may not think life on Earth is inconsequential. I have heard this many times from religious people talking to atheists: how can you cherish life if you don’t believe in God? I find that question pretty funny, actually! The mindset is, if atheists don’t cherish life, what is to keep them from simply murdering anyone who ticks them off?

The answer is that atheists, as well as believers, have evolved a sense of morality over millions of years. Mammals tend to be family-oriented, and primates very much so. Tribal customs evolved to aid survival, which means helping others when needed. It’s not hard to get an idea of how morality evolved from that, although of course I am grossly oversimplifying things here.

If you think this is wrong, then consider this: if no God means no morality, then you’d expect atheists to commit more crimes. Yet, if you look at prison statistics, atheists are grossly underrepresented in jail. Only 0.21% of prisoners are atheists, though in the US some 3-9% of the population call themselves atheists. If religious people were more moral than atheists, then you’d expect the number of atheists in prison to be much higher than their percentage in the population. Yet the opposite is true. This means that atheists commit proportionately fewer crimes than religious people (well, it really means that atheists are caught and successfully prosecuted less, but one can assume those numbers scale with the numbers of crimes committed).

Are atheists more moral than believers? That’s a hard jump to make. But those numbers are very interesting.

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Mutant!

Tonight’s session of M&M was really fun, because it got really ridiculous. Nothing holds my attention better than getting to choose a new power each turn, as my character is a power mimic. We trounced some nazis in the nazi universe fairly well, but my character (Zero) got his clothes exploded off, Ken’s character healed Lucky’s (Caleb’s character) stupid darkness-creating dog, and Mike’s character remote controlled a tank with her brain. Then we visited the ape universe where I fit in by being invisible. We realized with Ken’s illusion powers and eidetic memory, we could not just explain to the super-ape team what happened, but we could show them exactly, on a small scale, but with bigger capes and more moustaches.

To celebrate, I’ve posted some more WWFJ characters, a few of which are suddenly very close to my heart (I’m looking at you, Salamancer). You can go directly there by clicking here and please comment thereat!

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Space!

The names Nix and Hydra have been approved for the two small satellites of Pluto discovered in May 2005. The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the internationally recognized authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies, approved the names this week.

ps, here’s a fascinating optical illusion

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"Take Her Away"

I went to see Sophie Scholl (the film) yesterday with Stephane at the Vaneast Theater. Huge spoiler follows. Stephane does their website so he gets perks and he knows the staff. So we walk in and Stephane asks how the movie is. This guy, who I guess is Korean, is disappointed because it’s in German with English subtitles. And then he says, get this, “The ending is a little annoying. She gets her head cut off.” I’m thinking, well, he wouldn’t just blurt something like that out, knowing that we came to see it. It must, strangely, not be important to the plot. Well, it’s the very last scene in the movie. Good thing I didn’t pay any money to see it. Otherwise…high 7/10. 

Superman opens on my birthday (two days)! 

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Smooshed Cars

So I went in to jam in Chilliwack as usual yesterday, and saw the remains of a gruesome accident involving at least 4 mangled hulks. Traffic was backed up for miles and miles and everyone was so late that we actually only got to rock for about 45 minutes. Then I had to get on the last Greyhound to Vancouver. And that sucked the suckyiest suck. But during the trip I came up with some more WWFJ characters, which you must now rate on a scale of 1-10:

Stagosaurus

The Toad Warrior

Torqupine

Robonobo

Shaolin Monkey

Elk Diablo

Salamancer

Dynamole

Hellhound

I promise the highest rated one will get a drawing. Others will too but not necessarily all of them.

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Free Paper

This is for Canadians:

In an effort to encourage more customers to utilize our capability to recycle their empty ink and toner cartridges while simultaneously encouraging them to try our Green Top papers, Office Depot has announced a program to provide a FREE ream of EnviroCopy Recycled Copy Paper (500 sheets) for each ink or toner cartridge returned to our stores. (See store for details.)

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It's June…and I Saw the Appropriate Bug.

(slightly larger than life-size)

junetoast.jpg Last night on the way home from Sunshine Market I saw an overturned bug. A big one. A coleopteran. I tried to flip it over without touching it with my skin in case it had some kind of defense mechanism, but I wasn’t having any luck with my grocery bag, so I used my foot. So this huge june bug latched onto the side of my Converse and I mosied over to the grass where I tried to shake it off. O beware the tenacious grip of the june bug, for it is mighty! I had to pry it off and it sounded like velcro. It’s a good thing I like bugs or I would have been freaked out.

It inspired me for yet another anthropomorphic super – Bugbear! Speaking of which–three more additions to the anthropomorphic supers post below. Check ’em out.

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Logan's Run

Isn’t it interesting that Victoria is known as a retirement town. And isn’t it more interesting that they have a street named Logan’s Run in Nanaimo?

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Slackademics Drawing

I finally done did decide. The Intro to Drawing slackademics class will occur either on Friday the 7th (evening) or some time on Saturday the 8th of Juuuuly. Anyone have a preference (anyone who’s planning on coming, I should add)? The catch is that everyone has to comment on my WWFJ post below about who their favourite character is.

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Today I Went to PlayLand.

Today I went to PlayLand and it was fun. I was too chicken to go on the Pirate Ship a second time. I felt like I was going to fall out. When I was on the Wave Swinger there was a mom and daughter in front of me who were trying to pass a digital camera between eachother while at the apex of a ride and it was totally a Batmanesque “got to…unh” situation. Eventually they gave up because it was just too perilous a maneuver. But it was one of those beautiful photographic moments…that I didn’t take a photo of.

Last night I went to Sheri’s birthday party and played Gloom, Telepaths and Apples to Apples, and spread the word about Drexoll Games. I also ate lots of vegetables (or ‘veggies’ to use the parlance of our times) and one or three cheese bits from Nuts & Bolts (or Bits & Bites, I always get them mixed up). Lani turned me on to the Nutrition Data site where I learned that a piece of cheese cake has about 300 calories, just like Stewie guessed. So a third of a piece equates to one of my regular cult meals, though probably not in other ways. Either way, it’s going in my belly one third at a time.

I’ve also added a couple more characters to the WWFJ post below. Check ’em out.

Addendum: I found out the other day that I have artwork in the True20 book, so I talked Hal out of a copy. I’m excited to check it out and maybe I’ll run something somehow someway with it.